Chapter 97
Marshall’s experiment might have succeeded, but it was equally possible that it had failed spectacularly.
He hadn’t deliberately designed his first artificial magical life-form to look like a penguin.
Originally, Marshall had wanted to create something resembling a real Celestial Spirit, complete with a human body.
Unfortunately, he quickly discovered that his current abilities weren’t sufficient for anything that ambitious.
The Script Magic used to construct an artificial soul required him to complete the entire "character profile" in one uninterrupted flow.
Soul Magic couldn’t be allowed to lapse halfway through.
Script Magic couldn’t stop either.
At the same time, Marshall also had to maintain Information Magic and upload the completed data into Super Archive.
Calling it difficult would have been a severe understatement.
Even after dismissing his Thought Projection and focusing every bit of his attention on the spell, the amount of information Marshall could upload in one attempt remained extremely limited.
With no other choice, he kept simplifying his "character settings."
First, he reduced the body’s proportions.
When that still wasn’t enough, he realized that properly describing four separate limbs consumed far too much "memory," so he simply enclosed the entire creature inside a penguin costume.
Abilities were abandoned almost immediately.
There wasn’t even enough room to install a proper language system.
Marshall continued cutting information here and simplifying details there, until his once elaborate design had been reduced to little more than a few basic lines.
By the end, he had stopped thinking altogether.
As long as he managed to create something alive, he would count the experiment as a success.
The result was the tiny creature now standing before him.
"Gugu-gaga!"
’Greetings, Great Creator!’
"I know, I know."
Virgo looked down at the tiny penguin.
"Little Master... You can understand what she’s saying?"
"She can’t speak, but that doesn’t mean she can’t think."
Marshall shrugged.
"I still have serious doubts about her intelligence, but listening to her thoughts is easy enough."
"Gugu-gaga!"
’Creator! You’re the stupid one!’
"I know, I know."
Virgo sighed.
The creature called Guga stood barely two heads tall.
Her backhand had no power, her forehand lacked precision, her footing was unstable, and her reactions were slow.
Not a single one of her movements looked remotely competent.
Her body was weak, no language system had been installed, and magical abilities were entirely out of the question.
Aside from being rather cute, Virgo genuinely couldn’t imagine what purpose she served.
"Little Master, why does she have Lisanna’s face?"
"Because I originally intended to make Lisanna Number Two."
Marshall answered as though it were obvious.
"My terminal only had detailed records of her facial features. Whose face was I supposed to use instead?"
"Besides, Lisanna isn’t here to object."
"..."
Even if Lisanna did object, she had no way to make herself heard from another world!
Virgo had no intention of defending her.
She bent down, lifted Guga into her arms, and gently squeezed her.
The tiny creature was surprisingly soft and pleasant to hold, almost like a stuffed toy.
"Gugu-gaga!"
"Little Master, if she possesses neither magic nor physical strength, what exactly is her purpose?"
"I don’t know."
Marshall scratched his cheek.
"She can be a pet for now."
"Unlike Celestial Spirits, she only needs a small amount of magic power to maintain her existence."
"Oh, right! She does have one advantage."
"She can’t die, and she doesn’t feel pain!"
Marshall took Guga back from Virgo and began squeezing, stretching, and flattening her.
He even pressed her completely flat until she looked two-dimensional.
The moment he infused her with magic power, however, she immediately returned to her original shape.
"GUGU-GAGA!"
’This is abuse!’
"I know, I know~"
Marshall smugly pinched Guga’s cheeks.
It felt strangely satisfying, almost as though he were bullying Lisanna herself.
"See? She’s extremely durable."
He suddenly paused.
"Wait... If I ever encounter something dangerous, couldn’t I send her ahead to investigate?"
"Or use her as a shield?"
"If her defining feature is that she can’t die, those are the only practical applications I can think of."
"Does anyone else have a better suggestion?"
Virgo stared at him.
"Little Master... Are you a demon?"
"Hm? My reasoning is perfectly sound!"
Marshall held Guga up proudly.
"Guga’s true body is merely a collection of information recorded inside Super Archive."
"That means she can freely move between reality and the Archive."
"If she encounters danger, she can escape back inside, then return and report what she discovered."
"She’s practically the ultimate scout!"
Marshall was delighted to have finally discovered Guga’s proper purpose.
As expected, there was no such thing as useless magic!
Wait.
Because Guga couldn’t speak, only someone who understood Telepathy Magic could communicate with her.
Didn’t that make her an exceptionally secure intelligence agent?
Marshall couldn’t immediately improve his ability to create magical life, but producing more creatures identical to Guga would be relatively simple.
Perhaps he could create an entire army of Gugas and scatter them across the world to gather information for him.
Although...
He didn’t currently have any particular need for a worldwide intelligence network.
While Marshall was considering the possibilities, a visitor arrived.
"Marshall, I came to see you~"
Mira entered with light, cheerful steps.
Since Marshall’s main body had recently stopped visiting the guild, she had gone an entire day without seeing him and missed him terribly.
The moment she entered the room, however, she noticed the tiny penguin in Marshall’s arms.
"That’s... Lisanna?!"
"What happened to Lisanna?"
"Mira, this isn’t Lisanna."
Marshall quickly corrected her.
"She’s only a little pet that happens to look like Lisanna."
"Her name is Guga!"
"Gugu-gaga!"
Marshall placed Guga in Mira’s arms.
Mira stared blankly at the tiny creature, turning her from side to side before suddenly hugging her tightly.
"She’s so cute~~!"
Marshall’s eyes darted thoughtfully.
"Ahem. You like her?"
"In that case, I’ll give her to you."
"I was worried you might miss Lisanna, so I made a little pet that resembles her."
"It was supposed to be a surprise."
"Thank you, Marshall!"
Mira’s eyes sparkled.
"I love her!"
"This little thing is even cuter than Lisanna!"
"Why don’t you become my new little sister from now on, Guga?"
Poor Lisanna.
By the time she returned, there might no longer be a place for her in this family!
"GUGU-GAGA!"
’Creator! Don’t abandon me!’
[From now on, stay beside Mira.]
[Do whatever I tell you and make sure to keep her happy. Understood?]
[This is your first mission.]
"Gugu-gaga..."
Guga reluctantly accepted the assignment.
When Marshall created her, he hadn’t installed anything resembling the contracts used by Celestial Spirits.
The deepest command written into Guga’s core was simply absolute obedience to Marshall.
Marshall only cared about what happened while he was alive.
If he died someday, Guga would become free and could do whatever she pleased.
He intended to place her beside Mira as a secret observer.
Not because he planned to do anything malicious.
It was merely a precaution.
Ideally, he would eventually arrange for one of them to accompany every girl close to him.
Whether any of them would actually agree to carry around a tiny penguin was another question.
"Mira, take this card."
Marshall handed her a Summoning Card.
"You can think of it as something similar to a Celestial Spirit Key."
"Activate the card whenever you want to summon Guga."
"She doesn’t fear pain or death, so you don’t need to worry if anything happens to her."
The process Marshall used to create Guga had been modeled almost entirely after Celestial Spirit Magic, though he had removed many of its more complicated components.
In essence, she was a heavily simplified, low-spec Celestial Spirit.
According to Marshall’s theory, Celestial Spirits required Attribute Conversion Magic so that their entire system could operate naturally.
Celestial energy existed throughout their world, allowing them to absorb it and survive without external assistance.
Guga, however, had already reached the limit of how much information Marshall could place inside her.
There had been no room left to include an Attribute Conversion formula.
As a result, he had designed her to return to Super Archive and enter dormancy whenever she ran out of magic power.
She was incapable of sustaining herself.
Marshall had already reached the limit of what he could currently achieve.
Further improvements would have to wait until his understanding of the spell deepened.
Mira happily accepted Guga.
At that moment, whether Lisanna ever returned almost seemed unimportant.
Wasn’t this tiny creature far sweeter than that black-hearted little sister?
"Oh, right, Marshall."
Mira suddenly remembered why she had come.
"Master asked me to find out whether you intend to participate in this year’s S-Class Mage Promotion Trial."
"He needs to finalize the list of candidates."
"This year’s opportunity should go to Cana."
Marshall shook his head.
"I won’t interfere."
"But Mystogan is participating."
Mira tilted her head.
"His magic was strong enough to affect even Erza."
"Cana probably won’t be able to defeat him, will she?"
"Huh?"
Marshall frowned.
"Why is Mystogan taking the S-Class trial?"
"He doesn’t even accept ordinary jobs anymore. I’m already paying his salary."
"Apparently, Master insisted."
"You know how obedient Mystogan is when it comes to the Master."
"That..."
Makarov was really a vain old man.
He had always wanted to increase Fairy Tail’s number of S-Class Mages.
Marshall scratched his head.
Cana was already sixteen, and her magic power had long since exceeded ten thousand units.
Her Sacrifice Summoning style was also powerful enough to qualify her as an S-Class Mage without question.
Unfortunately, her luck this year didn’t seem particularly good.
Although Marshall also wanted to test Mystogan’s strength personally...
"Fine."
"I’ll participate in the trial too."
"Let’s see whether I can give Cana a hand."
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