Asher the Insane

15 - Asher the Thinker

Leoren readied himself. He casted a very fancy-looking spell, which didn’t seem to actually do anything but then, like a bullet; not that they have bullets in this world; sprinted towards me. 

He was surprisingly fast, not just for an old man. 

The spell he used must have been a speed buff or something in that direction.

There was still a great distance between us and in the seconds it took him to get to me, Faye asked, “are you not interested in his statistics?”

“No,” I turned to her, "...but do you think he's over level one-hundred?-" I pinched myself. 

If I asked her she’ll answer, "no, bad Asher.” I scolded myself.

 “Don't tell me, Faye. I want it to be a surprise."

I didn’t know if Leoren had an ability similar to [Analyze].

I produced some hand signs.

“Hitsuji, Mi, Tora.”

He came to a sudden halt and jumped back. It didn't seem like he knew what I was going to cast at all. He just waited to see what I would do.

If he had even the slightest idea what I was about to use, then he'd attack me as fast and as hard as he possibly could.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.”

A few dozen clones of myself appeared.

The spell was actually called [Mirror Image] but, functionally; it was they were the same as shadow clones.

It was the first time I used this skill, so the clones should be very weak.

 A good punch or two should make them disappear.

The next time I used it, the clones should be lots stronger, how much stronger I wasn't sure. The scaling of skills in this world was a mystery to me, and I was unwilling to learn it.

In general, I disliked math or anything of higher learning, just the learning part itself, not the people who have learned about it or taught it to others.

Well, I DO would dislike them if they wanted to force me to learn anything.

Looking around, I chose a nice rock to sit down on and watch the spectacle.

Leo was absolutely ruthless as he decimated the clones that were before him. 

He didn’t use any weapons just punching the living hell out of them, and for the most part, he didn’t cast any spells.

Once, when a few of the clones had surrounded him, he used a shock wave.

The clones flew back and hit the ground hard, then disappeared.

I applauded the old man as he was tearing through them.

But it was no wonder, they had no brains, no strategy, and by the looks of it, also no skills to use.

When the punching mage was finished with them, I used [Mirror Image] a second time.

This time, the skill spawned a few hundred clones, and the difference in power was immediately noticeable.

 

They were faster, smarter, tougher, and even used a few of my weaker skills. I don't think they shared my buffs because after one casted [Fireball] two  times; it didn’t seem to have gotten any stronger.

I was still proud to see my babies all grown up.

Though… they were still pretty puny when I thought about how much I must have leveled up the skill.

They were nowhere near as strong as I had hoped. Nowhere near my own level, that was for sure.

I knew it, the scaling is absolutely fucked-

Wait, hold on now, maybe I’m just misunderstanding something here.

What if [Mirror Image] was a skill which had something like a soft cap? 

With really hard diminishing returns at a specific level?

The skill itself must have been in the billions, higher maybe. What if it doesn’t really notably improve around level one-hundred?

I can’t really be angry for a kinda bad skill to be bad even if it had a high level, could I?

One of the second generation clones sat next to me. He wasn’t like the rest.

This one looked like I did originally, being on the shorter side, having brown hair and a look on his face which told me that he didn't approve of any of this.

“Oh, Asher Two," he said, exhausted, "what are you doing, attacking-"

There was an explosion on the battlefield which interrupted his speech, we just ignored it and continued.

“It's already bad that you attacked two kingdoms at once, but now you're in a brawl with the 'High-Invoker' himself. What'd you think you'll get out of this? I thought we were much more smooth than this."

"I don't know what it is," I said in an apologetic tone to the clone of my earlier version, "but deep in my stomach this is somehow what I want to do. I don't know exactly what it is."

"You could at least have tried NOT to go into politics first. I thought you- we wanted to be an adventurer first.

What was your biggest adventure until now? Saving a cat? Come on.

Save all of this grandiose stuff for later.

What happened to the idea of being the ‘bad/evil’ isekai protagonist while in actuality still being a good guy?

Like every isekai protagonist?”

“I guess you’re right, Asher One. I can't destroy the world first then try to be a good guy, wouldn't make any sense, would it? 

This could be my villain redemption arc. I was bad at first then turned good, people love that kind of crap.”

He nodded, I nodded, all of the other clones stopped and nodded too.

I sat there, thinking but in the end, the matter was already very much decided.

I un-summoned all the remaining clones, stood up and stepped in front of Leoren.

He was still ready to fight me, but he didn’t attack. That was a good sign.

“It was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it, Leo? 

I have to say sorry, I had an extensive talk with myself, in a literal sense, and realized that this is no way to do things.

When you see me next time I’m sure it is to help you.

"Well, adios." I waved then turned around, "Come on, Faye, we’re leaving. [Recall]”