Chương 14: 181. I'm Fast AF Boi

With Scout and Mage dismissed, Alex spent the last few hours of the night and the opening hours of dawn to charge Maelis's amulet to nearly full. Not wanting to waste the time he'd have with his mentor, he didn't push it to activating, instead stopping just short. Warrior returned shortly after sunup, his armor dented and dirty. A tuft of grass poked out from his shoulder armor, and his blade was both chipped and bloodied.

"Seems like an eventful training session," Alex said.

"Hnghh," Warrior groaned. The clone panted heavily and sighed.

"That was a lot harder than I thought. Especially dealing with the scorpions."

"It's going to be invaluable training, though. It almost feels like cheating to sit here, gather mana and meditate, while you trained, only for that training, experience, and muscle memory to return to me in the end."

"Yeah, how does that work? The experience, I mean. Just like the [Mirage] did?"

"Yep, exactly the same. Whatever you kill, the System awards a small portion of that experience to me. I'm sure it's much less than if I were doing it myself, but hell, I'm literally not doing anything for it. Gaining anything at all is a huge boon if it allows me to keep working."

"Agreed." Warrior blew out his breath.

"Well, what's next?"

"Probably about time for me to dismiss you and spend the next hour or two creating and dismissing clone bodies so we can get back to an even twenty-five percent split."

"Sounds like a drag." Alex just grunted in acknowledgment and accepted the mana-silk mask his clone handed to him. Then he dismissed Warrior, wincing as the armor bounced off the other pieces of metal on the way down. He let the armor lie where it fell, beginning to create the first of many fractured bodies. As the cycle of gaming the System to even out the clones' stat started, Alex let his multiple minds work on different problems.

One mind went through the valuable bits of information he'd already learned on his trip. Likely the biggest piece of information was how they interacted with the Rifts. They weren't able to enter or exit, depending on which side they were created on, but had the benefit of being able to stay constructed even if he left them. There would be more to test over time, like if they dissipated after a certain time separated by the portal, or if there was a certain range he could get from them.

One of his other consciousnesses focused on continuing to develop the idea for a mana battery and the list of supplies he'd need to begin testing. Most important, though, was how he would prioritize Maelis's help. He needed to learn several different runes from the spirit, and the order he spent his time on them would be important.

His final train of thought was focused on regenerating his mana and constructing the [Fractured Bodies], though the ability to create them with a skill meant that the System did the majority of the work for him. More than an hour passed of him creating and dismissing clones until the stats were even among all four of them. The three naked bodies sat in front of him, cross-legged with eyes closed.

He let out a sigh of relief and sat back in the canvas folding chair while pulling his central mind away from the other three lines of consciousness that were active in his mind. Everything seemed so quiet when he did that. While he was always alone with his own thoughts, having those thoughts split and running made it feel like a constant stream of thoughts, ideas, and plans. There, in that moment, however, he closed his eyes and enjoyed the stillness of his mind and the environment.

He'd long become used to the odd sensation of the Rift nearby, mana leaking from it in a way that it was almost a physical thing, causing his skin to tingle. The morning sun was already cresting the trees after his work through the night and the morning, and it felt warm on his skin. His head lulled back, and he sat bolt upright, looking around the small camp. Nothing had changed, and the sun was roughly in the same position.

Pulling out his phone, Alex saw it was still before nine in the morning, so if he had dozed off, it had only been for a matter of minutes. He groaned to himself, feeling frustration build. With a mental thought, he pushed the three additional consciousnesses into the waiting clones.

"Scout, you know what to do. Warrior and Mage just stay quiet and keep an eye out," Alex said, tossing them their clothes and masks from his bracer, one at a time. He stood, handed Scout his spatial ring, and moved over to the tent that was set aside for him.

"Hey, bring back some snacks or something," Warrior said.

"Can you even taste stuff?" Alex asked over his shoulder.

"Nah, but crunchy stuff is still fun to eat." Shaking his head, he unzipped the door, crawled into the warming tent, and fell asleep before taking off his shoes. Alex felt something shift beneath him. Memories of tendrils from the Aspect of Concealment surfaced in his dreams. They crawled on his side and started to envelop him from the ribs, spreading out as they went. He jerked awake, rolling from his side to his knees, one hand outstretched and already weaving a spell.

It wasn't until his back pressed into the fabric wall of the tent that he remembered where he was. Letting the spell fall away, he chuckled as he saw his phone nestled into his body imprint. The vibrations from someone calling him had woken him. Alex rubbed his face with one hand while grabbing his cell with the other. Clearing his throat, he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey, little bro. I didn't expect to be calling you so soon."

"No worries. What's going on?" Alex unzipped the tent and found that the sun had passed down over the tree line, and beautiful colors washed the sky in a pink and orange light. He stood, stretched, and looked around the camp. When he saw two of his clones to the side, he paused. Mage was leaning down over the top of Warrior with one fist raised, held at bay by the armored clone's outstretched arm and leg.

They were both frozen mid-action, staring at him with guilty looks on their faces, like two siblings who'd just been caught roughhousing near the fine china. He scrunched his face, shrugged his shoulders, and waved his hand around. He did his best to get the words "what the fuck" across without actually saying anything to disrupt the phone call. Jake drew his attention back.

"Not much, just an official call. Well, as official as being your 'super-powered brother's middleman to the government' can get. I was pretty shocked when I got a call from the director's assistant, Susan, this morning. She said you were waiting on some sort of mission from them?" Alex noted that it came out as a question, as if Jake couldn't quite believe it.

"Yes, that's right. What did she say?" There was a pause as Jake hissed quietly.

"Look, I'm sorry, this probably isn't the kind of thing you want to do. They want you to go to Philly and help out one of their task forces. There are apparently people disappearing at random, and it's getting harder and harder for some of the checkpoint personnel to scan people. I guess they're working their jobs, and aren't keeping pace with a lot of the freelance adventurers or other HA members…"

"Which means they don't have a high enough Willpower to scan people coming in," Alex finished.

"Yeah, as magitech gets implemented more, it won't be as important at each entry, but with the disappearances, they want to be more aware of who's coming and going."

"So, what? They just want me to come and help them scan people?" His thoughts went to the projects he wanted to work on and the steps he'd recently discovered would need to be made before making further progress with the Elven ritual.

"Yeah, that's it. Like I said, I know it's probably a bummer. If you want, I can-" Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

"No, that's fine. You can tell them I'll take it."

"You will?" Jake asked incredulously.

"Yep." Alex could hear the confusion in his brother's voice and smiled.

"Any more details on what they want me to do? Who I report to? Stuff like that?"

"They sent over a packet. I can forward it to you… But, you're sure you're good with this? Like, there won't be fighting and magic and stuff. You get that?" This time, Alex did laugh.

"Yeah, dude. This is fine. I have stuff I want to work on anyway. Send over the details, and I'll start heading that way. When do they need me?" He kicked his foot at the dirt as he paced around the tent.

"They didn't give a timeline. I think they're expecting you to be resting after the rotation, so you can take some time."

"All right, perfect. I've got some more stuff I want to test on the way. Tell them I'll be there in a week or so."

"Do you want me to coordinate someone to take you? I'm sure they could get you on a flight or something," Jake offered. Alex thought about flying.

"No, I think I'm good. Being stuck in the air and not being able to see what's around me sounds like a horrible place to be. I'll make my way there, don't worry."

"Okay, sounds good. I'll pass on the word and send the packet over. Talk to you later, be safe."

"Thanks, Jake. You too." Alex ended the call, and his thoughts lingered on the use of his eye. While the HA was asking him to help with its function of scanning, with the recent advancement of the growth item, there was still an entire aspect he'd yet to toy with. His mind churned through what he knew of the soul from his vague conversations with Maelis as he walked around the tent to look at his clones. They were now diligently working on their assigned tasks.

"Oh, hey," Warrior said casually.

"Scout said he got in the Safe Zone no problem this time, but it's taking him a while to find the list."

"How are you guys talking?"

"What do you mean? The same way you talk to us. All four splits are still the same mind, it works in every direction." Alex rubbed his forehead.

"Well, it's fine that he needed to go to the Safe Zone. The list was pretty specific."

"Yeah, where do you even buy a pickaxe in New Jersey?" Mage said with a snort.

"How are things going out here?" Alex asked.

"Good. I think you're right, we're going to need to learn a new rune from Maelis for this to work. Look," Mage handed Alex the notebook he'd been writing in. As he looked over the page, Alex realized his clone had been drawing, not writing. Specifically, he'd been drawing variations of designs for a new spell circle base.

"This is actually brilliant," he said to himself, flipping back and forth a few pages to look at how he'd gotten there.

"I came up with this?"

"Yep. We're pretty damn smart when we wanna be," Mage said. It reminded Alex of some experiences he'd had with his art. In the moment, he might nitpick and get caught up in the details that he thought were mistakes, eventually becoming frustrated with the piece. But if he set it aside and came back to look at it some time later, he was almost always impressed with the piece as a whole.

"So this takes parts from the ward drain spell circle and its original mana gathering ritual." While he took in the design, he flipped through his own thoughts to see how Mage had gotten there and what his thoughts were for a rune with Maelis.

"Contain?" he asked.

"Or maybe there's a rune for Store? I'm not really sure, we'll have to ask him. I think I've adjusted the circle to focus on what it's attached to, rather than what's inside of it, like how it's used for the body tempering rituals. The other design does focus on funneling it to the middle, which will mean we need to move the catalyst node, where the rune sits, into the middle."

"We haven't done that before. Hm, okay. So two designs for two different possibilities. I guess it's up to what Maelis recommends. I'm sure he's run into stuff like this in his enchanting experience. Mana storage can't be a novel concept." He turned to Warrior.

"What about you?"

"Well, come here. I can show you." Curious, Alex walked over to where Warrior stood and dismissed the ward net as they approached it together. Following their mental link, Alex couldn't help but inspect his clone's thoughts and where this was going.

"Hey, no cheating!" Alex laughed.

"Well, I'm glad I did check your thoughts. You were going to try and hit me!"

"Okay— yeah. But just to make a point." He sighed dramatically.

"Cast the swift spell and put it in [Spell Storage]." Alex cast the spell, activated [Spell Storage] to push the most recently used spell into it, and confirmed it on his status screen.

"All right, it's there."

"Good. Now use it, and block this—" he cut himself off as he telegraphed a punch. Pulling his arm back and swinging forward with as much force as his stats could allow for. Alex activated the skill, but more on reflex than anything else. He raised his hand, prepared for a barrier to spring up in front of it, but when his hand reached the space in front of his face far too quickly, he hesitated.

The time he took to hesitate, and for his mind to catch up to what was happening, was less than a second, and his clone seemed to move slowly. Not quite in slow motion, but as if he were intentionally moving slowly enough that Alex had time to block the punch. Fascinated, he moved his arm down and waited for the punch to get closer. As it did, he swung his hand up, knuckle side toward the punch, and connected with Warrior's wrist.

The movement was taught to him by one of the Celestial Sect trainers as a method to redirect the momentum of an attack, rather than block it. To his surprise and horror, though, his hand slapped against Warrior's wrist, and he felt something crack. A moment later, the spell effect wore off, only lasting a couple of seconds to the normal eye.

"Holy shit," Alex said aloud. It was both in amazement at the skill and at the pain in his hand. Warrior grinned at him.

"See! Pretty damn awesome, huh? Wait until you see the empowered version."

"He can't use that for a while," Mage said, drawing the other clone's attention.

"Well, I didn't say he had to use it." While they began to bicker, Alex hunched over and rubbed at the back of his hand. After a few seconds, he determined that something hadn't broken in his own hand.

"Hey, come here a sec," he interrupted Warrior. He grabbed the clone's wrist when he was near and examined his hand.

"I think I broke your hand."

"Really?"

"I mean, I barely felt like I was moving my wrist." A terrifying thought occurred to him then.

"Shit. What happens if I trip or run into something full speed?" Mental images of TV car crashes and simulated vehicle testing clips appeared in his mind. Both of the other versions of himself winced in sync.

"Yeah, that's not going to feel good."

"Feel good? I could splat myself against a tree if I lose my balance or mistime a dodge," Alex said, letting go of Warrior's wrist.

"Grab your sword and swing it around some in that hand. If the break messes with your mobility, let me know and I'll resummon you." Warrior walked off, and Mage approached him.

"You don't even realize the best part of the skill yet."

"What do you mean?"

"Here, activate it again." Alex squinted at him suspiciously. Mage held up a book.

"It's fine. Just do it." When Alex did activate the stored spell again, he marveled at how quickly the System cast the spell. While he was getting faster at creating the spell circles on his own with his threads, the System could spin it into existence in half the time. As the effect took hold, Mage opened the book and slowly began turning a page. Alex skimmed the words, trying to figure out what they said before the page turned. Only then did he realize what he was being shown.

Moments later, when the skill ended, he laughed hard.

"Talk about speed reading! That's amazing!" His eyes stayed wide as he thought about all the things he could begin learning. Not just by himself, but with the clones.

"Have you done it with the extend rune as a layered circle?"

"We did try both the extend and empower. They work as you'd expect."

"Oh yeah, what was that you mentioned about empower needing to wait?"

"Ah. Well, imagine the injury you just had… but where you're going even faster. You probably shatter all of the bones in your hand and snap his wrist. When we did the running test with it, Warrior pulled his groin on the first step of the first attempt and broke the bones in his rear foot as he stepped off in the second attempt. I think it's just something that'll have to wait."

"Wait, when was he that injured?"

"It's okay, Sam healed him and gave us a potion for more tests." Alex hadn't even been aware that the healer had helped out the clones.

"Anyway," Mage said.

"Extend works exactly how you're hoping it does. Instead of it wearing off in a few seconds, it lasts about ten."

"Ten?" Alex felt his excitement falling.

"That's just with the base spell weaver stacks. If you're the one casting the swift spell and you push it up to seven stacks, it lasts around fifteen seconds. We didn't get to test this either, but with you in the main body and having two minds together, I think you could dual-cast the circles yourself. If you do both circles, then you can get the stacks twice as high. Even better, I think both of the circles would benefit from the stacks, so it would be a multiplicative increase."

Alex felt like he needed to sit down.

"What would that be? 30 seconds or more of speed like that?" The thought was shocking. What could I do with 30 seconds like that?

"The downside is obviously that one clone would need to be dismissed," Mage added.

"I was thinking about that. I should probably stop dismissing your bodies so much. Getting the stat distribution even is time-consuming. But I can have you go 'lie down', or pretend to go to sleep and just pull the mind back. If I need to reform one of you from an injury, just doing it one at a time should keep up constantly at twenty-five percent stats. It's when I dismiss more than one of you that it gets messed up and I need to do the whole shuffle over again."

"Makes sense. If you just dismiss Warrior because of his wrist, that puts you back up to fifty percent. Then, when you make the new clone, it splits that in half, keeping us at twenty-five."

"Exactly. I want to try that extended version now, though."

"Wait, I feel like there's one more thing for you to try. We didn't get to do any testing with it."

"Why not?"

"Because we can't use skills. I know we were just talking about needing to be careful with using this while running, but you need to try that."

"While running? You couldn't run? Oh!" Alex exclaimed, understanding dawning on him.

"You mean while [Running]! Yeah, that's a great idea. At least while we have this open space." He looked around at the open space of the golf course. Just as he did so, he saw Scout emerge from the far side, waving. Thinking of next steps, Alex set aside his desire to test more of the spell's capabilities.

"We've got some planning to do. Well, mostly me. You guys keep working on your tasks, but I've got to start planning a route to Philly."

"Sounds good," Mage started to move away. Alex watched Scout pick up his speed and start jogging up the slope toward their camp and the waiting Rift.

"I know you said we have steps before testing more on the Rifts, but are we going to go find some more?"

"Absolutely," Alex said.

"If this one broke, more of them have. I'll step into any of the ones we can find and either close it quickly or just cull some of the beasts if the quest seems like it'll take too long. We still want to try and map out as many as we can. Either we come back to deal with them, give the locations to our team, or if they're too busy, we can toss the information to the HA. The fact that this one is Rare is already pretty valuable."

"Sounds good," Warrior said. After just having heard the same line from both clones, Alex wondered if he, himself, said the same phrase often. He groaned. This skill set was about to change his whole life, in more ways than one. Scout ran up to them, panting and covered in sweat, but grinning like a fool.

"I got it all. But guess what. You won't believe what else I found in the safe zone! It's going to be perfect for you!"