“Why are we trying this again Ben?” Thera sighed. “You do remember how well this turned out last time, right?”

“I mean, yeah, but practice makes perfect. It will be good for your training and just as importantly, handy to me if you succeed.”

“And what exactly am I doing here?” Ceselee asked, the guild master having been invited over to Sonya’s home after she was done with her work for the day and was left standing in the backyard, staring at the two, along with the sack of loose meat that was sitting between them.

“Acting as a witness. If anyone happens to come back here and see a dead body, it would be nice to have someone with some authority around to explain that everything’s actually fine.”

“...I need significantly more explanation than that.”

“It’s nothing crazy,” He explained. “Thera needs some slightly broader practice with her life magic and I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on a few more clones to work through, with the answer to both of those things ending with homunculus creation. It’s just if it doesn’t work out, it can look a little suspect.”

“And I’d like to remind you that I had no luck at all last time, Ben.”

“Sure, but you’ve leveled your magic since then and have read up a ton on the topic too. You can’t only focus on the healing aspects of your power Thera, gotta branch out a bit where you can.”

“That would be a bit more believable if you so blatantly didn’t want more hands to use.”

“That’s just a side benefit,” He told her with a wink. “Now come on, it will be great.”

He waggled the handle of a knife at her which she eventually gave in and took before dragging it across his palm.

“Just no complaining about however much you get cut or stabbed, you hear me?”

“Loud and clear ma’am. No worries, I’ll be nothing but grateful no matter how it turns out.”

He felt his blood start to condense and move in his palm under her power, eventually falling from his hand to the meat below as it began to incorporate it and grow before all of their eyes, not just eating what was there but moving on to devour the surrounding dirt and grass, taking it all in as it consumed the yard.

“I’ll ask Sachel to come help fix this later,” Ben muttered, getting no reactions. Thera was too focused on her spell while Ceselee was looking at it happen in disgust, yet unable to pull her eyes away as it grew, taking a form that was undeniably Ben before it all went wrong.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Near the very end of its feeding frenzy, the body that had been produced could no longer support itself, the bit of life it had slipping away and leaving them with a nearly fully-formed corpse.

“Okay, I see why you needed me here now,” The guild master muttered, already envisioning a future where someone would see this and raise a fuss to the guards and the guild. Even if it was unlikely, with her there she could keep things from becoming a major issue.

Thera for her part didn’t care about any problems like that. She was feeling ecstatic. Compared to the last time she’d tried to do the same thing, she’d come so much closer in the end to her previous attempts that her early concern about it was gone, replaced with motivation as she started reaching out with the knife again to try once more.

Yep, there’s that scary level of enthusiasm. I deserve this.

He was already feeling the cut of the blade through his skin as she tried again, making use of the body at their feet as it was consumed by her second attempt, the process repeating as cells split and grew as it ate, taking in more as flesh and bones formed while limbs grew out, and on only the second attempt, they had a success as the figure of Ben sat at their feet.

All at once, Ben had Thera in his arms and spun her around, feeling every ounce of excitement that the bit of victory called for. She’d done it, but not only that, he now had an extra body to work with, bringing his total number of clones up to five.

And maybe a few more if she’s willing to keep helping out. After all, my connect range has gotten big enough that I could easily have a dozen of me working in one spot and that number’s only going to grow if I get a couple more levels. Okay, decision made, I need a new work area because Falk’s place isn’t going to be able to support quite that many Ben’s and then assuming I survive the next wave I should take connect master so I can grow it more.

As he was having these thoughts though, Thera instead focused on more practical concerns.

“Alright, alright, before you get too excited you need to actually try it on and tell me how it feels.”

“Ah, right, that’s fair. Give me a second.”

He reached out with his connect after she said it, filling the empty vessel with his soul and letting it act as an extension of himself, making it stand up and look around before performing some simple movements, jumping and stretching and swinging its arms, all as Ben took in everything it was while Thera waited for his assessment.

“Well?”

“Good enough to use but feels sickly,” He admitted. “Smithing might be a bit strenuous on it but I’ll be able to use it for stuff like wood and leather working, plus most arts and cooking. Overall I’m happy with it though, don’t let me sound like I’m not. This guy will see some good use.”

Even if he was happy with it though, his assessment meant that she wasn’t. Now that she’d had some proper success she knew she could do better and without waiting she was already cutting into him again to try once more. After all, even if it was the evening it wasn’t exactly late, they had hours they could spend on practicing, slowly improving her technique until she’d get something just as good as the original. All it was going to take was a little bit of flesh and blood.

Ben, seeing all of this in the shine of Thera’s eyes, once more renewed his determination to quietly take it.

After all, I asked for this. Plus, it looks like it’s actually getting some payoff compared to the last time so I’m just going to take it for what it is. At the very least, looks like I won’t have any issues getting a bunch of these made up.