The Lone Wanderer-Chapter 310: Percival’s clone

Micky walked around a large boulder, leading Percy to the others. The sky was a bright azure colour, indicating that it was daytime on the rest of Remior, though Acton and his guards were sleeping right now.

The group wasn’t that far from where Micky stood, but they had to get pretty close to see them through the dense cloud of water globules. Percy’s eyes first landed on the Green-born, widening in disgust as he saw his friend’s tormentor in the flesh. That said, the boy looked quite different from the last memory Micky had sent him.

Unlike his guards who were all adults, Acton had entered the Valley as a young teenager. Naturally, his appearance had already changed a lot and would continue to do so during his stay. He was already in his mid-teens. His hair was long and unkempt, much like the others’. But he was the only one in the group without a full beard, some scarce hairs lining his upper lip instead, as a stubble was barely visible on his chin.

‘He’ll be a much more dangerous opponent by the time we fight…’ Percy sighed.

The way things were going, he was confident they’d beat Acton to his next promotion. Still, he wasn’t sure that would be enough. He wouldn’t be the same inexperienced kid with the paper-thin domain he’d met before. Acton’s age would catch up to his own by the time they joined him in the Valley, and the Holy Child would have decades to get used to his domain and his mud affinity.

‘Please tell me he hasn’t made any progress with Circulation, at least…’

‘Some, but not enough.’ Micky confirmed, much to his relief. ‘He did clear the rest of his channels, and he also tried to copy my water pattern at first, but he gave up after a while. He doesn’t know he’s supposed to train his body or temper his channels. I think he just assumed it’s a beast thing.’

Percy smiled. This was indeed the logical assumption, given the limited information the boy had available. Not completely wrong either. Percy had long learned that Circulation was better tailored for beasts than sapients: they even passively used a weaker version of it by instinct. Thinking about it some more, he wondered if Micky’s ancestors had drawn inspiration for the Dance by observing how beasts fought.

Regardless, it didn’t matter, as long as Acton didn’t learn it…

‘How about the others? Anyone we should be wary of?’

Percy didn’t have his mutated eyes right now, so he couldn’t read their affinities. But he didn’t have to. Micky had spent years fighting alongside these people.

‘As far as I can tell, they all have common affinities. If they have any bloodlines or composite affinities, they’ve never used them in front of me.’ Micky said.

He then proceeded to brief Percy in on the specifics. Nothing revolutionary there, though he’d relay the information to Nesha and Elaine regardless. Their confrontation was still years down the line, but it wouldn’t hurt to have some idea of how their opponents fought. Every little help might mark the difference between victory and death.

‘Any idea how close they are to advancing?’

Telling a high-born’s age from their appearance alone wasn’t easy. Entire decades could go by without a single grey hair appearing on their head, or a wrinkle on their forehead. Percy hoped that his familiar had heard them speaking about this at some point.

‘I know for a fact the blond guy sleeping over there is an Orange-born, still centuries away from Blue. You won’t have to worry about him. But those two will probably advance before you guys. I’m not sure about the last two.’ Micky replied, pointing at each of them with his beak.

Percy nodded. Facing a minimum of three Blues wasn’t ideal, but at least the worst-case scenario was looking slightly more optimistic. Either way, they’d have to prepare for whatever hand they got dealt.

‘Do you want me to start eating less?’ Micky suddenly asked.

Percy thought about it for a couple minutes. Now that his familiar could sustain himself with his own mana, food was mostly an optional means of advancement. He could hold himself back if he wanted. Still, Percy was reluctant to recommend that.

‘Don’t. It would be a waste of the environment here.’

Even if Micky’s beast core advanced first, there was more than enough food inside the Valley for him to survive. And they had plenty of Aurora Dew to get his second core to Yellow, re-establishing the current balance between his cores. They could always halt Micky’s advancement later, if it looked like he was about to hit Blue.

Percy didn’t want his familiar to slow down his progress unless absolutely necessary. Beast or not, Micky was still a Red-born like him, so he wasn’t sure if he’d make it past White. He didn’t know how long a crow’s base lifespan was, nor did he know if the treasures he brought from the greater springs would even be compatible with him. It would suck if Percy managed to overcome his own limitations one day, only for his friend to fall behind.

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‘Ok. What should I do with the rest of my time?’ Micky asked again. ‘I don’t think there’s much more I can learn about Circulation or Regulation. Drinking Aurora Dew will only take a few minutes per day.’

‘I guess there isn’t much harm in experimenting with your ice affinity a little. Maybe work on splitting the mana up into its components more easily. But try not to develop any offensive spells with it.’ Percy replied.

Chances are that Acton would turn Micky against them. In theory, Percy could try possessing him with a clone: just like he was doing right now: but that wasn’t a perfect solution. He couldn’t control his hosts without their consent, so his freedom in Micky’s body would ultimately depend on how Acton phrased his commands.

Consequently, the situation could develop in all sorts of directions. Maybe they could get Micky to fight alongside them, or maybe Acton would send him after them. The safest option would be for Percy to possess him, drag him away from the others: far out of earshot: and leave him in some corner of the Valley until his captor was dead.

‘Such an annoying bloodline…’ he clicked his beak.

Alas, this was a problem for the future. At least, the situation was stable for now. As bad as Acton had treated Micky in the past, it didn’t seem the crow was in any immediate danger. As long as he didn’t antagonize the Holy Child, he should be fine.

He sighed.

Catching up with his familiar was nice. He wished he could have stayed here a bit longer, but he couldn’t do that. Percy would much rather return to his main body, to send out another clone sooner. If they got lucky, one of his clones might stumble on something else that could raise their odds.

Though there was one last thing he wanted to check before leaving. His Status. Not that there was anything particularly important there, but he was really curious to see how it would handle his strange situation.

___

Mictlantecuhtli (Percival's clone)

Mana cores:

[Mana core 1 – Yellow – Beast][Mana core 2 – Orange – Ice]Mutations:

[Soul Predator] – Allows one to more easily interact with the souls of others.[Wind Dancer] – Allows one to augment their flight using air mana.Spectral trait:

[Weaving]: Boosts one’s proclivity in manipulating one-dimensional structures.Spells:

[Concussive Blast: Crude][Secret Art: Soul Resonance: Refined][Soul Harvester: Refined][Reinforcement: Refined][Spiritforged Cauldron: Refined][Spectral Art: Phantomscale Regalia: Masterful]Alchemic principles:

[Extraction]: Separate and condense an ingredient’s essence.[Pacification] – Delay an ingredient’s activation rate.[Redirection] – Adjust an ingredient’s effect.[Deattunement] – Prevent multiple conflicting ingredients from reacting with one another.[Bonding] – Enrich an ingredient with crystallized pure mana.[Restructuring]: Alter an ingredient's phase.[Scaling]: Brew a greater volume of ingredients at once.Decrees:

[Phoebe’s Decree]: Grants access to your Status.[Moirais’ Decree] – Grants a second mana core.[Metatron’s Decree]: Open a one-way portal to the Vault of Magic at will.[Ea’s Decree (Modified)] – Augments and enhances your Status.___

‘Fascinating…’

Apparently, his Status currently treated Micky as a regular clone. As with all his clones, it only listed the things he personally had access to. This included Micky’s cores and mutations, but not his spells, as Percy couldn’t use those.

Instead, it listed Percy’s spells. At least the ones he could use in the crow’s body. Curiously, Concussive Blast had made the cut this time. It hadn’t been there when he possessed Elaine or Nesha. Probably because they didn’t have the right affinity for it.

Shifting his attention to the ethereal cords, he noticed they had two of those, both linking back to his main body. It didn’t seem he could access the ‘familiar’ side of Micky’s Status right now. In the eyes of Phoebe’s Decree, Micky was the original Percy’s familiar, not the clone’s.

‘Still, we should be able to use Soul Resonance a lot better…’

Normally, they only had one cord, so they couldn’t both send mana at the same time. It made their experiments a little clunkier, as they had to wait for one packet to arrive, before sending another in the opposite direction.

With this, that wouldn’t be a problem. They’d be able to establish a two-way communication with his main body. Suffice to say, Percy already had a few ideas on how they could leverage it.

But now wasn’t the time for that.

Bidding his friend farewell, he tried to cut himself lose. It was surprisingly difficult, as their souls had already partially merged in the brief time he’d been here. To remove himself from Micky’s body, he was forced to use his fused mana to practically scrape his soul wisp from the crow’s soul. A rather painful experience for both of them.

Even that wasn’t enough. After severing their connection, he still had trouble returning to his own body. Unlike his other hosts, Micky wasn’t pushing him away, and his own body’s pull hadn’t grown strong enough yet. On top of that, this was all happening on Remior, so he couldn’t rely on the world’s rejection either.

Not giving up, Percy clawed intensely at the cord, only managing to eject himself a couple minutes later. Clearly, his ability to possess his familiar could use some work.

Still, he’d achieved what he came here for. Even better, their little experiment had opened a bunch of interesting doors for them to explore in the future. freewёbnoνel-com

‘We’ll have to improve upon this by the time we rescue him though, or we won’t be able to stay like this for long…’

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