Unlocking the Potential of the Puppet

Mark continued training with the puppet in three ways. The first way he had to fight it with it using both Rubes and his Skills, techniques, and abilities. He noticed it didn't use any other moves than what he knew or had seen Rubes using, meaning that either Rubes used every move at their battle or the puppet could only replicate something he had seen only or had knowledge of. He doubted it was the former, as Rubes didn't use that many moves at their battle.

The second way he trained with the puppet was not having it fight him, but just repeating using specific techniques of his Skills so that he could master them. Since both his <Martial Art> and <Minor Sword Mastery> were level 75 or over, they both had entered the Master State. That meant there were no more techniques over the Skill, and he just had to master all of them to level up his Skill.

Coming up with new techniques or moves with the Skills was also helping in leveling up the Skill, but that was much harder to pull off.

The third way he used the puppet was it just demonstrating the different moves of Rubes while he kept using his <Exploit> Skill on it to try to find ways to deal with them.

He also came out with another breakthrough through these sets of training. Puppet could use every move ideally, but whenever Mark told it to do it at a similar speed and force he could muster, he noticed that the errors in those moves were very close to his mistakes. That made him understand more about the requirements of his stats on each of his combat-orientated skills.

Since he could easily order the puppet to change its stats just by a thought, he could be very precise about those limitations.

It also helped him to find something else, which was Rubes' stats. The puppet could reach each stat up to a specific limit, which was much higher than Mark's current stats, but weren't the max stats able to reach. Also, the limit for each stat was different, making him conclude that it was limited to the person they represented.

Rubes' stats were as follows: <Power> 50, <Agility> 80, <Endurance> 30, <Defense 30>, and <Mind> 55. <Mind> and <Defense> were the trickiest to find out, as the puppet didn't let him know if it reached its limit, and he had to find out by battling it.

There were no damage notifications, so he had to understand the difference in <Defense> through the feeling he had felt from the impacts of his attacks and how the puppet's body reacted to it. As for <Mind>, since the puppet could also use Trucki, which relied on <Mind> to control it, he could also pinpoint it.

Mark also found out another function of the Darkroom through their training. Typically, it was completely empty, but he discovered that he could create different objects by envisioning them. He had shaped some in the past, but they were just made by his energy, and he had to keep focusing on keeping those 'objects. 'But when he envisioned one, there was no need to further concentrate on keeping it around but needed to focus on making it disappear.

Unfortunately, the puppet couldn't use Skills like <Beginner Hacker> or <Appraisal> as they mainly were <Mind> related. Even if it didn't struggle to manipulate Trucki, which was partially related to <Mind>, it became apparent that the System, or whoever made it, meant it to be for only combat training. Not that Mark had any complaints as he had already mastered most Skills like that.

Another finding that Mark found was the effects of his <Beginner Leader>. He had some sessions of fighting with the puppet against the simple dummies he envisioned to test his new Skill, and it worked on it even if he didn't make it to join a Party with him. From what he understood <Party Mode> and <Beginner Leader> were related, but both didn't need to exist for the Skill to work.

That meant as far as a person wasn't aggressive on Mark, he could allow getting boosted by his Skill, but the effects wouldn't be as much as if they were in his Party, or at least that was his assumption. After all, the Skill's description didn't give a precise number on the Skill increased what exactly, but through the time with the puppet, Mark came to some understanding.

Since he controlled the puppet's stats, he had it to 'fight' along with him in precisely the same stats and tried to examine any changes while his Skill affected it. By his estimation, ordering it to take similar actions with and without the Skill's boosts, he found that its stats at least increased by close to twenty percent.

Besides a boost in stats, Mark wasn't sure what else it affected, but he was almost certain it would have raised the proficiency of someone when using their Skills. or other abilities. He couldn't test it with the puppet, though, as it could use everything in perfection unless the Stats requirement exceeded its current 'assigned 'stats.

He stayed in the Darkroom all day and night and only came out of it in the morning, as he had to go on the mission Jack had briefed him on yesterday. There was a nurse around who was told to inform Jack the moment Mark was awake, so it didn't take long since the former came to the room he was in.

With Jack also came Sam and Emerald — or was that Ruby since she wasn't wearing her white coat?

"Are you ok there, boy? You had us worry, as you took your time to wake up, "Jack exclaimed, with an unmistakable smile as he saw Mark was on his feet with no problems.

"Yeah, no worries. I was not ready for another round like that, but it was an eye-opener. I learned quite a bit out of it, "Mark said as he stretched his body a bit, as it was stiff from being in bed all those hours.

"Hehe… it is good to hear that you keep your spirit up. So you are ready for your first mission? I have approval for the people high to let you not take part if you consider you aren't ready. "

Mark nodded as he was ready to go.

"Good. You and the gem girl will go. As was planned, Sam will join you later, but because of what happened, Agent Rubes won't join you. Agent James was assigned instead. "

"You know I have a name, don't you?" Ruby said.

Mark was sure of her identity because he checked her aura, which was primarily black, a sign that Ruby was in control.

"Also, where is my payment? You know I don't work if I don't have a payfront, at least," Ruby said as she continued staring at Jack.

Jack sighed as he pulled out an envelope from his vest pocket. He wasn't in his exoskeleton suit and wore some quite simple clothes. The members of the Combat Department didn't have a specific suit or dress code. That didn't count the Logistics Department, of which Mark had only met Erinne as far as their members went.

As Ruby took the envelope from Jack's hand, she didn't even open it, just put it in one of her pant pockets. A grin appeared on her face, which Mark had seen many times in those past weeks, as she reacted like that when she received what she wanted.

Jack had sent some more information on Mark's tablet that the Organization gave him. Mark started reading them while they headed towards the garage to get the vehicle they would use to get to their destination. He didn't need to take out his tablet and look at it as he could easily access it with his <Beginner Hacker> and quickly draw anything out of it.

Since Mark's <Beginner Hacker> reached its max level, there were very few machines he couldn't take complete control of, and from those he couldn't, he could take partial control at least. Since he couldn't raise his Skill level, increasing his Stats and understanding of different machines was the only way to increase his Skill effects. After all, the more familiar he was with what he tried to hack, the less challenging it was to do so.

But before they headed out, Mark asked Jack if he could take a detour to the Mechanic Department as he needed to get something from there first. Jack didn't have any problems with that, as Mark said it wouldn't take him that long to finish whatever he wanted to do over there.

Ruby followed him, as she was clearly curious about what Mark was working on, as she also worked in the Mechanic Department. Max wasn't around, which wasn't unusual, as even if he wasn't the Head of the Department, the actual Head tasked him with being in charge of most things, and some had him far from the Department's place.

Mark needed little time, as he just had to put together some items he had ordered some days ago for a personal project. As long as it wasn't something too peculiar, and the person who needed it was someone who had completed enough tasks to get rewarded with those materials, parts, or other items, the Organization was glad to provide them with what they wanted.

Mark put everything he had ordered and some parts he had already made days ago, and his project was ready in just a couple of seconds. It looked like a toy truck but was more significant than the usual size of one, and he made everything of some kind of metal, not plastic.

Ruby moved closer to inspect it, but Mark stopped her by putting one hand in front of her and the other at the front of the vehicle. Not long after he did so, parts of the trucks started to move, and their form started changing. It took a humanoid form in a matter of seconds, although it wasn't close to looking like a human.

This was the body Mark had explicitly made for Truck-kun.