Chapters 680 - Sayve my piece

A box wrapped in pink paper and a white ribbon appeared in front of Sofia.

“Is leg?!” Pestle asked, surprised at the appearance of the box.

“Maybe, actually, let me open that,” Sofia answered her, as Pareth and Bookie also walked up to the box. She pulled on the ribbon and the sides of the box fell out, revealing the contents. As the messages had announced, the largest part was a white cake topped with red fruits on a golden platter, looking a lot like the one from zangdar’s previous owner which was still in her storage ring. Aside from that, there was a small box likely containing the cutlery set, and a literal paper ticket with golden print saying ‘Human Racial Skill Awakening ticket, tear to use.’

“Hmm… Pestle earned the cake, it’s hers,” Sofia decided, a quick identify revealing that the cake was indeed just that, a cake.

“Cake!” Pestle rejoiced, throwing her hands up.

“Can’t we have a small taste too?” Bookie asked Sofia.

Sofia shrugged, “Ask Pestle.”

Pestle nodded happily, “Everyone cake!”

“Someone is feeling generous? Alright give me a second I’ll make a proper table and chairs for everyone, you can open the cutlery set in the meantime if you want.”

Pestle opened the box with the cutlery as Sofia was setting up the bone table, and Sofia threw some quick identifies to the items.

[Golden spoon of meals past]: Retains the aroma of the last dish eaten.

[Golden fork of meals present]: Enhances the flavour of the dish you are eating.

[Golden knife of meals future]: Enhances the cutting of the dish you will be eating.

[Timely golden cutlery - Full set bonus]: Everything you eat with the cutlery set is more filling and delicious!

Some items these are.

“Pestle,” Sofia called out, “Do you want them? I can’t use the knife myself.”

“Very want! Pesle use human weapon now!” she said, grabbing the knife and fork and swinging them around.

Sofia chuckled, it was true that in Pestle’s hands, they looked more like a big machete and a trident. “Glad you like them, you’re the one who got the book after all. Do you want to cut the cake yourself or should I do it?”

“I cut!” Pestle answered, rising her knife.

“Sure, be gentle alright? Don’t cut the table,” Sofia told her while she grabbed and ripped the skill ticket.

“Pesle very be gentle.”

‘You have used - Human Racial Skill Ticket (Defunct) *1’

[Your blueprint will be permanently altered as you prematurely awaken one of the three human racial skills that are normally only attained upon ascension]

[You may only pick one at this time]

[Tabula rasa: Allows you to freely and easily delete any of your skills with minimal to no scarring.]

[Natural inspiration: Greatly facilitates skill alteration when copying attributes of a skill you understand but do not possess.]

[Convergent evolution: Allows you to freely and easily fuse your skills together.]

Oh! I expected nothing but these are actually great! If I understand what this says correctly, any human who reaches level 500 gets all three?! That’s pretty incredible. By then most people’s skillset must be pretty locked in place, but this would allow a human ascended to keep modifying and improving their skills forever with little drawback. 

Which one do I take is the question?

[Tabula rasa] is infinite skill ablation tickets, potentially even more efficient. It’s not bad but I don’t think I want that. I would probably take this if I had more time to learn new things, but I really don’t.

So it’s either [Natural inspiration] or [Convergent evolution].

One is infinite skill fusion tickets and the other is like an advanced [Mana manipulation] I guess? The fusion is definitely the better for a fast power upgrade, I could clean up my classless skills by fusing everything and that would leave me with plenty of skill slots. It’s definitely tempting, especially with the earring potentially eating two of my skill slots in the future.

There’s a limit to what fusion can do though, I’ll run out of blueprint space no matter what at some point. And the other argument against [Covnergent evolution] is just that the system itself provides skill fusion tickets, even if they are few and far between.

[Natural inspiration] on the other hand… It’s unclear how good it is. What counts as understanding a skill? How much does it help?

Either way if I pick it, it will take a long time to produce good results.

Admittedly I’ll have plenty of that after this trial while I repay my specialization debt…

Sofia was about to ask Mr.Scribe for his opinion on the matter, while Pestle was finally decided on how she wanted to cut the cake, when another person appeared in the white void as the knife touched the cake.

“Stop!” the man in a black suit cried out, freezing Pestle in place.

Sofia looked at the intruder completely stunned, as Pareth teleported in between them.

“Ah…” The man said, visibly embarrassed.

“Now you show yourself?! To steal Pestle’s cake?!” Sofia asked, incredulous.

The man sighed and unfroze Pestle, a terrible mistake on his part, as it took very little time for the knife and fork to end up lodged inside of both his eyeballs instead of the cake.

“My leg, you klepra!” the furious fairy accused, as she considered whether Sofia would be annoyed at her for killing the man.

Said man sighed again, grabbing Pestle with one hand and removing the cutlery from his face with the other. He turned to Sofia as the struggling fairy bit his hand, “This is not how I expected our first meeting to go either,” he explained, “But I am here to steal the cake, yes. Part of it, at least. Anna would kill me if she discovered there was a cake and I didn’t make sure there’s a part left for her.”

“Pestle, you can stop struggling,” Sofia said, “You can move too Pareth, we both know nothing can save me if this guy wanted to kill me now. But it’s not an enemy. Probably not.”

“Probably not?” the man repeated.

“Well, assuming you really are who you look like you are, which seems likely considering this is still inside of a trial, after all, you are still one of the least trustworthy individuals around, in my opinion,” Sofia told the man who looked exactly like the one in the picture she had found in the admins’ house on Cerberus beta.

“I am?! You would consider the worst war criminal in known history and the lords your close family but I am where you draw the line?!” Nex asked back, finally letting go of Pestle, who still deemed necessary to leave a claw mark across the man’s face before flying to stand in between him and the cake.

“Even putting aside the dubious first impression you are making today, who is the admin who abandoned the system to go mess with the deep for unknown reasons? Who left their companions behind on the warped moon? Who told Remia they would save her only to let her rot in a fake world for three thousand more years? Who designed a system with trials that will actually kill some of the participants? Who could not even send the slightest acknowledgement or thank you notification for being brought back almost entirely thanks to me? Who had a hand in creating the weird fucked up saint system? Do you need me to continue?!”

“Enough, I get it,” Nex stopped her, “I understand your frustration,” he said calmly, “I have barely had time to look through your records but I do get it, truly. I got echoes from Erredis already, trust me. Everything I have done, however, misguided or not, was in service of the greater good, whether you understand it or not.”

“Explain yourself, then. You can alter the scale of time in the trial. Then stay here and explain. I think I am involved enough in everything by now that I deserve at least that.”

“So be it. Your view of me is… earned, I suppose, if incomplete. You might not have the best impression of me but I assure you there is a reason for everything. Ask and you will get answers,” Nex offered, summoning a new bone chair for himself.

“Is anyone else watching us now?” Sofia asked first.

“The high scribes only,” Nex answered.

“Good. Then, first question, explain what you were doing in the Deep.”

“The book in your hand is quite relevant…” Nex answered, “I was looking for a way to turn back time.”

“Why?”

“To bring someone back.”

“Jin?” Sofia asked.

“You certainly know a lot…”

“Of course I do, my name isn’t just for show. Is there no way to bring him back other than turning back time?”

“If there was, he would have returned by himself long ago,” Nex explained, “He played around with magic that should not be used, and disappeared. Anna became mentally unstable with his disappearance, and it seems that you more or less understand where that all led us.”

“And how is Anna right now?”

Nex’s expression turned dark.