The rat snarled at me, talons scratching at the metal shaft as it tensed and crouched, preparing to pounce. I readied myself and as the rat leapt at me I threw myself to the side and into a roll. The huge grey beast smashed into the wall with a clang and thumped to the floor.

I rolled back to my feet and ripped my bag off my back, tearing at the flap at the top with my wooden fingers and finally pulling the bag open, searching furiously for the leather grip of my blade.

As the rat righted itself and spun towards me I ripped the leather sheath off the blade and raised my new sword. The blade was long and thin, about three inches in length, a centimetre wide at the base, sharp on both sides, tapering to a wicked point. The knife had a long thin wooden grip, round and as thick as a pencil, wrapped in brown leather, the same length as the blade. For me it was like a longsword. A mighty weapon to slay the beast.

I raised my sword in an awkward position, right foot in front and pointed at the rat, left foot behind and turned out for balance, sword held in a two handed grip, blade pointing diagonally forwards. I waited, feeling for the moment to strike.

The rat eyed me wearily with its beady black eyes. It thrust its snout forward in an obvious feint. I didn't react, holding my position and waiting patiently for an opening. Quickly bored with this tactic the rat charged again, leaping forward, teeth opening to snap at me. I stepped calmly to the side to avoid the creature's snout and brought my blade up and then arching down in a vertical slash, cleaving into the creature's shoulder as it rushed past me and releasing a gout of blood that washed over me in a torrent.

The rat gave a weezy howl as it tumbled past me, rolling and colliding with the metal wall of the shaft with a thump. Leaving a trail of red in its wake.

Not giving it a chance to recover I dashed in and lanced down with my blade, driving the weapon into the beast's side. I twisted the knife and then spun, ripping the blade from the creature's side in another burst of red, tearing a huge hole in the rat's hide and spilling its guts across the floor.

I kept spinning and led that into a jump away, landing backwards facing the rat. I raised my longsword in my guard position again and watched as the rat writhed and screeched, organs steaming in a pile in front of it as it strained its paws and clawed at the metal. After a minute or so of ineffectual struggling the beast slumped to the floor and finally fell still. Dead.

I breathed a sigh of relief and felt the adrenaline flooding through my body. Or something else maybe? Do puppets have adrenaline? I mean I don't have blood or hormones or anything so probably not right…

Whatever the cause I had a feeling of euphoria, an enemy defeated, a challenge overcome with just my wits and the strength of my arms. I raised my sword overhead and gave a cheer, thrusting it upwards. It occurred to me how ridiculous I probably looked, a little puppet wielding an old scarred pen knife, crowing over its victory against a single small rat. Well screw you, it was hard. I'd have stuck my tongue out at the non existent naysayers. If I had a tongue. Minor inconvenience, just pretend. I made a wiggling motion with my face at the empty air.

I looked down at myself and realised I was covered in rat blood. I started walking over to my bag to grab one of the cloth patches I'd stuffed in there to wipe myself down but then stopped as a new window of text appeared and started typing itself out.

1 Skill Point awarded!

Ooh a skill point, now how do I spend it? As soon as I started to think about my skill tree the box with my little black sprout appeared. There were now two lines branching from either side of my tiny tree, both greyed out. The left one had a line of text beneath that read ‘Integrate’, the right ‘Easel’. There was a little number one in the top right corner of the box. I focused on the left skill first and the box with Integrate expanded to fill the screen.

Integrate - Absorb external materials to alter and reinforce your form. Restricted to 10% of mass absorbed per 24 hours.

Wow! This was an amazing ability, game changing. I'd gone from being a human at the top of the food chain to a tiny wooden puppet, right at the bottom. Easy pickings for any predators who fancied a chew toy. With Integrate I could build my body anew from the ground up. I could literally make myself a new body, one even better than my human form. Much, much better. I rubbed my hands together like a super villain, chuckling maniacally.

I almost spent my point right there but I stopped myself. Best at least check the other one.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

Easel - Carving menu. Use the Easel to view your form in minute detail. Separate parts and thoroughly inspect. Plan adjustments that can then be actioned instantly.

Well damn. This tree wasn't puppet wood, or Homunculus whatever that was. It was pure gold! This ability was another gem. Though it wasn't very specific, the possibilities were incredible. The carving ability was great but making internal changes would be extremely difficult, organic forms were very complicated and if I wanted to make deep changes the ability to view and plan these changes beforehand would be ideal.

As I stood and considered my options I couldn't help thinking, I need both. These abilities went hand in hand, Integrate and Easel, absorb and then adjust. I needed them both which meant my next step was clear. Time to go hunting.

But first things first. I focused on Integrate.

Would you like to unlock Integrate for 1 skill point?

I mentally accepted and the grey branch flooded black. Like Carver I could feel the ability as soon as I unlocked it. It was like a hunger, a pit inside me. And I couldn't wait to fill it up. I eyed the rat. There were benefits to organic material, flexibility and the like.

Not to mention, fleshy creatures could feel.

I'd already realised the benefits of my artificial body. No fatigue or pain. I could run endlessly and not tire. When the rat threw me into the wall I hadn't felt a thing. But that wasn't to say there weren't drawbacks.

I missed sensations. Hot and cold. The feeling of the air on my skin. The feeling of being alive. I wanted all of it. I wanted my mortal existence back.

But there was a problem. My puppet body was simple, no internal organs or veins or nerves or any of the other complicated internal systems of a living creature. Just chunks of wood stuck together. I honestly had no idea how I was alive and I definitely had no clue how to start building a body with proper senses. Maybe it's not just wood?

I looked down at myself, wondering at my new body. Sure it looked like a simple wooden doll with poseable limbs but it was possible the insides were more complicated. After all, regular dolls didn't absorb souls and animate all by themselves. It would only make sense if there was something more going on inside. Maybe the Easel skill could give me more information, let me check ‘under the hood’ so to speak. For now I should probably just reinforce myself, maybe some kind of armour?

I moved my eyes down to the floor beneath my feet. I crouched down and placed my hand against the metal. Then I pulled.

A stream of grey dust ran up and over my hand. I cut the flow off after a second, only using a small portion of the ‘pits’ capacity, and raised my hand to examine my progress. The wooden hand was now entirely coated in a thin sheen of metal, completely seizing up the fingers.

I focused on carving and shifted the metal about, uncovering the joints I'd created and thickening the metal over my fingers and palm. I finished and clenched my fingers into a metal fist, then I rapped it against the floor with a clang. That'll work. I smiled and crouched back down to get to work.

I worked on carving for hours, sitting in the cold metal tunnel besides the oozing rat corpse. It smelled like wet dog.

I started on my arms. I coated the outside of my fingers and the back of my palm, leaving the pads of my hand as bare wood, still textured for grip. I added plates on my forearms as well, wrapping the wrist section of wood completely. I kept the metal thin and both arms took about half of my capacity.

I used the remaining 5% of metal to plate my chest and back. My considerations about my possible internals had me worried so I'd decided to take a gamble. If there were essential components in my body the chest was a logical place to house them. A little extra protection seemed strategically sound. I'd considered armouring my head as well but that would've spread the metal extremely thin. I could've forgone the armour on my hands and wrist completely but considering what I planned to do next the ability to guard with my arms could prove invaluable.

After I completed my work I stood and moved around a little to get a feel for the changes. It was then I noticed a problem.

10% increase in mass wasn't that much in some ways but it was a noticeable difference in weight. Adding the metal hadn’t had any impact on my body's strength, the increased weight would slow me. Moving around I could feel it wouldn't be a big difference, not yet anyway but still, this opened up new questions. And problems. It meant I couldn't just build a new body around my puppet one, if I built a full size humanoid frame my meagre puppet strength would never be able to move it. I'd end up trapped in my own body.

Along with adding base materials I needed to find a way to grow physically stronger. I remembered a children's book about a puppet and chuckled to myself, thinking about how all I wanted in this world was to be a real boy. Where's the blue fairy when you need her.

Still chuckling, I made my way over to my bag. I retrieved my discarded knife sheath but I didn't stow the blade, instead just shoving the empty sheath in. I slung the bag across my back and stood tall, blade in one hand held by my side, new armour glinting dully in the dim light within the cold metal tunnel.

Time to go exterminate some rats.