[{Cloner}: Create a clone of yourself, carrying the same skills and attributes of the original copy. All experience gained, whether skill or class related, will transfer on cancellation or death of the clone.

Cost per clone: Halve mana capacity, physical(Stamina) upkeep.]

[{Mana Null}: You can not possess mana]

Alex brought the page up again, the brief elation and anger that he could muster for the Gift and the Curse had long withered away. Being worked up because of something he couldn't possibly control was not useful.

Still, couldn't mother Mercy have sent him a clean gem from her rock up there in her heaven? He thought that the giant planet occupying the horizon would respond to his plea but it stayed ever steady in the sky, the sole protector of humanity from the evil of her brother red planet Skorn.

He was thinking of this too much, gods or not, he should not be hoping for a miracle to happen, the last time he had done that his father turned out to be dead. It's better to just move on and work on what you have.

First off, he can't use mana skills, so he should forget ever getting into the Mages guild or getting a mana related class, the problem with that is that almost every skill used mana, only passives didn't use mana considering they have no upkeep.

That's what the priest told him with those eyes filled with pity.

Alex stopped himself from becoming angry. It was natural to pity the unfortunate, just a natural reaction.

Ok, back on track. Second, though he hadn't told Father Orkon about his {Cloner} ability, he still inferred that it was probably a really really powerful Gift. If it wasn't coupled with {Mana Null}.

Nonetheless, {Cloner} would carry him through his journey regardless of the curse.

And third and the most important point was that he could stay with his mother now. His original plan was to go out at night and try to get lucky enough to hire a caretaker permanently, but that would have led to a lot of sleepless nights and would limit him if anything happened to his mother while he was away.

Now though? He would earn experience and coin at his mother's side.

"It isn't all that bad isn't it mom?" He said and smiled. He removed his eyes from the two deities in the sky and put the rough curtain back on the window.

He quietly moved the stools back into their position at the back wall and looked around the room for anything to clean.

As always it was neat and organised, she liked it that way. Satisfied he plopped down on the blankets on the ground besides his mother's own bed and instantly fell asleep, it was an exhausting day after all.

~~~~~

His father's room was barren, with the light Genesis - the morning sun - highlighting the sheer lack of anything personal. Alex loathed using his father's room since his passing, yet he knew that the man wouldn't have cared and would have encouraged it considering he wished to use it to train.

He chuckled, his Dad always wanted him to continue in his footsteps.

Anyhow, this was the only room in his small home that wasn't open to the outside apart from the skylight. Perfect for someone wishing to keep a secret.

Alex sat down on the ground and went into a similar state as he had done yesterday. According to Father Orkon, if he considered the page as a limb like his arm, Gifts and Skills were like the fingers of said arm.

So if he just stretches that metaphorical limb...he should be able...to get it...

"Come on…" He pushed his sixth sense or whatever its fucking called trying to. Just. Pull. A. Finger.

A cracking sound echoed through the room, Alex immediately opened his eyes to witness as two shadow hands came out of his stomach. He watched with a wide mouth as the ghost hands grappled into his abdomen then pulled with a feather light touch to reveal a head.

A head was coming out of his stomach. Fighting the urge to scream, he continued watching as the shadow hands pulled out a whole body that now stood in front of him.

'It' looked like him, the shadow creature had transformed itself to look like him! His back was already against the wall and he was afraid of now making a run for it, except his mom was going to be in danger if he left.

He, no, the creature raised its head and regarded him with a raised brow at him.

Calm down Alex, I'm not going to eat you nor will I hurt mom ok?" The thing said, as it scratched its auburn hair. It was also naked. Even his private parts and the beauty mark on his left thigh matched.

"You can speak?!" Alex said, as he allowed himself some space from the wall. His heart was still beating fast from the scare.

"I'm you, well I'm a perfect copy of you. I've got all the things you have and all the speaky bits." The clone laughed. "And before you get to thinking, you are not me. You are special, I'm not, even if we are the same in every conceivable way."

"If you are me, how do you know that?" Alex said, finally curious enough to get close and inspect every inch of the clone. The embarrassment he would have expected feeling was not there, because he was clearly looking at his body. He was looking at himself.

"I just know it, don't tell me how, I don't know why." The clone said before looking at the rack of wooden training rapier his dad had. "Now are we going to train or do you want to keep checking yourself out?"

"Sorry, it's just weird to hear my own voice, it doesn't match my internal hearing." Alex scratched his stubble and sat down on the ground again. "Let me test out the limit of clones I can make."

The second time around the shadowy clone took only a couple of seconds to exit his body, and now he had two of himself in front of him. Of course, they started to inspect each with curiosity, naked.

Gods he was grateful for the lack of windows in this room.

Other than the weird interplay happening between the clones, he felt slightly winded like he had run for a couple minutes. It was slightly odd since even after a minute he didn't feel any better.

Shrugging that off, he made the third clone and got himself a feeling of burning. It's like he ran from the north gate to the south gate, thrice. His leg bone was hurting, his toes were on fire and he started spontaneously sweating.

Alex couldn't even get enough air to his lungs to feel comfortable.

"Alex, I feel a bit winded. It seems like I took your former physical state." The third clone said.

"Alright yeah I don't think that's going to be a problem, this tiredness is just too much." Alex said while he forced a sentence in the book to appear.

[Class: Unformed / Physical Status: Exhausted / Magical Status: Null.]

Alright, he definitely will not use more than two clones right now. It felt horrible every second that passed, especially when it continued without going away.

"Well, just cancel me Alex, the other two will fulfill what you want to do." The third clone said, and Alex nodded to him as he focused on twitching the fingers of his metaphorical arm.

The clone turned to smoke and merged with his stomach. Alex sighed, glad to not experience that again. He checked his status again.

[Class: Unformed / Physical Status: Slightly Winded / Magical Status: Null.]

"Boss, I think we had enough fun checking each other out, why don't we start training." The first clone said and the other one nodded.

"Yeah, just remember what we want to get. [Physical Conditioning] is one of the few easily accessible general skills a warrior needs according to Father Orkan." Alex said while heading towards the door. "Once you get that skill, get the [Swordsmanship] skill. Then alternate between training the two."

"Don't worry boss, you can trust in yourself a bit more." The first clone said and the other chuckled.

Alex shook his head and exited the room, he needed to prepare some necessities for his mother before he would need to visit Doctor Wo for new medicines.

While simultaneously gaining experience.

Alex smiled and refrained from saying anything to jinx himself.