Chapter 962 - Trial Preparations

With most things dealt with, Sofia and her group were now focusing solely on trial preparations.

While Pareth and Bookie were away hunting for the last dead god remnant to prime the [Gluttony] ring, Sofia just returned from her 100th light-year transposition.

She barely felt a change, but now she could use it to return to the physical plane from the margin. It had few interesting uses, but being able to escape to Zangdar from anywhere with its ring then transpose back to Ser’Extra or somewhere safe without having to wait for someone else to come get her out was pretty nice. The same trick also worked with the painted halls.

Nevertheless it was clear this unlock was just a stepping stone toward the next one, allowing her to transpose to any plane from the margin. Being 600 transpositions away, that one would have to wait a while.

Now there were only a few things left to deal with before going. First of which was enchanting her left arm.

Her enchantment knowledge was still lackluster, but she had good enough bases now that with Delicate’s help, she could do something decent. She just needed to leave some space open to upgrade later.

In the end, however, the enchantment she picked was something astoundingly basic. Being an enchantment that normally only worked on items, Sofia was in a very special spot where her arm being half an inert item let her use it on herself. It had required some reworking to avoid annoying side effects such as complete paralysis, but after a few days of painstakingly carving enchantment channels on her golden skin, Sofia was pleased with the result.

[Greater enhanced durability]:

You do understand that you can never get a proper haircut again, right?

This equipment’s person’s overall toughness is equal to that of its toughest component organ.

This equipment’s person’s toughness +75% +35%.

Sofia’s toughest part being her bones, the overall toughness equalisation did not help her bone armor at all, but what it did do was make her fragile mana heart just as sturdy, along with the rest of her body. Even though the toughness bonus had already been reduced to avoid turning her into a statue, it still left her muscles and skin slightly stiffer. Thankfully her hair at least still flowed normally, but it was now even more impossible to cut than it used to.

Overall this was a low price to pay for her defenses being that much higher, and the relative simplicity of the enchantment still left some room for an upgrade or adding a second equivalent enchantment later.

It was worth mentioning that Pareth as the test subject for this project was already using the reworked [Greater enhanced durability] instead of the lesser enchantments he used to have, also making his mana heart as sturdy as his bones.

Finally done with the enchantment business, Sofia barely even gave herself time to appreciate her handiwork, directly jumping onto the next thing, which was a visit to a certain Orc-dwarf halfblood ascended.

She had learned from Ihuarah that the reason this artisan who had plans to stay in her city semi-long term was often nowhere to be found was that he regularly made trips back to the Flying Fortress. She came to Rebb for two reasons, the first was to leave a letter with him as something of a diplomatic exchange. Since Sofia kept pushing back her visit to the flying city due to the thousands of things she had to do, she did not want the other party to take it the wrong way. And secondly, she was coming to pick up her order for two seals. Just like that, the last of the stones she had won from betting on Astelia’s win during the Ark finale were gone, and she was ‘dirt-poor’ again, but she wanted to grab every bit of power possible for the trial.

The first of the two seals was a small one made of her own bones, shaped like Sorrow’s divine rune; it flew by itself to rest behind Sofia’s head like a strange halo. After a quick tempering in the Odalite forge, it was ready to be used.

[Tempered Sorrowful Choir Seal]:

This seal acts as an external catalyst for [Skull Choir].

Can affect spells already cast through a catalyst.

Base minimum time to reinvoke the [Skull Choir] reduced from 3 minutes to 24 seconds.

Effective spellcasting level +38EX for [Skull Choir].

It was initially giving 32 EX levels, and had gone up to 38 with the tempering, while the minimum time had reduced from 30 to 24 seconds, which was going to be further halved to twelve seconds by the [Cursed blood ring of Gomeroth].

That was a great upgrade to the Choir, as each EX level made the skulls stronger and sturdier.

The second seal was for Pareth. Although his skill descriptions did not show a level, Rebb had been adamant that the seal would make them stronger nonetheless. Initially Sofia had wanted it to be for [Sanctified grounds], but that had not worked out, so she had settled for Pareth’s utility skills instead.

[Tempered Great Crusader Seal]:

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This seal acts as an external catalyst for [Flying shields of light] and [Chains of the four seals].

Can affect spells already cast through a catalyst.

Effective spellcasting level +46EX for [Flying shields of light] and [Chains of the four seals].

He’s going to love this.

And mine is not too bad either. I like the new skulls he got me as well.

[Skull Choir] (Level 349+38EX): Invokes the Skull Choir Array formation to attack and blow away your targets.

The skulls of the skull choir are counted as a single skeleton.

The choir may only move in the predetermined resizable "Ring" array formation, will follow the user, and attack autonomously unless manually controlled.

The choir may use a different type of attack depending on the type of skull used as a model. Models will be consumed and permanently added as an available skull type.

You can invoke a choir of up to five skulls.

Requires a 1 (0.08) second channeling time.

Costs 100 (16) mana per skull per second to maintain.

If defeated or dismissed, the choir may not be invoked again for 3 minutes 12 seconds.

Stored skulls (5/5):

The two new skulls had names fitting their function. The Alpha Stormhoof skull was that of some big bipedal stag that Pareth had hunted, they were sturdy, had some physical offense capabilities with their horns, could summon lightning sprites, and directly invoked lightning strikes over the heads of their targets, making them much better than the Sirhellion skulls they had replaced. The Shieldhead Thorkam skulls, on the other hand, replaced the utility of the human skulls with literal shield-heads. Each thrice as thick as Sofia’s waist, they were shield-shaped hunks of swift-moving flying bones that could shrug off blows that would have split the Kidjikkik Destroyer skulls in half. They had no magic to speak of, but were a great defensive addition.

Among the latest round of improvements, Sofia had also secured a temporary catalyst for Bookie. It had been surprisingly hard to find something for him, but Sofia’s acquaintance with Eltiel had paid off, as the Ascended had just sold her an old catalyst of hers for cheap, which was small enough to fit into Bookie’s tiny catalyst slot and actually had a useful effect.

[Tempered Spirit-Calling Garnet]:

A rare stone that spontaneously helps spirits take form.

As a catalyst: Summoning skills cost 12% reduced mana and summons form 12% faster.

Playing with the small catalyst in her hand, Sofia was impatient to see Bookie’s reaction to receiving it, and it reminded her of the hearts she had also recently fed to the Abereth. Kuli had followed through with her previous arrangement on the Red Winds Empire’s side; this had gotten the Abereth a heart from one of Scripture’s pawns who the empire had captured. The other ones were gifts from Eleonore. She was now the proper Oracle of the Laudell Theocracy, second in their hierarchy only to Hope herself, and despite her young age she seemed to be adapting to that role with ease. She had overheard a conversation between Sofia and Zerei about the Abereth and proactively offered to empty the theocracy’s prisons to feed the strange floating pillar.

♢ [Abereth of Greed] ♢ :

This curse is now yours to bear.

Summon or recall the Abereth of Greed.

The Abereth cannot be escaped.

Inserting the mana jewel of the recently deceased inside of the Abereth of Greed grants it power.

Powers gained depend on the ‘jewel’s previous owner and the Abareth’s current owner.

Powers gained by the Abereth of Greed can be discarded, but the jewels will be destroyed.

Jewel slots : 5 (4+Skill level).

Current owner:

Current jewels:

Aura range is always equal to the owner’s.

[Aura of swift growth]: Plants within aura range grow 20% faster, quintupled for bamboo.

Enemies within the Abereth’s close proximity may wither instead.

[Aura of unrelenting crusade]: Light or divine-attributed beings gain 25% speed and 15% reduced stamina consumption within aura range.

The Abereth may impale sinners.

[Aura of bloodrage]: The Abereth may absorb spilled blood within aura range and use it to attack its owner’s targets.

[Aura of calculations]: Processing +20% within aura range. The Abereth sometimes finds currency items.

[Aura of big catches]: Fishing baits and lures are 100% more effective within aura range. Large creatures might sometimes be compelled to attack the Abereth instead of its owner.

I’m still a bit worried about the impaling sinners part… But it hasn’t happened a single time yet…

Swift growth is great for Rem and the graveyard Nymphs, Bloodrage is absolutely perfect with my new blood, and the other effects are not bad either.

It is quite strange to have the Abereth spew gold coins at me out of nowhere from time to time, but free money is free money… It’s slightly worrying that it kept doing it even when I was out into space and that nobody can tell me where the coins are from…

But I suppose that’s only slightly weird compared to the Abereth as a whole.

I wonder if Bookie and Pareth are almost done…