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"Education is the key to success in life, and teachers make a lasting impact on the lives of students. "

This is one of my favourite quotes as quoted by Solomon Ortiz. It highlights the importance of teachers in our life, a topic which is very much ignored in today's world. Yesterday was my last full day in high school and to be honest, it was a tad emotional.
Anyway, Long story cut short, I have decided to send a message to you. (Yes, you puzzling user!)

I have left you with some clues below and it would lead you to the right answer.
And yes, it is a multi-layered Puzzle.

And here's an advice, if you ever get stuck in the puzzle, come back here. The key to solving it lies here.

CLUES:

  1. Extremely complex and unreal. (1)
  2. A neatly arranged pile. (5)
  3. Public perception without final two of its three vitals(3)
  4. First Two-thirds of a Formal Web.(2)
  5. Arrive without your tail(3)
  6. They are small, Oddly identical(2)
  7. Big Symbolic Victory(1)
  8. Alternate Occupation with big tail(2)
  9. A sudden pain without a second.(3)

I feel that a a few of the clues are cryptic-clues, but I am not too sure. So, I avoided the tag.

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  • 2
    $\begingroup$ No, they aren't cryptic clues. They don't have independently solvable definitions and wordplay, which leads to the problem you're having here of multiple possible solutions. $\endgroup$
    – Deusovi
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 16:41

3 Answers 3

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The first stage leads us fairly clearly to

i.stack.imgur/(something).png

And here are the clues in total

Extremely complex and unreal. (1) - i(Because i is a part of complex number and an imaginary number iteslf)
A neatly arranged pile. (5) - stack
Public perception without final two of its three vitals(3) - img(image without the last two vowels removed)
First Two-thirds of a Formal Web.(2) - ur(first two of url)
Arrive without your tail(3) - com(come without e)
They are small, Oddly identical(2) - sm(oddly-not identical) s and m)
Big Symbolic Victory(1) - V(V for victory)
Alternate Occupation with big tail(2) - jB(alternate letters from JOB)
A sudden pain without a second.(3) - png(pang without letter a)

this leads us to

Riddle Picture

Which clues

s (he/she), f (f/ans), W (who/what/when/where/why), ps, png (Papau, New Guinea)

The spoiler text is

ROT 13, "The heading and the body in the final part are differently coded. Don't merge them!"

This brings us to

Picture Two, Electric Boogaloo

The title of which is

A message from Sid (rot13)

While the text decodes to

Using a Vigenere cipher with key "Education"
Sid regretfully informs the one who
has reached this far that he won't be
able to accept your answer right now.
Sid also wishes the site the best
for its future as it is becoming
increasingly likely that he wont
be part of the site in the near future

All credit to everything going on here

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Partial answer:

Extremely complex and unreal. (1) --> i
A neatly arranged pile. (5) --> stack
Public perception without final two of its three vitals(3) --> img (Image without final two vowels)
First Two-thirds of a Formal Web.(2) --> ur (first two letters of url)
Arrive without your tail (3) --> com (come without the e)
They are small, Oddly identical (2) not sure about this, perhaps 11? (two small odd identical numbers)
Big Symbolic Victory (1) not sure about this, perhaps W, short for the word Win?
Alternate Occupation with big tail (2) not sure about this, perhaps aO, taking the most obvious abbreviation of alternate occupation, and making the tail letter big..
A sudden pain without a second. (3) --> png (pang without the second letter)

This leads to:

an image: i.stack.imgur.com/11WaO.png, which doesn't work... So, perhaps a slight variation

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  • $\begingroup$ I think first two thirds of formal web is 'ww'. first 2 of www. $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 16:20
  • $\begingroup$ @BeastlyGerbil no, definitely what it says in Levieux's answer. Look at the structure of what it produces. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 16:20
  • $\begingroup$ (I don't think cluing that with "Formal Web" makes any sense, mind you, but it's clearly right.) $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 16:21
  • $\begingroup$ I think "big tail" means second letter is capital rather than lowercase, but I could be wrong. I agree with GPR about the symbolic victory and don't really see how it could be anything else. I have no idea whatever what "alternate Occupation" means nor why "Occupation" has a capital letter :-). $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 16:27
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    $\begingroup$ @Techidiot how did you figure those letters? I can see how it works but not how we were supposed to get it from the clues.. (maybe post a separate answer? not sure of the etiquette) $\endgroup$
    – user812786
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 17:12
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All Credit's to People here plus a little for myself for formatting an answer :)

Here it goes -

Extremely complex and unreal. (1) - i(Because i is a part of complex number and an imaginary number iteslf)
A neatly arranged pile. (5) - stack
Public perception without final two of its three vitals(3) - img(image without the last two vowels removed)
First Two-thirds of a Formal Web.(2) - ur(first two of url)
Arrive without your tail(3) - com(come without e)
They are small, Oddly identical(2) - sm(oddly-not identical) s and m)
Big Symbolic Victory(1) - V(V for victory)
Alternate Occupation with big tail(2) - jB(alternate letters from JOB)
A sudden pain without a second.(3) - png(pang without letter a)

This gives-

enter image description here

Decoding the lines once again -

Adding this could turn a man to a woman - > s(Ms. An)
Try to look at the leader of all those fans -> f(f as first letter)
Next is beginning of most questions -> W(What when where?)
My last two are small extra remarks at the end -> ps

This gives - >

enter image description here

Which is ->

N zrffntr ol Fvq
Wlx tezzsgjxfny bvtbvpm vhx wbr aki
jal zsngkyf taqg seu njam ps jsq'n de
tjzr xr uecxxh lsxl cnlese vlajt gwk.
Fmg unsh ewflhm vhx awgi wbg bxah
ssu cvs ychhvh uu im qg oifioigo
waguycsbvuyc ocmeeg huew bg whv'h
oi sutt hn hui vcve bv hui qycr ychhvh.

Then ->

Applying Vignere to it with EDUCATION as key gives:
Sid regretfully informs the one who
has reached this far that he won't be
able to accept your answer right now.
Sid also wishes the site the best
for its future as it is becoming
increasingly likely that he won't
be part of the site in the near future.

And..

Rot-13 to the title N zrffntr ol Fvq gives "A message by Sid "

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