Regulus of Hogwarts: Lord of the Stars

Chapter 406 Regulus: This time it will be quick

"Take your mate and get out," Regulus glanced at the nest, his tone mild but leaving little room for negotiation. "I'll use the nest for a while."

Aragog's compound eyes and the topmost primary eye widened in surprise.

That doesn't make sense!

This is its nest, its throne. It has been weaving its own web for decades, and it remembers the position of every single thread. Every spider in the depression is its offspring.

Now the wizard is standing in its territory, speaking in that tone, telling it to take its mate out.

It pushed its forebody upwards, lifting its thick forelegs off the ground, and its large pincers opened, revealing the dark red inner walls and menacing barbs.

A surge of anger rose from its massive body, its compound eyes gleaming with offended ferocity, and a hissed growl escaped its throat: "That's my nest!"

It took half a step forward, its eight legs making a dull thud on the spiderweb, causing a stir among the spiders in the depression, which surged toward it in a dark mass.

Regulus didn't react or say anything, just looked up at it.

The gaze was the same as when I looked at it earlier—no pressure, no threat, just a stare.

Aragog's chelicerae slowly closed.

It recalled the image of Baruch standing in the fire with his legs outstretched, the orange flames that surrounded the wizard when he first came, and the death threat etched into its blood like an abyss.

Its compound eyes lingered on Regulus's face for a moment, then shifted to the side, landing on the dark red mass of Baruch behind him.

Those are its offspring, and the wizard will transform them here.

In its own nest.

Use it if you want.

The front half of the body gradually lowered, the legs that had been supporting it fell back to the ground, and the swarm of spiders that had surged up also stopped and retreated.

"Fine, I'll give way!"

It roared in a rough, deep voice, its momentum undiminished, and then, without the slightest hesitation, turned and crawled deeper into the nest.

After climbing a couple of steps, he looked back again, probably thinking that his shout had been quite imposing and not too disgraceful to the leader.

But seeing that Regulus was still watching it, it turned back and continued climbing.

Mosag was called out from the depths of its den. It was slightly smaller in size, with a more bloated belly, and several pairs of compound eyes were half-open and half-closed, showing a bewildered wariness.

Aragog touched its carapace with its chelicerae, producing a series of fine, sharp, rhythmic rubbing sounds, probably spider language.

Mossag didn't react much, just obediently followed and crawled out.

It doesn't understand what happened, nor does it need to.

Two giant spiders crawled out of their nest, one after the other.

Outside the nest, the spider swarm was in turmoil. On the spider webs covering the walls of the depression, dozens of adult eight-eyed giant spiders crouched low, their compound eyes all facing the entrance to the nest.

Seeing Aragog and Mosag retreat, they also retreated, backing to the outer edge of the depression.

They lay densely packed on the spiderweb, forming a circle, their numerous compound eyes shining in the mist, and dared not approach.

Regulus watched them retreat, then his magical senses spread out, sweeping across the entire nest, which was now empty.

Actually, this modification could have been done anywhere in the Forbidden Forest, but he chose this place because he wanted Baruch to stay there after the work was done.

The Bowtruckle is different from the Salamander.

The fire lizard's magic flows inward; the flames are drawn inward, and then it simply fills its core with their own magic.

The magic of the Bowtruckle is outward-facing; it senses plants and connects with vegetation.

In terms of magic itself, it is simple and its structure is not complicated. It is just that its nature is more complicated than that of the fire lizard and it has more functions.

That's determined by the nature of magic; this is how magic works. As for magic itself, it's nothing special.

Theoretically, there will be an extra step. After the connection is established, Baruch will need to use the new magic to establish connections with the outside world. But even after the connection is established, it's not the end; it's just the beginning.

He wasn't sure how long this step would take, since it was his first time working on an external module.

During this period, it is best for Baruch to maintain a large physique.

I can't bring it back to the castle. There's no room in my bedroom for a spider that's two meters long. I can't find a place to hide it either; it's too big, and its legs will stick out no matter where I put it.

Wandering in the Forbidden Forest is even worse; a lone spider would be doomed if it encountered a horde of centaurs, not to mention that the Forbidden Forest is home to more than just centaurs.

As for feeding, it will eat more as it grows bigger, and food alone is a problem in the castle. We can't let it hunt for itself.

What are you catching?

A little wizard?

The most secure option is to stay in a group. After finishing, they can stay in their nest and wander around when they have free time. Spiders in groups are safe and have a guaranteed food supply.

Even if Baruch didn't want to hunt himself, he didn't believe Aragog would dare to starve his spiders.

Of course, we still need to explain what needs to be explained.

Regulus withdrew his senses and was about to go inside when Baruch emerged from behind him.

With its eight legs moving incredibly fast, it rushed to the entrance of the lair, turned back to Regulus with a click, and then plunged inside.

Regulus followed behind, and Hermes followed in carrying the Bowtruckle.

The inside of the nest is larger than it appears from the outside.

Grayish-white spider silk weaves a labyrinthine passageway and dome, with thick silk pillars supporting the ground from the ground to the ceiling, branching into countless forks, and the silk walls are inlaid with countless layers of old webs.

In the center of the nest was a relatively open area, with a thick layer of compacted velvet on the ground, which was soft and resilient to the touch. The open space was large enough for more than a dozen adult giant spiders to lie on at the same time.

The velvet mat still bears the dents left by Aragog's years of lying down, and a few bristles around the dents have fallen off and are embedded in the velvet.

Baruch went straight for the velvet mat, paused in front of the indentation, glanced back at the entrance to the nest, and made sure Aragog hadn't followed him in.

Then it lay down in a very proper manner and embedded its body inside.

Its eight legs were tucked in, its chelicerae were placed neatly in front of it, its amber eyes rolled around, and a series of clicking sounds echoed back and forth in the empty nest.

It lay in the leader's position, its chelicerae opening and closing rapidly, its spider head turning from left to right and then from right to left, sweeping across the entire central open space.

Then it suddenly sprang up and frolicked in the open space, running in circles. After running, it sprang up a silken post, climbed into the air, and then flipped and jumped down.

It shot out a spider silk in mid-air and flung itself onto the silk pillar opposite, then swung back to the ground, the force of the landing making the velvet cushion thud.

It ran all over the central area, sniffing here and nuzzling there. This huge place, the place where it grew up, is now all its own.

It's the only big spider here!

Regulus let it make a fuss.

Hermes handed over the nest of hummus in his hand, seven or eight of them, all unconscious, curled up in a small ball, their brownish-green twigs folded in his palm, their arms and legs limp and hanging down.

Regulus took it, and Hermes stepped back a few paces, leaned against the nest wall, and stared at it.

I heard everything clearly outside just now: the renovation, the second time.

He had seen the results of the first attempt; Baruch was no longer afraid of fire. He didn't know what the result would be this time.

What abilities could a droopy tree branch, a withered tree branch, possibly provide for an eight-eyed giant spider?

These two things don't look good together at all.

Doubt, anticipation, curiosity—their eyes were glued to Regulus.

Regulus ignored the still-running Baruch and didn't carry Hermes along, so there was nothing he couldn't see.

The source of this method, "Transfiguration: Beyond Form," is legitimate knowledge found in libraries, not something shameful.

If Hermes could figure out something, he would even feel gratified, which would mean that this guy had other uses besides being stubborn and good at fighting.

Regulus began the process of extracting the magic seed.

He placed his palm on the Bowtruckles, and natural magic seeped out from his palm without any intrusion, simply enveloping the faint magic within them and guiding it outwards along their original path.

The Bowtruckle's magic responded instantly, just like the Salamander's—too weak to resist, but its texture was completely different.

The fire lizard's magic was hot, directed inwards, and contained within itself.

The humped tree is cool and faces outwards, as if fine tendrils are reaching out in all directions. When you touch it, its natural magic will draw you in spontaneously.

He conjured a pale blue-white light at his fingertips, quiet, without flickering or dancing, with fine wisps of light scattered around its edges, like a frozen wisp of mist.

He caught them all, neatly and completely, and extracted the magic from each one, melting them together in his palm.

Several clusters of blue light came together. At first, they were scattered, and the whisker-like light threads tentatively intertwined with each other. Soon they recognized each other and merged into one.

The resulting seeds were much more stable and abundant than the single seeds, about the size of a pea. Their pale bluish-white color was more intense than before, and the tendrils extending outward from the edges were more pronounced.

He held the seed in his palm, closed his eyes, and replicated its structure in his consciousness.

The Bowtruckle's magical structure is also simple. Unlike the Salamander's straight line, it has a short branch that forks outwards. The ends of the branch are open, not closed, and tend to face outwards.

The structure itself is not complicated; it can be replicated in half a minute.

But the difficult part is its outward inclination, which is the core of the Bowtrus Tree's magic; its ability to communicate with plants lies entirely in this.

It must be preserved when rewriting the runtime path; otherwise, it's all for nothing.

He rewrote the pathway of the Magic Seed from a plant-related one to one adapted to arthropods.

With the salamander, he changed the path from following the spine to following the inside of the exoskeleton. This time, he couldn't just copy it; he had to align it with Baruch's external organs.

Near the eight eyes, at the root of the visual branch system, it is most logical to connect perception-related things here.

He made changes little by little in his consciousness space, while retaining the outward inclination.

The rewriting was complete. The seed hung in Regulus's palm. The bluish-white light subsided slightly, and the outward-protruding tendrils of light aligned in one direction, waiting quietly.

He opened his eyes.

Baruch had crawled over at some point and was lying opposite him, his eight legs tucked to his sides, his spider head resting on his forelegs, his amber eyes staring at the crown of light in his hand.

It had seen this process before; the last time it was the same Ling Guang, only the crown was orange.

It knows what to do next.

Regulus beckoned, and Baruch immediately got up, striding over with his long legs, the velvet under his feet making a soft thud.

It nimbly lay down in front of him, sprawling out on the velvet, its eight legs obediently tucked in, remaining motionless.

Only their eyes were restless, following the light in his hand. The two main eyes at the top were excited in the left eye and happy in the right.

Regulus placed his palm on Baruch's armor, his magical senses probing inside.

He was familiar with Baruch's magical structure.

The fire lizard module has completely grown into its own magic, from its venom glands to its silk glands, from its eyes to its legs, inside and out it is indistinguishable from the other.

What he was looking for was an unoccupied gap.

Eight visual lines run in parallel, with structural gaps between them, just enough to fit a seed.

The landing point is set right here.

He raised his wand, pointed it at the empty space near the eight-eyed creature, and chanted the spell.

"Facultas Herbae Mutare Aranea Corpus."

Plant-based abilities allow it to change its spider-like body.

As the syllable fell, the tip of the staff reacted, and magic gathered in a specific direction—the direction was correct.

He reversed his wrist, pressed down with the tip of his staff, and infused it with magic.

The spell opened an entrance in Baruch's head and chest, and the pale blue seed of the crown sank in, passing through the carapace and entering the magic channel below.

Baruch's body trembled slightly, his eight legs tightened, and his bristles stood up a little. That was all the reaction he had.

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