Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 339 Tantang Spider, Grafting Completed

Baruch was still lying by the door, his eight legs outstretched, his spider head pressed against the ground, his two main eyes staring intently at the light coming from inside the door.

Upon seeing Regulus emerge, it twitched its forelegs, slightly raised its body, opened and closed its chelipeds with a sound, and all eight of its eyes glanced upwards.

It lay there for a while, without making a fuss or scratching at the door, just waiting, thinking it was being very well-behaved.

It was already dark. Several magic lamps hung at the entrance of the cottage, casting a soft, warm light that illuminated the area in front of the door.

The sea breeze blew in from the west, causing the light bulb to sway slightly.

Regulus looked around.

It's not that it's impossible to have surgery outdoors because of the strong wind and low temperature, but it's still inappropriate to perform surgery on Baruch in the wind.

He turned around, drew his wand, and tapped it against the doorframe.

Transfiguration.

The stone of the door frame began to flow, expanding outwards on both sides and rising upwards from 1.2 meters to 3.5 meters, wide enough for Baruch to pass through completely.

Then the wand was pointed inside the cabin, and the Unseen Stretch Charm was cast.

The stone walls didn't expand outwards: from the outside, the small house still looked the same size; but the interior space was stretching.

The fireplace was moved back seven or eight meters, the four walls were moved outwards at the same time, and the ceiling was raised significantly.

This is not the delicate work of directly distorting spatial structures like spatial deformation. The Seamless Stretch Spell is a mature spatial application spell that does not require much effort.

In just a few seconds, the entire room expanded several times over.

The small room, which could only fit a bed and a table, now has enough space to fit a classroom.

The stone slab in front of the fireplace had its patterns stretched out. The positions of the table, chairs, and bed remained the same, but the surrounding area suddenly felt empty.

Regulus patted its large head and beckoned, "Come in."

Baruch stood up, his eight eyes fixed on the enlarged doorway.

It took a step forward, placed its front paws on the threshold, and tested it, realizing it wouldn't head over there.

It took another step, half its body went in, while its four legs were still outside.

It stopped, and its eight eyes scanned the room.

The fireplace is still the same fireplace, the table is still the same table, the bed is still the same bed, and even the pillow is still there.

Everything was familiar, but the place had grown bigger.

It stepped in with its remaining four legs, stood in the middle of the room, turned its head left and right, and looked around every corner with its eight eyes.

Looking back at the door frame, then at Regulus, its chelicerae gently opened and closed.

It started wandering around the room, looking at the fireplace, looking at the desk, looking up at the ceiling, then looking down, walking and stopping intermittently.

It walked to the table, peered into the salamander in the stone box, and then glanced at Regulus.

Regulus sat in front of the fireplace, not looking at it.

Baruch stuck out his rear end, and the silk-spinning organ on his abdomen aimed at the roof beam, spraying out a large stream of spider silk, which wove a small hanging web there.

Then it wagged its tail and casually walked back to Regulus's side, lay down, and neatly tucked its eight legs in, looking extremely obedient.

Regulus's lips twitched slightly, ignoring its little quirk, and he simply said, "Don't move."

Baruch was lying down when he heard those two words. He turned his head to look at him, then turned back to lie down, not even moving his eyes.

It closed its chelicerae, its bristles lying obediently on its carapace, and the spider was as quiet as a hairy black stone.

Regulus placed his palm on Baruch's back armor, his magical perception penetrating deeper.

This step has been done many times before, ever since our first meeting in the Forbidden Forest, but this time it's been more refined.

Baruch was also familiar with Regulus's magic, so he didn't resist at all and let him look at him.

Tantang Spider.

Baruch's magical structure is far more complex than that of the fire salamander.

The venom gland system has its own independent magical branches, as does the spider silk gland system, and the eight-eyed vision has eight parallel branches.

Each system is running stably, with no interference between branches, each operating independently.

There are structural gaps between the branches, and those gaps are the grafting points.

What he needs to do is simple: grow a new branch in the gap, and this branch will carry the fire lizard's fire affinity.

However, there is a technical problem that needs to be solved first.

Salamanders are reptiles; their magic travels along their spine and subcutaneous blood vessels.

Baruch is an arthropod, and magic travels along the inside of his exoskeleton and the joint spaces of his appendages.

The two operating methods are completely different, so the fire lizard's magic seed cannot be directly inserted into Baruch's body.

It doesn't match; it needs to be changed.

The internal pathway of the magic seed needs to be changed from running along the spine to running along the inside of the exoskeleton, and from passing through subcutaneous blood vessels to passing through the joint spaces.

This step is not in "Beyond Form." That book discusses how wizards modify themselves, which involves no special techniques; the spell is used directly.

However, transferring the abilities of one animal to another, and the resulting change in the operating mode, is unprecedented. It requires his understanding and control of the magic circuit to make on-site adjustments.

Regulus picked up the magic seed, held it between two fingers, and turned it around.

The pea-sized object has a clearly visible internal structure, forming a straight line with only one tendency from beginning to end.

He used his magical senses to touch every single node of it and rearrange them in his mind.

The original linear structure was transformed into a mesh-like structure adapted to the body shape of arthropods, spreading out along the inner wall of the exoskeleton.

Transition points are set at each joint, allowing magic to travel from the exoskeleton of one leg to the exoskeleton of the other, eventually covering the entire body.

He condensed the rewritten structure back into the magic seed.

The appearance hasn't changed much; it's still orange-red and the size of a pea, but the internal pathways have changed.

The Salamander Magic Eight-Eyed Giant Spider Compatible Version.

Next comes the incantation.

Beyond Form: Facultas (ability), Mutare (change), Corpus (body), the specific combination depending on the type of the target creature and the required ability.

He pieced together the information based on the classification attributes of the eight-eyed giant spider and its fire affinity ability.

Facultas Ignis Mutare Aranea Corpus.

Flame abilities alter the spider-like body.

The syllables were spelled out and read aloud. The tip of the staff reacted, and the magic, guided by the incantation, began to gather in a specific direction, and the direction was correct.

He placed the magic seed in the middle of Baruch's back armor, near the magic core, but not on top of it.

The branches of the venom glands and arachnid glands extend from the core, running along both sides. There is a small gap in the lower middle section, big enough to fit a seed the size of a pea.

The large gap is left open, because the spatial scaling of the bird-snake and the stealth prediction of the invisible beast are much more complex than the affinity of fire, requiring a larger grafting space.

Regulus raised his wand, pointed it at the seed on Baruch's back armor, and chanted a spell.

"FacultaslgnisMutareAraneaCorpus.

"7

Reverse wrist movement, press down with the tip of the staff, and infuse magic power.

The spell opened an entrance.

On the carapace of the Baruch, where the seeds were placed, a faint warm glow emanated, like a piece of red-hot iron slowly revealing its color.

The magic seed sank from the surface of the carapace inward, passing through the hard shell layer and entering the magic channel below.

The moment the seed came into contact with Baruch's magic, a rejection reaction occurred.

Baruch's body jerked violently, all eight of his legs pushing off the ground at the same time, leaving several white marks on the stone slab.

The bristles stood up abruptly, and the surface of the carapace shimmered with a reptilian sheen. Scale-like patterns spread out from the grafting site, flashed briefly at the joints, and then faded.

Dark red spots spread outwards from the abdomen, flashing and bouncing back and forth along the edges of the carapace seams, as if something inside was searching for an exit.

The fire salamander's magic is being besieged by Baruch's magic.

Baruch's mouth opened, revealing his fangs, and eight eyes slanted at him, their pupils trembling and their white light flickering.

But it held back.

It kicked its legs once and then stopped, its body stopped twitching, and its bristles slowly lowered.

Without turning his head back, the two eyes closest to Regulus among the eight eyes tilted slightly in his direction.

There was no sound, no opening or closing of its chelicerae, it just stared at him with its eyes.

Cross-species transplant rejection is bidirectional.

The external magic tries to take root inside, while the original magic tries to drive it out; the two forces collide with each other around the grafting point.

If the person being modified is a wizard, they can actively suppress their own magic to give the external magic time to adapt. This is the third step described in "Beyond Form".

Wizards can do this because they can control their magic, are clear-headed, and operate with precision.

But Baruch couldn't do it.

It is a magical creature; its magic is driven by instinct. It can be used, but not controlled.

It doesn't know what suppression is; it only knows that when something comes in, the magic rushes up to fight it.

It's like asking a cat to actively suppress its own magic—it's impossible.

This is the biggest risk of using the method described in the book on animals: without the help of the spellcaster to suppress it, the victim has to bear it alone, and if they can't, they will die.

The French witch of 1712 had modified herself to suppress her own magic, but the magic of the fire dragon scales was too strong, and her suppression only lasted for seven days before collapsing.

Animals can't even suppress it; they can only rely on their bodies to endure it.

But Regulus had another way: natural magic.

He placed his left hand on Baruch's back armor, releasing natural magic and channeling it into Baruch's body from his palm.

Natural magic is neutral, without any attribute bias, and does not favor any side.

It flowed into Baruch's body, enveloping the grafting point and forming a buffer between the eight-eyed giant spider's magic and the fire lizard's magic.

Neither side should rush into a fight; they should get used to each other first.

This is the extra trick he has compared to what's in the book.

The book "Beyond Forms" makes no mention of nature magic, probably because there are very few wizards in history who can master both transfiguration and nature magic.

These two areas, one in the forbidden section of Hogwarts and the other in the Black family heritage, have almost no point of intersection.

But for Regulus, these two things naturally came together at this moment.

Natural magic replaces the suppression process.

Regulus doesn't need to forcefully suppress Baruch's magic; he only needs to maintain the envelopment of natural magic, and Baruch's magic will gradually accept the new branch on its own.

After a long time, the rejection reaction gradually weakened.

Baruch's bristles begin to fall from the root, and the upright spikes soften little by little.

The newly emerging scale patterns on the carapace gradually smoothed out, the dark red spots faded, and the last trace paused at the joints before sinking into the exoskeleton and becoming completely still.

The Flame Affinity Module has taken root in Baruch's magic circuit. Baruch's magic is still the spider's magic, but now there is a new branch.

Regulus glanced at it, and the magic flowing through the new branch, carrying the fire affinity of the fire lizard, became its own magic.

Grafting complete.