The rune Hilia carved onto the magic puppet was extended from a basic rune, with some modifications. She simplified some of the complicated parts and, in the process, increased the rune's strength.
Back when Hilia was inscribing it, Rose had been complaining that civilization had only progressed "onto a dog's back" over this thousand years—still slower than his few hundred years of gaming progress—except for not entering the interstellar era, everything else had developed.
But now, a thousand years later, everything's gone backward—even basic runes have regressed several decades compared to before.
That's just absurd.
It's hard to imagine what the Gods did after ending the Era of Calamity.
"Just say you thought it should be modified this way, so you went ahead and changed it." Faced with Alina's questioning, Rose told Hilia this.
He even added, "Or you could just say you got it from the Evil God."
After Hilia replied to Alina, she lowered her head a bit guiltily.
At the same time, she felt a little uneasy: "Ms. Ailina, did I... perhaps mess up with the modification?"
After all, these things came from the Evil God, and since that being was literally in her mind, she didn't dare question much.
And honestly, interacting with him all this time…
Hilia felt this Evil God wasn't at all pretentious, just friendly and approachable—at most, just a strict tutor.
So far, she hadn't seen any behavior matching what the sects said about Evil Gods—wait, some sects even described the Evil God as the embodiment of truth, goodness, and beauty, which actually seemed sort of accurate.
She had no idea why Lord Evil God cared so much about the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association…
"Nothing's wrong, actually. With your revisions, these runes got rid of redundancies, and the efficiency of the magic power flow seems improved..."
Alina's eyes lit up.
"This improved basic rune might be worth publishing in the 'Basic Rune' textbook! Hilia, let me confirm once again, was it you who made these improvements?"
Hilia didn't really want to nod, but Rose already pressed her head down twice with his spiritual power.
"Quick, say you did it."
Rose's voice sounded in her mind. Hilia didn't know his intentions—just that if she stayed silent, he'd probably take control and make her talk regardless…
"Yes." Hilia bowed her head slightly. "When I was researching historical documents, I found some clues and inspiration inside, and modified them."
"That's a major reform! Hilia, you're a natural rune mage, come with me to meet the principal!"
Alina was about to drag Hilia away, but another teacher quickly stopped her: "Alina, the principal isn't at school. He went to deal with the Deep Red Spring, and we still have a mission right now."
"Oh, right, that's my bad for being so hasty."
Alina patted Hilia on the shoulder. "Hilia, go back and organize your simplified materials—this is important research you could publish; don't lose it. When the principal gets back, I'll take you to see him."
"Okay."
"For now, don't leave the school grounds, and don't get too close to unattended areas."
"Got it, Ms. Ailina."
"Good, off you go."
"Goodbye, Ms. Ailina."
Hilia took her leave from Alina and headed toward the academic area of the school.
But she hadn't walked far when Rose said, "Head right—just follow my instructions, go around to the edge of the Forbidden Forest, to the east."
Hilia turned and walked the way Rose indicated, asking as she went, "Did you discover traces of Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association activity over there?"
"It's possible. I heard your instructors mention that location—they're heading there now."
The place Rose gave wasn't too far away. Hilia arrived shortly.
This was the eastern part of the activity zone, still far from the Forbidden Forest. Students occasionally came here for walks or to practice.
Hilia found a spot to sit. Rose seemed busy investigating, so she focused her spiritual power and summoned Mage's Hand to swirl up fallen leaves, practicing Mage's Hand control.
After a bit, Rose said, "Stay put here. I'm going to check it out."
"Okay."
Lost in her practice with Mage's Hand, Hilia just replied absentmindedly.
Rose controlled the magic puppet to leave Hilia, circle around in the grove, and enter the Forbidden Forest area.
It didn't take long for the connection between the magic puppet and Hilia to weaken, but fortunately, it was still within Rose's sensing range.
In extreme cases, he could project a sliver of spiritual power, and as long as it didn't hurt Hilia, he could control the magic puppet to leave her by at least a kilometer, while still retaining some detection ability.
Silently weaving through the underbrush, before long, Rose reached his destination.
Here was a clearing, carefully swept open. On the ground, Alina and several teachers knelt, investigating something.
The Forbidden Forest's guardian, Oston, was present too.
After closely inspecting the ground for a while, Alina said gravely, "I see traces of pollution. It's very faint now; the Deep Sea Mutual Aid Association people thoroughly cleaned up the evidence. Hard to say what they were doing here."
Oston pondered, then said, "Judging by the Association's methods, maybe they were running a stellar positioning procedure."
A teacher gasped: "Positioning? Are they planning to summon sea monsters from the Deep again—and even into our school?"
Alina shook her head. "Unlikely. This might just be to mislead us—so we focus all resources on sweeping the school, while they perform their real ritual somewhere less noticed."
Oston asked, "Any word from the principal's side?"
"A message came in. The Deep Red Spring is being purified, but they were too late; not a trace of heretics left. Their ritual is already complete."
"Keep searching for similar stellar positioning arrays, inside and outside the school—then report back. If this is just a distraction, notify the Holy Court and let them take over."
"Understood, Professor Oston."
"…"
Soon, everyone dispersed.
After a few minutes, Rose edged closer to the clearing Oston mentioned, checked it out, then shook his head.
"Stellar positioning magic array? This is clearly a Survey Magic Array for Abyss Summoning, but it's already abandoned—so this wasn't the best place to summon Abyss demons."
Rose dug up some earth laced with "pollution," tidied up the evidence, and silently left.
Back at Hilia's side, the girl was still playing with leaves.
A whirlwind of leaves spun around her under the Mage's Hand spell, dancing in the air.
"Hilia, it's time for class."
Hilia looked up. "Are you done?"
"Yeah, all done. Go to your class; I'll send the magic puppet back to your dorm."
"Okay."
Except for Magic Puppet class, you didn't need to bring a magic puppet to lectures—carrying one around was inconvenient, a bit like lugging a flying broom everywhere.
So Hilia walked to class, while Rose piloted the magic puppet on a flying broom back to her dorm.
The classroom for this afternoon's lesson wasn't far from the dorm—well within Hilia's spiritual power range.
Hilia sent out a mental probe, realizing that Rose really did go back to the dorm, not off to anything else.
"What exactly happened just now…?"
The girl scratched her head.