Maria spent the next few hours testing the limits of her new technique and found quite a few things about it. First of all, it was a technique derived from [Shadow Weave] and it was actually applicable to any creature outside of just herself. It was a buff-type technique called [Shadow Integration] that raised her AGI, STR, and VIT stats while drastically lowering her INT stat. It was a buff-type technique suited for close-combat uses and it consumed her mana continuously while she was using the technique but at most, it lasted for around 30 minutes before wearing off and disabling her from using [Shadow Weave] for another 30 minutes.

  With her losing a large amount of her INT while in this mode, it was actually hard for Maria to spare any of her mana to use other skills so she had to offset this disadvantage by adding more INT to her stats which she naturally did after seeing the large amount FSPs that had piled up on her [Status] menu from leveling up continuously.

  “Tsk, it’s still not enough. This 50 percent decrease in INT is such a bother…”

  Even though Maria did complain a little, she was still quite happy that her close-combat skills had increased by a lot. What she very much enjoyed while in this form were the abilities of the puppet she controlled. The puppet perfectly copied all of her various attack and movement patterns that it felt like she was partying with herself. The puppet didn’t hinder any of her movements and they instead complimented her attack sequences seamlessly.

  Maria also tested the limits of how many puppets she could control and found out that it was only limited to the amount of mana she possessed. The more puppets she controlled, the more mana that was consumed while in this new form of hers. However, the optimal amount of puppets were 3 because any more would hinder her instead of helping her. Of course, if she wanted to just use them to attack while she laid back and watched, the maximum she could control was up to 25 of these puppets.

  She could actually go even higher but Maria noticed that the more puppets that she controlled after the 25th puppet, the ‘dumber’ they seemed. Their movements became less refined and they would start fumbling around even. With that in mind, Maria set the ceiling to 25 puppets but after her experiment, she disposed of the excessive monster corpses because she only wanted to store powerful ones. She spent a few more hours testing her new ability and after finishing, a system notification suddenly appeared in front of Maria.

  *DING*

  “...Eh?”

  She looked at the notification once again before yelping in surprise, “You can actually create skills in Unitale?!”

  This was a first for Maria because it was a feature that would only open up to the players once they completed their race Awakening. Naturally, the criteria to create a self-made skill was set very high, but Maria had been able to fulfill those criteria and make her first-ever skill.

  “A unique skill that I made myself! I have to give it a good name…”

  Maria sat down on a rock and began thinking for half a day before finally settling on a name.

  “Uhh...it’s so hard. Let’s just go with [Nightmare]...I guess?”

  *DING*

  “Yes…”

  *DING*

  “Oh?”

  “No! Hell no!”

  Maria immediately selected [No] when she saw the last notification appear. At least this time, the system allowed her to choose whether to announce it or not. She would rather not have any of her accomplishments announced because they exposed all of the things she did which wasn’t something Maria wanted.

  It was especially so this time because the skill she made was something she wanted to keep to herself as a trump card for when things became dicey or needed to use it in a decisive moment. That way, she’d be able to surprise her opponents if she were ever put into a sticky situation.

  Maria checked and noticed that her new skill had completely replaced the [Shadow Integration] and [Shadow Vault] effects from Envy's [Shadow Manipulation] skill. It even had a second window that displayed the extra effects it had which was really nice.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  When Maria read through the effects she smiled in delight because the [Shadow Link] and [Shadow Transfer] additional effects were added. She had only been experimenting with these effects during her initial testing and didn’t expect them to actually turn into addition effects for her skill. This was a pleasant surprise that she was gladly willing to accept. Only the Shadow Phase skill was rather odd because she had initially experimented by moving through the shadows and not this.

  She wanted to try and get something like a [Blink] skill, but unfortunately, this wasn't it. However, it was good since she could connect with anyone and turn them into her mobile teleportation beacons which sounded kind of funny, but strategic when she thought about it.

  “I’ll test it out on Lizzy and the others when we meet again, though the maximum distance is a bit hard to gauge…” Maria said while scratching her head. If she had some kind of indicator it would be easy, but determining another player’s precise distance by looking at a map was kind of hard for her.

  “Anyway, I’ll figure that out next time, but I think this max upgrade book thingy I got as a reward should be used on [Nightmare]…right?”

  Maria was conflicted about using this item on the skill. After all, she had a lot of other skills that needed leveling, but [Nightmare] wasn’t something she was going to repeatedly use in front of others because it was going to be her trump card. At most, she’d use it more frequently when she was hunting alone or with her close friends. Since she won’t be using it so much compared to her other skills, she felt that it was best to use the max upgrade book on [Nightmare] so she wouldn't have to worry about leveling it up. The effects of the self-created skill were also amazing and she wanted to see how it was at max level.

  “Ah, who cares! Let’s just use it on [Nightmare] and be done with it! Thinking any further will only hurt my head!”

  *DING*

  “Yes, sa~”

  *DING*

  When Maria saw the transformation of her skill after it reached Level EX, her eyes immediately popped out since many new effects and options appeared.

  “WOAH!”

  Maria no longer felt regretful after using the Max Upgrade Book on [Nightmare] after looking at how powerful it became. Now the skill had truly become her trump card. A devious smile crept up on Maria's face as she became quite eager to try the skill's new effects. However, she immediately remembered something very important.

  "Oh yeah! The quest! Ahh, I almost forgot about it!"

  Maria quickly checked her map and saw that her indicator and the quest indicator weren't too far apart so she quickly flew up after storing the black orc's corpse in her shadow.

  "I'll test [Nightmare]'s effects on the boss monster as well as collect it and add it to my puppet collection once I kill it!"

  Maria had newfound confidence because of this skill. The effects were so overpowered and she believed that it was likely the first maximum leveled skill in the game right now.

  "Hahahaha~ I can't wait to see how powerful I'll become!"

  https://www.patreon.com/xxAlter

  https://discord.gg/WnA94tauVP