For his inaugural undead creature advancement ritual, Morris had made a deliberate, calculated decision not to risk using either Tin-Tin or Sparkles as test subjects.
After all, this ritual remained largely unknown territory for him, dangerous and experimental. The theoretical success rate, based on what little information the Mage's Book provided, was certainly not one hundred percent.
Therefore, he had specifically brought the skeleton dog from his dormitory for this purpose.
This pile of bones possessed no real consciousness or personality to speak of anyway. Morris felt no deep emotional attachment to it at all, no bond like he shared with his first two undead creations. Even if the ritual failed terribly and the skeleton dog was reduced to nothing but scattered ash and dust, he wouldn't be too heartbroken about the loss.
Well... it would represent a financial loss of roughly thirty Galleons for the original skeleton materials, he reminded himself with a wince. That was still quite painful to contemplate, honestly.
Right now, all his worldly possessions and savings added together couldn't even accumulate to ten Galleons total.
After carefully double-checking that everything was properly prepared, Morris gently placed the skeleton dog he'd been carrying in a reinforced box into the center of the massive magic circle.
It would only move upon receiving its master's commands.
Morris clapped his hands together sharply twice.
The previously motionless skeleton dog responded instantly to the trigger. Its empty eye sockets, which had been dark hollow moments before, immediately ignited with flickering blue soul-fire.
"Stay still and don't move," Morris commanded firmly and took several careful steps, putting distance between himself and the magic circle. He wanted to ensure he was safely outside what he estimated to be the danger zone.
Then he paused, closed his eyes, and began the breathing exercises he'd learned from meditation.
Three seconds later, feeling, Morris opened his eyes with determination.
He began chanting the ritual incantation in a low voice.
At the same time, responding to his vocalization, the intricate symbols inscribed in the center of the magic circle began lighting up one by one in sequence.
Gradually, all the complex lines and geometric patterns were steeped in that same eerie, pulsing dark red color.
In this instant, the world itself seemed to hold its breath. It was as if the entire universe had fallen into expectant silence, leaving only Morris's rhythmic chanting echoing across the clearing.
The skeleton dog stood in the circle's center, its hollow skull was rotating anxiously back and forth as it surveyed its surroundings with growing unease. The blue flames in its eye sockets flickered and jumped erratically.
Some primal instinct told the undead creature that it should flee immediately, that terrible danger was approaching. But Morris's ironclad command overrode everything else, and it could only stand frozen in place like a statue, unable to move even a single bone despite its rising terror.
Finally, Morris finished chanting the complete incantation.
The entire magic circle began to glow with increasing intensity, transitioning from that dull red into something brighter, more vibrant entering what appeared to be an active standby state, ready and waiting for the next phase.
Morris wiped away the sweat that had gathered on his forehead during the intense concentration. He took a moment to catch his breath before opening the large backpack at his feet.
At this critical moment, the Gate Energy Crystals packed tightly inside the backpack seemed to sense and respond to the magic circle's pull. They began trembling and vibrating slightly against each other.
Morris selected a single Gate Energy Crystal from the collection, holding it up to examine it briefly in the fading daylight.
Taking a deep breath, he experimentally tossed it in a gentle underhand arc toward the magic circle, watching its trajectory with intense focus.
The moment the crystal crossed the circle's boundary—
In an instant, faster than Morris could blink, the magic circle flashed red. The Gate Energy Crystal immediately dissolved and transformed into a wispy, ethereal mist that swirled and whirled in complex patterns around the skeleton dog like morning fog.
"I see..." Morris murmured to himself, his mind was already working through the observations and forming hypotheses. "Interesting. Very interesting indeed."
He had now roughly understood the principle and mechanism of this particular magic circle through observation.
Simply put, in layman's terms, it functioned as a kind of magical converter and concentrator. It gathered energy sources together and ultimately transformed that raw power into a specialized "catalyst" substance that could trigger and facilitate advancement in undead creatures.
What he needed to do now, his role in this process, was to continuously inject sufficient energy into the system until the transformation reached critical step.
Having reached this working conclusion based on limited data, Morris reached decisively into his backpack with his right hand. He began scooping up generous handfuls of Gate Energy Crystals and tossing them toward the hungry magic circle.
Without exception, as soon as those energy crystals made contact with the pulsing red light of the magic circle's boundary, they silently and instantly dissolved into that same swirling mist.
It was like watching ice sublimate directly into steam, bypassing the liquid phase.
As the accumulated energy steadily increased with each handful thrown, the mist surrounding the skeleton dog became more substantial. Its consistency thickened from wispy vapor into something approaching fog.
More dramatically, its color gradually shifted and transformed from pure white into darker shades—pale gray, then medium gray, then finally settling into an ominous grayish-black that seemed to absorb light.
The mist began moving now and was no longer swirling randomly but circling the skeleton dog in tightening spirals.
After Morris had thrown in more than half of his entire backpack's supply of collected Gate Energy Crystal, the magic circle suddenly emitted a deep, resonant muffled sound.
It was like listening to something massive burst open deep underground.
"BOOM!"
Without any additional warning, a violent, explosive airflow suddenly expanded out in all directions with the skeleton dog at its epicenter. The force was tremendous, far beyond what Morris had anticipated or prepared for.
"!!!"
Morris hadn't expected such a powerful commotion from what he'd thought would be a more subtle process. The blast caught him completely off-guard.
His robes were instantly blown tight against his body. His hood was violently thrown back, whipping and flapping wildly behind him like a flag in a hurricane.
He instinctively raised his arm in front of his face for protection and squinted his eyes against the stinging wind, trying desperately to see what was happening despite the debris.
The grayish-black mist had become incredibly dense now, almost solid-looking. It kept rotating with increasing speed, churning and roiling like a miniature tornado, expanding in the magic circle until it was nearly cloudy. It made seeing anything inside nearly impossible.
'This is dangerous!' Morris's internal voice screamed at him, every survival instinct was firing alarm signals.
Alarm bells rang loudly in Morris's mind.
However, his curiosity about witnessing the actual ritual process and transformation ultimately overpowered those sensible warnings and survival instincts.
He absolutely had to see this with his own eyes!
Morris gritted his teeth with determination and began forcing himself forward. Bracing his entire body against the raging airflow that tried to knock him off his feet, he inched his way painstakingly toward the center of the magic circle, advancing one difficult step at a time.
Several pieces of loose gravel and small stones were swept up by the violent airflow. They pelted against his exposed skin, leaving several small stinging cuts on his face and hands.
But Morris was completely unaware of the minor injuries or simply didn't care about the pain. He didn't pause or hesitate or stop his advance.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity of struggle, he managed to push his way to the vicinity of the circle's center. Here, paradoxically, the airflow actually lessened.
Now he could finally see the skeleton dog clearly through the thinning mist, his vision was no longer completely obscured.
The dog was lying flat on the ground, completely motionless and apparently unconscious. The grayish-black mist surrounding it seemed to have found its intended target at last. It was frantically, desperately burrowing into the skeleton's structure.
Watching this mesmerizing, almost hypnotic scene unfold before his eyes, Morris felt his racing heart gradually calm down for some inexplicable reason.
He simply sat down cross-legged on the grass, ignoring the dampness, and quietly observed the skeleton dog's ongoing transformation with attention.
Time passed minute by minute.
When Morris finally came back to his full senses, shaking off the strange trance-like state, he realized the mist had been completely absorbed.
The magic circle drawn on the ground had also vanished, leaving only faint scorch marks where the lines had been.
The surroundings had completely returned to normal calm.
It was as if nothing extraordinary had happened here at all.
"Woof!"
A dog's bark suddenly sounded clearly in Morris's mind, breaking the silence.
It was the skeleton dog, awake and conscious again.
The undead creature stood up somewhat shakily on its four legs, still adjusting to whatever changes had occurred.
Its external appearance hadn't changed much at all, Morris noted with slight disappointment. It looked basically the same. Except that the blue flames burning in its empty eye sockets now blazed considerably more vigorously than before.
"How do you feel?" Morris asked tentatively. "Any different? Better? Worse?"
"Woof!" came the immediate response—a light, almost cheerful bark sounding clearly in his mind, carrying a hint of affection and excitement.
The emotional content was new. Previously the skeleton dog's mental communications had been flat, empty. Now there was actual feeling behind them.
Morris breathed a long, deep sigh of relief. The tension he'd been holding drained away all at once.
It seemed the result wasn't disastrously bad, at least. The skeleton dog was still functional, and at least more responsive.
"Did you gain any new abilities?" Morris asked.
The skeleton dog nodded its skull in a human-like manner.
"Show me," Morris commanded, sitting up straighter with anticipation.
It appeared the skeleton dog's intelligence had indeed improved significantly through the advancement process. At least now it could understand and properly respond to his more complex commands rather than just basic instructions like "sit" and "stay."
As soon as Morris finished speaking his request, the skeleton dog immediately turned its hollow skull toward a nearby tree.
The blue flames in its eye sockets flickered and intensified, growing brighter.
"Swoosh! Swoosh!"
Two sharp, wicked bone spikes each one easily as thick around as Morris's forearm appeared out of thin air and instantly shot forward swiftly crossing the distance to the tree in a fraction of a second. They embedded themselves deeply into the solid trunk.
Then, after a brief pause—
"BANG! BANG!"
The bone spikes exploded in rapid series.
Wood chips flew everywhere, leaving two horrifying holes in the trunk.
"Cool!" Morris whistled appreciatively, genuinely impressed by the destructive display. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction.
This was far beyond what he'd hoped for.
After several more rounds of careful testing, Morris had roughly figured out the full scope of his dog's new abilities.
Simply put, in basic terms, the skeleton dog could now spontaneously generate and shoot out explosive bone spikes at will.
More impressively, the size and dimensions of the spikes, the explosive power and force of the detonations, and even the effective range of the attacks could all be freely controlled and adjusted by the skeleton dog itself or through Morris's mental commands.
It was remarkably versatile.
Worth specifically mentioning and noting for future tactical applications was that the skeleton dog could make the bone spikes produce high-speed bone fragments and shrapnel when they exploded creating dangerous secondary damage effects in a wide radius around the impact point.
Morris's mind immediately made the comparison: Wasn't this identical in function to a fragmentation grenade? Area-of-effect damage, devastating against multiple targets, useful for crowd control...
"Wuhu—!"
Perhaps overly excited and energized after successfully completing its advancement, drunk on its new power, the skeleton dog suddenly let out a strange, enthusiastic howl directly into Morris's mind.
Morris was startled at the unexpected noise. "What was that?"
"Wuhu!" the skeleton dog called again, even more enthusiastically, its skull was tilted back like a wolf howling at the moon.
"That's not how dogs bark," Morris said with complete earnestness. "Dogs say 'woof' or 'bark' or 'arf.' Not 'wuhu.'"
"Wuhu?"
"Skeleton dogs don't bark like that either," Morris added, shaking his head.
"Wuhu! Wuhu! Wuhu!" the skeleton dog insisted, repeating the strange sound multiple times.
Morris's mouth twitched.
Fine. Whatever. Let it be.
In any case, regardless of the odd barking habits, the skeleton dog's advancement ritual had been remarkably smooth and successful overall.
Morris tentatively decided to refer to the skeleton dog's current state as a "second-tier undead creature" for classification purposes. Correspondingly, in this new system, Tin-Tin and Sparkles would be classified as "first-tier undead creatures."
However, with the skeleton dog's successful advancement serving as proof of concept, Morris now felt confident that Tin-Tin and Sparkles would eventually be able to advance smoothly as well when the time came.
But then reality came crashing back down, and a significant problem emerged to dampen his enthusiasm.
Morris turned slowly to look at the backpack lying on the ground nearby, now appearing sadly deflated and mostly empty. The Gate Energy Crystals inside were few and far between.
Even worse, his supply of Draught of Living Death was also nearly depleted.
Without the Draught, he couldn't enter the Gate Between Two Realms. Without entering that realm, he couldn't create more Gate Energy Crystals. Without Gate Energy Crystals, he couldn't perform more advancement rituals.
The entire system depended on that initial potion supply.
His next highest priority task was to somehow obtain more finished Draught of Living Death or acquire the raw materials necessary to brew fresh batches himself.
"Troublesome..." Morris muttered, rubbing his temples where a stress headache was beginning to form.
Going back to Hogwarts' guarded potion materials storeroom to "borrow" more ingredients without permission was definitely completely unrealistic at this point, especially after the close call with Snape. He'd used up all his luck there.
So, he could only find some alternative way to purchase supplies from outside.
But ultimately, it all came down to the same insurmountable obstacle: lack of money.
He was broke.