Chapter 500 S - Un-holy beginnings, again

Shaily stepped down from the teleportation platform, her nose assaulted by the strong smell of the salty sea-breeze. 

“And that should be the last teleport for today,” a bespectacled Vampire sat at a desk with a notepad said to himself as he scribbled something. “What would your name be, young lady?”

“Shaily. I work for royal mage Cardinal.”

The Vampire adjusted his glasses and flipped through a few pages in his notebook. “Shaily… Shaily… There you are. Please sign here,” he told her.

A small signature later, Shaily was out of the teleportation station, in the streets of a small floating village in the middle of the sea. The few people walking around were all Vampires or Humans, and a sign placed right outside of the teleportation station indicated ‘<- Lodgings // Trial towers ->’. Shaily turned right.

Very few people die.

This is going to be fine.

Despite her attempts at calming her beating heart, Shaily’s nervousness was mounting up as the system prompt indicating her distance to the tower slowly neared zero. Soon, she was close enough, and the towers invisible until then, revealed themselves at the far end of the floating village. 

Shaily looked up, unable to see the top of the three gargantuan towers.

[Please proceed to the trial site : Tower, distance : 49m]

A Vampire was standing guard right there, “Going for the trial, young lady? Third person today. Yours should be the tower on the right, good luck.”

Shaily thanked the guard and walked up, the distance prompt indeed seemed to indicate that the tower she was headed for was the one on the right. She made her way right to the doors of the tower, stepping on its stone stairs entrance, and pushed. The doors were like a wall, not showing the slightest sign of opening.

Are the doors stuck?

Shaily looked behind her to see if the Vampire knew what was going on, but she saw nothing but the blue ocean and the setting sun. The village and the wooden platform she had been stepping on just seconds ago were nowhere to be seen.

“What is…”

She reflexively summoned a fire sprite to defend herself, but there was nothing to defend against. Waves lazily crashed against the towers, and that was all.

Then she heard something different, clicking sounds coming from above. Something was crawling down the tower, something massive.

Shaily was too scared to move, the massive creature looking like it came straight from a nightmare stopped just a few meters above her. Shaily could not even see it clearly, as if light avoided the monster, but the giant insectoid silhouette was disturbing enough by itself, not to mention the purple fluid dripping from the thing’s supposed mouth, which seemed to dissolve the sea water as it touched it, creating uncanny sounds and putrid smoke.

“Curious,” a rattling voice clanked in Shaily’s ears, “A mysterious force is keeping these doors closed…”

After a few seconds of a deafening silence only punctuated by the dripping of the purple saliva and the buzzing sound of the creature’s wings that Shaily could not even see, the voice resounded again.

“No matter, try the other doors,” the voice ordered in a tone that commanded authority, before the creature crawled back up the tower, disappearing into the sky.

Shaily’s vision seemed to warp for a second, and the village reappeared as if it had never been gone. The vampire guard was looking away from the towers, he seemed not to have noticed anything.

Swallowing her saliva, Shaily silently walked toward the opposite tower, a single thing had kept her sane through the terrifying encounter, her [Identify] result reading: [Seraph]

Her heart sank when these doors, too, refused to open, but this time, the village was still there, and no nightmarish creature came to visit.

There’s still a third tower… 

Walking to the farthest tower from the village, Shaily’s blue hands pressed against the tower’s door.

Please open!

The doors opened with no resistance, revealing the unlit interior of the gargantuan trial tower.

[You have entered : Saint’s Tower]

“So this one works,” the disturbing voice of the giant creature echoed around the walls as the doors closed behind Shaily. “Have you made an enemy of some powerful god, young one?”

“What?! No,” Shaily reflexively denied.

“Someone is trying to interfere with your trial,” the voice announced, sounding amused at the thought, “How brazen. To think they would try something even after I was dispatched here. Sit down, Exidian, your trial will be unaffected. No God in this world stands a chance against me,” the voice added in a smoldering tone.

“U- Understood,” Shaily answered before sitting down against the wall near the closed doors.

The sinister voice laughed as Shaily lost consciousness, “Hiding, still? Show yourself, impertinent weakling. Suffer the fury of Er’Z…”

Shaily’s eyes shot open, she was jolted awake by a piercing pain in her left arm. 

She was standing straight, much taller than usual, and the first thing she saw was a stream of crimson blood quickly escaping her new body.

What in Death’s name?!!!

Her first reflex was to try summoning a light sprite to heal her injuries, only to find out that she did not have that skill. Undeterred by that, she attempted to wild-cast it, therefore discovering that she did not even have enough mana to summon a single sprite.

Did my trial really have to start like this?!

She struggled to rip off a piece of the shirt she was wearing and did her best to quickly stop the bleeding with the makeshift bandage she wrapped as hard as she could. The emergency dealt with, she could finally take weight of her situation. She was in a human-looking body, standing above a skeleton in a ritual circle that was slowly coming to life, fueled by the shed blood.

[Congratulations, you have been chosen as a new SAINT!]

[Congratulations, you have unlocked the class : Necromancer!]

[[Changing Changing class class to to : : Saintess Necromancer]]

“No… No no no, wait, there must be a mistake…”

Shaily opened her status sheet

Name : Sofia

Age : 19

Class : [Saint][Necromancer]

Level : 1 1

Health : Error

Stamina : Error

Mana : Error

Active Skills (0 / 5)

Passive Skills (0 / 5)

Classless Skills (4 / 5)

  [Menial chores] - Level 7

  [Sprint] - Level 3

  [Fast reading] - Level 12

  [Shenanigans] - Level 48

“Fuck…”

The status sheet abruptly closed a few seconds later.

[ERROR]

[User can only have one active class]

[ERROR]

[Please reduce your current classes to one]

[ERROR. UNKNOWN CLASS]

[Admin action required]

[Available admins : 0]

[Initiating emergency recovery. Please wait]

Shaily clearly remembered that one time she had shared childhood stories with her then teacher.

“And I woke up chained to a bed surrounded by guards, the Church had summoned me during the night,” Sofia had finished with at the time.

“And you managed to escape?” Was what Shaily asked next, she now felt remorseful that she had never pushed the subject further. Sofia's answer now felt like a punch in the gut.

“That’s a story for another time.”

Shaily laughed to herself as the skeleton in front of her slowly stood up. “The time is now, then?”

Just then, more system notifications popped up.

[Trial task : Escape the Holy-See]

[Additional rewards task : Defeat a Siren-Queen]

[Time limit : 15 Months]

“Great… I remember about that too… A level 180 Siren Queen… I have a year and a half…”

Shaily took a second to organize her thoughts as she watched the skeleton being assembled bone by bone.

“Alright… It’s not that bad, if teacher Sofia was able to do it, I can do it too. At least I somewhat understand the situation I’m in, that’s more than what most people have to work with… First thing first…”

When the skeleton was finally fully assembled, its eye-sockets started glowing with a faint golden light. Shaily raised a hand.

Should I find a different name? No… That would be disrespectful. Let’s do this!

“Welcome to this world, Hero. I name you, Pareth!”

[Congratulations, you have baptized your first hero!]

[ERROR]

[The baptized hero is currently unconscious; giving hero’s blessing draws privilege to the summoner.]

[Please draw three cards.]

I get to choose?! 

Illusory cards appeared everywhere around Shaily, facing away from her.

I don’t think I even ever heard of Pareth’s actual blessing… Well, it’s random anyway, isn’t it?

Shaily picked the first three cards in front of her.

[Please select a blessing for the hero : Pareth]

‘Blessing of the steady hand

A rank

You are unfazed by the vicissitudes of life. Keep a clear mind in all circumstances and enjoy a doubled Agility sub-stat growth.’

‘Blessing of the flies

S rank

You are tainted by the touch of a powerful essence. All organic matter slowly withers and decays around you. Nearby undead and yourself slowly regain life over time.’

‘Blessing of the weightless

S rank

You are unburdened by gravity. You gain the ability to reduce your body weight at will, you can soar through the air and land like a feather. This extends to whatever you are wearing, up to a point.’

I really doubt the real Pareth’s blessing is any of those. He certainly has something better than that… 

“Can you understand me?” Shaily asked the skeleton who was standing perfectly still. He was unresponsive.

“Can you jump?”

The skeleton jumped in place.

“Better than nothing… Ah, that cost me some mana…”

Before deciding on the blessing to pick, Shaily climbed out of the small crypt, finding herself in the middle of a forest in the dark of night. She returned to the crypt.

I don’t think I can find Sofia’s orphanage… The human church is going to summon me anyway. I might want to keep my options open for later. Nothing forces me to choose a blessing now, right?

Shaily whinged from the pain in her arm as she bumped into the wall on the way down the stairs to the crypt.

“I need to level up and get enough mana for a sprite…”