Chapter 238: Treasures Beyond Imagination

A thousand years ago, the magical world was different from what it is now. At that time, British society was in chaos, the territory was not unified, and the entire European continent was in wilderness and darkness.

In addition to wizards, many magical creatures were also prosperous.

They did not live in seclusion as they do now. On the contrary, they appeared frequently in the wizarding world, making frequent exchanges and transactions with them, and even being hired by them to participate directly in Muggle warfare.

Among the many magical creatures, goblins were absolutely unique.

Because of their natural greed and love of gold, they were the ones who interacted the most with humans. They directly opened stores in wizard societies, providing wizards with a large number of well-made magical accessories, weapons, armor and other services.

But the innate pride and deceit in their character prevented them from believing in humans.

In the eyes of the elves, they and human wizards cooperated on equal terms and had the same status. Put more bluntly, it was purely about money and how to use it in their relationship.

In case they were not satisfied, they could provoke a riot and raise a ruckus.

In this environment, many powerful wizards and pure-blooded wizarding families did not believe in goblins, and were skeptical about Gringotts established by goblins.

In their opinion, they preferred to bury family treasures in their castles or in hiding places, rather than in Gringotts, whose degree of security was questionable.

This prevailed in the Middle Ages and before, and this was the main reason why many precious magical relics were discovered in later generations.

After centuries of excavations, the remains of these magical relics had become very rare, and the remains that had not been found or successfully excavated were the remains of very powerful sorcerers. For example, the pyramids of Egypt. Gringotts and the Egyptian wizarding authorities had long worked together to excavate and decipher the ancient magical monument, where Ron's brother Bill Weasley worked as a curse breaker.

Thousands of years ago, the rulers of Egypt, powerful elders and wizards, set countless powerful spells and curses on the pyramids, and progress through them was very slow.

Like the pyramids, the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff families did not keep their wealth in Gringotts, as Slytherin and Ravenclaw did, but elsewhere and had not been discovered until then.

How much wealth did Godric Gryffindor have? Ivan wasn't sure.

But in the history books of magic, Helga Hufflepuff's description was accurate: her hobby, besides cooking, was collecting gold.

With her strength, the property she left should definitely be a staggering astronomical number, but it was not known where she hid it, and the Hufflepuff family had no descendants either.

Ivan suddenly thought, "She wouldn't hide her wealth in the Hogwarts common room! This is really..."

What if, after facing all the difficulties he had to face to get to the Secret Treasures left by the founders, he found a large amount of gold left by her?

Ivan smiled bitterly and hurried to put the idea out of his mind. While the gold was good, it was no good for defeating Voldemort. He couldn't kill Voldemort with gold.

After watching for a while, Ivan discovered that in addition to these familiar emblems, in the distance there were many strange implements on the islands above the lava.

They were all made of metal, and looked so large and spectacular, like weapons left by some ancient civilization.

Ivan knew that these things were not weapons, but instruments used by goblins to forge and refine magical objects.

It is known that, in addition to greed, goblins are also famous for being good at creating excellent magical equipment.

Historically, many legendary magic items had been made by them.

One of the most famous is Excalibur, made by Merlin and the goblins, which was the most famous magical sword in history. At that time it decided the rise of the British throne and the future direction of the magical world.

It was also since then that many non-human magical creatures gradually withdrew from the "public".

Of course, there is also the Sword of Gryffindor, which Godric Gryffindor bought from the goblins while he was alive. He put magic on it, and only a true Gryffindor could find it. Last term in the Chamber of Secrets, Harry used the sword to kill the Basilisk.

Ivan regained his gaze, and beside him, Harry was still looking around and shouting, "That's amazing, how did they do that?"

"Goblins have strong magical power, and they have their own magical culture." Hermione exclaimed, "If we look closely, we will see that all these islands float on lava, but they are not molten by magma, which requires extremely powerful magic. To tell you the truth, I don't know how the elves built such a large institution. In my opinion, it should be impossible to accomplish everything..."

"Nothing is impossible!" Griphook said proudly, "Goblins have their own special magic, which is far more advanced than that of human wizards."

He took the key from Sirius and approached the statue marking 68, which was covered with the Black family crest. Most striking were the two black dogs carved in obsidian.

There was a narrow gap above the bronze door below the statue, and Griphook reached over, put the key in and turned it gently.

This action seemed to set some mechanism in motion, and a loud rumbling sound arose from the floor.

The door slowly opened, and a stone staircase appeared in front of everyone. The Black family vault showed its true face, with a large rectangular room at the front.

Ivan, Harry and Hermione rushed inside. They all wanted to see what it looked like in the vault, and how shocking the Black wealth was!

Just looking at the surroundings the vault was in, the dangerously hot magma and the terrifying emblem of the island's ancient family of pure-blooded wizards, it was all enough to intrigue everyone further.

Everyone wanted to know what was in the Black family vault, even though Sirius had said it was dull and full of gold. But filling an entire room with gold was, in a way, a remarkable achievement.

Ivan, Harry and Hermione rushed in, thinking they would see mountains of gold, silver bullion and other valuable antiques.

But there was nothing in front of them. The vault was very empty, as if it had just been robbed, and not a single piece of gold could be seen.

It was shocking, but it was exactly the opposite of what they expected.

It wasn't so much a vault as it was a storage room for an evil black magician.

The shelves on both sides were filled with strange and eccentric black magic items, of which they did not know the specific use.

For example, on the shelf on Ivan's left side, there was a black skull with a crown.

That slightly sunken bone, with its ornate ornaments, exuded an eerie air that seemed horrible and disgusting.

In the corner of the room, a huge white skeleton of an unknown species of fire dragon was magically rearranged standing there. Each bone was engraved with the Black family crest. There was no telling what ancestor in Black history had left such a "fun" collection.

What the hell was going on there? and what really was the Black family wealth?

Everyone scratched their heads and turned to look at Sirius who had just walked in, waiting for his explanation.