Chapter 474 - Skeleton Prime

Clint got up from his desk, shaking his head. Nope, no way. I can’t make it any better than it already is. The shape is a bit unusual but you’ll have to live with it. He said, putting Sofia’s mana heart back onto the stassis pedestal.

“Alright then. Time for Pareth to get his level up?” Sofia asked.

Guess so. We’re done with everything else. Hmm… Actually, it would be better if he could be in a skeleton more closely following the shape of his soul.

“Hmm… We can do that, you’re fine with changing now, Pareth?”

Pareth nodded silently. Sofia knew well what his soul looked like, it was shaped just like a human soul, a vaguely humanoid blurry form, which stretched to accommodate whatever skeleton he inhabited. It looked most normal when he was in a regular human skeleton. Without fanfare, Sofia brought out a crate filled with human bones, Pareth’s original skeleton. “This was his first ever skeleton, his soul is shaped like it, pretty much, can’t do better than that,” she explained while she also took out the smallest of her pre-made Pareth ritual circles.

That’s perfect. Clint approved, Knowledge’s rune, huh? Explains how you got your hands on an essence of his. Hoy, you listening, you cunning old bastard? You still owe me for last time, you better be ready when Lina comes for you.

There was no answer.

“Is He ignoring you?” Sofia asked after a painfully long silence.

Seems so. If I didn’t know him so well he’d be first on the list of suspects for the recent mess, but there’s no way. If anything, he’s probably been trying to stop it without telling anyone. Clint rambled on, explaining how Knowledge was one of the most active Gods on the physical plane despite never coming down in person.

Pareth finally switched skeletons, and Clint had comments for that too.

See what I mean. Instant response, the old fucker didn’t even hesitate to activate the magic for you. If you ever find an old half-erased ritual circle, just draw his damn rune in there and chances are he’ll be trying to restore it without you even asking.

“Good to know… And it makes sense… Originally it was Scripture who designed this ritual circle, though it wasn’t nearly as clean at the start, but Knowledge still activated it for me back then despite me being a literal nobody orphan.”

He just can’t escape his curiosity like I can’t escape making things. In that way, us gods are a bit predictable.

“I can see this,” Sofia agreed, “but somehow the Recessed feel a bit different.”

No, they’re just the same, any perceived difference would be just due to how much harder it is for them to reach the physical plane. Speaking of which, I hope Sorrow won’t be annoying when I tinker with the stuff in there. But that’s for later, since everything is ready, let’s get started with the skeleton!

Clint led the group to another place under his forge, deeper within the planet, where a teleportation ritual circle was waiting for them. It took them somewhere else, into a large spherical chamber with mithril walls, in which they all floated like it was outer space.

Multiple openings led into the sphere, which Sofia recognized as being the same thing she had laid down under when Sen had upgraded her to level 200, so to say, these were the bottom of the system’s trial towers. Besides that, the sphere was entirely empty.

“Are we still on Cerberus beta?” Sofia asked.

Indeed, we are within the planet’s core. Outside these mithril walls is a sea of magma like a miniature sun. The bearded God explained. This is where the reforging takes place. You should be fine to spectate as long as you don’t get in the way of the mana flow.

“Understood.”

Sofia caught Bookie’s hand and flew to the border of the sphere, with her back against the curved Mithril walls. She observed as Clint placed Pareth at the very center of the sphere and locked him in place with mana. 

A smith hammer of pure mana condensed into Creation’s hand, and hundreds or ritual circles drawn in light started slowly writing themselves in the air around Pareth.

A see-through shield of mana also appeared around Sofia and Bookie, isolating them from the rest of the chamber while more and more ritual circles appeared around Pareth.

You ready, boy? Relax and let the mana work its way through you. Clint said as he placed the refined mana heart in front of Pareth’s sternum and raised his hammer. His arm’s muscles tightened, they oozed with mana, enough that it was visible with the naked eye.  

One of the openings in the walls fired a deluge of Mana at Pareth from above, and simultaneously, the hammer came down, warping reality around it, and striking the mana heart dead on. The resulting shockwave shook Sofia and Bookie even with the shield’s protection, and two thirds of Pareth’s skeleton were blown to smithereens, leaving only a part of his skull and his legs down from the knees unscathed. The broken and scattered bones then snapped back into place before they could hit the walls of the chamber, like they were brought back in time to their original position.

The mana heart still looked the same, floating in front of Pareth, but its presence felt ever so slightly stronger.

The ritual circles around Pareth shifted in space, arranging themselves in another configuration, and after adjusting his position, Creation raised his hammer of mana again.

Pareth’s bones disappeared and reappeared with Creation’s hits. Sometimes his entire skeleton would get blown away, leaving only the mana heart behind until the bones reformed. Sofia could tell that Pareth was feeling alright despite the grim display, so she simply let the God work.

The mana heart’s presence grew stronger and stronger until Sofia started to understand what was really happening, as the mana heart was pushed into Pareth’s being, it was Knowledge’s essence which was being pushed out. It was Sofia’s first time witnessing a Divine essence directly influencing the physical realm. It brimmed with a power that felt like mana but was not, and Sofia could distinctly see the mana around it get warped and bent until it drew millions of copies of Knowledge’s rune. Even within her own body, Sofia could feel her mana shake, it resonated with the essence, escaping her control and forming clumps resembling the divine rune. It was too much for Bookie who hid back inside of Sofia’s soul.

The hammering continued until it was hard to even see anything anymore, as Sofia’s field of view even warped to take the shape of the geometrical divine rune, and everything started to look like triangles.

Creation was the only thing nearby which remained clear to see, and, as the amount of mana in the chamber increased tenfold all of a sudden, he raised his hammer once again.

And!

His hammer struck down.

We!

The hammer was brought back up and slammed again. 

Are!

The hammer struck too fast for Sofia to see.

FINISHED!

A violent explosion of mana pinned Sofia against the Mithril wall, she could not move through the deluge of magical energy which was so mind-boggling powerful it pushed straight through herself and even the mana-resistant Mithril, escaping the chamber and propagating through the planet. Despite being slightly disoriented, Sofia was completely unharmed. And her vision started to slowly come back to normal.

Knowledge’s divine essence had disappeared.

Pareth floated immobile in the middle of the spherical chamber, with no mana in his bones, and his mana heart hovering silently inside of his chest.

Clint dismissed his hammer, a joyous look on his face.

Congratulations, boy. Welcome to the second half.

Pareth’s mana heart slowly filled up with mana, and the skeleton started moving. His head turned, the empty eye sockets looking straight at Sofia. They lit up with holy flames.

Sofia smiled.

Without her input, the status page she had handcrafted for Pareth opened in the corner of her vision, and it started updating by itself. Mr. Scribe was hard to work. It seemed that with his upgrade to Tier three, he could now properly manage Pareth’s stats.

Name : Pareth

Age : 5

Class : [Holy Eclipse Skeleton]

Mana heart : SSS rank

Level :  250 ♢

Base Health : 517 012

Base Stamina : 63 622

Base Mana : 429 366

Current Health : Please update skeleton

Current Stamina : Please update skeleton

Current Mana : 3435 / 429 366 (Regeneration: 0.16% = 687/s)

Signature Skill (SSS)

[Chimeric armaments]

Soul slots:

Weapons (EMPTY; no ability)

Armor (EMPTY; no ability)

Shields (EMPTY; no ability)

Mana Heart Abilities (5)

[Sunless Pulse] SSS Rank

[Relocate Core] SSS Rank

[Arclight] SSS Rank

[Slashing Resistance]

[Blunt Resistance]

Active Skills (6)

[Sanctified grounds]

[Flying shields of light]

[Chains of the four seals]

[Gravity well]

[Purification]

[Greater Heal]

Passive Skills (6)

[Stellar corona]

[Shapeless weapon of light]

[Shapeless armor of light]

[Higher magical damage negation]

[Space magic resilience]

[Displacement skills immunity]

Special skills (5+1)

[Bone Density Up +200%]

[Silent Bones +200%]

[Teleport to Sofia]

[Negate hits of less than 10% Max Health]

[Quadruple Damage Against Undead]

__________________________________

[Draconic Shapeshifting] Lv.1

Summoner’s skills (5)

[Blessing of the Deep]

[Soul link]

[Shared senses]

[Bone Dominus : Blessed Construct (Currently Inactive)]

[Runeforged Overlord Aura (Currently Tier 1)]

Classless Skills (0 / 5)

Enchantments (3)

[Generosity of Sun (Currently Inactive)]

[Avian magic : Fighting sense (Currently Inactive)]

[Avian magic : Air steps (Currently Inactive)]

[Higher Blessing of bloating]

[Mark of Aphenoreth]

[Best Skeleton ♡]

Sofia read through the updating status sheet with satisfaction until her eyes reached one of the last few lines.

You unlocked Classless skills?!!!!