NOVEL NEXT Chapter 39
Doll Manipulation, contrary to its name, actually covers a vast range.
Sure, most doll manipulators deal with regular dolls made of wood or minerals that resemble people or animals.
But there are different kinds of dolls too. Some handle weapons. Others control intangible things like wind or light. What they manipulate is different from regular dolls, and so are their methods.
The reason why all these seemingly different fields are lumped under doll manipulation is that they all fundamentally share similar types of magic.
Many handle weapons. The most common examples are swordsmen. The appearance of a weapon-handling doll manipulator isn’t much different from that of a swordsman wielding a sword. Creating weapons and honing them with experience and magic are basically the same things.
Similarly, those who summon spirits also have their share. The art of calling on intangible things like wind or fire, or even conceptual aspects like the mind or space, bears striking similarities to doll manipulation.
However, their magic isn’t classified as doll manipulation.
What doll manipulators create is different in nature from what other mages, often referred to as craftsmen, produce. Craftsmen create items that other mages can use, so their creations don’t have many restrictions.
This also applies to summoning magic like spirit art. Whether it’s a corpse or a spirit, if someone can summon it, others can use it too.
But doll manipulation is different. What they create only moves through their unique magic. Even if someone else attempts to take over, if their magic fades, it just stops moving.
Hence, doll manipulation is solely the domain of talent and fits into a broad category of magic.
Yeah, only the doll’s own magic matters.
That was the starting point of all the problems.
Stretching after finishing the modification of the doll, I realized this was the fiftieth request I’d taken. The student who handed it in had quite the peculiar request.
They wanted me to make a doll they could wear. They claimed that even worrying about its movement was a waste of time, so they’d solely focus on training while leaving everything to the doll.
I was careful to modify it to maintain their comfort. It was quite an amusing task. I infused magic into the doll, making it move. It then joined the other dolls gathered in the workshop.
Checking the time while warming up, it was 4 AM—time to get moving. I needed to check the tower. This was the weakest time for magic, so I always checked it around this hour.
Let’s skip the first and second floors for now, I thought as I left the workshop. Although the first and second floors opened to students and caused many disputes, there was one silver lining: I no longer needed to stop by every day.
They were all doing their best to manage their occupied rooms. If anything strange occurred, they would figure out the cause themselves and let me know. Then I’d just have to manage the magical circle a bit later.
I first took a round of the fourth floor where the workshop was located. I sent a few dolls into the vacant rooms. They roamed the rooms without a hitch.
After confirming that, I entered myself. The flow of magic in the room felt quite orderly. No issues at all, thanks to my usual maintenance.
Now it was time to head to the third floor. Descending the stairs and stepping into the third floor made my body relax. This library was very tidy.
The scent of wood wafting from the bookshelves calmed my mind, and the faint magical energy mingled in the air refreshed my senses with every breath.
Walking along the bookshelves, I slowly surveyed the area. The empty shelves were still abundant. I couldn’t detect any special oddities. I had never witnessed anything unusual occurring here. Thankfully.
After that, I headed to the fifth floor via the stairs. This was the most dangerous zone. Glancing around, I couldn’t help but smirk.
My living area occupied only a tiny portion of this vast floor. It was the safest room I had obtained through several experiments. Though even that sometimes had issues.
Still, it was better than the other rooms. The other rooms created a problem every day. Just two days ago, one room had infinitely expanded until it tore space apart. I spent an entire day trying to block the bizarre magic seeping out of it.
Yesterday, a magic meant to maintain the rooms got tangled up, freezing the time of everything that entered. If I hadn’t been in the workshop, nothing would have noticed and would’ve been trapped.
The professor said once a spell was firmly set in place here, it couldn’t be fully repaired. The only solution was to keep on maintaining it as is. Of course, that work fell on me, not the professor.
Given this region constantly faced incidents, I kept my guard up. I sent out dolls to explore the rooms, and contrary to my expectations, the exploration ended quite rapidly.
Oddly enough, no issues arose today. This hadn’t happened since I took on the tower management.
Why was that? The incidents that typically occurred daily were absent today, making me even more uneasy.
Driven by my anxiety, I meticulously inspected the magical circles on the fifth floor, but found no anomalies. It maintained a perfect balance.
Well, that’s a good thing, right? It makes sense to have at least one day like this.
So, I tried to think positively. That meant a lot of time left over. I just had to infuse magic into the dolls before people arrived.
This way, I could use all the remaining time to move freely. Under normal circumstances, I’d be stuck fussing over issues that arose on the fifth floor.
Let’s go charge the dolls. The dolls exclusively require my magic as their source, so I had to do a daily infusion.
As I approached the workshop, I saw the dolls lined up as I had earlier. I infused them with magic, doing it leisurely since I had plenty of time.
However, as I slowly charged them, something felt off with the magic consumption. In an instant, half of my magic was depleted.
This wasn’t how it used to be. When I first created the dolls, it hadn’t taken nearly this much of my magic to charge them all.
Yet now, after consuming half, I still hadn’t filled the dolls’ magic. After pouring in the other half, I barely managed to charge them all.
My expression hardened. Why hadn’t I noticed this up until now? Even though it was a daily job, I had just discovered this oddity today. After a moment of thought, I figured out the reason.
It was because there hadn’t been any issues on the fifth floor.
Usually, I was too focused on resolving the problems that cropped up there, which meant I hardly paid attention to the charging process.
Previously, I hadn’t proceeded so slowly but just dumped my magic in. I didn’t care how much leaked out then; time mattered more than magic.
So, all this time, I hadn’t recognized this issue at all.
Hastily, I looked over the dolls. Each one had its distinct appearance. Some resembled humans, others took the form of monsters.
They not only differed in appearance but also had various functions within them. Basic dolls that hadn’t even been modified often boasted several additional functions.
These were the issues.
With so many inefficient functions attached, these dolls had unwittingly morphed into magic-gobbling monsters. Each function consumed magic just to be maintained.
And these functions would only increase in number moving forward. I had piles of requests piling up already. I was looking at at least six months of work ahead.
My complexion turned pale. Even now, my magic was getting sucked away. What would happen moving forward? The outcome was crystal clear.
But I couldn’t just cancel the requests. I had already accrued points. If I unilaterally canceled the requests, I would have to forfeit those points. I didn’t have that kind of score to spare.
The moment those thoughts crossed my mind, I came to realize my fate.
Time flowed by.
And now, I was dying just as I had foreseen.
To fully charge the dolls now, I had to pour out three times as much of my magic. Emptying, filling, and emptying once more.
The entire process required at least three hours of focus. Once I’d squeezed out all my magic, a deep sense of powerlessness always pressed down on me, leaving no energy for other tasks.
Yet the requests continued to pile up. Just like with Kashian, for instance. Once I finished all these requests, I’d have to infuse even more magic into those little guys.
However, I couldn’t stop taking requests. I’d already incurred a massive debt of points. To pay that off, I needed more points. A lot of points.
Letting out a sigh while fiddling with Kashian’s bear doll.
The first time I made a doll was solely for my convenience. I poured all my points into it. And in the end, I regained some leisure.
And then I used that free time to earn more points. Just a little tweak to the dolls would earn me points. How could I resist? I was blissfully happy back then.
But now, as it built up and built up, I ended up in this miserable state. Instead of resting, I had to pour all my spare time into the dolls. I was now even more exhausted than before I started creating dolls.
Ultimately, this disaster was of my own making. My greed for points led to this mess.
Over the past year, I’ve struggled a lot to solve this situation. I believed three major solutions existed.
The most pressing issue was my lack of magic. Modifying the dolls and adding functions weren’t the main problems. The increased consumption of magic due to those functions was the real issue. As more functions were added, the dolls were consuming more magic.
So, I thought, why not just increase the absolute amount of magic? And the best way to amplify my magic would be to elevate my level.
My sapling had nearly grown to its limits. I needed a leap to a higher stage, rather than just increasing its size.
However, that leap proved incredibly challenging. The wall I needed to surpass was intimidating and thick. I even tried to procure some elixirs to help.
These elixirs had proven quite effective, chipping away at that wall. But the destination still remained far out of reach. After taking on debts to try and purchase more elixirs, the results were the same.
There was no way to keep consuming more, either. I had no points left, and forcefully raising my level would prevent any future growth.
Ultimately, I’d only slightly increased my magic without reaching a higher level.
So the first plan failed. I’d gone into heavy debt trying, but ended up with hardly any extra magic.
The second plan was to reclaim the dolls and strip away their functions. But the failure of the first plan rendered this impossible.
The dolls, once modified, belonged to their creators. To strip that away, I’d have to refund their points, which had already been devoured by the elixirs in my body.
Ultimately, the last option was all that remained. The part I’d been worrying about most: cost reduction. Maintaining the functions of the dolls while reducing their upkeep costs.
To achieve that, I tried visiting the doll manipulators in the city.
Upon entering [On’s Doll Workshop], I spotted Mauro. As always, he was fiddling with dolls. In fact, I often stopped by this place on my way to Professor Heisen’s tower. I learned something new about dolls every time I visited.
“How do you manage all those dolls, Mauro?”
I inquired. He was a mere sapling-level magician like me. Yet this shop overflowed with countless dolls, all imbued with magic.
Even if these dolls were constructed efficiently, I’d struggle to handle that many. He just smiled.
As I pleaded for advice, he casually opened up.
“Developing dolls is like magic. For every doll manipulator, the dolls they control are their own unique magic, a reflection of themselves. So whatever advice I provide, it might just harm you instead of helping.”
He spoke at length, but the main point was clear. It was a call to figure it out on my own. In the end, no assistance was offered. As he waved me off, I returned to the tower.
And now I found myself here. Letting out a sigh, the shadow that had been modifying the dolls for me approached and patted my shoulder.
It was quite the helpful little thing. In Professor Heisen’s lectures, it was merely a commoner who got brushed aside; yet when it came to making dolls, it was an impeccable assistant.
This shadow had stayed by my side for the past two years, learning my actions. As a result, it had become capable of modifying dolls in my place.
With all the other options failing now, this creature was my only hope.
This shadow not only held my magic but also functioned like a living being, possessing its own magic. It also used that magic to manipulate my dolls, having gleaned some of my talent.
The first time this creature moved a doll was three months after I recognized the magic consumption issue. Back then, I was left sprawled out on the floor from the side effects of an elixir, and that doll had moved me to my bedroom.
It wasn’t my doing. I was startled when I checked the doll and saw the link leading back to the shadow. When I saw that, hope surged in my chest.
This was it.
My shadow was copying me and thus taking a bit of my talent. So perhaps the doll could do the same!
If the doll’s shadow could move it instead, and if that magic base could lead the doll to move independently, then the doll would become capable of moving on its own, without needing my magic.
That was the thought I had while watching this shadow.
With that hope in mind, I began my research. But there was a massive problem.
This little guy was a special one given out by Professor Heisen. Only thirty out of three hundred mages could receive such a thing. Other shadows didn’t move like this, nor did they have this kind of intelligence.
I struggled to solve that issue, but had yet to find the answer.
Letting out a sigh, I stood up. There wasn’t much time left to ponder. It was time to infuse magic into the dolls.