Spending my retirement in a game

chapter 25

For now, maybe it would be a good idea to practice his Mana Manipulation. The higher it is before he starts with Alchemy and Enchanting, the easier he should be able to master those skills.

Eisen sat back up and thought about what to do first. Maybe he could try forming things with his mana, and heighten it that way. But he simply wasn't sure what he should form. Some kind of item? Maybe an animal? Or maybe he could copy something off his own body again. Or maybe...

Eisen concentrated and looked into himself, concentrating his mana in his center, turning it into the sphere he was used to. But this time, instead of going the long was through his arm, he thought maybe he could push it out through his chest immediately.

He first split the mana up into two spheres, and carefully moved one of them forward, pushing it out of his body. Eisen felt a light stinging as his mana left his body through his chest. Carefully, he let the mana in his body expand again, and fully concentrated on the mana floating in front of him. Right now, it was like a strongly concentrated substance, so he slowly let it expand and grow, until it was a sphere with a 1,5 meter diameter. It wasn't nearly as dense at it was before, of course, and quite hard to move around at all. However, just because it wasn't as dense, it was far softer than before, and much easier to work with.

First, eisen roughly shaped the mana into a humanoid shape, a smaller sphere as a head, a big oval as a torso, and four long tubes with squares at the end to act as arms and legs each.

Now that he had a base to work with, Eisen carefully inspected the mana inside of him, that naturally filled out every single inch of his body. Step by step, he added details to the Doll made of mana, copying his own body, until something stood in front of him which he was happy with. Sure, it didn't have all details. It only had the rough body shape, similar to the Mannequin that Eisen saw during character creation, just with a few simple differences. First, it was definitely Eisen's body. Although it didn't have his scars or complexities, if you knew what his body looked like, you could recognize him from looking at the mana copy.

The hands and feet were just roughly in the shape of them, without toes or fingers or anything like that. The Copy only roughly had parts that one might recognize as hair or a beard, but one could definitely see them as such.

Eisen looked the copy up and down, and that was when he got some notifications, showing that what he did actually had a consequence.

[Mana Copy Library expanded] Giant-Dwarf Halfling (Incomplete)

[Mana Copy of Giant-Dwarf Halfling (Incomplete) grew by absorbing the copies Giant-Dwarf Hand and Giant-Dwarf Heart]

Immediately, Eisen noticed a shifting in the Copy in front of him. First being that its hands became far, far more detailed and began looking just like the original copies he made of his hands. And after that, Eisen saw something form in the center of the Copy's chest as it became slightly transparent. Slowly, a very detailed heart formed in its middle, and afterward the 'skin' of the copy became an opaque white again.

"I see... I don't know what the incomplete thing is all about, but if it counts as a copy, can I still...?" Eisen muttered out to himself and slowly concentrated on influencing the copy's movement, and in return the copy began slowly twitching, although not actually moving as Eisen wanted it to. However, in return, he got something that might help with that.

[Mana Hands Skill upgraded to Mana Double Skill, resetting its proficiency to Rank 1, Level 1]

Instantly, Eisen noticed the Copy, or the Mana Double, move more like Eisen himself, immitating his every move. However, since Eisen thought the Mana Hands to be quite useful, he grabbed the hands of the Mana Double and began slowly absorbing the mana he used to create it.

After that, Eisen only filled his hands with mana to try if he could still use only the Mana Hands, and luckily, they soon appeared in front of him, two dismembered hands floating around. And then, Eisen slowly let the rest of his body fill out with Mana, and the more his body was filled with it, the more the Mana Double in front of him grew, until the full Double stood in front of him.

Nodding in approvement, Eisen decided to give the Double more detail, by simply copying other parts of himself in the hopes that they would be taken in by the Double's body.

Like a scanner, he started at the bottom and slowly copied every part of himself. First his feet, then his legs, his torso, his arms, and then lastly his head, until the Double in front of Eisen looked nearly identical to him, just with completely snow-white skin, and a surprising notification came up.

[Mana Copy of Giant-Dwarf Halfling was completed. Changing name of copy to 'Eisen']

[For completing a Complex Copy, your Mana Copy Skill earned extra experience]

[Mana Copy reached Level 100 in Rank 0, upgrading to Rank 1]

[It is now possible to copy external objects]

[Due to Ranking-up your Mana Copy Skill, you gained +1 INT and +1 WIS]

Nodding in satisfaction, Eisen closed the notifications and looked at the Double. If he could copy external objects now, maybe it would be a good idea to give the Double some clothes, seeing as right now it was stark naked, and if he wanted to use it, Eisen would prefer if others wouldn't be able to see him like that.

Thus, Eisen absorbed the Mana Double and moved on to the other items in his room. He decided to try and copy the suit first. He pushed his mana out of his body and slowly moved it over the set of clothes.

Now, instead of leaving it in its solid state, Eisen imagined the Mana lose its solid state and turn into a gaseous one, slowly spreading it out like a mist, as this would make it far easier to move into every nook and cranny of the jacket, to copy it in every detail.

He covered his suit jacket with the mist and noticed it pass right through, as if the jacket wasn't even there. That was when he got an idea.

Instead of replicating the item somewhere else, Eisen simply manipulated the mist so that it would only be in the places where the Jacket also was, directly giving Eisen the copy. Lastly, he simply moved the mist slightly upward and turned it into a solid state again, seemingly completing the copy.

[Mana Copy Library expanded]Fine Jacket

With a smile, Eisen turned the jacket back into its mist state, and moved onto the next item, the pants. Then the shirt, the tie and the handkerchief.

[Mana Copy Library expanded] Fine Suit

[Mana Copy of Fine Suit grew by absorbing the copies of Fine Jacket, Fine Pants, Fine Shirt, Fine Tie and Fine Handkerchief]

And at last, Eisen also copied his shoes so that his Double wouldn't walk around barefooted. Following this, Eisen summoned his Mana Double and tried figuring out how to actually give him the clothes. Until now, he simply filled his body with mana, but now he couldn't do that.

He concentrated and pushed out more of his mana, surrouding his double with it. Then, Eisen imagined the Mana Suit forming around the Double's body, and immediately they formed.

Now, there stood a completely white copy of Eisen, wearing a completely white suit in the center of Eisen's room.

Just then, Eisen began grinning, and laughing softly. The Double didn't seem to expend mana anymore after its body was formed. So, Eisen made the Copy slowly pick up the crate filled with the leftover materials.

"I guess I've got that problem figured out for now." Eisen laughed out loud while looking at his new pack mule.