At 99.8%, it had finally stopped; it had taken all my soul energy, leaving only 0.2%. That is barely able to keep me coherent enough to follow the next step of the project. Buzz! I looked at the lotus in my hand and gently placed it down in the pool; the moment I did, the thousands of tiny silvery runes on it lit resplendently. I could see they had begun to suck the resources from the pool. I hope it will be enough; they should be considering I had added 20% extra than my estimation. So, even if it crosses my estimation like my soul energy, it should be enough. I am still quite surprised by the amount of soul energy the method has taken; my soul energy has grown vastly since I was a Master. It is not only grown in volume but also the purity. I had put a special focus on it with the method in mind, and despite all the preparation, it had nearly drained me. It is a good thing; I was still able to supply it. If it had wanted more, I would have needed to burn my soul like the last time to generate more. I don't wish to do that, especially now, where powerful enemies are everywhere. Thankfully, I am finished with that stage, and the next stage did not seem to be having any problem seeing the way it is consuming the resources. A quarter of them had already gone, and it was not just resources in the pool it had taken; it was taken from the pool itself. The runes on the lotus are sucking massive soul energies present in the pure soul crystal. I am not worried about it consuming the whole soul crystal, and even if it did, it would not matter as long as I get the second clone. The clone had already proved its usefulness, and having another one would benefit me tremendously, especially in troubled times like these. I have already decided what I have wanted with my clones; I will put them on the work the moment they materialize. Time passed, and soon, half of the resources from the pool had disappeared; the changes have started appearing on the lotus. On its blood-red petals, lines of violet begin appearing, and the silvery runes gain a shade of green, with silvery lines covering its edges. This method is really amazing; though it has some flaws, the unique nature of my core counters them easily and turns them into its strength. Sometimes, I wonder whether it is designed for me. A few more minutes passed, and another quarter disappeared, leaving only 25% of the resources of the original, but the lotus is still consuming them. I continued to watch the process, not daring to miss anything; a problem might occur at any time, and I needed to be ready to deal with them. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎 Though it will be very hard for me to deal with any problem arising from it, I do know enough about the method to fix it. It is too complex, and if it were not for the step-by-step instructions, it would have been impossible for me to practice it with just a structure. Twelve more minutes passed, and finally, the lotus began to stop taking the resources; there are less than 10% of the resources had remained in the pool; it had also reduced the side of this huge soul crystal by around 15%, which speaks shocking amount of soul energy the lotus had taken It is a good thing I have made the preparations for it, and the second stage went smoothly. For a couple of seconds, the lotus remained on its spot without any change before slowly floating up; when it reached my chest height, it turned translucent and entered inside me. Buzz! As the lotus entered inside me, I felt cool and warm at same time; the feeling had lasted for couple of seconds when suddenly, I have received a shock which blacked out everything, made me unconscious. When I became conscious, I once against felt a familiar connection, but this time there is not a single connection, but two. Now there are two clones sitting in front of me; both of them looked like, they are made of purest, rarest white marble. If they stay still, they looked like worked of art made by the greatest sculptor. "Hell, clones," I said, "Hell, Michael," they replied in unison, hearing that a smile couldn't help, but appear on my face. I now have two clones, capable of managing many tasks; now with them, I could do things at speed, I was not able to do it before; not only because they are two, but also because, they are better. The computation power of the 1st clone had increased with the level, it could do things at much faster level. It is the reason why this method is so hard and take so many resources, at every level, the clones upgrade and for that, require an immense resource and the soul power, that not many people could bring out after few levels. I will have to work especially hard, even harder than before; only through this way, I would be able to continuously create the clones at every level. This method lets one create a lot of clones, really a lot, and seeing the requirement that increase with each level; I don't think, many people would have created even half of the clones of the methods limit. I shook my head and stopped thinking about it; it is the thing of future, and I should not worry about. The only I should be thinking, is increasing my soul power enough, that at next level; I would have enough soul energy to create the third clone. "You are now clone one and you are clone two," I said to them, "We understand," they again replied in unison. "Both of you go and work on the next level of Inheritance," I said, "Ok," they replied and disappeared from me and appeared in the workstation. There are many other things to do; there is a huge backlog of things after I had asked my clone to focus on inheritance and nothing more, but those things could wait. I need them to work on Inheritance, because I want to conform the thing; I am pretty sure of it, but still want the second opinion after the clones does calculations. I really hope; I am wrong about it. Sigh! I sighed and about to get out of the core when my gaze fell on the clock; seeing the time, I couldn't help but became surprised. "More than an hour," I whispered; the blackout which felt like only a second long, was actually more than an hour long, an hour of outside, not of core. Here, nearly three and half hour had passed inside the core. I shook my head and disappeared from the core, and a moment later, I opened my eyes; still sitting under a huge formation, in an empty oasis. "No one," I said; four days had passed since the challenge had begun, but aside from me, no one seemed to have cleared the maze.