Lord Of Puppets

Chapter 263 – Flesh – Part 2.

"Thauma." – said Ariava.

"Your existence is unique."

"You are a living being, despise having a body made out of magic construct or just machine parts."

"You are able to change your body."

"However, it doesn’t work with flesh."

"?"

"You tested it?" – asked curios Porai.

"Pretty much.... The last time results weren’t really good...." – said Ariava.

"We tested it once with dead flesh, but Thauma couldn’t really do anything with it."

"..."

"Although... Maybe we should try again."

"Thauma by now must had gotten way more used to the whole-body change thing, so maybe it is possible for him?"

"Thauma. Those prisoners. Do you still have them?"

{"Yes. I still have living prisoners. Crow Watcher to be exactly."}

"Wait... We are not releasing them?" – asked Porai.

"I mean, the empire doesn’t know about them being alive in the first place and the contact wasn’t signed yet."

"It is for the best if we get rid of them before the contracts takes effect and they are no longer useful anyway."

"So kill them and be done with it."

"Anyway, finish eating, this maybe end up being nasty."

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[Test Number 1]

[Body Transfer to dead limb.]

[Results – Failure – No effect.]

[Test Number 2]

[Attaching dead body part to the body.]

[Results – Failure – No reaction.]

[Test Number 3 – 4]

[Repeat the tests 1 and 2 with the usage and help of necromancy.]

[Results – Same failures.]

[Test Number 5 – 6]

[Instantly detach body parts and use them for experiment while the body parts are still somewhat alive.]

[Results – Same failures.]

[Test number 7 - 8]

[Put a golem core inside of the dead / living body.]

[Results – Failures.]

[Test 9]

[Failure.]

[Test 10]

[Failure.]

[Test 11-14]

[Failure.]

"..."

"Nope. It is not working. I give up." – said Porai as the group was covered in the blood while being surrounded by the corpse and the body parts of Thauma’s prisoners, who were now nothing more than just ’remains or failed experiments that the trio had conducted.

"Yeah... No reaction after all of this... Honestly, I thought the core maybe do it." – said Ariava.

"But maybe we need to make the body from the ground up? A one that is properly made for him to use."

"So we are going to try making the homunculus?" – asked Poral.

"..."

"I don’t know." – replied Porai.

"I mean... I think the only option is the doll homunculus. The other two types maybe out of question." – replied Ariava as she was using a tower to clean off blood off her face, before then handing it over to Porai so she can also somewhat clean herself.

"What do you mean?" – asked Porai.

"Conscious." – replied Ariava.

"How would that work?"

"We already tried Thauma hijacking the body of the other beings while they were alive."

"We tried crushing them or straight up shattering their mind, but even that didn’t worked."

"..."

"Then again... How would that even work with the doll homunculus?"

"I mean, it would also be a living creature."

"..."

"I can think of several things we could do.... But.... Hm..."

"..."

*Sigh*

"This is beyond complicated." – said Ariava as she sat down, only to realize to late that the chair she used was completely covered in blood.

"..."

"Okay. Quick bath time." – said Ariava.

"Now."

[One quick bath later.]

"Welp. I have ideas, but also bad news." – said Ariava as the trio were not completely cleaned.

"I have few ideas."

"But the problem is Thauma."

"Simple put, the current you may not work."

"..."

"Skills?" – asked Porai.

"Yeah." – said Ariava as she took out a piece of paper and began writing on it.

"Thauma main trait, his race’s special ability is his ability of changing the body."

"From what we had observed, it not like a ghost possessing ability, but something more advance."

"A merge."

"A fusion where the body of the golem become the body of Thauma, his REAL body."

"However, how exactly does that fusion works?"

"Does it really work with only golems, a mechanical body parts that were designed to be used by the golems?"

"Or, is it possible to give him a fleshy bits, IF! And hear me out, IF they are specialty made for him?" – said Ariava as she was writing different bubbles of groups and questions, linking them together.

"But there may be other problem."

"Thauma current being cannot handle it."

"So the only way for him to do that, would be to manifest a skills."

"And before you even say anything Thauma, NO! Forged Skills will 100% not work."

"These skills needs to be yours alone. Tied to your being."

"But the question is, what exactly should you aim to obtain and what you can obtain?"

"What exactly will even work with your being itself anyway? That is also a problem."

"Can’t we just do trial and errors?" – asked Porai.

"No offence Thauma. But if we somehow screw up and end up killing you, the dungeon will revive you."

"Yeah, but HOW does that work with him?" – asked Ariava.

"That is important question we need to ask as well as the biggest problem we need to consider."

"Thauma never died even once, so I don’t really know it myself."

"I mean, does he resurrects with the last body he had used? Dungeon can create the golems and what not, so in theory, it should be possible for the dungeon core to resurrect this body."

"But, what if it doesn’t really work this way and instead maybe he turns into something.... I don’t know... A ghost that searches for the nearest golem to inhabit? The HIM without the body?"

"Either of those situations are good on paper."

"However!"

"Thauma is body is his body."

"If it dies, he probably dies with it."

"So, what would happened if we were to make some sort of stupid body, that dies right on the spot and then he revies, only to instantly die because of its body."

"An endless death loop. Is it possible to happened?"

{"Is it really possible?"} – asked the worried Thauma.

"The possibility is there and that is the problem." – said Ariava.

"You may have ability to resurrect, but what if we screw it big time and this worst possible scenario happens?"

"..."

"Honestly. We should kill you."

"And stop! Listen!"

"Your ability to resurrect!"

"We need to study it! And the best way to do is to just kill you and see how things would go."

"We need to understand how exactly do you resurrect!"

"Well, I say that, but we can’t do that now or for some long time now."

"Since we will have our hands busy and what not for a long time."

"... Honestly, if the situation was much calmer and we had more time, we could had done that test beforehand.... But by the looks of things, we will have to give up."

"Not only that, the preparations for the experiment alone may take some time, since he needs to obtain some specific skills."

"And it is honestly for the best if HE makes the body himself."

"And there is also a question if the homunculus plan would even work."

"Is it physically impossible for him to use flesh?"

"Then what about creating a human like golem?"

"..."

"Honestly, the whole project DOES sound interesting." – said Porai.

"And I’m all in for it, since it could yield some extremely important research data."

"But it could even probably take few years if things won’t be going well."

"..."

"But quick question."

"Thauma."

"Do you only want to have body of flesh to understand the bodily pleasure?"

{"I want to understand what it means to be a human."}

{"Bodily pleasure is one thing, but I also want to understand many other things."}

{"And this body nor any other that I’ve had created even have ability to understand it."}

{"Maybe I could even create a body that would allow me to blend in with humans, allowing me observe them up close?"}

"So you seek understanding and knowledge you can only comprehend if you experience it yourself?" – said Porai.

"Hm... Makes sense."

"Anyway, anything else?"

"This is the last time we have any freedom for the time being, so I want to know if there is anything else and don’t get random ass surprises later on."

"Nope. That is all. It will take some time for the empire to prepare to sign the contract, but it shouldn’t take them extremely long, since they want it signed as soon as possible." – replied Ariava while sipping her tea.

"..."

"Anyway." – said Pora.

"Thauma."

"You said that you never left dungeon before. Correct?"

"?"

"Wait, you still haven’t left it yet?" – asked confused Ariava.

"No. He kind of couldn’t, according to him." – replied Porai.

"However, now that the contract is good as done... You have finally obtained what you wanted."

"Peace."

"You can finally laze around."

"..."

"So... With that said."

"Are you interested in finally seeing the outside world with your own two eyes?"

"..."

(The... Outside world?) – Thauma... Was instantly lost in thoughts.

(Is it... Can I finally go out?)

(Am I finally allowed to go outside?)