Just became an evil god and was summoned by the saint

"Madam, you've bargained too hard. That's not how you do business. If you like it, I'll give it to you for 50 gold coins. It's not like I can't bear to part with it."

Seeing that Celia was interested in buying, the stall owner quickly began telling a story: "This natural puppet heart was obtained after we ventured into the lost ancient ruins, risking our lives. In the process, my friends were seriously injured and almost didn't make it back..."

"However, it is just an ordinary water-attribute magic puppet heart."

"I can't sell it for 10 gold coins."

"15 gold coins."

"At least let us afford the cost of finding a priest, right? 40 gold coins, that's the lowest we can go."

"20 gold coins, sell or not? If not, forget it."

Artificial water-type puppet hearts are selling for 10 gold coins and nobody's buying them, while natural water-type puppet hearts are priced at 20 gold coins, which is a bit overpriced. If the vendor doesn't sell...

Man-made things aren't necessarily unusable.

The stall owner seemed to hesitate for a long time before gritting his teeth and saying, "20 gold coins it is, I can only sell it to you at a loss. If you have any friends who want to buy the Heart of the Puppet, remember to recommend it to me."

"Will do."

After buying the Puppet Heart, Celia wandered around for a while and bought some more puppet-related materials before leaving the Sorcerer's Guild.

On the way back, we didn't encounter any highway robbery or similar incidents. The area was the headquarters of the Holy Magic Academy and the Holy Court. If we tried to rob someone nearby, we would most likely end up robbing students from the Holy Magic Academy, and we could easily be labeled as heretics and dragged to trial.

"Finally, I can make my own magic puppet!"

The girl excitedly plunged into the small cubicle that was supposed to be used as a kitchen, disassembled the parts that had been assembled earlier, and reassembled them under Ross's guidance.

This time, the addition of the Puppet Heart circuit made assembly more complicated. In addition, Celia bought some new materials to replace the inferior ones, making the progress extremely slow.

Fortunately, this puppet was only a rudimentary puppet, and under Ross's powerful mental guidance, it was eventually successfully created.

Once the divine fragment serving as the heart of the puppet was placed in the core position, and Celia infused it with magic to complete her mark, the puppet was successfully completed.

A glimmer of color appeared in the puppet's empty eyes, emanating a magical fluctuation, signifying its completion and its ability to use spells learned by its controller.

"Once I go to the library and learn a few more spells to input into it, it will have the strength to pass the annual assessment."

Celia smiled happily, wiped the sweat from her cheeks, and kept looking at the puppet, feeling happier the more she looked at it.

She tried giving the puppet commands to tidy up the messy kitchen cubicles.

The puppet quickly came to life, tidying up with deft movements, much like an advanced artificial intelligence robot.

Celia focused her attention on the mental space and asked Ross expectantly, "Mr. Ross, what do you think of this puppet?"

"It's alright, it works."

Ross was also sensing the puppet through his connection with Celia.

An idea slowly emerged in his mind.

“Celia, I have an idea.”

Chapter 20: The "Wait and See" Party Never Suffers a Loss

Celia was watching the puppet intently.

Just now, Ross told her a guess.

At this moment, that conjecture is underway.

She didn't wait long before she saw the puppet's neck move slightly, and then it looked around.

The puppet opened its mouth, but nothing came out.

A voice from Ross echoed in Celia's mind, "You forgot to add a sound-producing component to the puppet."

Celia blinked shyly, "I never expected you could get inside the puppet and control it."

Except for puppets with special functions, ordinary puppets do not have additional sound-producing components.

The puppet does not need to chant incantations to release magic; it only needs the puppet's heart to control the magic input from the controller to circulate within the body once to release the magic.

Even if they can make a sound, they can only utter a few simple syllables at most to increase their momentum.

Celia certainly wouldn't add any more vocal components, because before she did, she hadn't considered that Ross could enter the puppet and control it in her place.

Or rather, using the puppet as one's own body.

Ross manipulated the puppet to move it slightly, then frowned. "This body is so weak; it feels like it would fall apart if I moved it even a little."

Celia exclaimed in horror, "Lord Ross, please don't break it apart! We don't have the money to make another one!"

"You'll get it after participating in another flight competition."

"no, do not want."

Ross carefully sensed the strength of the puppet's body and found that the basic materials provided by the school could only barely produce first-tier spells. This was only because of the fragments of the water godhood. He originally thought that the fragments of the water godhood were common, but who knew that the other materials were even more common than common.

Only water-based spells are somewhat effective.

"Being able to use only first-tier spells is a bit of a stretch."

"It's alright, I've only just become a first-tier mage."

"If you're still a first-tier mage by the end of the semester, well, during the annual exams, then it's my fault."

"Second tier... it's not that easy to advance to the second tier." Celia thought of the proportion of second-tier mages in the school.

There are very few first-tier mages in the first year. Most people can only become first-tier mages after studying for about half a year.

The minimum requirement for a student's annual assessment is to become a first-tier mage.

For prospective saintesses, there is no requirement to become a second-tier mage, but they must possess combat strength comparable to a second-tier mage.

The number of second-tier mages is largest only in the third year. Only a small number of people can advance to the next tier in the first year, but at most in the third, fourth and fifth years. In these last two years, the graduation requirement is only to become a third-tier mage.

Successfully reaching the fourth level is considered a watershed moment, making one an exceptionally outstanding graduate who can directly stay on as a faculty member.

If you don't stay at the university, you can go to the Holy See and become a bishop.

If it weren't for the selection of the preparatory saintess, Celia felt that her goal would probably be to become a bishop or priest.

She didn't think her talent and ability would allow her to become a second-tier mage by the end of the semester; she would be satisfied if she could advance to the second tier in her second year.

Ross said he would help her become a second-tier mage before the end of the semester...

Celia suddenly remembered something—

The contract with the evil god was to create a magical puppet that could participate in the test. Now that the puppet has been made, the contract has ended, right?

Celia looked at the puppet in front of her.

The puppet was not under her control at this moment, and ignored any commands she gave it.

Because Ross is testing the puppet's various performance characteristics.

Celia wanted to ask if the contract had ended, but she didn't dare to bring it up.

She remembered that if the Holy Court's blessing ceremony truly summoned a deity, the connection between the two would be severed once the deity fulfilled the wish.

The fact that it hasn't broken means the contract isn't complete yet.

Celia didn't know what the contract was like on the side of the evil god, unlike that of other gods.

She didn't dare ask.

Never mind, I'll ask again later!

The girl thought.

Seeing that Ross seemed to be testing the limits of the puppet, Celia felt that there was no point in just watching, so she went to learn Holy Word Magic.

After a long while, Ross finally stopped testing the puppet.

"In general, it can walk and run, but its combat ability is not strong. If it really needs to fight, it cannot easily use magic, otherwise the material will quickly overload and become unusable."

"If I were to fight with this body, I would probably have to rely on my mental strength to analyze my opponent's actions and then engage in close combat."

Celia sensed the puppet approaching and looked up. "Mr. Ross, is the test finished?"

Ross nodded: "Alright, this puppet can't use magic indiscriminately. It can only use a maximum of five spells; continuing will lead to paralysis. The suitable fighting style is melee combat."

"But close combat is limited by materials and is not that strong, so we need to improve the performance of materials."

Celia nodded emphatically: "I will! However, all the materials for the puppet are very expensive, so I'd like to use this one for now and buy a new one when I earn more money later..."

Strengthening the puppet is definitely the most important thing; the puppet's improvement must keep up with the mage's improvement.

Of course, you can also simply replace it with a different puppet.

There's also a way to save money: just get any magic puppet to make do and use it to boost your status. Then, when you've advanced to a higher rank and feel hopeless about advancing further, you can create a custom-made magic puppet.

It's like when you were young you wanted to build a 1080 PC, but you didn't have the money and computers were becoming outdated too quickly, so you just got a cheap PC to get by, and then you'd get a 4090 when you had the money...

That was Celia's idea: get one and use it as is for now, and then consider getting a new one once she's earned more money and leveled up.

Instead of using one for each grade, it's better to wait until the third or fourth grade before switching.

The artificial puppet heart will definitely perform better by then.

Waiting is never a bad thing.

Ross rolled his eyes at her idea, "Adding... the Puppet Heart will greatly improve your abilities, so I don't recommend skipping stages."

“Saving resources in the early stages is not beneficial for improvement. You should let the puppet improve along with you. Although the puppet heart of this puppet is just an ordinary water element, it is still a very precious thing. Perhaps for others, it should be replaced after the second or third stage, but that is because the technology of extraction is not mature. Let me do it. This puppet heart can be used until at least the sixth stage.”

"Sixth rank?" Celia blinked. "In the entire Holy Magic Academy, only the headmaster is a sixth-rank mage... Can this ordinary Puppet Heart really be used until then?"

"of course."

Although it's just the divine status of a lower-level god, it's still a divine status, easily reaching the human limit—the sixth rank.

As long as you know how to use it.

Ross was confident that he could improve the bridging device of the Puppet Heart, allowing the Divine Fragment to perform at 100% capacity.

Do you remember what Austin told you?

"fishing?"

"Yes, there are a lot of good things in the woods of your school. Go and get some of them to strengthen your magic puppets."

Chapter 21 Fishing

Sunday.

Celia took her newly bought fishing rod and a small gift and went to the outside of Austin's cabin.

Good morning, Grandpa Austin.

She greeted him, and Austin, who looked up, smiled. "Good morning, Celia. What's up?"

"I've come to thank you for your help last time."

Celia presented a gift box containing a small mechanical gadget she had made from scraps of materials used to create puppets—a tiny mechanical dog.

"Haha, it's rare for someone to come and visit me, so I'll accept this gift."

When Austin saw Celia with the puppet and a bag on her back, he chuckled: "You really came to see me?"

Celia made a face: "Grandpa Austin, you said last time that you could fish in the Forbidden Forest Lake. I'd like to apply for a pass to go fishing there, is that okay?"

"If you're just fishing, of course you can, but you should be careful not to go to the western shore."

A flash of light appeared in Austin's hand, revealing a card imbued with magic.

"This is a fishing license. To use it, bring your hand close to the spell ring and let the spell ring read the information inside the card. It will tell you where you should fish. Remember, you can only fish within the area permitted by the card. Leaving the area may lead to danger."

Celia nodded quickly: "Thank you, Grandpa Austin. When I catch a fish, I will definitely give Grandpa Austin the two biggest ones."

"Haha, then I'm not welcome."

After bidding farewell to Austin, Celia and Ross, who had entered the puppet, entered the Forbidden Forest. Then, taking out their flying brooms, they flew towards the Forbidden Forest Lake, following the directions indicated by the cards.

Ross didn't have a flying broom; he went directly back into Celia's mind and had Celia give the puppet the command to follow.

Not long after, Celia landed on the shore of the Forbidden Forest Lake.

"This is my first time fishing... how do I do it?"

Celia looked at Ross, who had returned to the puppet.