23 You Can Call Me The Shadow Monarch

[Name: Aster Nilm

Stats:

35 Strength

36 Dexterity

57 Endurance

67 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))

Magic:

Mana Management (Tier 2), Umbramancy (Tier 2)]

[Umbramancy: Absence holds a certain power. To strike on one's own terms and to vanish without a trace. To bring fear to the hearts of those who don't know what lurks inside. To gain proficiency, materialise the shadows and don yourself with darkness. (Progress to tier 3: 1%)]

[Mana Management: The raw energy of magic swirls within you. Some believe it to be the manifestation of the very soul. Spells you weave take a little less out of you. Spell casting is demanding work, but your efficiency with the magical world makes it easier. You can also lend this ease to other spellcasters, albeit temporarily. At full power, you can cast spells that are much more powerful than it normally should be. To gain proficiency, grow your internal mana pool, claim mastery over it and go beyond the limits of your magic. (Progress to tier 3: 4%)]

Yeeeesss!! Finally! Not only the two skills I was aiming for increased in proficiency, my dagger proficiency increased too!

What's more, I know exactly what to do to increase my proficiency with Umbramancy for this tier!

I reached out my hand with my palm facing upwards, focusing my will to imagine a dagger similar to mine forming in my hand.

[Shadow Forge]

A black blade formed exactly how I had imagined it, falling to rest on my palm. The shadows I'm controlling have become tangible now.

That's not all this can do either!

I dispelled the dagger and concentrated again, this time thinking about making a copy of myself appear in front of me.

[Shadow Summon]

The shadow on the ground converged to form a black puddle before stretching up into a figure matching my size.

There was a moment where it was simply a blob but the surface of the shadow shifted and I was soon staring at a figure that looked like me.

Yep, the summon had my features except for the fact that her skin colour was chocolate brown and her hair was black instead of my white.

Oh… I suppose I never did mention that, did I? My hair colour is silver white in colour and I'm planning to let it grow out. I think it looks nice, right?

Putting my own appearances aside, I looked at the summon up and down. Aside from the obvious change in colour scheme, the summon was also devoid of irises, giving its eyes a sort of empty look.

The summon stood perfectly still even as I walked around it, not showing any reaction to me at all.

Hmm… If I'm correct, the summons should be able use the weapons I've created with [Shadow Forge] too. But how do I get it to equip it?

As though responding to my question, a dark blob formed on the underside of her right wrist before shifting towards her hand to morph into the dagger I made.

Perfect! Now could I order it to do something like gather the Mana Crystals for me?

Before I could even vocalise my thoughts, the summon had already knelt down by the body of the goblin mage and started cutting it open.

Her movements were similar to how I would have handled the corpse, meaning my summons most likely drew the knowledge directly from me to do their tasks.

Oh damn, doesn't that mean my summons are just as good as I am? How many of them can I actually summon?

I tried casting [Shadow Summon] again and lo and behold, another shadow version of me appeared.

Now let's try and summon a third-- Owwwww!

When I tried to summon a third one, a sharp pain hit me right in the cranium, causing me to fall onto my haunches.

Ok… What's wrong now?

Oh… I'm out of mana… Apparently [Shadow Summon] eats up like half of my current mana per summon. I'm not sure if it operates by percentage or the cost just so happens to be half of the total mana I had.

Speaking of which, now I know what happens when you try to use mana that you don't have… Before this, I always stopped the moment my mana nears empty, but I was so excited with the summons just now I didn't even check my mana reserves.

Still, being able to summon two of myself is already a huge bonus.

Wait a moment… I was so excited by the summon that I forgot to check its stats to see if it actually is as strong as I was.

[Name: Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)

Stats:

18 Strength

18 Dexterity

29 Endurance

34 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))]

Ah, so they only get half of my stats… And they don't get my magic skills either which I suppose makes sense.

They do get my normal Skills which is nice, but that also means that if I want to equip them with a different weapon, they would suck at it unless I know how to use that weapon too…

I knew there would be no way they'd let me have summons that have the exact same stats as me.

…

Or would they?

I used half of my mana to summon them… Could that be why they're only half as strong as I am?

What if I put in less mana?

I took the Mana Crystal that my summon dug out from the goblin mage and told the two of them to start gathering from the rest of the goblin's inside the cave. Too bad the ones hit by the laser had their bodies vaporised but there's still quite a number I can get from those that were left.

Now… using the Mana Crystal to replenish my own mana, I concentrated on only using ten percent of my mana to do the summon.

[Shadow Summon]

The darkness coalesced in front of me and a shadow version of me appeared.

[Name: Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)

Stats:

4 Strength

4 Dexterity

6 Endurance

7 Magic

Skills:

Hunting (Tier 1), Cooking (Tier 1), Martial Skill-(Dagger Proficiency (Tier 2), Unarmed Proficiency (Tier 1))]

Oh daaaaaamn! I could have a whole bunch of weak little mes running around! This is so good!

Actually, do they even need to be like me? What if I tried summoning one that isn't like me?

[Shadow Summon]

Once again, another summon appeared but this one had no features aside from a humanoid shape. Sort of like a three dimensional shadow.

Since I only put ten percent of my mana in this summon, it had the exact same stats as the previous summon too. The only difference was that instead of being called "Aster Nilm (Shadow summon)", its name was simply "Shadow summon".

Damn, if I have high base stats, then even a one percent summon could potentially be strong too!

This is so good!

Now I just need to know if they have a limited summon time before they disappear…

In the meantime, let me summon more to gather all the Mana Crystals from the goblins!

I walked out of the cave with about seventy or so more Mana Crystals in my bag.

In that time, I found out a few things…

First, there is no limit to the time they can remain summoned.

Second, I can store the summons in my shadow and they'll remain there until I call them back out. I did try putting them in the shadow of another object, but either I wasn't strong enough or that simply wasn't possible.

Third, this skill is so damn good!

Just imagine! I could get them to bake sweets for me and they'll know exactly how I like my sweets! I will never need to worry about the sweets being unsuitable for my tastes! This is perfect!!

I still remember my dream of baking the largest cake ever and jumping in it, that dream kind of looks doable now!

Mmm… Cake… Big cake… Hehehe…

Oops, I should concentrate on getting home first before mother worries about me.

Truthfully, tonight's haul was exceptionally great and I was in the best mood possible.

Until I remembered I still needed to fly back home…

Ugh… Whatever, the sooner I get home, the sooner I can get a nice hot bath and go to bed!

Materialising my wings from my back, I unfurled them to their maximum length before shooting upwards with a flap of my wings.

Ok… Easy… Easy! The winds are blowing in that direction… I need to maintain this form and note those air currents too…

Good, now I just need to head towards that direction where home is and maintain my flapping with this amount of strength while maintaining my balance…

Just flap… Flap… Flap…

Eh?

I'm… Flying.

I'm actually flying!

Somehow I knew what I needed to do this time to stay up in the air, even the flapping of my wings had become instinctual and I could hold myself aloft now!

But what changed? Was it because of my increase in stats? Or was it my summons? My new proficiency?

Oh, wait! Of course!

[Machine Learning: Your mind is now in learning mode. It will pick up issues with anything you're doing and try to incorporate solutions into the next time you do it. It's mostly subtle and subconscious, like readjusting your sword swing a few times to find the most optimal way to strike. However, this accelerates your learning far beyond what most can manage, even with diligent focus.]

Of course! I almost forgot about this one!

This is great!

I'm flying!! Woohoo!!

Things can't get any better than this!