Class Change: Puppet Master (rank A)

[p=left]“You inherited this position of the previous Puppet Master”[/p][p=left]+ Manipulation stat, Imagination stat[/p][p=left]+50 Int, +50 Wis, +20 Man, + 5 Ima[/p][p=left]+ Basic Puppet Master skills: Woodworking, Direct Puppet Control, Inventor, Manipulation Mastery, Lie, Sweet Talk[/p][p=left]Ability to organise simple shows[/p][p=left]Easier to gain reputation and fame with the people and nobles[/p][p=left]Skills that affect the senses and mind of creatures are 25% more effective[/p]

Gorlois couldn’t believe he was this lucky, he had gotten an A rank hidden class.

The classes where ranked by a simple ranks system with the classes ranking from E to A. E rank classes were generally non combat classes with almost no potential to get the player to the ultimate goal of the game which was becoming Emperor. Then came the common unspecialized warrior, ranged and mage classes at rank D just like the merchant class these had some potential but as they weren’t specialized they were still not that strong. The specialized warrior, mage and ranged classes were rank C and B. A beginning mage that used only fire magic because he liked it had less potential to become emperor than a fire mage that had specialized in it and taken test to become it and so on. Just like a normal warrior that fought with a sword was less powerful then a knight that fought with the exact same weapon, even if their skill set was the same. The hidden classes were categorized in the C to A ranks. With the less powerful and easy to obtain hidden classes at Rank C and the powerful or unique hidden classes at rank A, there was a Rumour that there was one S rank class which was of course Emperor of Versailles as that is the ultimate position in Royal Road.

It seemed that his class had a lot of potential or that it was unique but he wondered what the skills were so he said,

“New Skills”

Woodworking (Production) [beginner lvl 01 00.00%]

[p=left]You can make simple things out of wood[/p]

Direct Puppet Control (Active) [beginner lvl 01 00.00%]

[p=left]Control every movement of a puppet with your mind and magical powers, It has no special skills nor can you channel them through it unless you put the spell or skill on it.[/p][p=left]Mana cost: 10 mana/min[/p]

Inventor (Production) [beginner lvl 01 00.00%]

[p=left]Makes it easier to make more difficult constructions, enables you to invent new things, experiments have less chance to fail[/p]

Manipulation Mastery (Passive) [beginner lvl 01 00.00%]

[p=left]Makes it easier to manipulate intelligent and unintelligent creatures, Humanoids trust you easier.[/p]

Lie (Active) [beginner lvl 01 00.00%]

[p=left]You lie believable, automatically activates when not telling the whole pure truth. Your lies become more believable[/p][p=left]Mana cost: 15 mana[/p]

Sweet Talk (Active) [beginner lvl 01 00.0%]

[p=left]Persuade someone with flattering words, automatically activates when persuading someone. Flattery becomes more effective, gaining trust of the Inhabitants of the world becomes easier.[/p][p=left]Mana cost: 2 mana / sec[/p]

These skills weren’t entirely what Gorlois had expected so he asked the previous Puppet Master,

“Puppet Master, what exactly does a puppet master do? Also could you tell me your name?”

“I have long forgotten my name but call me Strigidus, somehow that name reminds me of my past. As for the first question this class was created by my ancestors in the pursuit of power and to please a certain deity, that you as Puppet Master will surely meet when the time is right. She is a cruel deity in a way, there are tales about her cutting of the head of one that did not respect the rules of her temple. So be warned. The Puppet Masters were often involved with politics and war tactics from behind the scenes but they were carpenters as well, creating the most beautiful puppets to perform with and to control while fighting. At times a cold hearted manipulator, at times commanders at the fronts of many wars but now forgotten. Forgotten, just like their goddess. The believers of this Goddess and her house of Gods were always a minority on this continent were the majority always believed in the so called gods of the north, the Aesir and Vanir. A task of the Puppet Masters was to keep the religion of this goddess from being forgotten but after I got stuck in this body a long time ago the religion surely has been forgotten by now and lost all of it’s believers. But well you will have to meet the goddess herself first, and for that you will have to get stronger.”

“Strigidus can you tell me the name of the goddess?”

“Ah no, I’m ashamed to tell you I’ve forgotten that as well. When I transferred the most of my mind and soul into this puppet while giving it some mana to make it move when my successor came I lost many memories, some of the most important ones I sealed up in a book. The plan was that I would transfer to the book in front of me when the successor came so that time is now. After that you can use this fine puppet as I think making one would probably be to difficult for someone in your state. Ah I my mana is almost gone, I will now transfer to the book, in that book I can probably make new mana, but you can always pour mana into it when you need me, which you will most certainly do at some points of your career. Metalambanoo!”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The last thing was a shouted out loud and was probably the keyword for some kind of spell as the puppet and the book on the table got a blue glow after 10 seconds the glow faded and the puppet fell from the chair.

Gorlois went to the book and flipped it open inside there where many blank pages, well the pages where almost all blank except the first 10 pages. Those first 10 pages where mostly about making puppet’s and the basics of a puppet master. The book had a title now as well, the title was Strigidus. Gorlois looked at the puppet on the floor and some basic information popped up.

Training Puppet

[p=left]A wooden puppet made by the previous Puppet Master to help his successor get the basics of puppetry. In possession of the new Puppet Master, Gorlois.[/p][p=left]Durability 150/1000[/p][p=left]Damage: 1-1 Defence: 15[/p]

The puppet seemed to be made only for it’s functionality. It wasn’t painted except for symbols that seemed like eyes where the eyes should be, and there was a simple mouth carved out, Gorlois thought it shouldn’t have been able to talk with such a simple mouth, but it might have been that the skills of the precious possessor where so great that he didn’t need more than such a mouth. The low durability probably meant that the puppet had been down here for a long, long time.

Gorlois decided that he should first read all the books in the library while using the puppet to flip the pages and not his telekinesis, so that his direct puppet control skill he would train it a little bit at the same time. It was quite difficult to control the puppet as Gorlois had to change his perspective without actually possessing it. It was kind of like the third person games for the consoles from before the era of virtual reality. Except the precise controlling the puppet needed was much more difficult, at the start it took him 5 minutes just to flip over one page.

There were books about all kinds of subjects, Gorlois first read the scripts of plays many of them were about the epic battles between gods, like the Vanir, the Aesir. Gorlois already knew about these gods as they were roughly the same as in the real world yet there were many different things. The Vanir and Aesir had once fought each other in a big war before uniting and forming the alliance that was commonly called the gods of the north, they were preparing for the end of the world afterwards. The other god factions and families had less followers than these two groups combined and became envious of it. They formed a second alliance against them, this one was just called the alliance, this was mostly to keep themselves from being forgotten because their groups of followers where diminishing . In the end a war broke out, when Loki somehow was able to offend a goddess of love from the alliance of the other gods, that found that the gods of the north became to arrogant and started to suffer from hubris which was, even in the world of gods one of the worst crimes.

The most terrible war between all gods. That was the one that broke out between these gods of the north and the alliance of all the other the gods. the Olympic pantheon faction was the most powerful in this alliance. The Olympic pantheon alone was once just as powerful as the gods of the north, even if they had already a smaller amount of believers but somehow most people left the faith of the pantheon for the promises that one god of the Vanir made. It wasn’t Loki of the Aesir that won over the hearts of many believers by trickery, but Freya of the Vanir that did with her good looks and promises of a good harvest. But still it was Loki that triggered the war by insulting Aphrodite. The war was bloody and many gods were injured in it, it was also felt in the mortal realms where the people of different faiths began to fight as well. The war of the mortals was maybe even worse than the one of the gods as the mortals died and the gods didn’t, at the worst they would become unable to move for a long period of time, a few millenniums or so.

The alliance seemed to be a solid group with the Olympic Pantheon at the head of it but in fact it wasn’t: there were infightings almost every day because of the decisions that had to be made. The Olympic goddess of tactics and god of war naturally thought that they would be the commanders in the war but the other gods didn’t agree with this and this created a tense situation. The war lasted for around 200 years and the alliance was winning but Loki had somehow infiltrated their camp and fanned the old flames of hatred between the smaller factions and when the Olympic gods tried to quell the arguments it became a infighting. The gods of the north attacked when the alliance was divided and won the war. This started a new era of peace between the gods. This actually meant that the gods of the north and a few other gods that switched side at the end of the war had almost all the believers and that the losing alliance of gods was left with almost no power to be forgotten.

Well this whole story was of course far more complex and took over a quarter of all the books in the small library. And Gorlois had to read for a week in-game time to finish it but he didn’t get any info about what goddess the previous puppet master had been talking, because almost all gods were described in the books with almost no specific attention for one. He got a few points in intelligence and wisdom for reading the story and could control the puppet better than first.

He thought it was time to start making his own special puppet to get back, he was afraid to be attacked by the guardian puppets if they would notice him so he choose something small and fast. He used the puppet control skill to control the training puppet and let it take out one of the knives from the rack and started by making 24 small round sticks through which he drilled holes so they became small tubes, then he carved a body with a small round front and a big behind he then used a stiff wire to put through 3 tubes and then attach to the larger body, repeating this four times at each side. This way he made a really simple spiderlike puppet. He carved a simple human face with eyes in it.

He possessed the spider puppet, trained for an hour on how to make it walk fast. While controlling the training puppet simultaneously he guessed that if the training puppet was just walking through without being possessed the guardian puppets wouldn’t care but that if he were to possess it, they would attack. This was in a way a weird way of thinking but Gorlois might as well just have wanted to walk as a spider just for fun. When he thought he was ready he made the training puppet hold the book Strigidus and one of the knives that were normally used to carve in wood with, he was planning to train in the areas outside the village and to revisit the wood mill and church for more clues.

Author's note:

Proofread by Shun let's thank him for it

Ah it's been longer than expected .-. and I won't keep the promise of a weekly fanfic am just to busy. Well I hope you like it and as always tell me if there is still something wrong