"I can't believe you can do this without material or experience point cost."

 

 

 

 

 

An exhausted Miriam had finished the long casting time of her most broken of powers, Mirror Duplication. It could make a copy of any living thing, and a fair number of non-living things as well. Normally casting such a spell costs several thousand gold pieces and a matching amount of experience, but Mirror Imps could cast it as many times as they wanted for free. They still needed to spend hours activating the power, but in theory, they could make an army out of anyone, given enough time.

 

There were limitations, of course.

 

First, the Mirror imp's 'hit dice' had to be at a higher level than the target. Hit dice were a monster's equivalent to a level, but interacted weirdly rules-wise when you make a creature with hit dice into a familiar, which technically has levels.

Andrew always likes it when rules get weird.

Second, you needed a sample of the target. This had to be a physical sample, but not much. It had to be cut from the target by the caster. This meant you couldn't just make a copy of someone from the hair found on a random comb. Hair and finger nails were popular, but in a pinch, you could slash someone then use the blood on the knife. Oddly enough, bludgeoning weapons and stabbing weapons didn't work. You had to slash the target for blood to work.

Side note, a mirror imp's poisoned tail counts as slashing and stabbing, depending on how the imp chooses to use it. Now you understand why they come with sleep poison.

Third, the result could only be half the level of the original, rounding up. This usually meant the mirror duplicate only had half the knowledge of the original. So if you thought you could make a copy then ask your new friend to cough up a password or other important info. You had a fifty fifty chance of it failing.

 Fourth, the duplicate often had many aspects reversed in comparison to the original. Right-handed became left-handed. When they wrote anything the words were always backwards. They also tended to have personality traits reversed, but not predictably. It wouldn't reverse the target's alignment, mind you. Good was still good. More like, if you like chocolate, the duplicate would like vanilla. Otherwise, a mirror duplicate is usually good enough to fool most people, even if they only have half the memories. Often close friends and family members would notice something was wrong, but your mileage may vary. After all, one does not usually jump to the conclusion their friend who vanished for a day was replaced by a pod person.

Finally, the result is the creator's loyal servant, but when created by a familiar, that loyalty is also given to the master. Note, the loyalty isn't absolute. There are stories of abused duplicates turning on their creators, but that usually happens after years of existance. Most duplicates are undone before that has a chance to happen.

 

Thus Andrew's solution to his strange stats was to send in a copy of himself that was third level, not fifth, and make the duplicate with only have half of his level penalties, thus only one bloodline.

 

---

 

As the duplicate put its hand on the crystal, a large status window appeared in front of the old man. He let out a low whistle, then a 'huh'.

 

"Problem?" Andrew looked concerned.

 

The old man pointed, "Well, it's not often you see someone with titan blood. It's fairly strong, but many generations removed as well." He pointed elsewhere, "But Arcane Psychic, Divine Librarian, and Divine Mind?" he scratched his head, "Never seen those classes before, but I get the gist of it." he looked at Andrew, "Why such a crappy combination, lad?"

 

Andrew pointed at his chest with his thumb, "I've always had an affinity for both arcane and divine magic, thanks to my several generations removed great-grandmother. It seemed a shame to not attempt to become a sage." He nodded while looking proud, "Thanks to that I can take divine mind two levels before most, so it's not THAT bad of a choice. I'll only be a level behind on both." He shrugged, "Still until I get MUCH higher in level, I'll be stuck doing support."

 

The old man frowned and hobbled into the back room. He came back out and looked at a page of parchment, "It says here you are fifth level."

 

Andrew nodded, "Ah. For some reason, they didn't quite understand my penalty level for dying. Until I can earn enough experience, I'm down a class level AND have a penalty level." He held up two fists and bashed them against each other, "They cancel each other out."

 

The old man frowned deeper, "You died?"

 

Miriam nodded, "He got better."

 

The receptionist eyed the letter from the gate then crumpled it up, "Why do they insist on using such a cheap knockoff of a status reader?" He tossed the paper over his shoulder without looking. It flew all the way to the other side of the back room and landed in a wastebasket.

 

Nothing but net.

 

Andrew swallowed nervously as he realized the old man was a lot more skilled than he appeared, "Ah. Well... So... What next?"

 

The old man reached under the counter and tossed an iron plate on the counter, "Here's yer card. One silver." He held out his hand in the universal gesture for 'gimmie'.

 

Andrew raised an eyebrow and handed him a silver, "Uhh.... that's it?" He asked as he picked up his card.

 

The old man bit down on the coin, then tossed it in a drawer under the counter, "That's it. Yer iron-rank. If you pay a silver for your card, anyone can be an iron-rank. Nobody gives a shit about iron-ranks. Job postings are over on the wall. Don't ask me to read for you. If you can't, some iron-ranks hang around the board that can read. They charge a copper."

 

Andrew blinked, looked at his card, then shrugged, "Uhhh... thanks? I guess?"

 

"Don't get killed." The old man muttered as he turned away.

 

Andrew turned away as well but stopped as something occurred to him. He turned back, "One thing... I have the WORST luck." He reached into his pocket and pulled out another silver coin. He glanced around to make sure nobody was watching before leaning in, "Just for my peace of mind..."

 

 

 

 

 

"How much for an extra copy of my guild card?"

 

---

 

Andrew looked at the card that he got from his copy, "Huh. Two? Why?"

 

The duplicate looked around, "Uhh... there's two of us."

 

Andrew nodded, "And there's about to be one." He looked at Miriam, "Dispel him."

 

Miriam and his duplicate looked shocked, "WHAT?" they spoke in unison.

Miriam got in Andrew's face, "After all the effort I put into making him? This is not something I did on a whim! It was a major pain in the ass!" She poked Andrew in the chest, "Have YOU ever tried to focus on ONE THING for ELEVEN HOURS STRAIGHT???" She tapped the side of her head, "I STILL have a migraine!"

 

The copy looked at Miriam, "Thanks for pointing out of how much my death would mildly inconvenience you."

 

Andrew rolled his eyes, "One, you can't level or gain experience. Anything you do is a waste of time. You can't craft magic items without experience. You can't heal if you are damaged. If anyone kills you, you will disappear as a puddle of evaporating quicksilver. You are a major liability! I plan to LEAVE TOWN. How are you going to come with me?"

 

The copy mirrored Andrew by rolling his eyes in the other direction, "I know you are going to leave town! I'm YOU, remember?" He shook his head, "However, you'll come back someday, right?" He pointed at Miriam, "What if she makes a copy of herself? I can cast minor repairs to put us back together if we get injured, although it would be VERY slow. We'll hang out here because people will think it's strange if we bolt after showing up, and while we are here, we do those iron-level quests. I took a look at them. It's herb gathering, handyman crap." He held up a finger, "PLUS... we can hang around the guild handing out cheap healing." He rubbed his fingers together as he nodded slowly.

 

The copy pointed at himself, "We can slowly build up a base of operations for when you come back into town."

 

Miriam pointed at herself, "I can't duplicate myself because I have to be at a higher level than the target. I'm the same level as myself."

 

Both Andrew and the copy spoke in unison, "False Soul."

 

Miriam frowned, "What?"

 

"It's a psychic power that allows the caster to raise their level to three above base for the purposes of spell casting or manifesting psychic powers. I can share any spell or power I use on myself with my familiar. If we want you to duplicate yourself you'll have to cast for 18 hours straight, so I'll have to cast it on you... err... nineteen times? Yeah. that should be enough." Andrew thought a bit more, "second level power... that would be... carry the two..." He snapped his fingers, "Fifty-seven? Yeah. I could pull that off."

 

"Are you INSANE? I'm going to feel like CRAP!" Miriam looked quite annoyed.

 

Andrew rolled his eyes, "You're the one arguing for NOT returning him to the ether! If he's going to stay, he's going to need a copy of you as well."

 

Andrew's copy raised a finger, "And after I get some money going, I can skip the whole guild thing and go straight to just doing alchemy." He rolled forward to balance on his toes, "Ya don't need experience points to make skill checks." He rolled back to his heels with a grin.

 

Andrew pointed at his copy, "I like how we're thinking!" He paused, "I thought we'd hate ourselves more."

 

The copy shook his head, "Yeah I was worried about that too, but deep down I know that I'm the only one who could ever stand me, so why stand in the way of my own success?" He shrugged, "What's the point of being jealous? The only thing to worry about is that my version of our life will someday be lost."

 

Andrew scratched his chin, "You know... we could-"

 

The copy held up his hands, "I don't know if we should try Gestalt. I know the side effect of what happens if one of us dies while using it, so maybe if Miriam ends my existence while we gestalt we'll merge, but seriously, that's a high-level power. We're trying to NOT attract attention, remember?"

 

Andrew nodded and scratched his chin, "Right. We'll burn that bridge when we come to it. Maybe we can use a-"

 

Miriam rubbed her eyes and sighed heavily, "FINE! I suppose I can do this ONE MORE TIME... assuming that you realize that if the guilds talk to one another, they're gonna start to wonder how you are taking jobs in more than one city at the same time."

 

Andrew shook his head, "I'm planning on doing most of my level grinding off the grid. Besides, we need to find an artificer. I need one to train me for my next level."

 

Miriam blinked, "Wait... another base class?"

 

Andrew nodded, "I want to be able to craft things. IMPRESSIVE things. One level of artificer will give me access to custom magic items and there are some things I need to make to get my build rocking." He leveled a finger at Miriam, "And I would like to point out that when I gave you those bloodlines, you lost six levels to penalties. I need a level of Artificer to get you up over twentieth level so you can have access to the Titan capstone."

 

"Uhhh... and what's that?"

 

"Wield Maul. You can use any type of hammer."

 

Miriam raised an eyebrow, "Uhh... so what?"

 

"ANY. HAMMER. Regardless of SIZE." He grinned, "ONE HANDED." He grinned more, "DUAL WIELD TREES SHAPED LIKE HAMMERS."

 

Miriam looked at Andrew like he was insane, "what?"

 

Andrew nodded energetically, "Why do you think I gave you the dual-wielding feature? Yeah, your strength is horrible, but if you are swinging ten-foot-long tree trunks with boulders on the end, it won't matter, now will it?"

 

"How Am I Supposed TO CARRY THEM???"

 

"Bah. The power allows you to wield them, so the weight doesn't matter while you hold them. They only have weight when you let them go. So I'll need to craft you magical gloves of weapon storing so you can put them away without getting crushed under the weight of your weapons," Andrew explained with a dismissive wave. "RELAX, I got it all worked out. I wrote an encyclopedia of handbooks, like, a hundred and twelve. I was getting down to every advanced class and last on my list was a handbook for each individual monster when I got yanked here. I got like... eighty percent of everything covered. The last twenty doesn't matter much."

 

Miriam blinked a few times while staring at Andrew, "And I thought the devils in Hell were nasty." She pointed at her partner, "You scare me."

 

Andrew snorted, "Seriously? Me? I'm not a bad guy. I just know the rules better than anyone." He shrugged, "Anyrate, let's get some sleep. We've got a long day ahead of us."

 

 

Miriam sighed and moved inside her familiar pocket while muttering under her breath, "Well trust me..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"You'd have fit right in back home."