Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia thought her new skill was good, with that she finally had both a real weapon, and a ranged attack she could use without burning half to death. But there were a few problematic details.

First was the high mana consumption, which, used together with [Graveyard of the righteous] meant she could only fight for three minutes in a row at most before being out. And that was without using any other skill than these two.

Then, she also was a total beginner with both swords and whips. And last but not least, she had no idea about the damage it actually did. Hitting herself with it only resulted in the loss of five to ten health points and a few scratches. With her armor on it did nothing. Presumably most of the actual damage would come from the ‘solar burst’ part, but that only happened when hitting an enemy so she couldn’t try it. At least it sounds like it cannot hit my allies nor myself. Finally some good fucking magic.

And the self healing part was icing on the cake. Her biggest conundrum now was whether to use her last skill level boost point to fast forward it to level 100 or not.

Even if she did she still wouldn’t know how to use it well, but she had managed to hit the wall a few times so perhaps it would still be useful. And since the damage scaled with the level, if it stayed at level one it was pretty useless.

On the other hand, maybe the skill she would make at level 120 would be better. Perhaps even one that could help her escape from there. But she had no way of knowing that before being there. And considering the dwindling xp from making the Phageids fall to their death, those that were left probably wouldn’t be enough to get her there. So the level 120 would be far away. Now if she fought these remaining monsters using this weapon… They would probably start giving crazy amounts of xp again.

She decided to wait for Alith’s opinion. Sofia couldn’t sense her location like she could with Pareth, but she hadn’t been too worried since she could still monitor Alith’s Status page. That was part of the Saintess perks. With sensing heroes and their level.

Name : Alith Level : 112

Health : 4210 / 4210 (10*level, 500 flat (pills), 2500 filter2 )

Stamina : 11250 / 14906 (20*level, 166 flat (pills), 10000 [Toned], 2500 filter2 )

Mana : 10000 / 10000

She had discovered she could also add notes to the lines so she added a breakdown of the stats. It was mind boggling how the system had so many hidden functions no one ever talked about. How many are only possible thanks to the scribe I wonder. Like the available classless skill research.

The more she found out about the system the less it made sense. For example, why could she send more mana to [Graveyard of the righteous] to have the skeletons regenerate faster, but not do the same to have a stronger [Angel’s bolt]? Not that I could survive it being stronger but it’s weird that it isn’t an option.

She also wanted to experience more with casting skills without the system, but that was a tall order. It seemed impossible to do it without extensively using the system version before, and it would still end up weaker, if more flexible. Still it was good for saving skill slots. I should have trained a bit more with [Lead the Dead] before forgetting it, might have been able to cast it without the system.

All you needed to do was reproduce the mana usage that the system forced your body to accomplish but without any help. Easier said than done.

The only skills she had managed this with were still [Identify] and [Angel’s bolt].

Skills… Spells? Sofia had always been using the two words interchangeably, but the [Midenicite catalyst] precised ‘spells’ while the system usually used ‘skills’. Is that the difference? A skill when you use the system, a spell when you don’t?

Maybe it wasn’t that at all, but she decided that this would be how she would differentiate the two from now on.

It felt like something was missing. Sofia scrolled all the way back up to the messages about her trial rewards.

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

That’s it! Spells are system-less skills. Pretty sure this is what that meant now.

She used both the spell and then the skill version of [Identify] on her newly acquired summoned weapon. There was a stark difference in result that said a lot about how much better a system assisted skill was.

[Spine of the Black Sun] : An invoked mana weapon, it contains a mix of holy and undead properties. The wielder regains some life when hitting their enemies with it.

[Spine of the Black Sun] : A versatile mana weapon in the shape of a vertebral column. Do not be fooled by the holy bursts of light, its true nature is that of a hungry predator. Reaching through the planes, it gnaws at the soul and life essence of its victims to feed its wielder.

Item level : 1. Grade : Flawless.

Lovely.

“Nice toy!”

“Holy! Can you-”

Alith was already near her, pressing a golden sphere the size of a head against Sofia’s chest, and her other hand against her mouth, “Get that in the pendant quick, we need to go down the hole,” she pressed while peeking through the windows behind.

Ah shit! Full of sand. Sofia did her best to shake the sand out of the pendant as fast as possible. The sphere barely fit in there, once it disappeared she grabbed Alith and flew back down the hole. She left Pareth behind to hide in a corner, so she could have a view on what happened up there. Should’ve done that from the start…

Hiding below the city and above the void once again, she asked Alith what was going on.

“So, what happened. Actually It’s not two of them that came out, it’s all of them. Found myself in a tough spot at one point but I still managed to go unnoticed somehow. So the big spheres up in there were unguarded. Sliced through one to see what’s inside, and there you have it.”

“Okay and why are we hiding down there again?”

“The second I took this thing out of the manor the squids all turned toward me. Managed to distract them for a bit with my new skill, but I don’t doubt they’re still after me.”

“That thing you stole was brimming with mana, and since they react to mana so much… Putting it in the pendant was a good call. Can’t feel it from there.”

“Right? Actually can you take it out again? No way they’ll feel it with ten meters of the blue stuff in between since they already couldn’t when I was still in the mansion. Maybe throw a quick [Identify] and store it again, to be safe.”

The golden sphere flickered in and out of existence in Sofia’s hand that wasn’t busy holding Alith.

[Golden Power Core] : A power core for stabilizing and redistributing large quantities of mana. Item level : 200. Grade : Precious.

“Look at the description. It’s pretty obvious this is for maintaining the palace’s shield. But it doesn’t generate mana despite the name. I’m curious what the power source is.”

Alith pondered about it, “Can’t it take it from the air around us? That’s how most of our regeneration works too, no?”

“Well actually… I’m only noticing now but… I think the ambient mana in the city is a bit less than it was before. So maybe it’s that… Or I’m imagining things.”

“You mean we might run out? That’s bad news…”

“At the rate it’s going… Only if we’re still here in a few decades it might run out I would say. On the bright side that means if we survive that long the shield should go down,” Sofia guessed.

“Yeah no I’m not waiting that long to get in there, we’ll be voiding the other cores, don’t care about the money they’d sell for. I want to be out of here as much as you.”

“Right… What about this new skill of yours by the way, any good?”

Alith’s eyes moved around looking at nothing for a second, she was looking through her status but Sofia couldn’t see it. “There you go, kind of like this one, for once.”

[Lady Double] : Even a proper lady has times when she needs some personal space. But maintaining a proper front is paramount. This will help reconcile both notions.

Creates a mirage (double) of your presence where you stand, teleporting yourself up to 11.2 (skill level/10) meters away and granting 0.3 seconds invisibility.

The double has 1000 ‘Health Points’ and loses 1 ‘Health Point’ per second.

The double may either stand in place and politely nod to an ongoing conversation, or either run or walk in a chosen direction. The chosen action cannot be altered after casting.

Activate again to seamlessly exchange positions with the double (once per cast).

Costs 1000 mana per use.

Costs 1000 mana to exchange positions.

Cannot create more than one double at once.

 

Sofia nodded as she read through the skill. Not incredible. To escape a chase it’s perfect… And for some other situations too… Not exactly the most groundbreaking for someone who can already turn into a ghost.

I can still see it being useful. Especially here where she can’t transform. Alright. “Should I fly back up the other hole?”

“Did things calm down, up there? Can Pareth see?”

“He was hiding in a corner until now. Let’s see…”