ZhangYe
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Chapter 4 - Does the clone know how to fight?
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 02:32:10 +0000 UTCAs soon as I left Welf's shop, I headed toward the tower while thinking about my next steps. I need to farm some Excelia to increase my status—there's no doubt about it. But… will I be able to kill a monster?
I've never killed anything except for small insects, and I might get nervous when the time comes.
'I guess it's better not to overthink it and just go with the flow.'
After some time, I arrived at the Tower of Babel. It's probably around five in the afternoon. I can tell from the position of the sun. 'It won't be long before it gets dark, but I don't think it makes a difference whether it's day or night inside the dungeon.'
I managed to enter the tower without anyone stopping me.
Since no one could see whether I had a Falna, and they didn't care enough to check, it was as if I were invisible.
I reached the spiral staircase and descended slowly as I felt my heart race. 'Don't be nervous. Don't be nervous. Don't be nervous.' I repeated this to myself over and over until I reached the first floor.
When I stepped onto the first floor, I noticed similarities to the corridor I saw before reading that strange poem.
'It's very similar. The only difference is the wall colors. The walls here are a light blue.' I started touching the rough walls as the air became increasingly humid.
I moved forward, waiting for the first monsters to appear.
I kept a calm expression as if I wasn't feeling anything... but I was a bit nervous.
After a few minutes, I reached a slightly wider and better-lit area. In the distance, I could see a small humanoid figure, around 120 cm tall.
Or at least, I thought it was humanoid.
"So, this is a goblin?" I said, watching the disgusting creature approach.
Green skin and big eyes.
"One of the weakest monsters here. Perfect."
As I smiled, a strange mass appeared beside me, and moments later, an exact clone of myself wearing armor and wielding a sword emerged. "I was worried it wouldn't copy my equipment, but luckily, it's a replica."
Without needing me to say anything, my clone stepped forward.
I rested my sword on my shoulder and watched.
The goblin seemed a bit startled by the sudden appearance of my clone, but it attacked anyway. My clone, wearing a stupid expression, raised its sword and got ready to strike.
Its limited intelligence made it attack clumsily.
"He doesn't have any combat experience—just like me. Do the clones copy my lack of combat skills too? If so, he doesn't know how to fight." I smiled bitterly and kept watching.
My clone began swinging the sword awkwardly, but it was enough to drive the goblin back. The creature couldn't understand its strange movements. Its attacks were so erratic that the goblin was frightened!
"Pfft…" I stifled my laughter as I watched the goblin take cautious steps back, terrified.
My inexperienced clone was close to winning the fight.
After swinging its sword repeatedly without rest, it finally struck the goblin.
At the same time, my clone was also hit, but it wasn't destroyed.
My clone's sword was lodged in the goblin's shoulder, and the monster howled in pain for a few seconds until my clone twisted the blade, widening the wound and killing it.
As the goblin died, a magic stone fell to the ground, and a system message appeared before me.
[ EXP +5 ]
"Oh?"
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After receiving the system message, I gave an order. "Keep walking around the first floor and kill any monsters you find. If you encounter a group, run and try to stay alive."
"..." The clone, still wearing a dumb expression, nodded and walked away.
I opened my status screen to take a look.
All my stats were the same, except for a new set of numbers in front of my level.
Level: 1 (EXP: 5/100)
'I see, so I gain experience by killing monsters to level up. I thought I'd earn Excelia like adventurers and my status would increase gradually, but that's not the case.'
It's a bit more like Solo Leveling now.
'The only difference is that I can't bring the dead back to life.'
Feeling excited by the discovery that I could level up so easily, I decided to start exploring the first floor myself to kill some monsters. After watching my clone fight, I felt calmer.
I can handle this just fine.
[ EXP +5 ]
"He already killed another one? I can't fall behind! I can't kill fewer monsters than my dumb, weak clone. I'll feel awful if I got outdone by an inferior version of myself."
[ EXP +5 ]
"What!? Hold on!"
####
[ You leveled up! ]
[ You received 5 points! ]
[ All stats +1 ]
"Huff~~ Huff~~" Breathing heavily, I looked at the magic stone on the ground. The system messages made the corners of my mouth curl into a grin. "This is exactly what I expected from a system!"
Excited, I opened my status screen.
It looked the same as before, except my level was higher, and a new status called "Points" had appeared.
Points: 5
'These must be the points I can use to increase my stats.' I tried allocating one point to Strength, and it worked.
[ Your Strength has increased to 7! ]
Hehehe~~
I started laughing like an idiot, treating it like a simple game.
It's like a real-life RPG; this is so exciting.
"All right, add two more points to Strength and the rest to Agility."
[ Are you sure? ]
Seeing the system's question, I was confused.
'What do you mean?'
That's when I noticed something new in the top right corner of my status window—a button labeled "Skills."
"All right, cancel that. I need to check the skills first."
