The morning sun rose as imaginary roasters began to crow.
Alex tossed over in his sleep and opening his eyes; a figure stood before him. He jumped up in fright. "I have nothing on me; I'm poor. You should rob someone else!"
The figure stood still, giving Alex the time to let his drowsy eyes focus on it properly.
"Oh, Clonie! You scared me to death dude." Alex breathed a sigh of relief looking at his clone still standing guard for him.
The clone, motionless as always simply stared at Alex.
Staring at his handsome face, Alex pulled out a piece of bread from his inventory and began to chew on it.
You ask where he got that bread from? Last night while he was trying to sleep, he suddenly felt something poke his neck. When he got up to investigate what it was, he found another storage ring.
Before he could attempt to touch it, the ring spat out a few pieces of bread and a couple of water bottles, disappearing right after it had done so.
Thinking he was dreaming he subconsciously stored the food and water in his inventory, going back to sleep.
Now back to the present, it seemed that the week's ration the guard had told him about had a strange delivery method. Although, with just these few pieces of bread and bottles of water could he really survive a week?
Probably not, unless he starved himself. Seemed like the guards or whoever managed this village wanted them to go adventuring for wealth.
"It's time to depart; follow me, Clonie." Alex pushed the door of his little hut open, letting in the warm light.
So soon after dawn, people on Earth were usually still asleep, but here everyone was out, and the streets were filled with crowds.
Alex walked into the crowd helplessly. "I guess they've finally realized this isn't some sick game; it's a super awesome game!"
Pushing through the dense group of people, Alex felt his arms grow tired from shoving. Seriously was there some discount on eggs or something?
Following a tedious arm workout, Alex and his clone arrived at the city gates.
"Good sir! Could you please point me in the direction of the weakest mobs around here?" Alex walked up to the guard who had previously checked him in
"Mobs? If you speak of monsters, down near the fields where you came from, there should be some boar packs. Be careful in your battles with them, though; their tusks will kill you in one blow." The kind guard offered a hefty amount of information with a smile.
"Thank you, thank you! I'll keep that in mind, and yes, by mobs, I did mean monsters." He smiled at the surrounding guards as he walked through along with his clone, the guards not paying much attention to it.
"So my talent is common; it seems the growth part of it is a mutation of sorts; otherwise, wouldn't they try currying favor with this young master?" He talked to himself, or in this case to his clone.
Seeing the nonresponsive clone, he sighed, "I wonder if my talent keeps upgrading, will you eventually develop some autonomy? It's pretty lonely if I have no one to talk to on my hero's journey"
Speculations about his talent kept popping up in his mind throughout the night, could he use them to teleport to their location? He remembered there was an anime with a hunter who aura-farmed using that.
Maybe he could even be immortal once he had a bunch of clones, like Wu Kong.
Soon, his thoughts receded to the back of his mind; walking over a small hill, he saw that stretched across the plains were multiple packs of boars, some numbering over a dozen while others had only 2.
His mind considered all the possibilities and combinations he could use the clone for.
Name: Alex Edward
Age: 19
Talent: Cloning [F] [Growth Talent]
Level: 1
Exp: 0/100
Class: Not Selected
Hp: 100/100
Hp Recovery: 4/M
Attack: 10
Defense: 0
Mana: 7/7
Mana Recovery: 0.01/S
Stamina: 4
Looking at his Talent Page, he had a full mana storage, meaning in case his clone died, he could summon another one.
"Okay! Clonie, we're going for those two boars." He said as he moved towards the side, beginning to circle around towards the back of the boars while his clone charged head-first.
The two boars, peacefully munching on grass, were alarmed as the rustling of leaves was heard; they turned towards the clone's direction, pressing their feet into the ground, readying a charge-up attack.
The clone, in response,, took a step back, parrying the firstboar's's horn with his brittle stone sword. Unsurprisingly, in front of the boar charges, the clone was pushed back a few meters, barely managing to stay on his feet.
"Auchke," a feeble voice rang out behind the roar; it turned its head to see the human it had previously hit away, mounting its mate and pulling a bloodied stone sword out of its chest.
[Gained 16 XP]
A prompt appeared before Alex, who was bracing himself as an enraged boar charged at him.
A heavy collision occurred, Alex flying back and hitting a tree.
The boar moved closer to him as he lay, resulting in a small chuckle. "You're so pissed off it looks like your brain stopped working; finish it, Clonie!"
Alex announced the boar's fate, as a stone sword thrust into it from behind and took its life.
[Gained 16 XP]
Alex slumped into the tree's stump, letting out a hearty laugh. This clone of his, even now when it was at its worst was easily a broken leveling tool early on.
His greatest advantage at the moment wasn't the fact that he had the extra attack power in the form of his clone but that his clone could act as a distraction, making this hunt all too easy and safe for him, needing only a few modifications for a broken XP farm.
He jumped up, excited as he thought about the gains of his next plan. His expression dropped slightly when he realized that the two boars had dropped nothing, were there no mob drops?
"Such terrible thoughts I should keep to myself," he said as he sat down near one of the boars.
He clumsily cut off its horns and stored them in his inventory, then with his added experience, cut off the second boar horns, this time using one to carve into the other until both horns were hollow inside.
Calling over his clone, he handed him a horn, "Start digging; we need a 10x10 meter area; make it 4 meters deep."
Alex himself rolled up his sleeves and started digging as well. Time passed, and Alex noticed there were some boar cries in the distance.
'Others have begun hunting. I need to hurry up, or I'll get left behind.' he thought, looking at the barely 1/3 of the progress they had made, He gritted his teeth and went back to it.
Again and again, scoop by scoop the hole was soon half finished. But by this time, the night was already upon them, and Alex was entirely exhausted, having spent at least 4 hours digging with his sore arms.
Next, he would abuse his first advantage. A free worker!
"Clonie, I leave the rest to you, don't disappoint me!" He said trying to encourage the clone, who flashed him a look before he went back to digging.
Alex began heading back to the city, quickly rushing to his house and jumping onto his heavenly bed. His eyes grew heavy, and he fell asleep.
However, as time moved on, he soon found himself uncomfortable when suddenly he sat up, his body sweating furiously.
"Clones dead isn't it?" He imprinted the strange, suffocating feeling into his mind, making sure he wouldn't be too careless with his clone's lives, at least after tomorrow.
Using his talent once more, a clone spawned in front of him, he handed him the boar horn. "Wait for an hour, then leave and go back to mining, whatever killed you is probably gone by now."
Alex left the clone with its orders, turning over and falling back asleep. Soon enough, the sun emerged once more.
Alex, feeling his well-rested body, got up after his morning breakfast, a bottle of water and a loaf of bread, his last batch; he used most of his supplies to restore his energy to dig.
"Good morning to you all! I hope you're doing well!" Alex ceremoniously greeted the guards.
"Ah, it's you. Thank you for your kind intentions; let me return them by advising you against letting out your clone at night. Some beasts have grown strong, terribly strong. They can kill the owner of a clone through the clone itself so be wary." The guard enlightened him causing Alex to break out in a sweat
"Can kill me through my clone!?" He had underestimated this world; it seemed far more complex than just mindless beasts roaming the land.
"Thank you again for your advice, I'll make sure not to send him out at night anymore." He gave a slight bow to the guard, once again leaving the city.
In the Plains area, near a tree trunk, Alex's clone was resting with his eyes closed; to his right was a large ditch.
Alex smiled upon seeing the ditch "Good work! My finest employee, where is the sheet?"
Clonie rose to his feet and walked near one of the trees, opening a secret department in its trunk and pulling out a thin but large sheet of joined leaves.
The clone threw the sheet over the hole, covering it thoroughly.
"Time to rear the prey." Alex nodded at his clone, who, understanding the signal, ran towards the vast plains, leaving his sword and makeshift shovel behind.
In a few minutes, the ground began to shake, and near the horizon, a terrifying sight showed itself: a handsome young man running for his life expressionlessly as a horde of seemingly endless boars chased after him.
Alex moved deeper into the forest, hiding behind a thick tree as he watched the scene unfold.
Clonie led the pack to run as fast as he could, barely dodging several lethal attacks. He pushed himself to the limit and slowed down just as he neared the hidden trap.
A boar speared into his now still body; unable to contain its momentum, it moved forward, falling straight through the sheet and into the hole.
Along with it, the horde of enraged boars comedically fell into the hole one by one, much like zombies from a certain zombie apocalypse movie.
Alex stepped forward, his mind a bit dizzy because of his clone's death, but his face equipping a smile as he held a piece of wool, lighting it on fire with a little medieval lighter he had bought, and he threw it into the pit.
Almost instantly, the sheet at the bottom of the ditch caught fire, the boars inside beginning to boil as Alex sat back and watched the XP come in.
[Gained 16 XP]
[Gained 16 XP]
....
[Level Up!]
Soon his Talent panel looked a little like this.
Name: Alex Edward
Age: 19
Talent: Cloning [F] [Growth Talent]
Level: 3
Exp: 143/300
Class: Not Selected
Hp: 200/200
Hp Recovery: 8/M
Attack: 10
Defense: 0
Mana: 7/7
Mana Recovery: 0.01/S
Stamina: 4
Attribute Points: 6
"How worth it the wait was." He smiled, this being the first of many times he would be using this trap to speed level.