They were back at the ruined city, taking a break in the entrance of the underground dungeon, away from the red sand.
Walking all this time to come back empty handed felt terrible, so they wanted to try to tackle the earth golems inside of there. But they couldn’t dive in without a plan. The biggest gripe was how restricted Sofia was. [Heal undead] and the wings couldn’t be used indoors and even less so in this mana-less desert. Even if she could now probably use [Angel’s bolt] from the ground, doing so in a restricted space was straight up suicide. She had no bones for her armor, and Pareth was stuck in a chicken skeleton.
All she could really work with was her new skill, [Graveyard of the righteous], that did no damage, and [Summon blood]. That wouldn’t help much against Earth Golems that were around level 200 according to the dungeon’s level.
Sofia went over her complete status, letting Alith check it as well.
Name : Sofia Aphenoreth
Age : 20
Class : [Saintomancer]
Level : 100
Health : 5500 / 5500
Stamina : 1500 / 1500
Mana : 44500 / 44500(-10000)
Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]
Active Skills (5 / 6)
[Heal Undead] - Level 56 [Summon Blood] - Level 17 [Angel’s bolt] - Level 100 [Maiden Banshee] - Level 100 (Lv.100) [Graveyard of the righteous] - Level 100Passive Skills (5 / 6)
[Blessing of the Deep] - Level 100 [Armor of Bones] - Level 100 [Pristine essence] [Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] [Holy Wings of undeath]Classless Skills (6 / 6)
[Menial chores] - Level 7 [Sprint] - Level 3 [Fast reading] - Level 19 [Way of the Fool] - Level 3 [Poker Face] - Level 9 [Identify] - Level 1Summoned heroes (2 / 4)
Lv.100 Pareth (Holy Chicken Eclipse Skeleton) Lv.100 Alith (Maiden Banshee)Available Active Skills :
[Dispel ] : Dispels [ mist] : in a thick mist. [ soul] : to the necromancer’s lifeforce.No Available Passive Skills.
No Available Classless Skills.
“What if you make [Dispel soul mist]?” Alith asked.
“I don’t know… I don’t really like the feeling of it, what if it’s some kind of mental status effect cleanse? That’s pretty much already what [Blessing of the Deep] does…”
“You can get rid of [Sprint] and [Menial chores], but you need a replacement. Can’t you ask the scribe to give you new ones?”
“Can I? It did listen to my complaints sometimes before…”
[Please wait.]
Alith’s eyes went wide at the appearance of Sofia’s new system notification, “No way, it really worked? What the hell? Hey can I have that too?” But nothing happened, making her frown in frustration, it wasn’t the first time she tried things that didn’t work. This time it was made worse by working for Sofia and not her.
“Alith… I don’t know if you’re a genius or if I’m dumb? How many times do I have to be surprised by discovering things like that…”
“You’re too used to the system being a rigid thing. I don’t have the same preconceived notions about it… There’s more things that I'd still like to try. But I think my system is a bit less responsive than yours, probably has to do with your scribe thing.”
“Can’t you use mine then? You’re already linked to one of my skills so maybe that could work somehow?”
[Please wait.]
[Ascending request.]
[Granted. Linkage operational cost : 5000 maximum mana. Will you accept?]
Sofia didn’t even ponder over it and just accepted. What’s 5000 more or 5000 less at this point.
[Link has been established.]
“Are you sure about this?” Alith asked when she realized what had happened.
“Don’t even worry about it. If you get stronger we both benefit, it’s not wasted to me.”
“Thank you then… But what if I leave?”
“Are you going to?”
“...”
“See. Anyway, ask to get more classless skills again!”
[Please wait.]
Sofia nodded in satisfaction as Alith’s new message appeared. Mana well spent. “Wanna try to hunt something else instead? I’d like a better skeleton for Pareth… One big enough that I could regrow him a few times for armor without emptying all my mana… Maybe we could even feed my armor to your dumb shirt.”
“That’d be nice if it works… We’ve seen nothing alive in this drab desert besides burrowing insects is the problem…” Alith complained.
“Tyrene mentioned worms. With a bit of luck we could find some.”
“Worms are usually quite small… And would they even have bones? I don’t think the worms in my world ever had any.”
“I don’t know about the size but one of my available specialization paths for Pareth was ‘Sandworm’, so if I had to guess they must have a skeleton. Unless there's multiple types of sand worms.”
“Can’t hurt to try, though it’s still not ideal even if we get that. Can’t see a worm using a sword, or fighting too well when we leave the desert.”
The discussion about worms was interrupted by a new message for each.
[Full scan complete. New Classless skills available.]
“Who goes first ?” Sofia said.
“Me,” Alith answered, “I only need to replace [Alchemy], should be quick.”
Available Classless Skills:
[Acrobatics] [Aerobics] [Assassination] [Caregiving] [Climbing] [Dancing] [Decisive] [Discipline] [Evasion] [Exploring] [Fire affinity] [Follower] [Hero’s charisma] [Hero’s luck] [Jittery] [Meditation] [Negotiating] [Orienteering] [Planar shift] [Poison Resistance] [Quickstep] [Robust] [Shenanigans] [Sneaking] [Sprint] [Tanned] [Thievery] [Tireless] [Toned] [Weapon throwing]“Or not…”
“And it gave us no options before?!” Sofia exclaimed. She looked through her list as well, it was even longer.
Since they had so much to read through, they went ahead and thought about their choices by themselves.
In the end, Alith replaced [Cooking] and [Alchemy] with [Planar shift] and [Toned].
[Planar shift] : Transitions between planes and teleportation delay is 1% (1*Skill Level) faster.
Eventually she’ll be able to switch from specter to human and back instantly!
[Toned] : Grant additional capacity to the nervous system. Your maximum stamina is increased by 10000 per 100 class levels. Bonus cosmetic effects.
Synergizes well with [Shinobi], no clue what the nerve capacity thing is supposed to do. It was very strong how much stamina it gave, but had the weird downside of being a locked classless skill. Well at least it doesn’t need leveling up.
It was also the first time they saw a skill explicitly mention cosmetic additions, and it resulted in Alith’s muscles being slightly more defined, if still quite discreet. Sofia had a sneaking suspicion that this had been the bigger decisive factor. Considering her complex with her… youthful appearance. Especially now that most of her torso was always exposed.
Sofia wouldn’t even have been shocked if Alith had taken [Hero’s charisma] or [Tanned] as well. Though they were both tanning well enough already in their current situation.
Meanwhile Sofia chose to replace [Menial chores] and [Sprint] with [Sanctity] and [Mana manipulation].
[Sanctity] : Reduce damages to the body by 0.5% (0.5*Skill Level).
I know I have more health now, but I really want to avoid re-living the Siren fight’s ‘get killed in two hits’ scenario. Also don’t want to end up like Fox did in the trial. As long as I’m alive I can let Pareth and Alith do the attacking. And the name is fitting.
[Mana manipulation] : Your mana framework’s self correcting capabilities are doubled.
I’m not sure I fully understand this one but if that can help me manage large amounts of mana better, that would be perfect. Since it’s a locked classless like [Toned] it can’t be weak. I hope. The other options weren’t so interesting anyway. I just want something that helps with my wings.
Kind of a gamble but then again, what isn’t these days? I should really look into a less destructive attacking skill next. Maybe pick up a bow or something…
Alith seemed happy with the cosmetic changes, observing herself from every angle she could.
“Looks good on you,” Sofia complimented.
“Yeah I kinda like it too. Feels nice.”
“Now you only need one to be taller.”
“Nah, I’m fine. As long as I don’t look like an actual child, you know. It’s not like I dislike how I am this much… Anyway, worm time? Or do we fuck off this crap desert?” she asked, taking an exaggerated smug pose with her arms crossed.
“Did you just use [Utterly unimpressed]?”
“What? I need to get used to it if I’m going to be using it in battle. Did you see how it lasts five seconds but my stacks from [Heir of fire] only last for three? I’m getting scammed as usual.” She struck another pose.
“It’s not on cooldown?” Sofia asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It is, I just want to try different poses.”
“Alright… So the sand worms… I should have a bit more information on my permanent backlog from the specialization…Yeah, here, take a look.”
The system message appeared before Alith.
[Path of the Sandworm :
Unlocking requirements :
Has slept in sand. Has eaten sand. Has played with worms. Likes red meat. Likes the smell of blood. Often shows blatant disregard for their own safety.Description : The sandworm is an apex predator. Your skeleton will become a sandworm skeleton, adept at burrowing and mincing its prey; once it attacks it will never relent until it or its target is dead for good. Swift and resilient, it is the scourge of the sands.]
“Strange requirement…”
“...”
“That’s strong though, why didn’t you take this?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t feel right. I didn’t want anything that locked Pareth in a single skeleton type.”
Alith threw a glance at the skeletal chicken, “Well… Anyway, that doesn’t tell us much, except that fighting it in the sand is a bad idea, which I could’ve guessed without that to be honest.”
“Hmm, I have heard of it somewhere else I believe, let me think for a bit,” Sofia said as she sat cross-legged in the sand.
It took her a good thirty seconds before it finally clicked, “Oh! Nyse… I mean, Cardinal, the vampire, during the trial he spoke about how his team had gone to hunt sandworms… Well, he spoke about a lot of things really…”
“And so?”
“Blood! They smell blood from super far away was the thing he said, I’m pretty sure.”
“Looking at your specialization thing that does make sense, can we really take them down though?”
They were back at the ruined city, taking a break in the entrance of the underground dungeon, away from the red sand.
Walking all this time to come back empty handed felt terrible, so they wanted to try to tackle the earth golems inside of there. But they couldn’t dive in without a plan. The biggest gripe was how restricted Sofia was. [Heal undead] and the wings couldn’t be used indoors and even less so in this mana-less desert. Even if she could now probably use [Angel’s bolt] from the ground, doing so in a restricted space was straight up suicide. She had no bones for her armor, and Pareth was stuck in a chicken skeleton.
All she could really work with was her new skill, [Graveyard of the righteous], that did no damage, and [Summon blood]. That wouldn’t help much against Earth Golems that were around level 200 according to the dungeon’s level.
Sofia went over her complete status, letting Alith check it as well.
Name : Sofia Aphenoreth
Age : 20
Class : [Saintomancer]
Level : 100
Health : 5500 / 5500
Stamina : 1500 / 1500
Mana : 44500 / 44500(-10000)
Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]
Active Skills (5 / 6)
[Heal Undead] - Level 56 [Summon Blood] - Level 17 [Angel’s bolt] - Level 100 [Maiden Banshee] - Level 100 (Lv.100) [Graveyard of the righteous] - Level 100Passive Skills (5 / 6)
[Blessing of the Deep] - Level 100 [Armor of Bones] - Level 100 [Pristine essence] [Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] [Holy Wings of undeath]Classless Skills (6 / 6)
[Menial chores] - Level 7 [Sprint] - Level 3 [Fast reading] - Level 19 [Way of the Fool] - Level 3 [Poker Face] - Level 9 [Identify] - Level 1Summoned heroes (2 / 4)
Lv.100 Pareth (Holy Chicken Eclipse Skeleton) Lv.100 Alith (Maiden Banshee)Available Active Skills :
[Dispel ] : Dispels [ mist] : in a thick mist. [ soul] : to the necromancer’s lifeforce.No Available Passive Skills.
No Available Classless Skills.
“What if you make [Dispel soul mist]?” Alith asked.
“I don’t know… I don’t really like the feeling of it, what if it’s some kind of mental status effect cleanse? That’s pretty much already what [Blessing of the Deep] does…”
“You can get rid of [Sprint] and [Menial chores], but you need a replacement. Can’t you ask the scribe to give you new ones?”
“Can I? It did listen to my complaints sometimes before…”
[Please wait.]
Alith’s eyes went wide at the appearance of Sofia’s new system notification, “No way, it really worked? What the hell? Hey can I have that too?” But nothing happened, making her frown in frustration, it wasn’t the first time she tried things that didn’t work. This time it was made worse by working for Sofia and not her.
“Alith… I don’t know if you’re a genius or if I’m dumb? How many times do I have to be surprised by discovering things like that…”
“You’re too used to the system being a rigid thing. I don’t have the same preconceived notions about it… There’s more things that I'd still like to try. But I think my system is a bit less responsive than yours, probably has to do with your scribe thing.”
“Can’t you use mine then? You’re already linked to one of my skills so maybe that could work somehow?”
[Please wait.]
[Ascending request.]
[Granted. Linkage operational cost : 5000 maximum mana. Will you accept?]
Sofia didn’t even ponder over it and just accepted. What’s 5000 more or 5000 less at this point.
[Link has been established.]
“Are you sure about this?” Alith asked when she realized what had happened.
“Don’t even worry about it. If you get stronger we both benefit, it’s not wasted to me.”
“Thank you then… But what if I leave?”
“Are you going to?”
“...”
“See. Anyway, ask to get more classless skills again!”
[Please wait.]
Sofia nodded in satisfaction as Alith’s new message appeared. Mana well spent. “Wanna try to hunt something else instead? I’d like a better skeleton for Pareth… One big enough that I could regrow him a few times for armor without emptying all my mana… Maybe we could even feed my armor to your dumb shirt.”
“That’d be nice if it works… We’ve seen nothing alive in this drab desert besides burrowing insects is the problem…” Alith complained.
“Tyrene mentioned worms. With a bit of luck we could find some.”
“Worms are usually quite small… And would they even have bones? I don’t think the worms in my world ever had any.”
“I don’t know about the size but one of my available specialization paths for Pareth was ‘Sandworm’, so if I had to guess they must have a skeleton. Unless there's multiple types of sand worms.”
“Can’t hurt to try, though it’s still not ideal even if we get that. Can’t see a worm using a sword, or fighting too well when we leave the desert.”
The discussion about worms was interrupted by a new message for each.
[Full scan complete. New Classless skills available.]
“Who goes first ?” Sofia said.
“Me,” Alith answered, “I only need to replace [Alchemy], should be quick.”
Available Classless Skills:
[Acrobatics] [Aerobics] [Assassination] [Caregiving] [Climbing] [Dancing] [Decisive] [Discipline] [Evasion] [Exploring] [Fire affinity] [Follower] [Hero’s charisma] [Hero’s luck] [Jittery] [Meditation] [Negotiating] [Orienteering] [Planar shift] [Poison Resistance] [Quickstep] [Robust] [Shenanigans] [Sneaking] [Sprint] [Tanned] [Thievery] [Tireless] [Toned] [Weapon throwing]“Or not…”
“And it gave us no options before?!” Sofia exclaimed. She looked through her list as well, it was even longer.
Since they had so much to read through, they went ahead and thought about their choices by themselves.
In the end, Alith replaced [Cooking] and [Alchemy] with [Planar shift] and [Toned].
[Planar shift] : Transitions between planes and teleportation delay is 1% (1*Skill Level) faster.
Eventually she’ll be able to switch from specter to human and back instantly!
[Toned] : Grant additional capacity to the nervous system. Your maximum stamina is increased by 10000 per 100 class levels. Bonus cosmetic effects.
Synergizes well with [Shinobi], no clue what the nerve capacity thing is supposed to do. It was very strong how much stamina it gave, but had the weird downside of being a locked classless skill. Well at least it doesn’t need leveling up.
It was also the first time they saw a skill explicitly mention cosmetic additions, and it resulted in Alith’s muscles being slightly more defined, if still quite discreet. Sofia had a sneaking suspicion that this had been the bigger decisive factor. Considering her complex with her… youthful appearance. Especially now that most of her torso was always exposed.
Sofia wouldn’t even have been shocked if Alith had taken [Hero’s charisma] or [Tanned] as well. Though they were both tanning well enough already in their current situation.
Meanwhile Sofia chose to replace [Menial chores] and [Sprint] with [Sanctity] and [Mana manipulation].
[Sanctity] : Reduce damages to the body by 0.5% (0.5*Skill Level).
I know I have more health now, but I really want to avoid re-living the Siren fight’s ‘get killed in two hits’ scenario. Also don’t want to end up like Fox did in the trial. As long as I’m alive I can let Pareth and Alith do the attacking. And the name is fitting.
[Mana manipulation] : Your mana framework’s self correcting capabilities are doubled.
I’m not sure I fully understand this one but if that can help me manage large amounts of mana better, that would be perfect. Since it’s a locked classless like [Toned] it can’t be weak. I hope. The other options weren’t so interesting anyway. I just want something that helps with my wings.
Kind of a gamble but then again, what isn’t these days? I should really look into a less destructive attacking skill next. Maybe pick up a bow or something…
Alith seemed happy with the cosmetic changes, observing herself from every angle she could.
“Looks good on you,” Sofia complimented.
“Yeah I kinda like it too. Feels nice.”
“Now you only need one to be taller.”
“Nah, I’m fine. As long as I don’t look like an actual child, you know. It’s not like I dislike how I am this much… Anyway, worm time? Or do we fuck off this crap desert?” she asked, taking an exaggerated smug pose with her arms crossed.
“Did you just use [Utterly unimpressed]?”
“What? I need to get used to it if I’m going to be using it in battle. Did you see how it lasts five seconds but my stacks from [Heir of fire] only last for three? I’m getting scammed as usual.” She struck another pose.
“It’s not on cooldown?” Sofia asked with a raised eyebrow.
“It is, I just want to try different poses.”
“Alright… So the sand worms… I should have a bit more information on my permanent backlog from the specialization…Yeah, here, take a look.”
The system message appeared before Alith.
[Path of the Sandworm :
Unlocking requirements :
Has slept in sand. Has eaten sand. Has played with worms. Likes red meat. Likes the smell of blood. Often shows blatant disregard for their own safety.Description : The sandworm is an apex predator. Your skeleton will become a sandworm skeleton, adept at burrowing and mincing its prey; once it attacks it will never relent until it or its target is dead for good. Swift and resilient, it is the scourge of the sands.]
“Strange requirement…”
“...”
“That’s strong though, why didn’t you take this?”
“I don’t know, it didn’t feel right. I didn’t want anything that locked Pareth in a single skeleton type.”
Alith threw a glance at the skeletal chicken, “Well… Anyway, that doesn’t tell us much, except that fighting it in the sand is a bad idea, which I could’ve guessed without that to be honest.”
“Hmm, I have heard of it somewhere else I believe, let me think for a bit,” Sofia said as she sat cross-legged in the sand.
It took her a good thirty seconds before it finally clicked, “Oh! Nyse… I mean, Cardinal, the vampire, during the trial he spoke about how his team had gone to hunt sandworms… Well, he spoke about a lot of things really…”
“And so?”
“Blood! They smell blood from super far away was the thing he said, I’m pretty sure.”
“Looking at your specialization thing that does make sense, can we really take them down though?”
