The Genius of Cloning in the Academy City

Chapter 26: Polaris – Violet Secures Mana!

The aged instructor dragged his feet into the noisy auditorium.

Frederick did not like his job.

While many people agonize over jobs that don’t suit them, he had grown truly tired of this work.

When he entered the hall, a group of chattering students came into view.

Clueless idiots, lacking seriousness or a will to learn.

Did they even know how much their parents had poured into getting them here?

‘It’s none of my business why they’re just here for the diploma.’

He forced himself to swallow his irritation and stood up.

The prosthetic arm on his left creaked slightly.

Now, it was nothing more than a cumbersome piece of equipment meant to balance his body weight.

‘It’s about time for maintenance.’

After suffering severe injuries in the field and retiring, he had come to this place on the recommendation of an acquaintance.

Teaching wasn’t really in his nature, but he did his best with what he could.

He continuously updated himself by surveying the field, studying, and then passing on his knowledge to the students.

‘Thank you, Instructor! My skills have improved so much, thanks to you.’

‘Look at this! I think I’m about to hit B-rank soon!’

Watching his students grow from blank slates into individuals painting their own paths was one of the small joys that made his busy life as an instructor worthwhile.

The gratitude of his former students still lingered vividly in his mind.

For nearly 15 years, he had worked there, but at some point, the academy began to fall apart.

‘Damn it, five years of enduring this is enough. It’s about time I handed in my resignation.’

When he struck the floor with his mana-infused sheath, the students who had been chattering and fooling around gradually turned their attention to him. 𝘳ἈNőᛒΕ§

Where had it gone wrong?

As enrollment numbers grew, the quality of students plummeted.

Good instructors left one by one.

As usual, he told the students to grab their practice weapons at the start of class.

But there were those who came to class empty-handed.

Weapons were the lifeblood and extension of a hunter’s body.

When he asked why, their response was absurd.

“Senior students told us not to carry them…”

Frederick sighed deeply.

Here we go again, freshmen hazing.

The school, now overrun with aimless stragglers chasing an academy diploma, had seen its standards deteriorate.

Tradition and discipline had turned into tools for the posturing of muscle-headed bullies.

The higher-ups not only ignored this but seemed to encourage it subtly.

“…Retired hunters scamming clueless applicants? Pathetic private academies with instructors who know nothing but cheap stunts? I know better than those hacks!”

‘…And yet, here I am, just another one of those hack instructors.’

He sneered at himself inwardly.

He could criticize the students and the state of the school all he wanted, but wasn’t he also just mindlessly going through the motions, feeding off the board’s meager salary?

Shaking his head, he tried to clear his thoughts.

As he guided the students, his frown deepened with frustration.

They had all imitated what they’d seen somewhere, but their fundamentals were shaky.

Damn social media trends.

While he observed the students, one in particular caught his attention—a blonde-haired girl with striking red eyes.

He’d already given her a scolding earlier. Her name was Violet Rugilinn, if he recalled correctly.

She was shouting spirited cries of “Hiya! Hiya!” while swinging her sword with enthusiasm.

It was a mess.

“…That cheeky brat from earlier! She looks like she thinks she’s conducting an music orchestra or something.”

Annoyed, he went over to correct her technique.

Surprisingly, she followed his instructions earnestly. Before long, the trajectory of her sword began to stabilize.

Seeing her small progress, the girl grinned sheepishly.

‘She picks things up faster than I thought.’

After some time, Frederick, while checking the students’ aura projection levels, glanced at her again.

The fool seemed to have lost control of her innate ability, accidentally summoning what looked like a clone that tripped another student.

When he questioned her, she admitted she didn’t know how to generate sword energy.

He was dumbfounded and asked how she had even been admitted.

“…Through a special admission process.”

Frederick felt his chest tighten with frustration.

In five years, the school had declined this much.

As he turned away in dismay, the brat called out to him.

“But isn’t this an academy?”

“What?”

“I came here to learn because I don’t know. What’s wrong with that?”

When he turned around, annoyed, to reprimand her, their eyes met.

Her gaze wasn’t defiant.

‘Did she really come here knowing nothing at all?’

Frederick suddenly felt ashamed.

‘I’m an instructor, aren’t I? Why haven’t I been trying to teach?’

He decided to guide her once more.

He scolded her for not understanding quickly enough, but he demonstrated step by step.

Before long, like a blooming crimson flower, sword energy began emanating from the girl’s weapon.

Frederick was left speechless.

‘What in the world? She knows how to utilize her innate ability and handle ether… How has she never learned to wield sword energy before?’

The girl jumped with joy at her success.

“It worked! Hehehe…”

Yes, Frederick liked this attitude.

How long had it been since he last saw a student so purely delighted by learning?

The old instructor suddenly found himself curious.

This blank slate of a freshman, absorbing everything like a sponge—he wanted to see where she could go.

“Don’t waste your weekend playing around. Practice that. Got it? I’ll check up on you.”

“Yes, sir!”

As she left the gymnasium, Frederick watched her go.

His gaze, just slightly softer than before, followed her departing figure.

* * *

Before we had time to celebrate, we were thrown into battle after battle from Saturday morning until noon in the forest.

“No. 2! No. 1! Raise your shields!”

“No. 5, move to the rear! No. 3, attack!”

“Generate sword energy and strike!”

“Kyarurung!”

“Die, you socially inept cat!”

-Swish!

“Kyarolong…”

Since learning how to generate sword energy, combat had become considerably easier.

We no longer had to aim for sneak attacks, as our attacks were now more effective against the monsters.

“That instructor, Frederick or whatever! He’s strict, but he’s definitely skilled!”

“Right? Learning sword techniques and aura skills is a huge step forward!”

Before mastering sword energy, the exchange rate between Pellinut and Violet’s unit had been at least 0:3.

After learning it, we had improved to a ratio of 1:1 in battles—a very satisfying growth!

Of course, sacrifices were inevitable.

Even now, No. 4, who had been stabbing with a spear, had their leg half torn off by a monster’s claw.

Though the Pellinut was dead, we groaned for a while, sprawled on the ground.

“Aaaah… My leg!”

“Ugh… No choice. Reverse summon and bring them back.”

“Ugh… But the reverse summon speed is so slow!”

“It hurts too much! Do something!”

We exchanged glances and nodded grimly.

“Ugh… Reverse summoning is slow. If the head or vitals are hit, the pain might be less.”

“When No. 5’s head got chopped off, they felt less pain.”

“Ugh… Wait, should we try that?”

“I’m in so much pain! Do whatever! Wait! No! Don’t hit me—!”

No. 2 smashed the back of No. 4’s head with a battle hammer as they began to dissipate into dust.

-Crack!

“Aaargh!”

“Ugh!”

“My head hurts… but at least the pain in my arm is gone.”

No. 4 disappeared, reduced to a corpse.

I immediately regenerated No. 4.

Startled and confused, she clutched her head, which had been shattered, and glanced at her legs in bewilderment.

“Hey! What’s the big idea, hitting me like that… Wait, the pain in my leg is gone!”

“Could it be…!”

We stumbled upon a groundbreaking discovery, as momentous as Pasteur’s vaccine or Fleming’s penicillin: rather than regenerating a subject when necessary, it was far more convenient to simply remove the source of the pain swiftly.

“This way, we won’t have to worry about injuries anymore, huh? No need to fuss about finding recovery potions.”

“Still, mana isn’t infinite. Let’s regenerate when we can.”

“Should we try to find guns or grenades later? It’d be even quicker.”

“Great idea!”

After discovering this easy solution to injuries, our adventure grew more intense.

We exchanged three Felinut, six Skulkit groups, and four Violets as we pushed forward in our exploration.

The countless insignificant mutant beasts we defeated along the way weren’t even worth counting.

“We found it!”

After exploring all morning and afternoon, we finally located all the crystal flowers.

The sun had already sunk low in the sky.

“Mission accomplished! Mana: 8000!”

“Let’s summon them all!”

Except for No. 7, waiting at the dormitory, and No. 8, busy gathering data, the area near the forest became crowded with 14 Violets.

“Wow! Wow!”

“Wherever you look, it’s us!”

No. 1, standing in the center, placed her hands on her hips and made an announcement.

“With this many of us, we can clear dungeons with ease. Tomorrow at dawn, we’ll catch the bus and head to that dungeon in the southwest!”

“Let’s go!!”

Everyone cheered energetically.

“Um…”

One Violet raised her hand hesitantly. It was No. 12.

“…Question: what about weapons?”

“Well, our main combatants will be equipped with three-star weapons, and the rest can fight with daggers or tools.”

Immediate objections erupted from all sides.

“What? No way! No. 1, are you showing off just because you’re the first clone?”

“We want proper weapons too! We want to fight comfortably!”

No. 9 calmed the others down.

“Now, now! Let’s settle down. We might find better weapons than the Polaris Academy gear while exploring the dungeon.”

Another Violet suggested a new idea.

“Couldn’t we possibly copy weapons?”

All eyes turned toward her.

“Copy them? What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. Right now, we’re all wearing identical uniforms, hoods, and hats.”

We all nodded.

We had learned back in the lab that our clothes could be copied.

“Now that I think of it, didn’t the Deep Crimson Academia treat clothing as items too? Why can these be copied?”

“Huh? You’re right!”

We had completely overlooked this crucial fact: clothing wasn’t just decoration—it was actual equipment.

“Why didn’t we think to check the status window for our outfits?”

No. 1 immediately checked the status window.

[Polaris Academy Student Uniform ☆☆☆]

A uniform for students of Polaris Comprehensive Academy.

Though it appears to be a typical student uniform at first glance, it is crafted from a special synthetic material derived from dimensional creatures, offering some degree of stab- and bulletproof protection.

The vitality of youth is wrapped in protective layers.

…

“It’s real.”

“Everyone, check your status windows. All of us can access them.”

We all checked our status windows and confirmed that every clone was wearing a [Polaris Academy Freshman Uniform ☆☆☆].

“If the uniforms can be copied, maybe the equipment we’re holding…”

“Let’s test it right now! No. 2, take out your three-star one-handed sword!”

No. 4 pulled out a three-star one-handed sword and focused her mind. Her target was No. 10, standing nearby.

Mana drained rapidly, and glowing red ether droplets coalesced and stretched out toward No. 10’s hand.

Moments later, a long one-handed sword appeared in No. 10’s grasp.

“It worked!”

“This actually works?”

“Check the status window!”

We gathered around No. 10’s status window.

Clearly displayed was “Polaris Training One-Handed Sword (Arming Sword) ☆☆☆.”

“Great. Copying weapons does consume some mana, but this solves our equipment issue.”

“The era of fighting with random tools is over!”

As everyone celebrated, No. 2 urgently contacted No. 7 at the dormitory.

-7, the wallet! Bring the wallet!-

-Why so suddenly? What for? That?!-

“Everyone, listen up! Watch closely! If we can copy objects, what else might be possible?”

Suddenly, No. 2 received the wallet through a transmission and pulled out a 100-credit bill.

The shared thought caused all our crimson eyes to gleam with greed and curiosity.

“Alright! Do it!”

No. 2 began copying the bills and throwing them into the air.

“We can copy money!!”

“Hoorayyyy!!”

We excitedly picked up the scattered bills.

But then No. 12 pointed to a corner of one bill.

“Uh… Everyone, look at this.”

Upon inspection, the serial numbers were identical on every bill.

All the money in our hands was identical.

“Ah… so much for counterfeit fun.”

“And there’s another problem.”

No. 7 pointed to some bills scattered on the ground.

A few of the bills were carried away by the wind.

As they caught the light of the setting sun, they disintegrated into etheric particles.

“…If they’re too far from us, they vanish?”

We threw a one-handed sword to the ground and collectively stepped far away.

The sword quickly turned into sparkling dust and disappeared.

“So, no scams for us.”

“Yeah, I thought we could print money endlessly to buy five-star equipment…”

No. 2 encouraged everyone.

“Still, copying three-star gear is a big win. Whether we can copy four-star or five-star gear later is uncertain, though.”

“The problem that plagued us has been resolved so easily. Mana can be replenished with herbs or gear, and levels will grow with time. That just leaves…”

“The inventory issue. We can’t exactly store weapons all over the dormitory.”

Everyone strongly agreed.

Carrying everything we needed at all times would be ideal, but the senior students’ ban on weapon possession aside, each Violet’s carrying capacity was equivalent to that of an ordinary teenage girl.

Constantly transmitting weapons was also tedious.

What we needed was an inventory.

Inventories are magical tools from games, allowing a person to carry mountains of belongings as if by magic.

Usually explained away as a gaming convention, some games incorporated inventory into their in-world logic.

Deep Crimson Academia was one such game.

“We’ll secure that item five years before the Scholar does.”

The Violets nodded in agreement.

Our target was the Multidimensional Storage Bag.

It was an item obtained by the game’s protagonist, the Scholar, during the early tutorial, granting inventory functionality.

It was a bound item with no displayed grade.

“With it, we’ll plunder dungeons endlessly and leave this academy a year from now.”

“Living in comfort and luxury.”

That was our long-term goal.

The meeting ended with that.

As the sun set, we descended the forest path and returned to the dormitory.

While we were heading back, No. 7 sent an urgent message.

-Hey! Guys! We’ve got trouble! Bring some instant noodles!-

-Huh? What’s going on?-

-It’s… We’ve been caught!-

“No way…!”

“…Rugilinn, why did you take my snacks without asking?”

I had to face Daphne, sulking in the dormitory.

“Sorry!”