‘Welcome to the emergency safehouse n°18.

You have been displaced due to an unforeseen event or safety breach.

We ask of you to kindly respect the secrecy of this place’s existence and location, and that you leave the premises within a year.

In the event of a successful trial, the rewards shall be autonomously awarded as intended by the operating manager, which might take up to a few hours.

We wish you a peaceful stay and offer our sincere apology for the inconvenience.’

 

This was both unnerving and reassuring. They were safe, but that meant the towers weren’t?

Come to think of it, the island near the towers had been destroyed before we got there. If the thing that did it were to return… We might have just escaped something really bad. Could be that Alith's theory that someone wanted to stop people from leveling up was true. But who could possibly do anything to the Archangel? The simple Angel was already capable of so much destruction... Then the Gods?

In Sofia's opinion the Gods had to be weaker than the system. After all, they did little beside choosing Saints. While the system monitored every sentient being on the planet. Even Dragons had to use the system. Kuli had hinted so, although she refused to say anything more about Dragons.

The things in the house were untouched, so Alith was probably still in her trial. Sofia wouldn’t mess with her until she woke up by herself, instead she inspected everything in the house. She did find what little was left of hers and Alith’s stuff in a chest, buried in warm sand; not much had survived the shipwreck.

This feels a bit unreal... Then again, if the Archangel can create a copy of the past to throw people in there, it's not too far fetched that he could teleport us here and change our clothes...

She tried her best to forget the idea. And organized all they had left.

There were unusable remains of Alith's padded gambeson and plate armor. The fireproof salamander vest had also survived somehow. The sand pendant was obviously there, as the culprit for burying everything in sand. Going by the quantity of sand... We've been here at least two weeks. It still contained three gold coins, all that was left after gambling on the pirate ship. Which I should have taken back actually, that last hit on Alith had to have counted as a killing blow... Well I ruined their ship though, and killed a few of them by accident... Not exactly in a position to ask for a refund.

The other magic items all looked good as new, be it both items from the Saint set, the lost city and the slow fall ring or Alith's weapons. If mithril coated weapons even count as magic items. She identified them again before going back to exploring the house. For whatever reason their name had changed, though the description was the same. Sofia thought nothing of it.

[Mithril coated kamas] : A pair of mithril coated weapons, reminiscent of an herbalist's sickles. Item level : 0. Grade : Precious.

The kitchen’s pantry was packed full of fresh food, including vegetables, eggs and cured meat. Some firewood was stacked in neat rows near the red brick fireplace. She found a bow and fishing rods near the entrance. The outside of the house featured a tiny outhouse, a vegetable garden about as large as the cottage itself, and a hand pump for water. She was barefoot and the ground was cold, so she quickly pumped some water in a bucket that sat near the door and got back inside.

“I think I deserve a good meal and a bath,” she mumbled, carrying the heavy bucket of water to the kitchen.

 

Sofia was very busy sleeping in her bath when a system notification woke her up.

Am I… rewards now?

[ERROR]

Hey… I don’t have the strength to be surprised anymore. What’s it this time?

[Foreign data breach detected]

Now this... This is new.

[AdmiOverruled]

[ERROOverruled]

[ERROverruled]

[EOverruled]

[Overruled]

[A new Passive Skill is available!]

Uhm. Uh… That’s… Ok. Sure. I’m really done wondering how this shit works. Is a god messing with the system or what? Could they even do that?

Available Passive Skills :

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] : Welcome back, my dear daughter. (This will replace [Avatar of death])

 

The description of the skill sent shivers down Sofia’s spine despite the hot bath water. She looked around, no abnormality, Alith still asleep, nothing weird besides these system messages. Okay. Not scary. Not scary at all. I'm not even bothered by it. When she looked at it again, the skill description had changed.

Available Passive Skills :

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] : Sorrow the Recessed has recognized your value. However, one cannot be reborn as an Apostle without a proper ritual, as such, you have been offered a middle ground. Vakariazrehafin is granted authority as an honorary Apostle. Vakariazrehafin is granted advanced mana perception. When Vakariazrehafin’s mana hits 0, she may choose to temporarily assume the physical form of a Daughter of Sorrow, lasting for five minutes, mana will remain at zero for this duration and the following thirty minutes. Ten levels of debt will be incurred each time and no experience will be gained from kills that occur as a result of this skill's use.
(Evolves at Class Level 300)

   (This will replace [Avatar of death])

 

Ok now that’s pretty good. Sounds great on paper, will it be all that useful? I have no clue what an Apostle’s authority is so not counting that. Mana perception like I had as a demon would be great, that’s really strong, couldn’t have dodged so many attacks during the trial without it. The third effect… it’s the kind of thing that you hope you’ll never have to use. Losing ten levels of future progression is harsh but not as bad as dying from running out of mana during a fight…

Seeing how it evolves later on… How was [Avatar of death] exactly?

[Avatar of death] : Gradually become the embodiment of death in this realm.

You may reap the souls of the recently passed, all is equal in death.

When a nearby enemy's health reaches 25% or lower, they cannot regain life.

Reaped Soul Value : 9

(Next function unlocks at Soul Value 100)

 

The effect of preventing healing is good but rarely actually useful as far as I can tell… Especially if I keep destroying everything in one bolt.

I still feel bad for the pirate ship... Well. That was the only way, I was one hit away from death...

Besides that, [Avatar of death] can evolve but I need to be around dying people. Hmm… I hate to waste two good keywords like that… but the sorrow skill is just better right now. And I’m honestly scared of how many souls [Avatar of death] will start asking for after I unlock a few functions if it already starts at 100…

Not to mention the creepy message that came with the thing. It's for sure a God messing with the system, isn't it? All I wanted was skeletons...

You have acquired the passive : ‘Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow’

You have lost the passive : ‘Avatar of death’

And if both this and the Deep things are Gods, I'm sorry but then Gods all have a terrible naming sense. From a human perspective at least... Actually the Angels have weird names too... Maybe it's the system that's the culprit.

The world changed under the effect of the skill. Her nascent capacity to feel mana evolved into what it had been meant to become. She could now see and feel the ambient mana all around her, a thin white mist that permeated all things. She could also stop focusing on it and she wouldn’t notice it anymore.

Guess I'm half a demon now. I really don't look the part.

Sofia stepped out of the bath, still dripping wet, and walked up to Alith’s bed.

So this is how the trials work?

Alith’s head was encased in a bubble of mana, which was itself linked to the ceiling by a thick mana thread. Sofia followed the thread outside, it went straight through the thatched roof and up in the sky at a low angle. It was hard to say what it led to. Maybe the tower? She wished she could fly to investigate this but alas this wasn’t an option even with her new skill.

I can’t wait to transform again… My vision feels so… narrow, now.

She was already missing her demon body.

 

She had been preparing to go to bed when the next slew of system messages arrived.

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

[You may now gain experience up to level 199]

[Additional rewards will be delivered after the level up, detail is as follows]

[Completion reward : Level up * 1]

[Additional task reward : Clothing set (Aurelia’s serene scenery) * 1]

[Completed hidden tasks : Successfully use wild magic, Cheat death, Defeat a sentient three filters up in singular battle, Survive a certain death encounter]

[Additional hidden tasks rewards : Skill specialization point (Active) * 1, Class Skill level up point (upgrades a Class Skill to lv.100) * 3]

[Please lie down in a secure environment to proceed with your level up.]

Finally! Give it to me already, I've never been this impatient my whole life.

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