While the normal citizens are fascinated by the message that came with pigeons, the small-time business owners and moderately reputed cultivators got bigger birds.
Crows and ravens, the city guards got bigger birds, the guard captain got an owl.
Not just them, the birds went to the students in every academy and to the instructors. The student got ravens and the teachers got small-sized eagles.
The higher the position the bigger the bird.
Pearl who is sitting in her courtyard is also examining the bird in her hand. Her lackeys, including Rain all got one themselves.
All her lackeys got ravens, but hers is a sea hawk. More like a baby one that was still growing. Bigger than the ravens and crows, but smaller than the eagles that were sent to the instructors.
After she read the scroll, she also got the information in her head, sent by the puppet's spirit.
'Wear the band on your wrist.'
Pearl was a bit confused by this, and of course, she didn't do as she was told.
She looked at Rain who understood what she wanted. He took the band that was given to him by the raven and wore it on his wrist. The golden glow of the bird completely disappeared. The bird seemed to have lost all of its energy for a second.
The next moment, his wristband started glowing with aqua-blue patterns. The bird that was about to hit the ground also glowed with the same aqua-blue patterns as it flew up and landed on his shoulder.
A bunch of information started transmitting into his head.
Rain was amazed with every single part of it. He explained all the details he learned to Pearl and she was also surprised.
She wore the band on her wrist and her sea hawk also lost its golden glow before it regained a glow of a different color. It is a deeper blue than that of Rain's and there is a hue of white to it.
She extended her hand and the hawk landed on it. Pearl closely examined the bird. It is clearly a puppet, but the detail on each and every part of it amazed her. It looked like a real bird if not for the obvious metallic body and the lifeless eyes.
She took in all the information transmitted into her head.
This puppet is basically a mechanical pet with a bunch of different features. The first one among them is the wrist band is the connection between the puppet and the owner. But a person cannot exchange the puppet and wristband with others. Once registered they are linked permanently.
The second feature is that the owners can control the puppets with just their thoughts. They can command the puppets to do whatever they want it to do and all the functions of the puppet can be accessed the same way.
As for the features of it, one of them is scouting. The puppet can be used as an airborne scout, it has an inherent disguise mechanism that will make it look invisible and resistant to spiritual senses that are not strong enough.
It will provide live feed to the wrist bands and they can see it through holographic screens, they can even record it, but the recording crystal is within the bird's body. They can change it.
Another feature is about couriers, they can imprint a location to the puppet and no matter where they left it, as long as it is on the same planet, the bird will find its way there, so it can be a good messenger boy.
Then there are attack features, the energy beams shot out of the beak are the most basic. All they had to do is charge the energy into the puppet. The puppets are programmed to be adapted to their elemental affinity.
So, for pearl, it is water elemental energy.
Apart from the energy beams, there are energy talon attacks. The talons will be supercharged with elemental energy and when they land on the target, there is a high chance of energy corrosion to the target.
Then there are wing slashes, a physical beak attack and there is also self-destruction.
The birds will gather energy from the atmosphere enough to perform regular scouting, but for the attacks, it is better for the owners to charge them by themselves, it would take way too long for the birds to gather enough to create attacks.
And there is one final attack.
They can record their own special attack into the bird's body. The attack will be trapped in the inscription and the bird will be able to release that up on command.
Pearl was very impressed by the features of the bird.
It opened her eyes to a brand new world that she never even imagined.
Beside her, White is also checking his bird out. His bird is also a bigger one than raven. But instead of a Sea hawk, it looked like a falcon. The size is same as that of Pearl's Seahawk.
His is not glowing with any elemental color. It is neutral white signifying his lack of elemental affinity.
"Do you like it?"
Pearl asked the masked man.
White examined the bird in his hands and nodded.
"I do. But I wonder, who is extravagant enough to give these out as gifts with an invitation?"
"I don't know. But I know that anyone who received this invitation would definitely visit the place tomorrow."
"I am attending for sure. I don't know about the rest." White said as he tested the flight ability of the bird.
The students and the citizens are not the only ones who are wondering about this.
At this moment, in every academy, all the instructors, elders and deans were meeting in their academies.
In Gambler's Academy.
The dean who hasn't made any appearance for a long time is currently sitting on his seat as the head of the meeting. He sat with his legs up on the chair like a kid. He had a thick white beard and his long white hair was tied up in a bun on the top of his head. His clothes are mostly messy.
He controlled his puppet and made it fly across the room. There is genuine excitement in his eyes. Just like how a kid acts when they got their first remote control toy.
"Dean, please stop it. It is distracting us from the discussion."
Dean looked at the elder who spoke and shook his head in resignation. He made the bird land in front of him on the table.
His puppet is completely different from the rest of the students, instructors and elders. Because it was modeled after the image of a genuine divine beast. To be precise, after a Golden Sun Crow.
It is bigger than any of the birds in the room. The elders had the next big size. They all got birds that looked like Condor.
The instructors got some big falcons and hawks.
"So, what is it that you want to discuss?" Dean asked as he fiddled with the wings of the bird. He is just like a kid, trying to see how these joints are moving while they are in his hands.
The elder sighed and said.
"Originally our meeting was held to handle the issue with the new freshman Sam. The guy that was taken in as a recommended candidate.
Dean, we never really accepted anyone into the academy through recommendations. Why did we do now?"
"Because the recommendation is from someone we cannot refuse. Did he cross any rules?"
"Not exactly, but…"
"Then what? Leave the kids be. That is how we handled the situation until now. There were unique geniuses and eccentric geniuses, they all behaved in their own ways and we let it slide. Just because this guy is acting in a way, you never imagined, do you think we should change our ways and pressure him?
Yes, he might destroy a few of other prodigies in this generation, but that also means, we will welcome the really resilient prodigies who use his pressure as whetstone. Don't act like the stuck up guys in other academies.
As long as he doesn't break any rules, don't bother with him. That is that."
The elders didn't know what to say. Dean kind of killed their argument completely.
The Vice dean, who is also called the First elder spoke up finally.
"Alright, disciplinary elder already gave him a warning. Lets keep on observing and as dean said, we will deal with him if he really goes against the rules.
Now, let's talk the other thing.
The bird puppets and the place called Hub."
"I want to go there tomorrow. In fact, just cancel tomorrow's classes, let the students visit that place too."
The Dean said as he raised his bird high up and observed it from the bottom.
Another elder spoke up doubtfully.
"Dean, don't you think we should be a bit cautious about this? Who is mad enough to give away such valuable things? Do you really think they won't have any idea or an angle of their own?"
"Of course they would. But sometimes we have to let them play their cards before we find out what exactly they want. So, we are going tomorrow. That is that."
And another discussion killed just like that.
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