Otaku Witch-Chapter 648 - 466. Killing Intent

Although her magic memory had been sealed, it did not take Dorothy long to regain the Eight Trigrams Battle Formation, an Art of War skill cloaked in the guise of magic, which fundamentally derived from the knowledge of Eight Trigrams and Qimen Dunjia from her past life.

These memories from her former life were unaffected by the Witch's Night.

In fact, the military tactics she learned in this life had also not been blocked because these theories were essentially basic knowledge that even mortals could access and learn, and did not require censorship.

However, special magic skills that elevated the military knowledge, such as various corps halos, were all affected without exception.

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But it was not a big problem, for a homebody witch, having a foundation in military tactics made inventing various supportive magic for the battalions as easy as eating or drinking.

Yes, just like mastering the multiplication table makes multiplying multiple digits not so hard afterward.

Besides, originally, it hadn't taken Dorothy long to study the Eight Trigrams from scratch, merely a few months; now, with that foundation, relearning it was even faster—it took her just over ten days to sort everything out.

The only trouble was, strategy, as the name suggests, involves the deployment of troops, and right now, not to say she was entirely without troops, she barely had two or three cats, big and small, under her command—having the strategy without troops was useless.

Fortunately, lack of troops would be a severe issue for others, but not for a homebody witch because she was also a puppet master.

A puppet master who can't mass-produce troops is definitely not a good puppet master.

Although the industry recognizes necromancers as the kings of troop production, given the notorious reputation of the Undead Catastrophe, the fact is, puppet masters have always had grievances, believing that they are the true kings of troop production.

After all, necromancers need bodies as casting materials to initiate an Undead Catastrophe; if they encounter a lifeless, desolate world, necromancers would be at their wit's end.

But puppet masters have a much lower threshold for mass-producing troops; they are really undemanding when it comes to their materials for creating puppets.

If there's clay, they make clay puppets, if there's wood, they make wooden puppets, and if there are bodies, they can also temporarily double as necromancers to create flesh and blood puppets.

Even if they have nothing, capable puppet masters can still create puppets from intangible things, such as fire puppets or wind puppets.

In short, everything can be turned into puppets.

It's just that necromancy is a prominent art in the Witch World, holding a large sway and high visibility and influence, especially because necromancers control the medical industry in the Witch World.

Puppetry, on the other hand, is much more desolate, only preserved by a few families; the entry threshold is simply too high, demanding a high level of spirit, inspiration, and precision attributes in its disciples...

Oh, and the thickness of their wallets—after all, how can you afford to play with puppets if you're broke? Haven't you heard the saying about puppet masters facing one wall, encircling an entire sky-island?

Such a niche discipline naturally leads to few disciples, and few people naturally have little say, not to mention that puppet masters are notoriously unemployable because no matter how well they play with puppets, they can't generate enough social value.

How could puppets compete with necromancy creatures, which are cheap, durable, and can work tirelessly all day without any maintenance?

Compared to that, making puppets is high-cost and high-maintenance, hardly worth the investment except in a few unspeakable areas, yet the necromancy division recently introduced their synthetic flesh and blood Corpse Princess series...

Cough cough...

So, the status of puppet masters is indeed awkward, inadequate compared to the top, yet excessive compared to the bottom, seemingly competent at everything which looks great but actually mediocre at everything, completely out-competed by others, almost becoming a niche skill for self-appreciation among small groups.

Only a few puppet masters refuse to accept this downfall and are still trying to find new paths for their beloved profession, like Dorothy's Spider Teacher who pioneered a whole new market of smart homes by combining puppetry with architecture.

However, it's said that this innovative idea was quickly picked up by their old rivals, the necromancers. Of course, they didn't do anything like building houses from corpses, as that would be inauspicious and no one would buy it,

but the market space for necropolises is not bad, offering you a fully automated intelligent necropolis as your eternal resting place.

Yes, that's pretty sending-off.

Of course, in Dorothy's view, these puppet masters have all strayed from the right path, idly downgrading themselves to compete with necromancers in low-end production industries. They should be leveraging the high precision of puppets to break into high-end manufacturing industries...

What, the high-end manufacturing sector has already been monopolized by alchemists? Well, that's fine then.

Alright, even as a homebody witch, she must admit that puppetry, this ancient technique, is increasingly becoming just for amusement with really no promising career prospects.

But regardless of whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat, and puppetry has always been Dorothy's personal hobby. Moreover, given her current situation of being short on troops, puppetry is the most suitable solution.