Chapter 330

The room they’re brought to is not for those who are afraid of heights; the floor is made of thick glass, looking down over the city below them, with the option to roll a carpet across it for privacy, while the walls are made of natural, living branches, open all around and surrounded by leaves. The ventilation is the best part about the building, as the heat is as bad as in the Great Desert where the Guild Castle is placed, but it’s also insanely muggy here.

Cain has long since changed to shorts and a light linen tunic, and he’s even forced Cyrene to travel beside him instead of around him to cut down on the heat. The room doesn’t have a bed. Instead, it has a collection of hammocks strung around near the openings that Cain can’t decide whether to call windows or patio doors.

The disappointment of the ladies that everyone will be sleeping alone in their hammocks is plain to both Cain and Princess Paige, but they’ve both chosen to ignore it for now. The Princess assures them that someone will be by with water and an evening snack soon, then returns to the royal quarters to bother her mother for a while.

After a few minutes, they realize that the walls aren’t open; there’s an enchantment on them that keeps bugs and birds from flying into the room. The sun goes down not long after they get to the room, which confuses them all until they realize that it’s the time difference between continents, and they’re suffering from the magical world equivalent of Jetlag.

They’re planning to farm the dungeons hard tomorrow while they’re here, so they all turn in not long after the food arrives, enjoying the evening breeze as the sky turns to full dark.

They wake up with the sun shining through the trees as the temperature starts to climb the following day. It’s not a bad way to wake up, and Cain gently swings himself in the hammock for a little while before deciding to get mobile and productive.

“We need a house here too. It’s amazing, especially first thing in the morning.” Misha declares, coming in from the shower. Like the rest of the room, the theme is natural, the shower itself is just a water enchantment on an overhead leaf, and the water disappears into a hole in the branch that makes up the floor.

When he gets out of the shower, Cain finds that they have not just one but two visitors. Princess Paige, plus a Puppet Master called Mary. Cain tries recording her and finds that now, the Puppet Master records as a form, but it doesn’t seem to be a valid summon under any of his options.

“That’s strange; I should be able to record and summon pretty much anything,” Mary complains, and both Misha and Cain snort in amusement at the shocked look on their face.

“You can’t summon Puppet Masters. I’ve tried before. Just be glad that I’ve advanced already and that you didn’t trigger the quest the moment we met.” Cain tries to explain their amusement.

“There’s a Puppet Master Quest when they meet each other? Like for exchanging forms? That would be amazing.” The elf gushes, excitement plain on her face.

“The only problem is that you have to kill the other one to get their recorded forms and have their Lieutenant and Commander summons numbers added to your own. If you hear of another Puppet Master, be careful about that. They’re unlikely to be friendly when there’s that much power at stake.” Cain tells her in his best lecturer’s tone.

“Noted. Did you know the trick with summoning things that summon? It’s ridiculously overpowered.” Mary asks.

“I did. If you do both skill trees, you’ll also get hidden bonus skills as you finish ranks and an extra special one at the end. So unless a new class is good, you should consider sticking with Puppet Master for 200 levels. Also, if you find a skill that clones your summons, it’s incredibly broken and should be obtained at all costs.”

That bit of information seems to have broken her brain. She’s trying to figure out how many summons she could have active with everything duplicated. “I’m already a General Tree Puppet Master; twice as many summons would be insane.”

“You have no idea. It would help if you came with us to the Dungeon today, and Cain will show you what broken means. We didn’t bring the Companions with us on this trip, so we’re down a couple of hundred summons, but it’s still a lot.” Misha adds.

“Companions? Is that a special class of summons?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t get those in the General Tree. You get one from the Lord Tree, but I got an Ancient Quality Skill Book that gave me companions from the major species categories. The Lord Tree gives them all summons of their own, which gets a bit crazy at times. I’ve managed to activate a Demon, Dragon, Beastkin, Seraphim, and a Dark Elf.” Cain explains.

“Okay, that’s just too cool. I’ve got to come along with you on a dungeon run. Even if you left all the Companions behind, I want to see what a Puppet Master’s full force looks like when they’re level capped. Plus, a few extra forms wouldn’t be a bad thing. If you don’t mind, that is.”

“Of course not; another body along for the run is no trouble. Is the Princess coming with us as well?”

“Please. I’ve been banished from the Royal Quarters for the day. Mother caught on to the fact that I was teasing her to make her get mad and turn into a child.” Paige laughs.

“You remember that she’s the Queen, right? Even if she’s having troubles, she still possesses the authority to banish you from the Royal Family if you make her mad enough.” Mary teases her friend.

“Fine, I’ll behave, but I won’t be happy about it. You should see her when she’s mad now; she is so cute. I told her for ages that she should have made me a little sister, but she kept saying it’s not going to happen.”