Throughout the summer vacation, Ivan and Penelope had been preparing potions tailored to their needs.
Potion preparation was extremely complex and, like the transformation of an Animagus, required the mixture to be buried in a specific environment for a set period.
To save time and increase their chances of success, the two prepared a large batch of potions.
Today was the day to harvest their results.
In the laboratory, surrounded by various magical enchantments, Penelope assisted Ivan as they carefully placed bottles of potions on the table and inspected them.
"Success!"
Out of ten bottles of potions, only three were successful. Two belonged to Ivan, and one to Penelope.
The same potion could not be taken a second time.
This meant that Ivan's second successful potion was essentially wasted.
"Isn't this a bit of a waste?" Penelope asked, unable to hide her concern.
She still couldn't forget how, a month ago, Ivan had pulled a staggering number of materials from his Traceless Extension Bag.
Even though she wasn't impoverished, she had been shocked when she recognized the names of the materials he used.
Beyond the precious herbs, there were components from rare magical creatures and extremely scarce magical metals like mithril and fine gold.
The sight was truly eye-opening.
Penelope knew Ivan had access to a secret space housing numerous magical creatures.
However, she hadn't expected the resources in that space to be so abundant.
Her astonishment reached its peak when Ivan took out materials she had only ever read about in ancient books—materials that had long been considered extinct. At that point, Penelope completely gave up trying to comprehend the full extent of Ivan's resources.
Extinct magical creatures and plants, minerals, and gems that take countless years to form.
The existence of the secret space was like a vast treasure trove.
'Is this the inheritance of the Ambrosius family?'
Penelope didn't know the true origin of the secret world. The only explanation she could think of was that it was an inheritance passed down through the eternal descendants of the Ambrosius family.
Compared to the wealth of the Ambrosius family, the so-called Sacred Twenty-Eight families seemed like a joke.
The two were utterly incomparable.
Gold Galleons, magical tomes, precious alchemical tools—these treasures were nothing in comparison.
Not to mention Ivan's unmatched magical talent and the fact that he was very rich in the muggle world. The Ambrosius family may have directly created an entire ecosystem with treasures worth millions of galleons!
Of course, Ivan knew what Penelope was thinking—she had shared these thoughts aloud—but he neither confirmed nor denied them.
The system could not be revealed to anyone.
For this reason, Ivan attributed all these magical treasures to the supposed inheritance of the Ambrosius family.
It had to be said that the Ambrosius family's legacy made for a very convenient explanation.
Even Dumbledore, so far, had never doubted it.
"Don't worry about the materials," Ivan reassured her.
"The secret realm is vast, and it has everything we need."
Ivan's words weren't an attempt to flaunt his wealth but simply a statement of fact.
For instance, thunderbird feathers—there were a significant number of thunderbirds living in the secret realm. If not in the thousands, there were at least hundreds.
For renewable resources like these, Ivan could afford to speak boldly: "As many as you need, there are more than enough."
As for minerals and gems, their reserves were quite astonishing.
Ivan even suspected that the existence of the secret space was not solely for his benefit but could potentially support more wizards.
He didn't claim that he could single-handedly support the evolution of the entire wizarding population, but helping Penelope take her abilities to the next level was entirely feasible.
When considering the global wizarding population—estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands—even the secret space would struggle to sustain so many people.
However, Ivan believed it could easily support hundreds or even thousands of individuals.
"I'm not worried about the magical plants and animal feathers, but those minerals—they must be incredibly rare, right?" Penelope asked.
"It doesn't matter," Ivan replied. "I investigated before, and the situation there is very special."
"Special?"
"It's connected to the magic of time."
Ivan felt he should have realized it much sooner. "Think about it—plants and animals aside, resources like gold mines and similar minerals don't form in a matter of hundreds or thousands of years.
The creation of minerals and gems requires tens of millions of years under very specific conditions."
If the secret space had been created by the system out of thin air, there wouldn't be much to discuss.
However, after some exploration, Ivan discovered that the secret space wasn't created by the system. Instead, the system had simply given him the key to the secret realm as a reward.
In truth, the secret space had existed independently and had been a part of the magical world for a long time.
For reasons unknown, its location had been lost, and no one had ever managed to find it until now.
Ivan speculated that the protective layer surrounding the secret space was likely a form of very advanced soul magic.
It was similar to the Fidelius Charm, which allowed secrets to be hidden within a person's soul.
Perhaps, in ancient times, an extraordinarily powerful wizard had used an even more advanced form of confidentiality magic than the Fidelius Charm to seal the entire secret space.
Then, due to some unforeseen accident, all those who knew about the secret space perished.
Ivan had pondered this scenario while studying the Fidelius Charm.
If someone hides a secret within their soul and dies suddenly without sharing it with anyone, what happens to the secret?
Would it be buried forever with the keeper's death, or would it somehow be revealed?
Ivan believed that either outcome was possible, depending on the nature of the secret.
If the secret was of great significance, its disappearance could cause an objective ripple effect, and the keeper's death wouldn't be able to erase it entirely.
On the other hand, if the secret were something trivial, like a newspaper or a common stone, it might vanish completely upon the keeper's death.
In some cases, the death of the secret keeper could even sever the secret entirely from the world's collective knowledge.
"...The creation of the secret space involves extremely powerful magics that we can't fully comprehend at present," Ivan explained.
"For instance, minerals that normally take tens of millions of years to form have their time compressed by thousands or tens of thousands of times within the secret space.
However, this acceleration slows as the resources are used. Mineral reserves have an upper limit. Once this limit is reached, the time acceleration ceases."
Furthermore, when Ivan extracted resources from the ground, the time-based spell cast on them would activate, accelerating their regeneration process.
"According to my research, the entire secret space is interwoven with an extremely sophisticated network of magical circuits."
"These circuits maintain the internal balance and create a self-sustaining ecosystem."
For example, the forest Ivan had once damaged had already been restored to its original state—and was now thriving more vibrantly than ever.
It was as if an invisible hand controlled the secret space from a macro perspective, ensuring the perpetual balance of animals, plants, inorganic matter, and natural weather within.