Many years ago, the demon lord terrorised the world with his army of demons. They slaughtered, ate, and enslaved all humans that were unfortunate enough to fall into their hands.

The humans and adventurers fought back but struggled against the endless onslaught of the demons.

Then, when the demons were just about to overrun the human forces...nine, incredibly young, individuals gathered together. Talented individuals who were blessed with the most powerful skill trees known to man.

They were simply known as the "Nine Heroes". Together they charged into the demon dimension and defeated the king with ease, along with his forces and the demon world itself.

However, just before the Demon Lord died, he unleashed one final curse upon the land.

A curse that filled the world with clones, "fakes" as they call it, of each of the Nine Heroes. These fakes would look exactly like one of the nine heroes, have the same voice and would even own an identical copy of their skill trees. Each of them would have a number imprinted on them, signifying what number they were.

...

I am one of those fakes. My name is Aria0217. I am a product of the Demon Lord's curse. I share the same face and voice as The Angelic Angel: Aria...but I am not her.

...

The most daunting part of the story was that the Demon Lord apparently was very silent during his dying breath according to the accounts of the Nine Heroes.

"He did not smile or show any sort expression. Nor did he say anything about why he used the curse." Stated one of the heroes.

Was it our of spite? A last ditch effort to ruin the lives of the nine heroes who defeated him? Or perhaps, he used the wrong curse due to the pressure of the battle.

Many disagreed.

As beings who were created by the Demon Lord, the fakes were naturally hunted down by all the humans.

Hundreds of fakes were slaughter and many were even used as slaves since their faces were identical to the Nine Heroes who were now all incredibly popular .

But then, while most of the nine heroes choose to remain neutral in the situation, one of the Nine Heroes, The Divine Healer: Yukari stood up against this and defended the fakes.

"THIS IS NOT JUSTICE! THIS IS MASSACRE!" Yukari yelled to the entire kingdom, "THEY'RE HUMANS! JUST LIKE US!"

She wasn't the only one who protested. The main head of the church, The Holy Shield: Father Paul stood up along aside Yukari in defending the fakes much to everyone's shock and the church's dismay.

With Paul's assistance and many legal battles, Yukari managed to abolish those rules. Killing or enslaving fakes became illegal. Things significantly improved over the years, afterwards.

But of course, just because it is printed in the law, does not mean it changes the heart of the people.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

"Congratulations, you are now a summoner."

I woke up to his voice. I was in the same room that had the giant magic glass ball.

The first thing I asked was, "H-how much time has passed?"

"About a few seconds."

So time did move differently in there. I thought.

I looked at my hands and then at my reflection. Nothing about my clothing or appearance had changed but I could certainly feel a difference. I felt...lighter somehow.

The father of the church was standing near the exit, waiting patiently for me.

I lowered my head awkwardly to him, "T-thank you so much...for helping me out earlier."

He stared at me for a few moments, again with an expression that was impossible to read.

Finally, he spoke, "May I give you a piece of advice?"

Slightly confused but curious, I softly nodded.

"You...are actually the second fake to come here and ask for a reset."

I couldn't help but flinch a little, "Re-really?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, that was a while ago and I do not know where they are now." He continued, "but this isn't the only church and there are other ways to reset. There may be others who are like you."

"Like me?"

"Fakes who have chosen to create their own path. You have taken a step that most of them will never have the courage to do...well done," He complimented, "with that said, I recommend that you try find the others who have done the same. "

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

I left the church, with an unexpected new goal in mind. Not that I actually knew where to start looking but it was still an objective besides progressing my skill tree.

I tried my best to avoid the markets and not stand out. I hastily headed for the exit of the large city.

The tense atmosphere and the judgmental eyes of the church made me so nervous that it wasn't until I had completely left the church did the feeling of adrenaline fully kick in. There was something truly exciting about seeing what my own, brand new, personal skill tree was going to look like for the first time. No longer would I be staring at someone else's skill tree that didn't belong to me. I felt as if a burden had finally left my body.

Loud shouting and yelling dragged my mind back to the real world.

I had unconsciously gone on several detours to avoid certain areas and before I knew it, I found myself nearby a large crowd. A large crowd of fakes.

But they weren't Aria fakes like me. They were Yukari fakes.

It was an incredibly large crowd. Significantly larger than the crowd of Aria fakes who tried to get into the orphanage I saw the other day. Which made sense. Since Yukari openly claimed that she defended us, Yukari fakes were a lot more common. It was truly unfortunately, that almost every Yukari fake took advantage of the original Yukari's kindness and used her as an excuse to justify their behaviour.

Once I saw the building they were trying to get into, the incredibly large crowd made a lot of sense.

Fakes didn't only just target the originals, they would also target and harass the families' homes if they could.

This was the building where Yukari's family lived in, at least for now. I wouldn't be surprise if they were planning on moving.

"THIS IS MY HOME! LET ME IN!" Cried one of them.

"I USED TO LIVE HERE!"

"PLEASE! LET ME IN!"

Once again, there were multiple guards stopping them. If it weren't for the soldiers, the Yukari fakes would probably smash through the windows. They begged, cried and screamed for access into the building.

The building itself was fairly large. It was a two story building and just above what middle class families would live in. Which was strange, considering Yukari's reputation, their family could probably afford a rich mansion on some private land. So why live here in the main city?

It was then I noticed the surrounding townspeople staring at them in disgust. Some had theirs hands covering their face as if suffering from second hand embarrassment, parents were telling their children not to look and most just whispered gossips and insults to each other. I could not blame them.

While it was common for me, I understand why it could be an unpleasant sight for the humans.

But how can I judge those Yukari fake...when I used to be just like them. I used to be in that crowd. I understood the desperation.

You see, while each fake were not born with the original's memories, we were still given tiny fragments of their memories. Fragments so small and blurry that they might as well mean nothing...yet for us fakes, they meant everything. Just those pieces of memories were enough to awaken our unending desire to chase after what is not ours.

I looked up at the building and notice a small child in the window on the second floor. Most likely the original Yukari's little sister. I wasn't the only one who spotted her. Soon all the Yukari fakes noticed her and began calling out to her.

"Yuzu! It's me! YOUR SISTER!" Yelled one of the fakes.

"PLEASE LET YOUR SISTER IN!"

"DON'T YOU RECOGNISE ME!?"

The little girl's eyes went wide with overwhelming dread, her small body shivered in absolute horror and fear. It didn't take long for her mother to show up and pull her away from the window.

"Poor child..." I mumbled to myself. Seeing an entire of crowd of people who all looked exactly like your older sister, begging to break into your house like a horde of hungry zombies must be incredibly traumatising for the girl.

There were a few glaring eyes aimed at me now. I had been standing here and staring for too long, my legs began moving on their own as my eyes continued to stare at the begging crowd of desperate cries until they left my line of sight.

...

-I-I-I-I-

...

Outside the main city was a huge camp. A camp mainly inhabited by fakes and homeless humans. Fakes mostly slept here. Even if a fake was lucky enough to find an Inn keeper willing enough to take in fakes, which was very rare to find, they probably couldn't afford the coins for it.

To call it a camp is also a bit inaccurate. It was more like a common area where individuals or groups all chose to stay at for safety reasons. Fakes and spots for tents would constantly come and go, so it was first come first serve. I heard it began with just a few tents, but then more and more people joined and eventually it became what it was today.

Most of the tents were old, and worn out. Some were even in a worse condition than the tent I had.

Since it was still the middle of the day, the camp itself wasn't so crowded. It gets more lively late at night when the horde of fakes give up on trying to get into certain buildings and they all need sleep.

As for the fakes who were here already, most of them were just standing or sitting around. From the outside, it may have looked like they were doing nothing but they were all probably looking at their skill tress, trying to find any sort of hint or clue on how to unlock the next skills. Others were continuously repeating the same beginner skills, as if hoping that using it 100 more times would unlock something. There were even a few fakes who were rein-acting speeches that the Nine Heroes once spoke, trying to make sure their personalities matched the original's as much as possible.

There were a few fires here and there. Each one did have a small group of fakes and homeless humans huddling around it for warmth.

There was no name for this place. However, it did have a reputation for being the place where the rejected lived. If you lived here, you were considered a failure, lower than the city trash.

As I navigated through the camp, my eyes anxiously searched for a good spot. My hands were fidgeting with my hair while my legs could not stop moving.

Finally, I found a spot, which almost made me jump in euphoria.

I hastily set up my torn up, crumbled tent with fingers shaking with excitement.

"Ok, ok, ok, ok..." It felt as if each second was a precious waste of a second. I even made several mistakes when setting up the tent.

Finally, it was done. There were multiple holes on it but I hastily entered and laid down. I could barely fit in there but I was used to it.

I clutched unto my medium sack tightly, took in a deep breath, looked up at the ceiling of the tent...and opened my new skill tree.

As usual, boxes filled with text and small icons appeared all over my line of vision.

For a split second, I thought I would see the same old skill tree I had before.

But it was different. Very different. Even the shape of the tree was different.

My lips instantly split apart and stars glittered all across my eyes.

"Whoa!" I stared in awe.

It was very, VERY different. Nothing like the original Aria's skill tree. It was beautiful in an entirely different way.

In my mind, my heart squealed in excitement. But I had to calm down and focus.

This was it. What I was looking at right now, was the beginning of my new start.

I went straight into reading. But the moment I began to read, I instantly notice a very peculiar detail that brought me great confusion.

"Primary Weapon: Sword and Shield?" I repeated out loud, "Huh?"

I picked Summoner right? Why is my main weapon the same as a tank role? I picked correctly right? Did I choose the wrong one...No, that can't be. The word "Summoner" was on the top of the skill tree. I certainly picked correctly yet why...

Wait, first I had to check out my first skills. I only had two unlocked at the moment.

...

Aria0217's Skills:

Chance Damage (Passive): Your Sword Strikes have a 5% chance of doing additional damage which equals up to 1% of your defence.

Sword Strike (Active): Deals 10 damage to target. CD: 5 Minutes.

...

"Sword Strike...CD is 5 minutes meaning I can only use it once every five minutes...the passive is pretty much useless...but this is what I expected from starter skills."

I ignored the numbers. Those are only useful if you can see your own stats which I can't. I usually only use the numbers only to gauge which skills does more or less damage.

"This... was not what I imagined when I picked summoner."

I already knew skills trees could be very different from one another even if they did share the same name but even this surprised me.

"I was imagining something more like a mage type who summons pets using a book or wand."

Speaking of summoning skills...

"...shied enhance...taunting chain...round domain...final reckoning...divine judgment..." I mumbled to myself as I skimmed through the the upper future skills which barely had any descriptions. Going through it all, I could not see a single summoning skill...which again is quite odd considering the name of this class.

Although, that does not mean there aren't any. Another issue with skill trees and what makes them so hard to progress through is that a lot of future skills you can unlock aren't actually visible to you until you unlock them. They are referred to as hidden skills.

I was hoping that my first skill would be a summoning one considering the name.

"Guess I'll still have to fight alone for now."

I shook my head. This was going to be my role, my class, for the rest of my life, and not to mention, I haven't even started training or testing so I can't complain now.

I took in another deep breath. All skill trees start off weak. That's universal. However, before my reset, I spent my whole life, stuck near the bottom of Aria's skill tree, with no hope of progressing. But now that I had a completely new one. I don't have to unlock my skills by living through someone else's life.

I looked through one of the holes in my tent. It was almost evening now.

Should I sleep early today? That could help me ignore the growing hunger in my stomach. I had already eaten a piece from my soggy loaf of bread but it seemed to only make me feel sick.

"Yeah...perhaps that would be wiser."

I switched my skill tree off and continued looking out the holes in my tent. I began thinking and imagining about my first summon. What would it be like? When will I get it?

The truth was: I was pretty lonely. So the idea of summoning was something I looked forward to.

Most fakes usually gather together in groups to survive. I never did that.

A detail that most humans don't know is that not all fakes act the same. It's difficult to tell when they're grouped up in a crowd, trying to break into a building and even harder when all of them are trying to mimic the same person, but if you meet or observe them individually, you'll eventually pick up several subtle difference. For example, I...I'm very shy compared to the others. That part of myself probably needed changing soon.

Of course, I would receive help from the other fakes from time to time, but I never permanently joined a group. Was it really because I was shy? Maybe I was afraid? Regardless, it was another reason to call me a coward. The truth was that despite my choice to remain solo, I hated being lonely and I didn't have anyone else to blame but myself for that but...even now...I still...

"I...I still wish I had a friend."

A bell sound suddenly rang from inside my ears. A sound I hadn't heard in a long time.

A box of text appeared in front of me.

...

You have unlocked a new summoning slot: 0/0 - to - 0/1.

New skill unlocked: The First Knight.

...

I instantly sat straight up upon reading this. That itself was a terrible move since I hit my head on the ceiling of the tent which almost brought the whole tent down.

"I-I..I can...already?"

The adrenaline in me that had just calmed down was suddenly reignited again.

Activate skill? The box of text asked.

Without thinking twice, I reached with my hand and clicked yes, "W-wait, shouldn't I do this outside?"

Too late. The summoning began.

A small ball of light appeared in front of me.

I laid there, watching in nervous anticipation.

The small ball of light floated in the air for a few seconds before it began to slowly descend to my lap.

Once it made it's gentle landing, the ball of light faded, revealing what was inside.

I stared as a soft gasp escaped my mouth.

...

To be continued.

This chapter was finished on 11/01/2022