A Core Ship From The Start

Is this Manaria Magic Academy?

Gazing at the castle, Duanmu Huai couldn’t help but sigh. He then extended his hand and quickly summoned Ogis and Lorena. He had a pretty straightforward reason to summon Ogis – she was his companion. As for Lorena, things were slightly more complicated. Besides being Duanmu Huai’s companion, she was also a representative of the Holy City since she was assigned with Duanmu Huai to serve as the city’s emissaries to Manaria during earlier discussions. Duanmu Huai had no objections towards this appointment.

After all, if this World Fragment ended up in his hands, Duanmu Huai would certainly merge it with the Holy City. It was inevitable that the two worlds would intersect at some point.

“Master.”

“Sir Knight, have you found it?”

“Yes.”

Upon hearing Lorena’s inquiry, Duanmu Huai nodded.

“This should be Manaria Magic Academy.”

“So this is the place…it’s quite beautiful…”

Lorena too stared at the castle in front, her voice filled with awe.

“Let’s have a look inside.”

Duanmu Huai straightened up and walked across the bridge towards the entrance, with Ogis and Lorena following behind him.

Originally, Duanmu Huai thought someone would stop them, but to his surprise, there were no guards at the entrance or an old custodian, or even a magical barrier to stop outsiders, which was common in many novels. They entered the academy with ease.

The entire school was silent. Distant sounds suggested that classes were in session. However, this situation was somewhat beyond Duanmu Huai’s expectations.

“Sir Knight, what should we do now?”

“Well…let’s find a student, inquire about the situation, and then reveal our identities.”

Duanmu Huai, with a letter from the archbishop of the Holy City on hand, was confident that his identity wouldn’t be doubted. So, they walked towards the castle. Meanwhile, Duanmu Huai contemplated the image he had seen before. Although it lasted for less than a minute, it was clear that it depicted a legendary battle scene where the Princess of Manaria led her forces into a fight against the Dragon Race.

However…the outcome seemed different than what the fairy tales suggested.

And that voice…

Duanmu Huai lifted his head and stared at the system in front of him, where a clear task appeared.

[Activation Fragment Task ‘Rescue Manaria’]

[Task Target: Save Manaria]

[This world is engulfed in shadows of darkness, repeating endless torment in pain and despair. End this all and open a brand new future]

“Wow! So impressive!!”

While Duanmu Huai was deep in thought, an excited, energetic voice suddenly sounded, interrupting him. Duanmu Huai looked down and found himself facing a brown-haired girl in a school uniform, standing excitedly in front of him. She looked at Duanmu Huai with curiosity, touching his body with fascination.

“Such an impressive steel golem! So huge! So majestic!! Who designed this?!”

While speaking, the brown-haired girl excitedly examined Duanmu Huai.

“Well…the armor is well made, it doesn’t look like ordinary alchemical technology, and there’s also that…”

“Excuse me, young lady, I am not a golem.”

Seeing that she was about to touch him again, Duanmu Huai couldn’t help but cough and interrupt her.

“Huh?”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai’s words, the girl was startled for a moment, then, bashfully sticking her tongue out, she retreated with her hands behind her back.

“Ah, hahaha, I didn’t expect there would be a person inside, you really scared me…hahaha…”

While speaking, the girl continued looking at Duanmu Huai curiously.

“But is there really a person inside? Are you trying to trick me? I want to see your face.”

“Of course you can.”

Duanmu Huai let out a resigned sigh before removing his helmet.

“Is that satisfactory?”

“Wow…”

However, contrary to Duanmu Huai’s expectations, the girl in front of him was not frightened unconscious or screaming in terror upon seeing his face. Instead, she widened her eyes in surprise and stared at him.

“You are really…incredible!”

“???”

What sort of description is that?

“So…miss…”

Anyhow, It seems that the young girl in front of him is still capable of communication, so Duanmu Huai started to explain the situation to her. But at this moment, a figure suddenly dashed towards them.

“Villain! Step away from the princess!”

Duanmu Huai looked up to see a sword strike aiming straight at him, instantly, he lifted his war hammer and swung it forcefully at the approaching blade!

“clang!!!”

With the sound of collision echoing, the sword strike was directly smashed away, and a man rolled on the ground and landed in front of the girl.

“Princess, please step back! This man is dangerous!”

Well, this is the beginning that Duanmu Huai is familiar with.

“What are you talking about, Owen.”

The brown-haired girl seemed somewhat discontented with the man’s warning.

“He was just talking to me, and he didn’t do anything bad!”

“But…”

Seeing the two arguing, Duanmu Huai coughed and interrupted their conversation.

“Sorry to interrupt, we are envoys from the Holy City, coming to have friendly exchanges with the Manaria Magic Academy… If possible, could you introduce us to the relevant person in charge at the academy?”

“Eh? Envoys from the Holy City?”

Hearing this, both the girl and the seemingly guard-like man were taken aback.

“Exactly.”

Duanmu Huai nodded, then motioned for Lorena to step forward, who carefully walked out from behind him and respectfully bowed to everyone.

“Nice to meet you all, I am Lorena, a Missionary Priest from the Cathedral Church…”

Unlike Duanmu Huai, who was dressed in fierce armor, Lorena in a white clergy robe seemed a lot more friendly. Upon seeing her, the two were surprised.

“Ah, really, Owen, I told you not to start fights so easily. Look at what you’ve done.”

“Uh… I’m really sorry… ”

Facing the brown-haired girl’s reprimand, the man named Owen seemed gloomy as he put his longsword away. The brown-haired girl also stepped forward, lifted her skirt slightly and curtsied to Duanmu Huai and the others.

“Nice to meet you, envoys from the Holy City, I am the Princess of Manaria, Ann. I’m sorry for the misunderstanding earlier. Please, don’t take it to heart.”

“Eh? A princess?”

No doubt, Duanmu Huai and Lorena were taken aback when they heard the self-introduction of the brown-haired girl in front of them. After all, they did not expect to encounter the princess of this country just by chance.

Anyway, having a princess leading the way made their journey much smoother. Shortly, under Ann’s lead, they arrived at the office of the dean of the Manaria Magic Academy. They had a meeting with the dean. At first, the old man was quite startled by Duanmu Huai’s terrifying armor, but they welcomed the envoys from the Holy City for academic exchanges.

Duanmu Huai also hoped to learn some magic knowledge at the Magic Academy – not that it matters, what’s essential is, once he had learned and acquired this magic knowledge, he could convert it into Soul Cards for use. For Duanmu Huai, who lacked magic combat capabilities, this was quite necessary.

Of course, Duanmu Huai did not come empty-handed. To show his sincerity, he brought some “Mechanical Soldiers” and “Creaturess” from Sky City as gifts for Manaria Magic Academy.

Duanmu Huai had realized that among the World Fragments he possessed, the “Ghost Mansion” should be the product of this era, while the “Puppet Room”, “Holy City” and “Manaria Magic Academy” were probably from the previous era, and “Sky City” was even earlier, dating back to prehistoric civilization.

In other words, this planet had at least three recorded civilizations, including this one.

Regarding Duanmu Huai’s gifts, Manaria College was quite excited. Although they possessed the technology to create gigantic statues, those were made of clay and completely controlled by magic. That’s not puppet technology nor does it belong to magic engineering civilization. Therefore, the sorcerer mech creations that Duanmu Huai gave them intrigued the students and teachers of Manaria quite a lot.

Naturally, Duanmu Huai didn’t mind. After all, as long as he succeeds in his mission, the world fragment of Manaria would be his. Allowing them to delve into some knowledge and skills in advance would ultimately benefit him.

In fact, he would rather the Manaria Magic Academy reverse-engineer something from the sorcerer mech creations he provided. Because the magical engineering technology of “Sky City” was too advanced, the Puppeteer Master in the “Holy City” had no idea where to start with these sorcerer mech creations, just like a carpenter from the Warring States period looking at modern industrial machinery. Even though Baddy and the other technicians were trying hard to disassemble and study the internal structure and principles of these machinery products, they are… just technicians after all.

Like technical staff in factories, they might be able to figure out how to manufacture and assemble these machines, but the underlining principles, such as the specific gravity of the metal materials or the topic of energy efficiency… aren’t their specialties.

Therefore, Duanmu Huai decided to hand over this area of research to the Manaria Magic Academy. If he successfully completes his mission later and includes Manaria in his World Fragments, then with the knowledge from the Manaria Magic Academy and the Puppet Zone’s craftsman skills, the integration of production and research will be just around the corner.

Of course, all this is predicated on… Duanmu Huai successfully saving this world.