43 Chapter 43
Harry reluctantly accepted the automated Party Invitation that the system sent him so that even if he did get separated from his guide, he'd be able to locate her fairly quickly; which was standard procedure when starting a quest led by an NPC. As the woman led the way out of the castle, Harry allowed his eyes to take in the prison he'd potentially spend the next seven years in; taking in the animated suits of armor, floating ghosts, and moving portraits.
Harry wasn't really impressed; Aincrad had had far more magnificent buildings and an endless number of fantastical and deadly Dungeons spread throughout the entire virtual universe and each floor had held entire worlds filled equally with wonders and horrors.
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Friday, November 19, 2021 8:28 AM
Albus stood in front of his office window staring down at the castle grounds as Aurora Sinistra led the diminutive Harry Potter off of the grounds; the young professor escorting the child to Diagon Alley so that he could purchase his school supplies. The wizard's shoulders sagged as he thought back to his interactions with the young child and felt again the weight of the mistake he'd made in placing the child with his only remaining blood relatives. A sigh escaped his lips as he wondered again what the child had experienced over the past two years while his soul had been trapped somewhere outside of his body and worried about the apparent insanity that the poor boy had developed due to the separation of body and soul.
The child's insistence that life was some sort of game he had to complete was disturbing and Dumbledore had not missed the skeptical look in Harry's eyes the night before as he'd tried to explain things properly to the boy. At the same time, the old wizard had been utterly fascinated with the mutations that Harry's magic had undergone since waking up. The child accessed his magic completely without any understanding of what it was and what it did and somehow forced it to physically manifest itself in order to interact with his environment.
Poppy had told him that the boy had vanished the clothes she'd given him that morning and then somehow made them appear on his body simply by touching the strange floating pages the boy created out of pure magic. Each time Albus found himself fascinated by the anomalies surrounding Harry Potter, the old man would feel guilt because it had been his mistakes that had led to the child's magic and mind becoming so twisted. He only prayed that Merlin and the Lady of the Lake would see fit to guide the child back to reality sometime soon or their world was doomed.
Sighing again, Albus turned away from the window as Aurora and the boy disappeared from view and returned to his desk to finish up the never ending piles of paperwork that were waiting for his attention.
Friday, November 19, 2021 8:36 AM
Harry coughed and shook off the nausea that had taken hold of him the moment the professor had transported them from just outside the school grounds to an empty alley in the middle of who-knew-where even as he jumped clumsily away from her. Even though the woman had frowningly proclaimed that the method of travel they had just used was similar to the Teleport function in SAO when Harry asked, he found that that couldn't be further from the truth. Harry would take teleportation over the so called apparation any day; he did not like feeling like he was being squished and stretched out through a straw.
"Are you alright, Mr. Potter?"
"I'm fine," Harry assured his soon to be professor as he shook off the last of the effects of the strange form of transport.
She nodded and pulled him over to a section of the wall directly across from the grimy back door of a pub called the Leaky Cauldron; the woman completely ignoring his discomfort with the physical contact. She then removed a wooden rod (a device that he'd learned was called a wand) from her pocket and tapped one of the stones on the wall with the tip. Watching the wall peel itself out of the way brick by brick was rather fascinating but the long winding street that had been hiding behind the wall was rather boring.
It was also fairly crowded and reminded Harry of some of the shadier parts of Hajimari no Machi where low level players sold low quality goods for high prices in the hopes of getting rich quick by tricking the more naïve players or those desperate enough not to care that they were being cheated.
"Stay close to me, child," Professor Sinistra warned in a soft whisper as she clamped a hand on his shoulder once more, causing him to tense as he disliked people he didn't really know grabbing him. "Do not give anyone your name and do not wander off on your own. Not all witches and wizards are good people and your name will stir up more trouble than we need right now."
"Got it."
"Good. Our first destination is Gringotts Bank, the large white building up ahead where the street splits," Professor Sinistra continued with a slightly louder voice as she guided Harry along the street with the hand she kept on his shoulder. "Gringotts is run by goblins and it is important that you do not insult them as they are rather unfriendly creatures that can make your life miserable should you annoy them."
"Will they attack in hordes and do they have any weaknesses that can be easily exploited if they do decide to attack us once we enter the bank? Can they be killed easily or do you need a special weapon?"
"No, they will confiscate your vault and all of your money and make your life difficult. Their only true weakness is their love for gold and treasure and their pride and you are not allowed to kill them. The last thing we need is for you to incite another goblin rebellion because you dared to attack one or more of them."
"I won't attack anyone that doesn't attack me first," Harry stated flatly as he glanced up at the witch briefly.
"Somehow that doesn't sound as reassuring as you might have meant it to be," Professor Sinistra muttered under her breath as they reached the bank and climbed up the short flight of stairs leading to the entrance. "Please remain silent while I handle matters with the goblins; if you have any questions, I will answer them once we are finished with our business at the bank."
"Yes, ma'am."
Harry's first glimpse of a goblin had him wondering if the game's monster designer had lacked any true imagination because they looked nothing like the ugly and fear inducing Grim Goblins that had been found in the dungeons on floor sixty-eight of Aincrad. In fact, aside from being rather short and stocky, having very little hair, and having grayish-brown tinged skin the goblins could have easily passed as short humans with an unusual facial structure. The sharp looking axes, pikes, and swords they carried were of far more interest to the eleven year old and Harry wondered what Agil would make of some of the heavier looking war axes.
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