The nameless village where Tris lived had a population of nearly 1,500 people. It was called a village mainly because of its location — deep within a vast forest and relatively isolated from other cities. In terms of size, however, it could already be considered a small town.
The village was surrounded and protected by a large wooden wall. At first glance, it looked crude, but Tris knew that the wall was integrated with magic. It formed a dome-shaped barrier that covered the entire village, preventing attacks from outside — both from the ground and the air.
Creating and maintaining a magical barrier like this must require an enormous amount of financial resources. From that alone, one could already glimpse the wealth of this place.
Tris was not surprised by this. The village had several Mages. Through magic, Mages had many ways to generate wealth or increase the prosperity of a territory. For example, certain magics could increase the land's fertility, greatly boosting agricultural production.
Knowing the geographical location of the village, Tris suspected the barrier was not only meant to defend against magical beasts from the forest. It could also serve as a fortress against the neighboring kingdom of Braxen in case war ever broke out.
Walking toward the far southwest edge of the village, Tris approached the barrier at a secluded spot hidden from the villagers' sight.
With a simple jump, he easily cleared the wooden wall.
Although the magical barrier only blocked objects coming from outside and did not prevent things from leaving the village, the sight of an eight-year-old boy effortlessly leaping over a wooden wall more than three meters high was still quite unusual.
After crossing the barrier, Tris quickly and quietly disappeared into the depths of the forest.
After nearly thirty minutes of traveling, he stopped at a location he often used for his personal experiments.
The area was naturally concealed by surrounding trees and terrain, making it difficult to observe from afar. It was also far enough from the village to avoid accidental visitors.
Around the area, he had secretly set up several traps and magics to warn of any people or creatures approaching.
With a light wave of his left hand, a small object suddenly appeared out of thin air near Tris's palm.
The item had actually been taken from the ring he was wearing — a magical item that functioned like a storage container.
The ring was a reward he had won in a competition among the village's young Mages held one year earlier.
According to what he had been taught, spatial rings were both common and rare in this world.
They were considered common because they were extremely convenient tools and famous enough that even the poorest people had at least heard of them.
However, they were rare simply because they were difficult to produce and extremely expensive.
To create one required suitable materials, and the craftsman had to be capable of using magic — a talent possessed by only a few.
To produce the highest-quality rings, the craftsman might even need talent in Space magic, a particularly rare attribute.
The ring Tris wore contained a space roughly 3 × 3 × 3 meters in size, a standard capacity commonly used by the village's Mages. It was said that even a ring like this was worth several years of income for an average person living a relatively comfortable life.
The ring itself was already an excellent item.
However, the thing Tris wanted to test today was what he had taken out of it.
The object resembled a bird with gray feathers and a wingspan about the length of two adult hand spans. It was currently stepping lightly along his arm.
Of course, it was not a real bird, as spatial storage could not contain living creatures.
In reality, it was a magical puppet crafted by Tris himself.
Its designation and name were:
"No. 3: Feathers."
With a single flap of its wings, Feathers immediately soared into the air and shot forward at high speed.
Soon, the puppet disappeared from Tris's sight while continuing to fly farther and farther away.
100 meters…
200 meters…
500 meters…
1000 meters…
1500 meters…
As it approached 2000 meters, his connection with the puppet began to weaken, and controlling it became increasingly difficult.
At around 2200 meters, the connection disappeared entirely.
'So the optimal operating range is about 2000 meters or less. Not bad for a prototype,' he thought to himself.
Moving in the direction the puppet had flown to shorten the distance, the connection was gradually re-established.
Tris then controlled it to fly back toward him slowly.
Creating and controlling magical puppets was a special technique unique to the village where he had been born.
If the Warriors used swords and spears as weapons, then tools such as wands and staffs were the weapons of Mages. These tools could amplify magic, enhance magic, reduce casting time, and provide various other benefits.
However, instead of using spellbooks, wands, or staffs like Mages elsewhere, the Mages here typically used puppets as their primary weapons.
The greatest advantage was that a Mage effectively had something like a Golem serving as a bodyguard.
Puppets could also integrate various weapons and fight directly, rather than merely serving as a medium for casting magic like wands or staffs.
For example, some people equipped their puppets with swords or blades, allowing them to fight like Warriors.
Others installed ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows, or concealed hidden weapons, enabling the puppet to attack from afar without relying on magic—a useful way to conserve one's own spiritual energy.
Despite these advantages, nothing was perfect.
As the old saying went:
"If something seems too good to be true, it probably is."
Magical puppets came with many disadvantages as well.
The two biggest problems were money and time.
First, creating a puppet was far more complicated and required far more materials than crafting a wand or staff. Naturally, the cost was significantly higher.
But if money was only the beginning of the problem, then time was the true fatal weakness.
Mastering the art of designing and building a puppet demanded considerable time and effort. The more complex the puppet, the longer it would take to complete.
Even if one could shorten the process by using magic related to crafting or by purchasing components and equipment in advance, the time investment was still enormous.
Fortunately, the village already had many specialized shops — blacksmiths who forged weapons and tools, carpentry workshops, alchemy stores, and even shops that specialized in engraving magical inscriptions.
These services could significantly reduce the time required to create a puppet compared to doing everything alone.
Yet the challenge of time did not end with the successful creation of a magical puppet.
That was merely the beginning.
With enough money, one could easily buy ready-made puppets or even hire some of the village's Mages to design and build one.
But using the puppet was something no one else could do for you.
Even with ordinary weapons like swords or spears, it could take many years for someone to become proficient — and decades to reach true mastery.
Learning to control a magical puppet skillfully would require an even more terrifying amount of time.