After I recovered, my parents took me home. They were very worried, and my mother even cried when she saw me.
Once home, we sat down at the table. After telling them everything that had happened, I brought up the academy and declared I would start preparing for the entrance exams. I also asked my father to train me.
"Of course, son! It's about time," father nodded approvingly. "Rest for a week first, then we'll start training. You should also visit our guild!"
"Wait! Lik, are you sure..." mother hesitated and was about to continue, but I interrupted her.
"Tomorrow! Let's start training tomorrow. Mom, I've already made up my mind. I never told you, but I have a talent. It increases training efficiency and boosts growth speed. Not by much, about 10%, but I've realized I don't want to be weak anymore. I don't want to be so powerless any longer!"
They looked at me with profound surprise, but it didn't last long. Soon a smile appeared on my mother's face, and my father's expression turned serious.
"So you already have a talent at the initial stage..." father said thoughtfully, then sighed and added, "Excellent! Don't worry, son. Your talent is incredible. You'll soon become stronger than all your peers. Ten percent is a very significant figure. I understand why you kept it secret." He gave an approving nod.
After that, we continued our dinner. My parents didn't want me to return to school the next day. But I insisted on starting my studies. Of course, passing the practical exam is important for academy admission, but so is the theory. After dining with my family, I returned to my room and began preparing to use my talent.
When I gave the mental command, I immediately felt my soul begin to change. A moment later, I felt intense pain, but I restrained myself. I didn't make a sound. Yes, it hurt, but all I did was clench everything I could as hard as possible. Enduring the pain with closed eyes and slowly breaking into a sweat, I felt the pain subside. Opening my eyes, I saw a large, glowing white sphere before me. The sphere was about the size of a tennis ball. After staring at it for a few seconds, I felt mana draining from my body. No, it was literally flowing out, like from a punctured bottle. After draining me dry, the sphere began to expand, then started forming the silhouette of a body. A pure white figure of my height was right before my eyes. The figure's glow began to fade, and a youth of short stature with dark hair and bright green eyes started to appear. And he wasn't wearing any clothes...
As I examined him, my head began to throb, and a general feeling of discomfort overcame me. While this was happening, I noticed the guy in front of me clutching his head and groaning. He looked exactly like me, even his clothes were identical.
"Wait, what's happening?" flashed through my mind.
***
Half an hour later, I had figured out the situation and dressed my second "self."
After some experimentation, I understood certain things.
First, my consciousness had expanded, not split in two. I was simultaneously seeing with four eyes and breathing through two noses. An indescribable feeling...
Second, I felt significantly weaker. Apparently, this was because I had used part of my soul to create the clone. However, it wasn't a major problem—as long as the soul remained intact, it could recover.
Third, I could now sense my clone's soul, and it was... clean. It bore no runes, meaning it had no talent. Consequently, I couldn't use the talent with the second clone to create another.
"Well, I'll have time to figure it out later. Time to sleep!" I thought.
My second self climbed into the now-empty wardrobe and settled on a hastily made bed.
"Let's try to sleep..."
***
In the morning, I woke not to the alarm, but to my mother knocking on my door.
Right, I had locked the door at night so my parents wouldn't discover my second self.
I had breakfast and left for school, while my second self stayed home in the wardrobe. Once my parents left for work, I would start training.
When I entered the classroom, everyone turned to look at me. Their faces held complex expressions. Apparently, they knew about the incident... But it didn't matter.
Ding-ding!
The bell rang, and the lesson began. But unlike before, today I decided to pay attention to the teacher's words and started taking proper notes. Knowledge is power, after all. Simultaneously, my second self was attempting to do squats, but with great difficulty. It wasn't that I was weak, but writing in a notebook and squatting at the same time was too challenging. Try drawing a square with your left hand and a triangle with your right simultaneously. In a way, the sensation is similar.
During the break, I sat at my desk doing nothing. I was completely focused on having my second self perform warm-up exercises.
However, I was suddenly interrupted by Gloria's voice. She approached me with a serious expression and said:
"Hey! What's with you today? I know you got caught in that anomaly, but why are you suddenly studying?"
I stopped the warm-up, returned my focus to my main body, and reluctantly answered her:
"Actually... I've decided to try for the academy, so I'm starting to prepare."
"Oh... Really. Well, you'll have to work hard; you don't have much time. You know, I'm preparing too, and it's not as easy as you think. The entrance exam is usually harder than for any other place! That's why I'm taking extra classes at our school."
"What? How come I never knew our school had something like that?" I thought, taken aback.
"Listen... could you tell me how to get into those classes?"
She stared at me with a surprised look, and a smirk appeared on her face.
"Alright, alright. After school, I'll help you out," she said with clear mockery.
***
Five months later, I stood at the entrance to the dungeon zone. I had finished school and immediately asked my father to get me a pass for the low-rank dungeon area. So right now, I was by the portal to a Copper-rank goblin dungeon.
Copper rank is the lowest. Even an armed ordinary person could explore such a dungeon. But they're kept open precisely so the Awakened can train.
I spent all the money I had on a good sword and supplies. Of course, I didn't even have a low-rank artifact, but I did have my clone with a hunting knife. I was as ready as I could be for my first dungeon.
The clone was able to enter with me thanks to connections. My pass allowed me to bring one other person. He didn't look exactly like me now. Unlike me, he hadn't cut his hair at all, so he looked shaggy. They let us through without any issues since I introduced him as my friend, and I stated my purpose clearly: training in the goblin zone. Nothing excessively dangerous awaited me.
After five months of training under my father's guidance, I was at least twice as strong as any ordinary athlete.
Now I was a true Awakened, and my opponents were ordinary goblins.
Of course, goblins shouldn't be underestimated, but...
"Let's go, Fen."
"..." He nodded silently.
Yes, I named him Fenrir. I don't know why, but it was the first thing that came to mind. I'd conducted many experiments, but I couldn't perfectly control two bodies during complex tasks. Unless their goal was the same as mine. So I split my mind into two parts, each with its own personality. This helped reduce the mental load, but it was still difficult. It happened naturally while I was searching for a solution. It was probably written in the runes, but I never fully deciphered them.
Whoosh!
A vast cavern with numerous tunnels, their entrances marked with signs showing someone had already entered. The cave walls bore carvings made by goblins, and glowing stones were embedded higher up in various places.
Teleporting through the portal reminded me of how that bastard had teleported me. But a thousand times smoother—I felt fine.
Upon entering the portal, I immediately took out headlamps and put them on. Then I armed myself and moved forward.
Goblins are essentially humanoids, creatures about 120 centimeters tall. They are mostly Awakened, so they don't have mana cores. Therefore, goblin bodies have no value and aren't paid for. However, Enlightened goblins are occasionally encountered, and they are essentially equal to an average Awakened human. Goblins are also armed with daggers, which can be sold. Traps set by goblins can also be found in such dungeons. Overall, based on all these facts, goblin dungeons are only suitable for training and researching anomalies as a phenomenon. Sometimes useful information or even weak artifacts can be found in such caves. Even the weakest artifacts cost over $1000.
"Ooh, I'm even nervous..."
"Calm down, you're not alone."
I chose an unmarked tunnel and entered. After walking for about half an hour, I saw my first goblin.
"Short, two daggers in hand. Just like I read."
"Stay behind, I'll try alone."
My second self stepped forward, taking my sword and handing me his knife.
The goblin just watched me, making displeased sounds. Clearly, he wasn't happy about the numerical disadvantage. However, when he saw me approaching alone, he giggled and lunged forward.
Clang! — The sound of metal echoed through the cave as I deflected his dagger with my sword.
As I parried his first strike, he stabbed at my leg with his second dagger. But I had already dodged. Putting all my strength into my arms, I moved toward the goblin and delivered a nearly vertical slash, cleaving through its chest. The goblin didn't react in time to my lunge. Thus, the weakest of all known monsters was slain...
"Damn... That was dangerous. And it was only one goblin."
I continued through my clone:
"It'll be problematic if several attack at once."
The clone silently looked at the corpse and reached out toward me. We exchanged weapons. Taking the hunting knife, he began butchering the corpse while I kept watch.
Of course, there was no point in butchering the goblin, but it was good practice.
After spending a few minutes butchering, we headed deeper into the cave.
We encountered various groups of goblins. Pairs were most common, less often groups of three. Solitary goblins were also rare. However, I eventually stumbled upon a group of five goblins. Without thinking long, my second self hid in a recess in the tunnel wall.
Noticing me, the goblins laughed and rushed toward me. I took two daggers in hand and, using the [Soul Link], doubled my strength. Then I threw them at two approaching goblins. The daggers whistled through the air and hit their targets, though not fatally. I just incapacitated them.
When the remaining goblins stopped and looked at their wounded companions, their faces paled.
Baring their teeth, they prepared to throw their daggers at me. At that moment, my clone jumped out from the recess, to whom I had already transferred all my strength. With one swing of the sword, I beheaded the two nearest goblins. The last goblin turned in shock toward my second self. At that moment, another dagger was flying straight for its head.
"Excellent... Eighteen total! Time to head home."
As soon as I said these words, a goblin emerged from a passage.
Taller than ordinary goblins—about 1.5 meters, maybe even taller. Its build was more muscular, and its eyes burned with a red flame. It held a short sword in its hand.
"Oh? An Enlightened one! Excellent, it should have a core."
"Graah!" the goblin swore, then began slowly approaching the clone who was butchering the goblins.
I stepped forward and assumed a fighting stance with my sword.
I immediately used [Soul Link] and channeled all available strength into myself.
Of course, I was already quite tired, but he was just a goblin.
Our blades clashed with a resonant ring. We continued exchanging blows. There was no clear advantage on either side.
I was using all the clone's strength, so he wasn't much use now. In terms of strength, he wasn't even equal to an average human.
Schlick!
The sound of tearing flesh echoed through the tunnel.
A shallow cut appeared on my left leg. It was my leg...
"Crap!" I screamed inwardly. After that, I delivered a horizontal slash intending to behead him. But the goblin dodged.
That's all I needed.
The moment he dodged, I transferred all my strength to my second self, who instantly launched four daggers at the goblin.
And they hit: in the sword arm, in the eye, and in the chest, which was covered by leather armor.
The wounds weren't serious. But it was enough to claim victory.
"Well, goblin? What's wrong with your face?"
"Grrraahh!"
I was about to finish him off, but suddenly my consciousness blurred, and my mind filled with indescribable rage.
After that, I knew what was happening. But the realization only came now, as my consciousness pierced through the fog of fury. I was sitting astride something soft and shapeless. On the goblin's corpse.
Its head was no longer a head—just a shapeless puddle of bones, shreds of skin, and green pulp smeared across the stones. Shards of skull protruded like pathetic fragments of a shattered jug, and thick blood oozed from what remained of its face, drenching my hands.
I clenched my fingers—they slid, sticky from that foul-smelling mess.
And in the cavity where the skull once was... now gaped a hole. Through it, like through a broken window, the dirty floor of the cave was visible.
I wasn't in control... But I was also aware of what I was doing through my second self. For some reason, I decided not to stop myself. As if he truly deserved having his head smashed in.
"What have you done to me, you damn bastard!?"
Yes, this was definitely his doing—those uncontrollable surges of hatred and rage that sometimes surfaced. Good thing father never saw this. How shameful...
Alright, I'd have time to think about this later. First, I needed to deal with the core.
I slit open the goblin's stomach, pulled out the entrails, and found a glowing white sphere. Yes, a mana core. The white color meant it was pure, so mutation and skill acquisition were impossible.
I took it in both hands and began the absorption...
You can't learn this, so I don't know the proper way to do it. But father said that depending on talent and compatibility, core absorption efficiency varies for each person. It's impossible to swallow even half a core at once. So you can't break through just by absorbing cores.
During the absorption, I felt my soul consuming the core's power and growing. A good feeling... I was definitely getting stronger!
By the time I finished absorbing the soul, my second self had already treated the wound on my leg with a special ointment.
Having collected 27 daggers, one short sword, and a mana core, I finished my morning training session.