Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia and Speed chatted for about another hour before they left his divine domain and he carried her back to the swamp, where Saria began asking Sofia a thousand questions about the ‘date’ which had lasted almost a full day. Meanwhile Pareth was away with Bookie and the plant mage skeleton in the nearby Spirit forest in search of some plant, on Alith’s request.

When Saria finally gave Sofia a second to breathe, she checked her ring.

[Gluttony] : A ring from the lost Epoch, given to mortals by the Annihilator.

Must be primed to unlock advanced functions (1/ 5 divine remains absorbed).

Seems like proving myself to uncle Annihilator isn’t going to be that hard after all?

She then quickly looked through Pareth’s vision, seeing that he was indeed on a stroll inside of the spirit forest.

Stay safe, guys.

Bookie silently turned around, facing Pareth to give Sofia a thumbs up.

Sofia cut the connection.

He looks happy.

“Ahhh… Well, that was a nice break. Back to the levelling chamber I go…”

“Oh, you’re getting back in your mithril cube?” Saria asked from the side as she stretched.

“I have to get those levels. You’ve left me in the dust, look at you, already at 299, what did you kill to go up so fast, even? It’s not been that long since we passed the filter.”

Saria stopped stretching, she just took a few severed heads out of her storage ring. Sofia had no trouble understanding where they were from. These were all big monstrous birds. “I just happen to be very familiar with a number of flying monsters that also happen to live right next to us in very very large numbers,” she explained with a smirk.

“Right… And your class is all about fighting one against many… Has the situation out there changed at all?”

“Not yet, Solvun is still a pink hellscape. But I did meet a few elves out there while I was levelling, they’re teaming up with a human group and some historian dwarf guy to try to get rid of the ebb, if I understood correctly, so things might change soon. I promised to go back to help them, actually, so I’ll be gone about a week from now until who knows when. Wanna come?”

“No thanks, I’d like to but there’s too much on my plate already…”

“Understandable. We’re not going to get rid of the ebb easily anyway, or it would have already been done, so you can always join later.”

Sofia nodded, “Sure will. And speaking of joining, want to come with me to the next trial? It’s a group thing apparently.”

“Yeah it’s four people groups, Zephir told me. I wanted to ask you to join my group, actually, I’m going with Cinthia so we’ve got two spots open for you and Pareth.”

“Oh… It’s four people? I promised Sun I would go with her Saintess…”

Saria laughed heartily, “Quite the sisters we are. Ever since we’ve reunited we’ve barely had time to do anything together except playing cards.”

“I like our game nights; but you’re right, we have both been quite busy,” Sofia agreed, “I miss spending more time with you.”

“Awww, you’re so cute, Sofia! How about we do something together after the next trial?” Saria suggested, “I’ll keep my schedule open to take care of my lil’ sis. Sounds good?”

“If you already know the answer there’s no need to ask the question,” Sofia answered with a smile.

Sofia sat in the mithril cube with a half-formed angel bolt in her hand.

‘You gained a level!’

She glanced at her status, confirming that she had reached level 299.

Level : 250 ♢ (299)

B-but I’m not done?

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Seeing no immediate direction from Mr.Scribe, she decided to go through with this last rune-carving in her own flesh, as it was where most of the stats came from, her stats actually increasing from the process of doing the things, rather than when she received the level-up messages.

She painfully traced another rune in herself with the bolt, like she had done about two hundred times already, following the list of runes and places that her scribe had been providing her. Keeping an eye on her stats, she saw them keep going up.

When she finished, she quickly did some mental maths and updated her stat gains on a bone slate.

‘Total stat gain for 49 level:

Health 3072; Stamina 2125; Mana 280760’

To that she could still add the extra bits of health, stamina and about 1500 mana points that she had just gained by finishing that last rune carving.

That’s almost a quarter of a level… Am I level 299.25?

She then brought up the list of runes the Scribe had given her, she still had quite a lot of them to go through.

Can… Can I just continue?

To that question, the Scribe brought up the custom system document page that said ‘yes’.

And that won’t cause any issue with the trials or anything?!

‘no’

“A- Alright. More stats, for free? Sign me up.”

Sofia continued, performing the entire level up ceremony a few more times until she got another level up message.

‘You gained a level!’

This message was a bit scary, and for a second, Sofia was scared that Mr.Scribe had committed a terrible fuckup and that she had just become the most laughable of level 300s, missing an entire trial.

Level : 250 ♢ (299 EX1)

Oh, thank the lords…

So extra levels are a thing? How many can I get?

From then on Sofia lost count of the number of times she had to repeat the levelling procedure, but it quickly became apparent that it rapidly started working less and less. Each EX level being worth fewer and fewer stat points, until she reached the second to last rune of Mr.Scribe’s list at level 299 EX22, which was worth a grand total of five stat points: one health, one stamina, and three mana.

Noting the change on her bone slab, she sighed, and started filling up the mithril cube with mana again. Doing the last rune was absolutely not worth it, it would only eat up a few more hours of her time, and make her suffer for nothing, as the pain from the procedure did not get any better with repetition. But Sofia was committed to finishing the list anyway, if only to not be bothered by the annoying feeling of having stopped something before it was fully completed.

This last run netted her no extra level, and a total of exactly one mana point.

That was so not worth it…

She internally complained, but looking at her bone slate recap and her status left her satisfied. Hard work was paying off.

‘Total stat gain for 49 level plus EX:

Health 3765; Stamina 2609; Mana 342,944’

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age :21 ♢

Class : [Saintomancer] ♢

Sub-Class : [False Lord] ♢

Level : 250 ♢ (299 EX22)

Health : 925 566 / 1 026 527 (20k+(20*250 - 4k)+65k+736762+200000+3765)

Stamina : 256 980 / 373 611 (20067+(20*250 - 4k)+183 269+166666+2609)

Mana : 5 154 236 / 5 365 182 (319100+(2k*250- 400k)+4603138+342944)

(Mana Regeneration: (0.16%) + Other sources = 11376/s)

(Mana Regeneration in Sunlight : (0.16%) + Other sources = 27777/s)

Very good, that’s still a very decent upgrade to my mana reserves and regeneration, can’t underestimate that. It also didn’t take as long as expected. It’s been what, under three months? And I only took three short breaks to check on Pareth and Bookie. Not having to sleep helps a lot. I’m not even a little tired!

I should have unlocked three more skill opportunities from the dagger too, that could be interesting… Maybe. If I had more free skill slots… Speaking of which, isn’t it about time you let my skills level up, Mr.Scribe?

At first there was no answer.

Mr.Scribe? Sofia asked again. Is everything alright? Did we break something with the extra levels?

Then Sofia collapsed from a sudden and unexpected jolt of pain.

‘[Spine of the Black Sun] reached level 263’

‘[Summon Blood] reached level 258’

[A new soft-evolution choice was unlocked for the skill : Summon Blood]

‘[Maiden Banshee] reached level 268 (Lv.268)’

‘[Graveyard of the righteous] reached level 277’

[A new soft-evolution choice was unlocked for the skill : Graveyard of the righteous]

‘[False immortality] reached level 4’

‘[Skull Choir] reached level 292’

‘A new choir array formation is available: Patrol’

‘[Runeforged Overlord] reached level 292’

‘[Summon Self] reached level 52’

The pain faded as fast as it had come after Sofia’s internal mana circuits all finished rearranging themselves. Most of these level ups were about what Sofia had expected, they lined up well with how much and how efficiently she had used the skills since the trial. What was unexpected were the two soft evolution targets.

I can understand the graveyard… But Summon Blood?!