Chapter 953 - Is it really forbidden if you just give it away like this?

The process of Sofia’s leveling was something that she herself barely understood anymore. She could only focus on the Scarring unto reality circulation technique while Mr.Scribe put her body and soul through the wringer using all the mana stored in the cube.

Step by step, she followed the unhinged instructions in the book, once her mana was entirely a single long strand of curse causing a constant flux harmony of destruction and reconstruction within, she had to follow complex out of body casting to open a rift to the margin.

Unlike the clean in and out teleportations normally used to join the margin, this created an unstable tear in space that constantly tried to shut itself close. There started the true madness. All the while she had to follow specific mana circulation patterns to lead the curse through specific routes inside of her, she had to reach through the rift, let it close, severing part of her body in the process, hurriedly reopen the rift before the cut limb could slip out of existence to the margin’s infinite void, and reattach it. Once that was done, she had to start over, losing more and more of her body to the rift each time.

Once the process for her four limbs was fully over, she had to start the process for her head. The brain was of primary importance here, and had to be progressively split and glued back together like this ‘no less than a thousand times’. This was supposed to become harder and harder, as more of the brain was lost to the void until it was the part in the void that had to cast a reverse rift as only a brainless husk was left in the physical plane. However, for Sofia who was now ‘always whole’, it felt more like fighting against a strange drowsiness, as she could still feel her physical body even when most of her severed head was floating in the margin’s darkness.

After a long struggle, she was done with the first sequence of the circulation technique, leaving only her torso and mana heart to send to the margin, which would come next. That left her at level 320, where she finally got a notification for a new skill.

It was a good moment to pause and let the cube’s mana fill back up, so Mr.Scribe also let the other processes wind down, and Sofia could observe her stat gains.

How underwhelming.

Due to the all-in earring, her mana growth was almost doubled, while her health and stamina growth were at zero. So all she had gotten for her hard work was mana. Her twenty levels netted her about one million mana.

It was five times more than what she had expected, showing that all of her effort and pain was not for nothing, but even then, it felt like such a pitiful amount. At this rate even with EX levels, if there were any this time, the level up stats would still amount to under a 2% global mana increase.

I know it’s building a foundation for the multiplicative increases in the trials but still, how stingy.

And now it’s only two skills from level ups per filter instead of three…

Back then when grandma first told me that to the Ascended the exact level didn’t matter, I still failed to grasp just how little it probably matters. Do their stat increases even register at that point?

There’s already so little difference between 300 and 349.

Sofia almost started to feel some regret that she did not pick the stat increasing fruit from Anna’s vault, but quickly dismissed the thought, and opened up her new skill creation menu instead, knowing that Pareth, at this moment, was probably doing the same.

I swear, if I see anything about a mask…

[1 Passive builds available for ‘Saintomancer’]

[Skill builder (Passive) - Target skill level:300+ - Affix limit:3]

‘- Unused Affixes will be discarded -

Available prefixes (Saint):

Available suffixes (Necromancer):

Available leftover affixes (will not be discarded):

Sofia stared at the keywords for a few minutes.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Woah, am I losing my touch? I hardly even know what to think about those. Hmm. Well, what I want out of a new passive skill right now… What I need is to diversify my means of attack, especially since I just lost [Hollow heart]. But secondarily… Something like [Forced genius body], except with battle experience rather than skill levels. I just don’t have the time. People in the past could afford to spend five hundred years to hone their proficiencies in between trials, and Pareth is fine due to his innate knowledge, but I am really lacking there. My instincts will only carry me so far against really trained people. Even the little time I spent receiving coaching from Sun’s oracle all the way back still marks my fighting style enough today that lady Suhen could tell from just watching.”

Sofia gave a quick, almost pitiful look at the Restore keyword, which looked like it was going to have to sit this one out again.

Well. These generally have good potential, I think.

Occulting might be the weakest here, not because it’s bad, but because that sounds like a stealth or defense-focused keyword which is not something I want, for once.

I suppose if I end up using only ‘Whispering something’, slapping Occulting at the front would still be fine. But otherwise, probably not.

Or… Occulting Restore something? I feel like ‘Occulting Restore forbidden teaching’ is… Well I have to keep the system’s limits in mind now, huh. I was thinking that now that I should have access to the deep through [Roaming Free], something to decipher ancient languages might be nice, moreso if that was done in a covert manner, but can the high scribes really work out a spell like that?

I have to remind myself that ‘blessing of deep’ would have been a big bag of nothing had it not caught Aphenoreth’s interest somehow…

Yeah, that combination just feels like a good way to not get what I want to get.

With ‘Crusader’s’ though, I have something to work with.

I’ve only ever read vague stories of the ancient human holy wars but the crusaders were always portrayed as powerful and battle-hungry warriors, unlike the more defensive modern paladins and templars. That would fit quite well. Them being holy warriors, I might even get some synergy with my divine essences if I am lucky.

And on the other hand, ‘Whispering’ is really not the most inspiring keyword I have had to work with.

I suppose Crusader’s is what has the most potential for what I want anyway.

Underworld’s blood… Is this a fancy way to refer to the eternal cold underworld water, or is it something else? I could see it referring to mana leyline sap, also. Unless it is actually blood, in which case, I am less interested.

Crusader’s underworld’s blood actually sounds fine, in isolation. My blood is already light, however, so there could be some conflict there. And also I am already immune to cold damage, so if it is in fact underworld water… Well it would still be nice to have an easy way to provide some for Pareth, I suppose. Maybe it would add cold damage to my attacks like Pareth has?

Out of all the ways I could diversify my damage though picking the one Pareth already has covered is a bit sad.

Profane body, however, feels like it is missing critical information. Whatever the first half of the skill was, assuming the system isn’t just throwing random words at my face now, would be crucial to understand whatever this is… Crusader’s profane body? Almost feels like it would make me into an undead.

I suppose I am already semi-permanently in unlife with my false immortality runes so it might not be too much of a change. I would rather stay ‘alive’, though.

Then, forbidden teachings, at first glance looks underwhelming but both Crusader’s forbidden teachings and Whispering forbidden teachings could be nice? Though I imagine the second one would be more about a technique to teach others? Or maybe a curse aura? Like people standing near me hearing the name of the lords whispered in their ears? Truly forbidden teachings.

Or! It whispers information about the cataclysm, so all people hear is the weird unhinged censoring.

No, no… This is getting out of hand…

Either way, whispering with these suffix keywords really feels like it would just be another effect added to my aura somehow. People whisper enough when I walk through the streets of my own city, I really do not need a skill to make the issue worse…

Yeah, considering that a shortcut to battle experience is what I hope for, it really had to be Crusader’s.

The question then is Crusader’s what.

Actually Restore could still fit in there.

Crusader’s restore profane body? Might be a strong self-healing passive.

Oh… Wait… Something like Crusader’s underworld’s blood forbidden teachings or Crusader’s profane body forbidden teachings?!

I could really see myself picking those.

Or just back to the simple Crusader’s forbidden teachings?

What about Whispering Crusader’s forbidden teachings? Would I get a voice in my head teaching me battle techniques and crusader spells?

This set of suffixes might be one of the more vague ones I have had yet. Even underworld’s blood I’m not sure I have the correct reading on. It does not help also that I used to get part of the skill description with the keywords which is no longer a thing.

What to pick…