Armor Blackie’s performance had already far exceeded Liya’s expectations, but then she thought of the brand-new skill Dumpling had acquired after reaching Tier 5—**[Granting]**.
Dumpling could grant its own skills and knowledge characteristics to other Pupus, though it required a massive amount of magic power.
Liya immediately used this skill to transfer her own combat experience with bipedal creatures directly into Blackie.
“Armor Blackie” began to make stumbling attempts again, but this time, its movements became smoother and more fluid with every step.
Eventually, it even followed Liya’s command and performed a clean backflip.
Liya beamed with joy.
“It actually works!”
This was much more convenient than micromanaging Blackie’s movements through **[Link]**.
Besides, micromanagement wasn’t necessarily as precise as doing it herself.
After all, “combat techniques” were mostly matters of instinctive reaction.
It was a god-tier skill, and besides…
Liya’s imagination began to run wild.
This “combination punch” could be used for more than just power systems; it could be directly attached to all kinds of precise, complex magic-conduction creations to serve as “Pudu AI.”
In the future, when building mechs, there would be no need for complex artificial neural systems.
She could just stuff a reinforced Pupu inside, and a “Pu-dam Warrior Gundam” would be born.
Even—
Liya thought of something even more ruthless.
‘If I fused a Pupu onto a giant rocket and let it steer the rocket at close range, wouldn’t that transform it into an intercontinental ballistic missile with its own cruise tracking system?’
‘I could cancel the fusion and let the Pupu escape in an ejector pod right before impact. The enemy would probably rack their brains and still never understand how that thing managed to keep chasing them down!’
Liya couldn’t help but chuckle at the scene.
She soon became curious about something else.
**[Granting]** could transfer skills and knowledge to other Pupus, but what would happen if she used Heroic Magic to reinforce **[Granting]**?
Liya immediately conducted a small test on Pika.
The results of the test caught her completely off guard.
As soon as the reinforced **[Granting]** skill was activated, Liya felt the power within her body surge out, following her right hand as it pressed against Pika and flowing directly into the creature’s body.
It was a type of “energy” that seemed like magic power yet wasn’t, with a nature that was difficult to describe.
Along with this transfer, she gradually felt a weariness originating from the depths of her soul—it was like the miserable state of a corporate drone whose health was declining, suffering through several consecutive all-nighters fueled by coffee, feeling simultaneously overstimulated, exhausted, yet unable to sleep.
At the same time, Pika’s dull eyes gradually became lively, seemingly filled with a spirit different from before.
Within those black, pearl-like eyes, confusion, curiosity, and reflection flickered—the very most primal emotions of a wise being.
*Patter, patter.*
Pika began to run around the room.
This time, it wasn’t just running for pure joy or to enjoy its freedom; it was searching and observing with a purpose.
A reflection in the smooth metal caught its attention.
It was startled by the reflection and lifted its right leg as it backed away, only to find the image in the mirror backing away as well.
This interesting sight sparked its curiosity, so it began to move as if it were dancing, and the reflection danced along.
After a long time, it seemed to understand something.
Liya watched the scene, lost in thought.
After a long while, she finally realized something.
With a complicated expression, she walked over to Pika and picked up the curious, large yellow Pupu.
Her tone sounded half-apologetic and half-sentimental.
“Congratulations… You possess the most precious and most troublesome thing in this world—wisdom.”
She never expected that the effect of **[Granting]** when reinforced by Heroic Magic would actually be “enlightenment.”
Among the many important scientific criteria for judging sapient life versus non-sapient life, one was whether a creature could be aware of its “self.”
Only with “self-awareness” could one simulate the thoughts of others in their mind, thereby constructing the various necessary abilities to maintain a society—empathy, conformity, understanding, narration, and… love.
One major reason large dogs and a few species of large cats were more affectionate toward humans than smaller animals was that their intelligence was sufficient to support the existence of “self-awareness,” allowing them to gradually understand the concept of “family.”
Hunting had nothing to do with being cold-blooded or not; it was purely genetic code.
Instinct was like that.
A mother cat would drive away her few-month-old kittens from her territory, forcing them to survive on their own.
Meanwhile, a human mother would welcome a 29-year-old unemployed adult child back home, nagging with a mix of joy and resentment while cooking the meal the child loved most as a youngster.
This had nothing to do with genetic code or bloodline instinct; it was purely love.
Awakening brought trouble.
Wisdom was also a curse.
Pika no longer ran around aimlessly.
Once its running had a destination, the journeys that fell short of that destination inevitably became tedious.
Liya even felt a sense of self-reproach.
‘Perhaps I shouldn’t have given it wisdom.’
But there was no help for it.
She had already tried it, and she couldn’t exactly take it back, could she?
After all, destroying a life was always more cruel than creating one.
Liya didn’t dwell on the problem for too long.
She rubbed Pika, and Pika seemed to like her even more than before, nuzzling its large head against her face.
Just as she was about to put it down and leave, Pika kept clinging to her, affectionate and lively.
Occasionally, it would even intentionally lie on her feet, playfully blocking her path.
“Be good, I have things to do,” she said, leaning down to pat Pika’s head.
She took the opportunity to release the fusion between Blackie and the armor.
The black substance flowed out of the armor’s gaps, reforming into a large black “dumpling,” while Joen’s armor pieces scattered across the floor.
Liya picked up the pieces of armor one by one, wiping them clean, oiling them, and placing them back on the support stand, caring for them with serious caution.
After all, she knew better than anyone how much Joen loved this set of armor.
Setting aside the armor’s own significant price, it also represented Joen’s greatest achievement before he turned 20 years old—defeating the Demon Lord was the source of his youthful high spirits.
—
As the night grew deeper, Liya compressed her body again, returning to her palm-sized figurine form, and quietly slipped back into Joen’s bed.
In front of Joen, she still preferred this miniature size.
After all, it had many benefits—it was less threatening, it prevented her from being discovered, and she could press close to the Hero without restraint to absorb magic power at any time.
Feeling the burning body heat of the man beside her, Liya quietly closed her pink eyes.
The next morning.
When Joen got up to wash, Liya habitually checked the rooms remotely through **[Link]**.
‘How are things over at Pu Town?’
Her thoughts traveled a thousand miles.
Liya’s vision passed through the “Queens” and returned to Pu Town.
In the large vat filled with Mana Burst Potion, a second Explosion Pupu had finally been born this morning.
On the other side, inside the advanced Pupu breeding spring, the original Explosion Pupu that served as the “ancestor” was currently curled in a corner, trembling.
The entire Pupu looked drained, having grown much thinner.
Its color was dim and dull, and its face wore a deeply aggrieved expression.
Clearly, it had “contributed much” and grown a great deal over the past two days to make the Pupu Clan great again.
‘Ugh… It looks just like a miserable middle-aged man hiding in a bathroom. Whatever, I’ll give you nine days off.’
Though Liya felt pity emotionally, her logic was calculating how to improve the breeding efficiency of the Explosion Pupus.
It was too slow.
At this rate, when would they ever achieve scale?
It couldn’t compare to the ease of obtaining Earth-attribute construction Pupus.
‘This won’t do.’
She rubbed her forehead in distress.
‘I have to find a way to solve this… the power of breeding… the power of reproduction…’
“Um, the Seventh God of Demons?”
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