The Evil God Summoned by the Saintess

"Boss, how much for the Heart of the Water Magic Puppet?"

"50 gold... Hey, aren’t you the one?"

Carl looked up, startled upon seeing Hilia, then immediately delighted.

"Hey, Miss Hilia, I’ve finally met you again. Are you interested in modifying the link devices for my Heart of the Magic Puppet?"

Making a quick buck was never a concern for Hilia, but instead of agreeing immediately, she asked, "Is the Heart of the Natural Water Magic Puppet really 50 gold?"

How much did I pay for mine back then? Was it 10 gold coins or 20?

Hilia couldn’t quite recall.

Carl chuckled, "Yes, but if you want it, I’ll give you a discount..."

"No need for a discount."

Hilia shook her head.

Carl’s eyes lit up, delighted, "That’s good, I..."

Before he could finish his sentence, Hilia took out a Heart of the Magic Puppet and extended her hand.

"50 gold coins, thank you."

Carl’s smile froze.

Hilia said, "This Heart of the Magic Puppet is completely different from what you’re selling, boss. Look at its color; it has high compatibility with other elements, like the Ice Element and Natural Element. If you don’t believe me, I can test its abilities for you, so you can buy with confidence."

Carl: "...Miss Hilia, have you misunderstood something? I sell Hearts of the Magic Puppet."

"But when selling, wouldn’t you want to buy?"

"Of course I buy, but 50 gold..."

"I have other Hearts of the Magic Puppet here as well."

Hilia brought out the Hearts of the Magic Puppets that were still usable after clearing the heretical bases post-competition.

"If you buy them all, I’ll upgrade some link devices for free."

Carl hesitated.

"It’s fine if you don’t buy."

Hilia withdrew the Hearts of the Magic Puppets.

All these Hearts she had were of decent quality; even if they were second-hand... who really cared how many times the Heart of the Magic Puppet changed hands?

"Wait a minute!"

Carl hurriedly called to stop Hilia.

The Hearts of the Magic Puppet Hilia presented were all natural ones; even if not of the best quality, they could still sell for a high price. The best Hearts though were of the Water Element, but that’s still useful.

After all, Water Mages, like Fire Mages, are two major types of mages, and there are no factions larger than these two.

Carl hesitated, "How about upgrading all my Hearts of the Magic Puppet?"

"I don’t have that much time; I can only make some for free, even if paid, I have no free slots."

Hilia extended two fingers, "These Magic Puppets, 200 gold coins for you, with free upgrades to 20 link devices."

"200 is too much."

"It’s not expensive. With your outrageous pricing, you’ll quickly earn it back."

Hilia looked at the Hearts of the Magic Puppet on the display.

"You seem to have sold all the Hearts of the Magic Puppet I enchanted for you earlier."

Carl beamed, "Yes, all sold. These are new ones now."

Selling over a hundred Hearts of the Magic Puppet in a year made him significantly profit.

He experienced the benefits of upgrading link devices, but unfortunately, apart from Hilia, nobody else was willing to upgrade them for him. And even if upgraded, the transmission efficiency wouldn’t exceed 90%; 70% was the limit.

And the asking price was hefty.

Originally, he didn’t mind this because buyers would figure out ways themselves, but now, having tasted the sweetness of bundled sales, he had no choice but to comply.

Moreover, the natural Hearts of the Magic Puppet Hilia provided could attract customers, and even if sold at a high price and unsold, it would still lure people to buy cheap, man-made Hearts of the Magic Puppets.

"Then how about 210 gold coins. If you don’t buy, I’ll take them back."

Carl’s smile vanished once more.

"How come the price increases further during negotiation?"

"Want me to leave?"

"I want, take them all!"

"..."

A few hours later.

Hilia left with a big smile.

gold coins in hand, plus what she already had, earned 2400 gold coins from this trial. Although she spent quite a bit in between, what was spent came from her earlier earnings, and she still possessed nearly two thousand five hundred gold coins.

It’s worth mentioning that the scrolls she got for free after competing against Curse Masters were all sold to Melina.

"So much gold, it’s hard to imagine spending it all!"

Hilia’s pupils turned into the shape of gold coins.

Rose nodded thoughtfully, "Having a lot of gold is helpful too. When you go back, get a space ring, at least one cubic meter."

"That big a space would cost 500 gold coins, not enough, perhaps it requires 1000 gold..."

"Don’t you have it?" Rose glanced at the gold coins in her hand.

Hilia’s expression fell.

Rose said crossly, "With a space ring, you can carry more things. Do you want to learn from Encore and hollow out the magic puppet’s chest to stuff things in there? How much can a chest hold?"

"I could make a giant magic puppet..." Hilia muttered under her breath.

Before Rose could reprimand, she quickly raised her hand, "I know it’s impossible, just saying, don’t hit meﾚ(ﾟ∀ﾟ;)ﾍ=3=3=3"

Many have thought about creating a giant magic puppet.

But unless you’re a sixth-level mage or higher, the [Puppet Storage Skill] can only house a puppet under two meters. Even if you take Encore’s clever approach, the places where you can store things are limited, and damaging the puppet overall risks breaking it within the storage space.

This magic has existed since before the Era of Calamity, and today, with swift progress in puppet technology, many forces have researched it.

Unfortunately, the lower-ranking Puppet Storage Skill still can’t be expanded effectively.

Lacking hard power, even if space-gifted mages possess it, it’s challenging to expand puppet storage space, and they begrudgingly store just one puppet.

If not, a puppet army formed by a single person could likely be seen now.

Of course, the prerequisite is using the same attribute natural Hearts of the Magic Puppet or all using man-made Hearts, otherwise the Hearts would conflict, causing issues for the mage.

Even with the same attribute, nobody dares to use them recklessly.

Only one scenario allows for using multiple puppets: removing the imprint from the previous one before adding a new imprint on the subsequent one.

Man-made Hearts of the Magic Puppet aren’t limited by this condition, but presently, they’re effective only up to third level, above which they no longer satisfy daily use for mages from level four and above.

And upon reaching sixth level, capable of expanding puppet storage space, even the natural Hearts of the Magic Puppet barely augment a mage much, let alone man-made ones.

Creating lots of man-made ones would simply result in a bunch of cannon fodder.

Rose said, "After buying a space ring, you won’t have to parade around with a golden apple when you get one."

"Also, you need to purchase other advanced materials to blend with the golden apple, extracting those patching for making potions and auxiliary cultivation items that you can use now."

"But I don’t understand potions..."

"I do."

"...How much gold would it take?"

"About two thousand."

"..."

What about the two thousand gold coins I just mentioned...