"But I remember you two were just shouting about a luck competition, weren’t you? So your luck was bad, and you lost?"
Upon hearing this, Jason clenched his fist, raised his right hand high, and declared loudly, "That’s because Pororo cheated! He’s a Warrior of the Ocean..." Then he launched into an explanation about how the Ocean favored Pororo, and how he himself was just not in top form today.
Even Pororo, up in the crow’s nest, couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Hearing the harsh laughter from above, Jason became furious. He put away his fishing rod and started climbing the mast, shouting, "Damn it, Pororo, I’m going to duel you!"
He always believed he was lucky and absolutely refused to admit his luck might be bad. Perhaps that was one of Jason’s sore spots? However, when it came to treasure hunting, his luck always seemed to be just a little bit better. Maybe it was because treasure hunting consumed too much of his ordinary luck. Could luck be conserved? Perhaps if you were a bit lucky here today, you would be unlucky somewhere else tomorrow. Who knows.
After this small interlude, Chadite smiled and walked towards the bow. For the past week, Alka and Lucilia had seemed quite busy, so she could only seek out Julia for a chat.
Just then, the clanging sounds started again from below deck. Chadite glanced back before turning her head away. "There it goes again," she murmured. Such noises had been frequent lately.
Currently, Alka and Lucilia were busy in the fabrication hall on the lower deck. They had reached the most critical step of their experiment. Success at this stage meant they had truly succeeded.
Lucilia had by then emerged from her puppet shell, having returned to her soul state, resembling a normal human. The crimson Bloody Team Banner floated between Lucilia’s hands. A red mist, like blood, floated beside her. Under her control, it condensed into a majestic suit of Armor, though it didn’t quite suit Lucilia’s delicate features. This was the effect Lucilia manifested when fully unleashing the Treasure’s power. If she were in a physical body, such blood-red Armor wouldn’t be possible without a supply of Magic Power. But in her soul form, even without Magic Power, the blood-red mist surrounding her soul would automatically coalesce.
"Alka, it’s your turn. I’m using all my strength to keep it under control." At this point, Lucilia, after a period of dedicated training in control, was now suppressing the banner’s innate tendencies. This meant suppressing the banner’s inherent effects and Rules. Simply put, it was about lowering its demands and cutting the controller some slack, making it easier to handle.
"Get ready. We’re starting," Alka said, guiding a 30-centimeter puppet, crafted in Lucilia’s likeness, over with his Magic Power. As the puppet floated before the banner, Alka controlled its arm to slowly lift and touch the banner.
Upon contact, the crimson aura began to seep into the puppet’s body. Taking advantage of this, the puppet’s appearance began to change. An exquisitely crafted humanoid figure materialized. Its face was exceptionally delicate. Unlike Lucilia, it had more human-like ears and short, dark hair. Following this change in appearance, the crimson aura began to merge into it, truly and without resistance.
Seeing this, Alka’s expression grew excited. Lucilia, too, was somewhat thrilled. This was the first time in a long while that the crimson aura had entered the puppet’s body so smoothly, ready to activate its internal Circuits. Previously, they had been stuck at this step; the crimson aura had consistently refused to enter and activate the puppet. Sometimes, it would even shatter the puppet completely. In milder instances, it would merely send the puppet flying.
Now that the crimson aura had smoothly merged into the puppet’s body, there was hope.
At this point, Lucilia’s soul-form was already showing signs of strain; using her soul power, even with her current strength, to forcibly suppress a Treasure was still too demanding. If not for the high compatibility between her and this Treasure, achieving this level of control would have been impossible.
As the crimson power integrated, Alka rapidly scanned the changes within the puppet’s shell, not missing the slightest detail. He could feel the Magic Circuits inside the puppet’s body expanding outward from the core. It was just as when Lucilia had previously used a shell: the vessel was transforming to attune to what it connected with. Veins of flesh were extending as the crimson aura integrated, merging with the Magic Circuits.
So, the crucial elements were indeed these flesh-like veins and the Spells inscribed from a source compatible with the banner, which reduced its rejection.
Alka had replaced the original core within this puppet shell with simple Spell arrangements. He then used special materials to simulate the presence of a soul. These special materials originated from the Realm of Pitch Darkness and other such places where Evil Spirits were born and congregated. Using Magic Power, one could engrave onto these materials, performing actions similar to programming. This allowed the puppet to respond and interact with certain commands via these Spells. Many golem-like constructs used such components as their core to control their autonomous functions. It was said that highly advanced cores could enable such constructs to exhibit entirely human-like behavior.