[SS 2.99] Back to Haunt You (Part 1/3) (Patreon)

“Okay, do a little twirl for me,” Angelica asked her Duplicate who was modeling a dress for her in their apartment. She probably didn’t even need to make the request. 

[Duplicate Lv.33]

After achieving that, Angie had finally caught up to the real deal. Their mental ages synced up perfectly, and now it really was like they were one mind. Finally, the Skill had reached the potential promised by the description. It had just taken many weeks of work. Though there was still incentive to improve. If Angelica aged further without increasing the level, Angie would probably fall behind again.

Additionally, the growth penalty was still in play. Her clone currently only provided roughly a third of the growth to Skills and Worth that she should upon reabsorption, compared to the acts performed. Did that mean she’d need to get Duplicate to Lv.100 for there to be no penalty? Was that the maximum, or if they went beyond that, would Angie then grow even faster than her? She doubted that, but it’d be a while before they reached that point, possibly years or even decades each level continued to be more difficult to achieve. But they’d likely hit it eventually, since there were very few reasons to not always have her Duplicate active.

Though reaching this milestone was somewhat sad in a way. It was kind of like Angie had ceased to exist. They decided it best for her to keep the name for now, just to make distinction easier. She was no longer her own person with a unique personality. Instead, she had completely become an extension of Angelica with virtually no free will, but also, full freedom. 

Since they were the same, they had the same goals and ideas. Really, Angie didn’t need Orders from the original anymore, and could act entirely autonomously. Instead, she now had the same Order, to contribute toward their lifeplan, just so that Angelica would continue to get some Summoner experience, which unlike Demon Skills, didn’t transfer at all otherwise, even when Angie gave herself Orders.

Conveniently timed, that very same level had also completed another goal.

[Fabrication Attunement has improved from Embraced to Intertwined]

Finally! After a lot of focusing, Fabrication had caught up to her other front-runner Attunements. That should hopefully put her in a much better standing for her upcoming Evolution. Hopefully, Fabrication would be as generous as Pestilence had been. It did briefly make her wonder if the latter Attunement had a bit of a toxic personality of its own. Would it get upset that she no longer wanted to follow its path? That was probably more of a random musing than anything serious.

After this event with her mother, she’d finally take the necessary steps to Evolve then begin the next stage of her life. Though, she may have gotten a bit impatient during the past few days, and did a bit more experimenting during a break from clone training. First, she learned what she could from the various Circles she’d Mused. Sadly, as expected, they were a bit too advanced for her. Not to understand, but to implement. She could preemptively feel the taxation when attempting to make a new circle, and could feel the dread of what would happen if she attempted to activate them. Her MP would be depleted immediately, and there could be even worse after effects when it resulted in failure.

But it hadn’t been an entirely fruitless endeavor. The time she spent analyzing and editing the circles had gone faster than expected, as well as providing a good chunk of experience.

[Transmissive Speed Studying Lv.5]

At its new level, Angelica found that, assuming she was focused, she could read and study things at a bit more than twice her original capability. Lv.3 had been a bit under, so further progress could definitely continue to increase it significantly. Maybe someday she could speed through a book, consuming it all while never properly pausing between turns of a page.

Then with her Muse slots freed up, she actually went ahead and took a mental picture of Cherub once more, wanting to see what she could further derive from his catty nature, before she moved on to other animals in the future. Well, actually, she hadn’t been the one to perform Muse. Angie had done it, in a test to see if she was capable. And while it worked, there was a caveat. Angelica was given a prompt to approve it, so the clone couldn’t just overwrite the existing Muses whenever she wanted without warning.

[Fluttering Bumble Lv.9]

Angelica had gotten that hefty increase after jumping off her apartment’s roof in her cat form. She’d even made sure to turn as much on her backside as possible, waiting for the instinct to kick in and fix her orientation, which it did, but then the Demon magic kicked in afterward, completely halting her fall and allowing her to land with pure grace. So it really had nothing to do with the Bumble aspect, but her original Flutter had been improved by the cat-like reflexes.

[Shedding Lv.4]

She’d gotten that when attempting to groom herself as a cat. There wasn’t much else to say about it besides that she really didn’t care for the amount of hair in her mouth after a few licks. Most of the other experiments didn’t get her anywhere, but she had ultimately unlocked a new Skill in the end. When Angie was having a really bad bout of depression, Angelica had attempted to cheer her up, wanting a healthier method than just telling the girl to use Leech Happiness on her. So she’d gotten up close and began to meow at her incessantly like a needy kitty. It took a bit of vocal work, but she eventually got the pitch just right to where her mews were utterly irresistible. 

[Passive Skill: Smooth Talker Lv.1 unlocked | Your voice has become appealing to any who hear it, boosting the odds of getting what you want through words alone. This makes it more likely that they will hear reason, be willing to negotiate, respect your voice, give in to your demands, or just want to be on your good side. How that manifests will vary depending on the listener and situation; be it cuteness, confidence, intimidation, or whatever else makes them willing to hear what you have to say. Boosted odds scales with Skill Level, Beguilement, and Fraud Attunement]

It was weird that she had yet another aspect aimed toward making her a social butterfly when that was the last thing she wanted to be. Jester, Natural Charmer, and now Smooth Talker. It was as if the DGS was trying to beat the social anxiety out of her, like it was saying “You will be a functional member of Hell society, dammit!” Really, if it wanted that, though, it could be nice and just give her an Anxiety Resistance. Because despite her chances of failing flat on her face in a social situation decreasing, that didn’t stop her from overanalyzing it all into oblivion.

She had been a good Cultist, though, and reported her new somewhat manipulative Skill to her Legion Heir, per his request. And… Ba Skin just laughed at her. He told her it was actually quite a common Skill for any talkative Demon to have, and he didn’t even count it among the Skills he was worried about, having it himself, along with many resistances toward its effects. Apparently, even Gawk had it. This went a long way into explaining why she’d been so willing to hear Ba Skin out during the initial recruitment, rather than rejecting it all outright. Though, he was a bit surprised that she’d gotten, given her loner nature. At least he understood that much about her.

It had worked, too, in helping Angie get out of her funk. Angelica had found herself swept up in the girl’s arms, and the victim of a snuggle assault. It was quite weird being on the receiving end of pets for once, and she found that she didn’t mind it. Though, she had to put a stop to it when the butt scritches came. It felt good but awkward at the same time, to the point that it felt weird to enjoy. 

Besides that, getting Angie over this hurdle had definitely been the hardest part of the training since the start, even worse than when she was a very dumb child. It really went to show how bad it had been for her before becoming a Demon, and how far she’d come since. Evoke had been a big help, with Angelica able to instill some joy into her clone every now and then. Sadly, the effects were a bit diluted over time, or simply not strong enough to counter the worst parts. But at the same time, they were able to twist Angie’s issues into an advantage, using it to grind out a few things she normally struggled to raise on her own.

[Order Resistance Lv.14, Order Rejection Lv.7]

[Obstinance has improved from Compromising to Impartial]

And even though her clone had been refusing to follow commands, since she was still working toward the greater cause of improvement, it had counted toward Duplicate levels. Sadly, though, it meant Angelica’s Summoner progress had all but stagnated. An unobedient Demon didn’t provide experience to any significant degree, it would seem, but she still grew a little, just from her own experiences and Orders.

[Summoner Rank: Novice Lv.26]

Besides that, she’d also gotten a few miscellaneous improvements, mostly art related, since that was most of what she and Angie had been doing to not dilute the Attunement. 

[Auto-Color Lv.24, Evoke Lv.32, Runic Artist Lv.9, Shedding Lv.5, Ambidextral Mastery Lv.19]

A lot of her time had been spent drawing Runes on her body and then Shedding them away. It was good practice for when she got Rune Absorber soon, since she’d be able to make stronger ones. The absorption had to occur through use, so it would be better to have them at a higher potential. Angelica had rotated through her small library of Runes to avoid the repetitive training penalty as much as possible, and drew with both hands to boost Ambidextral Mastery. Just one more level there to go until she got… whatever it was. It better be something damn good after all this work.

During her Rune drawing escapade, she had uncovered something kind of weird. Sort of. Maybe? She wasn’t quite sure. But when she had higher levels of Retcon active, the MP draw was honestly a bit absurd. Even just around Lv.10, it would be far more than her regen could handle, and she’d need to get rid of it quickly before it drained her. Did the Skill get that much stronger to warrant that at higher levels? Sadly, she never really had something crazy to undo so she could test it that her measly Lv.3 Rune couldn’t already handle. 

[Health Factory Lv.3, Poison Eater Lv.14, Frostbite Lv.15, Toxic Imbuement Lv.10, Potently Toxic Lv.9]

Lastly, she had gotten those just through her and Angie’s daily use. Angelica was eating and sleeping regularly, but it was nice to have the little poison pick me up to keep her Health high. She’d usually take at least one or two ice pills a day, basically as a supplement, allowing her to stay rooted in the nineties, which just made her feel better overall, especially after any time she needed to bring her Duplicate to life. Angie would use it just to prolong her existence, and anytime she needed an energy boost as well.

And whenever her MP was high, Angelica would also work on stockpiling the ice pills in her stomach, to the point that she now had hundreds of each type. She definitely wouldn’t be running out anytime soon, so as long as she didn’t die in a single hit from something, or had her healing outpaced, there was no reason she should die abruptly. Manifest Ice had hardly budged in experience, however, because the amount she’d created was barely any at all.

So with all that training finally done, they could focus on the future. But first, they had to make it past the night of social awkwardness ahead. That’s what the pair were getting prepared for currently, and had honestly probably delayed a bit close to the last minute. Angie was modeling the dress Angelica was going to wear. Ultimately, instead of designing a new one, she’d found one online that she liked, but never actually purchased—pocketing the money her mother sent her for it after sending the woman a picture. 

Instead, she had just remade it through Transfiguration, all while making it so much easier to wear, and adding a few embellishments to make it unique. It was a charcoal grey sequin dress with tulle layered around the skirt that draped to the floor. Fortunately, it was tailored perfectly to where she wouldn’t trip over it, though a bit more risque compared to what she’d usually wear, with a slit on the side, showing some leg. Fortunately, her Beguilement had gotten high enough that she had the confidence to wear something like it. And since it was strapless, she thankfully didn’t need to use double-sided tape to keep the fabricated garment in place. 

Angie made a few more alterations per Angelica’s specifications before they were satisfied. It was definitely easier using her Duplicate as a mannequin she could study from all sides rather than attempting it herself while wearing the dress. Of course, her imagination was high, and she was used to such things with Editable Reprint, but it still didn’t beat a physical representation. So Angelica absorbed herself, and dawned the dress at the same time using the transferred knowledge. She additionally altered her hair, instantly did her makeup, and added a pair of uncomfortable looking shoes, that thankfully wouldn’t actually dig into her skin, unlike the real thing. 

Angelica looked at the time and took a deep breath. They’d been cutting it close indeed. Her ride would be there in less than half an hour. But the procrastination had been somewhat purposeful. She knew that once she had run out of things to do, she would just be sitting around anxiously until it was time. That didn’t stop her from doing so now, but it was better than getting nothing done earlier that day while stewing in anticipation. She had so many regrets about agreeing to attend this fundraiser for her mother’s benefit, but it’d just be worse for her if she backed out at this point. So it was time to suck it up, especially since they still had a bit of a performative ruse to execute.