There are two very important traits that define a god: faith and the Divine Format.
Rose had neither of them.
Because he was walking the Hidden Path to Apotheosis.
And only the Hidden Path grants him the courage to take on the Twelve Main Gods in battle.
This was something set in stone back when the game first began.
Since coming to this world, he hadn't seen a Divine Format, but the game certainly featured such a thing.
An incredibly rare treasure; using one would give yourself and your followers or nation a buff. Acquiring a Divine Format always involved a long chain of events.
The way Divine Formats looked in the game was a bit different from what he saw now. In the game, they appeared as dazzling gems of various shapes, while the one before him was a gem encased in a precision device, as if its power was being drained.
In the game, each Divine Format was supremely valuable, all left behind by dead gods in the backstory—just over a dozen in the whole game.
Yet modern folk here just stuff Divine Formats into Magic Puppets and use them as their CPUs?
Where the hell did they get so many Divine Formats?
So…
Rose carefully scanned it with his Spiritual Power, confirming one thing.
This was indeed a Divine Format, but a Divine Fragment.
Something had happened to this god's Divine Format—who knew what—and even after death, it was shattered. This Divine Fragment was probably only a thousandth of the full Divine Format's capacity, meaning the original power might've been split a thousand ways.
Of course, on the surface, a complete Divine Format and a one-thousandth Divine Fragment, as long as they're from the same source, look almost identical. After all, this is just the materialization of the Divine Format.
Or maybe the designers were lazy and reused the same graphic asset.
Judging by what he'd seen, Magic Puppets had become standard Mage gear, Mages had basically all become puppet controllers—there was no place anymore for traditional spellcasters.
After all, using a Divine Format to power a Magic Puppet, its combat power would definitely top any Mage of equal rank.
But if everyone's using Divine Fragments, there's still never going to be enough.
Just how many Divine Fragments exist in this world?
Rose thought to himself, maybe the Era of Calamity was way more than a few gods dying off in passing.
Were the other gods really just napping?
Rose was filled with endless questions.
In reality, Hilia saw the Heart of the Magic Puppet in the box and heard Rose blurt something out, looking a bit confused.
"Mr. Rose, is this really a Divine Format?"
"No, I was mistaken."
Better not let Hilia know; who knows what she'd make of it.
"This Heart of the Magic Puppet is definitely the real thing, though…uh, the quality isn't great, still low-tier…ahem, basic Water Attribute, but usable."
Even with only a thousandth of the original power, it was still a Divine Format. That's leagues ahead of artificial Hearts of the Magic Puppet.
The price, though…
"So, what do you think? This Heart of the Magic Puppet is completely natural, I swear I'm not tricking you. It's actually rare, too. I'm not greedy—just 100 gold coins."
"Isn't this just an ordinary Water Attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet?" Hilia blinked. "Our mentor said Hearts of the Magic Puppet with Wind, Fire, Water, or Earth are the most common and practically worthless—they go for at most 10 gold coins."
"Ten gold coins?" The vendor sucked in a sharp breath—was this haggling, or daylight robbery?!
But Hilia wasn't wrong, either. Sure, this was a naturally-formed Heart of the Magic Puppet, but its performance was abysmal; among natural ones, it had zero competitiveness. It was just the generic Water Element—not enough offensive power, and couldn't compare to Divine or Holy ones in support either.
Even slightly rarer artificial Hearts of the Magic Puppet fetched higher prices than this.
If it wasn't for that, he wouldn't have hidden it away waiting for the perfect sucker!
He would've sold it long ago!
"Miss, your bargaining's a bit extreme, don't you think? Nobody does business like this. But if you like it, I could grit my teeth and part with it for 50 gold coins."
The vendor, noticing Hilia's interest, quickly started his tale: "This natural Heart of the Magic Puppet was found at great risk, deep in ancient lost ruins—a journey where my companions suffered grave injuries, barely making it out alive…"
"But it's still just a basic Water Attribute Heart of the Magic Puppet."
"I can't let it go for just 10 gold coins."
"How about 15 gold coins."
"At least let us cover the cost of hiring a Priest, okay? Forty gold coins, final offer."
"Twenty gold coins. Deal or not? If not, I'll pass."
Right now, nobody would buy an artificial Water Element Heart of the Magic Puppet even for 10 gold coins. For a natural one, 20 was already a bit inflated. If the vendor wouldn't sell…
The artificial ones would do just fine.
The vendor hesitated a long time before finally gritting his teeth and saying, "Alright, twenty gold coins, but that's selling at a loss. If your friends want Hearts of the Magic Puppet, please tell them about me."
"I will."
After buying the Heart of the Magic Puppet, Hilia browsed around and picked up more puppet materials before leaving the Mage Guild.
On the way back, at least there were no highway robbers or any such drama; this was the neighborhood of Divine Magic Academy and the Holy Court's headquarters. Trying to rob people here would most likely land you an academy student, and then you'd get branded a heretic and dragged off for trial.
"Finally, I can make a Magic Puppet that's truly mine!"
Excited, the girl dove into what had once been the kitchen, pulled apart all the pre-assembled parts, and started reassembling everything under Rose's guidance.
This time they added the lines connecting the Heart of the Magic Puppet, which was trickier. Plus, Hilia had bought some newer, better materials to replace the shoddier ones, making the whole process painstakingly slow.
Still, since this was just a low-tier Magic Puppet, under Rose's powerful Spiritual Power guidance, they eventually succeeded in assembling it.
When the Divine Fragment acting as the Heart of the Magic Puppet was slotted into the core, and Hilia infused her Magic Power to imprint her mark, the Magic Puppet was complete.
The puppet's empty eyes shimmered with color, a telltale pulse of Magic Power radiating out—it was alive, it could now use whatever spells its controller had mastered.
"Now I just need to learn a few spells from the library and feed them into it, and I'll have enough power to pass the annual assessment!"
Hilia grinned, wiped sweat from her face, and kept admiring the puppet—she couldn't get enough of it.
She tried ordering the Magic Puppet to tidy up the messy kitchen.
The Magic Puppet immediately got to work; just like a high-end AI robot, it busily set about organizing the place.
Hilia shifted her focus to her Spiritual Space and eagerly asked, "Mr. Rose, what do you think of my puppet?"
"Not bad—it's functional."
Rose was also experiencing the Magic Puppet through his connection with Hilia.
A thought began to form in his mind.
"Hilia, I have an idea."