Starting With A Trash Hand

Animated objects

Not living. Not dead. Neither undead.

The only 'inhabitants' of the ruins were animated objects. They are lifeless objects made possible to move by mana circuits controlled by a mana core. The mana core of these animated objects are different from the mana core of living monsters. Like undead mana cores, the cores of these animated objects contain a spirit which acts as something similar to a robot's AI.

These type of cores are called spirit cores and costs twice as much as normal mana cores.

One of their specific use is to make artificial workers, AKA golems.

But that's not why where here. Where here to use these animated objects as battle puppets. I mean, they are moving, human-looking objects aafter all. It's not wrong to treat them as puppets, right? Considering that they are lifeless objects, they shouldn't have any emotions. So no need to worry about hurting their feelings.

****

We passed a few broken houses before we found an opponent. It was a walking armor. A swordsman type, perfect as a practice dummy for Gles.

"OK Gles. Let's see what you can do." I smiled provocatively.

"Muu." She puoted but still stepped up.

Without calling out the spells name, bolts of mana began to take shape around her. She approached the walking armour.

"Clang." It noticed the approaching Gles and walked towards her. When they were about three meters apart each other, Gles fired out a bolt to the armour's helmet. The enemy was hit before it could take a proper stance. It took a step back to regain its balance.

Gles wouldn't allow this and followed up with another mana bolt. It hits the arm holding the sword, flinging it backwards. Another bolt hits the helmet again, beheading the armour.

But the enemy didn't seem to mind as it continued to walk towards Gles. She flinched, but soon regained her calm. She fired three bolts at its chest plate. It hits the armour squarely at the chest, producing a crack in its defense. The armour continued to close in on her. Gles fired three more shots and created a hole in the armour. A pulsating spirit core became visible through the opening.

Gles knew she had to target the core in order to defeat the enemy. She fired a bolt to the core, shattering it to pieces.

"Good job Gles!" I congratulated her. "Although, you could have aimed for the cores at the beginning. But, you still did good."

"Thank you." She was fluster red. "I'm still not as good as you."

"Nonsense! When was I good?" I had a self depreciating smile. "I'm not good enough yet. I still need alot of practice, alot of experience, more battles. The path to the peak is still long."

I wasn't wrong. This world revolves around the strong. I'm still far from the peak. I've only reached bronze, yet there's still three more ranks before I reach platinum. And I wasn't sure if platinum was the highest rank. After all, they always said that the martial path never ends. Same goes with magic. Knowledge is vast. The truth is more than what you see.

I sighed. I'll know it when I reach it, for now I need to focus on reaching bronze nine. What's bronze nine? Well apparently I just found out the reason why people say, "The true hunt begins with bronze." Because, every other rank before that was just child's play compared to bronze and above. Starting from bronze, ranks are divided into nine levels. Which are then further divided into three stages: entry, mid, and peak.

Right now, I'm at bronze one entry.

"Haah. Poor me."