Clone-Body Mint (Day 2, Midday)

[Core Room]

"Director-dono, keeping watch on the enemy army while also mass-producing rockets is more than my hands can manage. Could we summon a few subordinates? Nameless ones would do."

"But I'm fairly sure Mint can't be summoned anymore."

"That's right. One of the constraints on Named monsters is that when the species name and the personal name are identical, no additional summons can be made. Since Mint's species name and personal name are the same, she can't be summoned again, nor can she be propagated."

"And even if we summoned another Shiso (Asura), there's no guarantee it'd have engineering skills."

"By their settings, both the Master and Mint are Masters of Engineering, but the Master is a Dungeon Master while Mint is a Dungeon Monster, so they differ. I too am a Master by my setting, but not of the Faculty of Engineering, and every monster in this dungeon is, by setting, a university graduate, but each from a different faculty. So the next Shiso (Asura) we summon would be from a faculty we don't yet have. Depending on how it falls, it could be a Faculty of Commerce or Faculty of Economics graduate, an academic background of little use. Though I do wonder whether commerce and economics aren't really the same thing."

That "little use" was purely Marie's personal prejudice. And, since this wasn't otherworld summoning, none of them had actually graduated from any university.

"Hmm, what if we renamed Mint, and then summoned a separate Mint individual after that?"

"Named monsters can't be renamed. And, as you can tell from the fact that they can be revived even after death, we can't deliberately kill one off to free up the name, either."

"And of course an Asura can't be propagated into clone Asura by cuttings the way a plant can."

"It can be done quite easily, actually. Shall I show you?"

"Eh!? Marie-san, I had no idea…"

"That said, an Asura propagated by cuttings is genetically a clone but, ultimately, a separate individual, so to put it to work as a Dungeon Monster you'd have to educate it from scratch. Even if we made a clone of Sapien-sensei, who knows how many years it would take to turn it into a doctor."

"There's no way that would make it in time for this siege."

"In the case of a clonal plant, a single self-supporting stem is called a 'ramet,' and a genetically identical group is called a 'genet.' Ramets may or may not be connected to one another by rhizomes. When they aren't physically connected, such as those increased by cuttings, they're independent of the original individual, but ramets joined by a rhizome are the same individual, which means…"

"I don't quite follow, but, ahh…"

"Master, wait a moment. If it's Mint, mass-producing duplicates might be possible."

"Mass-producing?"

"The plant rosemary doesn't put out rhizomes, so a clone of me made by cuttings becomes a separate individual. But the plant mint propagates by rhizomes, so if we asexually create a clone-body of Mint (using dungeon energy), then, because of the constraint on Named monsters whose species name and personal name are the same, it can't become a separate individual, which means we may be able to create a duplicate of the same individual."

"Hmm, I'm fairly sure it was either Sun Yat-sen or Sun Wu who used a technique like that."

It was Sun Wukong.

"Mint, try and see if you can use dungeon energy to make a clone-body."

"A clone-body, personal secretary?"

"Picture yourself growing out a rhizome. I'll pour dungeon energy into it from the Core."

From Mint's feet a faint light stretched out in every direction, and at its ends masses of light took form. From within them emerged a duplicate slightly shorter than Mint herself. The Shiso (Asura) have no sex, and while Mint's human form was androgynous, being stark naked was rather another matter. (When summoned, she'd had clothes on from the start.)

"Mint, clothes."

"Ah, sorry."

When the original Mint answered Marie's remark, the duplicates went pattering out of the room.

"Mint-san, the duplication technique's a success."

"Master, the duplication technique just shows afterimages, and it's impossible in the real world anyway, so it's closer to Sun Wukong's 'Bodily Extension' technique."

"It takes getting used to. Moving them all at once is hard. Nothing for it but to get used to it."

"Marie-san, judging by how much dungeon energy is left, how many duplicates do you think we can make?"

"Not a great deal of leeway. One or two more. Next time let's prepare clothes properly before generating a duplicate. Whether the duplicates can leave the dungeon's sphere of influence, and what happens when we dismiss one, we can check another day."

"Personal secretary, the duplicates are only Super Peppermint, after all, so in the long run we'll still need a mechanical-engineering Shiso (Asura)."

"As for what to do about that, let's think it over once we've dealt with this enemy."