Chapter 1 A Small Detour

The North Sea Fleet only sent a squadron, which wasn't much of a threat to Soren's current strength.

Without a Tier 6 professional or some special cursed object, he had nothing to fear.

Besides, the squadron leader, "Thousand-Machine Puppet Hand" Vasily Tyermido, might have a fearsome reputation, but he was also rooted in the legacy of the Puppet Master.

Since they were in the same profession, almost all his methods were within a predictable range.

If a real fight broke out, Soren wouldn't be easily defeated, at least.

As for the North Sea Overlord's deterrence?

Soren didn't have anything to be afraid of.

He unlocked the Eight-Armed Spider Spear and sprinted across the sea.

This action not only stunned Kama and the crew of the North Wind.

Even the pirates of the Seventh Squadron on the opposite pirate ship were confused.

Was he rushing to his death?

That was a fully staffed squadron of the North Sea Fleet, more than five hundred elite pirates!

...

Vasily didn't want to stop his son from rushing to settle accounts with his "lover."

Although he knew that someone who could make a Tier 4 Rune Puppet must be strong, he wasn't too worried.

After all, this was the North Sea.

But Vasily never expected that the other party would actually dare to kill!

His only son was killed just like that?

Vasily didn't come to his senses for a moment.

Someone dared to touch the North Sea Fleet?

In his rage, he was about to order them to chase after the killer, not let him escape.

But to his surprise, not only did that person not run, but he was actually charging toward them alone?

Looking at the Eight-Armed Spider Spear behind Soren, a look of solemnity also appeared in Vasily's eyes, and he thought, "The alchemical golem unique to the Puppet Master lineage, the Eight-Armed Spider God Spear, still exists in the world? Could it be a branch inheritor of the Boyle family... No, I haven't heard of it."

Just then, the perception-type professional on the ship reported, "Boss, judging from the energy fluctuations emanating from that guy, he's just a Tier 4 professional!"

"Just Tier 4?"

Vasily understood even less.

What gave a Tier 4 the confidence to attack?

But he wasn't careless at all. His eyes turned cold, and he directly ordered, "Fire, kill that guy!"

"Yes!"

With this order, various guns and cannons on the pirate ship spat out flames.

For a moment, all kinds of bullets and alchemical bombs poured down on Soren in the distance like a storm.

Hundreds of muskets firing together, plus large-caliber snipers and cannons, would turn a high-level professional into a hornet's nest under normal circumstances.

After this wave of artillery fire, the figure on the sea was blasted apart.

"It's a phantom!"

Just as the pirates were still trying to figure out what had happened, they saw the figure with the Eight-Armed Spider Spear reappear, already a hundred meters closer.

Soren had harvested a large amount of space laws before, and now he was proficient in using the Blink movement skill.

He charged forward through the hail of gunfire, teleporting several times, his figure appearing ghost-like on the deck.

Soren originally had a faster way to end the battle, which was to directly destroy the pirate ship with the Mechanical Octopus. It would be much easier to deal with these pirates then.

But he thought it would be a pity to ruin such a good light warship.

The Dawn's three-masted sailing ship was far inferior to this one.

Besides... it was rare to meet someone in the same profession.

He also wanted to see what the Great Master of Mechanical Puppets was capable of.

...

"Teacher...!"

On the North Wind in the distance, Kama looked at Soren, who had already boarded the ship, her crystal eyes full of worry and shock.

Even now, her mind still couldn't believe what she was seeing: her teacher was actually going to fight a squadron of the North Sea Fleet single-handedly?

She even felt a little guilty, thinking that if it weren't for her, her teacher probably wouldn't have been entangled and caused so much trouble.

That wasn't an ordinary squadron, it was the Puppet Master squadron of the Third North Sea Fleet.

No one knew Vasily's strength better than she did, nor did anyone know the Boyle family's ancestral Thousand-Handed Mechanical War Demon.

Even if they faced three or four times as many enemies, they might not be able to win.

That meant Soren was facing at least a normal pirate group of two thousand people!

This... how was that possible!

Looking at the scene of gunfire and cannons, Kama's heart suddenly filled with intense worry. But before that emotion could fully surge into her heart, her expression froze.

"Spatial ability?"

Kama's eyes instantly changed from worry to joy.

So her teacher had mastered such a powerful spatial movement ability?

And even more shocking things were yet to come.

Before Kama could sort out her thoughts, she saw a giant cross condense in the sky above the pirate ship in the distance.

As soon as the Puppet Theater was unfolded, countless crystalline threads fell down.

"It's an arcane spell!"

Kama knew that her teacher was a Puppet Master, so it wasn't strange to have this ability. But when she saw Soren condensing the spell and throwing out several scrolls that exploded into hundreds of Rune Puppets, her expression froze.

Hundreds of them!

Oh my God...

Kama was shocked beyond words.

Hundreds of Rune Puppets with different expressions either hung or stood, surrounding the pirate ship tightly.

What exactly was her teacher going to do?

Kama was full of doubts and thought it was a tactic to confuse the enemy.

But in the next moment, everything that happened before her eyes subverted her understanding.

The fierce battle started in an instant.

She watched as the hundreds of Rune Puppets actually fought with the hundreds of pirates of the Seventh Squadron.

Not stiff or dull, each puppet was like a living person, skillfully controlled and moving freely. Even though the enemy outnumbered them, Soren's puppet army didn't lose the slightest bit.

"Teacher can actually control every puppet with his mind!"

Kama was amazed by Soren's operation.

Only Puppet Master professionals knew how ridiculously difficult this was.

No, it was simply unbelievable!

The more puppets a Puppet Master could control, the better.

But one also had to act according to one's abilities.

She could control ten puppets herself, which was already her limit. With each additional puppet, the difficulty of control would increase exponentially. Any more than that, the accuracy of control would be greatly reduced, and the combat effectiveness would actually have a negative impact.

But these hundreds...

Her teacher was actually still controlling them with ease?

Not only was he controlling this ridiculously large group of puppets to do simple combat, but he was also using regular tactics, charging, interweaving, beheading, cluster charges...

The more she looked at the details of the control, the more shocked she was.

Oh my God,

What terrifying control.

This was the true Puppet Master in her mind!

...

Soren's move of summoning the puppet army really caught the pirates off guard.

The puppet army was almost a nightmare for the low-level pirates. The army charged like locusts, inevitably reaping a large number of lives.

Moreover, because it was their own pirate ship, those guys were also afraid of damaging the ship and fought cautiously.

Soren's actions resulted in a massacre.

However, the Seventh Squadron did have many Puppet Masters after all. They reacted very quickly and immediately formulated tactics to deal with the puppets.

"Meldith, your second squad of Spell Thieves use Elemental Theft to strip away energy and destroy the cross in the sky!"

"Boss, we can't do it! The laws of this spell exceed our understanding too much. We can't reverse the spell in a short time! I suspect... this spell has a Tier 6 level of condensation!"

"How is that possible? Isn't he a Tier 4?"

"..."

The pirates wanted to destroy Soren's Puppet Theater, but after trying, they despairingly discovered that the spell was as tight as an iron barrel and couldn't be broken with their level of understanding.

On the contrary, because of the delay, a large number of lives were reaped again.

The pirate ship limited the range of those people's activities, and the threads could just spread to every corner.

Not only were there ferocious puppets, but there were also Mental Tentacles and threads wrapped in spatial laws. This combination of three methods was like a ruthless meat grinder, instantly killing a large number of low-level professionals.

The pirate Puppet Masters originally wanted to control their puppets to resist, but within the Puppet Theater, Soren, the controller, was invincible!

As soon as the pirates' puppets were taken out, they were immediately entangled by countless threads. Before they could play any role, they were completely reduced to a pile of scrap.

"Thousand-Machine Puppet Hand" Vasily watched his subordinates die miserably, and a trace of anxiety also appeared in his eyes.

He roared, "Damn it, get out of the control range of these threads and attack from a distance! Don't mind those puppets, kill his main body!"

There were also capable people in the pirate group. As soon as this order was issued, the pirates jumped off the ship one after another.

An ice-type spell professional condensed a Tier 4 spell on the sea surface, and the sea surface within a few hundred square meters instantly condensed into ice, giving most of the pirates a place to stay.

The rest of the pirates also used their respective abilities, either using stealth armor to lurk in the sea, or using flying armor to fly in the sky, or being able to fight on the water surface. One by one, they escaped the coverage area of the cross and began another round of fierce attacks.

Soren didn't chase after them. Escaping the control range of the threads would indeed be much safer.

But that didn't mean Soren didn't have any means of attack.

He held the Hypnos Night Scythe in his left hand and slashed out spatial rifts one after another. He could now accurately control a certain degree of spatial rift slashes without being backlashed. As long as there was enough dark spiritual power, killing people was still as easy as cutting melons and vegetables.

But after all, there were many opponents, and those who survived were all Tier 3 and Tier 4 professionals with considerable combat power. Without the suppression of the puppet army, various spells and alchemical bombs also responded.

That kind of range coverage, even if Soren had Blink, it was difficult for him to gain a foothold on the pirate ship.

But Soren wasn't flustered at all.

Just then, he changed the spell seal twice and shouted, "Hormone Rampage Rune Golem!"

As soon as the spell condensed, a layer of dark gold metallic luster appeared on the surface of his skin.

At the same time, a burly monster with wings landed on the deck with a bang.

It was actually the Alchemical Gargoyle.

The gargoyle spread its huge wings, nearly ten meters long, around Soren, immediately forming an indestructible shield. Most of the attacks, whether spells or bullets, were directly bounced off when they hit the gargoyle's metal body. Even if a few attacks broke through the defense and left traces on the gargoyle's body, the memory characteristics of Activated Silver could restore it in an instant.

Even if a small number of attacks landed on Soren, how could his Rune Golem body be killed so easily?

The pirates watched as the bullets hit him and made "clang" sounds, yet Soren seemed to be fine and continued to slaughter the pirates on the ship.

Witnessing this scene, the pirates looked at the person standing alone on the deck as if they were looking at a monster.

Under normal circumstances, the puppet master's puppets were the professional's strengths, but their bodies were definitely their weaknesses.

Because in order to control more puppets, whether it was job advancement choices or alchemical golems, everything was to better serve the control of puppets.

Almost no puppet master would increase their physical strength, because that would only make their abilities more and more useless.

But what about now?

They saw a monster.

A puppet master who could withstand high-level spells, sniper bullets, and even alchemical artillery fire with his bare body!

It was already enough to be able to control hundreds of puppets at the same time,

But his body was also so strong,

How were they supposed to fight?

The more they fought, the more the pirates' mentality collapsed, because they couldn't see a way to kill Soren.

...

Just as Soren was being focused on, Vasily had already taken out dozens of mechanical boxes.

Soren knew that it was the Boyle family's ancestral mechanical golem, the Thousand-Handed Mechanical War Demon, which Kama had mentioned.

As a series of mechanical sounds rang out, dozens of mechanical boxes suddenly transformed and then assembled together through precise steel cables and mechanical meshing.

Soren watched as a special puppet that was more than thirty meters tall with countless mechanical arms behind it appeared before his eyes.

Vasily himself was also embedded in the puppet through some special armor.

Well... it felt like this mechanical golem was a fantasy version of "Transformers."

After identifying it, although it wasn't an antique from a thousand years ago, it was still several hundred years old. The crystallization of the Boyle family's wisdom over several generations was naturally extraordinary in combat power.

Vasily was nicknamed "Thousand-Machine Puppet Hand," and his fame stemmed from this mechanical golem.

After all, he was already considered one of the top figures in the puppet sorcerer field. Controlling this mechanical golem gave him a very exaggerated combat power bonus. Under normal circumstances, three or five Tier 5 professionals without restraining methods would probably be unable to do anything to him.

The puppet didn't have a thousand hands, but it had several hundred.

These clanking wooden arms were extremely flexible and could also extend, retract, eject, and turn corners, while also containing various deadly mechanisms.

It could attack from a distance and also engage in close combat.

Its power alone was comparable to the attack intensity of hundreds of people.

Moreover, it had amazing defense.

This Thousand-Handed War Demon was a heavy-duty puppet. Many of its parts were not purely physical defenses, but also had special energy absorption devices.

It could even dissolve the spatial rifts cut out by the Black Scythe and the Wraith attacks of the Rune Black Umbrella.

With this puppet, Soren's Puppet Theater was greatly restricted. Hundreds of arms were as flexible as his own arms, grabbing one puppet with each grab.

The mechanical puppet's power was very exaggerated, and even the control ability of Endless Threads was very limited.

It looked like Soren was being completely restrained.

But he wasn't flustered at all.

This Thousand-Handed War Demon was very strong, but while pursuing heavy-duty defense, the puppet had also lost its ability to move quickly.

It wasn't difficult for Soren to kill him. The most direct way was to use the Mechanical Octopus and the Black Scythe to cut it into sections. He could always slowly erode it.

But doing so would greatly damage this valuable mechanical puppet.

He still wanted to keep it as a gift for Kama and her two siblings.

Moreover, Soren wasn't in a hurry to win.

Because at this time, a three-masted warship appeared on the sea in the distance. It was the "Dawn Troupe" coming to support him.

...

After a great battle, Soren had also seen the methods of the Puppet Master of the Mechanical lineage and had benefited a lot.

However, after Chientiao and the others joined the battle, there was no suspense in the battle.

Although it took some effort, under Kama's guidance, Soren finally managed to kill Vasily with minimal losses.

The Seventh Squadron of the Third North Sea Fleet was also almost completely wiped out.

Soren harvested Vasily's soul, which was another great harvest.

[You have stripped the soul of 'Vasily Tyermido']

[You have extracted a large amount of knowledge related to 'Mechanical Golems,' Puppet Experience +11245]

[You have stripped the mechanical production skills and puppet control skills]

[You have comprehended the puppet control skill [Arcane Thousand Hands]]

[You know some information: 'The Boyle family's core puppet art is not passed on to outsiders. I can't get even half of their wealth. Even if I die, my descendants will still be commoners. Damn it, I've paid so much for them. My talent is no worse than theirs... Why! Just because they are hereditary nobles? By chance, I came into contact with the Ghost Shark Pirate Group... That night five years ago, I led them into the manor. I had a plan. The manor guards and the pirates fought fiercely, and the pirates also suffered heavy losses. I silenced them... Haha, I finally got everything I wanted.']

[You have obtained a secret piece of information: 'The fleet commander has ordered us to drop the sealed box on the ship in a specific sea area near Devil's Island. It cannot be opened midway.']

[Mental Strength +233...]

...

The battle was over, and it was time for the joyous harvest.

This Seventh Squadron of the Third North Sea Fleet contributed an almost complete high-quality warship and a large amount of spoils to the Dawn Troupe.

The crew of the Dawn Troupe were delivering express deliveries and searching the sea for those lurking stragglers, while others were cleaning up the spoils.

Soren had fought Vasily for hundreds of rounds and was the last to end the battle.

At this moment, on the deck, Soren was disassembling the huge Thousand-Handed War Demon.

After all, it was the Boyle family's heirloom. With Kama around, they quickly disassembled it into pieces.

By activating the mechanism, the pieces turned into dozens of large and small mechanical boxes, looking like seamless wooden boxes.

Soren looked at the precision and secretly praised the exquisite construction of the mechanical golem.

Unfortunately, it took the Boyle family hundreds of years of accumulation to have such a golem. The manufacturing cost was very high, and many materials were hard to come by.

Otherwise, if he could mass-produce them, Soren would also like to create a mechanical golem army.

He was taking the route of human wave tactics, and this thing was not suitable.

After finishing, he handed the puppet and the several large storage rings he got from Vasily to Kama, who was beside him, and said, "Kama, I'll leave this mechanical golem to you. This is something from your Boyle family."

"Okay, Teacher."

Kama nodded obediently.

At this moment, when she looked at her teacher again, her eyes were full of worship.

The battle just now had completely imprinted the domineering figure of the one who suppressed a pirate group alone in Kama's heart.

Soren stripped Vasily's memory and knew the truth of what happened that year. He said, "That... Vasily did do what happened to your family. He colluded with the Ghost Shark Pirate Group... However, that pirate group has been silenced by Vasily."

Soren briefly explained what happened five years ago. Kama's expression darkened as she listened, "Oh..."

Over the years, she had been investigating the truth of the manor attack and had been guessing closer and closer to the truth.

She wasn't too surprised.

Now that she suddenly knew that all her enemies were dead, the big stone that had been hanging in her heart had finally fallen.

But she also sighed slightly.

It seemed like... her enemies were gone, and the goal she had been working hard for was also gone.

Soren looked at her expression, smiled slightly, and comforted her, "There's still a long life ahead. Work hard. You have good talent, and you will be a ruthless puppet master in the future."

Hearing this, Kama seemed to be greatly encouraged and nodded seriously, "Yes."

In that instant, she seemed to have a new goal.

She wanted to become a powerful puppet master like her teacher.

Just then, someone from the Dawn Troupe suddenly shouted, "Mr. Soren, please come to the cabin for a look!"

...

Soren walked into the cabin.

Because it had just set sail, the cabin of this pirate ship was stocked with a large amount of supplies, and the storage compartments were filled to the brim.

The crew of the Dawn Troupe were counting the supplies.

In the most core compartment, Chientiao and several captains were gathered around something, pointing and commenting curiously.

Seeing Soren coming, the crew greeted him one after another, "Mr. Soren."

After not seeing her for a few days, Chientiao was still as boisterous as ever.

She looked at Kama, who was shyly standing beside Soren, and raised her eyebrows and asked, "Yo, Soren, is this girl a new disciple you took in?"

"Yes. Sister Chientiao."

Soren looked at Chientiao and introduced with a smile, "This is Kama."

Kama also greeted them sensibly, "Hello, Sister Chientiao, hello everyone, my name is Kama."

The little girl was extremely nervous inside.

The Dawn Troupe was her teacher's team. It was her first time meeting them, so she was inevitably a little nervous.

There was a giant, a sumo wrestler, a ronin, a strange mechanical modification warrior, and even a doctor who looked like a monster... Everyone seemed to be very powerful and scary.

Chientiao sized her up and praised, "Not bad."

Soren smiled and shook his head. He didn't continue the topic, but asked, "Why did you call me over?"

Chientiao pointed to the treasure chest with gold rivets in the storage room and said, "We found this treasure chest. But it seems to be sealed and can't be opened."

"Oh?"

Soren looked at the treasure chest and identified it. It actually had a Tier 7 magic seal.

He thought of the information about this treasure chest in Vasily's memory and happened to know how to open it.

This Seventh Squadron came out to sea not only to hunt down Soren and Kama, but also because they had received a mission from the high-level officials of the North Sea Fleet to find treasure on Devil's Island.

And this treasure chest was the box that they were required not to "open in advance."

Soren frowned, because the order seemed very strange.

What exactly was in this box? Why didn't even the squadron leader Vasily know?

Also, why did it have to be thrown into a specific sea area?

They weren't members of the North Sea Fleet, so they naturally didn't have to follow any orders.

But Soren was also worried that there might be something bad in this box, or that opening it in advance would cause an explosion or something...

He thought and said, "I'll take it to a place where I can open it safely."

Chientiao nodded, "Okay."

...

Soren moved the box to the sea.

The ship was far away, and a large group of Dawn Troupe members had gathered on the deck to watch the show.

Everyone wanted to know what was inside.

After Soren prepared, he controlled a puppet to open the mysterious treasure chest according to a specific method.

There was no explosion as expected.

However, as soon as it was opened, the golden light that burst out of the box almost blinded everyone's eyes.

Soren took a closer look and realized that the compartment was actually filled with a box full of golden wool, called the Golden Fleece of Colchis.

This was a special material that only the Romani had. Legend has it that this wool could be used to weave the world's strongest golden holy garment.

The mountain goats that produced this golden wool only existed in one place, the Agapanon Temple outside the city-state of Moros!

However, its yield was extremely rare. A goat could only produce a small strand of golden wool in a year.

This big box was probably the entire Romani kingdom's stock for a hundred years!

They were going to throw such a precious thing into the sea?

After identifying that it was not dangerous, Soren dragged the box back to the deck.

The Dawn Troupe members looked at the golden wool and, apart from marveling at it, no one knew why it was in this box.

Just then, Pandora, who had been staying in the cabin, came up for some reason.

She looked at the box of golden wool and explained to everyone, "This golden wool was a very precious treasure even in mythology. It symbolizes wealth, ideals, adventure, unyielding will, and the pursuit of happiness. It is a thing with a very beautiful meaning. In any era, mortals are not qualified to possess it. Usually, it will be used to sacrifice to gods, or for certain mysterious rituals."