"Deploy the clone."
With Daneel's words, a naked figure started forming in front of him.
He had been quite fascinated with this process the first time too, opting to spectate while the system deployed the spell and formed the clone.
It started with a humanoid figure which slightly shone with a silver light.
In fact, the figure looked like it was made up of clouds. With time, the clouds solidified more and more to match his body.
The skin then started to form, with layer after layer coming into existence as each second passed.
To Daneel, it was almost as if someone were weaving the figure into existence in front of him, using the gossamer motes of light in the room as the yarn to give life to his replica.
Facial features and the contours of his muscles came last, leaving him staring into the vacant eyes of his clone.
At this point, no one would be able to tell the difference between the two, at least by just using their vision.
"Keep the standing position and shift consciousness to the clone"
After he spoke in his mind, a flash of light appeared in his vision, blinding him completely.
Something seemed to shift, as if he had changed locations but had not moved physically in order to do so.
While he blinked his eyes in order to regain his vision, Daneel felt very cold.
Looking down after a few moments with his restored sight, he saw that he was naked.
Unlike the last time when he jumped with surprise and almost fell down, Daneel simply looked up to see his original body standing with vacant eyes.
It stood rigidly, and the only movements that Daneel could discern were that of the chest moving up and the down due to the activity of breathing.
As for the expression, it was frozen into the one of interest he had had when seeing the clone come into existence.
This was how the spell worked: the system created a replica of him which he could take control of, provided the replica stayed in the area of a 10-kilometer circle with him as the center.
If the clone crossed this circle, it would dissipate and Daneel would regain consciousness in his original body.
If the clone suffered an attack from even an Amateur Human Mage or Fighter, it would dissipate.
And of course, if the time limit ended, it would dissipate.
Thus, the clone was simply a puppet controlled by Daneel.
The original Fighter Replication Technique allowed a Fighter to make a replica of themselves which they could use to distract their opponent.
The minimum level required to use the technique was the peak Warrior Level, while the Fighter also had to have decent grasp over the secret method of controlling elementary particles without being in possession of a Mageroot like mages.
According to Felix, this technique had been lost due to certain circumstances, making it so that the value of the remaining techniques dropped by a lot.
Apparently, without this secret technique, it was also impossible to reach the Champion Level as a Fighter.
Thus, although the Training Hall had such valuable techniques, only a few of them could even be trained with by the members.
It was only because of the system's existence that Daneel had been able to develop a spell which removed this limitation while also allowing him to cast the spell while only being an Eminent Human Mage.
In contrast to the Mage clone technique which needed control of a huge number of elementary particles which was beyond his level, this technique focused more on the complexity rather than the volume, which allowed him to develop the spell in the first case.
Of course, the tradeoff had been that the replica would be very weak, while also only existing for a short while in a small distance around him.
Yet, these were all parameters that would increase with his own level.
Right now, this was perfectly what he wanted. With the clone, he would be able to address anything that was required in the Palace while also being able to venture into the Capital if he needed to get any information. With the Disguise and Surveillance Tool available in the system, the clone would make a perfect, untraceable spy, albeit being limited in the area that it could operate.
But Daneel's wish of letting his body train and doing whatever he wanted all day was shattered when he heard the final limitation of the spell.
In a day, he could only use the spell twice.
This was the hard limit imposed by the system, stating that it was for the safety of his Mageroot.
Although the system was the one deploying the spell, it was still only using Daneel's mageroot in order to control the elementary particles.
The original spell's complexity was just too high, while Daneel's level was also too low.
Thus, the strain placed on the Mageroot was too high. It was akin to a man lifting a load well beyond his body's limit-he would be able to do so once or twice, but doing it a third time without taking rest might result in his back breaking.
If he deployed one clone, 12 hours of rest was recommended. But like now, if two were deployed back-to-back, Daneel would have to rest till the next day in order to make a clone again.
Thankfully, this did not impact his regular spell-casting abilities-only the maximum load was burdened, making it so that regular usage wasn't affected.
Regardless, he decided to be frugal about how he used the clone.
Suddenly, through the system, Daneel detected that Kellor and Faxul were making their way to his chambers.
Quickly dressing himself, he shifted consciousness to his original body before going back to the Energised Training Chamber and ordering the system to deploy the development techniques after lying down comfortably. The last time, he had felt an intense burning sensation in his legs after shifting back consciousness due to his folly in ordering the system to maintain a sitting pose.
According to the description of the original spell, if an individual did reach the level to train in it, he would be able to control both bodies simultaneously by splitting his mind.
Alas, this was still far away from Daneel. Thus, he could only resort to ordering the system to do some simple tasks such as sitting and standing, which was apparently all it was capable of.
Just as the vacant eyes of the clone became clear again, a knock sounded on the door.
Opening the door through the system, Daneel took a seat in one of the sofas he had ordered to be brought over.
Before, the chambers had been bare except for the bed, the dragon heart in the middle and a few cabinets.
Now, 5 sofas were arranged neatly facing the dragon heart while one luxurious chair was in front of them, with its back against the root of the formation.
Taking a seat in this plush chair, Daneel waited for the others to speak while observing if they would be able to notice any change in him. Although they hadn't said anything before on the way to the Royal Court, he wondered if they saw something which might let them suspect that he was actually a clone.
"My Lord, the Black Raven Kingdom have sent over a message in the official communication trinket."
Saying so, Kellor took out the raven-shaped bronze trinket that the envoy, Bevis, had left behind in the Kingdom. Daneel had bound it before leaving it in the room which held all such trinkets.
The raven actually reminded him of the one which Faxul had thrown at him. Yet, it seemed somehow .... primitive when compared to the exquisite craftsmanship of the one which had shockingly turned out to be a display trinket.
Generally, parchments were used for short range communication while trinkets like these were used for long to very long range transmissions.
Daneel had noticed that his friend had been very stiff in his movements when he entered the room. Now, he realized that it was probably because of the mention of the people who had killed his family.
His eyes transfixed on the glowing raven, Faxul watched on with a stoic expression while Daneel took it into his hands and heard the message.
After a few moments, he looked up with a grin on his face before saying, "They are asking for the meeting again. I guess its high time we found out just what is so important. Coordinate with their officials and set up a meeting tomorrow at noon at the North Gate. Oh, and make sure that a reserve camp is set up 5 kilometers from the gate. We will be making a stop there before going to the meeting."
If they were laying a trap, the Black Raven Kingdom would definitely be sorely disappointed when the King of Lanthanor simply disappeared from the location, as if he had just been a mere figment of their imagination.