Chapter 565: Autonomous-Thinking Puppet

Around the time Tauro completed his fourteenth puppet golem in the forest, Ragune, who had been on an errand to the dragonfolk village, returned via [Dimensional Corridor].

“Welcome back, Ragune. Were you able to get them?” Tauro asked immediately.

“Yes. When I told them you wanted the items, they brought out all their stock from the back of the warehouse.”

Ragune replied, then pulled out a pile of amorphous lumps made from dungeon materials—objects whose purpose was unknown—and stacked them on the ground.

“That’s more than I expected!” Tauro said happily.

“This is about the limit of my [Magic Storage] capacity. Is it enough?” Ragune asked, resting a hand on the pile.

“Yes, this is plenty. With this, it should be easy to create three humanoid puppets using the remaining three cores. I think I can use the remaining material to reinforce the others. Thanks, Ragune.”

Tauro immediately separated enough material for a single human-sized figure.

“You’re making them human-sized? About the same size as us?” Aeris asked with interest.

“Yeah. If they’re too big, they’ll stand out. If they’re about the same size as us, they can be used for scouting. And since this dungeon material is tougher than the stone golems, they should be even more durable. Also… until now, Pella has been protecting me—but attacks like the shockwaves from the Guardian Stone Golems can pierce defensive magic. Even Pella might take damage from something like that, so I thought it’d be good if I could make a puppet that could act as a shield instead.”

Tauro had come up with the idea to create it after experiencing firsthand the power of the shockwave, an attack strong enough to break through the defensive magic of his comrades.

Pella dropped its disguise and climbed onto Tauro’s shoulder, nuzzling his cheeks.

“…That’s true. Even though Pella has strong resistance to both physical and magical attacks, there’s no guarantee that it won’t take damage from a powerful attack,” Aeris agreed, gently stroking Pella.

“Yeah. Those shockwaves were monstrous. If we took a direct hit, who knows what would’ve happened.” Ankh shuddered as he remembered the battle in the underground ruins.

“All right then—I’ll start shaping this into a human form. Any preferences?”

“““Preferences?”””

The group blinked in confusion.

“For example—male, female, child, demi-human… I can shape them into whatever feels most approachable.”

“Oh, I get it! Considering its intended use, wouldn’t it be better to make it a child-type to make it harder to notice?” Ankh suggested.

“But wouldn’t that make it fragile?” Ragune questioned.

“It may be good for scouting, but I feel like it might be useless in combat,” Zion added thoughtfully. She knew from experience that size and weight were important in battle.

“Still, it’s made from tough dungeon material, right? It should be fine. How about this—make one specialized child-type for scouting, and make the remaining two adult male and female types for general combat use?” Aeris suggested, striking a balance between everyone’s opinions.

“That’s perfect! Let’s go with Aeris’s idea.”

Tauro nodded and pulled out a broken Guardian Stone Golem body from [Magic Storage]. Combining it with the dungeon material, he used [Creation Magic] to shape a child-like humanoid form.

The area was instantly illuminated by the light of [Creation Magic], but the glow quickly faded.

When it faded, the massive stone golem was gone.

In its place lay a mannequin-like boy-shaped puppet formed from the mysterious material. Its face had simple eyes and a nose but lacked detail; it had no hair, making it look like a mannequin. Embedded in its chest was the shockwave-emitting mechanism originally mounted on the stone golem’s shoulders.

“…Phew. First stage complete.”

Tauro seemed to have lost a great deal of magical power. Exhausted, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and downed a magic-restoration potion.

“Wait, it’s not finished?” Ankh asked.

“I don’t have infinite magical power, so I can’t complete it in one go, and [Creation Magic] isn’t omnipotent either. I’m completing it in stages—like Aeris suggested.”

Smiling faintly, Tauro took the core out of [Magic Storage].

“That’s the special one you made from the two broken Guardian Stone Golem cores, right?” Aeris recognized it instantly.

“Yeah. I was saving this for something important.”

Tauro replied. Placing his left hand on the puppet’s abdomen and holding the core in his right hand, he used [Creation Magic] again.

Again, light enveloped the puppet briefly—then vanished.

The core had disappeared from Tauro’s hand.

“…All right.”

Tauro said this briefly and stood up.

Then the child-shaped puppet smoothly rose to its feet as well.

“Looks like it worked. I can share vision with it… Huh? W-What’s this…? Amazing… This puppet seems capable of fairly complex thought. Is this what you’d call an autonomous-thinking puppet?”

Tauro’s eyes widened as he appraised it with [True Eye].

The child puppet bowed politely to Aeris and the others—then knelt before Tauro personally, a gesture of loyalty.

“Whoa, are you serious, Leader? When you remade that core, what exactly were you imagining?” Ankh asked Tauro in shock.

“Hmm… Come to think of it, I might’ve pictured an autonomous-thinking robot that I saw in an anime back then… But I never thought it’d actually take shape…”

Tauro had unknowingly drawn on memories from his previous life while crafting the core.

“Anime? Autonomous thinking… what?” Ankh blinked, completely lost.

The others looked equally puzzled.

“…Haha. Anyway, it seems to have been a success, so I’ll go ahead and make the remaining two.”

Brushing off the confusion, Tauro drank more magic-restoration potion and proceeded to create the adult male and female versions as well.