Chapter 226: The Birth of the Gargoyle

Just as Eddie was flipping through Lesser Familiar Covenant Studies, inside Laboratory 13 of the Magic School Castle, fourth-year student Polina was sketching something on a sheet of magic paper made from monster skin. Beside her lay a lump of special soil.

The soil was whitish-gray, and next to it was a small card label that read: “Caruso White-Gray Magic Mud. Excellent material for Mud-to-Stone conversion. Using the Pure Hardstone Conversion Spell, it can be converted into extremely sturdy and aesthetically pleasing Magified Pure Hardstone.”

Ever since seeing the Lesser Earth Elemental created by Betty a year ago, the research on activating elements had lingered in her mind. After experiencing multiple failures, Polina could now skillfully create elemental life forms with a certain degree of intelligence and learning ability.

“According to Elementary Enlightenment Research, the Enlightenment Spell is a series of spells. The currently discovered two tiers of Enlightenment Spells can cover the casting requirements. This means that when I become an Advanced Wizard Apprentice, I can cast a Soul Spell-level Enlightenment Spell on the elemental life again, so the ceiling of its intelligence can be raised.”

Polina spoke while continuing to sketch and then erase rune structures on the magic paper.

“The same goes for Activation Spells. Soul Spells can override Lesser Spells. As for the improvement of the elemental life’s material, it can also be solved by creating higher-level magical materials and spells. In other words, theoretically, elemental life forms possess infinite possibilities for upgrading!”

Polina’s eyes shone. She had finally designed the rune structure and was ready to start making her own familiar.

The vast majority of Wizard Apprentices treated elemental life forms as cheap magical labor. They didn’t even need a Master-Servant Covenant; vague control via telepathy was sufficient.

But Polina had special expectations for elemental life. She yearned to create a completely different magical life form.

The Night of the Waning Moon had made her thoroughly realize that no one could avoid combat. Polina, who did not wish to fight directly, wanted to create a magical life form that could fight for her.

She still remembered what Ace had said in a class:

“Perhaps we can create a variant of elemental life, which I call a Gargoyle.

Using stone as a base, carving out wings, possessing a hard and reliable body, growable intelligence, fast reactions, and capable of combat on land, sea, and air—it can adapt to combat in various environments.

If anyone is interested, you can research it on your own after class. I look forward to your results.”

She kept Ace’s words firmly in mind. Today, she was going to create the Gargoyle Ace spoke of and use it as her Contract Familiar!

Accompanied by the pulse of Mana, eight Mana Hands appeared, rapidly reconstructing the White-Gray Magic Mud according to Polina’s vision. Slowly, a mud statue began to emerge.

The entire mud statue was over four meters tall. Behind it were two mud wings with carved earthen feathers; each wing was about two meters long.

The mud statue was generally humanoid and upright, with two legs and four arms, all featuring sharp-looking claws.

Two of the arms were retracted against its abdomen. Their material was Elastic Mud, which could be converted into Magified Elastic Stone, allowing them to extend and retract at any time.

The head of the mud statue was a hideous image with fangs and sharp teeth, and a single horn grew from its head, which could serve as an offensive weapon if necessary.

Polina looked at this mud statue with satisfaction. Using the Lesser Pure Hardstone Conversion Spell invented by Caruso, she converted the entire mud statue into a stone statue. The pair of arms at the abdomen were converted into Magified Elastic Stone due to their different material.

She did not rush to activate the statue. Instead, she scrutinized it for a long time. After confirming there were no issues with the statue, she inscribed Mana-Crystal Shield Rune Arrays, Shaping Mana-Crystal Weapon Rune Arrays, and Localized Reinforcement Rune Arrays on its body.

The Shaping Mana-Crystal Weapon Rune Array was different from the standard Mana Crystal Shaping spell. Its core consisted of the Shaping Rune and the Mana-Crystal Rune, pre-setting four different weapons on its four claws.

Polina also added Localized Reinforcement Rune Arrays and Lightness Rune Arrays to the wings on its back. All the above were Lesser Rune Arrays.

After the rune inscription was completed, Polina began to slowly construct the Lesser Elemental Activation Spell Model in the air. With Activation, Shaping, Earth Element, Proliferation, Nutrient Siphon, and Automatic Siphon as the core runes, a complex Lesser Spell Model gradually emerged.

Following the experience summarized by Ace’s research, Polina injected her own Inherent Mana and a portion of her mental power into it. A magical life form created this way would have stronger telepathy and natural loyalty to her.

With a vague telepathic connection, Polina knew she had succeeded. She tried controlling the stone statue, ordering it to cut off its own arm without activating the Mana-Crystal Shield.

A Mana Crystal Greataxe quickly appeared in the stone statue’s hand. It hacked fiercely at its other arm. After more than a dozen consecutive blows, a notch was finally cut.

“Very sturdy. Stop. Absorb the fallen stones and heal the wound.”

Following Polina’s command, the stone statue reached out and picked up the fallen stone fragments. Accompanied by Nutrient Siphon, the fragments flowed into the wound like liquid, and it recovered very quickly.

Polina tested other functions one by one. After confirming everything was good, she cast the Lesser Enlightenment Spell. As Mana surged in, the rune structure entered the stone statue’s life core, igniting its fire of wisdom.

The stone statue’s telepathy began to become vivid, possessing the flawlessness and curiosity of a newborn infant.

Polina did not delay. She immediately began to carefully construct the Lesser Familiar Covenant Spell Model according to the description in Lesser Familiar Covenant Studies.

According to Lord Ace’s description, the key to contracting a familiar lay in the Familiar Imprint. Without the imprint, it would only be an ordinary Master-Servant Covenant.

The key to the Familiar Imprint was the intertwining of the mental powers of both parties in the covenant, forming a Double Helix Structure, and nesting this structure into the Spell Model for casting.

Polina carefully maintained the Spell Model, guiding the stone statue to release its somewhat immature mental power to form a double helix structure with her own mental power, and carefully embedded it into the Spell Model.

With the activation of the Spell Model, a Lesser Familiar Imprint with a double helix structure appeared on the stone statue’s life core. Thus, Polina officially possessed a Contract Familiar.

“You are my Contract Familiar. Are you happy, Gargoyle?”

Polina said with a beaming smile to the ignorant Gargoyle.

Through telepathy, the Gargoyle sensed Polina’s joy and nodded happily along with her, making creaking sounds.

Magic Castle, West Tower, 3rd Floor Laboratory Level.

On a complex Magic Array, Ace was perceiving with full concentration. The cowlick on his head swayed constantly with his perception. On the Magic Array lay the corpses of several low-level Monsters that had just died.

Because it was the first experiment, Ace did not use overly strong Monster sacrifices.

“Sacrifice, Non-directional Communication, Covenant, Summon!”

Accompanied by his words, Mana poured into the composite Magic Array in sequence, shimmering with faint light. The Monsters on the Sacrifice Magic Array quickly turned into mist and vanished without a trace.

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