Chapter 405

Chapter 405: Chapter 405

"May I ask who you are?" Lynn asked, studying the white-haired, white-bearded old man before him.

The old man stroked his beard and smiled.

"I am the one who built these ruins. I have remained here for countless years, searching for someone to inherit Ancient Magic."

His gaze settled on Lynn’s face.

"And you are the first worthy successor to reach this place in all those years."

He spoke slowly, seemingly giving Lynn time to process what he had just heard.

"I am very pleased that you passed the trials I left behind."

Lynn’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Trials? You mean those Stone Giants? If so, the trial was a little too easy."

His tone was entirely sincere.

The statues certainly looked intimidating. Each stood several meters tall, was composed entirely of solid rock, and wielded an assortment of weapons.

Unfortunately, they were too slow, their attack patterns were too simple, and their reactions were painfully sluggish.

Lynn even felt that if Edgar had come here, he might have lasted several rounds against them.

The old man’s smile remained unchanged upon hearing his words, and he did not appear offended.

After all, even if he had taken offense, he could hardly beat Lynn up. He was nothing more than a portrait now—the kind that could be destroyed by any sufficiently powerful spell.

The old man nodded as though he agreed with Lynn’s assessment.

"Yes. For you, the trial was indeed not difficult. But simply because it was easy for you does not mean it would be easy for others."

His voice softened as he sank into his memories.

"These ruins have existed for an unimaginably long time. So long, in fact, that even I can no longer remember exactly how many years have passed. Others have come here over the ages."

He paused before looking at Lynn once more.

"But not one of them reached as far as you did. You are the first."

"Then I suppose I was quite lucky," Lynn said.

The old man shook his head.

"It was not luck, but strength. I only hope you will use this power properly. Do not use it to harm those who do not deserve to be harmed. Do not use it to seize that which should not be taken. And do not use it to satisfy desires that should never be fulfilled."

He stared directly into Lynn’s eyes.

"Can you promise me that?"

Lynn looked at the expectation written across the old man’s face and fell silent.

The old man studied him briefly but did not press the matter.

Instead, he turned around and walked back into the painting one step at a time.

Just then—

A light appeared beneath Lynn’s feet.

After experiencing that familiar pulling sensation, Lynn found himself standing inside the treasury once more. He glanced around and confirmed that he had indeed returned to his original position.

He raised his head toward the clock mounted on the ceiling.

It was a gigantic magical clock that Ragnuk had installed in the treasury. Its face had been carved from a single piece of crystal, while its hands were made of pure gold.

The hour hand no longer pointed to the same position as before.

Lynn thought for a moment.

When he had left, it had pointed to IX—approximately nine o’clock at night.

Now it pointed to X.

It was already ten o’clock.

An entire hour had passed.

He had spent only around ten minutes inside the ruins, yet a full hour had elapsed in the outside world.

Lynn recalled something Ravenclaw had once told him: time was inherently unstable, and the more powerful the time magic involved, the more likely temporal deviations were to occur.

Although he had not remained in the ruins for long, an hour had passed in the outside world—more than enough time to drive those waiting beyond the treasury door mad with anxiety.

How could Lynn be so certain?

Because Ragnuk’s furious curses were clearly audible through the door.

"You damned thief! I’ll f—! You... I’ll—!"

His shouting was intermittent and interspersed with words Lynn could not quite understand.

They were probably curses in Gobbledegook, which roughly amounted to insulting all eighteen generations of Lynn’s ancestors.

"You little bastard... Say something! Speak up!"

Ragnuk’s voice grew even louder.

"What did you do to my treasury?! What are you doing in there?! You... You—! You—!"

Lynn smiled but did not hurry to answer.

He bent down and picked up a Golden Cup from the floor.

The cup was enormous, its mouth wider than his palm. Its body had been carved in the shape of a lotus, with overlapping layers of petals extending from the rim to the base in remarkably lifelike detail.

Tiny gemstones had been embedded along the edge of every petal.

The cup had seven sides, each engraved with a different image: a flying dragon, a galloping Unicorn, a Phoenix with its wings spread, a coiled Basilisk, blooming flowers, a flowing river, and roaring flames.

Each image was three-dimensional and moved across the cup’s surface.

Lynn held the cup up and examined it against the light.

He had no idea how much the Golden Cup was worth. However, since it had been stored in the innermost section of Ragnuk’s treasury and displayed alongside the Sword of Gryffindor, it clearly was not an ordinary object.

Gripping the Golden Cup, Lynn turned toward the door and knocked on it.

"You bastard, stop cursing for a moment. Let me give you something to listen to."

Surprisingly, the moment he spoke, Ragnuk actually stopped shouting.

Lynn held the Golden Cup near the door and flicked its side with one finger.

Ding—

A crisp, melodious note rang through the air.

"Can you guess what this is?"

There was no response from outside.

Lynn smiled, transferred the Golden Cup to his left hand, and drew the Sword of Gryffindor with his right.

The blade slid free of its scabbard with a sharp metallic ring. The sound was not particularly loud, but it carried exceptionally clearly through the silent treasury.

He raised the sword over the Golden Cup.

Then he swung it down.

Clang—!!!

The violent clash of metal against metal exploded through the treasury.

The Golden Cup split cleanly in two beneath the Sword of Gryffindor.

One half fell to the floor with a sharp clink, rolled twice, and came to rest in a corner. The other remained in Lynn’s hand.

"Stop! Stop it right now!"

Lynn ignored him.

He casually tossed aside the half of the cup still in his hand and turned toward the next display case.

There were countless treasures inside the treasury—so many that Lynn suspected he could spend an entire day and night smashing them without running out.

A trembling Magic Mirror shattered beneath his fist. A Sphinx was cleaved in half. A Jade Cucumber, carved entirely from emerald-green jade and constantly leaking water, was crushed beneath his foot...

Outside, Ragnuk listened to the unending sounds of destruction. His face turned ashen, his eyelids twitched uncontrollably, and every crash made him feel as though his heart were bleeding.

Finally, he pleaded in a trembling voice, "I’ll open the door! Just stop smashing things... Please!"

Lynn stopped and turned toward the door, a radiant smile spreading across his face.

"Wouldn’t it have been better if you had cooperated from the beginning? You just had to force me to resort to violence."

At that moment, Ragnuk’s desire to kill Lynn reached its peak.

"Open the door!" he shouted at a nearby Goblin.

Then he lowered his voice and whispered, "Deploy the army throughout the corridor. Attack the moment he comes out. I don’t care whether you take him dead or alive."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

...

The moment the treasury doors opened, Lynn saw what awaited him outside.

Rows of Goblins lined both sides of the corridor.

They wore matching metal armor and carried long spears, their sharpened tips gleaming coldly beneath the lights.

"By order of His Majesty the King!" The Goblin commander raised his spear, his voice echoing throughout the corridor. "The moment the thief emerges from the treasury, attack immediately! Dead or alive!"

The instant his declaration ended—

A golden object flew out of the treasury.

It traced an arc through the air, passed through the doorway, crossed the center of the corridor, and landed at a Goblin’s feet.

Clatter, clatter—

It rolled twice across the floor before coming to a stop.

The corridor fell utterly silent.

Every Goblin lowered his head and stared at the golden object.

It was a Golden Apple.

The apple was as large as a bowl and cast entirely from pure gold. Its surface had been polished to a mirrorlike sheen, reflecting a dazzling light.

Its purity appeared flawless, without a single visible imperfection.

At a glance, anyone could tell it was extraordinarily valuable.

The corridor remained silent for a heartbeat.

"No one is allowed to pick it up!" the Goblin commander roared, his voice reverberating through the corridor. "That is His Majesty’s treasure! Whoever dares touch it—"

He never finished the sentence.

More objects flew out of the treasury.

Not just one, but more than a dozen.

Gold rings, earrings, bracelets, necklaces—golden jewelry of every conceivable size and variety sailed through the treasury doorway, tracing glittering arcs through the air before landing in different parts of the corridor.

Clinks and clangs rang out one after another.

The Goblins’ eyes began to wander.

They looked at the glittering gold scattered across the floor, then at the figure still throwing valuables from the treasury doorway, and finally back at the gold.

"All of you, look up!" the Goblin commander shouted even louder. "Don’t let yourselves be deceived by these trinkets! His Majesty ordered us to capture him, not pick up—"

A second Golden Apple, even larger than the first, flew out of the treasury and struck him squarely on the head.

Thud—

His vision went black. He staggered forward two steps before collapsing face-first onto the floor.

His spear slipped from his hand and struck the stone with a crisp clang.

The corridor fell silent once more.

Then—

Whoosh—

A torrent of gold coins burst from the treasury entrance.

Like floodwaters surging through a breached dam, they poured across the threshold and covered the corridor floor. Countless coins rolled, collided, and piled atop one another.

"How much do you people even earn in a month?!" Lynn’s voice drifted out from the treasury. "Why are you risking your lives for him?!"

The corridor remained quiet for less than a second.

Then the Goblins moved.

They bent down, crouched, and even crawled across the floor as they scrambled to gather the scattered coins.

"This one is mine!"

"I saw it first!"

"You’re stepping on my hand!"

"Stop pushing!"

Within seconds, the previously orderly formation descended into complete chaos.

Taking advantage of the opening, Lynn flew out of the treasury.

Moo—!!!

Accompanied by the thunderous roar of the Graphorn, Lynn blasted a massive hole through the roof of the Pyramid and burst into the night sky—much like the escape from Gringotts that would occur a thousand years later.

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