-Tabitha Booth-

It was weird to find out that Robert got wrapped into another quest with Mita and Ras involved this time, somehow causing Historie Pastoria Sweets to mysteriously get two new sweet tooths in the process. Doubly weird to be the one to find out who they were when out of the blue I got a text for myself, or rather my alt-rhi that just happened to be a new impostor spellman at Nierelf. I mean wow, Nierelf? The super fancy university that not even Minerva was able to get into? I guess it only made sense they had a spellman campus like the Goltinium Guild, they were of similar size and prestige when you thought about it. I mean another me and another Wes: Tabbi Booth Beta and Wesley Chaput Beta. 

“So there is another you and another Wes huh?” asked Mr. Emrics as he cleaved through sugar-glossed felpixie with his greatsword, cutting the oversized demonic pixie of a rogue monster in two. Rogue monster extermination was tedious but it did make for a quick buck and easy access to a variety of materials. I hated having to deal with black licorice orthruses though, that rogue monster magnet Aux core set up here in Black Market Imports is both a blessing and a curse if you ask me.

“Yeah, we’ve been exchanging texts. I’ve been stuck being feeding Robert and the others information for the past three days now,” I replied, launching a handful of sugar shivs at a group of sugar eaters while Vertrala in his energy-saving form belted out tiny dragon breaths in covering fire.

“That must be interesting, talking with someone that you but not you,” pointed out Mrs. Emrics as she held point with a shotgun-toting Penobscot sweet tooth, making sure that we didn’t get ambushed. You had to hand it to these Penobscot among the sweet tooths, all their ex-cultist natures did blend surprisingly well with their heritage in terms of spellcraft: they all were great with a variety of weaponry on top of true magic. I wish I had that much skill with true magic.

“If you bothered to train with me, you would,” quipped Scalugon the Last from the back of my head.

“One, I don’t like your dark monster true magic, and two, shouldn’t you be helping out Margaret right now?” I sniped back before looking at Mrs. Emrics and replying to her, “Interesting is one way to put it, but it definitely is pretty cool.” It was amazing to thing I had a doppelgänger, but I still couldn’t help but be a little bit envious: the other me, Tabbi, was tier 4.3 and an impostor spellman with a near identical portfolio of mandalas from the looks it, which totally outweighed the fact she was a partial-magi-sentient.

“Tabitha, it is time for you to head back to Final Cut Caketopia,” audibly commented Sal, disrupting the conversation. Looking at my phone, I saw I was actually running late.

“Well we won’t hold you back, you better hurry up now,” commented Mrs. Emric as I quickly excused myself and dashed to the nearest teleportation pad to head back to the apartment block. Hurrying over, Sal quickly filled me in on the fact that Louella and Robert were already waiting and that we would only be meeting with three spellmen: the other me, the other Wes, and a chick named Tiffany Monet. Racking my head and looking through my texts with my other self, I found a picture of her: dark skin, braided deep brunette hair, painted splattered-casual clothing, and surprisingly royalty. I can’t believe Tabbi is hanging out with royals, talk about a step up, I thought to myself with a grin.

“Did you seriously have to be late?” asked Robert, already summoned in his spirit form and standing next to his real body, as I entered the park that made up the open air center of the apartment block.

“Sorry, I was busy delving and lost track of time,” I dismissively replied: it wasn’t exactly like I was needed for this, but then again I wouldn’t want to miss it either.

“It’s fine, the others haven’t arrived yet,” reassured Louella as she glanced over to Robert.

“No Ras or Mita? Or Sous or Umi?”

“They are all busy, and we don’t expect things to go poorly. We are only dealing with you and Wes, plus someone I know is an amiable person.”

“You know Tiffany?” I asked with a raised brow, remembering that Louella was from this universe group but not exactly where.

“Yes and no. The world I’m from, Mugin, is part of the superworld of Oonn, where Tiffany is from. Her homeworld, Fairtalsia, is relatively close to my own so news is shared to a degree,” explained the noblewoman of spellman casually before pausing. But before she could continue, the other me walked in with Wesley and Tiffany. Staring at the other me and noticing how alike she was, same physique and everything except for her hair being a few shades more orange, I couldn’t help myself but say,

“Wow, this is trippy…” 

“I know, it’s like looking into a mirror,” replied the other me, causing my spirits to stir inside of their personal spaces, probably noticing their counterparts. 

“Except my reflection has hair a few shades more orange.” It was weird to see me and Wes with more ginger hair, but I can’t say it didn’t look bad on either of us.

“And are spellmen, seriously what is it us with spellmen? First the Goltinium Spellman Nine and their friends, then all the other spellmen delvers, now you guys,” complained Robert as he rubbed his mask of a face. 

“The Enigma does attract a lot of spellmen doesn’t it?” half-agreed half-asked Aiden from the back of my head.

“Yeah, but it’s not like that’s a bad thing like Robert is always complaining about,” I telepathically replied, honestly glad we had access to so many cool spellmen who were willing to help out and not trying to take over. And now we had the chance to have even more helping out with Tabbi and Wesley and the rest of their house.

“It’s not our fault we were made, blame Nierelf. Besides both me and Tabbi are impostor spellmen, not real ones like Tiffany here,” replied Wesley with a sigh as he eyed the small crowd of fellow sweet tooths watching us from the upper floor’s balcony, all keeping their distance so they wouldn’t accidentally get hit by info-karmic retribution from listening in.

“I’m surprised Nierelf tried to enroll you two, I would have expected the Goltinium Guild,” mused Louella aloud as small things of elemental lightning crackling across her platinum hair. “But that does make things easier.”

“How so?” piped up Tiffany finally, staring at the spirit form of Robert with a hint of inspiration in her eyes as she painted away on a mini-floating canvas that she pulled out a personal subdimension while everyone else was talking.

“Like with all places of learning, they have exchange campuses, essentially twin campuses that share the same bubble-space. The Goltinium Guild and Nierelf share two sets of them.”

“I see, so you can easily help us out.”

“In some ways, but I don’t think that's why you three are here,” pointed out Louella, giving the other me a chance to explain everything that happened so far to them. Even with the fact he had a mask for a face right now, I could tell that Robert wasn’t liking the fact he potentially had twenty-four spellmen to deal with now that Tabbi and Wesley were around. But at least he gave them information about the Interconnection that he and others were getting for an Enigma called Poor Gambler’s Sinchance on the Endless Strip: that meant at least one new resort and an apartment block or two. Total jackpot for all of us and opened up a lot new avenues on top of the shortcut it would be giving Sugar Hills to Las Vegas and vice versa. I wonder if we going to end up getting any new sweet tooths from the Endless Strip or if it is just going to be Tabbi and Wesley, I thought to myself as I watched the other me to do some noticeable thinking, probably figuring out the logistics of travelling back and forth from here and Nierelf.

“Geez, twenty-four of you, and that’s all you got on them?” asked Robert as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“It has only been half a week, you can’t expect me to know everyone’s styles of spellcraft already,” Tabbi retorted before sarcastically suggesting, “If you want I can just have everyone come by, I mean we’ve already been told to think carefully about whether we want to be public or secret about our spellman nature, but you guys can keep a secret can’t you?” 

“God no! Please, just don’t. I’m fine with you guys delving here and I guess also renting out some apartments when I get them set up on the Endless Strip, but I don’t want to deal with spellmen, or honestly any other type of pinnacles of mages, more than I have to.”

“Even other blackzone managers?” inquired Tiffany with a slightly tilted head and she continued to casually paint: for a royal, it was really to notice she actually was one with how nonchalant she was about things and her paint-stained clothing.

“They are an exception, to an extent.”

“You really don’t like dealing with pinnacles of mages do you?”

“Like that wasn’t obvious, he can’t stand their manalogical aura,” pointed out Wesley, only to have Robert grumble in agreement. 

With everything out of the way and some plans set up, Louella and Robert pardoned themselves and went back to Robert’s penthouse at the top of the tower while Wesley decided to give Tiffany a tour of the Enigma, leaving me with my other self. And since neither of us wanted to stick around in the central park of the apartment block, the two of us decided to take a break in my apartment. It felt so weird having two of me in my apartment, but it was also cool at the same time.

“So you really do have all the same spirits as me? Even Vertrala?” I asked the other me, getting us a pair of soda-potions from the fridge while she went to sit down on the pink plush sofa.

“Yup, all of them, Sal too,” she replied, summoning Vertrala in his miniature form as proof.

“Indeed, now you can bask in my glory twice as much,” instantly quipped the dragon fruit of a dragon.

“I’d rather not, one Vertrala is enough for me,” countered I, summoning her own Vertrala to distract hers with. Sitting down next to me and handing her an orange creamsicle flavored orange mana soda-mana potion, I asked, “What about Vertrala Incarnate, you said over text that you don’t have it anymore.”

“Yeah… I have something called Twin Made Dragon Incarnate. I don’t have the legacy for Obscuring Mode or Adventure Mode anymore, so no dragon arm prohestic, and instead of the synthesis mandala having two attunements for Vertrala, the second one is for Scalugon the Last,” Tabbi explained, taking out her phone to show me a picture of a diagram for the budget Grand Key’s mandala formula.

“That’s actually pretty cool.”

“It is, but I haven’t gotten time to really test it out, still getting used to being an impostor spellman and you know, not a lot of places where you can just casually summon an entire dragon.”

“Haha, yeah, one of the many perks of living here. A lot of open space.” 

“Robert better make that new apartment block soon, cause I don’t think I’m going to handle living on campus.”

“You’re telling me, I hate all the commuting back and forth for CSN. At least having all the options for online classes for Borolio of the Plague Clouds is nice.”

“I know, those classes were nice,” she agreed as she stretched herself out a bit. Must be nice to be going to such a fancy university now.

“Anyway, if you want me to, I can keep you updated on how things are progressing here, but only if you give me updates on what you’re doing. I can’t miss out on the adventures of spellman me,” I suggested with a short laugh before taking a sip out of my soda-potion.

“Impostor spellman you, and deal.”