Chapter 25: Refinement Failed
There was no response?
Benjamin looked at the bones sitting in the hexagram strangely, in a confused mood.
Skeletons belong to the lowest level of Necromancy, it is the simplest thing that could be refined. You don"t even need to have the basic knowledge of Necromancy, all you need are bones (the main ingredient), however the bones need to be able to contain magic unlike bones of muggles, some drawing ability and you would be able to refine bones into Skeletons.
As Skeletons are so easily refined, they have a fragile body, almost no lethality and are really slow.
Once there was an a.s.sistant that asked Benjamin why they should still refine Skeletons when they had no lethality.
Benjamin did not even bother to look at the a.s.sistant and said "There is a tactic called the human wave tactic, one Skeleton is useless but a sea of Skeletons is useful."
However, if the sea of Skeletons met Wizards that have mastered elemental magic, they would end up as cannon fodder.
"That"s weird, how could there be no reaction? Could it be that the bones of magical creatures couldn"t be used in refining?"
Benjamin started walking around the room, all the ingredients in the cauldron were fully cooked and it started to bubble, releasing a nauseating odour into the air.
"Decomposed flesh, mud that has been build up since birth, it really is a cauldron of soup that can kill people. Benjamin mercilessly commented on his dark cuisine. "But i won"t feed it to anyone."
Benjamin returned his vampire bat into its original form and threw it into the cauldron.
Nana struggled around in the cauldron as it had to consume the entire cauldron full of disgusting things.
"Troll, it has a thick skin, low IQ, monstrous strength, its flesh has a rotting smell, a creature that looks like it crawled out of h.e.l.l, it somewhat resembles the legendary Ghoul."
There were no changes in Benjamin"s expression as he recalled what he read in a book, this was a bold attempt, trying to incorporate the good points of the Troll into his vampire bat.
It looks good for now, as Nana seem to have grown slightly bigger and it seems that the dark cuisine is edible.
"Alright, darling, you can go to sleep now, maybe when you wake up tomorrow you would have become a big vampire bat. It"s a pity i don"t know how far off are you from turning into a true vampire.
Benjamin couldn"t help but sigh when he looked out of the window, at the beautiful night sky.
"Maybe the bones are too big?" Benjamin turned his gaze to the bones after solving the issue with the leftovers.
He had two thigh bones anyways so it won"t be a loss if he tried it out with one of them.
So Benjamin waved his wand and began to cut the bones.
"Minerva, it"s rather late now, you should head back to have a rest." Professor Dumbledore looked a little tired, even the usually high spirited headmaster was feeling tired.
"This Troll, i hope it is an accident, Albus, i have a bad feeling that person may make a comeback, it has been so many years, he…." Professor Mcgonagall stood there stiffly, a few more wrinkles appeared on her face.
"You too don"t wish to say his name? I’ve been trying to advocate that everyone should just boldly say his name. Voldemort. I don"t know if he has recover or not. I only know that nights at Hogwarts isn"t quiet at all. Seeing the all childrens being so lively makes me very happy.
Professor Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and made the gesture of sending Professor Mcgonagall off.
Professor Mcgonagall left, mulling over what Professor Dumbledore said.
The Troll"s thigh bone has now been separated into 3 parts, scattered all over the ground.
Benjamin failed again.
Benjamin sprawled across his bed, it"s the first time he felt so depressed ever since he came into this world.
It"s only Skeletons! He even failed at such an easy task which requires little to no experience.
Perhaps he was not qualified to be a Necromancer.
Benjamin kicked the bones aside, glanced at the blood in his test tube and went to sleep.
The next morning, when Benjamin was still drinking his milk.
Frank came over.
"You don"t look well? Did you carry out your experiments and forgot to sleep last night?" Frank said softly.
"No, it"s just that i didn"t get any decent sleep." Benjamin absolutely would not say anything about his experiment failing.
"Well, i thought you helped Snape out last night and he gave you some of the precious material."
He did gave me some, but they were useless. Benjamin laughed at his failure.
During the next few days, Benjamin stayed and played wizard chess against Draco instead of heading back to his room to rest.
"Benjamin, you don"t know how to play chess?" Draco said in surprise, any child that came from a family of Wizards and Witches would have been exposed to it.
"I don"t really understand it, do you still want to teach me." Benjamin said unhappily.
"You don"t look too good these days and your temper hasn"t been good, did something happen at home?" Draco asked worriedly.
Benjamin felt that he was in an illusion, how could aristocrats care about people other than themselves.
"No, i have just hit a bottleneck in my interest." as Draco didn"t knew what was Benjamin interest, he could discuss it with him.
"Bottleneck? Alright, even though it sounds stupid, i mean, awesome. Why don"t you change your method than, for example, try out another method you have never tried before.
Benjamin"s eyes lit up, that"s true, why was he still stubbornly adhering to the original method of refinement. Maybe it was due to the world being different, causing the need to change the refining method.
"Draco, i didn"t realise that you were a little clever."
Draco was rather unhappy with what Benjamin had said as it didn"t sound like a compliment at all.
Before he could reply, Benjamin had disappear from the Slytherin lounge.
"He"s so cool!"
"Another way! Yes, i should have thought of that a long time ago, stupid spell rituals. I should forget all of them and start to say it out, like in those novels."
Benjamin was holding a book t.i.tled "Mysterious African Wizard", the author is a muggle but Benjamin thought the story that he wrote was very interesting.
"No, i can"t start a bonfire in the bedroom and dance around it wearing a skirt made of straws. I should try this then, "The Cultivation Of A Priest?" it came from the mysterious East, that place seems nice.
Benjamin had the privilege of meeting an expert from the East in the past and it had benefited him.
"I should hurry up!" Benjamin started to make a talisman and sticked it on the bone. However, his Chinese isn"t up to standard.
There were still no reactions from the bones.
He kicked the cauldron in a fit of rage.
Ever since the day Nana grew bigger from eating, Benjamin would boil things with Troll"s flesh to feed her.
He used up the last piece of flesh tonight, he also added some petals from a piranha flower, roots from a sun gra.s.s and some lizard toes.
Although it doesn’t taste good, it was still rather precious. Especially the roots from a sun gra.s.s, which he bought from a Ravenclaw at a rather high price.
"Oh no! Nana hasn"t eaten it yet!" Benjamin exclaimed, the b.u.t.ton that was Nana in disguise moved around, as if touched by Benjamin"s concern.
A few of the bones rolled around in the thick liquid and let out a sizzling sound.