Warhammer Fanfic: Starting with a Core Cabin

Lying in Duanmu Huai's palm were eight cards of various forms, each emitting a faint glow as they materialized before him.

[Improved Experiment (Bronze)]

[Cost: 0]

Add one Improved Puppet to hand.

[Puppeteer's Cloak (Bronze)]

[Cost: 1]

When a puppet enters your battlefield, add two puppets to hand.

[Puppet Surgery (Bronze)]

[Cost: 1]

Randomly give one puppet in your hand +4/+0 effect.

[Artisan's Conviction (Bronze)]

[Cost: 1]

Choose two of Puppet, Improved Puppet, or Armed Reinforcement to add to hand.

[Scrap Selection (Silver)]

[Cost: 2]

Add cards destroyed in this battle with an odd cost to hand.

[Puppet House (Bronze)]

[Cost: 3]

Add one puppet to hand each turn.

[Discarded Material (Bronze)]

[Cost: 3]

Attack: 1 / Defense: 2

On entry/exit, add one puppet to hand.

[Puppet Girl, Olgis (Legendary)]

[Cost: 6]

Attack: 5 / Defense: 5

When fused with a puppet, can summon a puppet to the battlefield, gaining +2/+0 effect.

If fused with 1 puppet, will summon Olgis's Puppet, Lloyd to the field.

If fused with 3 or more, automatically evolve two cards.

"Why do humans love humans? Why do humans hate humans? The answer—must be somewhere in this world."

[Quest "The Puppeteer's Legacy" completed]

[Quest evaluation: Unexpected]

[Reward: Soul Cards +6, additional +2]

[Trigger subsequent quest: "Heart of the Puppet Girl"]

[Quest objective: Travel with the puppet girl Olgis and guide her future path]

[Quest reward: Puppeteer's Legacy]

[Current progress: 1/5]

"So that's it."

After reading through the Soul Cards and quest descriptions, Duanmu Huai nodded thoughtfully.

Soul Cards were the real-world manifestation of matter from the fragment world. By activating them with psychic power, he could gain their abilities and use them in reality.

However, the quality of the first batch he received wasn't particularly high. Card quality was divided into Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Legendary tiers. Among the ones he had, most were Bronze, with only a single Silver.

As for [Puppet Girl, Olgis]—although it was a Legendary card, it was clearly a story-specific card. That much was evident from the quest, Heart of the Puppet Girl. Evidently, the puppeteer had worried that Duanmu Huai would take the items and run, so he used this method to bind him with a follow-up quest as a form of insurance.

As long as Duanmu Huai traveled with Olgis as promised—showing her the vast world and helping her gradually understand her own existence and meaning—the progress would increase, and he would obtain the puppeteer's remaining legacies.

As for the cost... as mentioned before, excessive use of psychic powers by Psykers could trigger Warp anomalies. This cost system was designed to reflect that risk. Currently, Duanmu Huai's heat limit was 100.

The [Puppet Girl, Olgis] card had a cost of 6, which meant that summoning her would incur 60 heat. According to the Warp overheating thresholds: under 40% was considered normal; between 40% and 80% was overheating, which could lead to various Warp anomalies; and at 100%... well, that depended on what kind of demon BOSS would show up.

So, if Duanmu Huai directly summoned Olgis, his Warp heat would stay at a steady 60%—constantly overheating—effectively turning him into a walking natural disaster, triggering Warp anomalies wherever he went. In the past, there were indeed players who used this tactic to turn themselves into human nuclear bombs.

Fortunately, Duanmu Huai's current advantage came from his equipment. Under the effect of his Warp Armor, most of his card costs were significantly reduced.

This meant that the costs of [Puppet Surgery], [Puppeteer's Cloak], and [Artisan's Conviction] dropped from 1 to 0. [Scrap Selection], [Puppet House], and [Discarded Material] dropped to 1. Even [Puppet Girl, Olgis] dropped to 3.

Among these cards, the summoned puppets themselves had a base cost of 0, while improved puppets normally cost 1—but under the suppression field of the Warp Armor, they too became 0. Although these [Puppet] cards had the trait of being automatically destroyed after combat, as long as they remained on the battlefield, they were essentially a cost-free combat force!

The quality might not be high, but the quantity was terrifying.

Don't be fooled by the [Puppet]'s low attack power of 1, or the [Improved Puppet]'s attack of 3. That "3" didn't simply mean 3 points of damage—it referred to how many levels of enemies they could eliminate.

In Soul Cards, 1 point of attack meant being able to take down enemies up to Level 10. An attack power of 2 meant enemies up to Level 20. Likewise, their defense value indicated how many levels of enemy attacks they could withstand.

Currently, Duanmu Huai was just a Level 10 Inquisitor. In terms of raw attack power—well, it was certainly stronger than a basic puppet, but definitely not on par with Olgis. After all, Olgis had base stats of 5 attack and 5 defense, and after enhancements and awakening, it increased to 7. This meant she could fight a Level 70 enemy to mutual destruction!

Even the basic [Puppet] had 1 attack and 1 defense, but after being fused with Olgis's card, their attack could be boosted to 2—enough to take down enemies up to Level 20. In short, Duanmu Huai now had an entire army capable of wiping out waves of Level 20 enemies, at almost zero cost!

And this was still just a beginner planet. Based on Duanmu Huai's previous experience, the strongest enemies here wouldn't exceed Level 40. Level 20 already counted as mid-tier.

"Sure enough, Soul Walkers are ridiculously satisfying in the early game…"

After planning the entire process out, Duanmu Huai felt extremely pleased. Back before transmigration, he hadn't figured out the real use of the [Soul Resonance] skill until around Level 30. By that time, most of his enemies were Level 30–40, and low-level Soul Cards could no longer deal enough damage to them.

So, he'd always wondered—if only he had gotten a full Soul Card set like this at Level 10, wouldn't grinding higher-level mobs have been ridiculously fun?

A Level 10 player clearing Level 20 dungeons—how satisfying would that be?

Now, it seemed he finally had the chance to live out that fantasy.

Thinking this, Duanmu Huai looked up, staring into the distance, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. Next, let's see how much experience you can bring me!

After that, Duanmu Huai wandered around for a while. About twenty minutes later, he returned to the original spot, where Alisa was sitting on a rock, staring blankly at the sky.

Now that she had cleaned herself up, Alisa's true appearance was finally revealed to Duanmu Huai. Before this, in his eyes, she was just a messy, dirty, smelly girl. But after washing off the dirt and blood, the young girl revealed her beauty.

She had soft, smooth, satin-gold hair that looked straight out of a shampoo commercial, a delicate and cute face, and refined features tinged with fragility. Her large, azure eyes made her resemble a noble young lady. Unfortunately, her tattered clothes somewhat diminished that impression.

"Ah, Sir Black Knight." Perhaps after bathing, Alisa was in much better spirits. Seeing Duanmu Huai approach, she quickly stood and bowed politely to him.

"Mm, how are you? Are you alright?"

Duanmu Huai's gaze swept across Alisa's red-rimmed eyes—though she couldn't see it through his helmet anyway.

"I'm fine." Alisa lowered her head, looking a little embarrassed. After a moment of hesitation, she looked back up at him.

"Sir Black Knight, what should we do next?"

"Next, we're not running anymore."

"Huh?" Alisa was visibly shocked by his response. "Not running?"

"That's right. We can't escape anyway, so we might as well wait for them here—and hit them hard, wipe out every last one of those bastards."

With the Soul Cards in his possession, Duanmu Huai no longer felt the need to flee. His own strength, paired with the Soul Cards, was enough to deal with the pursuers from the cult of the evil gods. Now it just depended on how much those cultists were willing to sacrifice.

"..."

Alisa looked uneasy at first, but soon, she seemed to understand something. She clenched her fists tightly.

"I—I understand, Sir Black Knight. Since you say so, then let's do it... Also, I have a request..."

"What request?"

"If..." Alisa paused, hesitating, then made up her mind. "If we really can't hold them off, then please kill me!"

"Oh?" Duanmu Huai couldn't help but glance at her. "Kill you?"

"That's right. Whatever those evil god cultists want from me, it's definitely not something good. If I fall into their hands, I'll not only be tortured, but I might also end up hurting others...

So... if it really comes down to it, Sir Black Knight, I want you to kill me—and escape on your own."

As she spoke, Alisa lowered her head again.

"But... I hope Sir Black Knight can be gentle and not make it too painful..."

Interesting little girl. Seeing Alisa's lowered head, a faint smile appeared on Duanmu Huai's lips. Then he reached out and gently patted her on the head.

"Don't worry. No matter who comes, I'll protect you."

(End of this chapter)