Martin's pleas for something to do finally arrived. It was going to be a good show. Entering the residence once again, Isek started to empty the contents of the spacial ring to the floor.
Inside, there were a multitude of items that were half burned, the contents of the supply tent in the warriors camp was mostly useless. However, there was much more than just the contents of the tent within the ring.
The slaver's leader had been the original owner of the ring, inside, he had a multitude of trash items like used towels and a collection of panties. However, the ring that Isek had found in the Blinder Cave tumbled to the ground. Picking it up, he inspected it briefly.
The system gave an announcement.
[Aura readings nominal. Cursed Item Possibility: 7%]
[Calculating]
When the alert passed across the HUD, Isek put on the ring and fed it some energy.
[Clone Activated]
Martin felt his vision go black and then opened his eyes again, it was like he had a headache in that very moment. The lighting looked like it had changed around him and a second screen of vision appeared.
"What's this?" Martin walked over and touched the screen. His hand started to disappear, in a rash of uncertainty, he was unwilling to risk losing his chance and stepped through the screen. He could see the room with his own eyes. He lifted his arms and saw his hands, "How is this possible?"
Isek was about to remove the ring but Martin put out his hand and actually stopped him.
His hands moved liked a Doppelganger, he had every bit of strength that Isek possessed and he wasn't afraid to move. He was more surprised than anything, he was merely moving to stop him but he had hold of him instead. Martin knelt down.
"Boss!" His eyebrows knit and he sucked in deeply. He bellowed, "PLEASE, PLEASE DON'T SEND ME BACK!" Martin begged like his life depended on it, whatever this was, it was better than the confinement of the Mindspace. "Please! Boss!! I swear it! I will listen, just don't send me back!"
"How did you escape? System, Display Log." The Event Log scrolled over the HUD and there was nothing, literally nothing that explained why Martin was created instead of another version of himself. Isek had calculated, it was not in his calculations so how could it be. The conundrum caught him off guard and Isek relaxed for a moment.
In truth, there was no reason to immediately dispel the Clone, if nothing else, it would shut Martin up for a while but what after. Thousands of calculations began to play out and as if he was forced into a shutdown, Isek stood listlessly while the System ran Simulations.
"System, Designate: Host Clone. Authorize Administrative Rights, Mark 2. Execute." Isek spoke a sentence that Martin never thought he'd hear and Martin looked like he was going to cry. Still, he kept his mouth shut and knelt silently.
[Scanning]
[Renaming: Host Clone]
[Authorizing, Confirmed.]
"Thank you, Boss!" Martin was satisfied with whatever current condition his body was in and no matter what was going forward, he was out of the box. He would deal with whatever came in the future when it came to it, for now, all that mattered was staying the path.
Isek ignored him and took a look at the weapons that were laying around on the floor.
Martin loomed around the piles of things and reached for the cultivation scroll that the mistress had given to Isek when they first met. For a moment, Isek looked like he was going to object but when he eventually said nothing at all, Martin was already eyeing it's contents.
'At least he appreciates being out of the box, that should shut him up for a while.' Isek looked at Martin and swept everything besides the cultivation scrolls away, then took out the Hammer. "You're free to to whatever, go learn to be a Blacksmith and make something of yourself." He threw the Lightning Hammer to Martin.
Martin caught the hammer like it was a reflex, "Oh! This is great!!"
'Auto Defenses are still activated? That should make it easier for him to stay alive but.' Isek's calculations came up with several possibilities where Martin made things complicated and created irreconcilable problems within the Sect. If Martin chose to do them both a discredit, even for a moment, explaining things would be impossible to translate positively in their favor. He sighed to see if it would help but it didn't. Correcting his posture, he decided to leave the function on.
At least Martin wouldn't embarrass Isek if he was challenged.
"You need to stay here for a little before you venture out. Make sure to learn the cultivation techniques. If we meet in public, I've already come up with a plan." Isek picked up a pen and wrote it down so that Martin wouldn't be able to excuse himself from acting properly.
"But." Martin held up his hand.
"No buts. Head to the Blacksmith once you've read and understood the cultivation techniques." Isek was getting ready to leave but he heard Martin's stomach growl and paused.
[Scanning]
[Report]
[Status: Host Clone, Name: Martin Kimski. Age:28 (0.5) Weight 133lb, Title – User]
[Race: Clone]
[Health: (Healthy, Stable)]
[Association(s): Clone of Isek]
[Strength: (11*)]
[Energy: (13*)]
[Dexterity: (25*)]
[Intelligence: (3)]
[Data Storage: (7)]
[Energy Organ Capacity – (655/655)]
[Energy Metafunction Activation Rate: (.199%)]
[Active Energy Absorption Range: 30 Meters]
[Luck (-6)]
[Weapon: Hammer – Engrit's Furious Hammer]
Martin saw the Status Update on the HUD from within the Clone body and sighed at his stats. Three Intelligence points was extremely low, it hurt.
'-6 Luck?' Martin knew that if he asked about it, he would probably suffer, he watched as Isek left the building and vanished from sight. When he was certain that Isek was far away, his fingers twitched and a grin appeared on his face. "System.."
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Isek was standing at the top of the Training Grounds where he had made a spectacle earlier, everyone wanted to see how the new arrival had done it and so almost none of them had bothered to leave.
"Hey, he's come back." One of the spectators and five menacing friends gathered around in a circle stopped to look.
"Hey You. What's your name?" The force had been enough to injure Elders but they were hidden behind a wall, to the students, it could have all been an elaborate act to drive up their training. Unable to let things go, he persisted and pushed his way toward Isek.
[Scanning]
Isek walked toward the middle of the Arena floor and a small video file replayed what had happened after the blackout. Martin was aware but video recording was intermittent between the opening and closing of his eyelids, audio was all that could be heard and a transcript played out like subtitles in a side column.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!" The new arrivals would always be picked on in every light novel, it seemed to be a rule. The man shouted at Isek and swung his palm toward his back.
Isek didn't move, he didn't even bother to dignify the attack with a bit of recognition and kept to his own thoughts.
'What's with this guy?' The man who had thrown out the palm scratched at it, he felt sick and then coughed up at least a pint a blood.
"Groverd!" The others who with him went to grab him but he was already knocked out and unable to reply. They shook him lightly to try to waken him but there was no response.
"What did you do to him?" They chided and yelled but Isek still didn't bother to respond. One of the five pulled out a Sword and stood in front of Isek with it pointed directly at his face.
The arena grew silent and those that were practicing stopped what they were doing entirely.
[Scanning Complete]
[Updating]
"I asked you a question." The sword pressed toward Isek's face but in an instant, it somehow appeared in Isek's hand. The students around stepped back in awe, they hadn't seen what had happened.
Once the sword was in his hands, the sword began to sing and all of them, everyone in the arena could hear it. The sword was screaming.
"What sort of Sword Song is this!?!" Some of the student's present covered their ears but the damage was done, they were losing their awareness by the millisecond.
"It seems you don't know the function of this weapon, I'll hang on to it for safe keeping. What else do you have?" Isek walked toward the group of bullies and pinned them against a wall. Searching them all, he took their belongings, except for their training methods, into his storage ring then left without saying another word.
The students had wanted a good show but that was not the one they thought they would encounter. Rumors and harsh words didn't bother Isek, even as an AI, he understood the premise of 'power changes everything.'
[1500 Energy Manipulation Methods discovered, listing.]
The training methods of the student's scrolled down the HUD and dimmed. One at a time, their pathways, routes of power along the body, were uncovered like beads of water in the sand. They were extracted, cleansed of irrelevant data and sorted.
An instructor who had watched as everything transpired shook his head. It was good that Isek had stood his ground but even as a joke, thievery within the Sect was forbidden.
"Hey. New Student. Stop, come come. We must discuss some things." He flowed on the wind and landed in front of Isek. "Hey. You look. I'm an Elder, look at me when I'm talking to you."
Isek's orange eyes sharpened and turned toward the Elder.
He fell backward in surprise, Isek had no killing intent seeping from his body but his eyes were giving a completely different reaction to those who looked into them. Isek didn't say a word and continued to walk, he was on the path to the Treasure Hall again.
The Treasure Hall was still open and active, more people had arrived as the day had progressed and even hours after Isek had left, the Attendant was still frustrated to the point of losing hair. When he came back once again, it was like he had seen a ghost and what little hair remained on his head seemed to flow away in the next breeze.
"Yes. Young Master, How can we further help you today." He clasped his hands and bowed politely but Isek had a smile on his face this time, which gave him worry.
"I'd like to see what cultivation techniques and books you have." Isek pulled out the token that Patriarch Blimare had given him and showed it to the man.
"I am aware of your status but.." While searching for the proper words, he looked like he was aging faster. "But this is a place of business, if you no intention of buying, then please leave."
"I see. How am I to know what it is the Great Treasure Hall has to offer, perhaps even part with, if I never see it myself." Knowing he had the upper hand, Isek played the game as softly as he could.
The Attendant seemed flustered.
Isek didn't bat an eyelid, he waited.
The Attendant had a bead of sweat roll down his face.
[Solution: Sell an Item.]
The system gave an update in the form of a suggestion and laid silent once again.
Isek flipped over his hand and pulled out the Ax and a pair of jeweled panties. "Sell these then."
Handing them over, the Attendant went white like all the color in his body had been drained. Feeble and outwitted, he shrugged, put the items onto a servant's platter and sent them away. "Very well, this way."
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Martin sat in the room for a while and then scaled the Tower to take a look at the City from a better vantage point. It was breezy atop the Tower and a small rope ladder was rolled up neatly at one edge.
'Cool, an escape route?' Martin fidgeted with the rope and then set it back down.
In the distance, what looked like a street market stretched for half a block. At least a dozen shops had steam or heat rising from their stalls like they were cooking and when the next gust of wind came, it blew the sweet scent of food into his face.
His stomach growled further. Martin went back inside, it was important that he keep a body and he didn't have time to drool over things he couldn't have. He managed a short burst of self-control and found himself sitting on the bottom floor, reading.
The Basic Cultivation technique was just that, basic. It spoke about feeling the energy that vibrated with the body, like a lecture. The scroll was not very long, given it's life changing information. Instead, it was kept simply, probably by design.
As he was about to get back into the scrolls contents and study harder, a string of System announcements had him at a loss for words. He clicked on some of the data, it came into his mind like a flood.
"Whoa! What did I just do?" Martin felt a pulse of energy in his body, it was mimicking the data almost perfectly.
The auto-defense protocols had alerted the system and it had driven the reaction through his body as a safety measure but Martin was aware that something had happened. He had felt the energy pulsing through his body and he repeated the action to clinical perfection. The pulse grew stronger, he closed his eyes and continued the pulsations. It felt so strange, the energy felt like it had no where to go. Martin felt himself sweating and snapped out of it.
There was a puddle on the floor, he was thirsty and his mouth was dry like he had sucked on a coal. He spit and watched the dirt on the floor scatter, the stone sizzled underneath. The dark substance seemed to be an impurity, Martin wondered what he clicked on.
"System.." Coughing up another mouthful of blood, Martin strained himself and asked the System for help. "What did I click?"
[Unknown Body Purification Method: First observed at Arena by Isek, 3 hours ago. Route optimized]
"System, Rename Method." He spit another mouthful of blood and found a gutter for some water. "Designate: Isek Level 1 Body Purification."
[Authorizing]
[Accepted]
[Re-designation Complete: Isek Level 1 Body Purification]
[Admin Alerted]
[Data Access Locked]
Martin was considering an attempt at testing his luck with techniques but he still had one in front of him that was even used by the Mistress. It was imperative that he learn the basics. He dove into dirt and laid flat to look up the stairwell with the scroll in his hands. 'UGH!' He grunted with his arms outstretched and tried to burn the words into his mind.
֍ꟷꟷꟷꟷ֍
Inside the Treasure Hall, Isek was led to his destination. There was a library of sorts, the Treasure Hall was a depository for the Sect. When adventuring in the name of the Sect, all goods and loot captured would go to the Treasure Hall. Student's seeking resources could even bring their goods in for an exchange in contribution points which could be used later to buy things that they either wanted or needed at the time.
It was truly a way to keep the Sect afloat, if the school had talented people, resources would stack up and support their development. Isek had to give them credit for coming up with a criminal empire and legitimizing it. Had it been like that on Earth, even with the memories received from Martin, no population would stand for it.
It was like indentured servitude, with so much whipping or hate crimes. The problems always happened within places like those were corruption. Those who often came to power in such types of government were not necessarily tyrannical but heavy handed and completely opposed to influence outside of their own.
It would be as if the Governments on Earth suddenly chose to give up on Law, and instead focused on 'subjugation' of those they seemed unfit to have a decision in their lives, like the Kings of old.
Eventually, slavery would return, somewhere, but with a more pretty name. The entire system that the Sects and Cities of this world ran on, were designed to serve those in power and those without, were left to fend for themselves. Disagreements ended in bloodshed often, the ones left standing would call that power.
[Scanning]
The Attendant stopped in the middle of the room and watched as Isek eyed the shelves, he looked very discerning this time around and hadn't yet chosen to touch anything in particular. He sighed in relief and held his hands together, "Please let me know if there is anything you require, I will remain until you are finished."
Isek nodded. In front of him were at least a thousand books on various things and scrolls that were in stacks filled the shelves for at least a few meters, several hundred looked like they had been sifted through in recent times but the piles underneath had basically been left to the rigors of time.
"Do you have anything in particular you're looking for?" The Attendant wanted to see what the man would buy but Isek ignored him.
As notifications from the system scrolled across the HUD, books were highlighted as his eyes panned through the collection. Isek grabbed one from the shelf and flipped through it casually. He put it back and grabbed the next that had been highlighted. He went through several shelves and skipped many more.
The Attendant didn't know what he was looking for but at least he wasn't insulting the Treasure Hall this time, through all of his looking Isek had kept quiet.