"System, I need a loan related to inanimate-to-animate transformation and animate-to-inanimate transformation in the Transfiguration field."
Leo had already mastered inanimate-to-inanimate transformation. The next level of difficulty involved these two advanced Transfiguration directions.
The challenge of inanimate-to-animate transformation lay in requiring sufficient understanding of living creatures—wizards had no way to transform objects into creatures they didn't thoroughly comprehend. Meanwhile, transforming animate objects into inanimate ones required wizards to suppress the creature's will entirely.
In this regard, the difficulty increased progressively from animals to Muggles to wizards. Especially wizards—they could consciously mobilise magic to resist transformation, and even if the spell succeeded, they would quickly break free.
[Custom loan meeting host's requirements has been created.]
[Loan: Chimaera Manual (Monthly Loan)]
[Repayment Period: 30 days]
[Loan Content: A notebook left by a mad ancient wizard, primarily researching inanimate-to-animate, animate-to-inanimate, and animate-to-animate Transfiguration, containing transformation methods for the biological chimaera 'Chimaera'.]
[Loan Task: Transform a 'Chimaera' containing at least five biological characteristics]
Seeing this loan description, Leo's attention focused on the words "biological chimaera". When first learning Transfiguration, objects basically retained their original characteristics, whether inanimate or animate. But this retention was relatively random—wizards struggled to control which specific characteristics the transformed object maintained.
For example, transforming a pig into a goat—the first attempt might preserve the pig's snout; the next time might retain the pig's ears instead. Of course wizards had attempted using Transfiguration to obtain powerful hybrid creatures, the simplest being transforming wings onto a tiger to grant flight capability.
Transfiguration experts could indeed perform this type of transformation, retaining specific parts with relative stability, but it was never worth the immense effort. Because an object could only withstand limited transformation stacking—the more varied the modifications, the more easily the object collapsed, and the duration drastically shortened.
Even if someone painstakingly transformed a winged tiger, it might only fly for one or two minutes before plummeting to the ground with a fatal splat.
"System, using the methods recorded in this manual to transform biological chimaeras, how long can they persist? How many characteristics can be included simultaneously?"
[Minimum duration 5 minutes, minimum 3 characteristics included]
[This is the minimum standard; the upper limit depends on the wizard's Transfiguration mastery and talent.]
So this ancient wizard was also a genuine genius in Transfiguration! Using his revolutionary methods, both duration and transformation capacity exceeded ordinary Transfiguration by significant margins.
And the upper limit was directly linked to Transfiguration mastery and innate talent. Leo's own Transfiguration talent was SSS-rank—the absolute peak of capability.
So transforming a Chimaera containing five distinct biological characteristics should definitely be achievable for him. He just needed sufficient understanding of several creatures, which was easily solved through his ongoing research.
In Leo's assessment, the critical factor was that this Transfiguration manual not only contained the knowledge he specifically wanted but also included the animate-to-animate section—undoubtedly making it worth borrowing.
"System, I want to borrow the Chimaera Manual loan."
[Ding! Loan application successful, item delivered to system space, can be collected anytime.]
[Evaluation: Genius and madman are often separated by only a line—success means genius, failure means...]
Leo retrieved the Chimaera Manual from his spatial storage. What materialised in his hands appeared to be a deceptively thin booklet.
The cover was sewn together from various animal skins—some sections covered in soft fur, others armoured with scales, still others sprouting defensive spikes in disturbing patterns.
This didn't look like something created by a mentally stable person. Just opening the manual, the first page displayed remarkably neat and elegant handwriting:
"Wizards cannot transform into unknown creatures? But I can piece together known creatures. As long as there are enough pieces, it will grow new pieces..."
Leo studied these orderly, earnest words with growing unease. A calm madman, then? Someone who believed their theories and methods were absolutely correct and implemented them with unwavering conviction.
This type of person was truly terrifying, especially when they were a wizard capable of wielding magic. Who knew what horrific experiments that wizard had conducted in pursuit of his research...?
Leo shook his head. Whether the mad wizard or his controversial deeds, they had all fallen into ancient dusty history—only the remaining knowledge was tangibly real and useful.
Turning past the first page, Leo discovered the paper was extraordinarily thin—calling it 'cicada wing' wouldn't be an exaggeration. It appeared to be a small booklet, but there were actually countless pages compressed within.
Leo quickly flipped through the volume, estimating no fewer than several thousand meticulously bound pages. There was an enormous amount to study here. This was wonderful!
Leo turned back to the second page, continuing to read with growing fascination.
"Inanimate-to-animate transformation isn't inherently difficult—just understand biological characteristics more thoroughly, dissect..."
Besides the text description, below were extraordinarily detailed biological dissection diagrams. The level of anatomical refinement even made Leo feel he was reading an extremely modern biology or medical textbook rather than an ancient magical manual.
"You must stay for dinner tonight! I've researched several new dishes..." Hagrid's booming voice already echoed from outside the hut.
Hearing this ominous announcement, Leo quickly put away the Chimaera Manual.
The door was pulled open, and Hagrid squeezed his massive frame into the house, followed closely by the trio of young Gryffindors.
"Leo, you should eat dinner together too. Harry and the others..." Hagrid was halfway through his enthusiastic invitation when he spotted Fang in the room playing energetically with a white dog.
"Oh ho, Fang, where did you bring this friend from..." Hagrid began, then his eyes widened dramatically. "Wait, what is this thing?!"
Hagrid stared in amazement at that white "dog". Its entire body was covered in articulated white metal plating, with meshing gears visible and clicking in the gaps between armour sections. Two multifaceted crystals served as eyes, emitting steady pale blue light.
The tail vertebrae were divided into dozens of flexible segments, extremely articulated when swaying, with magical power remnants overflowing from the end tip, rhythmically brightening and dimming like mechanical breathing.
"I saw Fang was too lonely alone, so I made a little companion to play with him," Leo said casually while picking up his wand and heading toward the cooking area.
He'd just heard Hagrid's dinner invitation, so he needed to demonstrate his culinary skills again. No matter what questionable "delicious" new dishes the half-giant was preparing, growing young wizards needed to eat something actually edible and nutritious.
Hagrid and the trio looked in stunned amazement at the mechanical dog playing energetically with Fang—those agile movements and that remarkably lifelike posture and mannerisms. If covered with a layer of realistic fur, wouldn't it be virtually indistinguishable from a real dog?
"Oh, thank you, Leo! You're such a wonderfully kind young man, actually caring about Fang's companionship like this!" Hagrid's voice cracked with emotion as he pulled out a rough handkerchief and loudly blew his nose.
"You must be such a gentle young wizard. These little creatures definitely love you."
Hagrid's heartfelt praise made Leo feel distinctly embarrassed. If not counting bringing Fang to the Forbidden Forest depths where he'd been absolutely terrified, if not counting completely draining Aragog of venom, if not counting his pet thoroughly beating up Fluffy...
Then Leo could perhaps accept Hagrid's generous praise without guilt.
This made his conscience distinctly uneasy. Fang's situation had already been compensated with the mechanical companion—how about next time when venturing to the Forbidden Forest to record magical creatures, he'd visit Aragog with a gift? For Fluffy he could bring some premium food, or perhaps craft him an alchemical playmate too?