Chapter 384: Knight Feast (Part 5)

So Samimi could shamelessly take her best friend’s exclusive junk without guilt.

What the Dark Hero Qiqi Duo truly lacked was never reconnaissance or support abilities.

What she needed was poison coverage and hit efficiency—further strengthening her poison-killing methods.

What actually caused her qualitative change was that Divine Insect King Skill Book.

“My good bestie, this is for your own good. You can’t use this thing.”

Samimi fiddled with the Book Centipede, a sly grin spreading across her face.

But she herself was different.

Samimi’s current magic ritual system—whether offense, defense, or support—was almost maxed out.

What she lacked most was precisely this kind of unconventional trick.

She needed these shady, crooked methods.

What she needed was dirty tactics that caught people off guard.

Otherwise, she’d never be able to beat monsters like Clown King Beibei and Ironhead in the future.

The Book Centipede, to be precise, was a “remotely controlled magic tool capable of independent combat.”

Its effect wasn’t to strengthen magic power.

It was to enhance the long-range release ability of “remote magic.”

For most magic users, this thing was so niche it was absurd—a Legendary Magic Tome with unclear purpose.

Because it forced the user to scrap their entire magic system and rebuild it specifically to cooperate with it.

Otherwise, it couldn’t bring out any effect at all.

The Book Centipede was a truly exclusive weapon.

Because it only had a strong amplification effect on one specific type of technique.

The most common elemental magic, and even Samimi’s Briar Magic and support techniques, couldn’t benefit from its amplification.

So what exactly did it strengthen?

Not magical talent, but an entire independent faction—remote magic.

These techniques could be learned by anyone.

Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, Magic Sword Forging—all essentially belonged to remote magic.

In plain terms, it meant peeling off one’s own magic power and then controlling it remotely.

Going further, so-called Clone Technique, Substitution Technique, Magic Flying Sword, and even many techniques that were released and then controlled off-hand, all essentially belonged to this faction.

So for orthodox magic users, this legendary magic tool was almost meaningless.

Only a niche poison archer like Qiqi Duo could barely make use of it.

But for Samimi—

This thing was practically tailor-made.

Because she knew remote magic too well.

She was an expert in Substitution Technique and a veteran player of Magic Flying Sword.

Moreover, this kind of magic book that specialized in strengthening a single faction theoretically had higher intensity than general-purpose amplification magic books.

Even the Sun Gold Sutra might not necessarily out-stat the Book Centipede in terms of numbers.

This wave was like adding wings to a tiger.

No way around it.

This trip to the Knight Feast would most likely run into the strongest bunch since the server started.

Probably even harder to fight than Magic Sword Red and the Abyss Insect King.

Whether it was that “Mysterious Ghost Assassin Boss” or the “West Coast Fighting God,” the minimum was at the level of Hero Sword Saint or Holy Court Sword Saint—level monsters.

They might even be stronger, approaching the level of Gun Saintess.

If that was really the case, things would get troublesome.

Although Gun Saintess’s abilities countered her own, the guards hired by the nobles were mostly Battle Aura type experts, so they had no natural suppression against her.

Her own Thorn Domain actually countered these brute-force brawlers.

But even so, she absolutely couldn’t underestimate them.

Whether it was the Ghost Assassin Boss or the West Coast Fighting God, just hearing their titles told she wasn’t simple.

After all, in this otherworld constructed by novels, there was a very basic iron law—

The cruder the title, the fiercer the strength.

And assassins and brawlers were ultimately the most annoying professions for a magic user.

That “I counter them” line earlier was mostly just her consoling herself.

So Samimi seized every moment to start developing new techniques.

The road ahead wasn’t easy, and the coming battle had to be fought with full force.

To be honest, she had been slacking off too much along this journey.

All that free time during her travels, she’d been procastinating.

Only when the big deal arrived did she start cramming.

She was a bit too full of herself.

The old Haki wasn’t like this.

She used to be someone who was very enthusiastic about improving her strength.

Her cheap master, Saint Makima, was a master of Substitution Technique.

Though she only demonstrated Substitution Technique once in front of Samimi, it had already benefited Samimi greatly.

The subsequent optimizations to her own Substitution Technique details were almost entirely stolen from her.

So even though Saint Makima had an absurdly low presence and was more like an NPC who only gave out missions in the original plot, Samimi still acknowledged her as her cheap master.

Her support techniques were taught by her.

Substitution Technique, that godly skill, was also stolen from her.

But no matter how she studied, Samimi could never achieve what Saint Makima did—creating a truly perfect doppelganger that could act independently at long range.

But now it was different.

She had the Book Centipede in her hands.

A legendary item that specialized in strengthening remote magic.

It was enough to help her touch that realm.

This instantly ignited Samimi, who had originally lacked motivation to study.

So “surpassing Saint Makima” had always been buried in her heart.

Of course, this wish might not have been her own.

It was more like a lingering obsession left by the original owner.

It couldn’t even be called a wish—more like a zombie-like behavioral inertia.

And now, that obsession had been inherited by her.

“Little centipede, let me see what you’ve got.”

Samimi sat cross-legged on the bed and began injecting more magic power into the Book Centipede.

At the same time, she activated Substitution Technique, starting to carefully construct a brand-new substitute structure.

Crimson Briar Magic power and emerald Healing Light flowed back and forth across the Book Centipede’s surface.

Using the Book Centipede as the core, she built a heart.

Then bit by bit, she molded artificial organs, artificial skeleton, artificial skin, artificial hair, artificial eyes with her magic power.

In just a few dozen seconds, it drained almost all of Samimi’s magical understanding.

This was her first truly original spell.

It was also her most brain-intensive attempt so far.

Finally, a naked “Samimi” with black hair and black eyes knelt silently on the bed.

Hands clasped together, expression gentle, exuding a strange yet saintly maternal aura from head to toe.

This was no longer a simple clone, nor an ordinary substitute.

This was—

[Self-Created Secret Art: Doppelganger]

Clones and substitutes both required the caster to continuously supply magic power, making long-term maintenance impossible.

But the Book Centipede’s strengthening of remote magic happened to grant it a basic ability similar to [Domain: Twins Goddess] —significantly reducing magic power consumption.

Thus it could be embedded into the doppelganger’s body as a “magic heart.”

Making the doppelganger’s magic power consumption rate almost equal to Samimi’s own magic recovery rate.

In other words—

The doppelganger could exist for a long time.

And a technique that continuously consumed magic power meant Samimi was passively grinding experience every moment.

As said before, the best way for a magic user to cultivate was to constantly drain their magic power and then let it recover naturally.

This could fastest increase total magic power and control precision.

And the doppelganger perfectly fit this condition.

At the same time, this doppelganger also incorporated a construction logic similar to blood magic.

That’s right.

It was the vampire’s advanced disguise technique.

Using magic power to simulate the human body structure and construct a near-real “living human body.”

In a sense, she was almost creating a person with magic.

Of course, it could only be considered half.

Because the doppelganger had no self-will.

At most, it was currently a silent humanoid magic turret.

It still required Samimi to divide her attention to control it.

So in terms of pure combat improvement, it wasn’t as exaggerated as imagined.

The doppelganger essentially only provided an extra stable casting slot.

But the problem was, Samimi could already achieve dual casting through the Thorn Crown.

The secret ability unlocked by 500 Goodness Value could even achieve multi-casting.

So from a pure combat performance standpoint, the doppelganger’s boost wasn’t a qualitative change.

But that didn’t matter.

The truly important thing was—

The doppelganger was too cool.

Too awesome.

This thing could directly max out her style.

It could demonstrate her status as a top-level magic user to the fullest.

Just imagining the shock and terror on an enemy mage’s face when they saw the “doppelganger” already made Samimi feel ecstatic.

“It’s a bit cold.”

Samimi first reached out to examine “Black Mimi’s” body.

Touching herself, the feel and structure were identical to her original.

But Black Mimi was ice-cold, with no body temperature.

No matter how she poked, there was no reaction, like a corpse.

“No shit.”

Samimi punched herself with the back of her hand.

The doppelganger was originally a controllable puppet.

It would be weird if it reacted.

She climbed off the bed, left the room temporarily, and went to find Niubao, who was still eating. She swiped a set of hidden treasured Cleric Formal Robes and the Blackwood Staff she had taken earlier.

All for this moment.

After a long while, she finally returned to the room and began dressing Black Mimi.

After much fuss, she finally got that absurdly complicated priest robe properly arranged.

This white robe was actually the true standard combat attire of the Valkyrie Knight Order.

Its complexity and splendor almost rivaled the ceremonial robes of a Violet Archpriest.

In short, this thing was basically a white archbishop robe.

After putting it on, she looked like a penguin, having to walk carefully.

But it was also genuinely beautiful.

Solemn, magnificent, full of dignity.

With Samimi’s own personality, she would never wear such troublesome clothes herself.

So she simply created a doppelganger to wear it for her.

Was that actually her true research goal?

Finally, Black Mimi grasped the Blackwood Staff and slowly stood up from the bedside.

She had the exact same face as her.

But after changing clothes, her aura seemed to have become a completely different person.

This “Samimi” with black hair and black eyes in front of her was more like the archbishop that people imagined.

Cold, ruthless, aloof.

Like a proxy of the goddess overlooking the mortal world.

“Hehe.”

Samimi was quite satisfied with what she saw.

This was the effect she wanted.

Let the gorgeous doppelganger go out to absorb aggro and take the heat.

While she herself stayed beautifully behind, playing dirty.

Not to mention, what she was about to face next was the strongest mysterious ghost assassin boss in Black Street history.

The greatest significance of the doppelganger was to take an assassin’s first strike for her.