BSI Chapter 170, Page 169: The Underground Treasure Vault! Medivh's Legacy!
Chapter 170, Page 169: The Underground Treasure Vault! Medivh's Legacy!
Chapter 170, Page 169: The Underground Treasure Vault! Medivh's Legacy!
The goblins' ears seemed to have become allergic; the goblin with the chicken-headed head let out a sharp, explosive scream, which immediately caused a panic and commotion throughout the Gringotts lobby.
Some threw down their jewelry, stopped the business they were handling for others, and ran back into the back of the storeroom; others crawled under the table and trembled with fear.
The scene was quite bizarre for a moment.
The little wizard was caught off guard and didn't react for a moment.
"Fairies play World of Warcraft? Pshaw, World of Warcraft hasn't even been released yet." He had a guess in his mind, but he wasn't sure if his guess was accurate.
"What's going on here?"
Mr. Granger and his wife were also taken aback by the goblins' reaction. In the blink of an eye, the once bustling hall was completely empty, not even a single goblin's head could be seen. The goblins who had been greeting them had all hidden under the tables. The couple exchanged a bewildered glance.
They were speculating whether this was some kind of fixed custom or ritual in the magical world.
"Are you robbing a bank?"
Hermione realized that the goblins were terrified, and she ran over to Ian in shock to ask him what was wrong. She had just seen the goblin who was receiving Ian running and urinating the whole way.
"Maybe they robbed it before, but not now?" Ian rubbed his forehead in exasperation, guessing that Albus Dumbledore and Nick Flamel might make a breakthrough in their research on the time converter soon.
"What do you mean? You stole it before, don't you remember?" Hermione clearly hadn't developed the mindset of a wizard yet; her extremely limited knowledge prevented her from making any bold guesses.
"What the Sorcerer Supreme Medivh Aegwynn did has to do with me, Ian Prince!" Ian suddenly denied, and it has to be said that his little brain works very fast.
He's come to his senses now.
He believed in himself.
Regardless of what he might do in the future, since he has chosen to use an alias, he absolutely cannot reveal anything suspicious to anyone now.
By following the usual practice of rounding up or down, he would inevitably be completely unaffected by any cause or effect.
"Forehead……"
Hermione was somewhat speechless, bewildered by Ian's unpredictable nature. Just then, a dull thud echoed from the cabinet door further inside the hall.
"Damn it, Kunba! Today isn't April Fool's Day!" A fairy with a mustache, wearing a beret and smoking a pipe was the first to walk out of the door.
Behind it followed a chicken-headed demon with a terrified expression, who hadn't even had time to change his pants, with yellow liquid dripping from his crotch. It was clear he'd been eating too much spicy food lately.
"Medivh is a legend from almost two thousand years ago. I really don't know if you guys are out of your minds. It's impossible for a human wizard to live for two thousand years and even rejuvenate!"
"This is just your deep-seated fear at work. If you ask me, it must be related to the fact that your ancestors were too cowardly. There are just too many people in the world who look alike..."
The mustache fairy kept nagging and berating the chicken-headed fairy named Khunba in a very authoritative manner, but after it got closer to Ian and Granger's family...
"Thump~"
Not only did its cursing stop abruptly, but its two legs also turned into clay without warning, almost causing it to collapse to the ground and eat its fill.
"The Sorcerer Supreme, Medivh!"
Its eyes fell on Ian's face, and the bang it emitted was even sharper than the fairy Kunba's—proving that its ancestor was not only cowardly but also definitely an unlucky fellow.
All I saw was...
A brand resembling a bird's claw appeared on the forehead of the mustache fairy, precisely because he felt the burning heat on his forehead and the binding force that seemed to come from the depths of his soul.
Then, without warning, it knelt down on the ground with a thud.
"I knew it! I knew it!" Upon seeing this, the chicken-headed fairy Kunba turned around and ran away without saying a word, his rolling and scrambling movements looking quite skillful.
Perhaps it had already rehearsed this in its mind countless times.
"What exactly did Medivh do to you?" Ian also felt a connection from the unseen world. He raised his hand and gently scratched the bird claw mark on the fairy's forehead, making it even redder. The fairy's body trembled even more violently, even more rhythmically than a K-pop girl group stuffed with Kinder Surprise eggs.
"Don't eat me! Don't eat me! We fairies have always kept the terms of the contract for generations!" The mustache fairy seemed not to have heard Ian's question at all.
It cried out, "I've already read this, but it's a mess."
He had completely lost the demeanor he had when he was lecturing the other fairies.
"..."
The young wizard walked up to the kneeling goblin, looked down at the goblin who was just knee-high, and could clearly sense the goblin's fear.
"I am not Medivh, but I think I understand now. Medivh must be the cousin of the son of my aunt's son's father-in-law's wife's nephew's cousin's husband's sister's son."
Ian's way of comforting others is as unique as ever.
Perhaps his explanation was too convoluted, and the fairy's mind couldn't make sense of the logical connections, or perhaps the mustache fairy simply didn't have the courage to think about it at that moment.
Anyway, the fairy didn't notice anything amiss in the little wizard's words. It only took Ian's denial of his identity to heart. It shakily raised its head, its eyes filled with surprise and uncertainty.
"You...you mean you inherited the family's wealth, and that contract I signed with my ancestors?" The mustache fairy was finally able to communicate in a somewhat normal manner.
What do you think?
Ian was also having his own doubts, but he remained outwardly calm and threw the question back at the other person. To put it simply, the usually shrewd fairy had clearly lost his shrewd racial instincts.
"We have always acted in accordance with the contract!"
Without needing to ask any further questions, the bearded goblin confessed on its own. It struggled to its feet, rummaged through its body, and pulled out a shiny Galleon.
"Fairies are the most loyal to their contracts! Fairies aren't afraid of surprise inspections!"
No one knows what this fairy was imagining, but as it spoke words that no wizard could believe, it pointed the Galleon in its hand at the light hanging from the ceiling.
All I saw was...
It showed Ian the side of the Galleon with the human figure carved on it—a wizard in a wizard's robe with a full beard, lifelike, reflecting the brilliant light on the gold coin.
"Who is this person? Is he a big shot in the wizarding world?" Hermione asked curiously as she approached, having broken free from her parents' grasp to satisfy her curiosity.
"I've wanted to ask this question for a long time."
Ian had actually been curious about this question for a long time.
"On the surface, it represents all wizards, but if you use one of the anti-counterfeiting measures on the Galleon..." The mustache goblin began to rhythmically shake the coin, and light refracted onto the coin from various angles.
In a short while.
Unexpected changes began to occur; the head wearing the wizard's robes seemed to be distorted, and under certain light, it gradually lost its beard.
A rather handsome face was clearly displayed.
"what?"
Ian's pupils flickered slightly.
His suspicions seemed to be gradually being confirmed.
On the other side...
Hermione, who was straining to stand on tiptoe and observe the changes in the gold coins, reacted very strongly. Her eyes widened, and an expression of utter disbelief appeared on her face.
"Oh my god! Gringotts really is yours!"
She was clearly aware of something.
"Forehead……"
Ian glanced at Hermione with some surprise. He had only seen this face in the mirror after he took the aging potion, and he never expected that Hermione would be able to recognize it so quickly.
"Is this your ancestor?"
Ok.
Hermione's judgment wasn't entirely accurate either.
Before Ian could reply...
The mustache fairy was immediately alarmed upon hearing the little witch's words.
"Gringotts belongs to us goblins! Only the portrait on the gold coin belongs to the Sorcerer Supreme Medivh... and his descendants!" As she said this, the mustache goblin glanced cautiously at Ian. Of course, it wasn't that it had completely lost its fear, but the goblin's instinct made it unable to resist refuting Hermione.
"..."
Ian was deeply disappointed. He had thought he had stolen the right to mint the gold coins, but it turned out he had only stolen the portrait rights on the coins. This situation left him slightly confused—what use would it be for his future self to have the portrait rights on the coins if he didn't want the minting and ownership rights?
"Perhaps I really am a genius, creating something out of nothing, finding a divine path that doesn't belong to this land." The little wizard could only make the most reasonable but unreliable guess. He was already wondering if his love for digging up graves would one day bring retribution and cause him to unearth his own nine tombs.
In the novel I read before my transmigration, which depicted a bizarre Cthulhu-style world, there was a method to become a god in this way. However, Ian thought it was a bit far-fetched to try to do the same thing in the Harry Potter world.
Just as Ian was speculating whether the gold coins could garner faith, Hermione was rather eccentric. This Muggle girl, who had just entered the wizarding world, seemed extremely curious about all mysterious things.
"Is this the mark of a slave in the wizarding world?" Hermione's emotional intelligence was indeed somewhat worrying in the early days. She bluntly pointed out the claw mark on the mustache goblin's forehead and thought of the miscellaneous books she had just browsed in the bookstore.
"..."
The fairy with the mustache looked rather embarrassed.
Ian secretly gave Hermione a thumbs up in his heart.
He actually wanted to ask that question too, but his status prevented him from asking it. Unexpectedly, even in the era before the Internet, he was still able to find a substitute to speak for him.
"Don't be so rude, Hermione." The little wizard could even play the good cop; he seemed to have realized why all the villains liked to have henchmen.
"I'm sorry, I was too talkative."
Hermione quickly bowed to the goblin and apologized.
"Miss! You're sure to end up in the worst school!" The mustache fairy glared at Hermione indignantly, then immediately spoke up as if afraid Ian would misunderstand something.
"We do indeed have a group of fairies who once signed a labor contract with the Sorcerer Supreme Medivh that required no payment, but that contract only bought our bodies generation after generation!"
"This contract doesn't include our souls! Nor does it include our wealth! Our gold coins!" This mustache-wearing fairy perfectly embodies the nature of a demon.
It's quite good at using substitutes.
"We are different from those lowly, filthy house-elves!" As the saying goes, the more insecure a person is, the more they will choose to emphasize it, and this fairy's mentality at this moment is probably very much in line with this.
"Understood."
Ian sensed the goblin's determination and didn't intend to exercise any master-servant contract for the time being. After all, the hardworking house-elves at Hogwarts were much easier to manage than goblins.
Fairies and house-elves may be closely related in terms of species, but keeping a fairy in your house will almost certainly lead to theft every few days, and it's not as reassuring as keeping a Niffler.
Even Pigsy would wait until his master disappeared for a long time before packing his luggage, but demons... you might just go out fishing, and they will subjectively declare that they will inherit all your property.
"I've verified your promises, and they're good. I'm satisfied. Now, take me to the vault." Ian chose an ambiguous statement that could be interpreted in any way. He had always wanted to open a vault in Gringotts, and now he was betting that he hadn't just left behind a portrait right.
This is not.
That's why they say you know yourself best.
"Of course, no problem."
The mustache fairy responded immediately, showing no resentment or sorrow at the potential loss of its "extinct" wealth. It simply bowed and gestured for Ian to proceed.
"Click, click~"
The massive iron gate then opened.
"Can I come along and take a look?"
Hermione was eager to try.
"Hermione! It's so rude of you to go into someone else's vault!" Mrs. Granger immediately came up and pulled the slightly disappointed, curious little cat back.
"It doesn't really matter."
Ian didn't mind; he himself didn't know what was in the vault. If a blood sacrifice or something similar was needed to open the door, Miss Granger might come in handy.
He thought to himself with a slightly sarcastic tone.
however.
The fairy with the mustache shook her head vigorously, like a rattle-drum.
"Besides us fairies who manage the vault, only the owner and heir of the vault can set foot in that area. If the bloodline is not right, they will be directly blasted into a cloud of blood mist by magic and traps."
"This is the highest level of security, personally cast by the Sorcerer Supreme Medivh. I think even your headmaster, the one who has recently become someone we can't mention in Gringotts, couldn't escape the security of this area." The goblin with the mustache spoke with a hint of resentment in his voice when he mentioned the old headmaster.
They are clearly still resentful about the looting of Gringotts.
"All right."
Hermione was so frightened by the description of the mustache goblin that her face turned pale—in fact, even the young wizard felt a little uneasy.
Was it all just his guess? If this guess without evidence was wrong... just thinking about it made his scalp tingle and he almost backed down.
"As the saying goes, fortune favors the bold, and I'm not without a way out."
Ian touched his chest, which was originally empty, but just as the thought arose in his mind, the Black Phoenix had silently teleported over and was ready.
"Hmm? Why do I feel like I heard that sound again?" Hermione rubbed her ears and looked down to find her new wand vibrating slightly.
A "heh heh" sound came from the wand.
Yet it seemed as if only she could hear it.
"If you'd like to see our Gringotts vault, you can rent one there. We're offering a limited-time rental discount of up to 2% during the school term."
The elf with the mustache first sized up the Granger family, then sniffed the air. After determining that the family had a lot of Galleons on them, he immediately took the opportunity to promote his business.
"Okay, let's inquire. Actually, we'd like to first process the exchange of Muggle coins for Galleons." Mr. Granger immediately nodded in response.
"You can all process it over there. This year's quota is a full twenty Galleons, much more than in previous years. The Ministry of Magic has further exploited and oppressed us."
"I really don't know what the point of Muggles' waste paper is..." The mustache fairy was clearly a little unhappy, but he still pointed out the counter where the Granger family could handle their business.
"I specialize in recycling the waste paper you don't like," Ian immediately seized the opportunity to speak. The mustache fairy bowed slightly to him, but gave him a rather regretful answer.
"The Ministry of Magic won't allow us to handle Muggle money on our own. Otherwise, it wouldn't be a problem to give it to you. For us fairies, it's not as meaningful as our lives." The mustache fairy was noticeably more humble when facing Ian. The brand on its forehead that hadn't faded was actually quite effective.
"Wait a minute, I need to grab my Doraemon." The mustache fairy suddenly remembered something and scurried towards a workstation that looked like it hadn't been used in a long time.
The fairies imprisoned a fierce fire dragon in their underground vault to deal with any intruders with ill intentions. After one of them died, they acquired three more.
The "Ding Dong" is a "permission" item that allows fairies and customers to move safely through the basement.
"Okay, no rush."
While the mustache fairy went to retrieve something, Ian also put one alchemical protective ring after another on all ten of his fingers and the toes of his sandal. Although he had been thinking about the Mystic Realm all this time, he didn't want to return to it in a proper way.
He thought to himself that a hundred layers of protection would definitely be enough.
The mustache fairy has returned.
"What are you doing...?"
It glanced at Ian, who had changed his clothes, with some surprise.
"Suddenly, I had a craving for Wu Ha Feng, so I changed my outfit."
Please bookmark 6.9 books!
Ian shook his ten-pound hand and gave a rather unconvincing response.
"All right."
The mustache fairy gave Ian a deep look.
"Get back to your posts! Stop hiding under your desks!" it yelled at the stalled areas as it led Ian inside.
That adjutant's air.
Slight recovery.
"So they were just descendants of Medivh."
"I thought it was really Medivh coming back, it scared me to death."
"Even if I am just a descendant, my intuition tells me that the little wizard probably also liked to eat a few goblins when he had nothing to do—my crotch has a prophetic talent."
……
These hiding fairies had actually been eavesdropping with their already large ears the whole time, so after crawling out, they all breathed a sigh of relief and resumed their normal work.
The only family we needed to host was Granger's family.
All the fairies threw themselves back into their beloved work as if nothing had happened.
"What can I do for you?"
The old fox in charge of renting out the account opening counter, even though it had already heard everything clearly, still looked at the Granger family with theatrical flair.
"Please process our exchange of pounds for Galleons." Mr. Granger didn't encounter any difficulties, perhaps because his status as a descendant of Ian "Madwin" was helping them.
After receiving the small bag of Galleons, Mr. Granger couldn't help but lament that his daughter wouldn't have enough to eat at school with that little money, while Mrs. Granger wondered if she could exchange some more Galleons with Ian. Seeing that the family didn't inquire about the rental, the old fox suddenly became impatient.
"Don't you know anything about the different types of vault rentals?"
The old witch's tone was impatient.
Their race wanted to store all the wizards' money in their own Gringotts, so that in their minds, the wizards' money would belong to them.
"Perhaps we don't need it that much..."
Mr. Granger's negotiation skills are clearly honed in the Muggle world, and even his casual conversation with his wife just now was just a collaboration between the two of them.
This maneuver was clearly quite unfamiliar to the old witch.
"This is not a wise decision. There are many dark wizards out there who will plunder your wealth. Only by entrusting your money to us can you minimize the risk of being plundered."
The old witch began to scare people in an alarming tone.
"is that so?"
Mr. Granger hesitated noticeably; he genuinely didn't understand the social environment of the wizarding world. This moment of hesitation was precisely what the old fox seized upon.
"Of course! Only Gringotts can protect your wealth! We have three dragons guarding the treasure! And each one has a unique, one-to-one safekeeping key that no one can forge!"
"Did you know? There's only a small gap between an excellent bank and a perfect bank, and that gap is called Gringotts!" The old fox's introduction and performance were quite comical.
"Someone told me you were robbed before," Hermione suddenly said out of the blue. She was the type who, once she spoke, was guaranteed to get right to the face.
"Who! Who told you that?!"
The old witch immediately became furious.
"I read it in the newspaper... I saw it in the newspaper."
Hermione was startled. Not wanting to betray Ian, she chose to lie weakly—she had indeed seen newspapers about the wizarding world in the bookstore.
"Bullshit! We already got the newspapers to change their story! It must have been just now..." The old monster wanted to curse, but then it realized something and immediately stopped.
"Fine, fine, I'll give you a 5% discount, okay? At least statistically speaking, once a bank is robbed, it's almost certain it won't be robbed a second time in a short period of time."
"You may not believe me, but you must believe in mathematics..." Goodness, after realizing that the person she was about to scold was not someone to mess with, this fairy actually started a serious science popularization.
They've really gone to any lengths to promote their gold vault.
……
Deep underground.
The passageway descended very steeply, with some small railway tracks on the ground. The bearded goblin whistled, and a small car drove towards them along the tracks.
"Dear young sir, please come up."
The mustache fairy first crawled inside, then used its own clothes to wipe Ian clean before coming out. Its skillful movements suggested it might be an instinctive technique etched into its memory.
"Shouldn't you call me master?"
Ian stared jokingly at the brand on the mustache fairy's forehead.
"You're joking, aren't you? We all know... your ancestor didn't fulfill all his promises, and we fairies haven't yet obtained our own true habitat."
The mustache fairy chuckled and refused Ian's request.
The little wizard fished out some more information.
of course.
Perhaps the fairy with the mustache wanted to reveal this information to him.
"Let's go check out my... my family's vault first."
Ian rode in Gringotts' trolley for the first time. He had only experienced this mode of transportation in movies and in William's descriptions, and it was indeed a crazy experience that could shake your brainstem out.
It is narrow and small.
It was very rudimentary.
Not only was there no shock absorption, but the noise it made while driving was also quite annoying, like scratching a blackboard with fingernails. Ian doesn't get carsick, but he was speechless at the sound of this old, dilapidated vehicle.
As the cart wound its way through the intricate tunnels, Ian felt a chill creeping in from all directions, a stark contrast to the warm, bright Diagon Alley above.
"Be careful, sir, don't make a sound. The dragon's guard area is just ahead." Just then, the cart suddenly slowed down, and the fairy guide whispered a warning to Ian.
Its words had barely faded.
The silhouettes of several enormous dragons gradually came into view.
They huddled in magically reinforced caves, lazily swaying their massive bodies, occasionally letting out deep, majestic roars that echoed throughout the underground world. Although these dragons were bound by powerful magic, their very presence still instilled in most people an indescribable fear and awe.
At least when you hear the dragon's roar.
The fairy with the mustache was noticeably more nervous.
"You're so calm."
It watched as Ian, who had even taken out a camera and was taking pictures of the three-headed dragon, and it sincerely remarked that even adult wizards rarely had such courage when facing a dragon.
"I have a dragon that's a bit skinny, but much bigger." Ian snapped dozens of photos in a row, knowing that Hagrid liked this kind of hybrid dragon.
"Forehead……"
The eight-bearded fairy couldn't quite understand how adjectives like "skinny" and "huge" could be used together. In silence, it continued to steer the cart deeper underground.
The stroller moves very fast.
It's comparable to a high-speed train.
Even so, Ian was exposed to the cool breeze for a very long time. One vault after another passed by him, and finally, the man with the mustache led him to a rarely visited area.
The vaults that used to appear on either side of the cave were no longer there; there was only a long, narrow passage leading downwards—Ian was always ready to escape, with Black Phoenix taking him away in Apparition.
He was on high alert, but things didn't turn out any unexpectedly.
Ian and the fairy guide's cart slowly came to a stop, surrounded by an unprecedented silence and solemnity. The cave's old and damp walls seemed to have been forgotten by time. In this dim light, countless ancient inscriptions appeared and disappeared, etched on the walls in an ancient and mysterious language.
"It looks a bit like... those runes I can't understand," Ian identified. These runes weren't just decorations; they were the most powerful magical defense in Gringotts' underground wizarding world, bar none. Just as the goblin with the mustache had said when he was up there, the runes could sense and stop any unauthorized intruders.
just.
To Ian and his goblin half-slave, these heavily guarded inscriptions seemed to be nonexistent, showing no reaction whatsoever. The mustache goblin's eyes were quite complicated as he witnessed this.
"As expected... that's how it is, what else could it be, it must be like this..."
It was whispering in a barely audible voice.
The contract passed down through bloodlines is the key to its knowledge of many things, and it's also why the chicken-headed fairy sought it out immediately.
"Open it from here." Ian couldn't understand the defensive runes on the walls, but he could understand the alchemical layout on the vault door, so there was no need to ask any questions.
All I saw was...
The young wizard simply raised his wand and aimed it at the bronze door. No spell was uttered, only magic; he gently pressed his wand against the door, channeling his magic directly into it.
This is indeed the best way to verify, after all, just as there are no two black crows in the world, there are certainly no two wizards with the same magic.
All I saw was...
Magic, like a winding dragon, rapidly spread along the patterns on the gate. The patterns on the gate seemed to be activated by this magic, lighting up piece by piece and emitting a soft, mysterious light. These lights intertwined in the cave, forming intricate patterns, each containing ancient and powerful magical energy.
As the light spread, the door began to rumble, as if the entire space was trembling in anticipation of this moment. The mustache fairy quickly grabbed the wall to steady himself.
at last.
Amidst a deafening roar.
The bronze gate slowly opened.
The little wizard's suspicions were completely confirmed.
"Please do as you please. We fairies have no right to enter your treasury." The mustache fairy was already kneeling on the ground, and it kowtowed to Ian several times in a respectful tone.
"A vault? That name sounds amazing!" Ian held his breath and looked into the vault, where there was a chandelier. This chandelier, which had been lit for who knows how many years, emitted a light like natural light, illuminating everything in the vault very clearly.
"They don't even have a printing press!"
Ian stepped inside with an incredulous expression. Not only had he failed to find the treasure he was most looking forward to, he hadn't even been able to find a single Galleon in the vault.
Do not!
He couldn't find even a single copper nut! The persistent young wizard searched almost the entire vault, but he couldn't find anything that could possibly be considered valuable.
some.
It was just a pile of broken objects that looked worthless.
"This can be called a treasure vault? I've changed! I've definitely changed! I'm not generous anymore! Not magnanimous anymore!" The little wizard never expected that "Medivh" would be someone who was stingy even with himself.
Look, look! In this enormous vault, which is like an international airport, apart from a pile of scrap metal that may contain precious metals, not even a single shining gem can be seen.
No wonder they installed such a huge light bulb; otherwise, it would definitely look like a junkyard. Inside the brightly lit vault, all sorts of dull weapons and armor were scattered about.
There were also items displayed on the shelves.
For example, there was a trident that looked extremely worn, some necklaces and rings that had lost their luster, and a shield that looked like it was entirely inlaid with dark stones.
They might all have been magical items, but now they were all damaged. Ian even suspected they were contaminated, because he saw a golden, unidentified substance stuck to many of the weapons and broken armor; these unidentified substances were probably the shiniest things in the entire room.
Under the "sunlight".
The shimmering luster comes from these unidentified liquids. They seem untouched by time, or rather, they haven't faded at all despite the passage of time.
"At first I thought it was the color of Galleons." Ian sat down on a stone stool in the vault with a bit of helplessness. He looked around at the hundreds and thousands of different kinds of old and worn-out items.
"This gun seems to be in slightly better condition, but the grip is also a bit awkward." Ian put on his dragon-skin gloves before picking up a long gun from the shelf next to him.
Just as he said.
The spear, which gleamed with a mysterious metallic luster and was slightly dull, had golden grime on the wooden grip area, but it did not adhere to Ian's dragon-skin gloves.
"There are magical runes here?"
Ian only discovered after he got his hands on it that there was a very faint, even rusty, rune on the shaft of the spear, which was the rune he was most proficient in.
Whisper to me, and I will end your enemies.
The young wizard translated the runes on the gun.
next moment.
The magical runes on the metal spear seemed about to light up, but then flickered and went out as if it had short-circuited—it was too badly damaged.
(End of this chapter)