I realized something the moment I tried to just lift one of the fallen doors up. Something I really should have remembered when I strained and achieved budging it maybe a sliver of a mention. If I wanted to deluded myself.

  Noel had absolutely zero strength. Zero power. Zero offense. Zero defense.

  Right, they'd been a craft retainer. They even were hyper specialized it to the point of shying away from combat entirely. That had been possible in FLOW, just not well-advised if you ever planned on inviting them to adventure with you, which was what the vast majority of players did. Thinking on it, maybe it had been a miracle that player guilds existed when you could make a dizzying variety of NPCs and give them unique personas. But I think that's why the developers had also put a hard number limit on your account retainers.

  Then that had gotten demolished by the cash shop, so player guilds became really rare later on.

  Bah, another thing to lay upon the companies that bought up FLOW. I would curse them with a bit more vitriol, if I had the energy. Half bent over, trying desperately to get mana back in my body, I really had to come to terms that this was no Mikel who could break an ogre's back over his knee. This was Noel, a puppet whose combat power was going to be a big issue.

  I don't think it was even possible for me to reset and redistribute their points. That had never been an issue in your playable character, who was stated to be capable of everything. Retainers though, their path was set once their owner determined their growth distribution. If you messed up, either you lived with it, or 'retired' the retainer to make a new one.

  I never did that. I got too attached to them.

  And now, I was arguably paying the price of it.

  I gave up on the doors for the moment and entered the manor, grumbling. This was bad. Assuming Noel's combat ability was the same as when the servers were shut down, they probably would lose to a goblin. A sick and elderly one, wielding a club that used to be a walking stick.

  I really might have to put off that promised adventure if I couldn't find a workaround for this.

  Maybe I could train? But even if they hadn't been level capped, there was no telling if there was any sort of experience system. Heck, did this apparently real world even work on FLOW logic now? I racked my head, trying to recall what their skill list had been.

  Right, if they were a crafter, then one of their primary abilities should have been this. "[Infuse]."

  I blinked when my hand suddenly glowed, and faded. I frowned and repeated it. The same thing happened, meaning that yes, I could activate skills the same way as FLOW did. It did make sense, given how even in cutscenes NPCs were yelling these phrases. Good.

  Now, if memory serves, I would say it while holding a valid item. I glanced about and saw a fallen branch from one of the tree trunks which graciously made my abode its new home. I took it up and chanted the phrase. This time, I felt it, the tug of magic that seeped into the material and made it pliable.

  Because FLOW had been so detailed for the day, the developers understood making every little thing craft material would break the code. So they made it only so that appropriate items that one picked up and gave a bit of mana would suitable for further crafting within the game's systems. It was how they tied the infusion of magic into your equipment, really stressing the fantasy aspect of the world. Non-enchanted material was instead used for more mundane material like furniture or fodder, at least in the lore.

  A moment later, the glow faded and I blinked when I could see the information.

  Tree Branch (Item Quality: 3) (Infused Level: 59)

  Right, item qualities. Because not every ingredient or regent was made the same or even infused in the same way. That was why dedicated gatherers who could spot high quality versions made a killing. Especially if they were time-gated or highly specific, because the developers did like a little bit of trolling.

  Then once they were handed over to the craftsmen to [infuse], the item could be tagged and capable of manipulation. Puppets were experts especially, being a literal example of infusion, which was why their skill could be said to exceed even the dwarves for theory crafting. So Noel, being completely tailored to the role, was able to truly refine the raw materials into the finest sort.

  The magic stick I held now was proof of that. To test, I swung it into the massive tree it had come from and the thing didn't break or give. Impressive. Now, I did have to consider that maybe this body wasn't the best test given its average weak stature.

  But I could make something that was far much stronger.

  Because at the end of the day, I- Mikel- did have to level Noel, which did mean sometimes taking them out adventuring to gain experience. But in FLOW, for characters to benefit from defeating an enemy, they had to hit an enemy for a certain amount of damage. So in some way, the puppet completely optimized for non-combat duties had to fight to level. But the issue was that of course, that would ruin his build if I gave him any fighting ability that could've gone instead into crafting.

  Kai though, being a puppet themselves, had let me in on a way around it when I made Noel. There existed a unique combination between picking a puppet and specializing in crafting, leading to a very rare and hardly seen ability. I think they themselves even only realized it after fighting a monster who used this tactic, a super rare spawn at that.

  [Doll Maker] allowed puppets to both create and remotely control constructs like minions. It was even a crafting skill that could enable them to work multiple workbenches at one time. Those were the lesser, poorer version of the skill.

  The greater version allowed Noel to make a construct that was independently treated like a summon, with stats vastly different from theirs. It would even have a crystal brain like a real puppet. The drawback? That crystal could be only made from very rare materials, the sort of which would make most balk and opt to just pick up some combat ability instead of trying to regularly hunt. The construct might be strong physically, but only when compared to a baseline puppet. It was laughably easy for a half-decent dwarf to knock over, so replacing it would be a pain if you weren't so committed to the idea.

  So [Doll Maker] was definitely something of a secret skill.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  It was one I now possessed. But of course, those rare ingredients would be a problem, if I hadn't been in my player home. My inventory vault was right there and I opened it to see what I had to work with.

  It...wasn't much? I blinked, then remembered Lighthouse did use up a lot of materials in preparing for those fights that made us viral. We even went on a little gathering and crafting spree right before to do so. But there was never one afterwards to replenish things and as we lost interest in FLOW from its slow descent into monetized hell, we just used up materials without thinking.

  So what I had was literally the scraps of my account. Great job, Mikel. There was a reason you were the vanguard and not the support.

  I sighed and got looking. If I wanted something strong, then probably a crystal that radiated strength would be the best. Let's see...aha. A dark crystal, taken from a Shadow Colossal. Sveg had fun chopping its leg off and yelling 'timber!' when it fell so we could finish it off. I quickly activated [Infuse] and then checked its stats.

  Dark Crystal (Item Quality: 203) (Infused Level: 450)

  Ugh, right. [Infuse] scaled with the item quality so that you couldn't go so bonkers if you found a really nice item quality. The return would drop off, even for puppets. Not to mention a dice roll that would leave you shaking your first to the heavens, screaming about wanting a refund from the smirking developers.

  Still, that was a pretty good return value given known context of the game's systems. At FLOW's peak of Harbinger, the highest datamined value for an infusion was about 800. That matched up with the then-level cap.

  Afterwards, the limits did increase, but I'd honestly say there was never an enemy harder than the raid bosses which Lighthouse did by themselves. The starting prevalence of cash shop items didn't help. I shook off my grumbling and focused, studying the crystal to be my only source of combat ability at the moment. 450...that was probably appropriate medium-to-hard difficulty dungeon exploration in the heyday. I wouldn't dare take it into the really hard dungeons, but for the local forest in the middle of nowhere? It definitely would do.

  Now that the rare part of the brain was done, I needed to make the body. Luckily, that was the easier part that I could make with any sort of material, like the abundant wood. That would work. My body was thankfully not so weak that it couldn't collect an assortment of branches into a large pile, a vaguely humanoid one. If you squinted hard enough after downing plenty of alcohol. Oh, that was a test I'll have to do in the future, especially as cooking did fall under crafting!

  For the moment, I simply set the dark crystal and held out my hand. "[Doll Maker]," I chanted and felt my conduits heat. Unlike [Infuse] this was a greater toll on my body and I could actually feel myself growing a little faint. But I kept at it, knowing that Noel could surely handle this much.

  My expectations were rewarded when the glow faded and my new construct climbed to their feet, rather shakily. I guess it was only to be expected with how poor the overall body material was. The crystal was leagues above everything else, so what I made was akin to a cake that looked and tasted rather horrible, but had that awesome ice cream at the center.

  I could go for some cake right about now, speaking of. Huh, I supposed I was hungry? Or the puppet equivalent of it with having expended some mana. But I could already feel it receding with every breath I took, which did fit the world's lore. I sincerely hoped that didn't mean I couldn't taste anything because if it did, then that was going to be the ultimate boss of my new life.

  A sort of low creak reminded me that I now had a minion! They stood there, just sort of blankly staring at me. I was now aware that there was a sort of faint thread that linked me to them, something probably quite similar to the ones inside me but like a single thread that was barely visible to the naked eye. If I focused, I could even make it intangible with a bit of extra mana. Handy for controlling something from a distance and through walls.

  Now came testing it. I set the stick I'd infused earlier on the floor and stood back, concentrating. I hadn't need to think that hard when it responded instantly to the slightest of my mental nudges to bend over and take its new sword in hand. Good, now for the big test. My construct strode over to the tree trunk and raised its arm up, stick poised ominously.

  It came down and the tree bark cracked under the force. So too did the golem's arm.

  I blinked and hurried over to study the abrupt amputation, making a face. Forget a terrible taste- the thing would've been considered rancid. The body just couldn't handle the amount the full strength that the crystal was putting forth. I was about to label the experiment a failure and unsummon my ability when I noticed something.

  The new stump had small strings extending out from it, like it was seeking new material. Huh, that hadn't been in FLOW. But that had been a game, wasn't it? With abstracted hitpoints to represent health that didn't take in proper injuries. If this was a real world, so to speak, then it made sense that things were a lot more complicated.

  A lot more exploitable, Mikel would've said with a massive grin.

  My eyes fell to the stick I made on the floor, realizing something that escaped me before. With [Doll Maker] in FLOW, you'd sacrifice the crystal and the body materials to create a mob that matched what you put in. They would have everything generated for them, like weapons and armor.

  The one I just made hadn't, unless you counted kindling as gear. I had to give it a weapon.

  Okay. Now I was sure that there was definitely a lot more customization options than the game world. I actually could work with this.

  I picked up the broken arm and fetched some additional branches to act as a new bridge between. Those grasping strings reached out and seized what I offered, pulling together to form a proper new limb. I stepped back and took in the newly whole minion again, thinking on how I probably restored what would've been hitpoints in game without any sort of [Heal]. So that was already breaking the barrier between game and reality.

  Oh, Joan from Lighthouse would've been fuming.

  The arm broke at the next swing and I sighed. Time to start looking for better materials.

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