Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 356 I heard your power went out?

After finishing his dinner, Regulus left the auditorium restaurant and casually took away a piece of pan-fried beef—thickly sliced, still bloody, and tender.

Pushing open the dormitory door, a pungent smell of burning protein hit my face first.

Avery and Alex huddled together at the desk, their heads pressed together, blocking the surface.

Hermes stood with his arms crossed, leaning against the bedpost. His usually gloomy face showed no impatience. He leaned forward slightly, letting the light fall over their shoulders onto the table.

"Regulus, come quick!" Avery turned around, his eyes shining, slamming his finger on the table. "Come quick, come quick!"

Regulus walked over, and Alex stepped aside.

Baruch, about the size of a palm, lay sprawled on the desk. His dark red bristles gleamed reddish-brown in the green light of the fireplace, his eight legs tucked to his sides, and his chelicerae slightly outstretched.

A small patch of spider web lay in front of it, with a charred edge around it, and white smoke was rising from it.

That burnt smell from burning hair and nails comes from here.

"Try again," Avery nudged Hermes with his elbow. "Just once."

Hermes exhaled through his nose, his arms still crossed, wand in his right hand, and with a slight flick of his wrist, he pointed in Baruch's direction.

A small fireball, slightly larger than a pea and orange-red, condensed at the tip of the staff and slowly floated toward the table.

Regulus glanced at it again; he was quite steady on his feet, something he couldn't do last semester.

Then he looked away and focused his gaze on Baruch.

Baruch clicked and clacked, then stuck out his rear end, shooting out a strand of spider silk that spread into a fine net in mid-air, catching the small fireball head-on.

The spiderweb wrapped around the fireball, and with a hissing sound, white smoke billowed out from the gaps in the web, and the smell of burning protein became even stronger.

The spider web was charred black, and its edges curled up under the heat of the fireball, but it did not break.

"See that!" Avery slapped Alex on the back, causing Alex to stumble forward and nearly hit the table. He turned around and glared at Avery.

Regulus ignored them both, his magical perception and vision simultaneously covering them, and Baruch's magical system spread out within his perception.

The three independent circuits—the venom gland branch, the arachnoid gland branch, and the visual branch—are operating stably, just like last semester.

However, the fire affinity branch grafted from the fire lizard has changed its position.

When it was first implanted, this new branch was like an outsider, stuck in the gap between the poison gland and the spider silk gland. The flow of magic was clearly separate from the host system, and it was only thanks to the buffer of natural magic that it did not fight.

That's not the case anymore.

The flame affinity branch still started in place, but its end had grown fine, whisker-like extensions that circled twice along the spider silk gland branch, like vines wrapping around a tree trunk.

The magical circuits of the arachnoid gland branches are also responding.

At the points where the whiskers touched, the same patterns emerged from the spinal glands, originating from the same source as the gradient from dark brown to dark red at the Baruch joint.

The two sets of magic are permeating each other.

The spider silk gland branch originally only had two magical attributes: spraying and solidification. Now, it has been entangled by the fire affinity branch, and the solidification process has an additional layer of magical attachment, with fire affinity embedded in it.

The spider silk that Baruch spewed out was being rewritten little by little, from its internal structure to its external properties.

It's still afraid of fire. The spider web wrapped around the fireball held out for a few seconds, but the edges were already blackened and curled up. Before, it would instantly turn to dust when it came into contact with an open flame, but now it can at least hold out for a while.

This is an ongoing process; it's not a one-time event after grafting.

After a new module enters the host system, the host system actively adapts to it.

The fire affinity branch is growing into the spider silk glands. Once it's fully grown, the poison gland branch will also be entangled, followed by the visual branch, and then the entire magic core.

When that day comes, Baruch will be imbued with fire affinity from head to toe, inside and out, just like a fire lizard is born with it.

Regulus nodded. "That's good."

Baruch launched himself forward, his eight legs pushing off the table to leap onto his shoulder with a short click.

Avery watched with longing eyes, Hermes watched with dry eyes, and Alex simply watched.

Avery took a step forward and muttered, "I want to have one too."

"Regulus looked up at him."

"I told my father," Avery said, quickening his pace and gesturing, "I said I wanted to keep a giant eight-eyed spider, and that yours were so smart and powerful—"

Alex, standing nearby, couldn't help but laugh out loud. He'd already heard him say it once, but it still sounded hilarious.

Avery turned to glare at him, then turned back, his shoulders slumped: "He pointed to the study door and told me to get lost."

Hermes's lips twitched. He thought this person was completely irrational. Why did he ask his family for money?

If Regulus can get one, he can get a second. We'll never be able to stop looking for him.

He kept looking at Baruch; he wanted one of those little gadgets too.

Baruch was lying on the table, his claws tearing through the tendons of the steak as he ate it with gusto.

The feeding method of the giant eight-eyed spider is completely different from that of ordinary spiders.

Ordinary spiders digest externally, injecting digestive fluids into their prey to dissolve the internal organs into a liquid before sucking it in—essentially, they drink it.

The giant eight-eyed spider is thousands of times larger, and its chelicerae function more like the jawbone of a mammal, directly tearing open chunks of flesh, crushing them with its mouthparts, and swallowing them.

Regulus watched Baruch eat, but his mind was elsewhere.

The eight-eyed giant spider is a level XXXXX magical creature that cannot be tamed; you should run away if you see it.

Baruch was very obedient in his hands, but that doesn't mean it wasn't dangerous.

It was able to stay in the dormitory because the Transfiguration spell suppressed its size, and the few people in the small group could accept it. It even recognized itself as the leader.

Once the dormitory door is closed, no one outside knows that a level 5X magical creature lives here.

But what if you leave the dorm room?

A giant, eight-eyed spider, over two meters long, crawling in the corridors of Hogwarts would cause panic.

It happened once before, in 1943.

Tom Riddle opens the secret chamber, where the Basilisk kills Myrtle Warren in the bathroom, her eyes open and without any external injuries.

Riddle pinned the blame on Hagrid's pet Aragog, Hagrid was expelled, his wand was broken, and Aragog fled into the Forbidden Forest.

The headmaster at the time was Armando Dippet, an old-school wizard who believed that evidence, testimony, and the murder weapon were all that mattered in closing the case.

At the time, Dumbledore was the professor of Transfiguration and had never believed Hagrid was guilty, but he did not have the authority to overturn the headmaster's decision.

The Ministry of Magic wouldn't bother to investigate; the Basilisk's death by eye contact and the Octopod's death by venom are completely different from any other, and a simple examination would reveal the problem.

But a large spider could be used as the murder weapon, so as long as the case was closed, no one would pursue it afterward.

If another eight-eyed spider were to appear at Hogwarts, it would cause unnecessary trouble.

Regulus was certainly not worried about trouble of this magnitude, but there was no need to invite trouble.

Baruch sucked the last bit of meat off his chelicerae, then raised his foreleg and rubbed it against his bristles.

After brushing against Hermes, it snapped open its chelicerae, revealing the sharp tips of its fangs.

Hermes' lips twitched again. He drew his wand, and a small fireball, slightly larger than the previous one, emerged from its tip. It floated across the table and landed on Baruch.

With a soft sizzle, the grease and blood on the bristles evaporated in the flames, and Baruch took a comfortable bath.

Its bristles were fluffy, its amber eyes gleamed, its chelipeds opened and closed casually a couple of times, and then it waved at Hermes, probably as a gesture.

Regulus looked down at it: "Want to go back to the Forbidden Forest?"

Baruch's chelicerae suddenly stopped, and then it made a series of sharp clicking sounds.

It bounced up from the table with all eight legs, crawling from left to right and then from right to left on his shoulders, its front legs reaching up his collar, trying to climb onto his head.

Regulus reached out and pressed down on it, his fingers gently pressing against its carapace.

"It's not that I don't want you," he soothed softly. "Don't you want to go back and see?"

Baruch circled his shoulder twice more, the bristles rustling against the collar of his robe.

Then it slowly quieted down, its eight legs tucked together, and it perched on his shoulder, its chelicerae opening and closing gently with a low click.

"...Baruch...not strong enough...Aragok's father...the giant spider..."

Regulus's lips twitched upwards.

The spider's ambition was obvious. It wasn't that it didn't want to go back, but rather that it felt it couldn't defeat Aragog even if it went back now, so it simply chose not to return.

This is a plan to wait until they become powerful enough to go back and usurp the throne.

"Don't you miss your people?" Regulus asked again.

The giant eight-eyed spider is a typical social creature. The branch in the Forbidden Forest descended from Aragog and Mossage, with dozens of them living together, building nests together, hunting collectively, and having a clear social structure.

Baruch followed him for over a month and never showed any longing for his tribe.

Baruch's eight eyes darted around, and his chelicerae gestured in the air before he snapped at Avery, "...Little spider."

Avery grinned, finding the assessment quite apt.

He clicked his tongue again at Alex: "...Little Spider."

Alex was amused, but then felt something was off; how did he end up being categorized as a spider?

Hermeskada: "...Little spider."

Hermes shrugged, his face expressionless.

Baruch ran from Regulus's left shoulder to his right, raising his front legs and spreading them wide, making a gesture twice as wide as usual: "...Baruch...the giant spider!"

Then it ran close to Regulus's ear and gently tapped his shoulder twice with its pincers: "...Regulus...leader...the clan."

Alex was the first to react, nudging Avery: "It's talking about a race, and we are its race."

Avery blinked, then his smile widened.

Hermes maintained the same expression, but the corners of his mouth curved upwards slightly, almost imperceptibly.

Baruch, probably feeling he had arranged things quite well, lay down on Regulus's shoulder, tucked his front legs under his chest, rested his head on his front legs, and swayed contentedly.

Regulus's lips curled into a smile as he scooped it off his shoulder, walked to the bedside, placed it on the pillow, and said, "Then we won't go back."

Then he turned around and left the dormitory.

There weren't many people at the library at this time.

On the second day of school, most students were still emerging from the relaxation of the holiday. Only a few senior students were scattered in the study area, buried in piles of parchment.

Regulus walked around the bookshelf, stopped at the alchemy section, ran his fingertips along the spines of the books, and pulled out a copy of "Basic Alchemy Theory: From Hermes to Paracelsus".

The gold lettering on the spine has peeled off somewhat, indicating that it hasn't been opened in a long time.

He stared at Hermes on the cover for a moment, Trismegistus, the legendary founder of alchemy, the Triple Great Hermes.

It turns out he shares the same name as the gloomy boy from the Muirseber family.

He twitched his lips, tucked the book under his arm, and walked toward his usual spot by the window.

The British magical community is practically a wasteland when it comes to alchemy.

Nicolas Flamel was French, and the center of alchemy was in continental Europe. There was little tradition of it in England, and it was only an elective course for senior students at Hogwarts.

Knowledge about the interconversion of magic and mass is unlikely to appear on the public shelves of a library, and may not even be found in the restricted book section.

He simply flipped through a basic book to see how well the principles of alchemy were described in publicly available literature.

Turn past the last row of bookshelves, and you'll find someone already sitting in the corner seat by the window.

Lily sat in their usual spot, a book open in front of her, one hand supporting her chin, her fingers tucked into her red hair, the ends sticking out from between her fingers.

Her gaze remained fixed on the book, and she didn't turn a single page for a long time.

It was already dark outside the window, and her shadow was reflected in the glass. The overhead light shone on her, outlining a warm yellow silhouette.

Regulus walked over and put the book on the table.

Lily looked up and saw him; the moment she did, the corners of her mouth automatically turned up and her eyes curved, but she forced them back down.

She lifted her chin from her palm, pursed her lips slightly, furrowed her brow, and tried to put on an expression that she was still angry.

Seeing her like this, Regulus suddenly remembered that he had forgotten to write the letter again.

Last time I apologized and got away with it, but this time I apologize again, which seems a bit unreasonable.

He pulled out a chair and sat down, then lightly flicked his finger under the table, casting a soundproof spell to envelop the small space.

He remained outwardly calm, but a plan instantly formed in his mind.

He decided to take the initiative.

His gaze was gentle, tinged with concern: "Lily, I heard your power went out?"