Chapter 478 - Fuck around and find out

Author note:

Hi!

I know this is going against the plans I made before, but this is the final chapter before my break. I'm taking one extra day off because I got the good ol' covid yet again, and just writing this chapter took me twice the usual time (yay for fever).

This means next chapter will be on July 1st (｀• ω •´)b

Also, I really want to write an extra chapter, so one of july's first week's chapters will be replaced by an extra, but you guys will get to decide what it'll be (Check out the other post that'll be up a few minutes after the chapter goes online).

I decided to spread the post trial power-up recap chapters a bit more into the next arc this time, I hope you don't mind.

This being said, imma go take more paracetamol and some coffee to see if I can survive until dinner.

Sorry for the rant, fever is getting to me I think,

Happy reading, and stay healthy (｀• ω •´)b

While Sofia debated on whether to take the [Arrogant young master] sub-class or not in her mind, she saw the system windows disappear.

Mr. Scribe?

[Do not take it.]

Oh? Did you get some sort of insight on this sub-class?

[No, but I found a vulnerability.]

A vulnerability?

[The data within the dagger is protected and I cannot access it except by following your choices, but I can still catch a glance at the active processes. So we can cheat.]

Wait, really? Can you just give me a good class, then?

[It’s not that simple. The classes of the Diversify category are actually all pre-generated, but they are encrypted. What makes it take so long to show the options is the decryption, but one of the things I have figured out from this reroll is that the classes are sorted in an order called ‘rarity’, and we are given a group of three sub-classes that follow each other in the list.]

Interesting. So the third choice from each set is always the strongest?

[If we believe that rarity is indicative of strength, then yes.]

So do I just reroll again and pick whatever the third choice is?

[No, the thing I need you to do is to think of the word ‘Reroll’, then pause, then do it again, but without actually selecting the option.]

I can do that but how is that supposed to help?

[It would be too long to explain in detail, but a lot of the system’s randomness is time-based. By doing this, I may be able to figure out how the dagger picks the sub-classes to be decrypted, and we can force our way to the highest rarity ones.]

I am liking this idea. How long do I need to do that for?

[However long it takes me to reverse-engineer the picking process.]

Alright, I trust your judgment. Just tell me when to stop.

Reroll.

Reroll.

Reroll.

Reroll.

Reroll.

Reroll…

Suddenly all the system windows disappeared. 

[I have figured it out. We can try to aim for the rarest sub-class. But it is a risky gamble.]

How so?

[There are three hundred sub-classes in the ‘Diversify-Tank-Wall’ list. The sub-class selector goes down the list by one sub-class every hundredth of a second. This effectively means that to get the rarest sub-class, you need to initiate the reroll in one of the correct 3 hundredth of a second when the selector is at the end of the list, and if you miss by even the tiniest margin, we will be stuck with three choices from the worst options of the top of the list.]

Can you help me get the timing right?

[My presence as I am right now causes a delay in information transmission. It will take a bit for me to adjust, but I can give you a timer that blinks at the correct time every three seconds. When you’re ready, I will switch back, and you need to reroll precisely three seconds after the timer disappears.]

Alright, thank you for your hard work. That does not sound terribly hard. Let’s train for a while, though. If you can just make the timer disappear but stay here and tell me how close I am to the correct timing. I’m sure after a bit of training I can hit three seconds consistently.

[We can do that.]

Getting three seconds on the dot was harder than it seemed. At the start, Sofia was not even close, and she had to train for several hours before things started to look even remotely consistent.

After a lot of effort, she managed to get within a consistent tenth of a second of the three seconds mark every single time she tried, but it was still far from the three hundredths she had to aim for.

Eventually, she got to the point where she hit the golden zone of the last three hundredths of a second before three seconds about thirty percent of the time. And from there, she kept pushing.

But improvement stopped abruptly. She had hit her limit, a precision in the range of about seven hundredths of a second. By aiming for three seconds exactly, Mr Scribe’s timer would always stop in between 2.97 and 3.03.

Well. I tried my best. Let’s stop here, we’re just wasting time. Since I can’t seem to be consistently more precise than that, I just have to aim to reroll slightly earlier. Yeah. The aim is to hit 2.97. This way, even if I’m the entire 0.03 seconds late, I will still get the rarest sub-class along with the two least rares. And I can be up to 0.03 seconds early, meaning that in the worst case I get classes 294 to 297 and don’t get to see the three rarest ones.

This is fine. I’m fine with those odds. I get a rare sub-class no matter what.

Give me the timer, Mr. Scribe. I’m ready.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Mr. Scribe’s dialogue windows disappeared, and the sub-class choice windows reappeared. In her head, Sofia counted. 

One.

Two.

REROLL!

Did I get it?

Once again, the system was frozen. Sofia now knew that it was because of the data decryption, whatever that exactly meant. And all she could do now was just to wait again. The Scribe was the only one who knew whether she hit the correct timing or not, and he was unable to communicate until the decryption was over.

What if I messed up more?

It’s going to be so bad if I was just a little too late an end up with the three worse options of the entire list…

I trained a lot, it should be fine… Hopefully…

Finally, the system windows unfroze.

Here we go…

Holy shit!

I didn’t miss!

I didn’t miss at all!

Choice 7:

[Guardian of heaven’s gate]: The guardian of heaven’s gate shrugs off attacks by redirecting them to the other planes of reality.

Choice 8:

[Rune Warden]: The rune warden can create rune-enhanced mana shields to automatically defend him from blows from all sides.

Choice 9:

[False Lord]: Description missing

Fuck.

To think I even considered taking [Arrogant young master]!

[Guardian of heaven’s gate] and [Rune Warden] both sound incredibly stronger than all the choices I had before. No wonder my previous sets were so bad! 

But… False Lord?

For the description to be missing… That’s quite fitting, isn’t it? The issue is, I have no idea what kind of skill this will get me.

Even then; can I still call myself Sofia Aphenoreth if I don’t take this?

And it’s the rarest sub-class of the list, right?

I won’t even be mad if it’s a scam, just getting to see this class name in my status sheet is worth the effort it took to get there.

If Archangels can be false Gods.

I can be a false Lord!

[WARNING!]

[The False Lord Sub-Class is incomplete]

That’s a cute warning. Don’t care! Give it to me!

[WARNING!]

[This Sub-Class is not intended for player use, please pick another option]

This dagger is stubborn, huh. Mr. Scribe would never argue back against my decisions.

If you didn’t want me to pick it, why did you let me have the option?

This is only making me want it more. You’re only confirming that this is exactly what I think it is, and I’m all for it.

Give me the Sub-Class.

[WARNING!]

[This Sub-Class’ skills may be unusable or unsuitable for player’s continued existence. Please reconsider]

GIVE. ME. THE. DAMN. SUB-CLASS; DAGGER!

[Congratulations, you have unlocked the sub-class : False Lord!]

[Setting sub-class to : False Lord]

[A new skill is available]

[A new class quest is available]

Status sheet! Hide all the useless shit!

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 21 ♢

Class : [Saintomancer] ♢

Sub-Class : [False Lord] ♢

Level :  250 ♢

Remaining possible skill slots : 4 

False Lord Skills (0 / 0)

Give it one slot and show me the skill!

Remaining possible skill slots : 3 

False Lord Skills (0 / 1)

Available Sub-Class Passive Skills :

• [Singularity edict] : Any one attack can only damage you once.

Sofia accepted the skill without a second thought.

You have acquired the passive : ‘Singularity edict’

With the skill came a burning feeling. Sofia had not been able to feel her body at all during the time she spent in the silent dark void, but somehow the new skill helped her regain some sensations. She started to see short glimpses of meaningless color.

Is my vision coming back?

Are we getting out of the distorted time thing already?

I haven’t even had time to look at my new keywords.

Colors merged together, and Sofia’s vision became completely white. She could feel Pareth next to her, even without seeing him, she extended a hand, and she caught his arm. This simple physical contact gave her confidence that everything was alright.

I can sense my mana! Fina-

Sofia collided with the ground face first. The sounds on clanking bones next to her hinting that Pareth had suffered the same fate.

What the…

The ground was hard, cold and uneven, yet it seemed Sofia was embedded in it as if she’d fallen in snow. With a push-up motion, she unstuck herself from the ground. Pareth was next to her, also struggling to work his way out of an even deeper Pareth-shaped hole.

“Just teleport to me, you dummy.”

Pareth did so, appearing next to Sofia, his skeleton sized down to be right about her height. Bookie came out, standing on Sofia’s other side, he looked around.

“Where are we?” he asked innocently.

Sofia’s gaze lost itself on the red mist permeating the strange cavern-like structure they had appeared inside of. There were a few large snail-like creatures on the walls. Their iridescent shells reflected a multitude of colors in a hypnotizing show of glittering lights.

“When the time comes, seek my name…” Sofia mumbled. 

Did Sun know this was going to happen? If anything could make her panic, this might actually do it. Richard must be fuming that she pulled him out, though. 

She gave Bookie’s skull a few pats, “I think… We’re going to go pay your Uncle a visit.”