Chương 13: 180. Limitations

"Thank you, Lin. These are perfect."

"Of course, Master Moore," Lin said.

"I said stop doing that," Alex said.

"Edwin just says that because… well, I don't actually know. Just call me Alex." Lin didn't answer, but dipped her head forward like Edwin often did. That was where the similarities stopped, however. Lin seemed to lounge, even while standing. She was confident in herself and positioned herself in ways that showed she enjoyed her changed environment. He placed the fourth mask into his ring in case he ever needed one.

"Please don't give him a hard time while I'm gone, okay? He is doing more for me than anyone else. If you actually want to learn from me and gain any of my trust, help him." He emphasized the last words and held her gaze.

"This one will do her best." This time, she bowed at the waist differently than before. Previously, her hands would be bent in front of her chest, one in a fist, with the other flat, resting against the knuckles. Now, she adopted a pose similar to the head butler's, with her back stiff, right arm bent at a ninety-degree angle across her abdomen, and left arm straight at her side.

"Don't forget to feed your qi— er, your mana into the masks every few days. It will keep the illusion sharp and malleable."

"Got it," Alex said.

"That'll be all." She dipped her head again and left, leaving him alone with just his clones in the workshop. He walked toward them, passing out the masks as he gave instructions.

"You guys know the plan. First goal is finding a Rift to start working on. Then we make a camp and can work on training from there." Alex's body buzzed with excitement as he passed off the first mask to Warrior.

"Go ahead and put them on. The main team knows what's going on."

"Already say your goodbyes?" he asked while pulling the thin, stretchy magical mask over his face. His breastplate made a lot of noise as he adjusted his shoulders and rubbed the thin fabric to rest flat against his hairline and around his ears. Once it was settled in place, Alex nodded in satisfaction.

"Looks good. Next." He handed the next mast to Mage while answering, "Yeah. Said all the goodbyes I needed to. As soon as you guys are ready, we're heading out." Mage chuckled.

"You seem like you're itching to go." He fit the mask on his face as well, the illusory face creating an amazing contrast with his own early attempts to make a mask.

"You know that I am."

"Hey, I'm not blaming you." As Mage finished settling the mask into place. When his hands came away, they revealed a longer, thinner nose with eyes slightly closer together than Alex's own natural appearance. Mage adjusted his loose-fitting robes and looked down at himself.

"Nice. Scout, you're last." His third clone eagerly put on the mask, just as eager as he was to get out and moving. Scout wore the most practical clothes, a mix of soft leathers and a modern tactical vest, opting for that instead of a leather cuirass.

"Weapons check," Alex said, going through the same routine he did with the team before they left on missions in the Shadow Rift. Warrior held up a straight sword and a small buckler, while Mage and Scout both held up wands. All three of them had cheap backpacks, but they would be enough to allow them to carry some additional goods each.

"If nothing else, I wish we'd seen more shadow sect members in the Rift just to get more spatial pouches. Maybe I should tell Edwin to keep an eye out for you guys, too," he said more to himself than the others.

"Let's head out." As he walked to the exit, he poked his head into the closet where Valtherion was still in a deep hibernation, small glowing orbs slowly gathering around his body. He smiled, and, for the first time since coming home, exited the workshop with a confident stride and no fear of hiding the clones from potentially prying eyes. The warm spring air and rising sun felt refreshing on his skin, and he inhaled deeply as Scout locked the workshop behind them.

A sensation in his chest bubbled up that made him want to laugh for no other reason than he felt weightless. He settled for a small smile and waved the others to follow him as he walked toward the wood line at the back of the house. There wasn't a firm plan, other than for the clones to spread out as they headed west. No plan, no pressure, and no one to protect or worry about.

"Spread out, and we can start moving," he said over his shoulder. The woods on his property were well-kempt and had minimal undergrowth, making for easy travel. If he remembered from the maps, there was a nature reserve and golf course to the west that they'd cross in a while. Once they passed that, they would continue southwest and head to the mountains.

"I call dibs on point," Warrior said.

"This armor is going to be a huge pain, and I'm not having you nerds leave me in the dust." Alex snorted, but Mage beat him to the punch.

"Nerds? What's that make you? We're all the same, you're just dressed differently."

"I'm not a nerd," Scout said. Alex rolled his eyes. He knew the clones were just playing up the situation, but he couldn't help but chime in.

"Hey, being a nerd has done us pretty damn well. Stop pretending to be siblings, we're all the same." Mage shrugged his shoulders.

"We're not supposed to be the same while we're out here, though, right?" He pointed at his face for emphasis.

"Fair," Alex said.

"What are we telling people, by the way?" Warrior asked as he moved to the front and set the pace for their travel. The birds of the morning chirped, and as they stepped from the dewy grass of his lawn and into the woods, Alex paused to look back at the house. The stay felt too short, but between a newly formed anxiety about falling behind and the looming timeline of the Continental Event, it was necessary for him to keep moving.

The comfort of a home base and the amenities that came with it reminded him of a common thing he'd heard in one of his favorite action RPG games. The more time someone spent in their base, the less time they spent getting gear and getting levels. It became such a thing that the common kids' game of "floor is lava" turned into the gaming phrase of "base is lava." It was almost comical how much that now applied to his real life.

Taking another deep breath in through his nose and exhaling through his mouth, he turned to follow his clones as his own adventure started. He focused back on the conversation between the trio and had to agree with their sentiment that they should operate like a team. They hadn't trained like that much, but with their reduced stats, someone might just think they were new at the whole thing. They walked for just over an hour, taking their time and winding between trees.

The morning sun and spring air were refreshing and never felt quite hot enough to get uncomfortable or cause him to break a sweat. When they crested a small rise and reached the edge of the woods, they saw the open space of the golf course. He stepped out onto the course and was surprised that the grass was only a few inches high, not nearly the post-apocalyptic height he'd expected after a few months of the integration.

"Think someone's been keeping it cut?" Mage asked.

"No, it probably doesn't grow much in the winter. It's only just started growing since the start of spring." Everyone was surprised at Warrior's response, and Alex raised an eyebrow at him. He shrugged.

"I was talking with Craig this morning about keeping grass on a big property like ours. Didn't think that random knowledge would come up." Alex shook his head and thought out loud, "Man, I wonder how much random shit is going to be in my head after a few years of this. Let's spread out more, since we've got better line of sight and it'll be easier to close the distance if one of us needs help." The three moved away from Alex, letting him keep the normal position, and he waited for a few minutes, admiring the scene.

Even though the normally short golf grass was 'overgrown', it still looked beautifully green and was broken by small patches of artificial putting greens and small ponds that reflected the sun's light. When the breeze started to blow, he smiled and removed the Magician's Cap to let the breeze rush through his hair. In the last few months of the Rift, he'd gotten significantly more used to wearing a hat, and having it on his head felt like second nature at this point.

The only frustration he had at this point was that the leather material wasn't at all breathable, making him sweat easily. As the group spread out, Alex was surprised to feel a mental prod. Mage had found a Rift that had broken at least once on the far side of the course. Alex confirmed the sighting with his memories as he moved and was slightly frustrated that the clones weren't able to scan the monsters to get their level range. Keep back for now. Let's all group and assess the situation.

An affirmation came through their mental link, and Alex picked up the pace. Eager to use the spell himself for the first time, he formed the swift self-cast spell and pulsed his mana through the circle. If it weren't for the memories and muscle memory he'd gained from dismissing the clones that morning, Alex was certain that he'd have face planted with the drastic increase in his muscles' responsiveness.

However, with his fractured bodies' previous experience, he knew what to expect and how to react as if he himself had practiced the spell over and over for hours. He let out a 'Woop' of excitement as he pushed into a run. Even though the spell only lasted for a few seconds, he easily covered two or three times the distance he would have been able to cover with a normal jog. Letting his mana regenerate, he continued at a jog while mentally flipping through memories of Warrior and Mage's limit testing.

As he thought through the use of his movement skill, he didn't think that [Feather Step] would mesh well with the spell. Being that the skill reduced weight further and carried him with whatever force he left the ground with, it was likely going to run into issues. While the swift spell could help his muscles push faster than normal off the ground, it would probably leave his muscles and body attempting to move far too fast while suspended in midair, gliding across the ground, flailing like a fish on dry land.

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. The mental image of trying to test the combination made the corner of his mouth twitch up. He continued to follow the mental link and direction of Mage and the Rift. When he arrived, he was surprised to find a number of cactus-like statues scattered across the open lawn around the blue portal.

"Well, I guess we know what sort of Rift it is," he said to Mage as he joined him. Warrior and Scout arrived shortly after.

"We saw a few huge scorpions over in that direction."

"Great," Mage said sarcastically.

"All right, this is what we were looking for. I wish I would have known that the first Rift would be so close to the house. Either way, we need to clear out the area around it and make sure it's not going to break again. Once it's all secure, I'll set up the ward stones, and you guys can set camp."

"Sounds good. I'll lead?" Warrior asked.

"Please do," Alex said, his pulse picking up. As they moved to close the distance to the Rift, he scanned the surroundings, searching for any sign of movement. They made a straight line toward the Rift and paused, looking around in some amount of confusion.

"Well, I expected… I don't know, something?" Scout said.

"Same," Mage agreed.

"Well, might as well get this test over with. Warrior, jump in there and cull a few of the monsters while we get set up out here."

"Will do," he said. Alex watched carefully as Warrior walked hesitantly toward the blue portal. He got close enough to reach out and touch the swirling blue magic, the light reflecting from his armor as he did so. As soon as his hand reached the portal's plane, it stopped.

"Huh," he said casually.

"I can't get through it." Alex sighed.

"That would have been too good to be true, I guess. All right, you set up the camp, and I'll go cull the monsters. I'll step in and pop my head back out to make sure that you don't get dismissed." With a plan set, Scout and Mage began to move away while Alex pulled a few grey, plastic storage totes from his bracer. They contained tents, fire starters, and everything else Edwin had secured for them as travel preparations. Once the clones began to unpack, Alec scanned the Rift before stepping in.

E Rank Rift Rare Rarity Rift Slots [0/300] Pleased that it was only an E Rank, Alex stepped through the portal with a wave. When his feet touched down and gravity returned to his body, he cursed.

"Fuck me, it's hot." The sun beat down on his dark-colored clothes, and he was immediately thankful for the brim of his hat. He scanned his surroundings quickly before turning to check on the clones. When he stuck his head out of the Rift, he was wholly unprepared for the mayhem that ensued. Scout was yelling in panic while being held in a bear hug by— A cactus? What the… Alex stepped fully back through the Rift and pulled his wand from the spatial ring he wore.

The sharp points of the cactus punched holes through Scout's clothes, and blood welled to soak the clothes. He knew the shouts were more from confusion than anything else, being that the fractured bodies couldn't feel any pain, but it didn't make the panic flooding through their mental link any less real. Cutting off the connection, he checked the thoughts of Warrior while closing in on the last of the distance.

"Wait! Back up," he called to Warrior, who was looking for an opening to lunge in with his blade. When he backed up, Alex dismissed Scout's physical form and felt both the physical stats and second consciousness rush back to him.

"Just blast it," he said to the other two. Warrior created a lightning spell circle and shot the projectile at the flailing green monster. Alex and Mage created alteration circles in the air and shot their wand bolts through the spell circle, enhancing their bolts. The damage done within a few seconds was complete and utter overkill. The cactus creature, still rooted to the ground, was missing chunks of its body, with the sections that were still whole charred or wilting.

Alex breathed heavily and felt some of his excitement coming down.

"The others?" Warrior asked. Alex glanced at the other bits of fake vegetation and scanned them. Burrowthorn - Level 13 Class: Ambush Predator <Hostile Creature> The name stood out to him, and Alex turned back to the first destroyed creature.

"We didn't get a kill notification," he said to himself before repeating it louder for the others to hear. Over the next half hour, the trio systematically destroyed the aboveground portion of the monsters before blasting the ground with enough wind magic to unearth its base. The small, bulbous creature within was the true heart of the monster, and only when it was destroyed did they start to receive proper kill notifications for the Burrowthorns.

Once they were sure that the area was clear, Alex left the two remaining clones to set up camp and search the surrounding area while he returned to the Rift. He left Scout dismissed, enjoying the feeling of having some of his stats returned and the two streams of consciousness within his own mind. Knowing how to safely handle the Burrowthorns, Alex avoided fights with the two other kinds of creatures of the Rift.

There were an abundant number of scorpion-like creatures, around the size of a Lazy Boy recliner, that seemed to roam around or bury themselves in the sandy environment. Only once did he see a much larger creature, which he assumed to be the Basilisk described in the Rift Quest. He focused instead on fulfilling the Personal Quest to cull 10 creatures of the Rift and filled the quota by ruthlessly uprooting the Burrowthorns.

Their immobile nature and his desire to keep his distance from their sharp limbs worked well for him. He resummoned Scout after some time in the Rift, letting the clone explore further from the portal. He tested his ability to exit and re-enter the Rift, pleased to find that Scout wasn't dismissed by his leaving. When he emerged from the Rift, the sun had moved a fair distance, now hanging overhead, and both clones were seated in camping chairs.

Warrior had his sword in his lap and looked in one direction, while Mage faced the other. Tents had been pitched, and an area had been cleared at four corners around the Rift in preparation for him to set up the warding anchor stones.

"Man, that's going to be nice to get used to," he said. Both versions of himself turned with a smile, clearly understanding what he meant. Within another twenty minutes, his prepared anchor stones were set, and he activated the warding system. It had an on and off switch, similar to the ones in his office, but for the sake of keeping things simple, he hadn't tried to add exemptions for himself or for the clones.

It left him with a strong, dome-like barrier around the camp that could keep out most monsters and allow them to focus on the Rift.

"This is going to probably be the best case scenario for me to test the Elven ritual. The ground around the Rift is flat and clear of debris."

"I bet trying to get the dimensions right in the woods would be a colossal pain in the ass," Warrior agreed. Alex assessed the area around the Rift and thought through his first steps, excited to test some of his theories and notes from the last few months on recreating the ritual. As he pulled out supplies and began to prepare the area, he turned to the clones.

"You guys look way too comfy. We're not going to be wasting any time on this trip. I've got way, way too many things to work on, and the entire reason for getting clones is to work on multiple things at once." Both fractured bodies groaned good-naturedly.

"Mage, I want you to start working on notes for adding a second rune to the spell circles. If we can do that, there won't be the need to try and layer circles for more complex effects. It would more than double the number of spells at our disposal. At this point, we know how to use the Primary runes with spell circles, but I'm hoping that with another rune slot, we can start mixing in the Modification and Control runes we know."

"Yay, more spell testing." He twirled his finger in the air but accepted the notebook Alex handed to him.

"Use it like a bible. All of your ideas, thoughts, and tests go in there."

"Yeah, yeah. That's how I already do it."

"Warrior, I want you working on something else magical. I tested it some with Lin in the spinner cavern, but we need to start practicing how to disperse our mana signature. That seems like the next step up from just suppressing it. Practice on yourself and the mana you naturally leak, and when that gets to be easy, I want you to start working on doing the same with our threads."

"Makes sense. Being able to cast spell circles in a way that even people with mana sight skills couldn't see would be overpowered." Alex couldn't keep his smile down.

"Exactly. I'm going to keep Scout dismissed for now and work on setting up the first test of the ritual." Both clones waved him on to his work, so he removed his own leather-bound book and started reviewing his notes. He was meticulous in his setup, spending hours sketching out the design and rune placement. His first test was a smaller version of the Elven ritual, with the outer layer removed to account for his lack of mana and magically conductive alloy.

Even then, it was well past dark when he felt like he'd reached a point that he could begin charging the runes and ritual. It was an odd sensation to feel tired, but so excited that there was little to no chance he'd be willing to sleep. He funneled his full mana pool into the first of the runes and did what he could to hold his intent tight against the runes' concept.

Maelis had done what he could to coach him through the thoughts, feelings, and understanding of the Elven concepts, though all of them seemed to have more of a religious connotation than he was used to having. It required more focus and willpower to set the rune's mana pattern, and when he was finished, he was almost completely out of mana, even with Scout's magical stats allocated to his own.

"I'm going to step into the Rift and gather some more mana," he told Warrior, who was on the first shift.

"Sounds good." Alex nodded and stepped back through the Rift, eager to test a theory he'd been forced to sit on for months. The upgraded version of [Mana Siphon] allowed him to draw in mana from environments rich in the magical substance, yet the Shadow Rift had been so devoid of ambient mana that he hadn't been able to use the ability outside of draining stones. The skill worked flawlessly in the mana-rich desert, and while it wasn't instant, it more than doubled his natural regeneration.

He repeated the process eight times, draining his mana and refilling his core to power up the ritual. After the eighth attempt, realizing the ritual still required more mana, he dismissed Mage as well, increasing his Mana stat and general pool size, bringing him up to 75% of his full capacity. It took eleven more cycles to power the ritual to the point that he was certain it wouldn't work, even when it was ready to activate.

The runes seemed to be the problem, likely related to his lack of understanding and intent of the patterns the sun elves had used. Despite the realization, he continued to push mana into the ritual, determined to test the outcome for his notes. Once it was ready to activate, he deactivated his wards and had Warrior pause in his morning training to pulse the last bit of mana into it. In the last hours of dumping and refilling his mana, Alex realized two things.

The first was that if it weren't for his most recent passive, [Mana Conduits], he certainly would not have been able to handle such large quantities of mana entering and exiting his mana channels. As things stood, he didn't feel any strain on his magical circuit. The second was that mana was bound to be a problem if he continued to develop his kit as he had been.

Not only would larger, layered spell circles require more mana, but the more [Fractured Bodies] and [Parallel Minds] that he created, the more his limited pool would become restrictive. So, he spent those hours draining his mana and meditating to siphon mana from the desert Rift to brainstorm with his spare lines of consciousness. Between his speed of thought and the fixed Intellect stat, Alex felt like he was becoming a computation machine.

Ideas were created and dismissed in rapid succession, and it was one of those first ideas that ended up sticking with him through the entire session. After Warrior activated the ritual, bracing for the worst cast scenario, Alex sighed. Hours of effort and gathered mana simply dissipated and fizzled into to surrounding space. Through his left eye, he could see most of it spread out into the surrounding environment, while some was absorbed by the Rift itself.

He rejoined Warrior and activated the ward net as he flopped into the nearest chair.

"Yeah, that was a bit of a bummer. Sorry, dude," his clone said.

"It's okay, we knew it was coming, and this was only the first trial. I think I know our next steps, though." The excitement he felt at the potential line of progression outweighed the feeling of disappointment over the ritual test.

"Oh?" his clone's eyes flicked to the side as he sifted through their shared memories.

"Oh. Oh! Wow, that would be amazing." Alex couldn't keep in the smile.

"I know. There's some prep work to do first. I'm going to keep doing these cycles to charge up Maelis, and then we'll need to do the clone creation shuffle again to even out our stats. That alone is going to take a few hours."

"At least you can keep planning with the other lines of thought while you do," Warrior said, sharing Alex's excitement.

"Exactly. Once you guys are back, I'll send Scout back to the house for the tools we might need," he said. Warrior rubbed his hands together.

"Okay, sweet. Well, you want me training the mana dispersion again?" Alex thought on it before shaking his head.

"No. When I was testing in the Rift earlier, I realized how much harder it is to fight and cast spells with just one consciousness. It was one thing when I was using the single mirage, but now with both mental and physical stats split so much further, I think we need to practice that more. Try fighting with [Mana Infusion] in the muscles like we did very early on, and using the swift spell at key moments to gain an advantage.

I feel like that sort of fighting is going to be really helpful while our stats are reduced."

"Nice, no worries. I'll just find what I can to fight out here?"

"Yeah, don't stray too far, but I should be fine with the wards in place."

"Sounds good. Good luck, excited to see what we come up with!" Alex deactivated the wards to let Warrior roam the golf course in search of training monsters. When they were back in place, he settled into his chair and removed his journal again. Flipping to a new page, he wrote two headers at the top of the pages to organize his notes. On the top of the left page, he wrote, "Spell Circle Enchanting." Then, on the top of the right-hand page, he wrote, "Mana Battery v0. 1."