Saintess Summons Skeletons

After the first heavy decision, the trio spent some time having a more casual conversation on the trial and Victory. For example, Sofia learned that he took the appearance of an Orc because the Orcs were the ones to worship Victory the most and so He felt that it was natural to appear as one of them. She also learned that a few other Gods were currently able to roam the lands, Sun being the most prominent example.

The two old monsters gave Sofia tips and advice worth their weight in gold, and they had her talk about her encounters with the Deep in exchange. Some things were mysterious even to Gods, it seemed. Then came farewells, and Sen took Sofia to his private quarters within the Spire, a luxurious suite not even kings would dare dream of where she found his real physical body sleeping on an oversized bed. The mana body he had been until now crumbled and his real self woke up. Sofia hoped to maybe see his level through [Identify] but even his real body only showed [Seraph].

“Follow me,” Sen told her, pointing at a trapdoor in a corner, “we can’t teleport where we’re heading.”

“Where, exactly, are we going?”

“The lower core of the Spire. I need you to be there to process your level up and the Draconic system bridging.”

“Alright… Where do the others level up? Are they all done too?”

“Not everyone’s out yet, no, the Vampire is still going, she’s climbing better than expected.”

Nice, good job, Astelia. Sofia followed Sen, climbing down the ladder in the narrow tube under the trapdoor, it was impossible to see the bottom.

“Can I know everyone’s ranking?”

“You will have to ask them in person, and to answer your previous question, they get personal rooms to go through the leveling process. Not unlike the safehouse you have visited, except within the trial grounds.”

“Hmm. Sorry for asking so many questions, Sen.”

“Your curiosity is only natural. I’m thousands of years older and I’m still like that too.”

“You haven’t been asking many things, though?”

“I already know a lot. I do have questions, but these are not things you need to hear right now.”

 

The impossibly long ladder finally ended, and Sen guided Sofia through multiple noisy rooms filled with steel and mana contraptions that she could not even begin to understand, until they reached some kind of altar.

It looked like a steel bed or table, with a large hole in the ceiling over it. Though Sofia could see through the darkness, the hole was still dark somehow.

“Lay down there, try to be straight and with your head against the table.”

The situation was certainly weird and a bit scary but Sofia followed the instructions, even if the wings made lying on her back uncomfortable.

“I’ll be hooking you to the Draconic system first, you won’t understand the system messages so don’t worry about them, I’ll translate what’s needed directly to your scribe later.”

Sofia patiently waited, she anticipated maybe something big or painful to happen, and was surprised that there was nothing of the sort, just a few absolutely unreadable system messages flashing by and nothing else.

“And that’s it for the hard part of my job. Now it’s your hard part, ready for the level up?”

“Do I not get the full rundown of rewards first?”

“Because I’m directly handling it, no, I’ll leave you with that on your own later, some of the rewards are bonus stats for the level up but I’m already taking that into account.”

“Great, thank you. It’s going to hurt, right?”

“It shouldn’t, but considering the amount of stats you are getting, it’s possible that it could. What’s going to happen is essentially that the system is going to give you the absolute maximum amount of stats your soul can handle right now. Honestly I’m glad that you didn’t pick both the [Diamond prism] and [Adamian Core] because that would have caused some serious issues on my end. And I would also ask that you level up a bit before getting any more stats in any way, like at least ten levels, to be safe. Though picking the specialization right away should be fine. Probably.”

“Noted.” The absolute maximum I can handle…

“Alright, I won’t be able to speak while I manage the level-up, so have fun.”

[Initiating level up past filter 3, please do your best to stay still]

[As an affiliated Saint, you have access to the customizable upgrade sub-system]

[You may not divulge any information about this sub-system or its existence]

[Calculating optimal path…]

[No class evolution available…]

[Race evolution already ongoing…]

[Trial evaluation for upgrade potential : Max]

[Your allocated upgrade score is : 90000 stat points]

[Ranking reward upgrade score bonus : 30000 stat points]

[Due to ‘Diamond Prism’, 200% multiplier is applied]

[Total upgrade score : 240000 stat points]

[You may now allocate your points]

Sofia’s first shock came from the ‘race evolution ongoing’ message, but it was quickly superseded by the absurd numbers following that. She had to read the messages twice to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating.

Two hundred and forty thousand.

Two hundred and forty thousand?!

Yeah so this thing about a gap between later filters… I feel like I understand much better now. I already had a taste of it when the Master’s health showed twenty millions but I still thought it could have been special to him. This is making me think that it’s probably just the norm!

And thirty thousand of those are part of the reward for the hundred floors. Or rather, a hundred and fifty thousand, if we count the effects of the crown.

That’s like… More than tripling my current stats. Right now if we add it all up I have less than 109 000, and that’s only so high because of my inflated mana pool. Crazy. Well, at least I don’t have to think too much about it, I’ll go with Valeure’s advice on this one. I do not think she would mislead me about something so trivial to her, and it feels about right.

So with my current stats being this:

Health : 10995 / 10995

Stamina : 3662 / 3662

Mana : 94000 / 94000

Hmm… I give up on trying to make it clean, the first level up will mess it up anyway.

Health : 10995 / 10995 + 9000

Stamina : 3662 / 3662 + 16400

Mana : 94000 / 94000 + 214 600

Something like this is what Valeure recommends. Twenty thousand Health and Stamina, everything else into mana. It feels a bit risky to leave my Health so low when I have so many points to distribute… But I have the false immortality runes, and the demon form, and Pareth.

This should be alright, no need to spend hours on this. I’m more curious about the race evolution message, but I guess that is probably the result of [Venerable physique of the primeval void]? After all, it has been altering my body in pretty significant ways already, and it looks like it will continue doing so.

[Allocation complete, closing sub-system]

Sofia felt mana start to accumulate in the giant hole she was laying under, a frightening amount. This was much, much more mana than even the angel had used to attack the giant Alphageid. It was enough to blind her mana senses completely, and all at once, the mana crashed down on her.

I’m so glad I got rid of Pristine essence.

Sofia fainted.

 

Sofia woke up in an unknown room, alone. The bed was comfortable but her body was sore and her mind was fuzzy.

‘You gained a level!’

[Congratulations, your Saintomancer class reached level 200, +1 Passive Skill Slot!]

[Congratulations on conquering floor 70! + 1 Active Skill Slot!]

[Congratulations on conquering floor 80! + 1 Passive Skill Slot!]

[New Active Skills are available!]

[New Passive Skills are available!]

[Congratulations, you have triumphed over the third filter!]

[You may now gain experience up to level 249]

[Additional rewards have been delivered, detail is as follow]

[Completion reward : Level up * 1]

[Ranking Spire rewards breakdown :

(Specific statistics have been replaced by equivalent upgrade score)

Floor 1 to 20 - Second filter Gachapon box

Floor 21 to 39 - Upgrade score + 50

Floor 40 - Class Skill level up point (200)*1

Floor 41 to 49 - Upgrade score + 100

Floor 50 - Class Skill level up point (200)*1

Floor 51 to 59 - Upgrade score + 200

Floor 60 - Class Skill level up point (200)*1

Floor 61 to 69 - Upgrade score + 300

Floor 70 - Active skill slot +1

Floor 71 to 79 - Upgrade score +400

Floor 80 - Passive skill slot +1

Floor 81 to 89 - Upgrade score +500

Floor 90 - Skill fusion ticket*1

Floor 91 to 94 - Upgrade score + 1125

Floor 95 - Upgrade score + 11 050

Floor 96 - Random Free Specialization point : Skill specialization point (Classless)*1

Floor 97 - [The dark orb]

Floor 98 - [Black belt]

Floor 99 - Custom : [Ringed arms of Zar]

Floor 100 - Custom : [Golden Crown of Victory];[Diamond Prism];[Citrinitas];[Rubedo]

This is all I have time for right now, your stuff is on the table, take your time to get everything sorted out. Call for me when you step out, I have one last thing I need to show you – Sen]

This Seraph is too nice…

Along with the messages, there were also a few more system messages written in an unreadable cursive script which Sofia immediately understood was Draconic. So I’m stuck with this now. Hey at least all Mister Scribe should be still able to handle most things so I won’t have to worry about that too much.

Sofia looked at the pile of things on the low table at the center of the small room, the twenty gachapon boxes being the thing that took the most space, but there was also some food, a black ball, an old heavy-looking book, and random hygiene products like a brush and a towel, which were probably provided to everyone for the post level-up cleanup. I’m already clean though, no disgusting smelling black goop, I guess Sen took care of it. I’m not unhappy to have fainted this time, if it hurt at least I didn’t feel it.

These are a lot of rewards. And I also have new skills. Where do I even start?