The ghostly arachnid skittered its legs, turning its body to face Seth, before tilting its head in an attempt to look cute.

As Seth gazed into its eyes, a slight smirk dancing on his lips, he could feel the connection to the strange creature. It was similar to the connection he had to his puppet previously, yet there were no threads connecting the two of them.

However despite that oddity, he could still control the creature like any other puppet and, with some focus, shift his vision so that he was gazing through its eyes. Curiously enough, even though true spiders had multiple sets of eyes, this one only had a single pair that was functioning.

Placing it on the ground, he let the spider scuttle across the floor and freely explore the room. It seemed, while he could control it either directly or by orders, it was not limited to them. Honestly that might have been for the best, as he was not used to trying to walk on 8 legs.

Even while it was scampering through the room, he had to block out its vision before he became nauseous at the constant shifting of gravity as it climbed up walls and across the ceiling.

"Angel, do you have anything to tell me about this little guy?"

[I do, one moment please.]

[Spirit Animal: A result of a metaphysical response to stress that stimulated the latent energy within your body. The Spirit Animal acts as an anchor for the unstable soul as well as a subconscious relay.]

"Is that all? That's not much detail… Is there really nothing else you can tell me?"

[I suggest that you try to use your abilities first.]

"Well… You heard them, think you could get me a few of those mannequins? The more intact, the better."

He sighed, turning his attention to Bob who was sitting close by reading through the information journal. Upon hearing the instructions, the living mannequin dropped the book immediately, shot to his feet and ran off, but not before shouting back,

"Yes Father Seth, right away!"

"Father Seth… sounds like I'm some cult leader…"

He couldn't help but groan and shake his head, instructing the spider to return to him from its adventures on the ceiling.

The Spirit Animal let out a small chirp of acknowledgment and, instead of crawling back over to him, simply dropped from the ceiling like a poorly installed light fitting. However before it could even come close to hitting the ground, its form flashed for a moment, as the spider was replaced by a small raven that tumbled in the air before fluttering its way over to him.

The spectral bird, the tips of its wings alight with azure flames, touched down on the ground without a single sound and hopped its way over to Seth, climbing into his lap and settling down beside the snoozing Omelette.

It didn't take long for Bob to return, dragging a pair of his mannequin friends behind them. Seth gave him a few moments to set them up, so they were standing shoulder to shoulder and still in poses that showed off the tattered remains of clothes they were made to advertise.

Once they were ready, he gave the Spirit Animal a gentle nudge.

"Alright little buddy, let's see what you can do."

With a flick of the wrist, he cast out his threads like a fishing line, wrapping them around the limbs and plunging one into the torso of one of the mannequins as he turned it into one of his puppets. Since he wasn't entirely sure how the Spirit Animal would help, he simply sent it the mental command to help.

The spectral raven in his lap let out a soft caw, before the new puppet began to move on its own. No, that wasn't right. It wasn't moving on its own like Bob, instead he could feel the raven commanding the puppet through his connection to it.

The Spirit Animal simply commanded the new puppet to stand at attention and give an exaggerated salute, the exact type he used to give behind his bosses back.

"Interesting…"

Giving it a few more orders, Seth set about finding the limits and capabilities of his useful new companion.

When he gave it orders to punch, kick or perform certain actions, it would obey without question. All he had to do was relay the action and the Spirit Animal would do all the work in carrying out said actions. Of course, it was still limited by the actions that he himself could do, it still couldn't do a backflip no matter how many times he tried and when it performed actions that he did know, like a punch, every repeat of said action was a carbon copy. It would always perform the same action in the same way, as if it was a robot that was pre-programmed.

If he had to put it into simple terms, it was like a game controller. Before, it was if he had to program in every single action that the puppets would take. To make it punch he had to write the code every single time just to execute the program, the only shortcuts were when it came to completely subconscious actions.

However now, it was as if he had created his own packets of prewritten code. All he had to do was tell it what to do, and the program would run itself, much like pressing a button on a controller.

The punch button would always have the character performing the same punch, while the subconscious cheats from before still existed.

It was a slight difference, but it had massive implications in the long run. For one, he could make himself an entire army that would operate as a single unit without hesitation or flaw.

Although they would be great for large scale operations in which he could perform the same basic options over and over, any deviation from the script would mean a colossal amount of micromanagement for himself.

However the solution was obvious, simply fill up more code to compensate. It might not be a perfect solution, but it would basically mean he had an army of NPCs at his beck and call.

All he had to do was personally fill the library of attacks and actions himself, to write the code for the spirit beast to carry out on repeat.

Putting the other mannequin under his control, Seth had the Spirit Animal test its ability to control multiple puppets at once, to a resounding success. It had no issue giving the same commands to the two at the same time as he had them simultaneously perform the spear katas he had been trying to learn. Although, since he was only a beginner at the katas, it meant the puppets also carried out his same mistakes on repeat, but such a problem would be resolved with practice to refine the program.

The only issue came when it was time to give the two puppets separate orders. While Seth could still directly control one of them and have the Spirit Animal control the other, having the raven control both presented a challenge.

Simply put, a single controller couldn't relay separate orders to different characters. It had to give one puppet its orders then metaphorically switch ports to give the other one its orders. However, it was at least manageable that it didn't have to wait until the puppet had fully completed the action to switch over to the new one.

While relaying different orders came with a short delay, he assumed that practice would be all it took to shorten that delay. He could also have it stack up instructions to be carried out in sequence one after the other and even set the sequence to repeat until it received new instructions, either from the Spirit Animal or Seth himself.

Sure, it wasn't exactly how he had hoped, but while other commanders would have to train entire units to move and fight as a single entity, he only had to train himself how to fight. He would have to do some experiments with 'If' statements, but he didn't see them having much use.

He could, for example, instruct it to set a puppet up with instructions like 'If a ball is thrown at me, catch the ball.' but it didn't have the ability to think for itself or adapt on its own. If the ball came at an angle even slightly different than the catch it was programmed with, it would never be able to catch the ball.

Nonetheless, overall the Spirit Animal would be a useful addition to his arsenal, more suited to long term benefits, even if it did require him to go through hellish torture and a prolonged nap to get it.

"By the way Bob, I probably should have asked before now, but how long was I out for?"

As he dismissed the Spirit Animal, which turned into a flickering candle light that darted into his chest before vanishing. Seth turned to Bob, who was once again holding the journal and studying it like a student before an important exam.

Yet even as Seth was asking that question, he couldn't help but frown as something tickled at the back of his mind.

"11 days."

"11 days…"

They spoke simultaneously, Seth wracking his mind as to where the answer had come from. But of course, there was only one possible answer.

His eyes drifted to Bob, who was staring back at him with his blank, painted on eyes, as the reality of the situation finally sunk in. He hadn't questioned it before, simply brushing it off without a second thought, but how did Bob see his status screen? How did he speak to Angel? How did he know that Bob had spent days filling up that journal when he never asked about it?

Perhaps… The Spirit Animal wasn't the only one his mind had an odd connection to. This certainly could be useful.