She went through the Puppet Master’s General Skill Tree first, so she has the General Staff ability, to make the Puppets smart and autonomous, but they will still be lousy combatants, and she lacks Cain’s ability to create them from nothing.

“That is almost exactly correct. You can animate a doll and make it intelligent. I can make really good ones, like the Kitchen staff, but you can make ones with basic skills and intelligence to do basic things for you. Why don’t I make a body and you can animate it as your first puppet?” Cain asked, but Cyrene waved off the notion.

“Too much information. I will get good with these other ones first, then I can work on the Puppets. You will help me out with yours until then, right?” Luna asked hopefully.

“Of course, I will. They already help you all day long, I won’t make them stop.” He laughed, patting her head just to hear the little happy noise she made when he did it.

“Excellent. Now, please bring me to the tower, I have a plan.” Luna declared.

“Oh, you do, do you? Is it a good plan?” Cain asked.

“It is pure Genius. You see, the Bears are always lined up to train, right? So if I Summon a clone of the strongest looking one they can tell me what to do until I understand how the tower works.” Luna told Cain with great pride.

It was actually a pretty good plan. They would all have some experience in the tower, so she couldn’t get it very wrong, and at level 100, the difficulty level shouldn’t be anything they had not faced already.

“That is a good idea. I also recommend that you pick one of your toughest summons and use [Merger]. It will make you stronger and harder to hurt, which will let you go further in the tower.” Cain explained.

“Yes, I can see how being small and fragile would be a disadvantage. I will keep it in mind.” Luna agreed, adjusting her plans.When they got to the tower, the perfect partner was there waiting for them. En had just finished her daily run and was telling battle stories to the cubs.

That was good enough for Luna, and she quickly recorded them all then prepared to Summon a clone of En. The bear was huge, a whole meter taller than the human form Cain was using, so Luna was sure she would get a good view of the battle from her shoulder.

“Now, I know it is tempting to ask me to help you skip the line, but today, there are valuable insights to be gained. While they wait, everyone talks about their previous runs, the monsters they faced, and what was the best way to defeat them. Just by talking with the people around you, there is a lot to learn here.” Cain explained, lifting his arm so he was speaking directly at the Lamia Progenitor.

“Oh, I wondered who you were talking to. Greetings Guild Master Cain, I am Shuri, a student studying under Duke Chen.” A catgirl mage in front of them turned to say.

“A tiny Lamia? That must be Luna. Greetings, Guild Master, Miss Luna. I am Disciple Cindy, also a student of Duke Chen.” A young human monk added with a polite bow.

It’s unusual to see a mage under Duke Chen’s training. Do you perhaps have a close combat specialty?” Cain asked Shuri while they waited for the line to move.

“Not really, but I want to learn to fight unarmed or with my staff, so I went to him for training. The Duke’s training center has started taking in a wider variety of close combatants lately since so many nobles suffered heavy losses after the dungeon breach. I must say though, I’m glad I encountered Miss Luna out here and not as a target in the dungeon. Small creatures are hard to fight, they always hide in the grass, or under objects and strike when you least expect it.” Shuri explained.

“Yeah, being overpowered by something like a Minotaur or those massive Wrath Demons is one thing, but a surprise poisoning from something you didn’t even see is extra annoying.” Cindy agreed while Luna nodded along.

“Hidden things are bad, but birds and dragons are the worst, I’m sure of it. I’m a bear, bears don’t fly, and the annoying things keep flying out of my range just when I think I’ve got them.” Another challenger in line complained.

“Warriors with strong defense cause me a lot of problems, but straight Caster types are a rogue’s specialty. The more of them I can get in a trip, the better I do.” Another one of the bears waiting in line bragged.

It didn’t take long before they were at the front of the line, and Cain walked inside with Luna around his wrist. “Just accept the quest and choose to enter the tower and you will be on your own. Remember, call your summons right away, because you never know when something will start out hiding very near you.”

“Got it. I can do this. Yeah, strong thoughts.” Luna hyped herself up while the others around her smiled at the small creature’s enthusiasm.

Seconds later, Luna vanished into the tower, and Cain was left alone to wait, so he headed back outside to where the locals had arranged a bunch of benches for viewing the statues as they lit up to show the contestant’s progress.magic

With a full set of summons out and the bonus from being a Puppet Master, plus the experience bonuses on the gear she was wearing, Luna would likely reset herself at least once during the trial and drag the total time out much longer than usual. Possibly long enough that she either falls asleep or gives up in boredom, both of which would eject her from the trial.The spells that form the tower’s enchantments are quite advanced, but they don’t differentiate between being knocked unconscious and simply sleeping. Both are counted as no longer training and get punted to make way for the next trainee.

The moment that Luna got inside, she called for both sets of her basic summons. Lamia Scourge Casters for her Lesser option, and Wrath Bringers for the greater. She then merged with one Wrath Bringer and called five clones of Kone and one of En for her to ride on.

“Welcome everyone, my name is Luna and I will be your summoner today. I hope you don’t mind if I ride your shoulder, En. You are the tallest, other than the Wrath Bringers, who don’t look very talkative, and I need to learn combat tactics before I leave this place today.” Luna introduced herself, making the Supporters laugh.

“Don’t worry little one, we will show you all the important things about fighting with the summons.” One of the copies of Kone declared, calling for her assortment of Snapping Turtle Kin.

“First up, think of your job as a manager. With so many of us here already, what you need to do is keep everyone on track and find the best way to deal with targets. Your Supporters can do some of that themselves, but the lower summons are limited in intelligence by the spell, so they don’t always make the best tactical decisions.” The clone of Kone informed her as Luna climbed up onto En’s shoulder to get a better look at the inside of the tower.

It was much bigger than it looked, definitely the work of magic, but more importantly, there were a group of Dire Wolves in the distance.

“What would Cain do? Durable things first, then powerful things, with fast things to keep them from running away. That’s what the instructors were telling the students that trained with the Blood Dancers. Miss En, how do I do that?” Luna rambled.

En pointed out that the wolves were very fast themselves, so sending the Turtles after them would just result in a foot race that the tanks couldn’t win, so Luna had to try again.

“You’re close though, just fix the order of operations.” Kone encouraged her.

“Oh, I know. Send the Lamia around the back and drive them toward the Turtles and Wrath Bringers. That should work. Everyone head out and let’s see how it goes.”

Over the next two hours and eleven levels, resetting once at eight floors in due to a level up, they practiced combat techniques and battle strategies until Luna was exhausted. She had been awake well over two hours before entering, and now two more where she had to do a lot of thinking, and she was just plain worn out.

“Just say that you forfeit and the tower will let you leave. We will all see you tomorrow and we can try again until you get everything perfect.” En encouraged her, while the Lamia gave the big bear a sleepy, but happy hug to the side of the neck.

“Alright. Tower, I forfeit. Please take me back to Dad.” Luna muttered, blinking rapidly to stay awake.

Cain felt the moment that she returned like a spell had been cast to call him to the tower for recovery of the sleeping Lamia Progenitor. The few challengers that were healing up in the open spaces of the main floor were smiling at her tiny snoring body, clearly not ejected for damage, but because she exhausted herself entirely.

“So cute. But I did that the first time I was in here too. Mana use exhaustion. I had gone through a dozen potions then boom, no more energy, and everything went blurry as I collapsed and got ejected. Poor thing must have really given it her all.” An Elven Ranger who was leaning against the wall said with a smile as Cain picked Luna up, letting her body instinctively wrap around his arm.

“She does it constantly. She was born with high quality and advanced level, but she is still very young and doesn’t understand her limits.” Cain told them, then waved at the shocked faces and headed back for the manor.

None of them had expected to see the elusive Guild Master of the Darklight Host here today, actually seeing him was like a celebrity encounter for most of the visitors to Long Fang Valley, something that they would definitely tell their friends about when they got home.