Chapter 85 - Summoning A Dimensional Clone

Being born as a normal civilian on a corner planet of the Federation, Aldrin knew that his knowledge concerning the mysteries and secrets of the world was lacking. Even through the dimnet that should be accessible to the entirety of human territories; be it the Council, the Republic or the Federation, the information accessible for someone like him, who neither came from an Energy Refiner lineage or just a wealthy lineage was strictly regulated.

He could connect with anyone from the dimnet, play with them online through it though.

However, after stepping his foot to the World of Energy Refiners, he found out that everything he learned from school or even the tidbits he managed to dig in the dimnet were extremely lacking.

Even the history of humankind after the migration lost a lot of detail or if not lost, locked up, never to be known again unless one was qualified to know it.

In fact, even the history of Planet Dualmoon was most likely tailored and embellished for the people to not care too much about things outside of their capabilities.

Through IDLE Database or rather, the books he could buy, he managed to remove some shade to the things he didn't really care for before. And after being registered to the Association, more information became accessible for him.

However, Aldrin's current predicament this time was the risk of exposing himself as the whistleblower.

The scope of things he knew compared to those up high and well-informed was extremely narrow. And that resulted in him making those assumptions upon recognizing that man.

Either he's a target for disposal or something was about to happen in this fortress.

"Janet has at least a favorable impression of me. If I tell her that the man responsible for the Southern District disaster is here, I can probably ask her to protect my identity. However, I have no clue if that man recognized me yet."

"Still, I also cannot erase the possibility that my assumption of his identity is wrong…"

With his mind swirling towards what he should do, Aldrin found himself stuck.

However, upon recalling what happened at the Southern District, he steeled himself to make a decision. Rather than wait for the worse, he'd prevent it from happening instead even if there's a chance that he's wrong.

"That's right. I have the means to investigate. The Dimensional Clones!"

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With his mind becoming filled with the sense of urgency because there's already the chance that the man would open a Dimensional Rift in the middle of the night, Aldrin got up from his bed and left his room.

Most trainees were already in their rooms but there were still some who were passing their time outside.

There were also the instructors but they're staying in another building, adjacent to the trainees' quarters.

With the cold breeze of the night brushing past him, Aldrin looked for a place where he could summon a Dimensional Clone without being seen.

The whole Training Camp was large so it didn't take long for him to find an obscure place.

Naturally, he made sure that no one followed him before taking out his phone.

Soon enough, he accessed the IDLE Database and went to the 'Exclusive Skills' page which contained two entries at the moment.

[Exclusive Skills:

1. Summon Dimensional Clone – requires Shadow Clone Concept + 100 IDLE Points

- x5 IDLE Points cost increment per additional Dimensional Clones

- Summonable Units: (2/2)*

2. Summon Guardian Ant – requires 1100 Essences

- additional 100 IDLE Points if in Host's Dimensional Plane

- Summonable Units: (1/1)]

"I can only summon two of them. It's in line with how many Shadow Clones I can conjure using the Concept."

Aldrin gave it a quick review as he selected the first skill listed.

He originally set it to be used during emergencies. Considering the current situation, if he's right with his assumption, it's not just an emergency but a crisis that would fall into their heads.

Even at this moment, he's hoping that he's wrong. That's why he wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.

Before the Training Camp started, Aldrin had already tried using the skill once. Although it cost him 100 IDLE Points, it's a fair cost for him since it's a skill he was relying on. Moreover, using that trial, he managed to familiarize himself with it. He successfully analyzed its difference to his normal Shadow Clones.

For one, even though there's also a time limit for its existence, the IDLE Database would notify him if he wanted to extend its duration 1 minute before it disappeared.

As for the cost of extending its duration, it would become a metered service from the mysterious application. 1 IDLE point per second.

His normal Shadow Clone had an inherent duration of ten minutes as long as it's not destroyed while the Dimensional Clone had a shorter duration, 8 minutes at best.

Aldrin found that fair, favorable even. His Dimensional Clone can carry over its equipment and the Skill born from it.

He could also access its Status Page on his phone or computer, allowing him to change its weapon type or even upgrade its equipment as long as he got the necessary IDLE points for it. Furthermore, there were also a few helpful extra options that could be used.

He could manually control the Dimensional Clone but that would render his real body unconscious. So instead of that, the ability to command and share its vision was what he's relying on.

"That man being there at the cafeteria means he's one of the guest Energy Refiners. And Janet told us that those guest Energy Refiners are all going to stay inside the camp for the duration of the Metadome Lessons. Some will even accompany us inside the maintained Dimensional Rift. Anyway, that's not important at the moment, locating and confirming that it's him is my priority."

After activating the skill and picking Striker as the Dimensional Clone to be summoned, the 100 points were instantly deducted to his remaining IDLE Points balance.

Following that, the screen of his phone seemingly darkened. Inside him, Aldrin sensed his Energy Quintessence churned as a Shadow Clone emerged in front of him.

A few seconds later, the Shadow Clone's body seemingly vibrated as the figure of Striker, clad in leather armor while holding its pair of sabers, one of which was bronze-colored due to being Level 5.

As his phone screen lit up once more, Striker's status page now filled the screen.

After checking the extra options of 'Hide Equipment' and 'Temporary Appearance Morphing', the Dimensional Clone's figure shuddered as its leather armor covering its whole body seemingly got absorbed inwardly. The sabers in both hands also got the same treatment.

Once it became like a normal Shadow Clone that had a similar body figure as Aldrin, its appearance morphed into the body of an Elite Soldier Ant.

"Better that than make it look like a human. It's not like it morphed perfectly anyway. Its overall appearance still looked like a shadowy figure that could disappear at any moment. This is enough…" Aldrin circled around the Dimensional Clone once.

He stepped away from it and issued his command.

Go and find the man!

Just like how the Dimensional Clones moved in the Lower Dimension, the Dimensional Clone disguised as an Elite Soldier Ant darted away with a clear destination in its mind.