Hilia had no idea what software or firewalls were.

But she knew about micro runes.

These tiny runes, usually made by magic guide devices or advanced spell editors—sometimes puppet masters—were fitted with rune modules for connecting to the Star Spirit Network or for monitoring the status of the user.

"Modifying these things is different from editing large arrays. You need to use Mage’s Hand to access the device, find the rune interface, connect it, then modify the program code inside."

Hilia raised her hand, "What is program code?"

"You can call it spells. I just prefer calling it program code."

"Oh, it’s just spells? I get it now."

Hilia suddenly understood.

Spells and incantations aren’t the same thing. Incantations work on people, changing their states, whereas spells work on magic puppets and micro runes with external interfaces.

But magic puppets with a natural Heart of the Magic Puppet don’t need to be imbued with spells—they’re integrated by default; only artificial hearts require the extra stuff.

"Once a magic puppet has a mark left by a mage, it becomes an item with a unique ID code. Unless the mage removes it, it can only connect to the mage; no spell can modify it.

"But the ones connected to the Star Spirit Network are different. They need an external interface—whether to send and receive info on the network or to maintain the spells inside, you need that interface.

"Your first step is to find which two at the door trigger alerts. No need to edit spells—it’s much simpler. Just use Mage’s Hand like a modifier and raise the alert threshold in the spell settings. Set it so high that even if they’re dead, the alert won’t go off."

"Oh."

Hilia nodded, half understanding, half lost.

"Just do it. I already checked; their alarm devices aren’t connected to the Star Spirit Network. Maybe they can’t pay for the connection fee—don’t worry, they’re a bunch of broke losers who can’t even afford network access."

Hilia: "..."

Hilia walked closer to the two guards, following Rose’s instructions—she extended a few thin strands of spiritual power, approached the two guards chatting, and slipped into one guard’s shoulder badge.

With Rose’s guidance, Hilia quickly found the external interface built into the badge.

Much like connecting to an array, Hilia started resonating with the interface using her spiritual power. Moments later, she achieved resonance and entered the sequence of runes inside the badge.

Dense runes appeared in Hilia’s spiritual power. The runes were neat, nothing like array runes, also different from the ones she etched on magic puppets—full of strong regularity.

These shouldn’t be called runes anymore—they were spells.

Rose said, "You need to figure out which module among these spells controls the alert range. In the spell editor, these orderly spells simplify to an editing window, so you can modify them with text. But in the spiritual world, what you see are the raw spells."

Hilia was stuck, "I don’t know where to start."

Rose said, "Extend a few more strands of spiritual power and directly access the runes in the badge. With something this small, there aren’t too many runes; you’ll be able to decipher them. Then observe—see how the flow of magic power through runes and spells connects, and which spell section corresponds. You’ll figure it out."

Hilia extended a few more strands of spiritual power, directly linking to the badge’s runes.

Checking both sides at once, she gradually began to notice patterns.

Rose said, "Normally, most conversions between spells and runes follow a pattern—a spell always links to some change in a rune node.

"Micro runes can be edited anytime, anywhere thanks to the countless nodes and magic power input/output values. Mage’s Hand lets you visualize the changes. Knowing either the rune or the spell, you can understand how the other program works. Summing this up is basically programming language... but now it’s spell language."

Hilia operated as she listened, sighing, "Stuff a thousand years ago was nothing like now, even the names are different."

Rose smiled a bit but said nothing.

It was already called ’spells’ a thousand years ago.

Only in another world did they call it ’program code’.

Yeah, the ’thousand years ago’ excuse was really handy—she could drop any modern term and nobody would question it, just thinking it was ’ancient spell language’ from a millennium back.

Hilia was extremely gifted with runes, so spells derived from them came quickly to her. Plus, an alert badge was a tiny device—the built-in alert program was very simple.

Not long after, Hilia mastered the correspondence and logic between the two.

"Once you’ve found the pattern, try to consolidate it and write it down. Later, make small devices specifically for auxiliary Star Spirit Network spell intrusion. When you run into spell hacking, it’ll make your job easier. For now, just modify each spell one by one."

Hilia nodded, "Okay."

Once she understood spells, modifying them was child’s play.

Soon, Hilia stealthily set the alert threshold and alert time to 99999—a level where even death wouldn’t trigger an alert, and even if it did, there would be a delay of 99999 seconds before the alarm sounded.

She repeated the same trick, doing the same to the other mage’s badge.

This time was even quicker—less than a minute to fix it.

With that done, Hilia wondered how to knock them out.

Rose said, "Just kill them. Mages with magic power who follow the heretic sects—hardly any innocent ones. Maybe they started innocent, but once they’re in, they’re no longer innocent, especially when they’re passionate about stirring up war."

"I..."

Rose sighed, "You’ve already killed so many heretics and you’re still hesitating? Did you forget what Benovia said? Showing mercy to bad guys is cruelty to good ones."

"It’s not that... I just don’t know how to kill them silently."

"Easy. Tier One Magic [Ice Spike]—compress the ice spike into an ice needle, stab it straight into the skull. Then follow with [Ice Shattering Skill] or [Ice Burst], mash their brains to pulp. That’s the silent kill achievement for you.

"How to use magic without letting the target sense your magic power fluctuations—that’s an art too. But with your 100% refinement, you can do it. Believe in yourself."

Hilia took a deep breath, "Alright, I’ll give it a try."

She started quietly gathering magic power, closely monitoring any environmental changes caused by its flow.

Since stealth was required, it took time for the two ice spikes to condense and compress, but she managed to form them smoothly and fired at the two men.

No suspense—their heads exploded into mush from the advanced skill [Ice Burst], the upgrade to [Ice Shattering Skill].

Hilia breathed out, then walked into the small castle’s courtyard.

Just then, the small castle’s door opened with a sound.

A heretic came out, locking eyes with Hilia who had just entered.