The second day’s practical exam gave Hilia a taste of the fighting styles of the other four Holy Daughter candidates.

She couldn’t really judge their true strength. Since the highest test limit for first-years was Tier One, Divine Magic Academy didn’t rank students solely based on personal power—instead, it used a point system.

Once you went over the system’s limit, it didn’t matter by how much—you got the full score.

So, unfortunately, there was no way to know anyone’s actual strength. In any case, everyone kept their real abilities under wraps, just took the max score and didn’t bother chasing the extremes.

Seeing all of them like this, Hilia didn’t have the urge to go for a record, so she casually took the full score and left too.

As expected, everyone ended up with a perfect score.

The second day’s tests included crisis response in addition to practical combat, but since the requirements were all set for Tier One, there was no suspense at all.

That was until the third day’s specialized exams.

"Hilia, are you sure you want to take all three specialized exams: Magic Puppets, Arrays, and Scrolls?"

Before the exam started, Alina found Hilia to confirm one last time.

"Runes are universal, so I can do them all," Hilia answered confidently.

Alina hesitated, but remembering her own lack of skill in runes, she didn’t say anything else.

Maybe there really was some overlap between the three.

"Alright, I’ve already informed the school. They’ve staggered the three exams for you: first up is Magic Puppet Runes, then Scroll Runes, and finally, in the afternoon, Array Runes. I’ve sent you the exam rooms, just head over as scheduled."

"Okay, thank you, Ms. Ailina!"

Following the directions, Hilia arrived at the location of her first Magic Puppet exam.

She was a little nervous at this point.

While there’s some connection between rune mastery and general strength, it’s not as deep as people think.

Runes, after all, were invented as a way for the weak to take on the strong. Low-tier Mages are best at crafting high-tier Scrolls, Magic Puppets, or Arrays, defeating mages above their own tier.

If you can’t fight up a tier, what’s the point of runes anyway?

The answer: civilian uses.

"All my research on Magic Puppet runes has been for making my own runes. I barely use this stuff otherwise. Can I even pass?" Hilia was really worried.

Rose had made it clear he wouldn’t help her during the exam.

Hilia wouldn’t ask Rose for help, either.

So...

The girl took a deep breath and walked into the test room, positioned at the very top of the school’s lab wing—a spacious hall for Magic Puppet experiments.

Once inside, Hilia realized there were a lot of people—over a hundred.

This was the first group for the Magic Puppet crafting exam, with several more groups to follow.

Hilia even spotted Benovia and some of the others; all the Holy Daughter candidates were here.

Doris came straight over when she saw Hilia arrive.

"Hilia, I’ll admit your combat talent is... decent. But when it comes to inscribing magic puppet runes, I don’t think you’re any better than me."

Doris had moved on from wanting to recruit Hilia as her follower mage, to wanting to defeat Hilia and prove her own skills.

Too bad, during their last duel, Doris had her pride completely crushed—she almost resorted to using a desperate forbidden spell.

Although the teacher stopped her in time, Doris was just never able to get over it. She’s been wanting another shot ever since.

So, besides her regular training, she went to ancient ruins, braving all sorts of danger to hone her combat instincts.

Especially after hearing Hilia had broken through to Tier Two, Doris was even more fired up. She charged deep into the Underground City, broke through to Tier Two during the battles there, and brought back loads of lost relics.

Final exams had been keeping her busy, so she hadn’t had a chance to challenge Hilia yet.

She’d been waiting for the upcoming Holy Daughter mini-competition.

But before those mini-comps, maybe she could beat Hilia in a different area.

With that in mind, Doris decided to throw a bunch of taunts at Hilia first.

Sadly, Hilia just ignored her.

No matter what Doris said, Hilia wouldn’t bite. Doris was getting annoyed and finally blurted out, "Hilia, how about a bet? If your score for magic puppet inscription is higher than mine, I’ll give you Tier Two ice element magic puppet materials. If I’m higher, you’ll be my partner for combat practice until the start of second year."

Hilia stopped in her tracks.

She turned back, a smile curling at her lips.

"Say so from the start—just tell me you want to give me materials! We’re still friends, you know."

"Who’s your friend?" Doris snorted. "With that confidence, get ready to train with me for five months!"

Hilia didn’t bother with trash talk, just walked straight to her assigned exam station.

The magic puppet lab was spacious enough for a hundred people, and each person had their own individual workstation.

Each workstation was bigger than a dorm kitchen—plenty of room for a mage to show off their skills.

Hilia went to her station, patted her chest, and tried to calm down.

"Haven’t used magic puppet runes in ages. Still... I can’t lose to Doris, right?"

The girl muttered to herself.

Rose said with a half-smile, "Don’t be too sure. Maybe she’s a rune prodigy?"

"Then I... guess I’ll just be her training partner for three months."

Thanks to Rose, Hilia suddenly felt a new wave of nerves.

Then again, so what if she had to be a sparring partner for three months?

Worst case, she’d just destroy Doris every single session!

Thinking like that, Hilia quickly calmed herself down.

Soon, the proctor walked to the front to announce the exam details.

"In front of you is an Arcane Furnace and a Maria Commerce advanced Mark II artificial Heart of the Magic Puppet. The linkage device for the puppet’s heart has been dismantled. Your task is to inscribe runes onto the blank linkage device, assemble it with the Heart of the Magic Puppet, and start up the Arcane Furnace. You must boost the Arcane Furnace’s efficiency to at least 60%. Final grading depends on how much you improve the efficiency, plus how much you wear down the puppet’s heart."

The whole lab immediately erupted with quiet exclamations.

Hilia frowned.

"This is a surprise. I thought we’d have to write the entire magic puppet rune program on the spot."

Usually, the linkage device for a Heart of the Magic Puppet is sold together with the heart. In the old days, before artificial hearts existed, once you installed the linkage device on a natural heart, you couldn’t remove it without breaking it—worse, it might even ruin the heart’s magic function.

Mainly, natural hearts require only one thing from their linkage device: uniqueness. You can only use the specific assigned materials—nothing else works.

And this tech isn’t too hard. Just study it carefully and you can make it.

So, in the early days, trading Hearts of the Magic Puppet always included the linkage device for convenience during assembly and testing.

But artificial magic puppet hearts are different—the linkage device can use lots of different materials, and the runes you inscribe will directly affect the heart’s performance.

This is one of the developmental directions for artificial puppet hearts.

Hilia looked at the heart and the linkage materials in front of her, feeling a bit lost.

She didn’t know much about artificial Hearts of the Magic Puppet.

"So how do you get a high score?"