Unfortunately for the duke, my mind wasn't focusing on Petula right away. I'd obviously get to her in time but first, the larger portion of it was centered around the other big reveal. Skills- those things in FLOW which allowed one to achieve unnatural feats using magic- were apparently quite limited acquisitions for people in this era. And I think I know why, which depressed me greatly like a vampire being told to use only animal blood.

  Once again, I could only curse clueless publishers and their continued flailing about in trying to find success for quick profit at the expense of long-term game health.

  So after Harbinger and the big heyday for the world of Shin, when the game I loved had started being passed around different companies, an idea had been hatched to try and stem the slowly decreasing player count: reworking trial accounts. It hadn't even been a bad idea, there had already been a quite serviceable free demo feature by the original team that allowed one to try FLOW up until a certain level cap. A few of the Ten Lights had even started out that way, lured then into buying the full game when they were hooked.

  However, the publisher decided that apparently, such a demo had been too 'restrictive' and 'didn't lead to enough retention.' So they then reworked the demo in a free system where the level cap was advertised to be removed, in exchange for what Faust had called an actual devil's deal. Yeah, the demon player who sought secrets in an endless thirst for knowledge thought it was a bit much. If that wasn't saying something, I didn't know what will.

  Experience point gain had been reduced, in a very bad way, and the lost majority had even been withheld in a reserve stockpile that taunted you. One of those 'this is how much experience you could be earning if you bought the game.' They claimed it had been a fair trade for having more content available now, and purchasing the game would allow for all the accumulated experience to accelerate one to the full content then. Aside from those features and some regions being locked behind requiring expansions, the game had been otherwise now advertised as being fully free to play, with a growing focus on the cash shop.

  However, this new system had been a terrible adjustment, according to reviews and personal anecdotes. I don't know what sort of calculator had been used, but it translated into an absurd grind. For reference, on launch day, a dedicated player could probably enjoy most of the game and reach what had been the end of the content at the time in maybe a month or two of casual play. In contrast, these new free trial accounts?

  They would have to seriously play the game all day, non-stop, for a couple years to be able reach halfway there. And that was assuming optimal farming routes, experience point stacking, and making the use of the free but limited experience boosters.

  Yeah, it had been a great, big disaster that actually made even less people want to play now since the once easily accessible but limited free demo had been reworked into some nightmarish time-sink. Sure, they had more content available- but at the cost of their own lives for the insane investment being demanded. A literal second life that a lot of people had darkly joked was like accurately living in the world of Shin.

  So it did actually attract a few of the morbidly interested, a few even going so far as to devote large portions of their time for the challenge. It had been a little community dare, one that had been promptly ruined when they actually did hit a level cap- the same one that had been in the demo system!

  The publishers had never expected anybody to go that far and just had their teams copy the demo homework, but do it worse!

  It had blown up in a scandal of false advertisement, to which the company had just said that for those especially devoted free players, they wanted to 'recognize' them by gifting them a free copy of the game. Many had speculated the compensation was primarily to avoid being sued, which also explained why the publisher soon quickly sold FLOW onto another company. If they didn't own the servers anymore, then they could wash themselves of all responsibility. As for the free trial, the new company did mention they'd look into possibly reworking it again.

  It never was.

  Now, how was this relevant? Because NPCs, the people who lived in this world, weren't players. So surely they weren't affected by this? Well, not quite. Here was a technical aspect that I think Faust and Ann-Li had actually mentioned in passing, curious quirks of the engine that mattered really only to coders or game designers. I might not be exactly recalling it quite right, but from what they had mentioned, all characters, player or not, worked off the same database. What the new team had done sounded like they fiddled with the engine to set some sort of experience flag multiplier for all new characters made when they reworked the demo into a free to play game. A purchase of the game would just be removing the flag and other restrictive tags for player characters and the retainers they had.

  But what about non-player characters though? What happened with them? Well, simple: they had never gotten the 'free' experience reduction flag removed. There was no reason to, not when the developers had already been manually setting their class, level, and gear anyway. So they had understandably not much reason to adjust or change the process, all the way up to the servers shutting down.

  Still, would that explain the relatively lower power levels of the people around as a whole? I think so when in conjunction with their very poor understanding of everything. I tried to imagine what if FLOW had launched without any help screen, a greatly reduced experience system, and with very deadly monsters that could rip folks apart- without respawns even. Oh, and can't forget that hard experience cap that you couldn't break through while at that.

  Yep. That pretty much all lined up, especially also considering that these people did have to live and couldn't devote all their efforts to monster hunting for optimal farming routes. And since they would have to cooperate in the sense of army scales to deal with minor irritants like giant spider colonies which a good adventurer party of equivalent level could do by themselves, the experience distribution must be terrible.

  Probably the only other valid way to become strong individually in comparison would be player killing- or in this case, murder and war. What a depressing thought. But if that were the case, why was there at least order maintained?

  Given from I knew of the Kerezim Empire, once they got the ball rolling, it just picked up momentum from there. I wouldn't be surprised that the first armies they formed were actually very strong from all the conquering they had to do at the start. From there, social and political establishments helped keep things together, even if they grew lax and became individually weak in peace. The legions sounded like they were always on the fight, perhaps that explained why were stronger- they were focused entirely around a professional military life. I wondered if this really was the case everywhere in this new world of Shin, and also had to account for the fact that hidden factors might be in play. Things like genetics for better experience growth perhaps?

  I couldn't say. Again, this was all just speculation and suspicion, instead of true knowledge. It'd be absolutely in line for the developers to have written that some bloodlines of people happen to be 'chosen' by the Ten Divines though and given how different kinds of folks got together, I wouldn't be surprised if they mixed and became something like a recessive gene.

  Hm, but then there was the current anomaly that was Mordred. Why was she already so powerful in comparison? I realized the reason a moment later: it's because she wasn't a 'character' in the same way. She was a monster- a dragon. They never had to worry about experience reduction flags. Her only struggle was getting used to channeling all that power through the skill system now that she was a character then, adjusting to the new rules and learning quickly with more experience. Something almost like a boosted experience transfer system.

  I think that was just about everything, and Kuch's demonstration of a new skill indicated to me my theories about [Doll Maestro] were seemingly correct. The stronger my 'pet' dolls grew, the more abilities from my old builds trickled through. Barring official patch notes that I definitely wasn't going to be getting, this was as best confirmation I would likely get.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  It was also assuming a lot that experience worked the same way as just living life now. One was a game term; the other, reality. FLOW had always tried to tie the two together in a manner that made it feel natural and immersive, but of course being a game with friends, things would obviously slip. Even the roleplay members of the Ten Lights oft spoke in game slang for ease of understanding instead of trying to awkwardly phrase it like I was doing right now.

  Let's lock that in for now, whine a bit about the state of the world, and figure out what to do with this information.

  For now, I really just couldn't do anything about the experience reduction flag nor the level cap, I'm sorry to say. That'd require a cash shop item, which was basically a gifted account unlock- not even raid-tier drops could fix this. Ugh, that was quite frustrating. So I couldn't just account unlock everybody. At best, I could maybe accelerate folks who did learn from me like through an apprenticeship such as Mordred, but at the end of the day, I wasn't going to be training folks to match my level so quickly.

  I guess that technically made me less viable as a teacher? I could probably still suggest aid, provide resources, explain techniques. But the people of this world would still have to earn the skill by the sweat of their brow and through hard work. That was at least one part of FLOW that never changed and if they so happened to have the experience for it, then the voice of the world- the system- may deem them worth to grant it.

  I could still give guidance to getting some specific techniques or optimizing some builds. Like I imagined if I hadn't stepped in, Mordred might've gone for a pretty awkward brawler build with how she originally fought with fists, or that horrendous sword-mace combination. Something instead of the lancer style she truly loved and enjoyed, from how her skills seemed to reflect her own dragon heritage so subtly.

  I wasn't going to be a one-puppet wonder who could suddenly uplift everybody to the level of Lighthouse. It was going to be slow climb up, my knowledge just helping to accelerate the progression of technology and rediscovery of lost techniques. And maybe just a sprinkle of fun personal crafts to really shake up the world.

  Fine, guess I'll settle for just kickstarting a renaissance and watching things ripple from there. Heh, almost just like a certain dabbler of so many fields back in my old world.

  Though at the same time, I was confused about Petula herself.

  For her to have no skills whatsoever by her age and understanding was quite an anomaly. It could be that she hadn't picked down a route of specialization, which in itself was fascinating and unusual. That would mean she was essentially saving up all her efforts for something in particular in her head. Maybe she was hoping to one day pick up [Blood Harvest]?

  Hm.

  Um.

  Huh.

  Yeah, not going to lie: this time, I truly had no idea whatsoever for why she couldn't obtain it when the rest of her family had. It wasn't even that her swordplay was awful- it was quite decent, just a bit stiff. When Frie had practiced with her at a more equal footing without skills, they actually found themselves occasionally need to give ground against her dogged assault. Say whatever you wanted, the noble woman didn't let up. By now, she surely should have unlocked [Blood Harvest] and be halfway to her next skill even by this world's standards.

  Maybe it was a genetic thing? Though arguably, given what I suspected, then they were a bit mistaken about it being a gift from their ancestor. How did I know that?

  Cordelia's best skill hadn't been [Blood Harvest]. She didn't even have it in her skill repertoire as far as I was aware, and it translated into her she disliking the notion of absorbing her enemy's blood. "It would stain my dress," she would have declared with a sniff. I mean, I couldn't argue with that when Isabella had regularly tracked in blood into my home with zero remorse behind that gremlin grin.

  House Cordis having it is more than likely a case of bloodlines mixing, and [Blood Harvest] happened to just be predominately favored. It especially worked in Gabion where since their gear broke so easily, relying on one's own strength via stealing monster skills had especially worked wonders. I wouldn't even be surprised if in their early days, it had been favored more so than any other bloodline skill to the point of it being considered a 'gift' from Cordelia.

  I almost wanted to see what her face would be to that little misinterpretation.

  No, rather her specialty had been-

  My thoughts were quite rudely and suddenly by the sound of angry wildlife not far from my home. Sounds like something had riled them up.

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  "[Blood Harvest]!" Teodor barked and felt strength surge into his limbs. With it, he was able to slam a fist into the bear which he just drained and cause it to stagger back. It shook its head, then roared, ready to try again with another charge.

  His bodyguards interceded and held it back with their own augmented strength, grunting when they took some of the wild scratches with their armor. They thankfully didn't have to withstand for long before his aunt had finished casting her spell. "[Fireball]!"

  The burst of flame from her staff was considerably smaller than the one that she made against Eifer that day, likely owing to her not having taken in an enhancement potion to boost her power. But it still enough was to sear the beast's head, finally bringing it low.

  The nobles and their escort panted heavily, wary of the woods about. At the sound of footsteps they all instantly turned and readied themselves to continue fighting, only to pause at a familiar face approaching. "Oh," commented a puppet in a butler attire, casually dropping off the two wolf corpses in their hands. "I have guests."

  The heir's retinue stared, being the first time they ever saw such an artificial being, while Teodor and Vio relaxed. "Cousins," the man ordered, straightening up and gesturing. "Remember your oaths. What you hear and see is to be kept secret, no matter what. But know that we should be among friends now."

  The bodyguards hastily nodded, allowing the tension to bleed from their posture. But they did slightly start when the duke's sister hurried towards the newcomer and began to...gush over them. "Oh goodness Kuch, you look absolutely sharp in that! I can't believe this is the same person who stays in that heavy armor all the time!" Vio praised, enamored by the otherworldly attire. "Tell me, please, you'll be wearing more of that!"

  "Oh, I do, but I'm afraid you've made a mistake. I'm not Kuch- I'm Frie," they introduced and then stepped aside to indicate. "This way please. I've just disabled my home's defenses, you should see it shortly."

  Indeed, barely much further later, and the group from Gabion stared openly at the manor in the woods. "To think there really was somebody living out here," Teodor murmured, both perplexed yet fascinated. He turned to address the puppet walking alongside, pausing and blushing when realizing something. "Ah, forgive me, but what manner of address would you prefer? Sir? Lady?"

  "Hm. Whatever you like, but I'm not one for formal titles. Frie just works," they answered casually before perking. "Forgive me too, but I've also tell you the good news. The duke has made a full recovery."

  The group's mood instantly rose at that, all of them relieved that the vampire lord's time hadn't yet come. "Glad to hear my brother's still alive. I suppose I owe you the tale of Lighthouse then," Vio mentioned, glancing at the manor and frowning. "Hm. Curious though, as this place...it's exactly like the abodes mentioned in it. Is there perhaps a name for your residence?"

  "Hm. It does not. Would you have a recommendation in mind?"

  "How about Puppet Atelier?"

  The doll paused and for a moment, Vio had thought it would be rejected. But then the doors to the manor opened and all openly stared at the duplicates opening the way for the duke to step forward. "Then let it be known so," Gregori announced, smiling in a way that none could recall him ever doing so since the death of his firstborn. "And let it also be known House Cordis shall be Puppet Atelier's sponsor!"

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