Chapter 201 The Vault

In the magnificent Gringotts, Mike came to a stone door under the guidance of Griphook.

When Griphook opened the stone door, what appeared in front of Mike was not a scene as magnificent and luxurious as the Gringotts Hall, but a narrow stone corridor. Torches were hung on the left and right walls of the corridor, burning with crackling sounds.

This stone corridor is a steep downhill slope, which is not surprising, as the Gringotts vault is located directly below Gringotts. In fact, according to the description of the Gringotts vault complex in the original book, the entire underground of Diagon Alley should be empty.

Mike and Griphook walked down carefully, holding the wall. After a while, a winding railway appeared in front of them.

Griphook got on a small mining cart that could only accommodate two adults, and waved to Mike to get on.

Looking at the mine cart without any protective measures, Mike hesitated, so he asked:

"Don't you have any better means of transportation?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Townley, even if Mr. Fudge (the current Minister of Magic) comes, he can only sit in this." Griphook spread his hands and made a helpless gesture.

At this point, Mike had no other choice, so he could only reluctantly step into the small mine cart, but in his heart he had already cursed the goblins.

Damn it! As the only bank in the entire British wizarding world, and the one with the right to mint coins, the means of transportation for picking up customers to the vault to withdraw money is so backward! If you are not a monopoly enterprise, your service attitude would have gone bankrupt long ago.

Although his heart was turbulent, Mike still looked calm on the surface, but before driving, he took out his wand and put on a suit of armor for himself just in case.

That's right, he only put it on himself, not Griphook.

Griphook didn't care about Mike's petty behavior, and his face was still respectful.

"Are you ready, Mr. Townley?"

"Drive..."

Before Mike could even utter the last word, Griphook had already started the mine cart. The moment the mine cart started, Mike felt a strong push on his back, which directly pressed his entire body against the bucket of the mine cart.

Fortunately, with the protection of the armor, Mike didn't feel any discomfort except the push on his back. Even the hurricane brought by the high-speed movement was perfectly blocked by the transparent shield of the armor.

Mike originally wanted to blame Griphook for driving ahead of time, but when he saw that Griphook, who was sitting in front of Mike, had his face distorted by the wind because he was not protected by the armor, Mike felt much better.

This underground passage with a railway is like a maze. The mine cart that Mike and Griphook were riding in was speeding, turning right, left, and crossing a fork in the road. This small mine cart seemed to know the way by itself, and it was driving at a very fast speed, without Griphook's control at all.

The continuous turns made Mike couldn't help but grab the handle of the mine cart, but even so, Mike was still dizzy.

I don't know how long it took, but Mike's eyes suddenly became clear. It turned out that they finally drove out of the narrow underground passage and came to a wide underground space.

Mike's peripheral vision caught a glimpse of fire coming from under him, so he instinctively looked towards the source of the fire.

It would have been better if he didn't look at it. As soon as he looked at it, Mike's arms instantly got goose bumps.

There was a deep abyss under them. At this moment, they were driving on the steep rock wall. The shaking track in front of them made Mike very worried that the mine cart they were in would suddenly fall down.

The source of the fire turned out to be a fire dragon, a skinny dragon with pale scales all over its body.

The fire dragon, whose name could not be called, was now locked by six thick chains, one end of which was linked to the rock wall, and the other end was tied to the dragon's limbs, tail and neck.

These chains should have been tied to it when it was a child, so now they have grown directly into its flesh.

In addition, Mike also noticed that the dragon's eyes were also extremely unhealthy and pale, just like its body. This was clearly a sign of eye degeneration due to staying in a dark environment for too long.

Perhaps because of the degeneration of vision, the dragon's hearing was very developed. After hearing the creaking sound of the mine cart that Mike and Griphook were riding on the track, the dragon immediately reacted, roared, and opened its mouth to spit out a large ball of fire in Mike's direction.

Because the distance was too far and the dragon was very weak, the ball of fire dissipated not long after it was spit out.

"These damn beasts!"

The pull ring in front also found that the fire dragon underground was trying to attack them. He cursed and took out two pieces of iron sheets from his arms against the wind. He shook them wildly at the fire dragon below.

These two pieces of iron should also be magic props. The sound they made when shaking was very penetrating. It was still transmitted to the ears of the fire dragon below from a long distance.

After hearing this crisp sound, the fire dragon was like having a seizure. It roared and struggled hard, looking extremely painful.

The six thick iron chains were flying with the fire dragon, twitching wildly for a while, and then being pulled straight, making a dull sound.

After a while, blood appeared on the place where the iron chain was tied to the fire dragon. Large streams of dragon blood flowed down its limbs, gradually forming a stream under its body. But the fire dragon seemed to feel no pain and continued to struggle wildly. It was not

until the pull ring stopped the action in his hand and put away the iron sheet that the fire dragon calmed down.

"Excuse me, Mr. Townley. These dragons are always unruly."

Griphook explained to Mike with a smile against the strong wind, but Mike did not reply. The means used by the goblins of Gringotts to deal with the dragons were so shocking that he was speechless.

Seeing that Mike did not reply, Griphook did not get angry. He turned his head and continued to look forward.

After a while, Griphook pulled a switch on the mine cart, and the mine cart suddenly slowed down. The metal wheels rubbed out fireworks on the rails.

Finally, the mine cart stopped on a small platform, and Mike and Griphook got off the car and stepped onto the platform one after another.

"Mr. Townley, this vault numbered 688 is currently our best secondary vault." Griphook said enthusiastically as soon as he got off the car, "You see, the fire dragon that is guarding is right below this vault. I believe you have just seen how powerful that fire dragon is. Once an intruder wants to harm your vault, the fire dragon will burn him to ashes."

The thrilling journey just now made Mike feel like vomiting in his throat. He waved his hand to signal Griphook not to speak. Mike stood there for a long time before suppressing this feeling.

"How often do you come to check the vault?"

"About 10 years!"

Mike nodded. Due to his occupational disease, he had been paying attention to the security arrangements of this wizard bank since just now. Now it seems that except for the lazy goblins who are the staff, who only come to check the vault once every 10 years, this vault is simply impeccable.

However, there is a reason why these goblins are lazy. With such excellent security measures, it is meaningless for them to check the vault manually.

"Okay, that's it." Mike said with a long sigh of relief, "Let's finish it quickly and leave here. I don't want to stay here for a moment."

"As you wish, sir!"

Griphook bowed again, turned around, took out a golden key and came to the only vault door on this small platform.

The golden key was inserted into the keyhole on the door and twisted gently. Suddenly, a series of dense triggering sounds came from the door. As the sound stopped abruptly, the door of the vault opened automatically.

In front of Mike was a cave of about 50 cubic meters. The cave was very dry and the air was very fresh, unlike the pungent sulfur smell outside.

"This vault is equipped with constant temperature magic and various protective magics. No matter what you put here, it will be well protected. Even the fragile parchment can stay here intact for tens of thousands of years."

Griphook introduced the situation of the vault to Mike again, but Mike ignored him and directly opened the box and poured the gold coins in the Traceless Extension Spell bag onto the floor of the vault.

As the crisp sound of gold coins colliding continued to sound, a small mountain made entirely of gold coins was piled up in the vault.

After doing all this, Mike put away all the Traceless Extension Spell bags again and turned around to leave.

However, when he turned around, he found that Griphook was staring at the pile of gold coins with his eyes wide open, almost drooling.

"Griphook, Griphook!"

Mike called Griphook several times before Griphook came to his senses. After wiping off the saliva that didn't exist, Griphook took Mike out of the underground vault.

Mike, who finally came to the hall of Gringotts again, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Mr. Mike, please follow me. You have some documents to sign."

Griphook disappeared after taking Mike to the hall, but then another goblin came up and asked Mike to sign a document.

Mike sat down at the counter and picked up the document to read it.

In fact, there is nothing interesting here. In addition to some procedures, there are precautions for withdrawal.

If you want to withdraw money after depositing money in Gringotts, you need a certificate. These certificates can be your face, a key or a special magic signature, or even if you have a family, a family emblem with a special magic mark can also serve as a certificate.

Mike naturally has no family, so he left a magic signature as a certificate for using checks later. Finally, Mike cashed the check Lockhart gave him and put the 1,500 gold galleons back into his box as pocket money.

After doing all this, Mike finally completed his task for the day and walked out of Gringotts with the goblins' farewell.

In the corner of the Gringotts hall, two middle-aged wizards saw Mike leave Gringotts, looked at each other and followed him silently.

Because Mike's previous behavior was too ostentatious, many people in the hall noticed this young wizard carrying a huge sum of money. And these two people just saw Mike exchange a check for 1,500 gold galleons, so they became greedy.

After the two left, the ragged Muggle-born wizard also gritted his teeth, hesitated again and again, and followed him silently.

When Mike walked out of Gringotts, it was already dusk. He actually stayed in Gringotts for a whole afternoon.

At this time, Diagon Alley seemed very deserted. Most of the shops along the street had closed their shops, and only a few shop owners who lived in the shops were still open. Feeling the hunger in his stomach, Mike quickened his pace.

He and Professor Flitwick had an appointment to attend the gathering at Raven's Nest tomorrow morning, so he had to go to Professor Flitwick's house tonight.

Imagining the various delicacies made by the house-elf Lolo, Mike's saliva was secreted rapidly, and he couldn't wait to return to Professor Flitwick's house.

However, at this moment, the strange voice of the raven Papi suddenly sounded in Mike's mind.

'There are three people following us, two at 100 meters at seven o'clock, and one at 150 meters at four o'clock. '

Upon hearing the voice, Mike's movements suddenly froze, but soon returned to normal.

"There are really people who are not afraid of death." Mike thought to himself, "Do you think I'm easy to bully because I'm a little wizard?"

Mike continued to walk calmly, but his walking direction deviated from the main road and began to walk towards Knockturn Alley.

The two middle-aged wizards behind him were immediately delighted when they saw this. They didn't expect Mike, a little wizard, to be so stupid. If Mike went directly to the Leaky Cauldron and used the fireplace to leave them, there would be no way to stop him. Now Mike was running to Knockturn Alley by himself, which was simply seeking death.

The heart of the young Muggle wizard who fell behind was clenched.

Knockturn Alley is a dangerous and dark place. It is like light and shadow with Diagon Alley. Diagon Alley specializes in selling all kinds of ordinary magic props, while Knockturn Alley is full of all kinds of dark magic shops.

It is the place with the highest density of dark wizards in the entire wizarding world. Even the Aurors dare not enter rashly. Death is the norm here. People who enter here without strength are seeking death.

As time passed, Mike had entered Knockturn Alley, and the two middle-aged wizards also quickened their pace. The young wizards following them saw clearly that they had already taken out their wands.

"It's too late. They are going to attack that child!"

The young man clenched his fists, and the scene of Mike being killed by the two middle-aged wizards kept flashing in his mind. Finally, he finally made a decision.

He put his hands together to make a trumpet shape and shouted with all his strength:

"The boy in front, run!"