In the end, Hilia still couldn’t follow Anarce.

This kind of thing can’t be done casually; if something that shouldn’t be known is discovered, they can’t even be friends.

"I can’t follow her, but I can try to inquire."

So apart from studying and practicing, during her spare time or meals, Hilia tried to pay attention to whether any of Anarce’s other friends mentioned her.

Finally, she confirmed one thing—

Starting last week, Anarce suddenly became silent.

She seemed to be busy every day, and after classes in the afternoon and evening, no one saw where she went.

Coupled with the fact that she’s been borrowing money, Hilia guessed that she might be short on cash, working hard to earn money.

She couldn’t get any more details.

Anarce had few friends, just like Hilia.

For mages from poor backgrounds, no one was like her; even after becoming a mage, they wouldn’t desperately do odd jobs, wasting precious study time.

She had no time for socializing, leading to very few close acquaintances.

"I should find some time to ask her."

Hilia thought.

She herself was also busy, similar to Anarce’s situation; besides attending classes, she was undergoing Rose’s training every day.

Rose’s training was about refining her spiritual power and magic power while purifying the pollution accumulated in her body from eating fish fins.

Apart from this, she was preparing to advance to Tier Two, including strengthening the magic puppet.

The current magic puppet’s outer shell and many components were compensated by Doris; if she advanced to Tier Two, many things would need to be replaced.

These occupied all of her free time. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

At this moment, Rose was guiding her on replacing the most crucial spine, which was equivalent to a computer motherboard, an extremely important piece.

"The blood and flesh of the Sea Successor whale are useless, but its skin and bones can be used. So when dealing with its blood and flesh, I stripped its bones and skin and brought them back. Tsk, it took me a week to clean them up. Try to replace the magic puppet’s bones before reaching Tier Two."

Hilia looked at the whale bones, cleaned to the point not a bit of flesh remained, worriedly, "There won’t be any pollution residue inside these bones, will there?"

"Of course there is, which is why I didn’t throw away its skin. I’ve set runes all over the whale’s skin, which not only suppress pollution but also make the bones more solid. So, when engraving the bones, you need to melt this skin to strengthen the bones’ durability."

Thus, Hilia found herself short on time.

The bones of the Sea Successor whale were not like the bones of the Tier One fish she caught before, which could be engraved casually.

They required a special engraving knife, the same type Rose used to cut the Sea Successor whale.

However, that rune-laden knife was good for cutting flesh but not for engraving runes on bones. The runes on the knife would be rapidly consumed, and it would soon be damaged.

Therefore, Hilia spent generously, buying a higher-quality engraving knife and asked Rose to draw runes on it, then used it to engrave fish bones.

At the same time, Hilia used Mage’s Hand to hold up fish skin covered in scales and burned it with Fireball Technique until it melted.

The skin and scales of the Sea Successor whale were one body, the scales were incredibly small, only as thick as a strand of hair; to the naked eye, it appeared as if there were no scales.

It took nearly five hours of the core temperature of Fireball Technique to finally melt this layer of fish skin into a deep blue rune-laden liquid.

Yes, under Rose’s operation, the runes also melted.

After melting, Hilia’s task was to use this rune-laden fish skin liquid as ink for engraving, using the rune-laden engraving knife to dip and carve onto the fish bones.

The process involved first melting the fish skin, then using the knife to engrave the melted fish skin onto the fish bones.

During this time, she needed to multitask, maintaining the temperature of the Fireball Technique while engraving runes onto the fish bones.

Despite having the magic puppet to assist in controlling the temperature of the Fireball Technique, Hilia was drenched in sweat and exhausted to the point of fainting every time.

Each time she finished engraving a piece of bone, Hilia’s magic and spiritual power would be completely depleted.

Luckily, she ate fish fin noodles before each crafting session, which helped utilize the increased magic power and further enhanced her spiritual power.

In this way, another two weeks passed, and with only two months left until the year-end assessment, Hilia finally completed all bone engravings, replacing the magic puppet’s existing spine.

"Can I really handle the spine material of Tier Five?" Looking at the assembled magic puppet, Hilia felt a bit anxious.

"The spine serves to connect other parts of the magic puppet; it can adapt to lower tiers, and there won’t be a situation where other parts drag down the spine, only the spine itself underperforming. Even if you were using bones from a God, you’d be able to use them; you just wouldn’t be able to tap into their full potential."

The most adaptive component is the Divine Format, known as the Heart of the Magic Puppet.

No matter its size, the Divine Format automatically accommodates the mage’s capabilities.

"The Heart of the Magic Puppet and spine can be upgraded to high-tier in advance, but others cannot, like the Arcane Furnace. A high-tier furnace would drain your magic power dry as soon as it runs."

Hilia nodded, "I’ll change other components once I reach Tier Two!"

In fact, there was another component she could have changed early.

The external armor of the magic puppet, but it was too expensive for Hilia to afford.

After replacing the spine, the magic puppet didn’t seem to change much, except it became smoother to control.

"Tomorrow I’ll test its performance in the magic puppet training class."

...

The next day.

Hilia attended class as usual.

In class, she took a special look at Anarce, noticing she seemed a bit different today.

She no longer looked as worried as before and seemed to be slowly returning to how she was.

Seeing this, Hilia felt happy for her and specifically invited her for lunch—after completing the magic puppet’s spine, she finally had free time, not needing to rush even eating.

"Finally, you seem to have recovered today, have you resolved your difficulties?"

"Sort of... resolved." Anarce barely showed a hint of a smile.

Perhaps due to her frowning days before, even her smile carried a bit of a bitter taste.

But Hilia could tell she seemed more relaxed.

"Can you tell a good friend what happened?" Hilia asked.

Though she thought Anarce would stop concealing things once resolved, she still shook her head, "Sorry, Hilia, it’s not the right time to talk about it. If there’s a chance, I’ll tell you personally."

"Alright."

Although Hilia disliked enigmatic responses, if Anarce wouldn’t tell, there was nothing she could do.

Hilia thought it would end there, but that afternoon, as she entered the magic puppet training class, she spotted an unexpected figure.

Anarce stood by the magic puppet training field, out of place among a group.

Beside her stood a worn-out magic puppet.