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"The simplest thing is that after old Dumbledore died, he didn't even know the locket was a fake."
This alone was enough to show that Dumbledore couldn't know everything. He was not a god, and he was bound to get distracted sometimes.
Moreover, Dumbledore had a fatal weakness—his sister.
It was precisely because of this weakness that Voldemort had manipulated him into wearing the ring with the Resurrection Stone, causing him to suffer a terrible curse.
"However, if Old Deng had discovered that the old locket was a fake before he died, he might have felt more at ease."
This would have meant that he wasn't alone in his quest to destroy the Horcruxes.
"Of course, before I develop into a wizard on the same level as Dumbledore, Voldemort, or even Grindelwald, it's better for me to stay hidden."
Root felt that, as a first-year wizard, hiding himself wouldn't mean much. At most, it just proved that he was cautious enough.
After completely mastering the counter-spell for the Fiery Curse, Root opened the system panel.
He had already used almost every other system function, except for one—something he had never tried before.
The spell refinement function in the magic wand icon.
At first, he hadn't had any spells to refine.
And once he had mastered the three Unforgivable Curses at the maximum level, he no longer felt the need to refine them.
But now, as he learned more spells, he realized quite a few could benefit from this function.
The reason he had never used it before was because…
"It's ridiculously expensive!"
[Name]: Root Hawkwood
[Spells Available for Refinement]: Levitation, Transfiguration, Grimfire, Cleaned Up, Blazing, Luminescent, Cruciatus, Soul Stealer, Resurrection, Parasitic Possession, Avada Kedavra, Grinning
[Refinement Fee]: 10,000 Galleons per attempt
[Note]: When a spell reaches Level 7, the refinement function unlocks automatically. Additional refinements are available at Levels 8, 9, and 10.
When Root saw the cost of a refinement, he couldn't help but sigh—even though it wasn't the first time he'd seen it.
Who could afford 10,000 Galleons per refinement?
That was more expensive than a wand or even a wizard's robe!
A spell could be refined four times from beginner to full level.
That meant 40,000 Galleons per spell!
If he wanted to refine ten spells, that would cost 400,000 Galleons!
And there were more than ten spells in the wizarding world.
If he refined a hundred spells, it would cost four million Galleons!
Was this spell refinement or a direct robbery of Gringotts?
The amount was ridiculous.
Just for context:The cheapest wand was only seven Galleons.Four million Galleons could buy 570,000 wands!If he changed one wand per day, he could use a different one for over 1,500 years.Even if he used ten wands per year, he still wouldn't run out!And according to a casual chat with Professor McGonagall during a private lesson:A Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks cost two Galleons.Four million Galleons could buy two million Butterbeers!Thankfully, Root didn't have a hundred spells at the moment.
The ones that had reached an advanced level were only the ones listed on the panel.
Still, even if each refinement cost 10,000 Galleons, he could afford to refine a few spells.
After all, in just half a school year, Root had earned a large sum of British pounds with the help of his parents.
He had then exchanged all of it at Gringotts for Galleons.
Perhaps because the goblins at Gringotts looked down on Muggles, they didn't believe a Muggle-born wizard could gather large sums of money to invest.
So after several trial exchanges, Root discovered something interesting—
The goblins hadn't set any exchange limits on human currencies like British pounds or even rubles when converting to Galleons!
Root still had a lot of British pounds at the moment, but he didn't immediately exchange them all at once.
He was cautious.
If the goblins suddenly noticed he was getting huge amounts of Galleons, they might patch this loophole.
So, every time he exchanged money, he did it gradually—small amounts, multiple times.
And he didn't exchange only Galleons.
Instead, he diversified—exchanging some into Sickles and a few Knuts.
By converting all three wizarding currencies, he could still obtain Galleons without any restrictions.
Each time Root went to Gringotts, the goblins would exchange a small amount of money for him, looking down on him as if he were just a poor little wizard scraping together whatever cash he could.
In reality, he had already exchanged nearly 100,000 Galleons from Gringotts.
And yet, the goblins still thought of him as a pitiful boy who could only afford to exchange a few pounds at a time.
But that was fine by Root—
Their arrogance was his advantage.
It allowed him to keep exchanging money without raising suspicion.
He even hoped the goblins would continue to underestimate him.
That way, he could keep getting Galleons until he had enough capital to do even bigger things.
But for now…"Most of my spells are only at Level 3 to Level 5. There's nothing I can do about that."Even though he had a few full-level spells, his overall spell knowledge was still too broad and diverse.
Root's philosophy was simple:
At this stage, it's better to learn as many spells as possible rather than refining a few elite ones.
After all, no matter how hard he trained, he couldn't easily reach the full-level mastery of all his spells.
So rather than refining a few, it was better to spread his learning across multiple spells.
And because he already had a few full-level spells as a foundation, his starting proficiency for learning new spells was much higher than other wizards.
His starting level for new spells wasn't zero—
It was already Level 2, 3, or even 4.
With that huge advantage, he could learn spells faster than others.
So no matter how greedy he was, he knew that rushing refinement was a waste."I have twelve spells that can be refined for the first time.""Six of them are Dark Spells, which means they can be refined four times each.""Grinning can also be refined four times.""Luminescent, Blazing, and Clean are all at Level 8, so they can be refined twice.""Levitation and Transfiguration are at Level 7, so they can only be refined once."Since this was his first refinement, he needed to carefully decide which spell to prioritize."If I'm going to refine a spell, it has to be the most useful one."And which spell was the most useful?
Avada Kedavra!
After making his decision, Root checked his financial panel:
[Money]:94,508 Gold Galleons8,600 Sickles10,000 Knuts100,000 British Pounds"Refinement costs 10,000 Galleons per attempt. I wonder if Sickles—or even British pounds—can be used instead?"(End of Chapter)
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