Turning to look back at the [Lord Subordination] skill that I had just acquired, I couldn't stop marveling at how powerful of an ability it was. Honestly, despite the fact that it was it just a tier 1 ability, it felt as though it was even more powerful than my tier 10 [Veritas]. After all, [Veritas] couldn’t be used to attack anyone, but [Lord Subordination] was able to fully bring under my control, someone whose level was more than twice that of mine. Granted, the only reason I managed to pull it off was that Ailya was a naive child in a vulnerable state which allowed me burrow my will into her mind. But it still didn’t change the fact that I was able to subordinate a person with a higher level than mine, and a person with a tier 10 soul to boot!

Turning to look at the ability that had elevated Ailya’s soul tier to 10, I used [Veritas] to make sense of what type of ability [Doppelganger] was, even though from the name I was able to to intuit that it would allow her to change her appearance or mimic others. Nonetheless, taking a proper peek at the ability, I could do nothing but be left dumbfounded once I actually understood just what the extent of its capabilities were.

{[Doppelganger X] - Change your appearance to your desired form. Assume any and all forms. Perfectly mimic any target including their mana and soul signatures. Gain your targets abilities at a 10% penalty to your own stats(must be same level or higher as target).

I mean seriously, this ability is just ridiculous… Granted at level 8, it's not as if Ailya will be able to emulate any seriously powerful person, but that still means that she could essentially mimic me to become a stronger version of myself. After all, a 10% reduction to her stats would still be higher than mine…

Thinking back on one of the abilities of [Lord Subordination] that allowed me to ‘gain’ an ability from my subordinates, I was immediately compelled to take such a powerful ability and added into my own repertoire. Thus, mentally thinking about gaining the ability, I felt my soul resonate with Ailya’s as the girl turned her head inquisitively towards mine, most likely feeling the connection between us become active at this event.

Checking my own skills and abilities after this was able to see that I had acquired a new soul skill. However, unlike Ailya, my [Doppelganger] skill was only at tier 5.

Paying closer attention to the limits of [Lord Subordination], I was able to see that at its current level, abilities and skills that I gained or shared with my subordinates would be limited to tier 5, regardless of the tier the original user had it at. Thus, abilities or skills gained or shared through this method would be the same tier as the original unless it went over tier 5, at which point the ability would no longer change tiers and remain at tier 5.

However, this wasn’t a permanent thing, and by using [Veritas] I was able to tell that tiers 3-5-7-9-10 of [Lord Subordination] would allow me to increment the max tier of shared abilities and skills by one tier at each respective milestone.

There were also two other things that would change about [Lord Subordination] as I leveled up the ability. The first being that the limit of abilities and skills that I could gain and share with my subordinates was dependent on the tier of my ability. So, by leveling up this ability to tier 2, I would be able to gain two abilities from each of my subordinates, as well as share two of my own with each of them.

The second thing that would also change with the tier of the ability was the maximum number of subordinates that I could have. With each single tier number, the number of maximum subordinates I could have would double from the previous amount. Meaning that at tier 10, I could have up to 1024 subordinates. That number, coupled with the fact that I would be able to gain 10 abilities or skills from each of them for a potential of 10,240 extra abilities and skills for myself, showed just how terrifying a power [Lord Subordination] could become…

Stopping these thoughts about my future capabilities, I turned to look at my [Doppelganger V] and observed it using [Veritas], giving me the description:

{[Doppelganger V]} - Change your appearance to your desired form. Assume the form of any race in the world. Mimic any person, including their skills and abilities, at a 50% penalty to their stats(must be same level or higher as target).

From this, I was able to see just how much my ability paled in comparison to Aylia’s. After all, no only could she perfectly mimic anyone as even her soul and magic signatures would match theirs, but she only had to pay a 10% penalty to her own stats when doing so. As for me, my stats would become 50% lower than whoever I chose to mimic. Which relegated my ability to infiltration and espionage as opposed to Ailya’s which was extremely versatile for combat, even though it was also infinitely better for covert operations than mine…

Deciding to leave behind this matter for the moment, I turned to the last notification on my mind. The notification informing me of my new level. Deciding to finally see what skills and abilities would become available to me, I perused through the information that began flooding in my mind and discovered a few things as I tried to make my decision.

The first thing I discovered was that I was able to see a vast amount of skills and abilities that I could choose from. With physical skills and abilities all starting at tier 1 even though some were not available to me as my level wasn’t high enough. However, for magic skills and abilities, this was not the case. All magic skills and abilities were already at a predetermined tier, and in order to acquire something in the next tier, you would have to have unlocked all previous required skills or abilities in what was essentially a magic skill/ability tree. Looking down into the magic skill tree, I looked around for the skill [Teleportation] and found that it was all the way down at tier 8…

Deciding to accept the fact that I would have to continue relying on my own two legs as the primary method for transportation, since I could only choose among tier 1 skills and abilities, I looked around for a simple magic skill that would allow me to properly defend myself. Finding the basic and common skill [Fireball I], I immediately chose it since I thought that it was only right for a Demon Lord to go down a pyromancy tree. Especially, seeing some of the impressive magic skills further down the line.

Thus, having finished all the matters pertaining to myself, I turned back to look at Ailya and said:

“Ailya, I just used my ability to gain a skill from you, is that fine?”

“Yes! I’m glad to be of service!”

“That ability was [Doppelganger], did you know that you had it?”

“Yes! I can tell that I just gained, though I’m not sure exactly how to use it”

“This ability allows you to change yourself and a few more complex things, right now, since it’s dangerous for you to remain as a half-elf, could you change your appearance into that of a normal elf or human?”

Seeing Ailya transform in front of me to a 12 year old version of myself, I couldn’t help but release a silent sight as she said giggling:

“Now we look like we’re family, ehehehe~”

Smiling somewhat at her innocent answer, I decided to give her something that she would need in order to be able to survive as I told her:

“I’ll also be giving you an ability in return, and ability called [Soul Devourer], would that be okay with you?”

“Of course!”

Hearing the happiness and enthusiasm in her voice as she obeyed all of my ‘orders’, I couldn’t help but feel guilty once again at the poor half-elf whose will I had essentially robbed.

Thus, despite me knowing that I had full control over Ailya due to [Lord Subordination], I still felt compelled to test the limits and extent of the ability to see how much its mind influencing powers worked, and see just how much of the girl in front of me I would potentially be able to change…