LotM: Surviving as a Marionette

This question was quite crucial. Don wasn't an Scholar of Yore yet, and currently only the Theater Core could create Yesterday Once More charms.

With the limited supply of Spirit Worms, the number of attempts they could make was equally limited.

Unless he could rapidly advance to Sequence 4 Bizarro Sorcerer and then autonomously split Spirit Worms for the Theater to make charms.

As expected, he still needed to go to the Secret Order to capture a few Bizarro Sorcerer.

Don opened the system interface and took a look.

[Mission status updated.]

[Mission: 'Acting of the Marionettist']

[Having advanced to 'Marionettist', you have summarized certain Acting Rules. Please follow the Acting Laws and gradually refine the content of the Acting Method to increase the digestion progression of the potion.]

[Mission Completion: 27%.]

Without high-intensity acting, relying on ordinary acting was indeed lacking.

You have to know that Klein digested the Marionettist potion in just three months... Wait, why was he comparing himself to this reserve candidate for the Lord of the Mysteries?

"Spirit Worms possess part of the power of spirit bodies." The War Bishop answered Don's earlier question. "If you're referring to making some Bizarro Sorcerer and Scholar of Yore into Marionette, then yes, it's possible."

After making them into Marionette, one could naturally control the Beyonders' spirit bodies and make them split off Spirit Worms.

But if it fused with these Beyonder characteristics and then split off new Spirit Worms again, that wouldn't work.

After all, Sealed Artifacts don't have spirit bodies. Being 'alive' is nothing more than the activation of Beyonder characteristics caused by mental remnants remaining within the Beyonder characteristics.

It itself doesn't possess a spirit body, so naturally it's impossible to split off new Spirit Worms again. Devouring Beyonder characteristics merely strengthens the 'activated' characteristics; it's impossible to give birth to a spirit body.

"However, if you mean gradually tearing off the spirit bodies of Bizarro Sorcerer or Scholar of Yore bit by bit to turn them into Spirit Worms before making them into Marionette, that's also no problem."

Both methods could provide Spirit Worms to a limited extent, and both were sustainable development approaches.

Cut them open bit by bit, then let them grow back bit by bit. If they could recite "miracle" a few more times while howling and screaming, it would be quite willing to listen.

The War Bishop smiled. Half-hidden in the shadows, that smile had an indescribable sinister feeling.

Tearing off spirit bodies bit by bit while they were alive?

Tearing off their spirit bodies, then watching them grow back bit by bit, then tearing them off again, and growing back again?

Don smiled awkwardly but politely, then rubbed the goosebumps on his arms and turned to leave.

He had almost forgotten that this thing wasn't anything good either.

 Bizarro Sorcerer, you're on your own.

---

Inside the Inner Campus, in a spacious classroom within the Theater.

The Abrahams, who had toured the surface and inner campus areas and only had the innermost deep Crimson Campus left unvisited, were actively discussing something.

They were simply marveling at everything they had seen and heard. The vision that transcended their era was enough for them to digest for a very long time.

"Olsen, are you really not planning to return to the family?"

Yagonia Abraham, a quiet-looking female Beyonder, asked Olsen. "You're the heir the elders favor most. I'm certain that if you remained in the family, in five years—no, three years—you could independently wield one of the family's powerful Sealed Artifacts."

"Elder Holloway even wants to pass his position to you. If you stayed in the family, your development would definitely be much better than here."

"Just a minor noble..." someone nearby muttered quietly. "Really don't know what great fortune he stumbled into."

A starving camel is still bigger than a horse. The Abraham family was ultimately an Angel family, and its heritage and history filled every Abraham with heartfelt pride.

Olsen was equally aware of this.

It's just that...

A minor Loen noble? Try saying that to the groups of Marionette here, to the demigod behind his friend, or even to that powerful Beyonder who might be a King of Angels.

The other party could probably slap them from the Northern Continent to the Southern Continent with a single palm.

Olsen hadn't explained everything clearly to these Abrahams. Some things were enough for him to know, for the elders to know.

High-Sequence Beyonders might not be common, but for the Abraham clan members, even though the demigods in their clan had long since died out, the various extraordinary items and charm knowledge they left behind made clan members quite familiar with demigods.

Familiarity breeds contempt. Perhaps leaving these Abrahams here was the elders' intention—to prevent them from being forever shackled by the family's past glory, unable to see their own true weight.

The Abraham family's march toward extinction was inevitable.

And those fools who couldn't see this clearly wouldn't be wronged in the slightest if they were hung up as Marionette.

Olsen shook his head with a strange expression, only saying, "You should have felt it too—the full moon's ravings cannot affect this place."

Just this one thing alone was enough for Abraham's Travelers and Scriber to flock here in droves.

With this "0" grade Sealed Artifact present, the Abrahams couldn't easily betray either.

If they wanted to kill and steal the treasure, they'd have to see whether their lives were tougher or the Marionette here were tougher.

"Looks like everyone's here?"

Just then, Don walked through the corridor and opened the door to enter.

"Everyone, how have you found these past few days of touring?" Don's smile was very gentle. As a Faceless, he had always been able to properly manage his physical movements and expressions, making it impossible for others to discern any of his inner emotions from the surface.

"Very good."

Olsen was the first to stand up, with the surrounding Abrahams giving similar responses.

"That's good." Don's smile deepened slightly. "I've had some things to handle these past few days. If there were any oversights in hospitality, please bear with us."

Rather conventional pleasantries, but Olsen instinctively frowned, then looked toward Don, only to see Don looking back at him.

Ah, this...

What bad thing was this kid plotting while smiling like that?

Olsen felt a chill.

He remembered what his friend had done before. When a fellow Beyonder had tried to make a move on them, intending to offer them to an evil god, that person had been calculated into falling into, well, something indescribable.

Don had stood above, saying "How about I send you to meet the God of Excrement?" while using a stick to poke the person's bobbing head down into that indescribable thing... Alright, he was feeling a bit physiologically nauseous now.

Although he didn't know what kind of deity the Excrement God was, Olsen's spiritual intuition told him it was better not to know.

So what was Don planning to do this time?

The other Abrahams hadn't realized the severity of the problem at all. Although some people inwardly looked down on this Beyonder from a minor family, they still maintained a certain dignity on the surface.

After all, dignity was equally important.

(End of Chapter)