Chapter 4: ~Stranded In The Open~

====Status====

Name: Damon Darkfell

Race: Human

Age: 18

Title : Third prince of the Darkfell empire.

Rank : Eta-

Strength : Eta-

Agility : Eta

Stamina : Eta-

Aether capacity : Eta

Luck : Delta-

Charm : Alpha

Techniques: Aether reinforcement (Advanced), Darkfell royal sword style (Expert), Mirage steps (Advanced).

Unique physique : Nexus prism physique (Omega rank.)

– initial ability: One of many [Create reflections of yourself to confuse foes. The strength of your reflection depends on the amount of Aether spent. You can seamlessly swap places with any of your reflections.]

“…..” My jaw hung in awe for a few seconds.

I had done it, I had succeeded. And considering the change in my unique physique, and my rank which had jumped an entire major realm, I’d say I had gotten more than I was hoping for.

At least now, I’ve gained the qualifications to stand on the same level as the main cast, maybe even surpass most of them.

I slowly got on my feet while observing myself. Contrary to the nerve wrecking exhaustion I had felt earlier, my body now felt both exhausted, and surprisingly light. It was as if my entire body had been destroyed, then meticulously restructured.

My previous fit frame, had become even more toned with lean but powerful muscles.

I walked away from the altar to a nearby pillar with wobbly feet. Though it wasn’t from weakness or anything. Instead, it was more like my mind hadn’t fully become accustomed to my restructured body.

I didn’t know the amount of time I had spent unconscious, but damn, I was hungry as hell.

Taking out some bread and cake from my storage ring, I hurriedly dug in. It took me eating a meal for three before I was satisfied.

After resting up a bit, I decided to finally check the amount of time I had spent unconscious.

According to my watch, close to twelve hours had passed. I then decided to check on my new progress.

The power system in Nahaar was comprised of 9 ranks.

It starts with Kappa, followed by Eta, Theta, Zeta, Gamma, Delta, Beta, Alpha, and finally, Omega.

Each of these ranks is further divided into, minus, neutral, and plus.

Before drinking from the chalice, I was still a Kappa- ranked aetherial. But now, I was an Eta- ranked aetherial. I had jumped an entire major rank.

I could feel a surge of strength coursing through my veins, surging from the Aether core in my heart, to my whole body.

I was itching to get a feel for my new capabilities, maybe even try out my new ability. But I was experiencing some nasty stomach cramps for having eating too much, so it’ll have to wait.

~A few hours later~

“Bloody hell!” I stared at myself–no myselves in disbelief.

Alright, about twenty minutes ago, I tried to guage my abilities.

First, I tried getting used to my new strength. I started with some basic exercises, and then a full blown sprint around the hall. It was as if I had been reborn. I was stronger, faster, and more flexible than before. At the very least, I could easily beat the fastest man on earth record by a high–diff without breaking a sweat.

After some more flexing, I even decided to try some of the fighting techniques Damon had learned.

In Nahaar, techniques were classified into six grades. Unranked, Common, Uncommon, Rare, Royal, and Immortal.

Common was the lowest, and Immortal was the highest. The higher the grade, the more powerful the technique was. And of course the higher graded techniques were hoarded by the prestigious families.

For common people, getting a technique higher than Rare grade was nigh impossible. But of course I was out of the equation.

Darkfell royal sword style, the technique I started with, was an immortal grade technique. It was a sword style that focused on speed and lethality.

Wielding my sword with familiarity that wasn’t mine, I was able to pull off all it’s moves, but something felt quite lacking. I reckon I would need to train more to become more in sync with it.

Mirage steps, was a royal grade technique. It was created to support the Darkfell royal sword style. The user is able to move like a mirage, or perhaps a spectre. It mainly increases the user’s speed, and masks their footwork.

I pulled this one off quite well.

Aether reinforcement however, was a rather standard Unranked grade technique. Unranked techniques unlike the other graded techniques is mainly dependent on the user.

It could be as strong as an immortal grade, or as weak as a common grade technique depending on how proficient the user was in using it.

Aether reinforcement was simply all about using Aether to enhance your body’s capabilities, and even your weapons.

When I activated the technique, a soothing trickle of Aether started bleeding from my core, and then spread into my muscles, bones, and finally, my skin.

“Am I…high?!” I muttered in disbelief. If feeling like I was at the top of the world counts as me being high, then yes, I was high.

After having enough of the adrenaline rush, I stopped the technique.

Trying out my [One of many] ability however, that’s where things got real creepy.

The moment I tried activating ’one of many’, I suddenly felt a significant drain of my Aether.

Then something separated itself from my body, like an unseen phantom.

Which brings us to the current situation.

“Bloody hell!” I exclaimed.

A perfect replica of myself was standing right in front of me. But that wasn’t even the main reason I had exclaimed.

I mean, come on, clones were decent, but they weren’t even a cool superpower at this point.

Sure it was enough to awe me, but not enough to make me lose my shit.

The main reason I had exclaimed, was because I was seeing two of me– literally.

I was seeing the reflection, but I was also seeing my own body from the reflection’s point of view.

“This shit is weird!” I muttered, or at least tried to. The words came out from the reflection.

“You just talked!” Both of me shouted, each taking a step back.

“No I did not!” We both exclaimed.

“You just did it again!” We pointed at each other in accusation.

’Okay calm down Damon, there’s probably an explanation for this.’ I thought to myself

It wasnt until a few minutes later, that I figured out the reflection wasn’t a clone, or an automaton. Quite the opposite actually.

I was the reflection, and the reflection was me. We could share visions, and other senses in real time. It was like having multiple screens, and one decoder.

Not that I haven’t seen or rather, read about this type of ability in other novels before. But experiencing it myself was an entirely different matter.

I concentrated deeper on our connection, and tried a basic communication between myself. I would speak, and then answer myself with my reflection.

After some time, I had gotten the hang of it.

’But what if…. I made another one?’ The thought came up, and refused to go. So I gave in.

I activated ’one of many’ and once again lost another significant amount of Aether. By my estimates, around 10% or so.

Another unseen phantom separated from my body, and once again, a new me took form.

“HOLY SHIT!” The three of me exclaimed in disbelief.

I now had three point of views.

My mind felt different. It wasn’t taxing or anything, more like expanded. It made sense since I wasn’t used to seeing with three different pairs of eyes at the same time.

Like before, I tried communicating with three of me, but unfortunately, it wasn’t quite as smooth as I was expecting.

Most of the times, when I wanted to answer my main body with the first reflection I created, I instead responded with the second. And sometimes, the response even comes from my main body itself.

I kept practicing for the next few hours, before I began to see some improvements. But I knew it’ll take a lot more than a few hours for me to be able to Pilot each of my bodies simultaneously, not to talk of even using them in combat.

“So how should I go about this?” I thought out loud.

After some thought, I decided to stay on the island for the rest of the week. I needed to get in tune with my ability, and considering I still had a few weeks before the academy starts, I figured I could use some time to train.

Besides, I had enough food and water to last me a month more.

“It’s going to be such a pain, but I love it.”

Deciding so, I continued to tamper with my abilities.

*********

The week passed by in a flash, at least to me. Maybe due to the fact that I was training most of the time.

The time I wasn’t training, I was either eating or sleeping.

Throughout the week, I had experimented in many ways, with my ability. I was now able to seamlessly communicate using my reflections, without any error .

I had also found out how many reflections I could make, and how long they lasted.

I could make nine reflections in total, with each taking about 10% of my total reserves. If I tried to form them with less than 10% of my total Aether, it wouldn’t work.

Just like it was in the description, their strength depended on the amount of Aether I used in making them. For reference, since I could make a regular reflection with ten percent of my total Aether, I could increase the amount of Aether to use on it’s creation to like twenty percent. Which would increase it’s strength by a small margin.

And also, the regular reflections each had about 20% percent of my strength.

As for how long they last? Well, they last until they use up the aether used to create them, or I personally dispel them, or they get destroyed with a fatal hit.

I found out they could be destroyed due to a particularly embarrassing moment. It was two days ago, seeing as I could seamlessly communicate with all my nine reflections, I thought, ’What will it be like if I try to fight myself?’

Turns out, when you have four bodies and a hive mind, fighting against yourself was one of the stupidest way to train your control.

Calling the sight embarrassing, would be quite the understatement. I almost ended up screwing my main body. And I would have, if not for being able to instantly swap places with the reflections.

The reflection I had swapped with, burst into shards of lights with a soft crack.

Even though, I would say I had achieved a lot in this one week. I’m now able to simultaneously control my nine reflections, and slowly but surely adapting to having ten pov’s. Imagine being able to steer ten different trains of thoughts, with each on a different track.

Though, I also got to thinking. How many reflections would I eventually be able to make as my Aether capacity grows? Hundreds?, Thousands?

Man, omega ranked physiques were overpowered. In fact, I had half the thought to stay and train further, but I shooed those thoughts away.

It was enough for now. It was time for me to leave this island.

After making sure I had packed everything and had kept all my stuff in my storage ring, I exited the hall and made my way to the coast.

Thankfully with my ’See me no more’ ring, every low ranked beast steered clear of me, and I hadn’t had the misfortune of running into a high ranked beast during my time here.

In less than three hours, I reached the beach, but what I saw made me feel like cursing whoever the fuck it was that sent me to this world. Not that I’m not cursing them already.

The beach looked like a hurricane had pass through, and my boat, the beautiful boat I had brought for five entire silvers was broken to rubble.

My only ticket out of this place had been destroyed. Leaving me stranded in the open, that too on a dreadful island, with no way home.

“Bloody hell.” I silently cursed.

***********

A/N: Well, here we go. If you like my story, support it with power stones, and leave a review. I’m open to suggestions.

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