Ex-Machina in Dimensional Travel

Looking at the intruder's face, he was confused.

Those inorganic golden eyes, devoid of any emotional color, stared straight at him. The cracks covering her skin and that lifeless face gave the impression that she was nothing more than a doll.

Chard, who often came into contact with different forms of life in pursuit of magic research, was certain that she did not belong to the category of living organisms. Yet in a certain sense, she somehow counted as life?!

But what confused him most was the halo above her head.

What was that?

He could only be certain that she was definitely not human.

But if she was not human, then what was she? Dolls could not move on their own. Could it be some kind of magic effect, controlling a doll to fight?

Chard wanted to ask, but he no longer had the spare time to think about such things.

He knew that he was about to die, casually cut down by an unknown and powerful being.

Among Demons, strength reigned supreme. Being killed by a powerful creature would not cause any resentment among Demons.

But Chard had his own conviction. He had yet to create the work he was most satisfied with.

One of the large horns on his head had broken from the impact, and his mask had been shattered, revealing a face covered in blood and making him look even more ferocious.

Tap, tap...

That human walked toward him again. This time, she had even deliberately slowed her pace, as though she were mocking him.

But Chard did not understand the meaning behind this human's behavior.

He only knew that she had deliberately left him an opportunity.

A trapped beast would still fight, let alone a Demon.

To complete that masterpiece, Chard no longer had the chance to seek out more materials.

So now, within this space, there was only one kind of material left that had never been used.

A living Demon.

Yes. Knowing that he had absolutely no chance of surviving, Chard chose to use himself as material.

"Fusion Magic!"

A Magic Circle appeared beneath Chard's lower body.

Black energy surged from the Magic Circle, first wrapping around his own flesh.

Then, the energy spread across the ground one by one, enveloping the remaining corpses of various creatures and dragging them all into the Magic Circle, where they fused with Chard's body.

Throughout the entire process, Xiu Er made no attempt to interfere.

She merely stood where she was, data streams filling her golden eyes.

It did not take long. Before long, the interior of that mass wrapped in black energy had finished taking shape and merged into Chard's final creation.

It bore no traits of any animal. A body identical to Chard's former appearance emerged above the Magic Circle.

The next second, it opened those pitch-black eyes without whites and looked at Xiu Er waiting below...

Test Complete, the One Who Drew Attention

Takuson dodged the giant Monster's diving attack.

However, the enormous shockwave that followed still sent him flying some distance, ending with his face having an intimate encounter with the ground.

He hurriedly climbed back up and spat out the dirt he had been forced to eat.

The good news was that the Monster had been moving too fast and slammed itself into the soil. It would not be able to pull itself out anytime soon.

That made Takuson's next task much easier.

Watching the giant Monster, pierced into a hedgehog by spears of light, gradually turn to ash, Takuson wiped the sweat from his forehead and casually found an intact tree to lean against as he sat down to rest.

"This Monster was really unusual. Aside from its brain, it was stronger than anything I'd encountered before in every aspect. Still, it was nowhere near that Demon called Zera."

In truth, this was not Takuson's first time dealing with such a massive Monster.

Combined with his battle against that Demon as tall as a mountain, he had accumulated plenty of experience fighting large enemies.

He had also planned out how to hunt that giant Monster just now, but he never expected the creature to be stupid enough to smash itself into the ground.

That allowed Takuson to save most of his time.

Still, he could not shake the feeling that something about that Monster had been off, as though...

"As though it was extremely unfamiliar with its own body and did not know how to control it at all."

Takuson pinched his chin as he stared at the place where the Monster's corpse had long since vanished.

Forget it. It was not dangerous anyway.

Casting aside the unnecessary worries in his mind, Takuson brushed away the dust that had stuck to him during the battle.

After straightening his clothes, he called out toward the empty air beside him.

"Teacher, the test is complete, right?"

As for why he did that, it was naturally because things had always been done this way before.

"Test completion confirmed. Congratulations, you have passed."

A voice identical to Xiu Er's but even colder rang out. A blue-violet figure emerged from the forest behind Takuson.

"Ah, it's Teacher's Doppelganger."

Recognizing that it was not the original, Takuson felt a little disappointed.

If one asked how he could distinguish the original from the Doppelganger, the answer was naturally intuition.

In his words, Teacher herself spoke coldly too, but there would still be a trace of emotion or something else in her voice. The Doppelganger, however, was simply cold. Whether speaking or moving, it merely carried out tasks mechanically.

Takuson had asked Xiu Er about this before, and Xiu Er's explanation had been, "No self-awareness, only basic intelligence."

He did not understand what this so-called "intelligence" was, and Xiu Er did not explain further. Thus, he understood Teacher's Doppelganger as a puppet controlled by Teacher herself.

To be fair, in a sense, that was indeed correct.

"Big Sister Doppelganger, where is Teacher now?"

"Answer: the Commander Unit is currently 1,934.5 meters to the southwest, at a depth of 276.8 meters underground."

"Uh..."

"Could you say that in a way I can understand?"

Listening to the Doppelganger's answer, Takuson felt somewhat speechless.

He knew "Commander Unit" was what the Doppelgangers called Teacher's original body.

But whenever he wanted to ask where his teacher was, he always had to ask again before receiving a simpler answer.

Xiu Er's Doppelganger blinked once.

"Correction: the Commander Unit is beneath the first cave to the southwest."

"Oh, okay. Tha—"

"Additional information: please move ten steps backward to avoid high-risk energy."

"Huh?"

The ground beneath his feet began to shake violently, as though something were about to erupt from underground.

Before Takuson could react, "Xiu Er" grabbed him by the collar, lifted him up, and threw him backward.

BOOM—!!!

The instant he landed, a dazzling white light covered the spot where he had just been, shooting straight into the sky.

"An enemy attack?"

Though he did not understand the situation, the habits he had developed over the past few months made him enter combat mode immediately.

"Negative. This is merely an attack by the Commander Unit. Its name is Metatron: Artelif."

"Huh? You're saying that attack was Teacher's?!"

"Affirmative."

"Whoa, as expected of Teacher."

If this had been a scene from an animation, Takuson's eyes would probably have been filled with stars.

After learning that the attack belonged to Teacher, Takuson relaxed his stance, leaving only admiration for Xiu Er in his heart.

After all, Xiu Er had rarely displayed her strength in front of him before.

And during these past six months, since the main goal had been to train Takuson, there naturally had not been many battles.

Whoosh—

A blue-violet figure flew out of the enormous hole blasted open by the white energy, with countless flying objects following behind her.

Looking carefully, one would discover that she was carrying a black, unidentified lump in her hand.

Only after she flew past did a powerful gust of wind surge out from the hole.

Raising a hand to shield his eyes from the wind, Takuson stared unblinkingly at the golden trail streaking through the sky like a meteor.

He knew that was the trace Teacher had left behind.

So fast. I can't see her clearly at all. As expected of Teacher!

But what was that thing Teacher had been carrying just now?

When Xiu Er flew past Takuson, he had still barely managed to see that black unidentified object in her hand.

After tracing a semicircle through the sky, she returned to her student.

"Teacher, welcome back."

The moment she landed, she casually summoned "Flame," reducing the lump of flesh in her hand to nothing but ashes. Thus, the Demon named Chard disappeared completely from this world.

Although Xiu Er had given him one final opportunity, and that Demon had indeed lived up to her expectations by fusing himself with the abilities of nearly every Monster in the entire testing ground,

In the end, he had merely become Xiu Er's punching bag. Before absolute firepower, everything else was meaningless.

After all, he was a Magic User, not a warrior. Combined with that cramped space, how could he possibly gain any advantage over Xiu Er in close combat?

He could only be beaten helplessly. Fortunately, Chard's fusion materials had included abilities that provided "super regeneration" and various physical enhancements.

This allowed Xiu Er to collect sufficient data while thoroughly "beating" him.

She also analyzed, replicated, and stored his Magic, Fusion Magic, in her database. The data from his body and his various personality traits and habits were likewise recorded in the Virtual Combat Arena.

As for exactly what had happened between Xiu Er and that Demon Chard underground, no one knew.

All that could be said was that sometimes, possessing an absurdly powerful life force was an extremely painful thing, especially when facing an enemy one could not defeat.

After finishing all that, Takuson hurried over to her.

His excited appearance was exactly like that of a child who had scored highly on an exam and wanted to show off wildly to his family.

"I passed this test!"

"Mm."

Without any extra words, Xiu Er merely nodded to show that she knew.

"Uh, isn't there any more reaction than that?"

"Answer: I already know the specific situation. The Doppelganger is my eyes. You do not need to report to me separately."

His teacher had always been like this, always capable of saying something that extinguished his enthusiasm.

Still, he did not take it to heart, since he was already used to it.

Besides, something else had drawn his attention even more now.

"But Teacher, when did you change clothes?"

Takuson pointed at Xiu Er's outfit and asked curiously.