Chapter 520 - Welcome to the jungle

After listening to Mr.Scribe’s extended explanations, Sofia felt the need to activate her Sixth melody music because she was starting to get a headache.

“Let me try to summarize this… First we need to make a wide Mithril coffin, encase it inside of a big Midenicite block, and bury it in the mana-absorbing sand of the red desert… Just this is going to be quite the process… It’s good that I kept all the mithril when I traded with taxes.”

Since the scribe had let Sofia get control of her mana back, he could not answer, but she was only repeating the steps for herself anyway.

The midenicite is also not hard to get and the red sand desert… I might want to transfer some red sand to somewhere else, I’m not sure about staying in there for prolonged periods of time when there is still that giant sandworm to worry about. 

Even the Destroyer would look tiny compared to that thing from back then.

Sofia looked through her mithril reserves in her storage ring, thinking that it was probably enough.

“When I’m buried in the sand and sealed in the coffin, the first step is to continuously flood it with my mana until there’s so much of it that it feels suffocating… Maybe we could just make the coffin a cube I could at least sit in. It would take longer to flood it, but also: comfort. Especially if I need to transform inside of it…”

It’s at times like these that it would be more practical to be Alith-sized.

“Then, once I’m drowning in my own mana, get into my demon form and quickly regenerate back to full. The mana around should still be suffocating even after I’m full, so basically I need to add another five million in there even after it’s already enough… This is to forcefully activate mana resonance despite my demon form aura being laughably weak. So far, It’s still easy.”

The next part is where it gets serious.

“After that, I should follow the ancient human mana circulation method in reverse, which should still work but will be extremely painful. Not looking forward to that… This pain should be good enough to start the process of body and soul strengthening with the warpath scriptures, which Mr.Scribe will be taking care of. At least that’s one thing I won’t have to worry about.”

Sofia was starting to worry that Mr.Scribe might be a bit too ambitious this time, the next step especially felt a bit dodgy, as it was the one inspired from the Eddarinian soul grafting method. Mr.Scribe was adamant about not wanting to get another soul mixed up with theirs, so the process was going to be slightly exotic.

“Get the admin dagger and wildcast the graveyard, exercising fine control over it to have the skeletons bring me halfway to the spiritual plane. Then… Find the outermost part of my soul, cut it off with the dagger while it’s weakened from using the warpath scriptures, and eat it…”

How does that even work? I don’t even have anything like a mouth in the spirit plane.

And I thought it was soul grafting, not soul eating.

But Mr.Scribe seemed quite certain that it was safe as long as I only cut the outer parts… Maybe I’ll still ask for a few other people’s opinions before I try this. Just in case.

“And the last part at least isn’t too bad, I just need to put the ring of Zar in my mouth right before the transformation runs out and activate it, which should be enough to act as a primitive form of mana reforging.”

And then, do it another one to three hundred times… Great.

At least the stat increase should be much better than regular system levels, so it’s not a net negative compared to regular leveling. Still, quite the involved process… It will take a while, too, since I need to empty the ring in between sessions.

“I think this will have to wait until we come back from our trip.”

Two weeks later, Sofia made her way to the meeting point outside of the city where Ihuarah, Everelle and Cinthia were already waiting for her. For once Everelle was actually wearing clothes, a large straw hat and a blue robe which revealed the feminine silhouette normally obscured by her pitch-black body. Ihuarah was wearing Avian-style colorful clothes, and Cinthia was just Cinthia, wearing the same comfortable and practical shirt and pants she usually wore when she didn’t need armor.

“I feel silly for coming with my armor on now,” Sofia said as she joined them. Saying this, she retracted her bone armor, revealing her new clothes for this expedition, an enchanted garment made of tough fabric that prioritized function over looks. It bore a strange patchwork of greens, browns and blacks, had many pockets all over, and even came with a small hat.

“No way! Where’d you find that?” Everelle asked, coming closer, “That looks just like the real thing!”

“The real thing?” Cinthia repeated, confused.

“I found a hero seamstress when I was visiting the city,” Sofia explained, “She made me this when I said I was going on a jungle expedition. Supposedly it blends well with the environment. I guess it’s a known design in Everelle’s old world.”

“That’s a soldier uniform,” Everelle explained, “Good stuff, looks a bit tight around the chest, though.”

Sofia shrugged, “Better tight than loose and swaying around when I move. But soldiers? It doesn't feel like this is meant to be worn under armor…“

“They don’t really wear much armor, no. Maybe that sounds weird but I don’t think I can really explain more without getting censored so you’ll just have to trust me,” Everelle clarified.

“Got it. So, where and how are we going?” Sofia asked as she turned to Ihuarah.

“To the lost temple of Sorrow!” he enthusiastically answered, “I have hired a space mage, he should be here any minute now, he will take us directly to the entrance of the Ochiaran jungle.”

“Right, I remember you spent quite a while in there, I got a lot of kill notifications about Ochiarans. Couldn’t find anything about them in the Academy’s library though,” Sofia commented, “Did you not find Sorrow’s place yet, or is it just that teleporting directly into the jungle is dangerous?”

“Teleporting directly into the jungle is quite dangerous,” he confirmed, “many monsters would feel the spatial disturbance, and some of those can be up to level 400. So we best be careful. Beyond the monster, the jungle itself is not without danger. And teleporting to Sorrow’s palace directly is simply impossible, as its exact location is… Peculiar. You shall see when we get there.”

Sofia felt mana movements nearby, and just then, a tall, gaunt vampire lady in black robes appeared.

[Supporter - Lv. 350+]

She nodded to Ihuarah and asked him, “Is this everyone?”

“Indeed,” Ihuarah confirmed, tossing her a heavy pouch likely filled with ingots of some sort.

She grabbed and stored the pouch. “Perfect,” she continued without introduction, “We will commence a series of teleportations, please stay still and avoid using any magic that could interfere. Raise a hand to warn me if you feel sick and need a few seconds to breathe. We’re going.”

Magic circles appeared around and above the group, and a second later they were standing in a random field. Then it happened again, and they appeared in the air above the ocean, landing on a thin magical platform of the Vampire’s making, before the scenery around them changed again.

Sofia expected Cinthia to ask for a pause at some point, but was surprised to see her holding well. Instead, it was Everelle who started heaving and raised a hand asking for a break. 

“We are about a third of the way there,” the Vampire lady informed them, “give me a sign when you’re good to go.”

“Sorry,” Everelle apologized, “I’m not too good with long jumps.” Ihuarah held her so she didn’t fall over.

“Like most people. Take your time, spiritual drag is an inevitability of long distance teleportation,” the lady calmly explained before she closed her eyes, seemingly sleeping in place where she was standing.

When Everelle gave the go a few minutes later, the teleportations resumed, and Sofia saw the sun gradually moving eastward in the sky, until it was night.

Have we just teleported across half the planet?

Finally after one last teleportation, the group found themselves in the middle of a somewhat small encampment city built from orange logs. The few people walking around carrying torches were all green-skinned orcs and Monkey beastmen with long curly tails. 

“The Ochiaran jungle,” the vampire lady announced, staring at Ihuarah, who then threw her another pouch. “Good luck,” she told the group before she teleported away.

“Now I shall explain our plan,” Ihuarah told the others, “Pareth and Bookie should come out and listen too. We will be entering the jungle at daybreak.”