The first thing Lone did before leaving was slit his wrists again to collect some more of his blood. He didn't stop until he had ten litres of the stuff. He didn't want to use the blood he had set aside for his True Contract Magic so that's why he'd opted to just create a new supply.

'I wonder how normal people prepare for Blood Clone? Not everyone has the cheat that is Basic Regeneration to fill them back up with a passive infinite amount of blood,' Lone remarked mentally.

He was pretty happy Basic Regeneration didn't need any sustenance from him to work. He didn't really care where the energy needed for the skill came from so long as it didn't force him to eat mountains of food for each battle or experiment.

After sealing his spare buckets with wooden lids, Lone made sure to stop by Breena's room before leaving to let her know where to find him if she needed him.

With that done, he left the Rusty Sprocket. Lone's pair of five litre wooden buckets got him more odd looks than was normal as he walked down the streets but he hardly cared.

He was making the most of his time by trying to see his rooftop observers with Enhanced Vision as he meandered on over to the guild.

It was only when he was on the second floor of the guild and had stared at the entrance to the third floor with his silver plate removed so he couldn't see it, that he gained a level in Enhanced Vision.

Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 6.

Lone put his silver plate back on and entered the third floor as he thought, 'I wonder if the observers and this entrance can get me to expert rank? If not them, then maybe the entrance to the fourth floor can assuming there even is a fourth floor.'

He was a little bit worried about ranking Enhanced Vision up without having used it for anything particularly unique, but he had plenty of credits to look up a lot of his skills.

He was also going to test and confirm whether you could gain additional effects outside of rank-ups with Blood Clone pretty soon anyway, so he wasn't incredibly stressed out over the matter.

Lone quickly glanced around the third floor. There were five dwarven adventurers minding their own business doing different things, meaning the floor was relatively empty.

A good thing since Lone quickly occupied the table closest to the credit slate. He hoisted his blood buckets up onto the wooden tabletop and popped the lid off of the first one.

He nodded, happy that he could start training immediately. He didn't begin, however. Instead, he jogged over to the credit slate and updated its database with his newest skill information.

He got 15 credits for Architecture Mastery, five per new level. He got 725 credits for Puzzle Locked Mind since no one had ever used Meditation to help earn it before, there was also a bonus for earning it so quickly. He got another five credits for his new level in Meditation.

And finally, he was awarded 930 points for Blood Clone, similarly to Puzzle locked Mind, getting a large bonus for earning it with the help of Meditation and for his fast speed of learning it.

Lone quickly returned to his chosen table happy with his new credit total of 15,923. 'This could become addictive quite easily. I can't wait until Soph and Sophie get their silver plate so we can train on the third floor together... Soph'll definitely have to be the one to take the exam, huh? Sophie's too violent.'

Clearing his mind of errant thoughts, Lone focused on his open bucket of blood. Using up 5,000 MP, he summoned the clone. "Blood Clone."

All eyes on the floor turned to face him, even the employees. They all seemed cautious as to why the criminal foxkin was using a skill outside of the training hall.

However, when they saw him next to the credit slate and witnessed that he wasn't doing anything beyond wiggling a tiny blob of blood he'd conjured out of a bucket, they all seemed to understand his motivations and didn't bother him about his public training session.

'Good. Wouldn't want them to force me into a training hall. Only one I know of in this building is the one on the first floor. It would be such a pain in the ass to come up here when I want to log skill level-ups as I get 'em,' Lone thought.

He curled up his digits as he pointed at the ceiling and then willed the Blood Clone to rotate around his extended finger as fast as it could.

Three centimetres a second wasn't very fast, but before long, it sped up.

Keeping his attention on the clone, Lone pulled up the skill's information as soon as a new notification came into view.

Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 3. Active Skill: Blood Clone

A skill popular amongst blood mages who have Vigour higher than that of the average mage.

The host may create a connection between their blood and their mind, allowing them to control the blood to do their bidding.

The limits of the Blood Clone are defined by the host's ability and by the skill's rank in equal measure.

Maximum size: 145 [+17] drops of blood.

Maximum density: Each drop is equal in hardness to a drop of blood.

Maximum speed: 6cm [+3cm] per second.

Cost: 5,000 SP Mastery: Beginner Level 3

'That's a bigger increase all-round than level one to level two was. Still no improvements in hardness though. Now, let's see if I can add those extra drops without destroying the clone and reforming it,' Lone wondered.

That was what he had done early - dismissing the clone back at the inn only to reform it mere moments ago. Now, he tried to will more droplets of blood to join the spinning ball of blood.

Sadly, he was out of luck. The extra 17 drops didn't fly up to join his clone, nor did they attach themselves to it when he willed the clone into the bucket it had spawned from.

"So I need to spend 5,000 SP whenever I want it to get bigger... That sucks. At least the speed increase is retroactive," Lone noted.

Lone had already burned through 10,000 of his almost 63,000 SP. He didn't really want to blast through the rest of it rapidly by recreating the clone every level up.

Instead, he split his focus between trying to find a hidden entrance to the theorised fourth floor while also willing the Blood Clone to fly around in specific patterns.

Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 4. Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 5. Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 6. Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 7. Congratulations! The host's passive skill [Enhanced Vision] has levelled up! It is now Advanced Level 7. Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 8. Congratulations! The host's active skill [Blood Clone] has levelled up! It is now Beginner Level 9.

Lone had gone up to the slate after every level up, resulting in him earning another 45 credits, ten from Enhanced Vision's pair of new levels and the other 35 from Blood Clone's seven levels.

He was honestly in a bit of a trance, even when he had discovered the inklings of an entrance to the fourth floor.

The reason he was now out of that trance was that a dwarven silver plated adventurer had approached his table and had slammed her fist down on the poor thing, shaking his buckets of blood.

"Ah challenge ye tae ah duel, Fox!" she said.

Lone stopped controlling his clone for a moment to inspect the person accosting him. They were a relatively short dwarven woman - shorter than normal.

She looked young but far older than Grimsley's niece, Shana. She looked to be in her late teens or early twenties, meaning she was actually in her late thirties or early forties. Her face was covered in freckles and her ginger hair was tied into a set of braids.

"I'm busy," Lone replied simply.

"Ye feckin' cowar-"

"However," Lone interrupted, "If you make it worth my time, then sure. I'd be happy to duel you. You'll have to tell me your rank, your preferred fighting method, and if you can apply any of your stats. Those are my conditions to duel you. Tell me those things and make it worth it."

The woman frowned but slowly nodded. "So yer nae entirely 'onourless. Fine. 'Ow does ten silver soond as ah wager fae the winner? Ah'm C-ranked, ah'm ah shieldwarden through an' through, so mah sword an' mah tower shield are mah weapon ah choice. Ah can't apply anythin' yet."

Lone nodded as he dismissed his Blood Clone and created a new, much larger one, before he stored his blood buckets, pretending to squeeze them into an adventurer's pouch.

For a quick moment, he pulled up Blood Clone's skill information.

Active Skill: Blood Clone

A skill popular amongst blood mages who have above average Vigour than the usual mage.

The host may create a connection between their blood and their mind, allowing them to control the blood to do their bidding.

The limits of the Blood Clone are defined by the host's ability and by the skill's rank in equal measure.

Maximum size: 307 [+162] drops of blood.

Maximum density: Each drop is equal in hardness to a drop of blood.

Maximum speed: 18cm [+12cm] per second.

Cost: 5,000 SP Mastery: Beginner Level 9

His Blood Clone was now made up of roughly 15 millilitres of blood and could barely move fast enough to maintain pace with a very slow walk, only being capable of moving roughly a metre every five seconds.

"For the sake of fairness, I am a D-ranker, I use a dual-ended swordspear mostly which is basically just a double-ended spear with sword-length spearheads, and I can't apply any stats yet either. I don't want your money though," Lone said.

"What'll make it worth yer while then?" the woman asked.

He pointed to his Blood Clone. "If I win, you'll attack that for as long as you can and as hard as you can. It's a new skill I'm trying to train. If you win, I'll give you ten gold coins. How's that sound?"

"G-Gold coins?!" the woman exclaimed.

"If you insist on silver, sure, but what's the fun without a little actual risk?" Lone challenged with a wiggle of the eyebrow.

Ten gold coins were nothing to him now that he has two ruby gold coins, the equivalent of 200,000 gold coins. He had no intentions to lose any money, however, he also didn't want to fight just one person now that it had come to this.

The eyes of every present adventurer lit up in greed, just as Lone wanted. 'I'm stuck on making the blood harder, so getting these overly eager dwarves to help experiment on it for me for free sounds like as good an idea as any.'

Plus, he could earn some new skills and train his other battle-oriented skills at the same time.

Lone cracked his neck and started slowly walking so his clone could keep up with him. "Feel free to tell your family and friends to come watch you put the criminal skill-stealing foxkin in his place. I'll be in the training area when you're done making up your mind." He turned to face the shocked dwarven woman, "Unless you're the coward here, of course?"

Rage covered the woman's face. "Ah'm nae coward! Ah'm just worried yer ah liar on top o' ah criminal! Ah doubt yah even have ah single gold, let alone ten!"

Lone signed. "You demand a duel of me when I'm busy, I agree with some very favourable conditions for you, and now you're trying to call me a liar? I really am starting to think that perhaps this 'dwarven honour' you all talk about doesn't actually exist. Just shut the fuck up and follow me down to the training area."

Lone was done talking. With a statement like that, even if she didn't follow through with the duel, one of the eavesdropping adventurers would surely take him up on the chance to beat him black and blue and earn some good money.

'Not like anyone is going to defeat me. Not even an S-ranker could make me submit, I'd reckon,' Lone thought as he walked down the stairs, Blood Clone at his side.

He wasn't going to hold back like he had when battling Hamish almost three months ago. It was time to let his Bone Armour stretch its legs for the first time since he'd fought the Balor Demon Bats.

Who knows. With some luck, maybe one or two of the people in this building were actually strong enough to level up the unique subskill?