Chapter 315 - Screw you (Patreon)

Dave looks at me; it's still disturbing how easily he can recognize who the duplicate is. Then he looks at my duplicate and then at Vega, who looks up at him with interest. Having two of us by her side, she doesn’t seem to be worried at all.

“Master, how should I call this man?” she asks.

I look at the man we even now call Dave, and he doesn’t even bother answering and just turns around, heading back to his provisional workshop.

Indeed, how to call him? The duplicate is uncle already, “Maybe mister?” I offer.

“Sure! Is mister one another of master’s minions, the same as uncle?”

The duplicate interrupts, “See, you are ruining the poor girl. Vega, I’m not a minion and will never be. Actually, I'm currently stronger than him, you can hear my heart, right?”

“Yes I can, but it doesn't feel stronger!”

I let them talk and follow where Dave left off and push through the heat his emblems are releasing, absorbing most of it with [Redistribution] and turning it into kinetic energy that I use to strengthen my body. It's better than releasing it, and my core is already full.

“Sometimes I think everything is a game for you,” Dave says while the metal in front of him swirls, mixing and separating while forming into difficult shapes he wills it to.

“It’s probably one of my skills that allows me to filter out some of the emotions,” I decide to answer and jump onto the table nearby, examining the process. As many times before, he doesn’t mind, and I could even swear he feels good that someone is showing so much interest in his craft.

“That makes sense. Concentration class skills tend to be like that,” he moves his hand, and more heat releases from it, melting the ingot of the metal that is extremely durable, even more so than endurium.

I know it because I tried to melt it too. It also sold for a nice chunk to the system shop.

“Are concentration type skills that bad?” I ask curiously.

“They are useful, and people with them tend to be amazing in whatever they do. On the other side, they often feel less human than others,” the metal in front of him forms a sphere and then starts to swirl, mixing all the molten metals.

He continues, “At a higher level of the skill, their owners feel… inhuman.”

Separating a bit of molten metal, he throws it to me where I release my mana and make it semi-metalize, keeping the molten metal in the air like he does. To stop the metal from cooling off, I reach into my Vortex core, and the heat of golden thermal energy releases.

We tried it a few times before, so this time I'm careful not to release too much heat and even let my eyes activate in combination with [Focus], where I try to keep their effect on my mana and the molten metal it surrounds.

“Sometimes I think it's unfair that someone like you has Primordial thermal energy,” he says to my surprise.

“Why?” I ask, moving the heat around the molten metal and using my mana to try to form it.

“Jealousy, I would say.” His flames from the emblem try to push against my thermal energy.

Without compressing my thermal energy further, his flames seem to blaze hotter and more confident. Yet, there is some beauty to my golden thermal energy as it swirls around, devouring his flames the moment he loses bits of concentration on the edges.

“In the future, do not show your Primordial energy if you don’t have to. The same goes for your eyes.”

“Even eyes?” I push bits of his flames away and absorb the heat from some to power my thermal energy even more. The metal ball in front of me elongates as I try to form it into the shape of a dagger. An ugly-ass dagger at that.

“Wavelength-type eye traits are very rare. There were entire noble families able to stay in court only because one of their predecessors used to have a powerful Wavelength eye. They were marrying away their daughters to families hoping to re-awaken this trait.”

“Don’t humans have only 3 traits?”

“Yes, but the one you are born with doesn’t count into that number.”

The dagger I was trying to create melts when I use too much heat, and I start over.

Using the seemingly good mood of the man, I ask, “Can you tell me about the First Generation?”

When he looks, I think that I may have pushed too far, and he starts getting annoyed by the questions, but after he looks at the molten metal I'm forming, he sighs.

Then a blank expression appears on his face, and it reverts back.

After getting back to his senses the man seems surprised, and his crafting almost fails, but he quickly takes over and continues doing so.

It seems like this information is still filtered and can't be learned from the natives, only from people outside of the tutorial, like Vega.

“Why do you want to get closer to the core of the station so much?” I finally ask the question I was wondering so much about.

“My name is Nevan.”

“Thanks for telling me, my name is Nathaniel.”

He nods in acknowledgment. “I don’t know what else to do.” His answer sounds defeated even though he is not showing much emotion. A man who woke up a hundred years later only to find his wife and daughter dead and his world is in tatters.

It's hard to imagine what he is going through.

“Why do you want to get to the core?” Nevan asks me in exchange.

For a moment, I wonder about the answer. “I want to find out what happened. I want to see that place where it happened. I hope to improve my skills in the process and find a useful item or two.”

He snorts, “At least you are honest.”

“But I meant it. More than hoping to find good items or precious mana stones or metals, I hope to learn more.” As I say so, he turns his head to me, metal in the shape of a helmet floating in the air.

I continue, “I’m curious. I want to know more about the Veil. How did they create it, and how it works? I want to know how they screwed up and what happened 100 years ago. I want to know why so many people talk about the Enchanter Guild as if they were deities. I want to know all these answers and I want to see wonders you guys created so long ago.”

“Apparently, nothing good. You know what’s worst about it? We were winning.” He stops and the heat around him disappears. “We were goddamn winning. Our Absolute was so powerful, he alone was enough to take on most of the enemy forces. Then there were our Champions under his lead. We would have survived this pairing and won.”

Nevan grabs the helmet he created and flicks it with the tip of his finger.

An extremely clear noise sounds in the room, hanging behind even seconds later.

“But even that was not enough. The Enchanter Guild used the opportunity to push the Veil Ignition ahead of schedule, worried that the Pairing might be over and people wouldn't be willing to support it. Think of our children, they said.” He flicks the helmet again and then gestures to me to continue.

I move the thermal energy and continue molding the melted alloy he created.

“And we agreed with it all. Drunk on our power and confidence and amazed by all the miracles they had created, we let them and this is our reward." He stops, "Make your thermal energy more even. There is no need to push so quickly, move slower, and let parts of the dagger cool off before you continue.”

The dagger I'm shaping with mana is even now better than any of my previous attempts. I absorb the heat at places, allowing the alloy to cool off while making it more even at others.

[Mana Domain] and [Redistribution] allow me such detailed manipulation. [Infusion] makes heating concrete parts easier as well. Sometimes I even infuse my mana threads for even more delicate control.

When my trait finally deactivates and my concentration weakens, I finish the process.

The result is still ugly, the blade is dull, but one part is what excites me. The mana-conductive metal that was part of the alloy is perfectly spread through the weapon in an attempt to mimic inscriptions.

It's lacking, but it's a first step.

“I’m jealous of people like you,” Nevan repeats what he said a few minutes ago. “But I can’t bring myself to hate you.”

I wonder what expression I'm making for him to say that.

***

The moment I leave the room, Vega rushes to me, followed by my duplicate who even now is etching inscriptions into a mana stone. Something he does practically nonstop.

“Master! Uncle isn’t that bad, he asked me to eat with him and gave me tasty food!”

Before I answer, the duplicate pokes, “Maybe I can become your master instead. I know more about inscriptions than this weirdo, and I promise to call you Vega only.”

“No!” Vega immediately answers and then passes by me towards where Nevan is working.

Before she can move further, I hold her with [Redistribution], “It's dangerous there.”

It would be dangerous for someone with so low a level to get to this much heat. Nevan’s emblems release that much.

"Sure!" She returns back when I let go. "Master, I want to train more. I want to become much stronger. When I return, I will go to a bigger village. Or I might even try to hunt gray lizards to see if they really are so tasty."

"No worries, we have two weeks, so we will make sure to level you up a bit and your skills as well."

"Mana chair too?"

"No mana chair."

"Oh…"

"More explosive kinetic orbs and better body strengthening."

"Yes! Oh, and master, the uncle said you lost your limb again, did the curse get worse?"

As an answer, I grab one of her pointy horns and shake her head while turning to Duplicaniel, "You are ruining my minion."

"Vega is not a minion." Both of them say almost at once.

"This attempt is so cheap," I tell him.

"Hey, if it works, it works. Anyway, I need your help with mana inscriptions. I want to test something."

"Any good progress?"

"Only shitty progress, I spent the past week nearly constantly attempting a personality imprint, but damn, I'm not even close. It feels like I didn't even start. I knew Lissandra was a monster, but this is too much."

"Is Lissandra also a minion?" Vega asks curiously.

"Maybe one day," I say.

"Ha!" The duplicate just stretches. "If the personality imprint plan fails, as it most likely will, I can try to do something similar to what we did for Myrra. I'm not sure it worked, but hey, I might as well try."

"But there is a problem with that," I point out while caressing Vega's head.

Huh, maybe he was really onto something with Vega being an ESM; I really feel my stress dissipating.

"Yes," he agrees. "The system already reacted to me being a duplicate, so the rules will most likely be stricter. There is also a chance that because every attendee has their own instance, it will work differently. Another problem could be that if this worked with Myrra, it will try to fix that this time."

"How about attempts to make yourself a tutorial attendee?"

"I used your fingers you so graciously gave me, and tried to work on something, but I just don't know. Lissandra is partially considered a tutorial attendee because she regrew from Hadwin and I'm entirely your duplicate, yet the system doesn't react. I tried to think of a way you could help, but I just can't come up with anything."

"Trying to return with Vega to her world?"

To that, Vega's red eyes become even bigger, shining from under her light brown hair.

"While eating with her, I tried to examine it, but I have no connection to her. The problem is also my lifespan limit. Just moving away from the tutorial wouldn't fix it."

"Now that you talk like that, I think it was maybe a dick move to duplicate myself?" I ponder.

"Only now?" he snorts. "What's annoying is that I can't be mad at you since I made the decision. But hey, let's strengthen the Mantle and try inscribing a mana stone."

"Sure."

***

Hours later, we sit opposite each other. Nevan is still working, and Vega is sleeping, her head resting on my leg.

The Mantle strengthening was a success.

Mana Sovereignty Mantle: A protective mantle seamlessly integrated with the user's mana heart and body. Solely designed to prevent external influences from disrupting or hijacking the user's mana flow.

The name or description didn't change at all as I kept the exactly same effect. Instead of trying to be fancy, I just wanted to strengthen that simple thing. To not allow anyone to stop me from using mana. Well, at least inside my body. And even though the description didn't change, I can easily notice that it's stronger.

While we rest, and eat some food with Vega sleeping, the duplicate keeps looking at me.

"So?" I ask.

"You didn't stop watching for Vega, not even for a second ever since she returned."

I decide to stay quiet.

"The entire time she was with me, you kept watching her, keeping the anchor you placed on her skin activated and ready to help. Even as you worked with Nevan."

"Just say it."

With his emotionless face, he continues, "Ever since you duplicated yourself, you were worried about Vega returning. Doesn't that say a lot about you?"

He looks at Vega, who is peacefully sleeping, "You still think there might be a chance you would use Vega to stay alive if you were in my shoes. You aren't sure, but you think you might use her or even sacrifice her just to stay alive. From sheer desperation and as the last possible option because you still remember how you behaved during the 1st floor."

In the silence, only the soft breathing of my disciple can be heard, and I caress her head gently. To that, she snuggles closer to me.

The duplicate leans and rests against the wall, as always his mana constantly moving, "You aren't sure what you would do if you were in my situation, but I do. I already know the answer to that question. But I won't tell you. Screw you, and think of it on your own."

"I really want to punch you sometimes."

"You and I are the same."

"Yes."

***

Next Chapter