The Prismatic Stone was still in his inventory. Ethan had assud it would disappear after completing the quest and receiving the reward. But no—it was still there. He pulled it out to inspect it and was shocked to find that it now had a na and attributes.
[Second Avatar (Prismatic Stone) [Unique]]
Attribute: Use to create a (Second Self).
Description: The last remaining Prismatic Stone, forged by the Dwarven King over hundreds of thousands of years. It lacks only the nourishnt of life and water to begin the process of soul infusion, transforming it into an immortal (Second Self). After the upheaval in the Iron Mountains and the Dwarven King's defeat by the Winter Queen, the unfinished Prismatic Stone was lost. Legend says that whoever completes its nourishnt, attunent, and soul infusion will gain the ability to create a Second Avatar.
Ethan stared at the description, completely baffled. A Second Self? What was this?
"Act… Act… Activate!" Ethan stamred, sending the command to the system.
Ding…
[System Notification: You have successfully activated the Second Avatar. Please assign it a class!]
A holographic screen popped up in front of him, displaying the familiar character creation interface. Ethan froze for a mont, the screen so large that he thought he'd been kicked out of the ga. He moved the screen to the side and confird he was still in the ga. The character creation interface was indeed floating in front of him.
At his feet were three glowing items dropped by the Death Essence. He picked them up absentmindedly, too distracted by the screen to care what they were. His entire focus was on the character creation interface.
Wait... Did this an he could have two classes at once? If so, his current Druid class already covered offense, defense, and speed. What he lacked were escape skills. His old specialty, the Rogue class, would be perfect.
This was the third ti he'd seen the character creation screen. The first was in his past life, the second was after his rebirth when Morzan had forced him to choose the Druid class. Now, with excitent bubbling inside him, Ethan didn't hesitate. He selected Rogue.
Ding…
[Player has selected the 'Rogue' class. Please confirm!]
"Confirm!" Ethan replied quickly. He didn't want Morzan popping up to interfere again.
Ding…
[Class confird. Please enter a character na!]
A character na? Did this an the Second Avatar was a separate character? Why else would he need to na it?
"Dreamshadow," Ethan typed in, using his Rogue's na from his past life.
Ding…
[Sorry, the character na 'Dreamshadow' is already taken. Would you like to add symbols or numbers? If not, please enter a new na.]
"No symbols!" Ethan snapped.
Of course, it was taken. Ethereal had been live for a while now, and two-word nas were bound to be common. He tried several more nas, but each ti, the system rejected him.
"This is impossible!" Ethan muttered. New players joining Ethereal now probably spent hours just trying to co up with a na that wasn't taken.
Ten minutes later, Ethan was on the verge of a breakdown. He'd tried over a hundred nas, and every single one was taken. And he was limited to nas in his region's language. Finally, out of desperation, he tried sothing ridiculous.
"DruidGodIsMyBro."
Ding…
[Sorry, the character na 'DruidGodIsMyBro' is already taken. Would you like to add symbols or numbers? If not, please enter a new na.]
"What the hell?!" Ethan groaned. He tried again.
"DruidGodIsMyDad."
Ding…
[Sorry… Character na… Already taken…]
"DruidGodIsMyGrandpa."
Ding…
[Sorry… Character na… Already taken…]
"DruidGodIsMyAncestor."
Ding…
[Sorry… Character na… Already taken…]
"DruidGodIScrewYourUncle."
Ding…
[Sorry… Character na… Already taken…]
Ethan was speechless. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
How could nas like these already be taken? Who in their right mind would choose such ridiculous nas? Ethan couldn't believe it. He'd sohow gained a bunch of 'descendants' he never asked for, and the last one—what had he ever done to deserve that? He didn't even know if he had an uncle, but whoever took that na could go ahead and… well, do whatever they wanted.
As for the rest, Ethan didn't even want to try. He was pretty sure his entire family tree had been claid by other players. Who were these people, and why were they like this? If he ever found them in-ga, he'd make sure they regretted their life choices.
After another ten minutes of frustration, Ethan finally gave up and muttered, "NotARogue."
He fully expected this na to be taken too, but to his surprise…
Ding…
[Congratulations! Character creation successful! Character na: NotARogue.]
Ethan was speechless. He wanted to cry.
The holographic screen disappeared, and the Prismatic Stone in his hand began to crack. With a series of crack… crack… sounds, the stone slowly split open. Out tumbled a creature wearing nothing but a pair of shorts and sporting a tail.
"Wait… what?"
Ethan's jaw dropped. Was that... a monkey? A freaking monkey? The Prismatic Stone had actually spawned a monkey.
The creature landed on the ground, curled up in a ball, and then slowly straightened its posture. The movent took only a second, but to Ethan, it felt like watching millions of years of evolution compressed into a single mont. The monkey stood up, transforming from a stone monkey into a fully human player character. It wore the standard newbie outfit—shorts and a wooden sword—and stood there with a blank expression.
Ding…
[System Notification: Congratulations! You have obtained a Second Avatar! Please check the settings in your main character panel!]
Ethan had assud the Second Avatar would allow him to switch to a second class. Instead, it was a separate character that could exist alongside his main one. A Druid paired with a Rogue—wasn't this the exact setup he'd envisioned for the Renegade Alliance's enforcent team? Maximum mobility, maximum crowd control.
But how was he supposed to control this avatar?
Ethan opened his character panel and noticed a new option:
[NotADruid (Main) / NotARogue (Avatar)]
He could switch between the two characters to view their stats. Clicking on the avatar option, he found that the interface was nearly identical to the main character panel, with three additional buttons: [Manual Control], [AI-Control Mode], and [Idle Mode].
Currently, Idle Mode was selected, which explained why the avatar looked so lifeless and dumb.
Ethan quickly figured out how it worked. This was essentially a "dual-control" system. Manual Control ant he could control both characters simultaneously. AI-Control Mode allowed him to assign tasks to the avatar, which it would then repeat indefinitely. Idle Mode was self-explanatory—the avatar would just stand there, staring at him.
The avatar could also grind monsters and level up on its own. If it died, it wouldn't lose experience or levels, and it wouldn't drop any equipnt. It was essentially an invincible NPC. The experience it gained could be transferred entirely or partially to the main character, and vice versa. The two characters shared experience.
As Ethan processed this, a plan began to form in his mind.
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