Chapter 587 - Bloody Hell

Sofia glanced at the evolution list for summon blood and she could barely believe her eyes.

Oh my fucking… Is this real?

Who would… How?

Why?!

Available Soft-Evolutions for [Summon Blood] Lv.250 (+8) (Levels will be conserved, you do not lose the capacity to summon regular Blood in addition to the evolved Blood):

• [Summon Archon Blood] : The Archon Blood is a lot more expensive to summon, is highly toxic, corrosive, and volatile.

• [Summon Bloody Blood] : The Bloody Blood converts all nearby liquids to Blood as long as it contains sufficient mana. Liquids revert to their original form after a while.

• [Summon Centaur Blood] : The Centaur Blood has decent healing properties for cheap but must be drunk to work and tastes awful.

• [Summon Daunting Blood] : The Daunting Blood possesses a faint [Fear] aura that may scare off creatures of a lower level than the skill.

• [Summon Electric Blood] : The Electric Blood shocks on contact and is extremely conductive to electricity, allowing for the transfer of very high current.

• [Summon Fart Blood] : Nobody knows what kind of abomination may have once lived with this blood within them, but it exists, and it stinks.

• [Summon Ghostly Blood] : It only exists in the spiritual plane.

• [Summon Holy Blood] : The Holy Blood is prohibitively expensive to summon, forces the body and soul to restore to Blueprint, increases lifespan and charisma (up to a limit), and is toxic to demons and the undead.

Mr.Scribe’s note: We are a demon.

• [Summon Instant Blood] : Very cheap and lightweight, the instant blood comes dehydrated; just add water!

• [Summon Jörmungandr Blood] : Drinking the Jörmungandr Blood grants the temporary ability to withstand high pressures, see in the dark and breathe underwater. Its presence sends aquatic creatures into a frenzy.

• [Summon Kinetic Blood] : Redirects most of the mana cost to velocity instead of quantity, allowing for the use of deadly high-speed blood projectiles.

• [Summon Leviathan Blood] : No protection provided.

Mr.Scribe’s note: I fear that it might be genuine.

• [Summon More Blood] : Improves the mana to blood quantity conversion. No other effect.

• [Summon Necrotic Blood] : The Necrotic Blood sticks to the undead, providing them with strong healing and protection, but greatly slowing them down.

• [Summon Odalite Blood] : The Blood of the extinct Odalites is rumored to be the best liquid for magical materials tempering. Who knows whether the rumors are true?

Mr.Scribe’s note: No information or mention of Odalites found in my data.

• [Summon Plant Blood] : It is sap.

• [Summon Quality Blood] : The taste is divine, should one have such inclinations.

• [Summon Random Blood] : The composition of the Random Blood is decided through an unstable molecular binding array, creating different results for every cast.

• [Summon Sofia Blood] : It’s yours.

• [Summon Tantalizing Blood] : You do not recognize the bodies in the Blood. You do not recognize the bodies in the Blood. You do not recognize the bodies in the Blood. You do not re

Mr.Scribe’s note: I have no idea.

• [Summon Urchin Blood] : The Urchin Blood naturally forms into serrated blades that will strike at any nearby movement. Its strength is proportional to the agglomerated amount.

• [Summon Virtual Blood] : The Virtual Blood exists only in the mind of the target.

• [Summon WORM Blood] : Attracts WORMs. Use with caution.

• [Summon Yin Blood] : Sadly does not improve one’s martial constitution. Mr.Scribe’s note: I am pretty confident this one is just Underworld water.

• [Summon Xolotl’s Blood] : Consumption will lead to violent and uncontrolled mutations. Feeling lucky?

• [Summon Zesty Blood] : A few drops will make any alcoholic drink taste marginally better.

Soft evolution huh?! This is all but soft! This is crazy!

How is the other one?

Available Soft-Evolutions for [Graveyard of the righteous] Lv.250 (+27) (Levels will be conserved):

• [Graveyard of the Crusade] : The graveyard’s skeletons are now able to fully come out and attack, inflicting spiritual damage.

• [Graveyard of the Nymphs] : The graveyard’s skeletons are now undead nymphs capable of bringing you in and out of the spiritual realm much faster and healing the land.

• [Graveyard of the Arbiter] : The graveyard is now home to a single gigantic skeleton with access to a few spells of the [Arbiter] class.

Oh good, at least this one is normal. 

“And the choice should be easy enough… I don’t know what the Arbiter class spells are but as exciting as a gigantic skeleton sounds, it’s not practical. Unlike the [Summon blood] evolution, this one doesn’t say I keep the previous version so I would be stuck with that one guy… It’s just bad for tight spaces or battles against many enemies. Though I guess these will become rarer at higher levels, but even then, I would rather keep the current  graveyard boys, honestly. So this leaves me with the two other choices…”

Sofia stopped to think for a second, the choice between the two other options wasn’t as clear-cut.

“Both of these are straight upgrades, but not in the same way. The crusade would allow the skeletons to move around much faster, and considering how many of them can come out… It makes the graveyard somewhat of a certain-death zone for my enemies. The one point I’m a bit scared about, though, is that they might not be able to fly. They always used to be stuck in the ground so it wasn’t a question, but now if they’re able to leave… Are they more physical or more ghosts? How fast will they be, really?”

Scratching her head, Sofia mumbled to herself, “Do I even need more damage, in the first place? Do I just take the Nymphs, then? I thought that was just another name for dryads… Am I getting a dryad graveyard? The ‘healing the land’ bit feels about right for dryads, maybe? Going in and out of the spiritual realm faster is definitely good, and might prevent another bird from pecking my head out of the ground like a worm situation… Kept the restore keyword all this time only to get an alternative through the graveyard, ironic. Let’s go with the Nymphs then.”

Sofia was quite certain of her decision, but she did not actually pick it right away, turning her attention back to the daunting wall of text that was [Summon blood]’s soft evolution.

“One for each letter… I didn’t think the high-scribes had that much free time. Leviathan is the obvious standout, and it’s not even close, but whether picking it has any merit is another question. It’s bound to be extremely expensive to summon and ridiculously dangerous… If my own spell’s sole purpose is killing myself I’m not too sure I see the point. Other than that, [Summon Sofia Blood] is quite something… Are we speaking my old human blood? My current Bloodlight? If Bloodlight, is it a copy, or is it actively ‘summoning’ it out of my body? I could probably find a way to use it either way… But I would rather pick something that’s immediately obviously good…”

Faced with too many options, Sofia opted for her preferred method of listing and categorizing all of the possibilities. She organized the ‘bloods’ in four categories, the ‘Funny or Useless’, ‘Fine and safe’, ‘Gamble and safe’, ‘Gamble and risky’.

‘Funny or Useless: Bloody, Daunting, Fart, Ghostly, Instant, Plant, Random, Virtual, Zesty’

“That’s already a third of the options gone. Like… Farts? Really? Anyway, good start… Should I add Quality in there too? Its only uses really are to give Asty good presents and generally get more money from the Vampires… Not entirely useless but also… It’s not like I lack means to make money. I might be in debt right now but that’s only because I bargained with Taxes right before needing so much mithril for leveling… I’ll just put it in Fine and Safe.”

‘Fine and Safe: Centaur, Jörmungandr, Kinetic, More, Necrotic, Quality, Urchin, Yin’

“About the same amount of options for this one. These are all good, taking any of these is certain to not be a bad choice, whether it’s an actually useful choice is another matter entirely, though. I’m quite tempted to just believe in Mr.Scribe and take Yin Blood. An unlimited supply of Underworld Water is honestly just great, knowing how potent the stuff is. The planet’s blood. I wonder if there’s an opposite hot water... Would that just be magma? Well, now for the Gamble categories…”

‘Gamble and Safe: Archon, Electric, Holy, Odalite’

“Getting to the real head-scratchers now… Archon might be a fine choice just in terms of offensive power, or it might not. It being toxic and all I’m not too worried about, I mostly surround myself with skeletons anyway. Electric might work great with the bolts, or it might just be useless and a waste of energy compared to just using the bolts by themselves, probably not something I would pick… Holy is great, just that I can’t use it. But having this as an option to extend the lifespan of low-level people is definitely not to be overlooked. And Odalite… Well, if it performs as advertised, it’s great, especially since I can count of Grandma to make things for me later down the line… But the description itself doesn’t sound sure that it works… So a big gamble. And that only leaves me with the weird choices.”

‘Gamble and Risky: Leviathan, Sofia, Tantalizing, WORM, Xolotl’

“So… Leviathan is still on the table, Sofia blood I think is a no, Tantalizing is also a no, because I already have [Aberrant Sunlight] and it sounds similar, this leaves WORMs and Xolotl… I’ll pass on the random mutations, I think, although it would definitely be one heck of an experimentation tool for skeleton-harvesting purposes… Hmmm… Yeah, no, let’s not. If I summoned some and someone else got their hands on it and like… Started using it on people… I’d rather not this even be a possibility. This leaves me with a final question, what is a WORM? Why capitalized? Is it some kind of abbreviation, or are we talking HUGE WORM SO BIG IT NEEDS TO BE CAPITALIZED?!” Sofia ended with a shout that she knew no one would hear from under the tons of red sand the mithril cube was buried in.

“Because I definitely do not want to attract that one giant sandworm from the red sand desert.”

Sofia shivered just remembering the sheer apocalyptic size of that thing. If she had to guess, it was probably still, even now, one of if not the largest damned creature she had ever encountered, even counting the Sunless Nightbringer and the Deep Whale.

“Yeah, fuck that.” She scratched the WORM off of her bone slate with a swipe of her fingernail.