Lead

Before leaving the house, I made two clones, one to stand guard, the other to search the city for Essex. Both covered themselves with an illusion, and I connected to them with Telepathy, so I can be informed of any situation they might encounter.

On the way to school, Kurt looked at me weirdly.

"Vhat have you done?" He asked, my physical appearance had slightly changed from the increased stats.

I didn't get to marvel my chiseled body since I'm still worried about Essex, but I knew the changes were somewhat visible. After all, my physical stats were a lot higher than yesterday.

"I grinded a lot last night." I really did, and with Enchanting being at such a high level, I will grind even more in the following days since I can increase my physical stats with the added weight from the enchanted items.

Kurt was about to murmur profanities at me, but I handed him an enchanted ring and necklace, both the same as the ones I was wearing, increasing all stats by 62. I also gave him a new ring for mind resistance, which was a lot better than the previous one I had made.

The moment he put them on, I saw him flinch before he clenched and unclenched his hands.

"Voah, this feels amazing!" Kurt exclaimed, feeling the effect of the enchanted equipment. His level also increased by 25, when he had them on.

I also gave him two earrings, but unlike me, he actually had to pierce his ears before he can equip them. Those two will increase his level by another 25, which will make him level 80.

I have another set of those prepared for Peter and Jean. I'm not sure if Peter will wear the earrings since he didn't have an image inducer like Kurt, but Jean will surely wear them. The ones I made for her were girlier, made out of gold and silver, compared to the simple copper ones I made for us. Hopefully, she will like them since I put a lot more effort into her's.

I also have to try to teach Kurt how to use a weapon or two, but my current priority was to find the whereabouts of Nathaniel Essex. I'm not sure how strong he is or what his powers were, but one of them should be the ability to create perfect clones.

I really, really, hope he isn't able to create a clone of me because there was no need for another Gamer in the world. One was more than enough, thank you very much.

Hopefully, my clone would have success in finding Essex or clones created by him. Another way I could try to find information about him was through government information, but I would have to hack to do that, and I didn't know how to.

Another option was something that I had been thinking for some time, creating an AI to do it for me. With Allspeak, I should be able to program it. I could also ask Peter for help on that matter. He probably has a few ideas in mind.

I might have to purchase parts for a better computer as I don't think my current one could sustain an AI. With thoughts like that, I continued towards school.

When we reached there, I contacted Jean mentally while trying not to laugh at Kurt, who was barely restraining himself from testing out his new stats.

'Hey, how are you?' I asked.

Jean had calmed down yesterday, but considering she was quite emotional after having her emotions and the Phoenix Force unsealed, I wouldn't be surprised if she was distressed once more.

'I'm... okay, I guess. It's just... they looked exactly like humans,' Jean said.

'My skill said they were perfect clones, so they were an exact replica of the real ones,' I said.

'Yeah... it's just...' Jean was distressed, so I wanted to change the subject.

'By the way, I have a gift for you. I worked on it overnight,' I said quickly.

'Really? What is it?' Jean asked.

'It's a secret, you will have to find out later,' I said.

'You're not gonna tell me?' Jean asked.

'Nope, you can find out later,' I said, not planning on revealing what it was.

Jean begged me to tell her, but I didn't budge, so she can keep being distracted.

During lunch, I finally relented and covered us with an illusion, so we can appear as if we were talking as per usual. I took out the gold and silver jewelry I made for her. Jean eye's lit up, and she excitedly hugged and kissed me.

'Thank you, they look beautiful!' Jean said.

Of course they were. After all, they were made by a skillful Magical Crafter.

As Jean was thanking me, the clone that was out searching for Essex informed me of something interesting. He had spotted Emma Frost being attacked by three different groups. One of which was The Brotherhood, which I had noticed that they weren't at school,

Another was her sister and her bodyguards. However, the interesting one was the last one, which consisted of only a single man.

[<Master Thief> Remy LeBeau Lvl. 120]

{Remy LeBeau was abandoned as a baby due to his burning red eyes. He was adopted and raised by Jean-Luc LeBeau, the patriarch of the Thieves Guild. He had an arranged marriage with the granddaughter of the head of the Assasins Guild as a peace pact between the two.

In a duel between Remy and the brother of his supposed future wife, who objected to the marriage, LeBeau killed him on accident when his mutant powers manifested. He was then excommunicated and banished from New Orleans in an attempt to maintain the non-aggression pact between the two guilds.

Remy started wandering the world, but his mutant powers were growing out of control. He sought out Nathaniel Essex for help, who removed some of his brain tissue to reduce his power to manageable levels.

Remy is under orders from Nathaniel Essex to kidnap Emma Frost for her him to experiment on her.}

[Mutant Powers: Molecular Acceleration]

Well, I found my lead for Essex's whereabouts, and he seems to be after Emma Frost. I wasn't sure what to think about her. She was someone who cheated others with her powers, but she also didn't seem like too bad of a person.

I had also refused the quest that was generated when she asked me for help. An escort quest that lasted for a whole month meant that I had to be with her at all times. Even if I transport her somewhere across the world, she could still end up being attacked by someone there while I was doing my own thing.

Emma wasn't someone I cared about too much, but I wouldn't let her get captured to be experimented on by Essex.

Actually, I might let her get captured by Remy, who would lead me to where Essex is, and then I can save her. That sounded like a plan.

[A Quest has been created.]

[Save the Frost Heir: Three groups are targetting Emma Frost with the intent of capturing her. Save her before she dies or gets experimented on.]

[Reward: 500 000 XP; ???]

[Failure: Emma Frost gets killed by her sister or from being experimented on.]

[Duration: 2 hours.]

I accepted the quest since I was okay with it.

'Hey, something came up that I have to deal with. My clone will replace me, and I will talk to you later,' I said to Jean.

I didn't want to bring her with me, even though she was the strongest one in our group. Right now, she wasn't in the right state of mind.

Peter and Kurt could be of use, but I believe I can handle this on my own. I just had my physical stats increased over 100, and with Mana Strengthening active, I was a physical beast with all of them being over 800, not including the stats from equipment.

'What? What happened?' Jean asked in worry.

'Someone I know is being attacked, but I can handle it. Don't worry about it, I will tell you later,' I said, and while I was still covered by the illusion, swapped places with my clone with a portal.

I equipped my black clothes and my mask before I entered the fray.

Emma was in a tough spot, as Remy had a device that blocked mental attacks while The Brotherhood wore some kind of weird helmets that also blocked mental attacks. The only people she was able to influence were the bodyguards of her sister, who were normal humans.

Adrienne Frost, her sister, had a low level of 17, and her mutant power was Psychometry. She was weak, and I wasn't sure why Emma was unable to influence her mind, but I decided to ignore her as she wasn't a threat.

I focused on Remy, who was fighting against the Brotherhood on his own. He was dressed in a brown trench coat and was using a staff and a deck of cards as his weapons. Remy was holding his own with relative ease against all of them.

However, one of them split from the group and sped off towards Emma. I couldn't let the Brotherhood capture her, so I activated Mana Strengthening and appeared in front of Pietro in a burst of speed. His eyes bulged as he just witnessed someone moving as fast as him.

I was smirking under my mask as I was able to match his speed with ease. Even without my skill activated, I think I was faster than him since my Dexterity was over 800, but with Mana Strengthening, he had no chance as it was over 1 300.

Pietro tried to attack me, but I easily deflected all of his attacks. However, I didn't hit him back since I was afraid I might end up killing him on accident. I wasn't sure if I can control myself to only knock him out.

"Who are you?" Pietro asked with a tinge of fear in his voice. I don't think he had ever been matched in pure speed before.

I didn't reply to him. There was no point to it, I was just here to stop him from capturing Emma.

While I was dodging and parrying Pietro's attacks, I used my Telekinesis and grabbed ahold of the rest of the Brotherhood. All of them expect the Blob froze in place, but he was so slow, he might as well have been frozen like them.

Remy noticed that and quickly looked around before spotting me. I motioned with my head towards Emma, hoping that he ends up thinking that I was someone who worked for Essex.

At that moment, Emma was running away, and Remy made his choice. He nodded towards me before dashing after her.

Left alone with the Brotherhood, I created ropes and chains with my Eldritch Magic and captured Pietro with them. He was the only one I was afraid that would follow Remy and ruin my plan.

Remy easily captured Emma when no one was blocking his path. I have to admit, he was moving pretty fast and was surprisingly strong, considering his mutant power was weakened. However, I'm pretty sure I can take him on without much issue.

Once I was sure Remy wasn't going to get caught by Pietro, I covered myself with an illusion and went after him. He ran through back alleys with ease, making sure no one spotted him with a girl on his shoulder. He wasn't a Master Thief for no reason.

For an hour, Remy kept going from one back alley to another before he finally arrived behind a building and entered it.

I checked the front of it to see the name of the place he entered, and I had to resist facepalming. It was called Essex Clinic. That was a bold move on his part to name it after himself.

I guess I should've tried to google his name or something. Either way, he led me to Essex, and that was all I wanted.

I entered the Mirror Dimension before entering the clinic while planning on how to deal with the man that wanted me dead.