#333 - The Wizard in the Shadows (asking for monthly ticket recommendation)

After entering the inner room, she noticed significant changes in its layout. Originally an empty space, the far end now featured a mannequin target, with one side lined with opaque cabinets and three small booths. Each booth contained a full-length mirror and a gramophone.

Moreover, the small booths were equipped with soundproofing charms. Aselia stepped into one, immediately noticing the surrounding silence.

"So, this is for customers to try on accessories and listen to music. Quite innovative." Aselia felt as though the shop owner had suddenly become much smarter in business, as if enlightened.

Then, Aselia actually spent a full ten minutes listening to music in the booth. Anyone who didn't know better would think she was actually there to buy something.

Ten minutes later, Aselia emerged from the booth, completely satisfied. She found the civilian products in this alchemy shop surprisingly good; the beautiful music had even made her lose track of time.

Slightly relaxed, she didn't forget her mission and went straight to the row of lockers next to the booth, carefully opening each one and searching diligently.

Aselia found several sets of tactical vests and defensive gloves in these lockers. Most of the lockers contained civilian-grade alchemical tools.

However, she didn't touch any of these alchemical items, and she tried not to move the equipment. If she messed up the internal arrangement while searching, she would restore everything to its original state afterward.

Finally, after opening a locked, upright locker, she discovered a metal safe, more than half a person tall, with no combination lock, just a small handle.

"This must be it." Aselia breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the safe. Although this operation had been bumpy, she had finally found the target.

Facing the safe, Aselia tentatively used an unlocking charm, but there was no reaction.

This was to be expected. Even the front door was so difficult to get through, how could the safe be easy to open? If it could be opened so easily, she would even suspect it was a trap.

Aselia continued to tentatively try several attacking spells and even used multiple cracking charms, but none had any effect on the safe.

Each time she cast a spell on the safe, a dense layer of magical runes would appear on the surface, but unlike the front door, there was no counterattack.

All the spells seemed to be absorbed by the surface of the safe. No matter how many times she cast a spell, she couldn't feel any weakening of the magical runes on the safe.

"Not again. Why is this so difficult? Seriously, should the owner of this shop consider switching to selling safes? The quality of these alchemical items is so good that I even want one." Aselia muttered to herself, then took a new action.

She carefully placed her wand against the handle of the safe and silently chanted a spell.

Immediately, there was a noticeable reaction on the safe. A stream of murky smoke began to hiss out from where the wand was touching it.

A conspicuous gash appeared on the safe, with obvious signs of corrosion, as if the metal had met aqua regia, and metallic liquid slowly flowed out.

"Phew..."

This spellcasting process actually lasted only a short time, but even so, Aselia felt quite strained.

However, a hole the size of a billiard ball had been corroded in the safe, and because the integrity of the safe had been compromised, the magical runes on it had also dimmed.

"Alohomora!"

The corroded safe door swung open at the urging of a simple unlocking charm, revealing a pile of jammers inside.

"Excellent, five Anti-Apparition Jammers and five Shielding Jammers. More stock than I imagined. With these, subsequent actions shouldn't be so easily caught." Aselia was secretly delighted, quickly stowing away all the equipment before closing the safe door.

"Unfortunately, items damaged by the corrosion curse cannot be repaired with the 'Reparo' spell. This way, the loss of equipment may be exposed quickly. If I could open it in a normal way, it could be hidden for longer."

"But maybe not. I should use Transfiguration to transform the safe back to its original appearance. After all, this kind of equipment is forbidden to all Aurors, and the Ministry of Magic won't be purchasing it in the short term. Maybe I can hide it for a while."

Having made up her mind, Aselia quickly waved her wand, and the hole in the safe quickly disappeared, transforming it back to its undamaged state. To ensure the Transfiguration lasted long enough, she even increased the magical input.

After completing the spell, Aselia conveniently cleaned up all the smoke and metal stains that had been corroded.

Having done all this, Aselia, feeling relaxed, actually walked back to the outer shop, leisurely strolling around.

She even put on a shopping pose, carefully admiring her favorite accessories several times, and secretly took out a few records to listen to music, but she didn't commit any petty theft and returned all the items to their original state.

After she had browsed enough, she carefully cleaned up the traces of her intrusion and slowly exited the shop.

After closing the door, she also injected magic into the door to restore its defenses.

After confirming that everything was exactly the same as before, Aselia Apparated and disappeared.

When she reappeared, she had returned to her residence.

At this time, Aselia felt completely relaxed and was about to take off her mask.

But just then, her magic sense detected a faint danger approaching behind her.

Aselia nimbly took a step to the side, quickly drew her wand from her waist, assumed a fighting stance, and turned to point it at the shadows in the living room behind her.

"Reaction too slow, Unicorn..." A deep male voice came from the shadows.

Along with the voice, a wizard also cloaked slowly walked out of the shadows, and this person also held a white-as-snow aspen wand in his right hand.

Aselia saw the figure appearing in the shadows and secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but she didn't put down the wand in her hand. Instead, she retorted fiercely, "I've said it many times, don't break into my house at will. Has your memory deteriorated to this point... Thunderbird?"