80 New Puppet

*July 18, Year 774*

Underneath John's apartment, John was slicing up the Ghost Ripper as a screen was floating beside him recording all of this.

It's been ten days since he started researching Ghost Rippers, in this month he also gained basic proficiency with Archive magic.

Archive magic is a caster magic that allows the user to convert information into magical data, which can be stored, enabling the user to gain access to previously stored information, such as other types of Magic.

And when he learned to use this magic he discovered a magical use of it, well, at least for him it's magical.

Although he just tried it on a whim, it actually worked!

When he just killed the Ghost Ripper and extracted its soul to be put inside a soul lamp, and before he started dissecting it, he did a small experiment first.

Since archive magic allows users to convert information into magical data, then could just copy the memories inside a soul using archive magic?

And the answer is yes, he copied all the memories inside the soul and has them stored inside his magic database.

This meant that he can have multiple puppets of the same type even with just one soul of the puppet species, since he can just copy their experience and put them into other souls that will make those souls move naturally as if they were another species altogether.

In simple words, he will be able to mass-produce ghost ripper puppets since he already has an entire set of memories of one, he'll just copy the hunting experiences of this ghost ripper and paste them into others.

With this, he only needs a replica of the body of the first puppet and can put other souls to create more of that puppet even if that puppet is the only one existing in the world.

This is the reason why he is recording himself dissecting this ghost ripper so that he will have a better understanding of its anatomy beyond books.

So, that when the time comes for him to make a replica he will be able to make one close to the original body of the puppet. So, he was extra careful when cutting apart the monster on the operating table.

After he was done cutting up the monster, John stopped the recording of the Archive magic and went to dispose of materials that are not needed like meat, skin, hair, bone, and stuff.

Then he went inside the Mage's sanctuary and headed for the pagoda to use the set of tools it had to make this new puppet. After putting the claws inside a special solution will make sure that the claws stay fresh as possible.

Due to the fragile body of the Ghost Rippers, the only material that interests John is its claws more than all other parts of its body that is too uninteresting to him.

When he was about to start working a knock sounded out from outside the pagoda, John looked outside to see that it was Sebastian, so he went outside and greeted him.

"What's the matter, Sebastian?" John asked in a slightly annoyed tone as he was interrupted when he was just about to start.

"Oh? Did I just interrupt you from messing around with your new toy?" Sebastian asked with a teasing smile.

"Just say it if you have any important thing to say, if not, then don't disturb me, I'm in an important part of the research," John said with slight anger in his voice.

"Okay, okay, I just came to see you and how you are doing. But, with your words, it seems that you are doing great, even better than most." Sebastian said as he went back outside the space to watch some drama.

John didn't care and just closed the door and went back to experiment with the right proportions for the body of the puppet.

*August 8, Year 774*

Inside the Puppet Pagoda, in the workshop, John can be seen laughing maniacally as he looked at the humanoid puppet in front of him.

"HAHAHAHA, Finally, Finally! After three weeks of toiling in this shit of a workshop and eating nothing but bread all these days. I finally did it, you shit piece of a puppet, why were you so hard to build?!"

After John was done venting the emotions he bottled up in the past three weeks, John looked at the humanoid puppet in front of him with great satisfaction.

It took John, three weeks in total to create the first Ghost Ripper puppet since their bodies are more complicated with a lot of small muscles and tendons that will allow them great feats that the human body cannot achieve.

The puppet in front of him had an all-black body including the hair that made it easier to blend into the shadows when he cast the array of Midnight masquerades, making it easier for him to kill his enemies trapped inside the array.

Its body is made of Golden bamboo and engraved with toughness and flexible Wyvern runes making its body tougher and more flexible than its organic counterpart, it also allows for great bursts of speed due to the increased toughness of the muscles.

Its long claws hanging on its hand were also engraved with toughness and sharpness runes that made them durable and extremely sharp, this meant that its attacks will be much stronger from now on.

All in all, with everything added, this puppet is now an official S-rank puppet, as because the only thing that prevented the previous ghost rippers from being upgraded into S-rank is their fragile bodies.

Now that it had been upgraded to low A-rank defense, it made up for its only shortcoming, sadly the mass-produced puppets after this one won't be as strong, since he only has one set of ghost ripper claws that he already used for this one.

Then John took out a lamp from one of the cabinets inside the workshop, inside the lamp is the soul figure of the ghost ripper screaming and smashing on the walls of the lamp, but it didn't affect the lamp in any possible way.

"It's time for you to be born, my current greatest masterpiece since I started creating puppets. My Obra Maestra!" John shouted as he took out the soul inside and stuffed it into the humanoid puppet.

He watched in anticipation as the puppet slowly came to life, without him knowing a shadowy figure is hiding in a corner of the workshop recording everything from when John finished the puppet.

The shadowy figure showed a teasing smile as he looked at John's state he looked more and more like the mad scientists in his previous life.

"Let's get you tested my greatest trump card." John said as he lead the new puppet out of the Puppet pagoda to try its abilities.

The shadowy figure in the corner also got up and silently followed John outside of the pagoda towards a testing site inside the space.

While John was testing the new puppet, he heard something that caused his expression to distort into great shame.

"... My greatest masterpiece...... My Obra Maestra!"

He slowly turned around to see Sebastian looking at him with a teasing smile while holding the magic lacrima that kept repeating John's behavior of being a mad scientist.

"Sebastian... Hand that lacrima over and no one gets hurt." John said in a gloomy voice as he walked towards Sebastian.

"Try me." After saying that Sebastian ran away from the place as he increased the volume of the lacrima so that John will keep hearing it.

John gritted his teeth and chased after him with his new puppet, which led to hours of chasing inside the mage's sanctuary.

[ Author Mini-Series

The author woke up to find himself strapped in a chair with the same device that killed his best friend on his head.

He struggled hard as he shouted with fear and resentment in his voice. "What are you doing?! I did everything you asked of me, and yet you all are killing me?!"

The door at the side of the room opened as the same cloaked man walked in, the author struggled even more when he saw this as he shouted. "Why are you killing me?! I did everything you asked for?!"

The cloaked man didn't answer as he lifted up his cloak causing the author's pupils to shrink as he saw someone who he never thought had something to do with this.

The cloaked man was actually a woman!

She had a mic on her lips and as she spoke softly at the mic, the speaker tied to her waist will sound out the voice of a man!

"Angelica! Why are you here? And why did you do this to me?!"]