[SS 2.70] Now There's Two of Them (Part 3/5) (Patreon)

“Come along, Gelic.” Angelica, disguised as Merlina, approached the Zenmoon Sect front gate with her Demon in tow. The Puck was kind of a pain to push along, struggling to walk from being so in awe of the big castle like she hadn’t already seen it a few times. Clearly, Angie still had some growing to do. But that was part of the idea for today.

Like before, the security guard, a different Abstainer this time, led her down to the basement where she met Noisseur. The man was a lot more friendly this time, almost certainly due to the lambasting he’d received from Pathos. He showed her to the same workshop, where the crate of Freelancer Circles mostly remained untouched. Clearly, a few had been taken for their daily use. He requested that she split them disproportionately between five and ten usage variants, with the weaker majority going to their administrators, leaving the more potent ones for the odd Summoner usage. 

On top of that, he also took her back to the Circle display hall and pointed out three that were more complicated that he wanted some copies of. One was apparently the standard binding circle that most who were at least Summoner Rank used when they wanted to bind a long-term Demon. Angelica wasn’t going to mess with the designs this time, since they were already definitely a league above. That, and the Sects reserves of the special parchment had been pitifully replenished so far, only enough to make roughly a dozen of each of the new ones, while leaving another ten or so for emergencies until their big shipment came in.

She was once again left alone to perform her tasks, though they shouldn’t take too long. Before getting started, however, she had to get Angie ready for her own work. “Here you go.” Angelica pulled out a stack of beginner level school workbooks and handed them to the Demon. “Spend at least half an hour working through each subject, please, or until we leave.”

“Okay…” It was definitely a less enthusiastic “okay,” then usual, but Angie still accepted and soldiered ahead with her task. First, that involved changing into her Imp form since the Puck claws couldn’t really hold a pencil very well. In the end, it was probably pointless for her to do these exercises and learn knowledge that Angelica should already know, especially since it was like primary school level stuff, but she honestly didn’t have too many ideas for Orders she could give the fake Gelic to keep her busy when they were supposed to appear in public together. This was all one big test to make sure that the lie worked as it should.

But there was another reason to have Angie study. It was testing the waters for potentially unlocking the Speed Studying Skill. The girl had actually done some reading overnight, mostly through the copy of the Widdle Witch several times, but she had tried her hand at some more complicated texts. And when Angelica reabsorbed her, all that new knowledge dumped into her at once. It wasn’t enough to trigger the unlock, but it felt like the right path. 

The idea was to have Angie load up on a bunch of new information and then absorb all of that while Angelica is in the middle of learning something herself, possibly several things by taking advantage of Ambidextral Mastery. That should hopefully get the Skill for free. It kind of felt like a lot of work to save three Growth Points, but learning things was rarely bad. There were definitely times—and probably would be more if she continued along the Gnostic path—where she regretted knowing things and would be happier to keep existing in ignorance. 

Regardless, it was still likely better than just having Angie train Skills, at least for now. The transfer rate was still just so low. She’d apparently used Auto-Color for all of her doodlings the day prior, but it passed along such a miniscule percentage. Part of that could just be her reduced proficiency with the Skill, but it still wasn’t something viable. When she reached the level of main Angelica, then it could be a viable option. 

Roughly an hour passed with the pair of them both engrossed in their work—Anglie a bit less so since a few exhaustive sighs came from her direction. Not that Angelica’s own task of Reprinting Circle extensions to each parchment wasn’t mind-numbing, she just had a lot of her mind to keep her distracted otherwise. Things got a bit of a shake-up, though, when an unexpected visitor stopped by.

“Rastille!” Angie immediately abandoned her workbooks as soon as the man came in through the door and ran over to him, hugging his legs with her squishy body. Apparently, she had enough memories of the large man to remember him fondly. That, or she was simply so excited for an excuse to not continue with her studies that she would be happy to see anyone.

“Uhh, hi, Gelic.” Rastille knelt down and patted her head, clearly confused by the sudden affection. 

“Forgive her.” Angelica tried to play it off as if it was no big deal. “She’s just a bit tired from some recent summons, coupled with all the studying I’ve been making her do.”

“You… have her study?” He glanced at the workbooks, his confusion only growing.

“Yes, well, she spends more time here on our world with me than she does in Hell, so it makes sense to have her know as much about it as she can.”

“I see.” He ruminated on the idea for a moment. “It’s just not something I really considered. I don’t think most Summoners would. But, I apologize. I didn’t come here to question your Demon-rearing choices, especially not after how advanced Gelic has been for her Rank. I’m Rastille.” 

“Merlina.” She reciprocated his firm but surprisingly gentle handshake, having half expected his hand to crush hers since it was roughly twice the size. 

“Yes, we’ve heard a bit about you,” he noted. “Sorry, when you were here last time, we didn’t find out until it was too late, or we all would have come to introduce ourselves. As I’m sure you’re aware, we’ve worked with Gelic a few times in the past. That’s why I’m here. This coming weekend, our group is going to be performing another Malignant purge. There’s quite a few stragglers left over from the Geyser, so it will be a good bit more than a typical hunt. We’re wondering if you and Gelic would be willing to join us.”

Pathos had hinted that this would happen, but it still felt pretty soon. Or maybe it just felt that way because of her situation with her Duplicate. The real Merlina and Gelic should both be combat ready at a moment’s notice, but it was still something she could lean into. “I’ve never actually gone on a Malignant hunt before myself, so I don’t know how much help I would be.” She should be able to get away with lying to Rastille plainly, since she highly doubted his Bound Demon Himpo had the appropriate Skills to detect otherwise. 

“That’s fine,” he attempted to assure her, as if he was waiting for that answer. “Novices typically don’t engage in fighting directly, and are usually just there as support for their Demons. Just having you there to provide any vitality or mana that Gelic may need, and being able to give her Orders on the fly to free us up with our own Demons would be a welcome boon.”

“Hmm, yeah, I suppose I could manage that.” It was definitely the kind of arrangement she was looking for before agreeing. “But I’m not sure yet if the timing will work out. Can I message you the day of to confirm?” While she had little reason to refuse at this point, she still wanted an out just in case. 

“Sure, that’s fine. I’ll text you so that you have my number. Then… hopefully we’ll see you there.” The man left a bit awkwardly after that, likely not the concrete answer he’d been hoping to hear. 

“Change of plans, Angie,” Angelica addressed the fake Gelic once they were alone again, through their mental connection just to be safe. “I’ll have to recreate you sooner than expected. Once we finish up here, we have somewhere else to go today.”

“Ooo, where?” At least her clone remembered to reply properly in her mind this time.

“Hell.” She let that thought linger for a moment before adding, “But that doesn’t get you out of continuing with your workbooks until we leave.”

“Boo.”

Finishing up the Circles didn’t take too much longer, and when she reported to Noisseur, she got a decent amount of extra pay for it all, definitely more than if she had just done it this way the first time; another five grand for her bank account just from the work, officially pushing her assets into the six figures. Then added to that, they paid her $37,000 for the improved Freelancer design, along with:

[You have gained 1,500 Essence]

[Essence Tip Lv.6]

[Beguilement increased]

[Fraud Attunement increased]

[You have gained an additional 240 Essence]

“A little extra for coming back and helping us with this.” The man seemed happy to give her a bit more.

But… why? She hadn’t been given a direct Order at all from anyone. No Contracts, no magic, just a standard work agreement that wasn’t even officially on paper or anything. Did any sort of arrangement involving the payment of Essence count for a potential trigger for the Skill, despite it specifically stating Orders in the description? Or maybe it was preying on his already existing desire to treat her better after the previous mishandling? Or he genuinely could have done so of his own volition and the Skill was just stealing credit.

Care to explain, DGS? It didn’t even respond to her, so no, it apparently did not care to explain. 

But since payment was made, the pair made their way to the usual Hell portal. Just out of curiosity’s sake, Angie agreed to try to use it, knowing that it could very well be her end. Though, it felt foolish to risk the potential experience gained and any knowledge she might have picked up—not that it was expected to be much—so Angelica went ahead and recreated her on the spot, even though she’d end up having to do it again mere moments later. Fortunately, there were no real downsides to spamming the Skill, as long as the Duplicate was reabsorbed before there was any Health and MP loss. 

[Duplicate Lv.15] 

[Competence, Creativity greatly increased]

[Fabrication Attunement theoretically increased] 

[Egoism Attunement sporadically increased]

“Wait, since when are there seven planets in our solar system?” Apparently, there was a tidbit of new knowledge sprinkled into the workbooks. “Back when I was in school, they told us there were six.” 

Ignoring the astrological revelation, Angie proceeded with the test, to the result of: nothing. The fairy ring inside the shack didn’t register her presence at all. So she attempted to cast the Hellward Spell. For that, there was a bit of relief when it didn’t work. Angelica didn’t want the Essence she’d just received to be taxed, but she also didn’t know the next time it’d be drained to next to nothing, so it was best to just confirm the circumstance while they were thinking about it. 

And before she departed into the portal, Angelica couldn’t help but give her younger self a hug, despite knowing they’d be reunited really soon. Angie was definitively going to die for the next test unless there was some strange loophole. Sadly, that was not the case. As soon as she turned up at the Terminal Nexus, her mind was filled with the last moment of the Duplicate’s life, watching her real self be consumed by the fires of Hell. At least, after that, her death was immediate and seemed painless.

Back in her bug form, Gelic made the quick trip to the Demon Services Office. She was a little sad that Smook appeared to be off that day, kind of wanting to wave or say hi, not that the Demon was likely to recognize or remember her. So she carried on to the back and requested access to one of the training rooms.

{You will be transported to Training Room 19}

Huh, unlike last time, there were actually quite a few Demons present already. Perhaps since she wasn’t alone, it gave her less choice of where to go, and filled the vacancies. Or maybe she just didn’t know the right way to phrase her request. But it was fine. Most of the other Demons were off to one side, engaged with each other. They ranged from Gremlins to Daemons with one Devil that looked like they were coaching the rest. A quick scan showed they were all from the same Cult, so probably some sort of official training session. 

Which she wanted no part of, so Gelic headed to an isolated corner and summoned Angie. Interestingly, it was taken from her temporary health unique to the training room, so there was no actual penalty besides the MP cost. As a result, she reduced her Health to almost zero just so the Duplicate could have as much as possible, since it would refill soon if she stayed out of combat for a few moments. Just so there wouldn’t be any questions or head-turning at the two identical Demons, she had her younger version take on her Imp form. In a way, she’d look like a kind Puck tutoring the lowly Imp. Anyone would notice the discrepancy, though, if scried and found the same name, but hopefully they were good Demons following the customs of Hell. 

Gelic didn’t really hesitate when starting off with their practice. She spawned the usual icy handaxe in front of her and launched it straight at the Puffball, who ended up tanking the hit directly. “Owowowow,” she cried in pain, despite also having a fake Health bar. That didn’t mitigate the damage, and normally that sort of attack would have left a nasty gash across Angie’s body.

“I’m sorry, but this is important,” Gelic declared mentally, just in case some of the other Demons tried to listen into their weird conversation. “When we go on the Malignant Hunt, I’ll be the one who actually fights the things. You’re just not ready for that. And since you have less Health, and got injured, it could lead to you potentially dying very easily in front of everyone. So you’ll be playing Merlina. But just to be safe, I need you to be capable enough of protecting yourself in case something goes wrong. Which means… we’re not leaving here until you learn to dodge.”