Chapter 15
Chapter 15
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: Clone Technique
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I hopped over the elementary school fence with practiced ease.
All around was quiet.
It felt like pulling off some secretive prank.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
Every time I climbed over this fence or practiced in the neighborhood playground, I felt utterly pathetic.
It was uncomfortable, too.
I’d heard that A-rank Hunters got their own private training grounds. I needed to break through the 20th floor already.
Even after getting that spell to shake off trackers, my daily life somehow hadn’t changed at all.
I cautiously scanned my surroundings, then activated my new skill.
The skill I’d just acquired was [Sand Totem].
It gathered the sand around me, hardened it, and shaped it into a totem.
The totem even had a weak aggro-pull effect attached.
“Summoning a tank... perfect.”
For a solo player like me with no one to tank up front, it was a skill made for me.
As I cast the skill, the sand in front of me writhed and began clumping together.
In no time, a massive sand pillar taller than a person rose up.
The pillar soon took on the shape of a ridiculous face without arms or legs.
“...?”
And that was it.
The limbless totem just stood there like a stupid totem pole, showing no movement whatsoever.
I was at a loss for words.
“No way, this is a Gold-rank skill?”
Did all Gold skills come with some kind of defect?
The Sand Mire seemed way better by comparison.
This thing would just make my head explode before it ever pulled any aggro.
Grumbling, I approached the totem.
First, I needed to check if I could control it.
I decided to try my universal fix.
I sliced off my right pinky finger and jammed it into the totem’s body.
I felt the sensation of my finger connecting to the totem.
But that was all.
The totem could only nod its head in response to my will.
It was like one of those inflatable advertising dolls flapping in the breeze outside a store.
“Haa...”
Disappointment washed over me.
But then, one other method suddenly came to mind.
The memory of first learning magic from a comment, nurturing the god within me.
“Alright, let’s try it.”
I sat cross-legged.
Closed my eyes and focused inward.
I could see the small, sand-formed version of myself that had taken root inside me.
By reshaping this form, I’d turned my finger into a bullet and fired it before.
This time, I shifted my focus outward.
I sensed the sand totem with my finger inside it.
I concentrated on the shape of that finger.
It wasn’t a finger.
It was just a lump of sand.
It was shaped from sand anyway.
Did it even need to keep that form?
“Sand is sand, even if it scatters.”
I broke down the boundaries of my body.
My arms slowly turned to sand and flowed down to the ground.
This was the maximum extent I could sand-form.
At the same time, my finger inside the totem lost its shape and reverted to a simple lump of sand.
I kept my eyes closed and maintained my focus.
I gave the scattered sand a new form.
Like a child piling up wet sand into a castle.
Like a skilled potter shaping clay into ceramics.
The god within.
I strongly envisioned myself as a mage.
The sand began clumping back together.
“...”
How much time passed?
I slowly opened my eyes.
I couldn’t help letting out an exclamation at the sight before me.
The totem with its ridiculous face was gone.
In its place stood a sand doll identical to me.
Long black hair, slender build. My perfect clone in every detail.
“Success!”
I was thrilled.
My heart raced like a kid who’d just gotten a new toy.
Endless possibilities flooded my mind.
Then, another greedy thought surfaced.
“Could I make another one?”
The idea hit me, and I acted on it immediately.
I summoned the sand totem once more.
This time, I shoved my entire right hand into it and focused my mind.
Having done it once, the process was much smoother.
Momentum built up.
I succeeded in creating a second clone with ease.
Using my whole hand as material made the second clone much larger and sturdier than the first.
It could even move its limbs at my command.
Right then.
“Huh...?”
My vision suddenly spun.
Dizziness like a hammer blow to the head hit me, along with extreme weakness as strength drained from my entire body.
Whoosh.
Regardless of my will, the two painstakingly made sand totems crumbled powerlessly.
At the same time, my own body collapsed into sand.
I couldn’t even twitch a finger.
I toppled straight onto the elementary school playground’s sandpit.
“What... damn it...”
My consciousness faded rapidly.
I blacked out right there.
***
“Student! Student! Wake up! Pull yourself together!”
Someone shaking me awake—I forced my eyes open to the voice.
I wiped the drool trickling from my mouth and sat up.
“Huh... where am I...?”
It was the elementary school playground.
And in front of me loomed a woman in her forties, looking down at me with worry.
Her teacher ID hung around her neck, catching my eye.
“Shit.”
The moment I grasped the situation, my face burned red.
“Are you okay? How could you sleep here? You’ll catch a cold.”
The teacher placed a hand on my forehead.
“You don’t look like one of our students. What grade are you in? Did something happen? Have we called your house?”
“No, no! I was just... out for a walk...”
I stammered out some excuse.
I couldn’t lift my face from the shame.
Sleeping in a sandpit all night and getting caught by a teacher.
Could there be a more mortifying morning?
Overcome with embarrassment, I bolted from the spot and fled the school.
I heard the teacher calling after me from behind, but I didn’t have the courage to look back.
***
“Ugh, so gross...”
Even after getting home and showering, the sticky feeling wouldn’t go away.
Success had been right there.
Why the hell did I collapse?
To find answers, I booted up my computer and logged into the Mage Gallery.
[Title: Passed out using skill, what’s this?]
Writer: ㅇㅇ(22E.222)
Made two clones with Sand Totem and suddenly collapsed.
Why’s this happening? A bug?
Comments started pouring in the moment I posted.
But people’s reactions were nothing like I expected.
ㄴ p깟쮸: Clones? How do you make clones with Sand Totem?
ㄴ 마법은화력: What are you talking about? That’s just a skill for making an aggro totem pole.
ㄴ 냉장고: No such function in the skill description. Explain in detail.
Their responses had me tilting my head.
They all seemed clueless.
I carefully explained the process from last night.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(333.333): There’s this inner god thing. Used it to break down and reconstruct my body, and it worked. You guys haven’t tried?
My comment went up, but the gallery was still full of confusion.
ㄴ 냉장고: ...Inner god? What’s that?
ㄴ 마법은화력: Do you see lines and stuff like that?
ㄴ p깟쮸: Knew this newbie was weird, but not this weird....
ㄴ 풍뎅이: Hmm... no clue what you’re saying.
Even 풍뎅이, who’d tipped me off to the method, seemed oblivious.
Bewildered, I added another comment.
ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ(444.444): Dude, you’re the one who told me. How don’t you know? Didn’t you awaken that way too?
ㄴ 풍뎅이: No, I just copied what an NPC said while climbing the tower. My awakening was totally different from yours.
“What?”
I yelled at the monitor.
“No, then why’d you even copy it if you didn’t know?”
ㄴ 냉장고: So why was that comment floating around? Some S-rank with nothing better to do?
ㄴ 마법은화력: It always seemed off. I ate some dirt myself and nothing happened.
ㄴㄴ ㅇㅇ(111.111): Why would you even try eating it....
ㄴㄴ 마법은화력: Double class. Sounds cool.
ㄴ p깟쮸: 풍뎅이’s a total scammer. Tricking newbies.
ㄴ 냉장고: But you really awakened, so it’s not exactly a scam, right?
Gallery opinion swiftly turned against 풍뎅이.
The flustered 풍뎅이 desperately changed the subject.
ㄴ 풍뎅이: Anyway, I think I know why you collapsed. Mana depletion.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(555.555): Mana depletion? Me? With how high my mana is? No way it ran out.
I’d never measured it, but with the all-stats I got every time.
And the special difficulty unlock condition from the start.
It had to be higher than average, if not way higher.
ㄴ 냉장고: No, 풍뎅이’s right. You have no idea how insane what you just did is.
ㄴ 마법은화력: You said you turned Sand Totem into clones like yours?
There’s an identical Platinum skill for that.
ㄴ p깟쮸: Famous for guzzling insane amounts of mana.
ㄴ 냉장고: And you used two at once? As a low-level who just cleared floor 5? You lunatic, collapsing is the weirdest part.
ㄴ 풍뎅이: Mimicking a higher skill with a Gold one is nonsense...
One would already be a stretch...
No clue where to even start criticizing this.
Only after their explanations did it all click.
How reckless I’d been.
ㄴ ㅇㅇ(666.666): So how do I fix this?
ㄴ 풍뎅이: Only one way.
ㄴ 마법은화력: Climb the tower. Lowbie.
ㄴ 냉장고: You’ve only leveled up once. Level up more.
ㄴ p깟쮸: It’s about time for your next level-up anyway. Extreme’s faster than normal.... Probably around floor 8?
Their words solidified my resolve.
Yeah, time to climb the tower.
Get stronger, and challenge the clone technique again.