Unique Skill: The Potential of Wooden Puppet Summoning (Puppet Master)
Rock is a D-rank adventurer with a disappointing skill: Puppetmaster. All it does is bring a single wooden doll to life. Mocked by everyone, he spends his days alone, gathering herbs just to get by. But when he helps a middle-aged herbalist named Baldo in a tavern, things start to change, little by little.
Thanks to Baldo, Rock now has a steady income and his coordination with his wooden doll is getting better every day. Then, an elven earth mage named Lilia invites him on a three-month survey
Unique Skill: The Potential of Wooden Puppet Summoning (Puppet Master) - Only the wooden puppets pierce through—that's how we fight.
The entrance to the labyrinth was quieter than expected.
An old stone ruin towering northwest of the royal capital—the place where three scouts with Trap Detection skills had been carried out with severe injuries. Rock adjusted the wooden puppet on his back and glanced at Leon standing beside him.
Leon's face was, as expected, a little pale. He clutched the request form in his hands, reading and re-reading the words written on it.
[scared] "Three scouts... all of them, severely injured..."
His voice was trembling.
Rock looked down at the request form again. It concisely listed the types of traps—poison arrows, pitfall traps, ceiling collapses. All of them were said to be difficult for even veteran scouts to avoid.
[quiet] "...Hey, Leon."
Rock lowered the wooden puppet from his back to the ground. Ninety centimeters tall, with a clumsy smile. The joints that Gardo had reinforced creaked faintly.
[serious] "My puppet goes first. Yours stays right behind me, and just watch for falling rocks and any traps coming from behind me."
Leon took a single, deep breath.
[firm] "...Understood."
Just then—
*Clatter.*
Leon's puppet tripped as it tried to take a step forward. Its toe had struck a small stone lying at the entrance to the passage.
"Wah—"
Leon, trying frantically to support his puppet, stumbled himself. He crashed into the wall, practically embracing the puppet.
[laughing] "...What are you doing?"
Rock burst out laughing. The tension that had been hanging heavy in the air eased just a little.
Leon, his ears bright red, righted his puppet.
[embarrassed] "S-Sorry..."
[gentle] "It's fine. Just means you're on edge. Let's go."
Rock channeled mana into his puppet.
The puppet's magic stone glowed with a faint, pale blue light. The Link Field gradually expanded, connecting a fifteen-meter radius to Rock's senses.
A faint magical reaction shimmered from the passage wall.
[quiet] "...Here it is."
The first trap.
Rock slowly advanced his puppet. A narrow hole protruding from a gap in the wall. The firing port for a poison arrow, hidden within.
The puppet's hand reached toward that hole.
—In an instant.
*Thwip.*
The poison arrow shot out. Its aim was precise, targeting the puppet's arm.
It gouged the wooden exterior and pierced deep. A pale green poison liquid oozed from the arrowhead. But—that was all.
[surprised] "Senpai...!"
Leon gasped.
Rock pointed at the poison arrow lodged in the puppet's arm.
[calm] "See? The only thing getting hit is the puppet."
He pulled out the poison arrow. The wood's surface was slightly corroded, but the structure was unaffected. Rock lightly tapped the puppet's arm, confirming the joint still moved properly.
Leon murmured quietly.
[whispers] "Amazing..."
[matter-of-fact] "Not yet. Did you see that? There are also traps that react to the floor. Watch your step carefully."
Rock's eyes were already on the next trap. A magical reaction captured by the Link Field—a section of the passage floor glowing slightly brighter than the rest.
A pitfall trap.
He carefully brought the puppet closer to that section of floor. The moment weight was applied—
*Clunk.*
The floorboards opened up like a gaping mouth.
The puppet's foot kicked at empty air. But under Rock's control, it didn't lose its balance; it grabbed the edge of the hole and held on.
[urgent] "Leon, did you see that? Stepping on that means it's over. Don't let your puppet set foot on the floor in this area, no matter what."
[nervous] "Y-Yes!"
Leon desperately tried to keep his puppet right behind Rock's. But—
The moment its foot touched the floor.
*Creak... creak...*
The floorboards beneath Leon's puppet made an ominous sound.
[panicked] "Eh—"
*CLUNK!!*
The floor opened. Leon's puppet tilted toward the pitfall.
[shouting] "Leon! Don't stop controlling it!"
Rock shouted. At the same time, he expanded his Link Field with full force. The pale blue light spread, enveloping Leon's puppet.
The sensation of control was drawn from Leon's hands—where his puppet was right now, how much it was tilting. Within the field, he could grasp it as clearly as if he were touching it.
[gasp] "This is..."
Inside the field, the feeling of control was distinct. Much clearer than usual. The puppet's position, its tilt, how much it needed to hold on to escape the hole.
Leon poured mana into it desperately, almost trance-like.
The puppet's hand grabbed the edge of the pitfall. Its wooden fingers scraped against the stone, gouging it—and somehow, it crawled up out of the hole.
*Thud.* The puppet lay sprawled in the passage.
[panting] "Hah... hah..."
Leon was breathing heavily, his shoulders heaving. Sweat glistened on his forehead.
Rock gave a small nod.
[quiet] "That's what it means."
[shocked] "So this... is the feel of the field."
Leon stared at his own palms for a while.
—They proceeded further in.
The passage narrowed, the ceiling growing lower. Damp air clung to their skin.
[whispers] "Senpai... look at that."
Where Leon pointed—two support points lined up on the ceiling. A heavy-looking stone slab was propped up, looking like it could fall at any moment.
Rock probed the interior with his Link Field.
[tense] "...Damn. It's a mechanism that triggers unless both points are disarmed at the same time."
The left and right support points were structurally intertwined. Disarming only one would cause the other to pull, bringing the entire slab down.
One puppet alone wasn't enough.
[serious] "Leon."
[gulps] "...Yes."
[firm] "Use your puppet to hold down the right support point. Mine will take the left. I'll give the signal. Got it?"
Leon's puppet, rattling and trembling, approached the right support point. Its operator's hands were trembling too. Even so—he placed both hands firmly against the support point.
Rock's puppet placed its hands on the left support point.
[loud] "—Now!!"
Both puppets pushed the mechanism simultaneously.
*Grind... grind... grind...*
The ceiling swayed slightly.
Stone fragments pattered down. Fine debris fell onto Rock's shoulders, onto Leon's head.
But—that was all.
The stone slab did not fall.
Silence.
Then—
[crying] "We did it...!!"
Leon shouted.
[proud] "Alright!!"
Rock couldn't help but raise his voice too. Their voices echoed through the narrow passage.
The two puppets were still holding down the support points. Dirty with stone fragments, their wooden surfaces covered in scratches. Even so—they were standing.
Rock patted his puppet on the head.
[soft] "Good job."
—The innermost chamber.
In the center of the wide room sat a sealing stone. A stone about the size of a human head, emitting a pale blue light. The target depicted on the request form.
Rock brought his puppet closer to the sealing stone.
The puppet's hand touched the stone.
—The next moment.
*Whoosh.*
A wave of light spread from the sealing stone. It raced through the entire labyrinth. Traps were disarmed, mana dissolving into the air. The magical sign of a completed request.
Leon collapsed to his knees on the spot.
He embraced his puppet with both hands. Its battered wooden body. The scar from the poison arrow. The scratches from scraping against the pitfall's edge. And the stone dust caked onto the hands that had been holding up the ceiling just moments ago.
[crying] "Even if it gets hit... it just breaks..."
Tears streamed down his face.
[crying hard] "Even if it gets hit, it just breaks... No one gets hurt... This is, this is how we fight!!!"
Leon's cry echoed deep within the labyrinth.
Rock listened to that voice.
Deep in his chest, something took on a clear, definite shape.
*(It doesn't have to be flashy.)*
*(This is fine.)*
The days of being laughed at in Rastella. The insults hurled during the skeleton extermination. All of it felt distant now.
With these wooden puppets, with this way of fighting—he could properly make it as an adventurer.
That conviction sat unwavering in the center of his heart.
Rock patted his puppet on the head.
[quiet] "Let's go home."
Leon wiped his tears and nodded.
The poison arrow was still lodged in the puppet's arm. The blue light of the magic stone leaked through the gaps in its heavily damaged wood.
Laughing, the two of them pulled it out.
[slightly laughing] "We're gonna have to get Gardo-san to fix this."
[smiling] "Mine too... it's creaking all over."
The passage leading to the exit was quiet, all the traps now disarmed.
In the distance, they could see the light from outside.
Clutching the request form tightly, Rock took a step forward.
Fifty silver coins—no, one gold coin. He had to report properly to Ganetta.
And then.
What kind of faces the guild folks would make.
Inside Rock's chest was a feeling he'd never had before.
*(I'm fine, just like this.)*
A version of himself that could think that.
Pulling his wooden puppet along by the hand, Rock walked toward the light.
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