Saintess Summons Skeletons

I need to think this through, just maybe not here.

Pareth teleported back to Sofia, crouching to hand her the sunless debris he had just collected but when she went to grab and store it, he pulled his hand back.

What? Did you just want to show it to me? It looks perfectly normal… Wait, did you not collect the imprint yet?

Seeing Pareth’s three skulls nodding, Sofia quickly understood what was going on.

You don’t want the relocation ability? Hmm, I don’t know.

It’s true that there’s a chance it might be useless for you. It’s hard to say where and how your mana heart will manifest and what will happen to it when you die or change body… I still think you should take it. It’s only 10 000 stat points. Look at your current health, you know that this is not what will make a difference. In fact, it might just be better to focus on getting more skills for you…

We’ll see. So, what do you say?

After a few seconds of reflection, Pareth absorbed the imprint, and handed both his mana heart and the debris back to Sofia.

Alright… Now let’s backtrack a bit, I want to investigate the cocoon things we ran by on the way.

It wasn’t long before Sofia found herself face to face with a large black cocoon on the forest floor. It looked made of the same black goo the Sunless were made of, and now that she paid attention to it, there were several such things even just in her immediate surroundings.

Can I identify this?

[Sunless Cocoon]: Something is sleeping soundly inside, it will wake up at daybreak.

Something?

It wasn’t too hard for Sofia’s mana senses to pierce through the cocoon and perceive what was inside: a small pack of six-legged wolves.

I think they were called Wulffs? Why the hell would they be in a cocoon like this…

Walking around and checking the other cocoons she could find, there was only one conclusion Sofia could come to.

The Sunless are protecting all the other monsters during the night?

That’s an interesting discovery. But I think we’ve attracted a few followers. Better get rid of them before they become an amalgam again. I take left, you take right.

Pareth ran to engage his target while Sofia lazily raised her right hand.

The Sunless drone never stood a chance against the lightning bolt. Sofia absorbed both imprints, and she decided to return to a safe place to consider her skill evolution. The safe place she chose was the sky. Simply walking up until she was high enough for her taste, she sat on nothing and contemplated the dark world below.

The night was surprisingly well-lit, still, with two of the planet’s three moons up high in the sky. Beside them, the night was calm and silent. The Sunless kept aimlessly roaming the forest below, now that she had a better knowledge of how they worked, they were a lot less scary. The drones, at least.

Seeing a moon’s reflection in a small forest pond below, Sofia looked up again. The real moon was about just as blurry as its reflection in the pond.

There’s something weird going on with the moons. I can’t see them clearly even with the enhanced eye. The system must be doing this. After all, it can hide the towers…

Well, whatever, that’s a subject for later. I have to choose an evolution. Praesidium is a safe choice, gives the flexibility to stack the blessing if I want, make it generally better at defense. Now that the skill is level three, I can bless both my and Pareth’s bones plus my armor. Keeping this configuration, It would be an immediate toughness increase of 20% each.

Of course it’s stackable, which is nice, but realistically it would probably stay in this configuration most of the time. 20% is a lot.

But is it better than a tripled range? Imperium does that and also improves the blessing’s range. Currently it’s about a hundred meters give or take. Tripling that area is big, that would give Pareth a lot more freedom to move around without us losing the blessing’s bonuses.

It also triples the bone control basic range, not counting the extra reach from the scepter, so I go from 32 meters to 92. That’s not the most useful in combat but it is quite practical. Tripled contact range, though? With this I might be able to explode the entirety of the skeletons I touch, and not just the surrounding area. Hmm.

Last is Potentium. It’s a bit of a hit or miss, especially since Strength is not a primary stat for ‘Saintomancers’. My base multipliers must be really low considering my natural stamina growth… Still, with the crown, the demon form, runeforged overlord, one with suffering, and dodge-me, I have A LOT of stacking strength buffs. Enough that it’s a bit silly to ignore them.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

It would be quite potent when set up properly, and would give me one more vector for attack.

But… It uses stamina. I don’t have much. And I don’t know how much it needs… It’s probably best to avoid this one just because of this. Just managing Mana is painful enough…

So either more defense or more control. Which is it going to be?

It’s got to be Imperium. I think, and not even for the range, but for the improved control and reshaping. Especially for this trial. If my body gets blown to bits I can’t heal but I could still move around as long as I can get my bloodlight into a bone shell. I can already do it but it’s super stiff and unusable. With Imperium improving bone manipulation even if just slightly, it could be the difference between unusable and fine.

Yeah, the other options are also good, but…

Your passive [Bone dominus] Lv.3 has Soft-Evolved to [Bone Dominus Imperium] Lv.3

“There we go.”

Let’s do some hunting next.

Sofia stood up and charged a piercing bolt. The Sunless drones were stupidly easy to spot with her mana vision, even from up there. Without leaving the safety of the empty sky, Sofia poured lightning from above all night long, while Pareth followed her from below, occasionally teleporting up to deliver a bunch of imprints in the form of Sunless Debris.

She tried attacking one of the cocoons protecting the sleeping monsters once, but her bolt failed to pierce it so she returned to her hunt instead, carefully making sure not to create another amalgam in the process. The lack of ambient mana made her regeneration quite slow, which became the limiting factor for her hunt, as she still needed at least twenty thousand mana to make a bolt strong enough to kill a drone.

Sofia was aiming a bolt at a Sunless Drone when the first ray of sunlight pierced through the night. The Sunless faded into a mist of mana, and mana started filling the air again. The cocoons protecting the sleeping monsters disappeared all the same. There was nothing left of it all after just a few seconds.

Truly Sunless… Can’t stand the sun for an instant, the weird frost they brought with them is also disappearing by the second. Well, we’re almost there, only missing a few shards for Pareth.

[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /E tier/

9 months, 32 days, 7 hours

Imprint progress : 117.57/ 250

Effects (Will be doubled) :

• All stats -5% (E rank base)

• Mana + 1757
• [Relocate Core]

[Nascent mana heart of Knowledge]:

Rank : D Tier

Imprint power until next rank : 258/???

Effects (on use) :

All stats ??% (D rank base)

• +8500 Health
• ??? Skill shard (1/10) (Sunless Amalgam Skill)

• [Relocate Core] Skill shard (73/100)

It went from -30% to -5%. If it keeps going up by 25% every rank… Then the minimum passing requirement is +70% since it’s at B tier. Right? And then that would mean Pareth’s is currently at +20%. That’s only if the progression is linear, though, and it might not be.

I don’t know why I expected the mana hearts to start looking different with the ranks, they’re still just glowing rocks…

Should I start hunting firebirds again?

Maybe let’s just see what’s outside of this forest.

Sofia chose a random direction to fly away from the forest. She had to go for quite a while before she was truly out of the massive sea of blue trees. Dubious, she observed the new land presenting itself below her.

That’s one huge swamp. The trees there are massive, too. Not quite black-primus-big but not extremely far. Does this whole thing freeze over at night? That could be funny.

I don’t see a great deal of monsters here though… There are things hiding under the mud.

Wait… Ruins?

Sofia used her left eye to zoom in on the gray structure she had noticed in the distance. Looking at it closer, it was indeed the old ruin of a small stone castle or fort of some kind. In the middle of a swamp?

Could a previous trial-taker have built this?

As she debated going there to check, Sofia saw some movement below her.

One of those small mud monsters?

She checked with her mana vision but saw nothing in particular.

Really? Nothing? Really. This can’t be right, I’m positive I saw something move.

How was it to turn on the heat layer again…

Holy shit what. Woah.

Good thing that I’m flying so high. How many monsters are there waiting for me under the mud, exactly?!

Whatever was hiding under the mud, Sofia could see concentric rings of heat under the mud, their starting location: the spot she was flying over.

If I was on the ground I would be surrounded.

With a flap of her wings, Sofia moved further. There was a small delay before the heat signals from underground followed, crawling underground until they were once again arranged in neat circles right below her.

I can’t identify as long as they’re hiding in the swamp…

But they’re all gathering together, it’s cute, it’s like they already know they can’t escape what’s coming next.

Sofia started channeling an explosive bolt.

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