Level 1 to Apex: My Monster Templates Defy Reality!-Chapter 111: The skill combination

As Forsyx entered the labspace, he didn’t bother interacting with anyone. He simply used the master authority and teleported himself far away from the lab.

It wasn’t long after Forsyx disappeared that Weyril arrived at the spot, looking confused. He closed his eyes to sense his boss but found no one nearby.

Shaking his head, he returned to the lab to once again inspect that mysterious egg.

...

Forsyx opened his eyes in a barren, dark land. As far as he could see, there was nothing but plain, black earth.

He was far away from any creature, all alone in this empty plain. He took a moment to calm himself and opened his status menu.

He tapped on Mana Phantom Mirage to check its description:

[Mana Phantom Mirage (Active)]:

→ Phantom Creation: You can use mana to create numerous mirage phantom clones that last for one second.

(Note: After one second, all your phantoms will vanish.)

Cooldown: 5 seconds

→ Phantom Switch: You can switch your position with one of your phantom clones.

Cooldown: None

(Note: Requires the presence of a mana phantom clone within a 20-meter range.)

After reading the skill, he muttered, "Phantom Creation."

The next moment, an exact clone of himself split away from him as if his body were splitting in two.

It stood next to him. Forsyx stared at it up and down, finding no flaws. The clone looked exactly like him.

He tried to touch it, but his hand passed through its body—it was all an illusion.

He was about to command the clone when it suddenly disintegrated into the air, leaving nothing behind.

Forsyx rubbed his chin and opened his status again. He noticed that even a single clone consumed 2 mana.

He glanced at the cooldown—it only started after the clone disappeared. That meant he had to wait around 6 seconds between uses. A bit of a long cooldown, so spamming the skill wasn’t an option.

The moment the cooldown hit zero, Forsyx used the skill again. This time, two different clones appeared, one on either side of him.

He mentally commanded both clones to sprint forward before they had even fully formed. Sure enough, they rushed away from him in opposite directions.

They ran for about 12 to 14 meters before vanishing once the second passed. He checked the mana cost—two clones used around 5 mana.

A noticeable spike.

As he reread the skill description, it hit him—sending clones in opposite directions limited his Phantom Switch.

If he wanted to switch to the left clone, then the right one would move beyond the 20-meter range.

He’d have to switch back to his original position first, then switch to the right clone. That meant using four skills within one second.

To switch to both clones before they vanished, he first needed to cast Phantom Creation.

The good news, though, was that he just needed to think about how many clones he wanted, and Phantom Creation would consume exactly that much mana to create them.

Then, three Phantom Switches, all within one second.

Forsyx frowned. He was only barely able to use Template Shift seven times in two seconds, even after grinding it during the mana burn process.

He knew he’d only made such good progress thanks to his past-life experience, but even then, pulling off 3.5 skills in one second was his current limit.

He repeatedly used the skill, experimenting to find the best combination. In his third attempt, he created three clones—this cost exactly 10 mana, double what it took for two.

Four clones consumed 20 mana, and five spiked up to 50.

He also discovered that five was the maximum number of clones allowed by the skill. But it didn’t matter—anything beyond three consumed too much mana.

It wasn’t worth spending that much just to create an illusion for one second.

Even three clones felt excessive. Two clones might be the sweet spot.

He continued experimenting and realized the skill was far more effective if he ran along with his clones.

There were many ways he could use them—like creating two clones and sprinting in the same direction.

That helped during attacks. It confused opponents and also increased the flexibility of Phantom Switch.

He also noticed that Phantom Switch didn’t consume any mana—a huge discovery.

The thing was, all his knowledge about the Mana Phantom Mirage skill came from the internet.

He hadn’t used this skill in his past life, as it had been created much later. By then, he had already switched to a variant of the mana-burning method.

That’s why he meticulously tried to use the skill in every possible way.

After experimenting and draining his mana a couple of times, he found the best sequence for him was:

Phantom Creation → Phantom Switch → (Phantom Switch OR Template Shift).

Until he found a way to either increase clone duration or cast skills faster, this would be the ideal pattern.

The more he used it, the more he started to appreciate the value of a single-use phantom clone.

It was a great distraction to reset the combat tempo.

It wasn’t very effective for offense, but it gave him just enough time to avoid instant death.

He spent hours integrating Template Shift with Phantom Switch.

The key was that Template Shift mainly relied on transferring momentum from one form into another—

like diving with Pipler Bird Form and then switching to human or snake form for the final blow—or the reverse.

But combining that with rapid Phantom Switch was difficult.

And there was one particularly annoying limitation—Phantom Switch only worked if he was in his original form.

If he created the phantom in human form, he could only switch to it while in human form.

If he had already Template Shifted into another form, Phantom Switch wouldn’t activate.

That forced him to use Template Shift at the end of the combo.

It reduced the unpredictability of the sequence slightly, but in fast-paced action, it was still a lethal combo.

He spent hours in the lab space perfecting the skill sequence.

Even during mana recovery, he used that time to devise different movements and positions.

As he continued grinding in the silence of the labspace, something major started brewing outside as Rodium and his friend had just crossed the gates of Chimika City.

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