XaiJu
Mornn
Mornn

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Chapter 652 - Recycling

‘Current balance : 30 100 001 points’

Sofia checked her points while Pestle was busy stuffing her skull with untold amounts of fruits and pastries, which disappeared after she chewed them, getting somehow crushed into mana and absorbed by her core. Sofia had only bought the fusion ticket form the secret shop for the moment, as it was cheap and a potential fast power up, and had spend just above ten thousand extra for Pestle’s food. Food on the Ark was quite cheap, compared to the items Sofia was after it was almost free, so ten thousand points was enough to buy a true mountain of food, much to Pestle’s current delight.

I think we have, what… About an hour until the next event? A bit short to get used to a new skill maybe, but we can start brainstorming.

Sofia pulled up her annoyingly long status page.

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 21 ♢

Class : [Saintomancer] ♢

Sub-Class : [False Lord] ♢

Level :  250 ♢ (299 EX22)

Health : 1 026 527 / 1 026 527  (20k+(20*250 - 4k)+65k+736762+200000+3765)

Stamina : 373 611 / 373 611  (20067+(20*250 - 4k)+183 269+166666+2609)

Mana : 5 365 182 / 5 365 182       (319100+(2k*250- 400k)+4603138+342944)

Divinity: 100 / 100

(Mana Regeneration: (0.16%) + Other sources = 11376/s)

(Mana Regeneration in Sunlight : (0.16%) + Other sources = 27777/s)

Main Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]

Alteration chance : 100% (Unavailable)

Secondary Specialization : [Heat Death]

Signature Skill (ULTIMATE)

[Awakening of the five calamities]

Mana Heart Abilities (4)

[Infinity Engine] Lv.3

[Relocate Core] ULTIMATE Rank

[Slashing Resistance]

[Explosion Resistance]

Remaining possible skill slots : 1 

False Lord Skills (1 / 1)

♢ [Singularity edict] ♢

♢ [Paradise Toybox] ♢

Active Skills (8 / 9)

[Spine of the Black Sun] - Level 263

[Summon Odalite Blood] - Level 260

[Graveyard of the Nymphs] - Level 278

[False immortality] - Level 4

[Skull Choir] - Level 294

[Reign over shadows]

[Aberrant sunlight]

[Avatar of Zeus]

Passive Skills (8 / 8)

[Blessing of the Deep] - (2/4)

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] ♢

[Exalted Exoskeleton] ♢

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - Peak of Light forging realm

[Bone Dominus Imperium] - Level 3

[Erredian Rot] 

[Runeforged Overlord] ♢ - Level 293

[Sixth Melody]

Classless Skills (7 / 7)

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

[Summon Self] - Level 53

[Mana manipulation] ♢

[Radiance] - Level 100

[Quintessential] ♢

[One with Suffering] ♢

[Crystallized] ♢

Racial Skills (3)

[Edgewalker] ♢

[Pillar of Creation] ♢

[Mockery of the Divine] ♢

Special Skills (1)

[The Book of Skeletons] ♢

Summoned heroes (4 / 4)

[Mark of Aphenoreth]

And I haven’t even updated it to include the wildcasts yet…

Anyway… I can fuse even locked skills. Spine is getting an upgrade soon so it’s a no, summon blood won’t work, graveyard… I could see graveyard getting fused, maybe.

False Immortality is a big no, can’t risk it changing too much. Skull choir is a prime target for fusion, it’s been a bit underwhelming, mostly due to the long cooldown not allowing me to switch skulls on the fly in battle.

Ihuarah’s skill is a definite no for now. But I could forget it later if Iwa find a good way to self resurrect… I think he mentionned wanting to try becoming a shade-lich? We’ll see… Aberrant sunlight is a prime fusion target as well, the curse is very good but it’s very situational, if I could make it a permanent addition to a light-producing skill that would be something. 

Lastly, [Avatar of Zeus]... The skill is already at the complexity of a level 300+ skill. So I don’t think it’ll fuse very well. I’ve also never had a chance to truly use it, not enough experience to know whether I need it changed at all, so that’s not a good target.

That’s it for the actives, potential targets: [Graveyard of the Nymphs][Skull Choir][Aberrant sunlight]

Graveyard and Choir both have optimization branches I haven’t checked yet, so they’re temporarily out.

Next for the passives, 

The blessing, demon form and VPPV are all out right away, they just won’t work. Sixth melody I can’t touch, I need to keep it if only to send Remia some divine essence from time to time. And everyone’s just witnessed how scary the winter movement can be. So this leaves me with Exoskeleton, the rot, Dominus, and Overlord.

Honestly… These could all be fused, I think.

Ideally I’d probably want to fuse the Rot and Abberant sunlight, they’re both light-related debuff skill, essentially. But one is an active and one is a passive… Honestly they’re pretty close, though. Could I trick the system into thinking the rot is an active maybe? It’s really not far from one in its function, at least… Mr Scribe, opinion?

Sofia felt her control over her mana waver, but it was not as bad as it used to be, it seemed Mr.Scribe was working on being able to communicate without taking complete control.

[We can probably do that if we have the dagger process the fusion ticket instead of the system. It has a function for that, I’ve just found out when we bought the ticket. The dagger’s fusion algorithm is old and not restricted by skill category, so we have more freedom, but that comes with its own risk.]

The risk of the dagger creating a bad skill? I wouldn’t even be that mad. Honestly I think we can probably wildcast the rot by now? It might not be a perfect replica but I feel like I’m about 95% of the way there just from using it so much during the last trial, and Grandma could coach me to get it right. I guess we can lose Aberrant sunlight but it’s not that much of a loss with how hard it is to use properly.

Will the fusion take more than an hour?

[Unlikely.]

Then do it. Sofia told her scribe, grabbing the dagger from its sheath. I have a good feeling about it. Worst case, it’ll have at least freed up a slot for the skills I’ll get after this trial.

[Skill fusion ticket (1) is being used to combine active skill ‘Aberrant Sunlight’ and passive skill ‘Erredian Rot’; are you sure?]

Yes.

[Skill fusion ticket has been used]

Sofia nibbled on some of the food after initiating the fusion. She could feel her mana pathways moving around, being reshaped, some old ones closing, some new ones opening, all directed by the dagger in her hand like the conductor in an orchestra.

She was starting to feel uneasy when the time for the next event was drawing close near and the skill still was not ready, but with just ten minutes to spare, the movement inside of her finally stopped.

We’re done?

Again Sofia felt her Scribe take control for an instant.

[There were a few issues, but we can thank my upgrade to Tier 3. I was barely able to fix everything by using the leftover circuits from ‘Heal Undead’ and even some remnants of ‘Pristine Essence’ and ‘Avatar of Death’]

[Moreover, the skill came without a name so I took the liberty to give it one. You may change it if you want.]

I’ll trust you, your naming skills can’t be as weak as mine, surely. Does that mean I can not longer use Heal undead?

[We have indeed lost that skill definitely. You will have to re-learn it from scratch if you still want to use it, to rebuild the mana circuits. But no matter, that was an acceptable loss for the final skill.]

Oh? Now you’ve got me interested. You’re scaring me a bit with the mention of Pristine essence, though. Let’s see.

Sofia opened her skill list and scrolled down. The two fused skills were gone, replaced by a new active skill.

[Saintomancer’s Star]:

Some things cannot be ignored. The ultimate dread comes not from the darkness, but from the death of hope even under the brightest sunlight. 

Invoke a Saint’s star, a fake sun of holy light.

Non-undead coming close to a Saint’s star will take continuous holy damage.

The burning light of the Saint’s star propagates the [Curse of Aberrant sunlight] to the non-undead, and heals the Undead for 1% missing health per second.

Activate again to transform all Saint’s stars into Necrotic stars.

Non-undead coming close to a Necrotic star will take continuous death damage.

The freezing light of the Necrotic star continuously propagates the [Erredian Rot] to everything it touches except the Undead.

When a star expires after burning all of its mana or getting destroyed, it produces a shockwave of holy or death damage depending on its current state.

Your bones hold the memories of countless deaths. You and living beings wearing an accessory made from your bones count as being undead for the purpose of this skill.

Minimum cost per star: 100 000 Mana

Channeling time: 10 (5) seconds, halved for each consecutive cast.

Estimated lifetime : 3 minutes per million mana spent.

Sofia was speechless at the sight of the skill’s description.

Who would have thought that fusing my two skills with the shortest descriptions would end up like this…

The skills have definitely lost a lot in flexibility with the fusion, it’s much longer to cast. But it’s also… Continuous application of the curse then the rot? With the widespread healing on top? If I just have the time to set it up, it’s a huge advantage. And by the looks of it, I can cast multiple stars in a row.

A minimum cost star lasts for eighteen seconds. Not much, but even that can be enough to last a whole fight sometimes.

I almost want to try it now, but I suppose here is not the time or place.

Sofia finally looked up at the other system windows that had come to clog her vision.

[Second wave: Group trials]

[Your group must vote for a group event to participate in. The most votes wins, in case of a tie, your group will be randomly signed up for one of the tied results.]

[Available second wave events:

Comments

I don’t think that it’s making actual sunlight since the skill says it’s a fake holy sun. The mana regen is tied more to Sun’s essence and authority rather than light level from what we’ve seen so far which is why Sofia can use her [Mockery of the Divine] to turn on the mana boost and skeleton invincibility.

Lazy Monster

Sofia did directly say this chapter that she is very close to wild casting the rot so at the very least on that front it’s just a temporary setback

Midnight7411

Sofia potentially just became truly broken. Need clarification on this one detail: Does this skill count as sunlight? If it does, then she will generate 27777 mana/second. Cast time is 5 seconds. This means Sofia is net positive 39k mana per 100k Star cast. Creating Erredian Rot is free. Take the Demonic Invasion. She might actually break it. This event is the most obvious one for earning the most points possible since the limit is her ability to survive rather than a fixed amount of possible points. Bet it's at least 100mil. Breaking Demonic Invasion, an infinite event as long as you can survive, is fitting for the [Infinity Engine]. And we get to watch Pareth run around being Doomguy. Poor Kuli...

E

This chapter scratched my brain in just the right way. Its everything I could've asked for. Some thoughts on the new skill, the mention of multiple stars makes me wonder about area of effect. Is it like actual light that spreads until it hits a barrier? Or will it have a delineated area? Will it grow stronger the closer to the star you are? Also, the loss of [Erridian Rot] ironically makes the spine upgrade weaker until she can wildcast the rot or something cause the light bursts will no longer spread it. I have a hunch thats a temporary nerf knowing Sofia but its definitely worth considering in the short term. Also even more healing effects, has me dead set on optimizing the rune to allow healing. We might be getting to a point where all her healing effects stacked along with her one hit protection might make her more survivable than the extra life's from the runes, and having to pick between the runes and healing sucks. That being said the runes degrading from healing sucks, so I'm hoping there are further optimizations to be had, to mitigate that downside enough for the runes to still be viable even with constant healing.

Inv7ctus

Sofia now has the stardom she has always deserved. It's poetic in a way

Chance Rose

Very interesting new skill, and it's perfect for Sofia having Sun's favor and essences. Can't wait to see it in action! I wonder if they are static or can follow Sofia around? Guess we'll find out next time on Total Saintomancer Action! 🎬

Nate

TFTC. The saints star is awesome! I was thinking maybe she would fuse mana manipulation with something like crystallized or boneus dominious. I’m glad we finally got a full status sheet again I was getting a bit confused about some things and having to go back and dig through previous chapters to find a recent one. I can honestly see both the first and the last working out the best for Sofia’s team but they all are solid options.

Lazy Monster

A Last (Wo)man Standing with an Immortal in the Team? Yeah they got that Gold Star in their Pockets no Questions asked

Shukketsu

Yep yep, she gets more detail. I wanted to include it in this chapter initially, but then I ended spending half of my afternoon fixing a toilet leak, so I ran out of time x.x

Mornn

The more you're injured, the higher the healing

Mornn

Great skill. In a game I'd use it at the start of basically every encounter, it's a no brainer. Could Sofia get more details for these three events? Because the giant enemy seems too easy, the endless waves of demons is too vague and the wasteland expedition could be the best option depending on what they could find in a frozen city. Especially if it's frozen in time, that's something they have experience with and something they'd want to study anyway.

Daemion

Hmm, that's a fusion I hadn't thought of. But it does make a certain kind of sense... Hmm, certainly an interesting skill with some great benefits, but it does lose some flexibility compared to the fusion inputs. Mostly in terms of precise application of the curse/rot. Still, that healing for all undead under the star, plus the ability to designate non-undead as "friendlies" is a really great effect. It says "1% missing health"... does that mean the same as 1% max health or is the healing actually proportional to how far down the health is? Hmm... I'm not even sure which event she should pick... Corrections: only bought the fusion ticket form the secret shop form -> from and had spend just above ten thousand extra spend -> spent False Lord Skills (1 / 1) 1/1 -> 2/2 if Iwa find a good way to self resurrect find -> finds I think he mentionned wanting to try mentionned -> mentioned

Tejing

Sometimes you'll find out, sometimes not, I think. Not gonna lie, there's way too much going on in this trial, so I'll have to be careful what to include and what not to if I don't want this to go on for 800 chapters x')

Mornn

That sounds like an awesome saintomancer skill! A little sad to see the plain Erridian rot go since it could be directed a little better, but this is too nice to pass up. Especially like the fact she can make her teammates immune - time to start making bone rings. As for the next trial... no idea what to pick for max points. The titan one could show off Mornn's signature skill, but short of Chains, Sof's group doesn't have many restraining skills. Expedition sounds like a another time trial dungeon crawl, so pass. Demonic invasion sounds right up the new skill's alley though. Btw - we going to find out how Mornn and Kuli did in the last test as well as which test Saria did since she wasn't in the time attack?

Cyclone001

I was almost thinking Runeforged Overloard and Exaulted Exoskeleton would be good fusion targets. It'd be great if she could turn on or off the different tiers as easily as she equips and uneqips her armor and wings.

Dan N

Thanks for the chapter!

Wensber

Thanks for the chapter! That was a beautiful skill fusion, and I look forward to its use!

Ceasar Salas

Thanks for the chapter!

Quentin Cozzi

Depending on the victory conditions, the demon invasion could probably be fun, though just having one giant victim, sorry opponent, seems easier to deal with for the group as a whole

BOT

Oh they gotta go with the last group standing challenge

Shelbo

If I recall correctly Pareth has a shapeshifting skill he can use to become a giant, so my vote is to gove him a crown of Saint stars and let him have at it, probably with Calamity support.

Floyd

Love the new skill. Fits her style so perfectly also I like the name.

Silver Dawn

It's gotta be Demonic Genocide- I mean, Invasion, right? It sounds like the perfect place to test out her new toy. Also, I totally forgot about Avatar of Zeus! I hope it comes up at some point in the trial

Tom Asciola

Thanky chappy

MoonlitShade


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