5 minutes to the meeting, November 6
Leaky Cauldron
Kai didn’t look as formal as he had at his arrival into the world.
A white shirt, loose pants, and a cloak around his shoulders whose hood was down. Behind him, Petyr played with his hat and greatcoat, waiting for Kai to come out of his deep reverie.
There were too many things going on in Kai’s mind. All morning he had spent conversing with the Ghost Serpent, increasing his Snake Language Proficiency by 5%. Although they had only shared their intentions, the taste of blood still lingered in his mouth. But no matter what, Kai couldn’t get the serpent to acknowledge him.
More like she doesn’t know what this acknowledgment is, Kai thought. The serpent was as confused as me about the meaning of Pokemon.
Kai had been trying to get the Elementary Pokemon Trainer Ability by getting the Ghost Serpent to acknowledge him, but it had turned out to be a failure. At last, Kai couldn’t help but conclude that the Ghost Serpent wasn’t a Pokemon.
Maybe… Maybe all Pokemon are magical beasts, Kai concluded, opening his eyes. But not all Magical Beasts are Pokemon.
This made sense to him. Suddenly, a silver mist came slithering out of the bed next to him. Petyr backed away at the sight of it as far as he could. The silver mist was long, sometimes coiling on itself, and sometimes undulating. It passed through the chair as if it wasn’t there and just when it reached Kai’s shoulder, the mist solidified.
First, the serpent’s head took shape, and then gradually its body. By the time it made a turn around Kai’s neck, the white cobra had already become solid.
Hissss!
The serpent hissed, its forked tongue slithering out, touching Kai’s bare skin. To Kai, though, this hiss meant much more. He didn’t have his Blood Essence activated, still, he could barely understand the meaning.
-Food!- it had hissed, Kai could tell. The serpent lazily coiled itself around Kai’s neck and yawned, adjusting its fangs and ligaments. Kai took a bean-sized red-colored ball out of his pocket. It was the food the witch had given them for free to feed the serpent. Kai let the bean roll around in his palm. The Ghost Serpent reached out, smelling the food, and swallowed it in one gulp.
Kai felt her scales pressing into his skin as the food went down to her stomach. A part of himself she was. He couldn’t understand why he was feeling so attached to her, given that they had just met.
“Have you given it a name, my lord?” Petyr asked, still standing far.
“Her.” Kai corrected, not before the serpent raised her hood to look at Petyr. Kai smirked. He was gobsmacked, seeing the venom affecting his characters so profusely. Not even Petyr had thought that the serpent would become a bane of their existence, Kai knew. This will keep them in check, he thought, turning around. They were becoming too wild these days.
“Yes, her,” Petyr agreed. “A name is very important. It gives things, alive or dead, a meaning.”
“Do you want a name?” Kai looked at the serpent. This was the monstrosity of the magical creatures. They could understand human speech, more than a regular creature, at least. It looked quizzically at Kai as if saying she hadn’t thought about it.
Kai chuckled.
“Did you read the books?” Kai asked, his eyes going for the two books on the table. “What do you think about the fifth tale?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Petyr replied. “Unless we get someone to translate the runes, it will never matter.”
The truth was harsh.
Kai had spent all night reading the two books. For him, reading, or even memorizing those books, wasn’t too hard. Since he was but a baby, books had been friends to him, or they were forced into a friendship. Nonetheless, Kai had never objected to his parents’ decision. Daily reading, memorizing and analyzing were as much a part of him as breathing.
The thing that pained his heart now was that he couldn’t put what he had read into practical application. His hand throbbed to take out the wand and try out the spells mentioned in the book. But without Magical Aptitude, he might as well as burn the book.
The serpent sensed his anxiety better than even Kai had. She again turned into a thin silvery mist, slithering down to his navel. There she entered his flesh as if she was part of his body, his blood and bones. His soul.
Kai shuddered. A cool, calming sensation took over him, chilling his soul. All anxiety, ecstasy ran away, scared of the cold the serpent brought with her into him. Kai could feel it, resting just below his navel, curled into a small ball. She was sleeping.
It was the third time she had done this. But Kai felt it was as amazing a sensation as the first time.
“It’s time, my lord,” Petyr said, approaching Kai. “We don’t want the goblin waiting for us, do we?”
Kai nodded. “Let’s go.”
*
*
Snaglok was perched upon the chair like a fat doll.
Kai looked at his face as the goblin looked at both of them. He had an overgrown, hawk-like nose, and there were many pimples on his face. Except for a few gray hairs dangling down his head, he was as good as being called bald. His eyes were black and mean. And his thick lips were curled in a smirk and disgust.
Two emotions Kai couldn’t fathom how one person could show at the same time.
“What is this?” Snaglok demanded hoarsely. “They assured me I would meet only one.”
Petyr smiled. He was sitting on the chair opposite the goblin, and Kai was standing behind him. “We are one, my lord,” Petyr said. “We have always been one.”
Kai had noticed Snaglok looking at his face many times by now. His Charisma was working, but not as much as it had worked before. His identity as a squib was doing much more harm than good to his natural charisma, he knew. Either he should have remained a complete muggle or a wizard.
Too late for such regrets, though, Kai rebuked himself.
Snaglok grunted. “I can’t see anything special about him,” he said, pointing at Kai. “I think I have wasted my time by coming here.”
“Haha!” Petyr laughed. “Don’t go on his age and appearance. He specializes in dealing with low-class wizards. Arlen, show him.”
Kai’s right hand reached into his left sleeve, and he took out the wand. Snaglok’s eyes widened, and before the goblin could sense its oddness, Kai thrust it back into his sleeve. But in reality, he had sent it to the Inventory where even the goblin couldn’t sense it.
“A wand?!” the goblin asked, almost getting up from his chair.
“That should be proof enough for his capabilities,” Petyr said. “He hates the wizarding community for an apparent reason, as you must know by now.”
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Snaglok couldn’t help but nod. There was no worse fate for a squib than being disowned by the great magical family. Hate was a natural emotion. An emotion Kai could easily bring upon his face and in his eyes.
“But…” Snaglok muttered. “But I am still not sure about it.”
“Why not show a bit of faith in each other?” Petyr asked. “Don’t select him, not now. Let’s just trade. Gold for your plans, huh?”
With that, Petyr took out 10 Galleons and put them straight into Goblin’s stubby palm. Some coins fell, but Snaglok, like a bloodthirsty hound, reached down and gobbled them up in no time.
“Yes, yes,” the goblin mumbled, stuffing the coins into his pockets. “Some months ago, I was going through the ancient records of the bank when I stumbled upon an unusual entry. It was a thousand-year-old entry, mind you. It mentioned a particular Vault No. 999 whose owner has never come to claim the contents even once in the last millennium. Now there are older things stored in the abyss below the Gringotts (-the goblin’s chest swelled up in pride-), but someone had always come to check up on their contents, unlike this one.”
“You think the owner is dead?” Petyr added. “So, because of curiosity, you took it upon yourself to find out what is in the vault.”
Snaglok threw himself at the word carefully planted by Petyr. “Yes, I was just curious,” he said. “But the search of what lies within that vault has emptied my pockets…”
Petyr produced 5 more Galleons.
“It’s a chest of petrified eggs!” Snaglok hissed. “Rare magical species which once roamed below and above the earth. Think of the gold even one egg will get me… us, I mean. Think.”
“More than this, I am sure,” Petyr said, slyly, handing over 5 more Galleons. The Goblin’s pockets didn’t seem enough to hold that amount, so he started to stuff the coins in his shirt.
“Yes, more than this,” Snaglok said. “After a long time, I could only find the identity of one egg. A Dragon’s egg… Extinct Green-scaled Hungarian Horntail!”
Kai and Petyr shared the briefest of the glance.
“I am curious about something too, my lord,” Petyr said. “You are an employee of the Bank. Why don’t you take out the egg? Surely it would be safer and easier, right?”
Snaglok sniggered, his face looking like a rooster. “I am just a clerk,” he said. “And only the Head Goblin of the Bank has the key to open the vault. The key is his both palms. I can’t just ask him to open the vault. There is no reason.”
“So that’s why you need our help,” Petyr reflected. “Well, we will be glad to help you as a part of the trade, of course.”
This time, Petyr didn’t take out just a few Galleons, but a full 50. The Goblin gaped at the gold, almost lunging at Petyr to snatch them away. Snaglok, the poor, shrewd goblin, didn’t even know when the interview to select the thief had become a common matter of trade.
“Very well,” Snaglok said, his eyes never leaving the gold coins. “On 25th November, the bank will recruit guards for the Bank’s Security Task Force. I will push your name on that list. Three days later, I will fake an attack on Vault No. 999. The guards will have to go down there, along with the High Goblin, to check the safety of the contents. It will be on you to steal the biggest green-gold egg within the chest. Can you do it?”
The successive notifications brought immense joy to Kai.
[
Side Mission: Snaglok’s delusion
Side Mission Status: Success
Side Mission Rewards: 150 Mission Credits
Main Mission Timer is triggered
Initiating Battle Sequence…
Floor: 3 (1st Set)
Kill Count: (0/100)
Sub-Kill Count: Not Applicable
Battle Number: Not Applicable
]
[
You have triggered a Side Mission
Main Mission: Three heads of the Targaryen Dragon
Side Mission: The birth of Rhaegal
Side Mission Summary: Snaglok has already doomed himself by going against the Goblin’s code of conduct. Now he wants to steal the contents of the chest within Vault No. 999.
Join the Security Task Force on November 25, and help Snaglok steal the eggs when the time comes.
Side Mission Objective: Steal the green-bronze Dragon egg
Side Mission Time Limit: Not Applicable
Side Mission Hint: Greed
Do you accept the side-mission?
]
Kai looked into Goblin’s greedy eyes and grinned.
“Yes,” he said, accepting the mission. “Yes, I can do it.”