We easily find the barracks due to Luna but had to wait until the captain herself appeared.

“I see you’re finally here.” She said looking at me.

“Well i am interested in the dolls so of course i will come.” I replied back.

“Of course, that said we also want to negotiate.” She said.

“Of course you do, the shopkeeper i just came from also negotiated with me and got a guard puppet now.” I said and sighed. “Let’s talk inside.”

She nods and lets us through until we reach a large room with a round table.

“Okay, since we are talking about living puppets let me go on to say that low grade and broken ones would cost around 100 gold just because of the material but since few people can recycle this material it’s hard to repurpose.” She said then whistled and her guards slowly began to bring in broken dolls that had arms missing, broken in half, had a half broken face or the skin had nick and cracks.

“These are common Low grade dolls, as you can tell, the skin and body are made by poor quality material and their maintenances was poor and the creation process was low quality causing it to be hard and cracks after a while without maintenance.”

After that they brought in five boxes that looked like coffins and opened them showing beautiful life like dolls but there were still some faults to them like a broken eye or cracks slowly forming.

“These are Uncommon Low grade, the material is better and can last for around 5 to 10 years without constant maintenance but if maintenance is done regularly they can easily last 20 years.”

Finally two jade coffins came in and when opened were two dolls in pristine condition, one of which is the one that we saw her fight.

“These are Common Medium grade dolls or Godly Low Grade there is a very thin line that can barely be distinguished and only the world system or an experienced eye can know the difference. Anyway, these can last about 100 years without repairs and are probably some of the highest quality items in the nation, if not for the fact that they came from taboo felons, nobles would want this but we possess quite a degree of superstitions towards possessing items of someone killed filled with resentment so we seal them in these coffins when they come from someone evil.” She finished explaining.

We look at all the dolls, since there wasn’t any more coming it mean that there were no more.

I look at the pile of broken ones then at the better quality ones before returning my gaze back to the captain.

“So what do you want for each grade?” I asked.

She shrugged, “We don’t know exactly what you have to trade.” She replied.

Nodding i open my book and summoned one of all the types of common puppets. When i looked i could i see that the farmers had gained some traces of mana wood.

I explain each one’s features and who they work as they are but i don’t know how they are if i remove the soul gem.

She looked expectantly at the warriors, archers, acolytes and farmers. She asked me how many of each of these specific ones i had.

“I have only 10 spare common puppets that i can evolve into these types so up to 3 for one type and 2 of the other or 3 for three of them and one for the last.” I explained.

Her eyes widen a bit before she begins thinking intensely. Her eyes go to the puppets then to the dolls before she gets up and walks over before starting to examine the puppets slowly then closing her eyes as if thinking a bit.

“Alright, for the entire pile of destroyed dolls, 3 Farmer puppets, for common low grade dolls, the 2 archer and Acolyte puppets and for the Low Medium Grade…” She paused and looked at the farmer. “Do you have mana wood?”

“We only recently acquired some and it’s growing at the moment.” I reply.

“These farmers have trace of mana wood.” She said.

“Seems so, i think that aiding in increasing the speed they grow is changing the wood type they are made from.” I reply.

She nods and thinks a bit and looks at the two most precious dolls and puts up 5 fingers.

“Get me five mana wood warrior puppets and those two are yours. I can accept 2 of them for the older one but the one we just acquired we identified as better quality than the other.” She said.

I frown but after remembering the amount of rare material it takes to make one doll, not to mention the time it takes to refine the materials to make such a high quality one at that, it made sense for them to want a large number of high quality puppets made from rare materials.

Thinking a bit i look at the others.

“Your choice?” Misaki muttered bored.

“I think it’s a good deal, they are better than the Acolytes not to mention that the weakest ones will already develop a more profound personality compared to the puppets.” Hermes said.

I thought a while and remembered the two puppets i removed the core for the horses.

“Oh right i have two extra but to turn them into mana wood puppets will take a while…” I mutter. I let out a sigh, “I will take those that i can at this moment, the really good ones…” i said pointing at the Common Medium Grade ones, “I will pick up when i have completed the five puppets for you.” I reply.

“That is good.” She said and stretched her hand and i shook it.

Then i recalled all my puppets and began to change the seven others into the requested puppets and summoned them out and began to remove the soul gems.

“Wait, what are you doing?” She asked.

“Removing the soul gems, what else? I only have 42 of them so obviously i will not let them go.” I said as i extract the first gem.

She pauses and sighs before nodding after seeing they were all Low grade soul gems, the spirit gems will be able to handle the puppets to about 70 or 80% of their total capacity or it could be upgraded since the puppet is akin to a complete monster.

She doesn’t stop me from removing the others and she goes and inserts spirit gems in their place and has someone who knows how to bind them to do so with her.

All the while i begin archiving all the dolls i acquired.

“Cross-san, just a warning!” Misaki said in a deadly cold tone making me look at her. “Don’t you dare make them look like Chucky!”

Hearing her words i blanked out for a moment before i started laughing loudly and almost started to roll around but held back.

“If any of them turn out like that i will burn them to ashes myself.” I reply and smile as i collect the last few low grade ones leaving the rest for the guards to store for when i can.

I instantly put five soul gems in the Uncommon Low grade ones causing them to slowly open their eyes and stand up and although a bit rusted and moving slowly they still make a slow cutsy.

You have gained Low Grade Living Dolls.

Living Dolls

A unique doll that possesses a soul gem in its chest. They have very fragile bodies but when they grow intelligent enough they will always walk around with it completely coated in mana causing it to be as powerful as magical metals.

They possess tremendous magical capabilities and even low grade ones are intelligent enough to learn skills and talk, though emotionlessly. They perform most actions with magic such as lifting heavy weight by performing magic to lighten the weight or strengthen their bodies. Because their bodies are made by an extreme number of runes they can be considered a magical artifact.

Your five Living dolls have less than 60% of their health and lack 80% of their necessary runes, they will now be recalled.

As soon as the windows vanishes they turn into balls of light and are sucked into the book but their boxes in the minion box were red showing they weren’t being repaired due to lack of mana which is being sucked up by the mana tree.

“Well seems that is that, it will take a bit before i can bring you the last five some other time for the last two puppets.” I said getting up.

“Good, so what do you guys plan on doing now?” She asked.

We look at each other for a moment.

“Well i need to train my fighting skills since i don’t want to totally depend on the puppets, as for the others they need to help Luna and Hermes rise up the ranks in the adventurer's guild.” I said after thinking a moment.

“Is that so? Then is Misaki Shinigumi going with her?” she asked.

“Just call me Shinigumi-san and no. From what i can feel Luna is strong enough and Hermes can act as the healer so they should be able to deal with small problems at the moment.” Misaki said.

“Shouldn’t one of us go at least?” Charlotte asked.

“No it’s fine, I am trained with the sword so i can fight.” Luna said smiling.

“Now that we are on this, what are we going to do after this?” Misaki asked.

I look at them for a moment.

“I was thinking of just exploring the elf nation, don’t really have much plans besides training a bit and travelling until the waves of demons appear and we have to go fight.” I say.

Most of the guards and the captain just looked at us a bit surprised.

“You’re from the hero party so don’t you guys take missions and help people in need or something?” The captain asked.

“Says who? The guards exist for what? If you want to call yourselves heroes that is also fine since you do save people day in and day out like you did with those girls that were saved from that NTR guy. It’s simply a matter of perspective, if humans and elves were at war, your hero would be our demon lord and vise versa. Those who like to show off as heroes are just empty idiots wanting self recognition while those who don’t care about being heroes can be called scum instead of heroes but they do their real work.” I say shrugging.

The room was silent for a moment before the captain started laughing.

“I see, so that is your philosophy for heroes huh. I guess it’s one way to go, it’s true, depending on the perspective a hero can be a demon. Well i won’t keep you all any longer, i need to transport these little guys to a quality puppet maker to see if he can research them and learn their secrets.” she said and led us out.

We return to our inn rooms and inside i open up my book and look at the mana and progress of the mana tree.

Estimate time until Mana tree is fully grown. 02:22:14:12

“Three days huh?” I mutter and look at the map that showed the location.

At the farm most of the trees had died off as the mana tree parasites their nutrients and mana and it had moved to the middle of the room itself while all the farmer puppets were helping to grow it.

Seeing this i sigh and call out five common puppets that were deactivated and activate them and send them to help without changing them to farmers then command for all puppets to go aid them.

As all 37, including the mana wood horses, plant their roots the books mana regeneration finally surpassed what is being used up meaning that the tree is no longer using the books mana completely.

When i looked at the living puppets i saw their health rising at a steady pace.

“Wow, their bodies are so fragile that repairs is done so quickly.” I mutter as i watch and soon they were all in perfect condition but now on the side a new box appeared.

Rune insertion 20% complete

07:47:13

This was next to all of living puppets. “So it will only take so long for all of them to reach full potential. It’s quite amazing really.” I mutter as i look at the book.

I was curious about the books secrets and then thought about Luna’s advice about learning the secrets of the runes.

I thought a long while and opened the rune section and saw the slightly glowing moon rune.

“I will probably get another chance to learn more about it every time Valery does her ritual.” I mutter and look at the totally black runes i had in my list.

I look at the fire rune and after a moment i swing my legs up and sit up before pulling my pen out and slowly breathed. I tried to remember that feeling i had when i felt the ‘Moon’ rune. The feeling of being in a kind of trance then i wrote the rune that started to burn. I looked at it trying to glimpse at something.

After a while it snuffed itself out and i called it out again and again and again.

After twenty times i was getting annoyed.

“Oh come on! Fire is just fucking energy eating up oxygen and causing the air to vibrate due to the energy!” I shout as i throw the book with force onto the bed.

At once the rune in the book began to shine and i felt a single wave of energy come from it and then form the floating rune before it was snuffed out.

“Wait… do i have to learn its properties and how it works…” I mutter and take the book again and see that the black rune had turned into a blackish red.

“Fire is what i thought in general but there are different types of fire depending on the fuel and quantity.” I mutter.

The rune glows a bit more but barely gets more red. “So it does react to my own personal knowledge and comprehension of each rune.”

“I summon the rune and think, common orange flame is the weakest flame, blue flame is one of the strongest and is acquired by a lot of extra air into the mix causing the heat to rise tremendously.” I said and began to overcharge the rune with mana and very quickly the fire became blue. I felt another wave of energy hit me and the rune in the book began to brighten more.

I smile and with each summoning of the rune i recalled another fact about different fires and how some fire burning with different materials could cause the fire to grow stronger like with white fire which is Magnesium Sulfate and when being burned, if it comes in contact with water it will erupt instead of being put out.

By the time i went to sleep the Fire Rune was glowing but it was still lacking to go to the other page where it shows the runes i comprehended.

Still it was alright. Just for fun i drew the ‘Vibrate’ rune while in bed.

“Let’s see… vibrations are waves of atoms transmitting kinetic energy from one object to another or through the air and can travel as long as it has energy and a strong enough medium to carry it. Voice is the most common vibration through the air. Vibrations through the body can also cause mass disorientation in the body due to disrupting the electronic messages travelling through the nerves.” I say while the rune was floating and humming as it vibrated.

The rune glowed a bit and after thinking a bit i wrote it down on my arm and began to feel my arm vibrate a lot.

“Body vibration is irregular without… control… cells vibrate irregularly… internal damage caused by vibration…” I mutter and soon it stopped and i felt my arm sore.

“Vibrations cause irregular vibration in the cells… wait this makes me think of a fiction i read were if all the bodies cells ‘breathed’ together it would cause a powerful vibration together and no damage will happen.” I mutter and instantly the vibration rune glowed become light grey. “Wait seriously! If i control my cells they will cause a powerful vibration…” I say in shock.

I was amazed at the find, who would have thought reading light novels would actually bring out real facts but that is all. How the hell would i even begin to learn how to control the cells in my body.

Pushing it out of my mind until i can discover a better way to explain it i go to sleep.

“Master…” A cold voice called in the morning. I didn’t recognize it but i pushed it out.

“Master?” Another one called and this time i slowly opened my eyes and looked at the owner and what i found were five naked girls looking at me with indifferent faces.

At once a jumped out of bed and fell backwards.

“Ouch…” I mutter in pain and look at them and only now noticing the small lines that signal the joints of dolls but they were very well covered by the skin as the interior skeleton was human like but there was still very small divides between them that are commonly hidden by clothing.

Looking at the dolls, there was not a blemish on them and they looked almost human if not for the joint outlines and the small lines at the edge of their mouth that opened their mouth like a nut cracker yet they could stretch their mouth out to ‘smile’ and pursue them to kiss and it wasn’t trapped in place.

“Master, are you alright?” The one in the middle asked. She had straight black hair and elf features with the long ears as did the others.

“Yeah, i was just surprised since i didn’t expect you all to be able to exit the book without me summoning you.” I replied.

“There is no need to worry master, as long as you order us we will not exit if not summoned.” The one next to her. This one had blonde hair.

“Can i ask why you’re not wearing clothes?” I ask.

“The previous garments were useless.” another one replied emotionlessly.

“And one more question, how can you all talk and show so much intelligence?” I aske.

“We are Low Grade Living Dolls with soul gems. We possess necessary intelligence to speak and learn but no sentience as we don’t understand living beings emotions, joy or pain as our bodies are incapable of such.” Another one said. “That shall change as we grow and learn from master and our bodies improve with time.”

“Alright alright, please return to the book for now, also wear the clothing you had on before until we can find something that works better.” i order and the five turn into light and fly into the book.

At the same time the door opens to Hermes.

“Are you alright? I heard a crash?” He asked.

“I’m fine, just a surprise is all.” I mutter and get up before stretching.

I sigh and together with Hermes we go downstairs to eat while i suffer the fate of paying for Misaki’s breakfast again before we head up to the room so i could show them the living dolls.

“Wow, they are even more lifelike than before.” Charlotte said shocked.

“We are not lifelike, we are Living dolls so we possess a soul, though young and immature.” One spoke.

“As you can tell, they are intelligent, now before anything, please explain why you removed your clothing before i woke up?” I asked.

“These are simple clothing with no use. We possess innate knowledge to create a perfect dress for ourselves to match ourselves. We simply request master to allow us to control the mana within your book for a short time while we produce them. Seven days, one day and 9 hours each to be precise.” the one with black silky hair said.

“Wait what! An entire week?!” I asked in shock.

“Yes, we require a large amount of time to produce the magical materials needed then to refine it as our bodies are still pathetically weak but when we finish our clothing our magical control will improve by almost triple and our strength by a similar amount. It is also a requirement for us to continue advancing to become higher quality living puppets.” She said.

“I see, well at the moment the mana tree is in need of the mana and it’s hard to allow it since i have almost no mana stored because of the tree.” I tell them.

“We understand, we can still function at ⅓ of our capacity and aid master in expanding your amount of minions.” The middle one said.

“How?” I asked frowning.

“One function of Living dolls is the capability to gather spiritual energy and form a soul gem. With our capabilities we can cause your book to produce 1 every 3 days or master can make his exp crystals be converted into 1 low grade soul gem at the cost of 3 exp crystals. If master also wishes to make exp crystals that are open for other classes you can at the cost of 1 extra to refine another.” another doll with green hair replied.

“I see, then return to the book and make them i will allow one of you to make your own dress only after the mana tree is completely grown but you must gain my permission first.” I say.

They all bow to me and say, “Yes master” before returning to the book.

“Well that was entertaining, let’s go then. We need to decide what missions we can get for Luna and Hermes and one for us.” Misaki said getting up and we nod before leaving the Inn.