Chapter 49: Spydragon

Everything that Kerriel and Kalluto conversed was seen and heard by Compass Carburettor through his Puppet. It was a serpentine object with a segmented body like a centipede. On its forehead was a hemispherical object that acted as a lens.

This lens captured everything that happened at an almost 360-degree angle. But in contrast, the depth of field it could perceive wasn’t too far. But, for spying in closed spaces, it was perfect. It had two modes of traversal.

The first was the serpentine form where it used the segments to fluidly slither like an actual serpent. So, it was silently able to slip through tiny gaps and hide in discrete places.

The second was the flying form. In this form, all the segments retracted, causing its overall length to only be 5 centimetres as opposed to the 20 centimetres in the serpentine form. Now, it was a rigid object, unleashing a pair of wings created by Darlac.

Normally, energy blades created using Darlac wasn’t flexible. They were rigid, unmoving. So, all Compass Carburettor did here was to create mini-Armaments as the wing bones. So, when activated, they condensed a pair of wings.

And, since they were attached to the wing bones—mini-Armaments—and were connected to a mini rack and pulley mechanism, they could move up and down. As for the rack and pulley mechanism, they were attached to numerous mini-Armaments that activated and deactivated accordingly, condensing cylindrical energy blades.

Basically, what he had installed in to power them was the same as a piston engine used in vehicles on Earth. As the Armament here condensed cylindrical energy blades, they pumped the Puppet to move.

The mechanism to move the other puppets were more or less the same. They used the ability of the energy blades to expand from zero to their max dimension in an instant, generating force while doing so. Beyond that were just gear mechanics.

And, the Darble circuit installed in the Puppets worked similar to electronic circuits but less sophisticated. In the end, they were able to achieve what he had in mind. To travel long distances, the Puppet would use its wings to fly at tremendous speeds.

And for missions, while investigating and spying on people, the serpentine form would be used. It was the perfect spyware. So, Compass Carburettor gave it a name accordingly.

Spydragon!

When he asked Ephemella about the type of Puppet they used in their spy activities, she showed a miniature humanoid puppet. There was a reason Puppeteers used humanoid Puppets to manipulate. It was because they were easier.

And, to control a humanoid Puppet, the Puppeteer only had to think of moving his body accordingly. So, it was the perfect Puppet form. After all, it wasn’t as if Puppeteers could just sit in one place and focus on controlling their Puppets entirely.

If suppose they had to move, controlling any other form of Puppets would simply err their judgement. After all, their bodies and the bodies of other creatures were different. So, simultaneously giving complex commands to completely different body structures was impossible.

It was easy to slip up even with the greatest of concentration. So, every Puppet was humanoid in design. It was the world standard. But, Compass Carburettor was different. He didn’t plan on using a Puppet to ever fight.

After all, his affinity to the path wasn’t high. So, when he manipulated a regular Puppet, the Darlac expenditure wasn’t worth it. So instead, he planned to only use the Spydragon to spy on Regriel. That was the only task he planned to use the Puppet for.

So, he made such a design. Moreover, when he was spying, he was mostly still, having his eyes closed. So, it was easier. But even then, it was hard to control the Spydragon. He only had a week’s worth of training in using it.

And, this time was short even for him, as the Spydragon was just too different from a human body. He was able to move it slowly. But once he increased its speed, he made too many errors, causing the Spydragon to constantly stop in its tracks.

That’s why he left it on the chair in the inn while conversing with Kerriel. And, once Kerriel began to walk away, he slowly moved the Spydragon, making it follow her. It was difficult, but with enough concentration, and since he was still the whole time, he was able to pull it off.

And, once it was in position, he began to walk through the night, returning to his hideout. Now, having heard everything that transpired between the mother and daughter pair, Compass Carburettor sighed, feeling guilty when he firmed himself, ‘My target is Regriel, and him only. Even though I have no other choice but to involve the others around him into the mix, I’ll be sure to prevent any harm from befalling them.’

He then gazed at the mirror, looking at his appearance that now resembled a beggar. He looked like a completely different person now. Fealta then took up a perfume bottle, whispering while pinching her nose, “This’ll make you smell no different to a beggar.”

“Thank you,” Compass Carburettor nodded in gratitude, glad that he had such exceptionally talented people to support him. The two servants constantly worked in the background, prepping up everything he needed while he went about, motioning plans into action.

‘Now, I guess it’s time to finally make contact with the System Host, Regriel.’ Compass Carburettor inspected his appearance, finding no faults in it, down to the minute details, frowning at the stench, but controlling himself, soon getting into the character, one of a beggar who had lost everything he had owned and now simply resorted to drinking.

It was important for the next stage of his plan, one where he had to figure out the method to refine a System Fragment. That would be the defining factor that would decide his subsequent plans.

Compass Carburettor waved his hand, leaving the hideout as he began to walk on the streets, rolling on the road a couple of times to instil that down-to-earth personality present in actual beggars. He sometimes walked, rolled, and even crawled through the streets, escaping any prowling thugs like his life depended on it.

Within an hour, he was completely into the character, now heading towards the city’s exit, getting kicked by the guards a couple of times for his behaviour, and basically for the fact that he was a beggar. Spitting out some blood on the ground, he moved forward, heading towards the nearby forest, all the while focusing on the scene witnessed by the Spydragon, watching Kalluto cheer excitedly when Regriel and General Artica returned from their hunt.

‘Dayum, this is that pervert fatass? With this appearance, he doesn’t even need to rely on his System anymore to hoodwink women into doing his bidding.’ Feeling a headache, Compass Carburettor arrived at the entrance to a certain path, making home at the side as he took out a bottle of cheap, diluted liquor, smelling it a bit as he got drunk.