A few minutes passed after the runes started to change.
Andy looked intently at all the glowing runes and changes in the room, engraving and storing them in different categories in the deepest core of his memory.
After the 'True Soul' transformation, his grasp and mastery of memory magic increased, and spells like occlumency and legilimency became instinctive, making it easy for him to organise and play with his own memories.
Thinking of the memory palace technique in Sherlock Holmes and other novels, Andy created his own library in his mind to sort through his memories.
But for now, he only managed to sort through and organise his recent memories and Alchemy knowledge.
Andy and Grindelwald looked at the runes with Eliza waiting for them, but suddenly—
"Roar!"
A shaky but powerful roar snapped them back to their thoughts.
Instantly, a glow of shield charm enveloped Andy, and his wand slid down to his hand from the wand holster on his wrist.
All three turned over their shoulder on the left side and saw a big silhouette on the corner trying to stand up amidst bushes, wobbly under the soft glow from runes in the darkness.
"Lumos."
With a wave of Andy's wand, bright yellow orbs appeared all over, instantly extinguishing the darkness in the room, which only had light from stars and the moon in the ceiling and the runes in the walls and well.
Under the light, the roaring figure in the darkness was revealed.
It had the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion, and a human face. An XXXXX Magical Beast, Manticore.
Andy looked at it in confusion.
What it is doing here.
"It was recently brought here to study the failures of initial Animagus transformation and magic transfiguration." Eliza explained in a calm tone, "I was planning to wake it up and show you guys after the rune transformation ends."
"It seems its body got adapted to the sleeping potion a bit; the bodies of magical creatures are truly fascinating."
"I asked them to study the reasons for known failures of recorded magic transfiguration." Grindelwald shook his head lightly and said with a light smile, "But I didn't expect they would bring a beast for that."
"Many magical creatures in the wizarding worlds were the result of failures and accidents in the study of magic," Eliza said, looking at Manticore with wand raised. "Werewolves and Maledictus who were affected by the curse. Manticore, Sphinx, Vampires, Veela, Hags, Merpeople – the list will go on and on."
"So, we decided to start with them—"
Her words stopped midway as the Manticore seemed to have shaken off its dizziness and looked at them sharply.
Only after hearing their words, Andy realised he had overlooked this.
Animagus was originally a study and experiment to let wizards transform into magical creatures.
Later it failed due to a lack of magic in the wizard's body, so other experiments and studies to let the wizard's body contain magic, such as magic transfiguration, were initiated.
This led to the rise of the Pureblood wizard families with different innate abilities like Seer, Metamorphmagi, snake and animal tongue, Legilimens, and so on.
For Andy, once he raises his [Constitution] stat to seven, his body will contain magic, and his hair and other parts can even be used to make wands, magical items, and potions.
This means he can use Animagus to fuse his magic, body, and mind and have his own unique magical creature transformation.
Gaining the powerful body and the ability of a magical creature.
The Manticore lunged at them with its scorpion hook raised, ready to lash at them like a whip.
"Levicorpus," Andy muttered, causing Manticore to hang in midair upside down, as if invisible people were hoisting it up by its ankles and tail.
Approaching it a little closer, Andy cast a stunning spell wandlessly to test its magic resistance, as Manticore is said to have even higher magic resistance than Dragon.
After the red light from his fingertip hit the Manticore, it only made it a little drowsy, which it shook off easily.
Looking at the scene, Andy's smile widened.
The spell he cast just now was at the level of a sixth- to seventh-year student; from its reaction, five to six such spells need to be cast to stun it.
If he can transform into a magical creature...
"Magical resistance... finally. Stupefy." Excited, Andy stunned it and then used transfiguration to test its physical defence, which was also high; the sharp weapons he transfigured couldn't even leave a slight mark on its thick hide.
Looking at his crazy antics, Grindelwald and Eliza looked at each other bewildered.
Then, realising something, Grindelwald approached Andy and asked with a smile. "Have you got the inspiration for the fusion of body and mind? Does that mean there's no need to continue the resurrection ritual?"
"It's just an idea. This time, I decided to fully understand every step before proceeding with it. So, there's no need to stop the ritual; I want to have a closer look at it to gain an understanding of how it works." Andy turned to Grindelwald and answered.
When Voldemort did the resurrection ritual, he only got to watch it from afar. So, he didn't get to see many details.
Andy knows Grindelwald has his own motives to help him, but thinking of all the advice and help he has given so far. After hesitating for a brief while, he decided to remind him one last time. "Mr Grindelwald, I want to remind you once more so you won't get your hopes high."
"For now, all I care about is studying magic, so I won't waste my time in politics and other things."
"You have helped me a lot in my studies, so I don't mind sharing the results of a few of my studies, and that's all I can help you with for now."
"Don't worry and just focus on your study and successfully finish your transformation. You can ask for all the help and advice you need for that. In return, if you can, you just need to show off your result in public, like with the 'True Soul' this time." Grindelwald said in a calm tone. Inwardly, feeling a little happy in his heart.
"I will just spread the word widely and let everyone know about your achievement. Just like how British Pureblood and the Ministry did this time. Your age and achievements alone are enough to inspire many, and with the right words, it will ignite hope and let talented, righteous, and ambitious wizards unite and work toward the common goal."
Embarrassed, Andy nodded, scratching the back of his head, and then he put the Manticore down and decided to record every rune first.
Eliza, who was listening from the side. Although she didn't understand some of the terms, hearing the word ritual, she decided to speak.
"We have done specific studies in rituals. Which I can't disclose unless you decide to sign an Unspeakable contract with us."
"But the next room we are visiting, the Emotion Room, is where we study ritual and mind. From there, you can at least gain some basic and foundational understanding of it."
Then, after handling the Manticore, Eliza explained more about this room before they left for the Emotion Room.
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