SSS Talent: My Undead Evolve Without Limits

Malrik stopped before the black figure and extended one hand toward him.

"Lokris."

Though the dark silver mask concealed his features completely, there was something in Lokris’s eyes that made it seem as though he were smiling. He lowered his head in a deep bow, and when he spoke, his voice carried an unmistakable note of delight.

"Yes, my King."

The next instant, his black body began to change.

Its smooth form melted into a strange, shifting substance that flowed toward Malrik’s outstretched arm. It wrapped around his forearm before rapidly shrinking in size, condensing until it became a simple black bracelet around his wrist.

Malrik lowered his arm and glanced at the bracelet. A faint smile appeared on his face.

Let’s begin

In his last fight against Biggie, Malrik had struggled badly.

Even with Black Shroud pushing his physical stats to rival those of some of the strongest awakened warriors and knights, it still hadn’t been enough.

Against a Fallen, his current strength had a limit. And Malrik had no intention of discovering that limit the hard way a second time.

He needed more power. If he ever had to face a Fallen alone in the future, he needed to be ready for it.

But increasing his strength wasn’t easy, and his options were limited. That was exactly why Lokris’s abilities, The Silent Observer and Impostor, were some of the best tools he currently had.

Thanks to them, he could copy skills that might support his fighting style, or give him better ways to survive when he found himself in a situation he couldn’t face head-on.

And in some cases, the best skill available might be one that let him disappear from the battlefield entirely, while his souls handled the fighting for him.

Hmm... let’s start with Fenrir.

The first set of skills Malrik thought about copying belonged to Fenrir.

The wolf belonged to the Eclipse Wolf bloodline, and most of his skills were perfectly suited for survival and ambushes. So Malrik pulled up Fenrir’s status panel.

[ Name: Fenrir ]

[ Race: Eclipse Wolf ]

[ Rank: Awakened ]

[ Level: 41 ]

[ Potential: Epic ★ ]

[ Skills: Shadow Ambush, Tyrant’s Command, Shadow Clone, Shadow Step ]

Wait...did he get a new skill?

Ah, of course. He reached Awakened rank. Getting a new skill makes sense.

Malrik started going through the details of each skill.

The first one he wanted was Shadow Ambush, so he opened it to read through its details.

[ Skill: Shadow Ambush ]

[ Allows the user to merge with nearby shadows, becoming nearly impossible to detect. The first attack after emerging from the shadows deals 220% damage and reduces the target’s movement speed by 35% for five seconds. Cooldown: 25 Seconds. ]

A few changes had come with Fenrir reaching Awakened rank. The damage used to sit at 200%, but it had climbed by 20%. The slow effect had increased by 5%, and the cooldown had dropped from 30 seconds to 25.

The changes weren’t as big as Malrik had imagined, but they weren’t bad either.

The skill suited Malrik extremely well. It let him merge with shadows, making him far harder to detect. And as long as his position stayed unknown, his souls could keep fighting on his behalf until his energy ran out.

He wasn’t naive enough to think it made him undetectable. Anyone with high enough perception, especially someone stronger than him, could still find him. But it was still an excellent tool for stealth and ambush.

A Necromancer with the stealth skills of an assassin. What a perfect combination.

Then he looked at the details for Shadow Clone.

[ Skill: Shadow Clone ]

[ Creates shadow clones identical to the user. Each clone possesses 60% of the user’s attributes and can utilize the user’s basic combat abilities. The clones cannot use active skills. The number of shadow clones and their attributes increase as the user’s Rank rises.

[ Current Clone Limit: 30 ]

[ Cooldown: 25 Minutes. ]

This skill had also gone through some changes. Fenrir used to be able to create only 10 clones, each carrying 50% of the user’s stats. Now the clone count had reached 30, the stats had increased by 10%, and even the cooldown had dropped from 30 minutes to 25.

Malrik stared at the skill for a moment, then pictured himself standing surrounded by dozens of copies of himself, each one ready to lunge at an enemy at the same time.

Wait... am I about to become a shinobi now?

Malrik laughed, remembering an anime where ninjas used to spam clones of themselves, realizing he was about to look exactly like them. Then he paused.

Wait. Wait. Wait.

What happens when I’m in Black Shroud form?

Would my clones get 60% of my base stats, or 60% of the stats after Black Shroud doubles them?

The possibilities were endless if Malrik could combine multiple skills at once. If he could use Shadow Clone while in Black Shroud form, those clones would inherit all of his attributes and would even be 10% stronger than his original body.

Sure, they wouldn’t be able to use his skills, but that wasn’t a huge downside. He could still use them to fight, distract an enemy, surround them, or even create an opening to escape.

Shadow Clone’s main weakness was that each clone only got 60% of the user’s stats. But if that 60% was calculated after Black Shroud’s boost, the skill would end up far more valuable than he’d first thought.

As for not being able to use skills, that wasn’t a real problem either. As long as the clones inherited the original body’s attributes and the additional 10% boost, getting rid of them wouldn’t be easy.

The more Malrik thought about it, the more excited he got to start copying these skills. But there were still two skills left, one Fenrir had gotten after evolving to Epic, and another he’d gotten upon reaching Awakened rank.

He opened the first skill, the one from his evolution.

[ Skill: Tyrant’s Command ]

[ Marks one target as prey. All allied beings instinctively recognize the marked target as their primary prey. Damage dealt against the marked enemy increases by 30%. ]

This skill worked almost like something a pack leader would have, letting Fenrir impose control over the wolves around him and force them to focus their attacks on a single target.

Malrik paused, sinking into thought about how Fenrir had used this skill before.

Fenrir had never been able to control anything except wolves.

Is that limit tied to the user’s race? Or is there some other condition I haven’t figured out yet?

Then Malrik’s expression shifted slightly as another idea crossed his mind.

Wait... what if I use this skill on my own souls? Wouldn’t that mean the damage all of them deal increases by 30% too?

Malrik’s smile widened.

This skill might be a lot more useful than I thought.

Really... the same skill can produce completely different results depending on who’s using it.

Fenrir had only ever been able to apply this skill to a handful of wolves. Malrik, if he was right, wouldn’t be limited that way at all. He could use it on any of his souls, or even select all of them at once, whether they were wolves, spiders, or anything else under his authority.

The only downside was that he still had to pick a single target when using the skill, and only then would his allies’ damage against that target increase by 30%.

If the boost applied directly to all allies without needing to be tied to one target, this skill would be genuinely excellent.

But it’s fine... even with that limit, it’s still a solid skill.

"Now let’s take a look at the new one."

[ Skill: Shadow Step ]

[ Rarity: Epic ★ ]

Epic... one star?

Classes always started with basic skills that carried no rarity of their own, while rarity was tied to the Class itself. Gaining new skills usually only happened in special cases, such as advancing in rank, as had happened to Malrik during his previous advancement.

But he had no idea how Morveth actually gained their own skills.

Does it have something to do with the race itself?

Fenrir belonged to the Leader class, and not just an ordinary one. He was Epic ★. So if a Morveth’s race rank actually influenced the skills it gained, it made sense that his skills would be powerful.

But that’s not fair at all.

If that’s really how it works, then weaker races are doomed to receive weaker skills from the very beginning, while higher-ranked races like Epic and above will naturally end up with much stronger ones.

Malrik grinned.

Of course... I’m not going to complain as long as this advantage works in my favor.

Then he started reading the skill’s description.

[ Skill: Shadow Step ]

[ Allows the user to instantly move between nearby shadows, ignoring physical obstacles. The greater the distance between the shadows, the greater the Mana consumption. ]

That’s a movement skill similar to space-based teleportation abilities.

Malrik’s smile widened.

Hah... I was right. Fenrir, you really are an assassin hiding in a wolf’s body.

"Would you stop laughing like an idiot?" Lilith’s voice came from behind him, cutting through his excitement and dragging him back to reality.

"You won’t keep those skills forever. You might even end up losing all of them."

Hearing that, Malrik froze in shock.