A certain Hogwarts professor of runes.

Felix continued to deduce from this conjecture: because of the existence of the Horcrux, Helpo's main soul was immortal and he had been wandering around, but he could not find a good way to revive. So, for who knows how many years, the Horcrux also decayed over the long years. What awaited Helpo then?

Does he simply perish, or does he continue to wander in some corner of this world, even less than the humblest wandering soul?

“I don’t know,” Felix replied to Hermione’s question. “Maybe death would be a quicker relief.”

Hermione couldn't understand at first and wanted to ask more questions, but she quickly realized the key point: losing the Horcrux and leaving only the main soul, there were only three possibilities: either it would dissipate, or it would linger on like Voldemort, or it would be successfully resurrected.

The first two possibilities are unknown, but the third possibility is extremely slim, because later generations have never found any trace of his activities again—which is actually quite wrong, since if Helbo was resurrected with the help of Horcruxes, he had no reason to hide.

As for the remaining two possibilities, according to the professor's answer, "perhaps death would be more painless," which refers to the outcome of the main soul dissipating, but if not... like Voldemort, wandering the world for thousands of years?

She suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. Could this be the most painful punishment in the world?

"Little girl, move aside a bit."

A voice said, startling Hermione. She jumped aside and found the goblin Gnouche staring at the relief on the side wall of the altar. She looked down and saw that the goblin was holding a silver knife and trying to pry the gems off the relief.

Gonuk successfully acquired a ruby. He breathed on it lightly, wiped it with his sleeve, and said greedily, "An ancient gem. I can smell the weight of history. It's more precious than any of my collections. It's the weight of time!"

Hermione blinked. She figured it was just a rhetorical device, similar to what Trelawney and Rafidine had said, but she still asked curiously, "What did you see, Mr. Gornuk? May I see it?"

“No! Everything here belongs to me, no, to Gringotts,” he said seriously.

Felix smiled. "Miss Granger, feel free to pick out one or two items as souvenirs."

The fairy glared at him fiercely, but Felix pulled out an invitation from Gringotts and waved it at him. He instantly deflated like a punctured balloon and became listless.

"What's wrong?" Hermione asked, puzzled.

Clémi walked over, grinning, and said, "Professor Hyp is an expert invited by Gringotts, so naturally he's paid. Gnuck realized this, so he..." She made a heart-wrenching gesture towards Hermione, who giggled.

Hermione was merely curious and had no intention of possessing the gems. She wasn't particularly interested in the gems, so she circled around the altar, examining the patterns on it—each depicting a wizard, some appraising gems, some sitting solemnly, and some writing at their desks. Beside each wizard were various trinkets: gems, wands, flasks, and hourglasses.

She wanted to take a closer look, but the fairy followed her wherever she went. Finally, she got annoyed and ran to the corridor to look at the magic runes left on the stone slab with the professor.

Felix was recording the ancient magic on the tablet, while Hermione was more interested in the story told on the tablet. However, after learning that the owner of the secret room was Helbo, she naturally understood that it was all a lie, a carefully crafted deception by Helbo.

But why did he do that?

Hermione tried to understand Helbo's intentions. She had read many ancient wizards' magical notes from Felix and was familiar with their mentality, but Helbo's actions puzzled her greatly.

After thinking for a long time, she came up with two directions. One was that Helbo hoped to lure in skilled wizards, trick them into a secret room, and use the magic inside to achieve unspeakable secrets, such as holding a resurrection ritual. But unfortunately, he waited for a thousand years in vain.

The other direction was a smokescreen laid out by Helbo. He never intended for anyone to leave alive after discovering this place. All the previous arrangements were for this purpose—

The Horcruxes were hidden beneath the pyramids, their secret concealed by the pharaoh's tomb, making them difficult for outsiders to discover. This was the first layer of protection.

The black mist and curse in the corridor are a second layer of protection. If a wizard who accidentally enters this place is not skilled enough, he may die in the black mist for no reason and be digested by the black mist. You know, Mr. Fairy said that the black mist is corrosive!

Even if a wizard successfully breaks through the black mist, there is a third layer of protection: the allure of ancient magic on the stone slab. He will think he has stumbled into the legacy of a strict predecessor, and instead of revealing the news to the outside world, he will try to break the invisible curse alone time and time again.

Even if he successfully passes through these challenges, what awaits him in the end is a dozen or so basilisks. According to Hermione's guess, no matter how powerful a wizard is, he cannot withstand the attack of a dozen or so basilisks at the same time, right?

"If that's true, then Helbo is terrifying. He truly deserves the title of 'Despicable Helbo,'" Hermione muttered softly.

“What?” Felix asked.

“No.” Hermione immediately shook her head, following the professor’s gaze to examine the rune sequence on it.

Felix said gently, “I don’t have time to instruct you right now, but you can try to learn it. Do you understand what I mean? Just the most core runes, see which one you feel most connected to. Maybe that will be your second ancient magic.”

Hermione nodded and excitedly tried them one by one. She gave up on the first ancient spell because she didn't recognize the core runes…

The second one, which symbolizes 'twisting', she tried to outline the core and secondary core runes. The air in her hand seemed to twist slightly, but after several attempts, she still failed.

She kept shifting her position until she reached the second to last one, when Hermione's eyes lit up. The core rune—fire—and the secondary core runes—she recognized them all! She also understood most of the remaining peripheral runes.

This is it. She had a strong premonition.

Hermione carefully traced runes in the air. Having studied illumination magic, she knew the most basic workings of ancient magic: core runes embody magical symbols, secondary core runes determine the external characteristics and attributes of the magic, and peripheral runes construct and perfect the complete magic.

Hermione first sketched the fire runes, letting them constantly switch between rune symbols and flames, then reverted to the ancient runes, and continued sketching the secondary core runes.

After a while, Hermione wiped her sweat and stopped. She covered a yawn with her hand and decided to rest for a bit.

Felix had finished recording the runes on the stone tablet, gentle black lightning flashing between his fingers. However, this scene was fleeting. He withdrew his magic and said to Hermione with satisfaction, "Let's go out. They're already waiting outside."

They left the pyramid and returned to the tent camp. The goblin was exhausted and slumped in a chair, complaining that his knife was cracked. But no one sympathized with him. "Because you wouldn't let us help," Kremy said, as she made herself a small glass of ice water.

She took a big gulp, her brow furrowed, then slowly relaxed, letting out a long breath.

The others were also relaxed; they were thankful to have come out of such a dangerous place. Faisal and Rahman immediately decided to take leave to watch the Quidditch World Cup.

Felix was also somewhat tired. He took off the basilisk skin cloak, took out a silver pocket watch, and gently flicked open the cover. A sniffler crawled out and stood in his palm, barking incessantly at Felix, listing his crimes, and then turned its back to him.

“It was my fault,” Felix said with a smile, his mood instantly improving. He took out a Galleon and gently touched Niffler Valen’s shoulder. Valen seemed to smell the alluring scent, turning its head slightly. Caught a glimpse of the golden light out of the corner of its eye, Valen snatched the Galleon with lightning speed, stuffed it into its pocket, and patted Felix’s fingers with satisfaction.

Hermione stared wide-eyed at the little creature. "Professor, is this a Niffler?"

“Yes, she’s mine. You can call her Valen,” Felix said, touching her pink beak with his finger. Valen ignored him, looking around curiously.

Hermione took out a small locket that could control the temperature, waved it in front of him, sniffed at Valen, looked around, and then immediately pounced on the table into Hermione's arms, reaching out his little arms to grab the locket.

When the Niffler appeared, the goblin Gnook's eyes widened immediately, he clutched the pocket beside him, and shouted in terror, "Take that little devil away, take it away now!"

His screams caught the Niffler's attention, and it poked its head out from Hermione's arms, its bright black eyes fixed on the goblin Gonuk.

Do you have any treasures?

Chapter 335 The Niffler's Education

Fairies are one of the few humanoid races that have completely preserved their own cultural heritage. In addition to their unique fairy magic and exquisite craftsmanship, they also have their own language, customs, and settlements.

They resemble wizards in many ways, such as the tricks parents use to scare their children.

In many fairy tales, the Niffler is a being comparable to a demon. Their infamy doesn't stop there; even in the insults exchanged between adult fairies, if a list of the top ten most memorable phrases were compiled, "Your house has attracted a Niffler!" would definitely be on the list, and very likely among the top.

“Don’t worry, Valen has many treasures,” Felix said.

Gonuk felt even more uncomfortable upon hearing this. In the fairies' minds, the more treasures one had, the more desires one had; otherwise, how could one accumulate such a large fortune! He hurriedly took his leave, and Kremy looked outside for a while, then announced to them with great delight, "Mr. Gonuk chose the tent furthest from us." Everyone couldn't help but laugh.

It was already dark when Felix, alone in his tent, pulled out a stack of parchment and carefully reviewed his gains from the trip.

First, there were nine ancient spells—a truly bountiful find. To conceal his identity, Helbo had left relatively normal spells on the stone slab, without any strange or unusual elements. Felix wondered to himself, if he had stumbled upon this place during his travels, could he have left unscathed?

In particular, Helbo left some heartfelt words on a stone slab closest to the dark room. The gist of it was: "Since you have passed so many tests, you have earned my approval. I have left all my knowledge in the dark room," and so on.

Uh... it's all a lie.

But this technique was extremely clever, and Felix only discovered the ingenuity of the scheme after reviewing the details. Nine genuine ancient spells were used as bait, and among these spells, the seemingly useless self-introductions and travelogues on the stone tablets were the carefully arranged elements by Helpo.

For example, he first introduced his origins, then recounted the strange and wonderful things he had experienced while traveling around, revealing many secrets. Between the lines, he gave people the image of a powerful, aloof, and arrogant wizard.

Surely someone like that wouldn't plot against you? It's completely not worth it! Wizards back then didn't have the concept of Horcruxes.

Most ancient wizards set up secret chambers either to hide treasures or to build tombs. These locations were naturally full of traps, and no one would think of "revealing" their powerful magic.

Therefore, in Felix's view, given the wizard's mindset at the time, it would have been difficult for him not to fall for the trick.

Once later generations accept the wizarding image fabricated by Halpo, their vigilance will be greatly reduced. They will only carefully deal with the "tests" of their predecessors, while neglecting to guard against the insidious arrows hidden behind the scenes.

Moreover, in the subsequent stone tablets, Herpo offered words of encouragement to those who came after him, and also left behind some useless little tips, all of which were actually aimed at increasing his standing in the eyes of the challengers.

But he didn't reveal any crucial information, just waiting to trick people. For example, he might disguise a powerful curse as a small pebble and place it on a necessary path; or he might suddenly increase the power and intensity of the curse, catching people off guard. But once newcomers are convinced that these are all tests, they will only think that they are not strong enough or capable enough, and will not think of these malicious intentions.

Unfortunately, all the schemes and plots could not withstand the erosion of time. Helbo's many arrangements seemed so pale and powerless under the long passage of time. Even the Horcruxes that he painstakingly protected layer by layer had long since been destroyed by themselves.

“It’s also possible that his skills weren’t up to par,” Felix thought. “After all, it was the world’s first Horcrux, so some oversights were inevitable.”

……

Of the nine ancient spells that Felix had memorized, four were offensive: golden flames, black lightning, corrosive black mist, and malicious transformation; two were defensive: a silver shield and compressed air; and the last three were auxiliary spells, which he hadn't had time to study in detail yet.

“Well, Helbo didn’t leave the names of these spells either, so I can only make them up based on their characteristics…” Felix scratched his head with some difficulty. Oh well, names don’t matter.

Just then, the Sniff, who was lazily lying on the tent carpet, came over. Felix tapped it on the head, and it grumbled and ran to the side, taking away two Galleons, twelve Silver Sickles, and six Bronze Knuckles.

Felix wasn't paying much attention; he was still thinking about ancient magic. The most amazing of these was the defensive magic of compressed air. Actually, it was more like compressing space than air, or at least achieving a similar effect.

Although there are no explicit rules, wizards have instilled in them the impression that spellcasting has distance limitations, at least for most spells. You can't expect a disarming spell thrown into the sky to fly ten thousand meters into the air; that's the limitation of distance.

Of all the magic Felix currently possesses, the Patronus Charm has the longest casting range. One direction in his many studies is to allow the Patronus to change its form, so that it can take on Felix's own appearance, making it easier to buy things or communicate with others. However, when he shared this idea with Dumbledore, Dumbledore jokingly told him that he was overthinking things.

"A guardian spirit is a reflection of the mind. Rather than trying to change its form, I suggest you wear a wizard's robe over it..."

Felix readily accepted the proposal. He wove a transparent, glowing robe from blank memories, so that at least the Patronus could disguise itself as a ghost. Perhaps after the start of the school year, a new ghost would wander through Hogwarts Castle.

Felix gathered his scattered thoughts and focused his attention on the air compression spell. Its principle was simple: it created an air wall in front of the caster, but this air wall compressed a section of space, causing the spells attacking him to dissipate naturally because they exceeded the casting and control range.

Theoretically, this magic can ward off all attacks, even the Killing Curse.

Felix has decided to put it and Black Lightning at the top of his learning list. Black Lightning magic is also very powerful, characterized by its extreme speed and penetrating power, making ordinary defensive magic useless.

His own humanoid armored charm was already less defensive than a normal armored charm, and it was as fragile as a thin layer of parchment when faced with these black lightning bolts.

Felix exclaimed again, "Helpo really knows how to invest money!"

"He was such a good person, it's a pity he's dead."

In addition to these nine ancient spells, he also experienced a unique lesson in curses. Although Helbo hadn't taught him a single curse, Felix still managed to figure some things out through his own experience, and now he needed to record them.

……

Niffler Valen crawled into the tent and saw Felix writing fluently on parchment. His shadow swayed constantly inside the tent, and the light inside flickered. Startled, Niffler grabbed a gem and smashed it on Felix's head.

Felix looked at the gem in front of him, then turned to look at the Sniffler. The two, one big and one small, stared at each other in silence.

A few minutes later, he held the Sniff upside down and flung a bunch of Galleons and various odds and ends out of its little pocket, including its Dream Merlin Medal and a broken Time-Turner. Of course, the small pile of suspicious gems in the corner was also quite eye-catching.

“Looks like I need to give you a good lesson.” Felix transformed a small cup into a small stool and made Niffler sit on it properly. “Sit still. It’s my fault for neglecting your education. We have… about four hours before you return the things.”

Niffler Valen tucked its pink beak into its bosom, and it had a strong premonition that its carefree childhood was slipping away.

“I need to give you some basic education, otherwise you might cause some trouble when school starts… Let me think, the part about property ownership in the economics books I’ve read is very educational…”

Chapter 336 Branch Store

The following morning, Felix entered the pyramid with a listless Niffler. He was going to re-examine the interior of the secret chamber based on the remaining magical traces. The fairy Gnook was with him. Felix patted the Niffler Valen on the shoulder with relief when he saw that Valen did not mention the theft of the gems.

It seems my education has been quite effective; it didn't leave me with a single gem or two, but I can't relax any longer. Whether it's the Quidditch World Cup, the Magic Light Show, a visit to Beauxbatons, or returning to Hogwarts, these are all risky places.

Clémie dragged Hermione around Cairo, saying, "I'll take you to the Fagrist Museum. It has a lot of things made by wizards, but the locals don't know about them..."

Hermione was very interested in this. "I've read about this museum in a book. There should be an obelisk nearby?"