Nanomancer Reborn - I've Become A Snow Girl?

"Alright, I'm going to go try kill one or two of them to see how durable they are. But before that, I want you to answer my questions." Shiro said as Bonne nodded his head with a smile.

"Sure, I'll tell you everything you want to know. Well… I'll try."

"Mn, first of all, how long do they retain the copied abilities? I know you said that high ends retain it for a longer period of time while the normal beasts have it for a shorter period. I want to know the exact time." Shiro asked.

"Hmm… Common beasts retain it for around 10 to 24 hours depending on how close they are to becoming high ends. But 9 times out of 10 it'll be around 10 hours. For high ends, it always lasts for 2 days. No more no less." Bonne replied.

"I see… So that means the high end will keep the ice immunity, nanobots and Silvanis copy for two days while the common ones will keep it for around half a day give or take." Shiro muttered.

"When you talk about them copying my skills, if I was to cover them in a magical darkness where light doesn't shine, does that mean they cannot copy my skills?" Shiro asked as Bonne thought about it for a moment.

"I'm not sure since there hasn't been a case of someone using magical darkness yet. However, in the night, even if you're in the shadow, they can still copy your skills if they're looking towards your general direction."

"That makes things annoying. I suppose we can guess that they have night vision. If we want to cast something, it has to be out of sight." Shiro frowned.

"What about range? How far do I need to be for them to not be able to copy my skills?"

"I don't know sorry, we haven't been able to test that out since our main priority was to get away and stay safe whenever they spot us." Bonne apologised sheepishly as he wasn't able to provide as much information as he had hoped.

"That's fine. We'll just have to spend a bit of time testing things out then. Since there is a difference in time from here to the outside world, I can spare a few months if needed." Shiro shrugged before browsing through her list of skills to see which one would be helpful.

Hovering over her Force of Nature skill, Shiro had another question in mind.

"Say, you said that they can copy my skills if they saw me cast it right?" Shiro asked as Bonne nodded his head.

"What about if the spell circle and skill is separate from my body? I have a skill which drops down a giant sword from the sky but neither the magic circle or the sword comes from me. Would they still be able to copy that?" Shiro asked.

"Erm…. I don't think so. The only confirmed thing is that they will copy your skill 100% of the time if they see you cast it yourself. So I think if they don't see you when the sword is summoned, it's fine." Bonne replied.

"I see… what about if a doppelganger performs the actions of casting a skill correctly but not cast it while I do it in the background?"

"I think they will be able to copy that since they would have obtained enough information. With the doppelganger performing the motions required and the spell taking effect, it would be no different from seeing you directly."

"What about the wrong motions then? What if the doppelganger performs the incorrect motions to the spell and the spell activates?" Shiro asked with narrowed eyes since she has a bone to pick with the beasts. Since she understood that she'll be overcome with the status effect the moment she reaches the surface, as long as she keeps certain principles in mind it wouldn't matter.

When you attack, stay out of sight and so on. If she kept those in mind, even if she had a desire to use all of her strongest attacks, they won't be able to copy her.

"I'm not sure but I think it might be a similar case to the giant sword dropping down scenario that you mentioned. Since they didn't gather enough information, I don't think they'll be able to copy it. Especially since you fed them the incorrect information." Bonne replied as Shiro nodded her head.

"Mn, that's good then. Another question, if tier 6 abilities work, would divine energy work?" Shiro asked.

"Divine energy? What's that?"

"It's basically the god's version of mana. It's more powerful than mana and it can only be accessed if you have divinity in you. I suppose to boil it down it's tier 7 but the key point here is that it cannot be used unless you have a bit of divinity in you or if you're closely linked to a god that's granted you these benefits. Can the beasts copy something that is meant to be limited to gods and demi gods?" Shiro asked as Bonne furrowed his brows.

So far, he knew that tier 6 can hurt them and that they can copy tier 6 but there hasn't been anyone capable of using tier 7 spells in this dungeon so the outcome was unknown.

However, with the limitations of this ability, there was a chance that they couldn't copy it.

"I don't know but if they see you cast a berserk skill, they still take some of the backlash. However, for them, the backlash is reduced and their regeneration on top of their innate physiques allow them to recover from it in a very short amount of time."

"So that means the limitation to skills still exist." Shiro nodded her head as that was quite helpful for her.

There wasn't really a limitation to using Error so she had to be careful since there was the chance that she could put her source code in danger.

Even if she had several self heals, revivals and so on, if her source code is destroyed her skills will be useless.

For example, she knows that her Extraction skill had damaged Aekari and the wound still lingers since it was his source code that got injured and not his actual body.

"What are the odds for the copied ability to be an offensive type rather than defensive?" Shiro asked.

"Pardon?"

"Basically, you saw how they copied my ice by having a layer that is immune right?" Shiro said as Bonne nodded his head.

"That's what I call defensive since they don't have the power to use ice but rather, they're now immune to it. With no offensive properties, the copied ability is the defensive type. However, on the other hand, when they copied my nanobots, it was pure offensive. But both of the things that they copied could be used for both defence and offence so I want to know the odds." Shiro asked.

"Hmm… I think it depends on how you use the spell on them. For the two things that you talked about, you used it to harm them without using it as defence for yourself. For the ice, you tried to freeze them in place, if they were to copy and become immune to it, you won't be able to freeze them nor attack them with ice. They won't be hindered when trying to reach you." Bonne explained.

"Alright, that's roughly all the questions I want to ask. I'll test out the range a little as well as the magical darkness so see how they react to that. If they copy it, I'll hide for a day or two before starting again. Do you happen to know a place where there aren't many beasts?" Shiro asked with a smile.

"Mn I do. Here's a map that I've made. It's not that good but it's the best I could do without being caught and killed by them." Bonne said while pulling out a piece of cloth with blood being used as the ink.

"I didn't have anything to write with so blood was the best that I could do." He explained.

"It's fine." Looking at the map, Shiro memorised it entirely and saw that he had circled the areas that are filled with high ends.

'Seems like I have to go with an assassination approach during this dungeon. Chen Yu would have been good for this.' Shiro thought to herself.

{You don't even know if they can see through stealth yet. If they could, everything that Chen Yu does would be useless.} Nimue shrugged.

'True. Though I must admit, now that I know some of their little quirks, I'm looking forward to a revenge match. I need to pay them back for stabbing me in the throat after all.' Shiro cracked her knuckles as Attie hugged her.

{Good luck mommy.} He encouraged as Shiro hugged him back.

Asking Bonne to send her to where there are a few beasts on their own, Shiro constructed a sniper and looked for a good spot to snipe them from.