The puppet raised its head, silently taking in the empty surroundings. Everywhere around it was full of crafting stations for all sorts of crafting things, before its eyes focused on the notebook in front of him.
It took the notebook with its stubby arms, opening the cover to the first page. It had a single word in it,
'Prowler..'
The puppet went through the pages, carefully looking at each of the sketches of its previous body, it was so detailed it even had the runes of the spells meant to draw on the metal body. Alongside other sketches of hypothesized rune spells and body parts. It began studying the sketches for a few hours, memorizing every important detail as best as it could.
It jumped from the table it was standing on, falling gracefully on the floor. It walked to a corner where leftover metals were grouped in a huge pile, the undesirable works of Audra, who still hasn't returned yet.
It began shuffling through the pile, finding its lifting prowess better than it expected. It referenced the notebook while looking for specific metal parts, and putting them in a pile.
After it was done with this, it went to the table stations, taking a tool and equipment here and there, and gathering them on the floor in the center right next to the pile of metals it gathered.
'Let's start this training arc.. no, this isn't a training arc, more like a building arc? eh whateves.' It switched to its all-encompassing vision, carefully studying its body's features from every angle.
It touched places it suspected opened the insides of its body, some just a groove, others opened the plates covering its body; a few minutes later his insides were shown.
It took a tool that looked like a screw, relying on its vision, it began opening the insides as well, carefully peeling layer by layer until the bare minimum that allowed it to keep standing was left.
Now looking like a metal skeleton, it took out the notebook, reading and memorizing some of the runes written on it, before it took out metal parts from the pile and a magical tool it saw Audra use to quickly cut and weld metal parts quite easily. The tool had its own mana crystal attached to it.
When Audra used it, he was close enough yet he didn't see any mana coming from her to activate it. So he tried to search for a method of activation, and easily enough, as he held it in his hands, he willed it to work and the magical welding tool somehow connected to his mind, activating itself.
He quickly figured out he could instinctually control the heat it could produce from the tip of the tool, as he began to smile internally.
'I hope I'm done creating a good body before Audra comes back.'
--- ---
"THIS IS MADNESS! We are letting the enemies attack us right under our noses, while you stop us from annihilating them!!" Said a middle-aged man releasing intense heat into his surroundings.
He was in a room, along with 7 other people all standing around the room, facing the Headmistress of the Einhart academy. The other seven people were showing frustrated expressions just like the middle-aged man, though their degree was lower than his.
"Calm yourself, Thurmond, We are as frustrated as you are, we let the infestation fester for too long. We either deal with it prematurely, causing it to grow back more carefully hidden, or we kill it by the source completely. If the price is that of a few students so be it, I will be the sole sinner and held responsible for their death." replied the headmistress.
She was an old woman, having prominently healthy grandma features, she barely had any wrinkles despite her age-old look. She was dressed in elaborate gold and white robes, giving of an aura of health and vitality. She held a white staff in her hands, her posture slouched yet filled with determination.
"If I may Headmistress, this action will cost us tremendous credibility with the nobles, who wouldn't trust us anymore if their kids were murdered right in our halls." Another middle-aged thin looking man dressed in scholar robes said, sporting a mustache, as he spoke with a calm voice.
"What does it matter if those rotten and spoiled kids die!? They are the worst students we could have. They don't listen to our teachings, they play around and ignore the rules. They think the school is their playground, while we can't do anything to punish them!!" Thurmond had an enraged expression.
This academy has once been the best academy one could go to in the entire continent, yet as with all things, it slowly and surely began to deteriorate, until it became a former shell of itself after 2000 years of it's existence.
Now it didn't have the influence and power it used to have, and only thanks to the wretched noble's donations and charity that they were still standing.
This caused their situation to become more hopeless than they could handle. Their security was barely up to standards. Any skilled thief could come and go as they pleased, in fact just 2 years ago, their secret stash of high-level spells was stolen, causing their situation to be more hopeless since those spells acted as an advertisement to young students, it was their reward to hard-working students.
Worse, they have been infiltrated by a group of Dark mages, who began killing and sacrificing the young and innocent students for their rituals while they couldn't even locate their hideout. It wouldn't be long before information about this gets out; when it does, there would be no more Einhart Academy.
Audra looked at the Headmistress's silent gaze, feeling sadness whelm within her. She hadn't been in this academy that long, just under 5 years. She knew she would leave this place sometime, at least 2 decades, but she didn't expect it would come so soon.
'I better pack up my things and leave before things spiral out of control.' She thought silently, watching the other teachers, some who had worried expressions, while others had rage and helplessness covering their faces. She suspected some of them were just acting, they didn't give a shit about the students well being, only their necks.
'I'm no better than them I guess.' Once the meeting was over, she walked out of the office room of the Headmistress lastly, saying one last goodbye to her friend.
"I hope you find peace with your decision. Goodbye, old friend."
--- ---
"UGH!" Leonna squinted her eyes as the sun's rays shined on her head, she was feeling groggy and sore from last night's struggle-
'SHIT!' She hurriedly opened her eyes, regretting it as she was met with the sun's harsh light fully. Once she got used to it, she carefully looked around her surroundings, finding herself in a normal-looking room. A room that was not hers.
She checked her body, feeling nothing wrong with it, she wasn't naked, chained, or tied up. Sighing thankfully, she carefully stood up from the bed she was sleeping on, finding no one else in the room.
She found her shoes at the bottom of the bed, wearing them quickly, she checked to see if the storage crystal was still with her. It was.
'I wasn't hurt or lost anything, did that guy win?'
The room wasn't big, a door standing on its right. The door will determine if she was truly kidnapped or saved.
She stretched her left hand to the handle, opening it quietly. She had a relieved face as she opened the door all the way. Past it was a living room where she saw the young man who saved her cooking something in the kitchen, his back facing her.
"You're awake." the young man looked around, facing Leonna with plates of eggs and bread in his hands.
"Who are you?" asked Leonna cautiously, looking around for a path to run away to if things weren't as they seemed.
"I'm a student of this dying academy just as you are, sit you must be hungry after all the things you went through." said the boy as he put the plates on a table, pointing to a chair opposite him.
"What's this place? the academy's dormitory doesn't have this kind of room or house." She remained standing, getting ready to get out of the place, even if the window to her left was the shortest path she could see to escape.
"Don't be alarmed, this is one of the houses on the outer grounds of the academy. I'm renting it, as you know the inner grounds can't be considered safe anymore." the boy was beginning to eat his plate of food, curiously looking at Leonna as he ate it.
It's over 15 min so im reading this and you can't stop me
Thanks for the chapter.