Chapter 440 - 438: Tank Mage Hilia
Crack!
Dense Life-attribute Magic Power was locked into the Magic Puppet, and the entire construct slowly became animated.
"The Life attribute originates from the Nature attribute and represents inexhaustible vitality. As a support attribute, it’s stronger than most others. The most straightforward example is..."
Leaving her own mark on the Magic Puppet and feeling the dense Life force transmitted through that mark, Hilia condensed an ice blade and drew it across her own hand.
Before the blood could even flow, the wound closed rapidly, not giving the blood any chance to spill.
"A healing capability ten times stronger than Healing Skill."
And this was merely the passive effect from the Heart of the Magic Puppet, not even a proper Life Magic yet.
"But there’s a drawback too: Life Magic can’t be applied to Magic Puppets. Puppets aren’t considered living beings."
Hilia more or less understood now why that Life Mage with an insanely strong recovery ability had his Magic Puppet one-shotted.
He probably only treated the Magic Puppet as support and a meat shield.
"So why did he have the Magic Puppet block back then? Wouldn’t it have been better to use it as a pendant?" Hilia muttered in puzzlement.
Rose chuckled lightly. "Whether he used his body to block or the Magic Puppet to block, it didn’t matter. With the city-wide Array’s energy converging, no matter how strong your recovery, you can’t stop an instant kill. Besides, that Mage wasn’t Life-attribute himself; only his Heart of the Magic Puppet was."
"Makes sense. Once a bad guy gets targeted by Lord Rose, how could he possibly get a chance to escape?" Hilia nodded and turned to the memory crystals sent along with the puppet, borrowed from the Divine Magic Academy’s library.
These were all the Life Magic memory crystals the entire Holy Court could dig up.
Life Magic could actually be cast through Nature- and Water-attribute Hearts of the Magic Puppet as well. Even if the effect was greatly reduced, it still provided recovery on par with Healing Skill, which helped save the face of Water Mages.
So the Holy Court had also stored the Life Magic they still preserved into memory crystals and placed them in the Divine Magic Academy for students to study.
Of course, only a Life-attribute Magic Puppet could display their full potential.
"There are a total of ten Life spells, but only four are usable right now. We’ll make do."
The four spells were: [Near-Death Revival], [Life Bloom], [Guardian Angel], and [Death Resistance].
The first was a rapid-healing spell, restoring you to peak condition in a short time, even replenishing Magic Power. However, after the treatment, the injuries would slowly reopen—basically a last flare of life: "I’ve still got one more life!"
The second was a group heal, which also covered dispelling confusion, corruption, and similar effects;
The third transferred damage, allowing you to redirect the damage a target suffered onto yourself;
The fourth was the impressive one—it could resist instant-death damage. It was somewhat like a passive, but had to be activated. According to the memory crystal, it seemed to consume a large amount of Magic Power immediately upon use to perform a "shell shedding," leaving behind an empty shell—or rather, a scarecrow—on the spot to take the instant-death hit, while the caster withdrew some distance away.
How far you could withdraw depended on the compatibility between the Magic Puppet and the spell.
As for the Mage, that also depended on the Magic Puppet, since this was the puppet’s spell, not the Mage’s.
"These are all fourth-tier spells. Not sure if I can pull off any third-tier ones."
Muttering to herself, Hilia had the Magic Puppet use the four memory crystals one by one.
"Life and Ice only connect through the Water attribute, and there’s still some rejection there."
Hilia tested controlling the Magic Puppet and found it less smooth than her previous constructs. There was a bit of delay, a sense of blockage.
Rose said, "Wait for a Heart of the Ice Magic Puppet. We’ll switch it then."
"Ice... As far as I remember, most Ice Mages either use artificial Hearts of the Magic Puppet or Water-attribute ones. There don’t seem to be any natural Hearts of the Ice Magic Puppet," Hilia remarked.
Because the Ice God’s Divine Format hadn’t been shattered into powder like those of the lower Gods, Rose thought to himself.
Hilia didn’t dwell on that topic. She examined the Magic Puppet and showed a satisfied smile.
"With guidance from a Lord God, I don’t have to rely entirely on Magic Puppets for combat like other Mages. As my tier rises, the puppet won’t be as crucial as in the beginning; I can simply use it as a supplementary combat tool."
Ice Mages were very well-rounded; they had offense, defense, and control. The only weakness was recovery.
Hilia had learned some Divine recovery Magic, but whether Purification Skill or Healing Skill, neither was suitable for use in battle, and their effects were weak. As for higher-tier Divine spells, she didn’t have that much time to learn them.
The Holy Court’s core skill, [Holy Word Skill], had some support capability, but it wasn’t compatible with Ice.
The arrival of the Heart of the Life Magic Puppet completely made up for that flaw.
But what really tempted Hilia wasn’t these just-for-show Life spells; it was something Rose had said—
"When you reach fourth tier, I’ll give you the [Life Drain] and [Life Conversion] spells. Install them onto the Magic Puppet."
[Life Drain] could siphon a target’s life force; [Life Conversion] could convert life force into Magic Power. Used together, they meant siphoning the enemy’s life force and turning it into your own Magic Power.
Was this really sacred Life Magic? Wasn’t this more like Death Magic?
Her internal snark didn’t affect Hilia’s longing for those two spells.
"Bloom!"
In the camp, Hilia controlled the Magic Puppet to raise its hand and cross-tier cast [Life Bloom]. A faint radiance appeared, and the grievously wounded Mercenary in front of her slowly regained some color.
Hilia felt her Magic Power rapidly draining.
A moment later, she stopped casting and exhaled.
She waved the fully recovered Mercenary away and showed a pleased expression.
The test was a success; it was usable, though the Magic Power consumption was huge and the effect was maybe only one-tenth of the original.
Hilia didn’t mind. As long as it worked, that was enough.
"In that case, the infiltration operation in a few days is still doable."
Time passed slowly.
The school trials were reactivated, and with students plus Mercenaries, they gradually cleared all the outer strongholds.
The pseudo–fourth-tier cultists the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association had treated as secret weapons no longer posed a threat under the combination of Wind Domain and special Purification Skill.
At the Deep Sea main base, the Law Enforcement Knight Order maintained twenty-four-hour surveillance. All around the Golden Apple Stone Forest, instructors above fourth tier or commander-level Law Enforcement Knights patrolled constantly, cutting off any chance of accidents.
Freed from Scroll crafting, Hilia once again joined the stronghold-sweeping operations, leisurely spinning her already maxed-out trial score.
Time quickly came to the day the Law Enforcement Knight Order was set to depart.
That day, a large number of Law Enforcement Knights gathered in the camp at the summons of Melina and Blake.
After a round of rousing speeches, the Knight Order split up, each squad led by its own captain and carrying a large number of Wind Domain Scrolls as they set off.
Hilia was also secretly called in and entrusted with an important task.
"Then, we’ll be counting on you again this time, Hilia." Melina patted Hilia’s shoulder in encouragement.
Hilia rolled her eyes like a dead fish and said nothing.