Inside the magic practice room, Lucien looked at the face opposite him—identical to his own down to the smallest detail—and for a moment, he felt like he was looking into a mirror.
To ensure the reproducibility of the magical circuit transfiguration results, he had the Metamorphic Flesh Puppet·Modified completely replicate everything about himself—not just the path of every node in his magical circuit, but even the minutest physical details of his body.
Standing in front of this flesh puppet now, Lucien felt as if he were facing a version of himself that had been drained of its soul.
When he first attempted circuit transfiguration, looking at that empty face of "his" while adjusting the circuits with magic gave him an uncanny feeling that was hard to shake.
But as his research deepened, he gradually got used to it, eventually becoming able to focus on those delicate magical nodes without distraction.
However, sometimes a thought would still bubble up from the depths of his mind—
It was a bit of a "pity."
It was a pity that the creature the Metamorphic Flesh Puppet transformed into ultimately possessed no true intelligence, nor could it replicate the original's wisdom and memories.
If only this flesh puppet could be like a true clone, possessing independent thinking and learning capabilities.
If there were a magic similar to cloning, where the main body and the clone could study different knowledge and explore different magical fields simultaneously, wouldn't his learning efficiency double directly? Or even multiply several times over?
As for those melodramatic tropes that often appeared in stories—clones fighting for dominance, clones turning on their creator, and the like—Lucien didn't really care.
Whoever mastered more knowledge was the main body.
Although he was still young and would gain an even longer lifespan once the Youth Apples matured in the future, Lucien still frequently felt a sense of urgency.
The mysteries of magic were as vast as the ocean.
The deeper he went, the more clearly he realized this.
There was simply too much to learn!
For the past six months or so, Lucien's focus had been primarily on Alchemy.
First, because he had obtained an extraordinary talent for Alchemy through the Emerald Tablet Fragment, and later became a student of Nicolas Flamel. If he didn't pour his heart into it, it would be a reckless waste of resources.
Second, to repay the loan task for the Emerald Tablet Fragment itself, he had to constantly research and manufacture alchemical items based on wizarding needs. During this process, theoretical study and practical application complemented each other, leading to rapid progress.
But currently, Lucien only possessed a fragment.
He didn't know when he would get the chance to complete the Emerald Tablet and elevate his SS+ Alchemy talent to SSS rank.
Because he possessed an SSS-rank talent in Transfiguration, Lucien knew better than anyone that the gap between SS+ and SSS—which seemed like a single step—was actually a chasm.
It wasn't a realm that could be described by words like "improvement" or "breakthrough."
It was the difference between a frog gazing at the moon from the bottom of a well and a mayfly witnessing the vastness of the open sky.
To improve learning efficiency, having means like clones was certainly one direction, but increasing the corresponding magical talent was undoubtedly more direct and brutal.
Lucien could master Transfiguration and even blaze new trails to the peak within a year, but he absolutely couldn't do the same with Alchemy—at least not with his current SS+ talent.
The deeper he studied magic, the more he felt that the long string of seemingly absurd and abstract loan tasks he triggered when obtaining Loki's Faceless was actually quite "reasonable."
Relative to an SSS-rank magical talent, those tasks were fair.
However, that time had been a "newbie welfare" bonus for entering the magical world.
If he wanted to obtain another SSS-rank magical talent in the future, it was hard to say what the cost would be.
For Loki's Faceless, the System had already waived most of the "loan interest."
And the System's Year-Loans had always been the most unpredictable thing of all.