Alex entered an office room, with a desk filled with documents and booms. There was a plaque at the front of the desk with the name Doctor Helbrig. All along the walls were certificates denoting major achievements of a Vince Helrbig, and behind the desk was a portrait of the man posing.

Doctor Helbrig rounded the desk and sat on his chair. He was young, and he looked groomed. His hands were adorned with several rings and his face was always carrying a confident cocky smile.

"Hello, I'm Doctor Vincent Helbrig, top graduate from the College of Healing." He continued while intertwining his hands. "I can help fix whatever you have come here for. Poor Jessy can't handle your energy"

"Sorry Doctor for my rudeness, I am in a truly desperate affair. I only want to buy some medicine. I know that you have been ordered to preserve as much medicine as you can, but I'm sure you can spare a few." Alex said.

"Now that I can't fix without a special pass." The man leaned in his chair and smirked. "And I'm also sure that you are not as affluent as you may seem."

"I'm sorry?" Alex crossed his brows and glared at the doctor.

"I was a slum dweller as well before I used my genius to get out of that hole. I can smell the odor of the slums on you from several strides." Doctor Helbirg stated.

"And does that change anything?" Alex slipped those words between gritted teeth.

"Yes it does. I don't want to break your hopes, but we can't help you in this clinic." He briefly stopped. "I'm sorry."

Alex glared at the man, and he rose from his chair. Here he thought the guy would have something useful to say, yet he only wanted to prolong the conversation.

Why bring him into the room if he could have just thrown him out in the lounge. Alex didn't look back as he exited the door, he wasn't going to beg for it.

Anyways, there were a dozen other clinics across the city, so how hard can it be to find a lenient doctor?

Turns out, after a day of searching and routine trips to take care of his mother, that no doctor would ever want to sell him anything if he didn't have a special. And the ironic thing is? The pass can only be obtained with a Proof of Wealth.

Not only that, all Doctors were fearful of the Colleges and even their greed for all their money didn't overpower the fear they felt for the educational institution.

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Alex returned home that day defeated and unbroken. He still had a single option left, and it was the most unsavoury.

It took until nightfall for the clones to come back to the house. Each of them were haggard in their appearance, with their clothes dirtied with mud and sweat. One clone even had a black eye and a limp leg.

They sat down on the chairs and immediately slumped down into the table. Alex was tempted to give them a bit of water, yet he refrained.Clean water was expensive enough, no need to spend it on people who will stop existing in a couple of minutes.

"I hope there were no mishaps?" Alex questioned. If they encountered someone they knew, it could cascade into a big problem. He wanted to keep his gift secret, guessing it to be extremely powerful. He did not have a comparison of course, no fully fledged awakened would stroll along these streets, apart from Father Orkon and his comatose mother.

He didn't know how someone could exploit him for his skill, but he would rather be cautious than carefree on this sort of matter, considering it had his and his mother's life on the line.

"Sucks ass, no problem though." A clone said while laying his head on the table, the others nodded in unison.

"Oh yeah, I got good news." The clone dug around his pockets and deposited twenty coppers on the table. "The training yard I am at gives coins to whoever trains well."

The other clones also replicated the same movement and put sixty more coppers on the table, now totalling eighty coppers. A considerable sum for a day's work, would have satisfied a family of four for a week if they were frugal.

"That's good, no one can refuse more coins for free." Alex calculated the weekly sum, if there is a constant eighty coppers a day, that would mean there would be five hundred and sixty copper coins.

Prior to today, that would have sustained his medical expenses. Now, he couldn't even spend it on anything. He had a hunch on where he could spend it, it was a hard decision to go there.

"Anyhow, you guys got any experiences or ideas you want to share?" Alex asked. He had an understanding of these clones, that the moment that they separated from him they would experience and glean different insights than he can.

It was the kind of philosophical thinking that he would have learned if he had continued his education. After his destitution, he was glad that he had learned his letters and numbers, maths had an amazing effect on the perspective of how to manage a household's finances.

His brief stint in academia had also given him the vocabulary to actually converse with the affluent in their supposed sophisticated tongue. Idiots, they think using big words makes them different from the 'dim-minded' poor.

"I've been thinking. Since we lack any long range attacks, can we pick up the bow and arrow? The training fields have the necessary equipment for it." A clone suggested.

"Yeah, since we are already aiming to be a warrior, why not get everything a warrior has?" The clone gestured with his arms. "Just think of it, we can have structures similar to legions and teams. We can have three to five man teams as a base. With two long range attackers, a support and two front liners, we can beat any man or monster."

Having a structure similar to an army? It was a good idea on the principle that there would be a great growth in the amount of clones that Alex can sustain. It would solve the problem of needing other people to fill in the gaps in key positions, but it also presents a problem on equipping every clone.

"It's a good idea. We will file the squad idea for when there are more clones. I'm approving of inserting a bow related skill." Alex agreed. Bows were a good addition to his arsenal, he can more easily prevent skirmish tactics used by the gremlins.

"Yeah I also got something to add. The training in my yard was yapping all day long about shields. Quote 'If you don't use a shield, you are a cuck who needs his dick cut.' Let us just say it stuck into my head." Another clone said. Alex rose his brows, finding the odd quote rhymed.

"Alright that is also approved." Alex motioned for the clones to disrobe, it seemed like they had nothing more to add. "Tomorrow, I will assign each one of us to train with the bow, sword, shield and our body."

"Boss, you don't need to tell us." The clone smiled before Alex made him smoke.

He almost forgets that the clones were actually himself. His future clones would have his memories and plans, and these deleted clones wouldn't need to be informed of the plans.

Oh gods this is bringing him a headache just by thinking about it.