HP: The Root of Everything - The Magician

Teach stood in the center, blocking Lake's path as he charged toward Venus.

Lake couldn't discern Teach's true strength, so after a very brief moment of thought, he gave up on retrieving Vena, and thus gave up... the opportunity to obtain the knowledge of the dual-avatar magic within Vena's mind.

Not for any other reason than the warning magic that Lake had placed between his eyebrows, desperately sending him a warning of danger.

Lake's [Treasure Hunting Magic], through his innate research and improvement, is as extraordinary as Vena's Doppelganger Magic.

Lake never doubted the magic that could provide accurate warnings about his own safety.

Lake patted the magic carpet he sat on, causing it to quickly circle around him towards their ultimate goal: the mythical griffin. [While Vener's doppelganger magic is indeed extraordinary, possessing the ability to resurrect the dead, no matter how wondrous, it cannot compare to the value of a living mythical griffin.]

Seeing that Lake was avoiding a fight, Teach was not about to give way. He used a teleportation spell to leave the half-dead Venere out of thin air, and then reappeared out of thin air.

Lake was furious when he saw Teach, who didn't know his own limitations, blocking his way again. He grabbed the scale gauntlet and swung it at Teach.

With those bizarre gauntlets capable of matching or even exceeding ten tons of force, why would Teach possibly go head-to-head with them? Did he really think his career as a hitman in the real world was all for nothing?

Teach reached out, deflected Lake's gauntlets with a fist, then grabbed Lake's wrist and easily threw him off the magic carpet with a perfect over-the-shoulder throw.

Without pausing, Teach unleashed her powerful magic with both hands, pinning Lake firmly to the ground.

Without Lake's ride, the magic carpet fell silent.

Looking at Lake struggling desperately on the ground, Teach thought with a hint of disdain: [Heh~ In the end, he's just a wizard with no strength to even kill a chicken. Even with these magical items, he'll never amount to anything.]

External things are always external things.

Lake was pinned to the ground, and no matter how much he struggled, he couldn't break free from Teach's immense strength. Looking at the griffin so close yet unreachable, Lake felt a surge of anger and resentment, causing him, like Vena, to lose his basic rationality under the influence of his emotions.

The 'one and only' mythical griffin was right in front of him; he only needed to take a few more steps to touch it.

He touched it, as his teacher had told him, treasure hunting—finding the only thing.

Driven by these emotions, Lake channeled his inner desires into power, unleashing the biological potential within his frail body.

Lake struggled on the ground, managing to free one hand from Teach's immense strength.

Breaking free from one hand was already Lake's limit.

But this freed hand gave him the opportunity to reach into his bag and take out props.

Lake didn't give Teach time to re-tether him, and quickly pulled a wooden cup from his bag. Although it was called a cup, it was shaped like a bowl.

Just as Teach was feeling disappointed by what Lake had brought out, he heard Lake sincerely recite a sentence to the wooden cup.

In the name of the Lord, Amen!

As soon as Lake finished speaking, a stream of water suddenly welled up in the wooden cup.

The water is the color of grapes and exudes an intoxicating aroma of wine.

Smelling the aroma, Teach instantly recognized that what was flowing from the wooden cup was wine.

Lake downed the wine in one gulp, finishing it all in one go.

Immediately, a dramatic change occurred in Lake's body, and a white-gold color, even more dazzling than the sun's radiance, overflowed from Lake's body.

This platinum-colored energy sent Teach flying uncontrollably.

Once Teach had regained his footing using Flash, he immediately revealed his Petrifying Eye, trying to observe what this platinum-colored energy was.

[It's not natural magic, not the magic of life, nor the mythical magic emanating from Griffin. What exactly is this platinum-colored energy?]

Just as Teach unleashed the full power of his Petrifying Eyes, Lake ignored everything else and charged towards Griffin once more.

This time, Lake, covered in platinum energy, was invincible.

The bullets fired by Hermione's enchanted silver gun were invisibly dissolved and evaporated by the platinum energy on Lake's body.

The fiery dragon breath that Xia Ke unleashed was isolated by the platinum energy, just as a sacred object cannot be tainted by any filth.

The spell that Dumbledore cast was completely erased by the platinum energy, without leaving a trace.

Just like high-dimensional beings, they can erase a low-dimensional object with a single thought.

Teach stood to the side, watching this scene with a deep frown.

He didn't stop him, but watched as Lake took the sleeping Griffin into his pocket.

The capture of Griffin terrified Dumbledore, who was the hope of Hogwarts Castle. But alas, even with the protection of platinum energy, Dumbledore, the most powerful white wizard of his time, could not do anything to Lake.

After Lake took Griffin in, Dumbledore, the headmaster, looked dazed and dejected, as if he had lost all hope in life.

At the same time, he was also deeply doubting himself.

Dumbledore wondered if he was really getting old, because the people or wizards who appeared made him feel inferior.

Teach's magic surpasses the power of even the most powerful white wizard.

The dark wizard Vener's doppelganger magic, with its ability to resurrect the dead, made him pale in comparison.

Lake's magical items...

All of this caused Dumbledore, the white-bearded old man, to fall into self-doubt, questioning whether his title as the most powerful white wizard of his time was simply a joke.

Like a frog at the bottom of a well, unaware of how high the sky is or how thick the earth is.

So Dumbledore put down his Elder Wand, found a place to sit on the rooftop, and became an uninvolved bystander.

But he didn't notice that little Hermione showed no panic at all after Griffin was captured by Lake.

There was no sign of worry on Xia Ke's face.

Teach's face showed an attitude of complete indifference.

Lake was oblivious to all of this, as he was currently immersed in the joy of having obtained the Mythical Griffin, something that was 'unique' to him.

Just then, seeing that Lake was in a good mood, Teach seized the opportunity to ask, "What is that wooden cup of yours?"

Startled by the unexpected question, Lake snapped out of his reverie.

Then, he boldly displayed the wooden cup in his hand and solemnly declared, "—The Holy Grail."

According to legend, the Holy Grail was the one Jesus used when he drank with his twelve disciples at the Last Supper.

"Guided by the magic of treasure hunting, I found Him."

"And with my treasure-hunting magic, I imbued this wooden holy grail with magical power."