Chapter 667 - Do a Valeure

[Sovereign of Unshackled frames]:

The influence of the Sovereign of unshackled frames is dependant on the target’s location within the aura. 

Effects from the Far Aura are also applied to the Field Aura and Close Aura.

Effects from the Field Aura are also applied to the Close Aura.

Far Aura Effects:

• Bones are 10% sturdier.

• The Sovereign has weak control over all inert bones.

• Skeletons regenerate 0.5% maximum health every second.

• Inert skeletons will become Skeltal Thralls and fight for the Sovereign if need be.

Field Aura Effects:

• Bones are 40% sturdier.

• The Sovereign has very strong control over all inert bones.

• The Sovereign has weak control over all bones.

• Skeletons regenerate 1% maximum health every second.

• Friendly Skeletons and Skeletal Thralls gain [Exalted Exoskeleton].

• Skeletal Thralls gain [Bone Arsenal].

• The Skeletons of ennemies under 25% health will try to free themselves to become Skeletal Thralls.

Close Aura Effects:

• Bones are 100% sturdier.

• The Sovereign and nearby skeletons regenerate 5% maximum health every second.

• The Sovereign has the Principality of Bones.

Additionally, the Sovereign of Unshackled Frames gains acces to the Painted halls.

Bones and Skeletal Thralls may be stored in the Painted halls.

Skeletal Thralls may not exit the Painted halls.

The Sovereign of Unshackled Frames gain the special skills: [Unshackle the halls];[Blessing of permanent frame]

[Unshackle the halls]:

Release all Skeletal Thralls from the halls, they gain [Skeletal Frenzy], deal 20% more damage, and will crumble to dust after 24 hours. Released thralls cannot be brought back to the halls.

[Blessing of permanent frame]:

Bless any inert bone entity to become a blessed skeleton frame.

The blessed skeleton frame cannot move, is 1000% sturdier, and has higher magical resistance, higher physical resistance, status effect immunity and displacement immunity.

Only one blessed skeleton frame may exist at a time.

“Woah, that’s a lot… Wait, no, I’m not even done reading…”

[Skeletal Frenzy]:

Severely limits cognitive ability.

All physical stats are doubled.

Will try to free other skeletons from their ‘shackles’.

[Bone Arsenal]:

Bone-morph into a random combat-ready skeletal thrall. Single use skill.

Possible morphs include:

-Slasher

-Guardian

-Archer

-Knight

-Lancer

Many Thralls using [Bone Arsenal] at once can rarely result in the creation of a single Bone Colossus instead.

“I… Can I get an estimate on how big the the aura zones are?”

‘Due to achieving your third specialization with the Fae ancestry, you now have acces to the Aura stat sub-menu’

[Aura]

Aura: 1261 (435 * 2.9)

Aura growth: -Unable to estimate, please level up-

Aura modifiers:

[Quintessential]

[Mana manipulation]

[Dreams Of a Demon which Gods Envy - March of the Envoy]

[Pillar of creation]

[Shroud of Ackenohh]

[Avatar of Zeus]

[Fae Ancestry Specialization]

Currently Active Aura effects:

[Mana sense]

[Lingering]

[Demonic Aura - I win, you lose]

[Sovereign of Unshackled Frames]

Estimated Aura range (distance from mana heart):

Close: 12.6 Meters

Field: 126 Meters

Far: 3.78 Kilometers

“Holy shit… That explains so much! So [Quintessential] was actually an aura multiplier? The aura range is just the range of my mana senses and the delimitations line up perfectly with the breakpoints of how well I can see things with it… I’ve been using my Aura this whole time and I wasn’t even aware! Hmm… Pillar of Creation extends the range of my Aura by up to a hundred times when it’s active, then?! That’s… I’m glad I didn’t manage to get rid of it.”

Sofia lost herself reading the skill and the Aura menu over and and over several times. There was so much to unpack she did not even know where to start.

“Wait a minute… Where is the mana cost? THIS IS ALL FREE?!!!”

Sofia gulped audibly, “It’s time I start to seriously invest into Aura.”

“The lingering effect is from [Dodge - Me], can I finally get to know what it does?”

[Lingering]: Some effects of you aura linger on their target for a time even after they exit the effective range.

Currently affected: 

• [Exalted Exoskeleton]

• Bone sturdiness bonuses

• Regeneration bonuses

• Skeletal Thralls

That does answer a few of my questions… Looks like I’ll have to do some testing for the duration.

“Principality of Bones… Principalities are the level 450 bonus from the admin key… I suppose I got one early? I don’t feel any different, strangely enough, it’s just like I still have the old usual Bone dominus…”

There was no mention of her being able to summon the exoskeleton anywhere in the skill anymore, so she tried that first. And it worked just as well as usual, pulling the bones from her bone storage to create a form-fitting bone armor and skeletal wings. The process was a bit faster than usual but it was still the same thing Sofia was used to.

That felt different somehow… Because of the Storage?

Sofia focused trying to acces the bone storage, it was much slower than usual. Concentric circles of mana appeared around her, and after a few seconds, she disappeared.

What in the Lords’ names…

Sofia had entered the Painted Halls. She was in a very tall square-shaped room, its every walls made entirely of different shades and shapes of bones. The pillars were in the shape of stacked skeletons carrying each other, ornaments in the shape of bent skeletons acted as arches holding the ceiling, everything was bones. Each wall was decorated with a painting of dried blood on sculpted bones.

On the wall at the very back of the halls, the first painting was an image of Sofia herself as an infant held in her mother’s arms. After that, each wall’s painting was an image directly from her memory.

Mom…

Her mind almost blanking out, Sofia walked through the halls, looking at each wall. The halls were a succession of square rooms, each decorated with all of the most vivid memories she had. For example, in the first room, one wall was an archway leading to the next room, while the other two were a painting of the mountains rising to the sky at the start of Sovuln’s ebb, and a painting of her old recurring nightmare in which Saria gets engulfed by the waves.

The floor of the halls were covered in vast amounts of neatly organized piles of bones, which Sofia recognized as everything that was previously in her bone storage, and as there were quite a few rooms, the place was quite spacious. The very last painting of the last room showed the eye-covered core of the abyssal god getting struck by the admin key.

“That’s where it ends… Are there going to be more rooms added when I make more memories? This is more space than I need already… I never expected the bone storage to be like that… This must be in the Margin, I assume. I don’t feel anything outside… How do I leave?”

The answer to that question was simply the same way she got in. 

Back in the hidden shop, Sofia needed to sit down again.

Summoning a small bone orb from the hall with some difficulty, she played around with it a bit, trying to understand what exactly ‘Principality of Bones’ was, as that part of the skill came without a description. She understood very quickly what it entailed as she threw the bone ball around. Within her close aura, in a twelve meters radius sphere around her, her control over bones was basically absolute. Just by moving the bone orb as she usually would with Bone dominus, she could reshape it very fast and however she wanted, have it fly anywhere and with a lot of force, she could even slam it into the ground violently enough to create cracks, all that without even lifting a finger.

Shatter. She tried, done with her early experimenting, willing for the ball to crumble.

The bone ball was instantly covered in cracks, before falling apart like a crumbling ball of bone sand, forming a yellowish pile on the ground.

“... If I can do that directly to people’s bones…” 

With a bit more testing, since there was plenty of space in the shooting range, she estimated that in the field aura, her control was more or less 50% better than it used to be with Bone dominus, while it was about 30% weaker than the original in the far aura.

70% of Bone dominus in a four kilometers zone… This is a bit ridiculous.

Bookie, I know you’re busy with Pareth, but could you send me your Book form back, please?

The book appeared near Sofia and Bookie summoned himself too.

“I’m here!”

“Oh, is Pareth done picking his specialization already?”

“No. He’s still gambling like you, he likes none of the choices he got!” Bookie confided.

“Really? What did he specialize in?”

“Nice try Sofia, but it’s still a secret!” Bookie answered with a smug look. For some reason he and Pareth wanted the specialization to be a surprise, and similarly Sofia hadn’t shared her specialization with them yet.

“Ahah, alright alright. Well my own specialization is over. Want to help me try it out?” Sofia offered, “You can summon anyone.”

“I want to see I want to see! Just try on me!” Bookie excitedly requested, jumping in place.

“Are you sure? Hmm… Well I’ll have to try something a bit less violent than what I had in mind then. Let’s attempt a Valeure special. Bookie, do a backflip!” Sofia said, manipulating Bookie’s bones with her Principality.

Bookie was forced to perform a perfectly executed backflip.

“Waoh! I didn’t know I could do that,” Bookie said in shock, “Again!”

“Sure.”

Sofia controlled Bookie’s bones to make him do a circle around her with a series of backflips like a professional gymnast.

“I’m a backflipper!”

“Are you that happy about it?” Sofia teased, “You didn’t even try the main feature yet!”

“There’s more?!”

“Come on, Bookie, this is my third specialization, did you think it was only backflips? Try to summon a bone armor,” Sofia said with a wink.

“Armor? Me?”

“That’s right. All skeletons get an armor now.”

To Bookie’s surprise, a glowing bone armor covered his clothes, a pair of skeletal wings growing from its back. “WOOOOO! I have the same armor as Sofia!!! Your specialization is the bestest!” he exclaimed with a gleeful voice from under his bone helmet. 

“Right?”

With a smirk, Sofia summoned Crowie, and forcefully gave Crowie an armor. It formed in the shape of an actual crow, feathers and all, made entirely of finely sculpted glowing bones.

SO CUTE!!!

Sofia pet Crowie’s fake bone head. All skeletons get an armor.

All skeletons. She thought, her eyes on one particular line of her status sheet.

[Awakening of the five calamities]