The Lone Wanderer

Percy had no idea what to expect from this latest clone of his, but whatever it was, it had to be a lot, right?

And, well... Reality didn’t disappoint.

The silver meteor punched through Percy’s soul like a molten dagger, leaving him gasping for air as memories, pain, and pressure ruthlessly slammed into his mind.

The crushing weight of an ocean… the frigid embrace of an abyss… a dead orphan… an ambitious venture… exotic knowledge… a narrow success… a selfless decision… a grateful student… a stern warning…

Percy would need a lot more time to properly sift through everything, but a boatload of memories wasn’t the only thing the clone had brought. By far the most noteworthy was arguably the new Decree! But there was more still. A spell upgrade, a new alchemic principle and… a mutation?

Suffice to say, it took him a couple moments to fully grasp why his head felt like it had been cracked open by a hatchet, or why his eyes felt like they were on fire. Evidently, his new improvements came with their fair share of growing pains. But it should ultimately be a good thing, right?

“Percy! What’s going on?!” Nesha cried out in alarm.

The poor girl had never seen one of his clones cause this much damage upon their return. Not that Percy had, either.

He forced himself to stand with difficulty, gesturing at Nesha that everything was fine – or would be. Next, he fumbled his way to his bed, nearly tripping on his jar of powder, blind as he was. Only once he was sitting on the familiar mattress did he try opening his Status again, hoping he hadn’t just crippled himself out of greed.

P????a? A?a???

Ma?a ????:

• [Ma?a ???? 1 – ??a??? – S???]
• [Ma?a ???? 2 – ??a??? – P???]

B????????:

• [?????] – ???

M??a????:

• [???]

Sp????a? ??a??:

• [??a????] – ???

Sp???s:

• [S????? A??: ?am???a? – ???d?]
• [P?a???ms?a?? ?a?????? – ??????d]
• [Sp????a? A??: S??? S???????? – ??????d]
• [S??? ??????s??? – ??????d]
• [S??? ?a???s??? – ??????d]
• [?????????m??? – ??????d]
• [S?????????a???? – ??????d]
• [Ma???? ?? D????? – ??????d]

A????m?? p?????p??s:

• [E???a?????] – ???
• [Pa?????a????] – ???
• [??d????????] – ???
• [D?a?????m???] – ???

D?????s:

• [P?????’s D?????] – ???
• [???] – ???
• [M???a?s’ D?????] – ???
• [M??a????’s D?????] – ???
• [???] – ???

___

‘Ugh…’ Percy winced as the page opened, the very act tuning his pain up to eleven.

That said, it wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. Unlike back on Atlantis, he was at least able to open his Status – on the first try no less. Even better, after a quick count, he confirmed that all the sections were there – both the old and the new. The only thing left was to figure out how to fill them up properly.

‘Maybe I just need to go over my spells one by one, to help it register them again?’

Not the most groundbreaking idea, but he felt it was worth a try.

Starting with the easiest one, Percy pulled some mana from both of his cores, fusing it into a sliver of teal, before tossing a handful of throwing stars against the wall. Nesha jumped back in surprise.

Percy didn’t bother explaining himself, as he dove back into his spell list.

___

• [Mantle of Deceit – Refined]

___

Suffice to say, seeing part of his Status restored caused his heart to skip a beat. And the change went so much deeper than a couple of words… As soon as the entry corrected itself, Percy felt something click inside his head – almost as if a broken shard snapped back into place, a smidge of fog lifted from his aching mind.

At the same time, something flowed into his eyes. It wasn’t mana, nor blood. It was something more ethereal – almost like the thoughts and feelings he regularly shared with his familiar through their connection. If he had to put his finger on what it was… it was information… knowledge… ideas…

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‘Alright, I suppose this is the way to go.’

“Percy! Will you pause for a second and tell me what’s happening to you? You’re scaring me!” Nesha snapped at him, breaking him out of his thoughts.

“I’m sorry to worry you. Just hold on for a little longer. Whatever this is, I think I know how to fix it.” he said, not going into too much detail.

Next, he began casting his spells one after another. Grabbing some teal powder from the pot, he started with two of the easiest ones, spending the next half an hour forging a new scythe. He had no doubt that the weapon was laughably misshapen, but his Status didn’t seem to mind, recognizing the entries for both Reinforcement and the Soul Harvester.

Moving a trickle of pure mana into his sternum, he then began refilling his first core until Soul Conversion registered too.

The following part was a little trickier, because his clone had only registered the spell upgrade while they were separated. Digging into his memories was still quite painful, but Percy eventually managed to remember how Soul Stitching worked, using it to accelerate his soul’s recovery. As a bonus, using his Spectral Art lifted the fog off his Weaving trait too.

By now, Percy was doing a great deal better, graduating from feeling like somebody had cracked his skull open to feeling like somebody had… cracked his skull open… gently?

In any case, there was only one path forward, and it was to keep going until every word in his Status was back to normal.

‘Ok… Now for the toughest entries.’

Ironically, his only Crude spell was the hardest to reproduce. At the very least, Percy had no intention of creating a new familiar on the spot. Luckily, trying to pull up Micky’s Status seemed to do the trick, sparing him the trouble.

The next spell was his Phantomscale Gauntlet. The Status hadn’t registered the upgrade to the full-body armour yet – maybe because he hadn’t used it properly – which made his life a little easier. Still, reforging 54 pieces of his magical gauntlet was going to take days, and that’s if he wasn’t doing it blind. Fortunately, the first couple of components seemed to jog the broken Decree’s memory, saving him a great amount of time there as well.

‘That only leaves one entry… in the spell section, at least.’

Taking a few breaths, Percy directed the mana to both of his cores as he slowly activated his boosting art. As soon as the entire section was repaired, Percy’s headache died down greatly, allowing him to exhale in relief.

However, that only lasted a second, before another unexpected complication emerged.

His eyes – which were still burning as painfully as before – reacted to the new spell in a way they hadn’t during his previous attempts. A powerful attraction emanated from them, pulling a ridiculous amount of mana from Percy’s body, as a wave of vertigo now accompanied the pain, making him sick.

Percy wanted to deactivate Synchronization, but he didn’t dare too. Given how violently his eyes were devouring his mana, he was afraid he might seriously injure himself if he failed to meet their demands.

‘Oh well… I’m sure this will stop at some point.’ he shrugged. ‘What next?’

His spell and spectral trait sections were already back in order, which left his mana cores, his mutation, his bloodline, the alchemical principles and his Decrees. Some of that he hadn’t a clue how he was meant to fix. Still, some weren’t as complicated.

Activating Mana Sense, he scanned both of his cores, marvelling at their Orange lustre. He’d already used both of his affinities for his spells, so this last morsel of information was the final clue his Status needed to fix the first section.

Unfortunately, this trivial action introduced yet another problem.

‘Shit, now I can’t deactivate Mana Sense either.’

By now, he’d be a fool if he couldn’t recognize the pattern. The only two things he couldn’t deactivate were his Mana Sense and Synchronization. Or, more precisely, it was the passive Soul Vision afforded to him by his boosting art.

Percy already knew from Enki that the Alchemist’s Eye tended to passively incorporate Mana Sense into its features. Evidently, Percy’s version intended to go a step further down that route.

Whatever the reason was, the influx of information brought about by his sixth sense put a lot of strain on Percy’s already tired mind. He honestly had no idea how much longer he’d last like this.

Still, there was only one way forward, and it was to complete what he’d set out to do.

Gritting his teeth, he delved into his memories, trying to visualize the act of brewing an elixir. Naturally, he wanted to use that to repair the alchemic principles in his Status. It would have been better to actually brew an elixir than to rely merely on his imagination, but he didn’t have any nectar at hand, nor was he in any state to practice the delicate art at the moment.

It took several minutes, but the principles eventually snapped in place one after the other, each of them washing his mind in a soothing wave of relief, alleviating more and more of the crushing pressure.

Next was his bloodline…

‘Might as well then…’ he clicked his tongue.

Perhaps, he could repair Clone through his imagination alone, but there was something else the clone could help out with. In any case, the most recent crater in his stomach was already nearly healed – between Soul Stitching and Synchronization, his recovery speed had reached an all-time high.

Actually preparing the clone took a few more hours – especially with his eyes snatching a significant part of his mana. And naturally, Percy hated every second of it, wanting nothing more than for this shitty day to end. But he pulled through, eventually.

‘Alright… Only the Decrees left…’

Scanning the final section, he was positively surprised to see that most of the Decrees had snapped back in place too. Between his discovery of his second core, as well as his use of both his bloodline and his Status, only two remained.

Metatron’s and Ea’s.

Wanting to leave his latest acquisition for last, Percy then waited for his clone to return. It didn’t take that long, as he’d already instructed him to jump into the first body he found, open a portal to the Vault, and then rush right back to Remior without entering it.

And soon, the clone did come back, informing him of his success as the fourth Decree revealed itself within his Status.

‘Only the final touch is left…’

Percy had done everything on a whim, but he was confident his efforts to manually rebuild his Status one entry at a time had helped. At least, his dulled headache seemed to corroborate that guess.

“Nesha.”

“Hmmm?”

“Wish me luck.”

The girl didn’t say anything, but she grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly.

With only one last step before him, Percy then tugged at the new window in his mind, calling upon Ea’s Gift. No second tab opened, but the new Decree still responded to his thoughts, as it finally melted wholeheartedly into his Status, relieving him of the last traces of pain, as the words settled in front of him.

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• [Ea’s Decree (Modified)] – Augments and enhances your Status. Grants the Sorcerer’s Eye.

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