020 - The First Marionette

Completely unaware of what was happening back at the camp, I made my way back to where we had disposed of the bear’s body.

The corpse was charred beyond recognition. I had to burn it down, but I tried to control it so at least the bones remained.

We’d stripped all the meat we could carry and incinerated the rest. No point in leaving anything behind to attract scavengers.

I would’ve preferred to keep the bear intact. But with how things played out, that was never going to happen. No matter how much I tried to minimize the damage, it had been my first real fight too. I was still figuring things out.

Anyways, looking at the blackened bones just lying there, I couldn’t help but sigh.

But before I began the process of trying to raise this thing as a marionette, I wanted to check my status first.

[The Insatiable System - Lv.1 (5%)]

[Host – Anshe]

[Realm – Rank 0 (Pending Breakthrough: 2)]

[Physique - 226]

[Magic- 340]

[Control - 290]

[Skill Points - 5]

[Traits]

* Death String Puppeteer

* Cryos Titan Physique (Dormant)

* Divine Phoenixs’ Blessing

* Living Flame

[System Abilities]

* Soul Bind

* Eyes of the Devourer

* Locked

[Innate Abilities]

* Locked

* Reaper’s Marionettist | MYTHIC (4%)

* Fire Control | MYTHIC (3%)

* Cryos Titan’s Physique | ASCENDED (0%)

[Acquired Abilities]

* Novice Swordsmanship Lv.5 / 5

* Novice Footwork Lv.5 / 5

* Inferior Regeneration Lv.1 / 5

[Resistances]

* Fatigue Resistance (0.5%)

‘Killing that bear was only worth 3% of the level up bar?’

I sighed again. Looks like levelling up the system is going to be a pain in the ass.

[Try using the level-up reward before crying, host.]

I heard Avaria’s annoyed voice in my head. She had gotten a lot more personality after getting a name.

Not that I’m complaining though.

‘You mean the skill points?’

[Yes. They can be used to level up any acquired skill by a level, or to upgrade any maxed out innate ability or acquired skill to the next realm.]

Silence.

…

[...]

I facepalmed so hard.

‘So, you’re saying, basically, I don’t actually need to learn Adept Swordsmanship, as long as I upgrade the skill, the adept level knowledge will just appear in my head? And if I level up that skill, will the understanding of the skill also appear directly in my head?’

[Correct.]

‘I can say that this is completely broken, right? Or you're gonna call me naive again?’

[...]

[Yes, this is a powerful feature of the system and only one currently available to you. As long as you work hard and upgrade the system, more amazing features can be unlocked. Some are tied to level ups, some are tied to hidden conditions.]

‘Like the previously mentioned Sub-space on level 10?’

[Correct.]

‘Oh, Avaria, I love you so much! I wish I could hug you right now!’

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

[...I just felt chills on my non-existent spine.]

Ignoring her hurtful words, I saw the skill points and my hands started itching like a starved gambler looking at a slot machine.

Since it was literally a no-brainer, I immediately used two skill points to raise the and to the next realm.

[Novice Swordsmanship Lv.5 has evolved into Adept Swordsmanship Lv.1]

[Novice Footwork Lv.5 has evolved into Adept Footwork Lv.1]

The moment I did so, there was such an intense rush of information in my brain, and I suddenly just knew how the new skills had evolved. I now knew new sword moves that I had never practiced before, I could move my feet in ways I never knew.

I instinctively took out my sword, my hands and feet moved on their own like I had practiced these moves hundreds of times. When I came out of it, there were some scuff marks on the trees around me and the leaves on the ground around me were cleared up, it looked like I was moving around too much.

It was such an intoxicating feeling, I cannot begin to describe it.

[Acquired Abilities]

* Adept Swordsmanship Lv.1 / 5

* Adept Footwork Lv.1 / 5

* Inferior Regeneration Lv.1 / 5

I still had three points left to allocate. With no other options standing out, I could either push Inferior Regeneration to level four or simply hold off for now.

Since abilities could be improved through practice, there wasn’t much reason to spend points just to raise the level. Evolution, on the other hand, was a different matter.

For now, I’d keep the points. I already knew how to increase proficiency, the same method I used to acquire it in the first place: effort and repetition.

Happily, I put away the system boxes and focused my attention back on the charred remains of the Berserk Bear.

‘Avaria, we’re alone, right?’

[Yes, there is no one monitoring us, though we were being monitored during our fight with the bear.]

‘Oh? By who?’

[Identity of the gaze cannot be determined, but the moment the fight finished, it went away.]

Most probably an instructor. The place we were fighting for was a good place to camp, they would’ve guessed some aspirants might try to take that.

If it was other aspirants, they would’ve tried to attack us after the fight seeing as all of us looked exhausted.

Since Death Sense didn’t trigger anytime during the fight, I wasn’t really worried if it were the aspirants or the faculty.

Moving my hands as they began to be covered in a black thin surface. I activated , I moved the black threads towards the corpse and with slow careful control I managed to move the threads and connect the bones all together.

It was instinctive. Just interacting with the bones let me know which ones connected where.

As I connected all of them, I felt the ability trigger something, which was mirrored by the system message.

[Corpse damaged beyond repair to be raised as a Weeping Marionette.]

[The yearning stays. Demands more.]

[Berserk Bear can be raised as a Partial Marionette. Proceed? Yes / No]

‘Partial Marionette?’

[Correct. Due to the damage to the corpse, it is not able to be fully resurrected as a weeping marionette. A partial marionette will not be able to interact with the world as effortlessly and only follow simple commands. Do you still wish to continue?]

Yeah, what the hell. Looks like I’ll need to go out looking to hunt myself otherwise I won’t be able to get an intact corpse while pretending to be hunting with the siblings.

But I can’t just abandon them like this, I’ll think about this on the last day, that’s when I intend to catch up to the little princess anyway. Hopefully these siblings will be able to hold their own without me by then.

Moving these thoughts aside, I confirmed the creation of the marionette and the process began.

The bones all formed and stood up as if pulled by threads, they slowly flew towards each other connecting in all the right places.

Soon, an intact skeletal bear was standing in front of me.

‘Well, calling it intact is a stretch…’

I could still see the stab wound on the forehead of the bear, but it was now stitched together with small barely-visible black threads.

I walked around the bear looking at it with awe as I had finally managed to create a marionette.

Even though it was nothing more than a broken and burned corpse, thinking about what I could do with a fresh corpse.

I started giggling without thinking about it, but then it hit me.

‘Am I really getting excited about corpses? Damn it. I am becoming a creep, aren’t I?’

[Yes.]

‘Wasn’t asking you.’

[Still the truth.]

‘Shut up, Avaria.’

Ignoring the hurtful system, I looked at the standing skeleton bear, and said.

“Jump!”

The skeleton bear squatted down a little and with all the strength it could muster, jumped as high as it could, which was a little higher than I was tall.

“Attack that tree over there.”

I said as I pointed to a specific tree.

The bear turned around unnaturally, its head moved an octave slower than its body, like I was manipulating a puppet, moving its body before its head. It looked very creepy, but I couldn’t help but smile looking at it.

The bear, reaching the tree, raised its bony claws and slashed down at it, the strength was severely reduced now that it had been reduced to just bones, but hey what can we do.

The tree trunk took virtually no damage. I mean it looked a little scratched, but that's about it.

Looking at its attacking form, I got an idea.

Calling back the bear, I asked Avaria.

‘Hey Avaria, will I get experience if this bear goes out hunting?’

[Yes. Normally you would get the same amount of experience, but since this is a Partial marionette it will be reduced by 50%.]

‘Yeah, that is not a problem, after all, I’m not doing shit for it.’

[...]

“Hey bear! Go out and hunt anything that doesn’t look human!”

Again, the bear didn’t acknowledge or affirm anything and just walked away.

I couldn’t stop smiling thinking about all the EXP I was about to get for free.