Maria had been a little bummed out because the stats that had been lost thanks to Pride’s siphoning hadn’t returned to her even after she ate the Sin Devil’s Life Essence. She had checked and double-checked back when she was still in the trial dimension but was dismayed to see them not returning to their original values. It was a large blow to her because her combat power mainly came from her overpowered stats despite her being at a low level.
However, after reading through the notifications and seeing all the changes to her status screen, Maria no longer cared about those lost stats since she had gained a lot more back and then some.
“I’m stronger than ever!”
She was still at the same level but possessed even more points in all of her 4 attributes than before. The EXP requirement seemed to have doubled though but that didn’t matter. Her stats were amazing so needing more EXP to level up was fine for her.
“I’ve become a Nephalem, but what the heck is that? Is it the same as a Nephilim?”
Maria wondered if the two were the same or not because honestly, she didn’t want to be in the same race as that crazy girl who attacked her in the Realm of War. From the looks of things, however, it didn’t appear that they were the same.
As a Nephilim, Hecate and Ophelia had a literal half-angel half-devil body. Maria, however, appeared fully human in her normal state while in her other state, she had the mixed appearance of an angel and a devil–though, from the looks of it, her appearance leaned more towards the devil side rather than the angel side. The only angel part of her other state was her feathery red wings and crystalline red halo. Other than that, she appeared mostly devil-like.
After going through her [Status] screen, Maria opened her [Skill] menu and noticed that quite a lot of her skills had changed or disappeared. Her [Nightmare] skill had changed from an active skill to a passive skill that could be toggled on and off. Its name had also changed into [Metamorphosis]. Other than that slight change, however, the skill’s effects remained the same though there were some minor upgrades to the effects. When she tried toggling the passive skill on, her wings appeared and she transformed into her angel-devil form.
“Oh! So that’s what it was!”
It was a bit weird now that she had two different forms but this was fine. [Nightmare] had changed into [Metamorphosis] and had a complete overhaul. Now, it was much more powerful than before and there were no longer any detriments to its abilities.
Skill Name: Metamorphosis (Nephalem) Rank: EX Description: Brings out the full power of the Nephalem and gives immunity to all mental-base debuffs while resistance to other debuffs increases by 50%. Increase to stats depends on the degree of the transformation. Partial Transformation:
25% increase to STR, AGI, and INT.
50% increase to VIT and 25% increase to ATK SPD.
Cost: 0.25 NE/second Complete Transformation:
50% increase to STR, AGI, and INT.
100% increase to VIT and 50% increase to ATK SPD and MOV SPD.
Cost: 0.5 NE/second Perfect Transformation:
100% increase to STR, AGI, and INT.
200% increase to VIT and 100% increase to ATK SPD and MOV SPD.
All skills relating to the 7 Sin Devils will have their cooldowns reduced by 99%.
Cost: 1 NE/second
Metamorphosis Skills Active Skill 1: Unholy Raise
Connects the user with the target. If the target is dead, this skill transforms the target into an autonomous Shadow Puppet that fights for the user indefinitely. Shadow Puppets retain 150% of the corpse’s stats when it was alive. Shadow Puppets have maximum durability equalling 150% of the caster’s HP
Cost: 50,000 DE
Skill 2: Unholy Link
Connects the caster with the target. If the target is living, it creates a link between the connected individuals, allowing them to share vision and damage with each other
Cost: 10,000 DE per target Skill 3: Unholy Incarnation
Creates a perfect clone of oneself that will act independently. Clones retain 100% of the caster’s Stats but only 25% of their Max HP, MP, and DE. Max: 3
Cost: 100,000 DE per clone Passive Skill 1: Perfect Afterimage
There is a 50% chance to leave behind a stationary shadow clone of the user when performing any action. The caster can choose to detonate the shadow clone and cause 2000 Chaos Damage in a 5-meter radius. Any target caught within the explosion will be stunned for 0.75 seconds. Only a maximum of 10 clones can exist at one time
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Cost: 10,000 DE per detonation Skill 2: Perfect Shadow Strike
Shadow clone(s) have a 50% chance to perform [Shadow Strike] on a nearby enemy within their striking range. [Perfect Shadow Strike] deals 100% of the user’s maximum [Main Stat(INT)] to the enemy in the form of Chaos Damage.
Effect 3: Soul Siphon
1% of all damage dealt by the Nephalem, the Nephalem’s minions, or the Nephalem’s faithful, will be converted into HP, DE, and SP (Active only when in Perfect Transformation)
Extra
Skill 1: Dimensional Vault
Opens an interdimensional storage space within the Nephalem’s Unholy Halo. Storage space size: (INT)m x (INT)m x (INT)m.
Note: Freely useable inside and outside of combat
Skill 2: Dimensional Phase
Allows the user to teleport anywhere the user has been within the past week. Cost: 50% of Max DE & NE
Note: Can only be used outside of combat
Skill 3: Unholy Domain
Upon using [Metamorphosis] the Nephalem’s Unholy territory will appear 100 meters around them, following them as the epicenter while they move. Allies within the territory are granted a 30% increase to all of their stats while enemies have their stats reduced by 20% and their visions impaired by 30% of their normal vision.
Note: Only the strongest ‘domain’ effects will be applied as domains do not stack on each other
Maria was quite happy with the change since it made her skill even stronger. Only her racial skills, self-created skills, and class skills had experienced any major changes while a few of her other skills received name changes though their effects were more or less the same as before. After reading through all of the changes, she took note of the ones that had the most significant changes other than her [Nightmare] skill.
Skill Name: Rain of Terror Level: 10 Rank: EX Description: Attack every enemy you designate in an area 20 meters around you with your feathers, dealing 5000 Pure Damage per feather and an additional (3 x STR) damage every two seconds for the next 30 seconds Cost: 500 DE/Activation Cooldown: 0.5 Seconds
First of all, her [Angel’s Rage] had become [Rain of Terror] and had its area of effect and damage enhanced. There was now a small cooldown per activation but it was more or less better than before.
Skill Name: Soul Drain Level: 10 Description: Drains 50% of the target’s HP and MP. The drained resources can be used to heal the user or a target of the user’s choosing Cost: 50,000 DE Cooldown: 5 minutes
[Fallen’s Cruelty] became [Soul Drain] which was much more powerful than its previous form and finally, her [Gehenna’s Eye] became [Nehaplem’s Eye].
Skill Name: Nephalem’s Eye Level: 10 Rank: EX Description: Ignites the target with Unholy flames, dealing 5000+(1.5 x INT) damage. Dispels all buffs and burns the target, dealing 200+(1.0 x INT) damage for the next 30 seconds Extra Effect 1:
When used on a player or NPC, triggers the effect of Nephalem’s Malediction!
Nephalem’s Malediction:
Immolates the mind and casts the target into madness, rendering some abilities useless. 70% chance to seal 1 random skill. 40% chance to seal 2 random skills. 20% chance to seal 4 random skills. 5% chance to seal all skills. Duration: 1 minute Extra Effect 2:
When used on a monster, triggers the effect of Nephalem’s Nihility!
Nephalem’s Nihility:
Immolates the soul of the target, casting it into oblivion and instantly killing the target. 80% chance to activate when used on a lower leveled monster. 50% chance to activate when used on an equal leveled monster. 25% chance to activate when used on a higher leveled monster (Max. 50 levels above the user. Cannot trigger on Elite or Boss monsters). When an equal or higher leveled monster is sent into the void, there is a 10% chance to temporarily steal 20% of their attributes. The Buff can be stacked a maximum of 5 times and lasts 30 minutes Cost: 12,000 DE Cooldown: 10 seconds
Maria particularly liked the enhanced effects of Nephalem's Nihility because, with the activation chance’s increase, it was highly likely she could now regularly see the effect trigger when she was hunting monsters on the field. The effect would hardly ever trigger when she used it on higher leveled monsters because of its abysmal activation chance but now that it was 25%, 1 out of 4 chances, Maria would be able to see the effect activate.
Fighting against lower or equal leveled monsters was something Maria hardly did so the effect of [Gehenna’s Eye], which was now [Nephalem’s Eye], would hardly ever activate. She had never even been able to use the skill’s buff on herself and steal a monster’s attributes before.
She really wanted to test things out so she was impatient to get back on the battlefield where the rest of her army was to fight her enemies. Of course, she wouldn’t be actively participating in the fight but she could go monster hunting in the nearby area.
“Alright, Ash, I’m done eating. Let’s head back to the frontlines and on the way, fill me in on what’s been happening,” Maria said as she stood up from her ‘vampire chair’.
“Y-Yes, my Lady.”