"Were you people taking everything not nailed down or something? Merlins beard man, theres over twenty locations on this list!" I said shocked.
"War's expensive boy. Each of these stashes were meant to stabilize the world after the muggles were subjugated. A slow trickle into the economy to lessen the hit it would no doubt take after the wars end." he said calmly.
"And you chose to keep the information quiet after you lost." I said and he just smirked.
"I'm allowed to be spiteful, I lost and was imprisoned in the very prison I myself built. It would have been preferable to die." he said justifying himself.
"You know damned well Dumbledore wouldn't kill you. The others wouldn't counter his decision either, not then at the height of his power. Besides look at the situation now. You get to go to a whole new world rather than getting murdered in your cell like a helpless child by Voldemort in a few years time." I said and he nodded.
"A distasteful end. This is far more acceptable." he said with a slight grimace.
"Well lets get you sorted so I can start hunting down these stashes. Ugh, this is going to take me at least a day." I said already dreading it.
He just smiled and held his thin wrinkled almost skeletal hand out between the bars. I took his hand and with a thought he vanished from his cell and reappeared in my inventories space, frozen in time. With another thought I took a copy of his abilities [magic] and [seer's sight]. I also copied his skill with magic and wasted no time at all using that skill stone for myself. Immediately I was flooded with a flood of insights and instincts. -
Turns out native skills didn't have specific information on spells or rituals or anything like that but with Grindelwald's lifetimes worth of magical use as a guide I just needed to follow it to reach the same level he held. With this in mind I knew it wouldn't be long at all until I no longer needed to keep myself hidden. Once I fully digested these gains I would for all intents and purposes be as powerful as Grindelwald was at his peak, no, MORE powerful. I don't know if I'd yet stand shoulder to shoulder with Dumbledore but I'd be closer than almost anyone else.-
I elementalized with this thought and used the dense electrical charges in the air to move unseen as little more than charges myself to the clouds overhead. I imagined I'd have a day at most before Grindelwald's disappearance was noticed. More if his meal delivery was automated to keep people away from him. I shot to the north of the castle until I spotted the almost impossible to find eagle marked boulder next to a large stump. Ironically this stash was less than four miles away from the castle and had escaped detection this entire time. -
The trick to opening it wasn't even something complex or difficult either. In fact Grindelwald had made especially sure there was no magical signature at all so it couldn't be found. As I simply pushed the boulder off the metal hatch and walked in it was obvious why. The stash room itself was covered in a layer of dust but wasn't large at all, maybe five meters wide and long with a low ceiling. What was in the stash however could be considered incredibly important. There was a single pedestal and nothing else in the stash with a small glass case sitting on it. -
There resting on a cushion within that case was a wand. It was a long thin stick of red wood with a knot in it's center that slightly bent it. Appraising it I was not surprised by what I learned.
{Item name: Wand of Grindelwald
Class: Treasure
Value: 5,000 system coins
Condition: Worn
Description: The wand of Gellert Grindelwald. Hidden away by it's master in hopes that he might not go wandless should he lose the elder wand. This wand is made of acacia with a dragon heartstring and measures an unusually long length of thirteen inches with a particularly thin body.}
From what I know of acacia wands they don't accept any wizards but those with great talent and skill. Add on a dragon heartstring that gives the wand a temperament for power and pride with no accounting of morality and this wand truly fit it's owner perfectly. I casually removed the glass panel and put the wand away in my inventory before leaving. I didn't bother covering the hatch again as this place was no longer important with it's treasure gone. I shot into the sky and following the list I had moved towards Paris again.-
The second stash was more the sort of treasure hoard you'd expect with priceless art, tomes and preserved resources filling it. I cleaned it out, bought a map of the world and began my long and tedious process of hopping all over the world in lightning form to clear out these stashes. The last I grabbed was the one in Hogsmeade hidden beneath the old crumbling stone bridge that a stream flowed under. The stash itself was only accessible with a series of taps on the bricks and once inside a drop of Grindelwald's blood on a stone.