Chapter 72: Clone Spell

“There is something of sorts around here, but it’s not an alteration; it’s a spell to completely wipe all memories. That is why I didn’t touch or go anywhere near it. Some of these spells were built into the spellbook; I don’t want to accidentally wipe my memories for a spell,” Dina responded.

“Tampering with the spellbooks might result in you losing your memories?” Aiden asked.

“Not necessarily, but you can’t be too careful when dealing with spells like this; there’s a reason they’re…” Dina stopped and flashed a bright smile at Aiden. She was going to keep talking about the spell, but she quickly remembered Aiden was a priest.

“I can check for something similar. I still haven’t checked the entire library, so there might be something I haven’t seen yet.” Dina closed her eyes, placing both her hands together; then a magic circle formed between her hands, and behind her, four clones popped up, created from her mana.

Without saying a word, the clones walked away, all of them headed to the other side of the library as they began browsing through bookshelves and books, looking for anything related to memory magic.

Since Dina was a halfling, it was harder to reach the top of the shelves, but the underground library wasn’t that big, and there were plenty of ladders here, unlike the actual library.

Aiden turned around as he watched them for some seconds. He was fascinated by the clone spell, not just because it creates a copy, but because of the complexity of it all; someone in the past had to rack their brain before creating a spell like this.

And Dina here was able to understand it and even made slight corrections to improve the spell. After watching for some seconds, he finally spoke.

“So they’re exactly like you; how do you control them, with your mind?” He asked.

“Yes, since they’re made from my mana, they have my knowledge and can understand what I understand, but they’re not independent people, and they know that. To make it easier, you can think of them as pieces of me. Also, because of the tweaks I made to the spell, I can’t send them very far,” Dina replied, trying to ease Aiden’s mind about the clone spell, unaware he wanted it for himself.

“You can’t send them very far. I thought you could switch your consciousness with one, controlling it independently?” Aiden asked as he stared at Dina, who was shocked to see that he knew something about the clone spell.

“Uhmm… I can, but only with a single clone at a time. I can switch with more than one,” Dina replied.

“Does it get confusing, controlling this many?” Aiden asked.

“Not really. My mind is capable of handling multiple things at once; also, I simply give them a command, and I can just forget about it. This way, it’s improved my studying by a lot; I can read 5 books all at once,” Dina spoke with a smile forming on her face.

“Isn’t this going to lead to the same problem the elven queen currently has, or is that limited to elves?” Aiden asked.

“It’s limited to elves. They are probably the oldest species in the world, and an elf can live up to 2000 years, compared to my 400; that’s nothing. No matter how much I study, I can’t get memory collapse,” Dina mouthed, and suddenly she turned excited.

She liked magic; she liked talking about magic, but since Aiden was a priest, she knew he wouldn’t be interested in magic that wasn’t holy magic, but seeing Aiden continuously asking questions about magic and spells was getting her excited.

“Alright then, tell me more about the clone spell?” Aiden asked. He wanted to know everything, and since the subject was slowly changing, he quickly changed it back.

If the clones find a book on memories, he wouldn’t have the time to ask more questions about the clone spell.

“The clones aren’t perfect copies; Since they’re made from mana, they are naturally weaker than the original; they also can’t use spells unless you specifically make one with that in mind, and making many of them burns through mana since you have to divide between them”

“For mages whose strength revolves around mana, creating tons of clones is simply a waste, though if a mage is physically capable, it’s possible to use a tiny amount of mana and rely on physical capabilities, but still it’ll not be as good as the original”

“That’s fair, but I’m much more interested in the new tweaks you made to the spell; that is really brilliant,” Aiden said.

“See, you understand, but the way you’re speaking, do you want to learn the clone spell?” Dina asked.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it,” Aiden replied, and her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe it; there was no way a priest just said he wasn’t opposed to trying a spell branded evil by the church, and by all rights, because the spell was indeed evil if used incorrectly.

“I can draft the spell book if you want me to; I haven’t had the time to properly create the revised spell,” Dina said.

“So how many can you handle comfortably?”

“I think five is a comfortable number, although I can push the number up a bit, but with that it would be difficult to maintain the spell, let alone do anything, so it’ll be an inconvenience, but I’m sure it’ll be nothing for you if you tried… Also, I have a question: how is it possible you’re able to perfectly conceal your mana? I can’t sense anything from you?” Dina asked as she moved closer to Aiden, leaving just a tiny space between them.

Aiden gulped a bit as the position she was in made him notice what he had been trying to ignore for a while now. With her size, she was slightly below him, and no matter where he looked, it seemed his eyes always found their way to her milkers.