Vegis had the clones walk about a minute away from him. He then told them to chase and tap his shoulder. Because of the link between them, they had a rough idea of where each other were. Vegis then ran around the forest and would occasionally stop to allow the clones to get close. Over the course of 3 hours, they got better at traversing the difficult terrain of the forest and almost got him twice.
Vegis decided that they needed a break and had them all head to their dorm and put them into their pods in the second story. He went to his room and took a seat on his bed before trying to take a nap. After 2 hours of trying to sleep but failing, he sat up and headed to the cafeteria for the lunch block. After a short sprint there, he could see a horde of folks around the main building of the cafeteria. As soon as he stopped, 3 smaller buildings with only the 5 serving tables and the cutlery counter rose from the ground and chairs formed from the nearby rocks appeared in a circle around the main cafeteria. Vegis went to the one that was a bright green and took a bowl to fill with a nice meat stew and noodles. On the plate, there was some fruit and a thing of cake.
He finished it quickly and ran back to the dorms to see if the clones were fully healed since they were covered in cuts from the constant tripping over the roots. He examined them closely and saw no cuts. He then had them follow him to his room and cleaned them before they went outside again for more practice. Vegis realized that he needed to command them to stretch before they continued. They arrived at their practice spot and continued to do what they did last time.
He then had them play ball. For the first 10 minutes, they just tossed the ball and back until Vegis ordered them to run around within a 10 meter diameter circle around him to have practice coordination and independent thought. They continued till the sun started to set. They dropped the ball hundreds of times, either from tripping or being unable to properly catch the ball. He decided to walk back, which took over 20 minutes. The clones had all sorts of scratches and sores with dirt covering their clothes and hands. Vegis had them change and get back into the pods.
Vegis took a shower and changed. He then took all the piled up dirty clothes and soaked them all in water in the tub. The water heated up and vibrated, causing the dirt in the fabrics to loosen and float to the top. Vegis then separated the dirty water from the tub out his window to the trees. He then poured some soap into the tub and it instantly bubbled due to the shaking of the water. Vegis then lifted the clothes and had the clothes spread out and dry from a blast of heated air. Vegis then pulled the plug of the bath and drained it.
After cleaning and drying all the clothes, Vegis slept until the morning. He then went to have breakfast and a chat with Jess. “Hi Jess, how was your reading yesterday?” Vegis said to the seated girl who then raised her head with bags under her eyes and words appeared in front of her. “Hi Vegis. It was a nice read. Unfortunately, it is unlikely they would work for me. They are more like a magic form of an electrolarynx. They used the vibration of the throat and mouth movements to make noises and words. That makes it impossible for me to use it since my throat itself can’t make vibrations. How is your little training going?” Vegis nodded at this and answered, “It has been going pretty well. I am currently having to play catch with them to make them do some multi-tasking. I am going to add some tag and fighting to the mix.” Vegis ate his breakfast food quickly and headed back to the dorms to get the clones.
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Vegis and the clones all arrived at the spot and continued their game of catch. He then commanded them to try to catch the ball the most. They were allowed to punch and hit each other to block the others from getting the ball and must hand it back to Vegis. Vegis then formed 13 balls of snow and dirt and sent them to different parts of the nearby forest. It took 20 minutes for the clones to get the balls and hand them to Vegis.
The one who grabbed the most balls got a treat. This caused the other clones to raise their eyes and licked their lips. Vegis repeated this 17 times and each time, the clones got more aggressive. The clones started to punch and kick each other for the balls. They ran with all their might around the forest for the balls. They got faster at finding the balls but slowed down due to them fighting each other. With each round, they got more scuffed up. At the end of the 17th round, they had black eyes and bloody noses.
Vegis headed to the dorm and cleaned up the clones. He repeated this routine the next morning and they got even better than the day before. After lunch, he changed it up and had them try to make things out of the snow. After each made a multitude of different statues, he had them play tag. When the clone who was it tagged another one, they must run back to where Vegis was and break 1 of their statues before the tagged one ran back and tapped the statue.
The round lasted an hour, and the one who got tagged the least got the snack. Vegis had run 3 different rounds and had the clones take a break before compiling all the information he got from the last few days about the disposition and talents each clone had. Vegis decided to call them V1-3 for simplicity. V1 was more aggressive and tended to use their arms for punches and climbing. V2 was timid and dodged more than the other 2 but was better at running and observing. V3 had a more neutral mindset but liked to kick.
After a while, Vegis had the clones continue to go for more rounds until an hour before sunset. As these games went on, the more the differences grew. V1 learned to pick up sticks to whack the ball out of the hands of the others. V2 learned how to trip the others with simple traps. V3 learned how to circulate their mana by themself and started to do leg sweeps and jumping into their repertoire. Vegis realized that his memories seem to leak into them, with the memories that align with them go to them and not the others.
