January 1, 2113
My god that was a refreshing break. Caught up on some drawing, and video games and had a really pleasant break, but I've honestly been itching to get back to school and investigate my new ability. However before that, since last year I made a resolution I figured I should do it again this year. I'd like to figure out a way to enhance my powers with something external, to see if it could be done. I'd also like to actually live my double life this year. I went through all the trouble of setting up a fake identity. I might as well use it. Also on the news recently strange creatures, oozing purple sludge have been making their way into the heart of the city before being dealt with.
Which is odd because nobody has reported seeing the things outside the walls, or in other parts of the city, they just show up in the heart of the city. Many people seem to think that these creatures are coming from the bowels of the undercity, but law enforcement hasn't found anything yet. So I was thinking about gathering a group of teenagers and a large dog to investigate with me. Just for fun.
But seriously I will investigate while living my double life. So with that I guess this year will be a year of discovery. I decided to take the next level classes for the ones I had last semester, plus a physics class to spice things up. So here's hoping I can keep up with six classes. My holiday was pleasant, we had Christmas spaghetti this year, and I asked my sister's about magic. Part of me still hopes I could develop some magical ability, but it's so far removed from my current abilities that it's almost impossible. Still they described it as trying to walk a maze blindfolded. Extremely difficult at first but easier over time. At least that would be the case if I had magic otherwise, I would forever be lost. Even with their affinity for magic, it was difficult.
So even if I can never use magic with Darah's help I might be able to create something that can.
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January 30, 2113
It's been a rough month. Let me start by saying, FUCK PHYSICS. Holy shit, even with all my advantages it is hard as fuck. However I have just barely managed to keep up with the two of me. That's right I dove right into my double life. At school I no longer have the luxury of sleeping with one duplicate every night. I've just been re-upping, and honestly I've begun to grow a custom to it. Of course I give myself one full night of sleep with both me and my duplicant on Sunday, to fully recover, but so far I've adapted.
After doing some research, I learned that humans can temporarily increase their strength to superhuman levels in times of great need. Like when trying to save a life. Of course this usually results in horrible injuries to the body in the process, but in moments of great need humans can exceed their limits. Which is I think what I've been doing, exceeding my limits excessively, and I think I've learned how to flip that switch while re-upping.
My limit right is fifteen times before I can't re-up to fix all the damage to myself. It takes quite a toll on me, I've been practicing by punching reinforced concrete. I can actually fracture the concrete for the price of turning my hand to mince meat. My bones turn to splinters, and it cuts my tendons to ribbons, but it is powerful. Plus it fucking hurts. I think it has to do with double up of my emotions when recombining. So I guess not a true adaptation to my power, but useful nonetheless. It might be enough to bump me up in the powered fight ranking, but I don't relish destroying myself to destroy another.
I guess it's a different story when it's for training. Plus a new thought has occurred that it might be permanently damaging me. I know that I can filter out injury's, but I still have scars. That means that some remnant of the injury remains, and perhaps scar tissue would build up on my tendons and my bones would develop bumps. Food for thought I guess, so for now I'll use this ability to increase my weight lifting abilities instead of fighting my fighting abilities.
Besides that my everyday school life is going well, I've been hanging out with Darah a lot more since she is helping me with physics. In my other life things are also going well. I meet up on Monday mornings before school starts and I recombine and switch out. Which doesn't really matter, but I like doing it anyways. I've been down below the Hanging City, and met a few abnormally large rodents. Fighting monsters is quite a bit different from fighting humans. Still nothing like abnormal creatures that continue to show up in the city. However, the frequency of their appearance has slowed down.
I think I'll try investigating from tunnels near the heart of the city, it should lead to better results.
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February 15, 2113
Nothing too spectacular to report.
Unfortunately I have also been sparing with the girl who never leaves me alone. Turns out her name is Lilly, and she is actually rather nice under all that aggression. Her family has put a lot of pressure on her because her power is so amazing. She likes hanging out with me because I don't treat her special. I told her that was ridiculous because I don't normally go out of my way to avoid people. She thought I was kidding.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
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February 23, 2113
Darah helped me make a magical device? Artifact? Not sure what to call it. She imbued some magic into it, but the components helped create the effect as well. It was two pairs of monster leather gloves. They are fingerless with bone nodules on the knuckles. Plus I got to try out a skill from class. They call it formation making, but that's too grandiose. Basically you carve symbols while thinking about what you want the symbols to do. If your mental image was strong enough and vivid enough the symbol will hold that meaning, and expel it when magic is channeled into it.
Since I have zero magic I have to create symbols for gathering, and containment of magic. Then I have to sequence them so that specific actions trigger the desired effect. Basically magical coding. After I did the formations Darah imbued it. Well she said she'd "bless it", but didn't elaborate and then started saying that she was enchanting it. So not exactly sure what she did, but it strengthened my formations and the glove itself.
I'm dying to test them out, thank god for my double life. I can just unload on some abnormally sized rats and not feel guilty. My power is basically the ability to always have free time.
Though I'm not exactly sure what the leather came from, it is extremely tough. Same for all the components. All monster materials. It was fortunately a project for magic artifice class (I got a 103% on it) so I didn't have to spend any money on materials. Also it helped me form a working theory on my duplicants.
For a while I've been assuming that when I re-up my duplicates and I merge. Which for all intents and purposes works, except for explaining away why my duplicates are always dressed in the same clothes they were reabsorbed in. I think they get stored somewhere, or at least the clothes do when I re-up. Which makes me believe that I can store a limited amount of things in a place people can't get to. It's like an inventory from games. When is another thing I'll have to test when I get some free time.
Oh wait... I do, It is the best thing about this power.
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March 23, 2113
Found the monsters, I've been getting close for a while now and decided to throw caution to the wind and rush right in. Holy shit what a mistake. Well I'll start from the where the last entry left off. I tested both the storage capabilities of my power and my new gloves. I tried re-upping while holding stuff and, well, the best I can do is small to medium sized rocks, anything bigger just plops to the floor after re-upping. However, I can store the gloves and apparently switch the gloves to someone else when I create a duplicant. So if the gloves were in storage I could re-up and be wearing them which is a fantastically fast way to get dressed.
I was pleased to learn this because I immediately thought of throwing knives. I could throw one re-up and be ready to throw again with barely a pause. For now I tested it out on monsters with rocks and re-upping to to past my limits, which I will start calling damage boosting. It is almost like the polar opposite of the video game term and it makes me chuckle.
Things were going great and I felt like I was expanding my horizons. It used to feel like my future would be bleak and mundane, and my only goal was to make it less horrible. Now it felt like I could actually become a superhero, my power was constantly improving, and I was well into mediocre. Sure I could fight smart and win against those stronger than me, but I couldn't beat someone with true power. At least not yet.
So recklessly, well I did decide to bring all four of my duplicates so there that, but I was over confident. I found the deformed monster and followed them back to a deep underground lab. Honestly I was a bit surprised I thought something from the wasteland might have moved in. The lab was rough, but still ornate. I watched as different oozing purple sludge piles did various maintenance around the facility. I decided the stealth was the best option, and killed four piles of sludge that were congregating around the entrance. What? I don't know jack shit about sneaking, nor if it would matter to the sludge. However, I did learn that throwing a stone while damage boosting splattered the sludge spectacularly.
I rushed into the lab entrance which was just where the stone went from natural and rough, to white and cut. As I ran I noticed the floor to ceiling test tubes with various creatures inside. Some were very dead, others seemed to be thriving though extremely deformed. As I ran it went from creatures to humans. The humans were as deformed as the creatures, I wanted to stop, to look, to help, but I needed to know what was happening and who was responsible.
If it was the city there wasn't anything I could do, if it was a group of villains there was only one thing I could do. I had to find computers or something so I kept running. I knew I should have just run away, but I couldn't leave those people. I had to do something to help. Knowing who was responsible would allow me to know who I should go to. I wasn't so foolish to believe that I alone could save these people. I ran until I hit an intersection. There were four tunnels all the same as mine, except for the one on my right. There was a blue arrow on the wall pointing down that hall. I assume it was so you couldn't get lost. The arrow was pointing towards the center of the complex. I made my way down the hall as quickly and quietly as possible and finally I found a door on the side of the tunnel. It was a small office filled with 6 different work stations.
I went to the nearest station and tried to figure out what they were researching. the computer was password protected, but that didn't mean I could snoop through the loose papers. After looking through each station, my best guess was they were analyzing the genes of people and monsters. Then I felt a small prick and it felt like someone injected my back with lava.
I fell to the floor screaming, I could move I could think. My back was melting, and my brain could process what was happening. It took all of my concentration, everything I had to split once. Immediately the pain was cut in half so me and my duplicate split again. The pain dimmed and I could think all of us scrambled away and recombined. I re-upped as many times as I could, but the pain wouldn't go away. Though it appeared that my back was fine. I spun to face the door ready to face anything.
It was a short man, long bread, with a bemused look in his eyes. He was holding a syringe aloft in one hand with a thick purple liquid inside. The man seemed to recognize me, even though my face was covered. Then I too recognized the man.
It was my father.