Chapter 484 - Grossly incandescent

Available Passive Skills : 

• [Body of ] : Covers your skin with a layer of effulgent ber

• [Sixth ] : You gain the ability to spread your mana around y

• [Sigil of ] : Some of your excess mana automatically creates sigils of

• [Torch ] : Light is amplified in a

• [No game ] : Staying close to your sibling grants you both a   

• [ of the evening] : for every person sleeping in a city under your protection in the skill’s radius.

• [ melody] : follows you wherever you go.

• [ champion] : for every divine artifact you carry.

• [ the depths of hell] : blood and rip their guts until nothing is left.

• [ priestess] : easily able to sense your presence and send blessings.

“We got slightly better luck with those, I think. There should be a lot of interesting stuff we can do,” Sofia commented as she started to make the bone keywords for Pareth and Bookie to play with. Surprisingly, she found that having those physical representations of them also helped her organize her own thoughts.

“I wonder what [Body of priestess] would do,” Bookie said, grabbing the corresponding bone slates.

“Hmm… It’s hard to say. Assuming we don’t use the specialization, the skill name should come out as-is, so… Honestly I have no idea. And actually… Let’s get rid of the priestess one, maybe. I don’t think I like it,” Sofia told Bookie.

“Alright,” Bookie answered, throwing the bone slate behind him, “I like [ champion] better anyway,” he commented, and Pareth nodded in agreement.

“[Body of champion] does have a good ring to it. But let’s go more methodically this time, it will be easier since we don’t have [Restore ] to complicate everything. We’re starting with all the [Body of ].”

Bookie nodded and started matching the [Body of ] bone slate with the other ones, after a few seconds he looked up to Sofia, “Sofia… They all work… How are we gonna choose…”

“We can vote, let me make two more sets of the back end keywords… There we go, now we all pick the word we think fits the best with [Body of ].”

Bookie and Sofia both picked [ champion], but Pareth had a different idea, and voted for [ the depths of hell].

“B- Brother Pareth, are… are you sure about that?” Bookie stuttered.

Pareth seemed confident.

“He’s not wrong, Bookie, since hell usually refers to the Recessed plane, this could go very well with the demon form,” Sofia explained.

“But it sounds evil!” Bookie retorted.

Sofia and Pareth looked at each other. “Well, yeah, true. That does not mean we would not pick it, though. Most people think necromancy is evil but Bookie is the sweetest little skeleton, right? Let’s just write these combinations down for now.”

Bookie was at a loss for words, and Sofia just kept the train going.

[Body of champion]

[Body of the depths of hell]

“Next we have [Sixth ], which might just be one of the most impractical keywords I have ever gotten until now. [Sixth champion]... [Sixth melody]...  [Sixth of the evening]...”

“Sixth of the evening,” Bookie repeated, stifling a laugh.

“Yeah it does kind of sound like I’m just telling the time,” Sofia commented, a smile spreading across her face. “Maybe it could end up being an interesting skill? I think [Sixth melody] might make more sense, though. If we have to keep one I say this. [Sixth champion] also works but then [Body of champion] is just better.”

Sofia added [Sixth melody] to the list of possible skills. She had no idea what the skill could possibly do, but the skill sounded good. Sofia thought, grinning to herself while Pareth and Bookie were already focused on the next keyword.

“Then [Sigil of ] is next. This one has great potential, I think; our history with runes and rituals is rather good.” 

“What is a sigil, Sofia?” Bookie asked.

“You don’t know? In this context it should be a small, self-contained ritual circle that is usually easily replicable. Most item enchantments fall into the sigil category,” Sofia explained.

“Oh! Then we can’t take [Sigil of champion] or [Sigil of the depths of hell]!” Bookie realized with stupor.

“Right, you make a great point, let’s maybe not get me branded with one more divine rune,” Sofia confirmed, “the divine rune ritual circles are a perfect example of simple sigils.” 

“Then I vote [Sigil of the evening]!” Bookie continued. When asked why, he answered that it sounded good to him, which was often how Sofia selected or discarded skill combinations so she couldn’t say anything about it. In that same vein, Sofia felt the [Sigil of melody] sounded a bit weak, so only [Sigil of the evening] made it to the next round.

[Body of champion]

[Body of the depths of hell]

[Sixth melody]

[Sigil of the evening]

“Next is [Torch ]!” Sofia announced.

“I also think these all work,” Bookie chimed in, and Pareth seemed to agree.

“Not mentioning the other three, [Torch the depths of hell] is very evocative but feels like an active skill. As a passive, I’m not so sure…”

“And we don’t want to hurt auntie Sorrow!” Bookie added.

“True. [Torch melody] is likely to be some kind of fire affinity skill, would be good for Saria or Alith or Sun’s saintess, but not so much for me. [Torch champion] might actually be as good as [Body of champion], just with a fire focus to it. Lastly, [Torch of the evening]... This evening keyword really is not easy to work with…”

They debated about the torch keyword for a while, with Bookie being more in favor of [Torch champion], and Pareth being partial to [Torch of the evening] for reasons he was not able to communicate. In the end they collectively decided that [Torch ] despite looking good at first glance was just not it, and did not keep any combination with it.

“Then we have the weirdest last… [No game ]... I cannot even begin to imagine what the full skill might have been named, and the description is just… Well, let’s see. [No game of the evening]...” This one sounds a bit dirty…

After a good minute of staring at the [No game ] bone slate in silence, Bookie used his magic glove to freeze it on the ground in frustration. “This one is terrible!” he complained, “Nothing works!”

“I have to admit I also don’t really see it… Even [ champion] cannot save it… [No game champion] sounds like a passive made to make you lose at games, what would the point even be? Any idea to save this, Pareth?”

Pareth shook his skulls, he was as lost as Sofia.

“[No game ] is out, then. This leaves us with : [Body of champion], which honestly cannot go wrong, I think, but is also not very exciting; [Body of the depths of hell], which might work well with the demon transformation but could also have side effects considering the name; [Sixth melody], which could be almost anything, and [Sigil of the evening] which, huh… Bookie likes.” 

The trio then proceeded to vote for their favorite pick, Sofia voted for [Body of champion], Pareth for [Sixth melody], and Bookie for [Sigil of the evening].

“At least that gets rid of [Body of the depths of hell], I guess. Let’s ask for Mr. Scribe’s opinion.”

The scribe took over Sofia’s mana and the system windows did not take long to come.

[For the active, I suggest using the alteration with one of the curse combinations, but all choices should be fine] Mr. Scribe started.

That sounds like a decent plan.

[The passives are tricky. I strongly advise against using the Body keyword at all. The key is not familiar with the Lumian anatomy and this could result in horrendous errors. I am honestly at a loss on what to pick otherwise.]

Huh… Thanks for your input.

[My pleasure]

“You guys got all that? I’m thinking altered [Greater curse] for the active. Is that fine?”

“You can do whatever you want Sofia! I’m always happy with your decision!” Bookie enthusiastically answered.

Sofia gave him a head pat, “That’s nice but I would like it better if you think about it a bit more and be happy for yourself, not for me, alright?”

“I’m happy for everyone!”

“Alright, alright. Pareth?”

Pareth shrugged.

“That’s one skill decided then. One more skill creation without using [Restore ].” 

You have acquired the active skill : ‘Greater ’

You have acquired the active skill : ‘ curse’

[Please wait]

The dagger is taking care of it so this one might take a while. I can feel my mana starting to churn a little bit. I have grown more sensitive to those internal mana movements it seems. Must be thanks to the heart.

Sofia looked at her two skeletons still sitting in front of her, “Since I picked the active, you get to pick the passive. Tell me when you have decided,” she told them.

“Really?!” Bookie asked, shocked.

“Really really, but you must both agree, alright?”

“Yes!”

“Great, I’m going to check the castle’ exterior to make sure nothing is crumbling, call me when you’re done.”

It only took a few minutes for Sofia to hear Bookie calling out for her from inside, she entered through a window and graveyarded through the floor, landing right on the spot she had been sitting on before. “Made your decision?”

“We choose [Sixth melody]!” Bookie proudly announced.

“Oh? I thought you liked [Sigil of the evening] better, what made you change your mind?”

“I always get all the skeletons so I decided to let brother Pareth get the skill he wants!”

“Very mature of you Bookie, [Sixth melody] it is, then. This might be the most uncertain I’ve ever been about a new skill, but we might just get a good surprise. It’s too bad that the body keyword ended up being too risky to take. AH! The active skill just came in!”

[Aberrant sunlight]: Produce a blast of cursed mana, inflicting mana users hit with the [Curse of Aberrant sunlight], which forces them to focus their attention on the brightest source of light around. You cannot look away.