First Puppet Making Attempt

After walking for a while, Minos arrived at the place where disciples could hire mortals and even other disciples.

"I want to hire a maid, she should be able to cook and clean." Minos said.

"Merth, are you not satisfied with the maid I got you the first time?" The person at the counter couldn't help but ask with curiosity.

"Don't ask what doesn't concern you." Minos said with 'annoyance,' his face going slightly black.

"Ahh, my mistake. Well here's a list along with their prices." The disciple said before handing a book over to Minos.

After flipping through the book for a minute, Minos chose a young girl at random. After paying the price, the disciple said he would send her over once he contacted her.

With all this done, Minos could finally get to work. Despite his face still being plain, the increased speed Minos headed home gave away his true feelings.

Since the first second he had learned about puppet-making, he had become fascinated with it, wanting nothing more than to give it a try.

And now, after a long time, he finally reached the stage where he could attempt it himself.

Of course, normally, even talented puppet-masters usually waited until they reached the Inner Heaven Realm before attempting to make a puppet.

But Minos didn't have that kind of patience, and he liked testing his limits. So now that he had all the tools, he didn't plan on wasting another second.

After arriving at his empty home, he quickly headed upstairs towards his room. After sealing the door and windows tight, he gently placed the materials onto his desk.

As much as he'd like an actual workshop to work in, he didn't have that kind of luxury at the moment, so this room would have to do for now.

A puppet can be split into three distinct parts that make up its whole. The first part is naturally the body, the second is the veins, and the third is the heart.

In puppet terms, those parts would be called the Puppet Husk, Puppet Vessels, and the Puppet Source.

Of course there are other parts, but these three can be seen as the absolute core of a puppet, and from the simplest puppet to the most advanced, they all need these three components.

For the Puppet Husk Minos had Refined-Gold, for the Puppet Vessels he had Nux Powder, and finally for the Puppet Source, a Spirit Stone.

If you were to ask any Puppet-Master what the hardest part of refining a puppet was, they would tell you the Puppet Vessels without a doubt.

Despite not having refined a puppet yet, just by reading the instructions, he had to agree with such a conclusion.

The Puppet Vessels were the veins of a puppet, the river that allowed the Puppet Source's energy to reach all points of the puppet.

This is the reason why Puppet-Masters wait until the Inner Heaven Realm before attempting anything. Without the help of Nux plus the massive increase in precision that comes with a full realm improvement, it was next to impossible to build a puppet.

With Nux, one could slowly drill the vessels into the Puppet Husk without ever damaging the whole, but how was one meant to do this without Nux?

Having reached such a conclusion, Minos couldn't help but feel that his previous determination was a little bit arrogant.

He hadn't even started yet, but he'd already hit a wall. While he could build the Puppet Husk easily, how was he meant to build its internal vessels afterwards without the help of Nux?

Minos couldn't help but begin marching around the room as he kept brainstorming different possible solutions.

He could build the puppet layer by layer, but not to talk about the difficulty of such a thing, trying to reconnect it afterwards would be impossible without massively affecting the quality.

While it was a solution, it wasn't a satisfying one, so once again Minos and his split souls got to work conjuring up other plans.

'I need a tool, something thin enough to build proper vessels, with enough control to manipulate properly, and finally sharp enough to cut through Refined-Gold…'

Suddenly a light went off in Minos's mind as he realized he already had something exactly like that on hand.

'The string is good, but while manipulating a rock is easy, to control it to properly travel inside the Puppet Husk will be a completely different level of difficulty.'

The only problem was how to control the puppet strings while they were inside the puppets body.

He needed some way to control the puppet strings with a higher precision, so once again he got back to the drawing board.

After thinking for a while, a material suddenly popped into Minos's head, causing his eyes to shine as he realized he may have his answer.

This material was called Curling Metal, and it had a special property. When heat is applied to this material, it curls up, hence its name.

Depending on the amount of heat applied, one could directly control this curl effect, and if manipulated properly, Minos could use this effect to control the string's direction from within the Puppet Husk.

After running to the Material Hall quickly, Minos came back with a small piece of Curling Metal. Fortunately this material wasn't too rare, so he managed to get his hands on a piece quite easily.

After going through the puppet string refining process, Minos soon had a special curling string, but it was too early to get excited, he still needed to see if it worked and met his requirements.

Opening up his furnace, Minos held the string over the heat, watching as it began slowly curling up, then pulling it back and watching it return to normal.

Seeing the results, Minos was naturally ecstatic, now having everything he needed to begin building.

Of course, if normal puppet refining was incredibly hard, then the way Minos wanted to do it was a hell-like difficulty.

Knowing this, Minos couldn't help but breathe deeply. He didn't plan on succeeding anytime soon, all that was important to him right now was to learn.

Fortunately he didn't have to start with the vessels right away, instead beginning with the Puppet Husk which was a much easier challenge.

Given Minos's weapon refining level, this part was like breathing to him, completing it after only a few hours of work.

The hardest part for him was creating the puppet joints, since this wasn't a skill he had learned while refining weapons.

Fortunately, while it was a bit difficult at first, using his sturdy weapon refining foundation and knowledge base, he quickly got a handle on things.

With everything done, a small golden mouse appeared on Minos's desk. The mouse was only about the size of a fist, but it's sleek golden body gave it an illusion of grandiose.

Its features were a little rough due to Minos mainly focusing on his body, but that didn't really matter.

Its limbs were all firmly attached with special joints that allowed it to move like a real mouse, even having a joint in its mouth to give it a real bite.

Ultimately however, without the Puppet Source and Puppet Vessels, this was just a hunk of metal, lacking the real power of a puppet!

After inspecting it for a moment, Minos didn't begin with building the vessels right away, instead attaching his strings to it and trying to manipulate it.

His month worth of training began shining at this moment, allowing Minos to manipulate the little golden mouse like it was the real deal.

Flexing his fingers and swinging his arms, Minos watched as the little golden mouse began running around the room, traversing obstacles and weaving between furniture.

His control was a bit wonky at first since he wasn't used to controlling something so life-like, but he quickly mastered the difference, losing himself in the joy of controlling the little mouse.

Soon, Minos had to forcefully put down the strings. As fun as it was, it was time to start making the real puppet.

Untying the strings from the puppet and placing it back on the desk, Minos pulled out his curling string, meditating for a moment before getting to work.

Just like weapons, puppets also have different qualities. While the Gold-Nibbling Mouse was only a One-Moon grade puppet, there would be a massive difference between a poorly built one and a perfectly built one.

This was the difference between the good and the great. Some true masters could even push something beyond its grade, allowing it to reach a completely different level.

For puppets, the quality came down to the same three components talked about before. For the Puppet Husk, Minos was satisfied, but he decided to only attempt a low quality Puppet Vessel since it would be the easiest.

He would only create as many vessels as he needed, and while this would make the final product much weaker, it would also be way easier.

If a normal Puppet-Master made a hundred vessels, then Minos would only make ten, sparing himself a lot of difficulty.

With his mediation over and his mind made up, Minos got to work. Controlling the curling string, he began rapidly spinning it between his fingers, turning its head into something akin to a drill.

With the drilling effect, the string began slowly boring into the Puppet Husk, leaving behind a miniscule hole.

This process was incredibly slow, akin to a snail's pace, and for the entire duration, Minos's concentration had to be at its peak, turning the process into something akin to torture.