“La la la…! Is it your dream person, or your worst enemy? La la la…!”

  Why am I singing this horrendous song, you ask? Of course, it’s because it’s related to the monster I’m creating right now!

  The reason it sounds so horrible is that I’m not a good composer… Nor a good singer.

  “Ahahaha…!” I awkwardly scratch the back of my head. “You can’t be good at everything. I’m too good a mad scientist, so there must be something I suck at, hahaha!”

  Anyway!

  The unit I’m going to use right now, the one with the Skill Copy innate skill, is a very special one from the Dream Vestiges faction.

  Have you ever had a dream where you can’t quite see a person’s face? As the dream goes on, depending on what happens, that unknown person can turn out to be your lover or best friend… or your worst nightmare.

  Yes! That’s what this unit is based on!

  Incognito, the single unit in DMA that can, literally, get any skill, innate or not, even faction-exclusive, from any other unit, thanks to its innate skill: Skill Copy!

  “Behold! The amazing ‘Skill Copy’ skill, one of the most unique and interesting skills in DMA, and, at the same time, considered one of the worst!”

  ‘Whaaaat!?’, ‘How could this be!?’, ‘Stop treating us like idiots!’...

  Yeah, yeah, I know how you feel. I, too, am indignant at how this amazing skill is treated, but there are valid reasons.

  Reasons so valid and undisputable that, as much as I hate it, I can’t refute them.

  The first is clearly specified in the skill’s description. It says ‘allied unit’, doesn’t it? This means that you must have another unit nearby that already has that skill.

  This poses a question: if you already have a unit with that skill, a unit you brought with you specifically to fill a certain need or battle position, why would you need to copy that skill? That unit will almost always perform its job better than the one who copies said skill. There’s truly no reason to do it.

  This is also the reason why, despite Incognito being a humanoid unit, you’ll rarely see an ‘Incognito’ Champion. It not only poses the problems generated by the question above, but also a more crucial one.

  It isn’t unusual for Champions to spawn alone, either in special events/matches or PvP. In those cases, any innate skill—and I do mean any innate skill, even the lack of innate skill the humans have, because they’re compensated with higher average stats—is better than Skill Copy. After all, if there’s nothing to copy, you can’t use it, so it’s worse than the worst, or even the lack of, innate skills.

  There are plenty more reasons, but the second most common reason is the difficulty to use properly.

  A 30-second channel means you can’t do anything for that time. The whole party must stop, or you risk being interrupted. Stopping every 10 minutes is… a hassle, to say the least.

  If this weren’t enough, every 10 minutes, the Skill Copy immediately turns back to its original state. This means you can’t copy another skill until that time has passed. Also, you must keep track of the remaining time, else you risk it reverting in the middle of combat or another critical moment…

  In short, not worth the hassle.

  “But that’s only for Champions and using them in Dungeon Invasions!”

  For defense, it’s another matter altogether. I’ve seen Dream Vestiges dungeons use Incognitos very effectively, creating some of the best mind games I’ve ever seen in DMA dungeons.

  Furthermore, they look funny. With a humanoid shape but exaggerated proportions and completely white, they remind me of manga and anime monsters. They’re completely white, and instead of a face, they have a question mark.

  By the way, the question mark, black by default, changes color based on the skill they’ve copied.

  I’m sure some jerks… I mean, nerds, like Ricard, can identify which skill with a single look, but for normal people, it goes like this: red tones mean active skills, green tones are triggered, and blue tones are innate skills.

  All in all, Incognitos are very interesting units, but their drawbacks make them hard to find.

  “It was so hard to find and capture enough Incognito units… Sigh!” This is why I had to postpone the dungeon update for a full day.

  But it will be worth it! I’m sure of it!

  …At least, I hope so.

  There’s a reason why I believe—no, that I know—the Skill Copy will be amazing here, and it’s none other than the units inside the capsules. Even while inside them, those units count as ‘nearby allied units’, so the monsters I’m creating will be able to choose whichever skill is most advantageous to them with impunity!

  Even better! After going through the whole dungeon, the invaders will have shown all, or at least most, of their skills, which means the Incognitos can choose the perfect counters!

  “Hahaha…” I evilly grin, “...you’ll never be safe… hahaha…!”

  If the invaders bring lots of support units, AoE skills will be key. Powerful one-hit-kill attacks? God’s Intervention and the like will do wonders. Low damage? Regeneration and damage reduction. Evasion? Magic Missiles and unavoidable skills.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “There’s nothing my Incognitos won’t be able to do! Fufufu! Hahaha!”

  …Of course, this is assuming everything goes as planned… which usually doesn’t happen… especially when there’s AI involved…

  But let’s ignore the facts for now.

  The other unit I’m going to use is the Giant Spider, a classic of the classics. Mostly because of the utility it brings. Skill Copy brings enough power and utility by itself… which means only other utility–centered units match well with it.

  Web Throw’s immobilization, even when weak, is always very powerful. By using the Giant Spiders, my monsters will not only gain that skill, but they will also be able to walk over walls and ceilings. A perfect trait for this room’s 3D–style battlefield.

  Alright, I might admit it… I might have been influenced by our last match in the tournament, where we were defeated. But the stated points still hold! I’m not making things up!

  It’s at this point that I finally open the Template menu and create a new Monstrous Humanoid, selecting the two units.

  “I hope the invaders aren’t scared of spiders…”

  Well, even if they do, the monster’s aspect isn’t that scary.

  By mixing a humanoid and a spider, I had to make them look like arachnes—you know, like a centaur, but the lower body is that of the spider instead of a horse.

  There was no other way. Yep, there wasn’t!

  But even then, their pure white cartoon-like bodies and empty faces aren’t scary. They look more like a joke than anything else... Even more so when you include the enormous question mark on their chests and the ridiculous way they walk and climb over the walls.

  Oh, and since their bodies are white, there’s no need to give them lab coats. They’re the lab coats!

  “It’s always nice to save on expenses… Hahaha!” Even if the cost of that ‘expense’ doesn’t exist, it’s still extra work for me.

  Having picked the two units I’m going to use, how the final creation will look, and everything else, like modifying what skills they’ll copy and when—all available AI changes have gone there, by the way—I start scratching my head in agony.

  “Ugh… Um… This is hard… What skills do you give to a unit that can literally copy any skill…?”

  If they have access to everything, whatever I give them feels like useless baggage…

  “...Unless I go for a full utility kit?”

  If I give them general-purpose skills that are useful in almost any situation, wouldn’t they bring something useful?

  “Yeah, let’s go with that.”

  The most general-purpose active skill that immediately comes to mind is Invisibility. Great for ambushes, running away, and being generally annoying.

  For passive and triggered skills, those that increase the survivability are always great, but some of the best survival skills are already included in those available for copying, so…

  “Maybe something less conventional… Less conven—Ah! Emergency Escape!”

  Emergency Escape, a double-edged-sword skill. The skill that might save your life, or put you into an even greater danger. Isn’t it perfect here?

  Thanks to the lack of dangerous elements, high clutter, and tightly packed stasis capsules, Emergency Escape has a high chance to teleport the monster to the other side of an impassable obstacle, saving them. Pretty good if you ask me.

  “This leaves just the passive skill…”

  That is, unless I want to leave it at that. But if I pick one of each kind now, I won’t have to think about it again if, in the future, I decide to give them any other skill. At that time, it would be more difficult, because I would have forgotten what was going on in my head when I created them…

  For once, I should do what’s best and not what’s easier.

  “See? I’m growing properly, Mom. I’m becoming a proper adult! Hahaha!”

  But as much as I glare at the passive skill list in front of me, nothing good comes to mind. Nothing, until a sudden crazy idea pops up.

  “Haha… Hahaha…!” I laugh like a madman, imagining the situation in my head. “This is too good. Too crazy! Too perfect!”

  Between the Invisibility, the sudden and uncontrollable Emergency Escape teleport, and the already ridiculous base appearance of my monsters, I can easily envision the chaos a fight against several of my monsters can cause. What if, on top of all that, they couldn’t be killed unless you killed all of them at the same time? Wouldn’t that be amazing!?

  “Weird white spider-like humans able to crawl everywhere, appearing and disappearing at random moments, and using any skill imaginable… But you can’t kill them because their HPs are connected… It’s, it’s…! It’s perfect!”

  As I select the three skills, I come up with an even better and crazier idea. The sheer idea is so stupidly good, so amazingly stupid, that my thoughts come to a halt.

  As if possessed, my body instinctively makes the changes required to the AI for my idea to work.

  And no, they don’t require ‘Int modification points’ because they don’t really alter how the AI works, just what they do at certain points. That’s the advantage of decently good AI (4 Int or higher): basic changes cost no points.

  What changes do I make? Well…

  I make them scream. Scream!

  Scream like a trolling player every time one of three things happens: when Invisibility’s effect fades away, when Emergency Escape triggers, and when they take damage that comes from another monster, shared by the skill.

  Can you imagine it?

  A weird pure-white and faceless monster appears next to you with a ‘Trololoooo!’.

  You attack it, and it disappears, leaving a false corpse and a ‘Ugyaaaaaah!’ behind.

  Then you attack another identical-looking monster, and hear a ‘Wachyaaa!’ coming from three different spots, none of which come from the monster you’ve attacked.

  “This monster… This monster is…! Fufufu! Hahaha! I’ve surpassed myself yet another time! HAHAHAHA!”

  Pure, unadulterated chaos! The best kind of Chaos!