Puppet Master Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Feathers

Read chapter 2 of Puppet Master by PeName on NovelPedia.

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 fr