Chapter 209 - Digging for Gold

So this is my situation :

Classless Skills (6 / 9)

[Fast reading] - Level 55

[Way of the Fool] - Level 21

[Sprint] - Level 38

[Identify] - Level 2

[Sanctity] - Level 100

[Mana manipulation] ♢

[Sanctity] is fully leveled and it might actually be my only specialization option with [Mana manipulation]. Because I know there was a proficiency component mentioned last time for Pareth’s specialization. But then, maybe [Way of the Fool] might work too, and it would finish leveling it up too, which would be nice considering how slowly it’s been rising.

“Then I always have the option to pick up and train a new classless to specialize in it.”

Before anything else, Sofia identified the specialization point. Since it already showed a ‘secondary specialization’ line on her status, she thought this one might work differently.

[Skill specialization point (Classless)] : This reward for an exceptional trial performance is not to be used lightly. This will be your second specialization. Use it to permanently imprint a known classless skill in your physical body where it will develop as you level up.

The chosen specialization will slightly influence future stat growth.

Item level : -1.

Grade : Virtual

“That answers my question about stat growth. It looks like there’s more to it than class evolutions. That changes things a bit.”

The fact that her choice there would influence her stat growth meant a few things. First of all, she would want one that gave more mana. But also, the more she waited to take it, the more level up stats she wasted.

The stat growth distribution will be more about the chosen Path and not the actual base skill I suppose, since that’s how the skill influence part of the first specialization worked. So it’s really important to not only pick a good Path but also one that’s likely to give the wanted stats…

I’ll do that when I’m done picking the other classless. I have three slots, but the specialization will free one, and [Sprint] could go if there’s something better, but I need to be sure to have a way to be mobile when the wings don’t work.

“Alright, Mr Scribe. Please show me a list of all the available classless skills.”

[Please wait.]

Sofia did wait for about ten seconds before she frowned at how long it was taking and decided to tackle the book on Draconic again. It took more than an hour for the results to come.

“Lords…”

Facing Sofia was not a system notification or a list. It was a wall. An unending sea of options, not only that, some were in Draconic. How am I meant to do anything with this? I really hope Sen didn’t count on me coming out of the room anytime soon…

It took Sofia an excruciatingly long time to go over all the options, just progressing enough through the book on Draconic to begin to translate the skills took multiple days. During that lapse of time, she also discovered that she could filter the list by asking things like ‘only show the Saint exclusive classless skills’ of which [Sanctity] was an example.

Another standout thing was her comprehension being good enough to have an idea of what her new passive skill’s name was. She was still uncertain, but she understood that the overall meaning was something like ‘forbidden wind’ or ‘banished breath’. It was hard to really tell as the Draconic ‘words’ had many significations that seemed to change depending on sentence structure and context.

After a lot of cutting down the skills she couldn’t use, Sofia was left with only a handful of really good ones to try and pick four or five from. The decision was harder than expected, not because of the abundance of choice, but because most of the powerful classless skills were locked skills that she would be stuck with if she picked them.

Of the bunch, there were two uncertain ones that were in Draconic but seemed to have correct effects if Sofia's translations were somewhat accurate.

These two were :

[Lifting] : Create currents easy magic speed 5% (5*Skill level).

[Pretentious armor] ♢  : If will survive external scales sturdy hurting diffuse 10% (10*skill level)

Sofia’s understanding of these was that ‘Lifting’ gave flying speed and ‘Pretentious armor’ spread the damage of enemy attacks through the armor so that it doesn’t break as easily. Maybe. If this is what they do, they’re worth considering. But it’s hard to tell right now.

Deciding that it was better to stay away from these gambles for now, she went through her whole curated list of possibilities again.

[Zealot] : Deal 25% more and receive 25% less damage when enacting the orders of your God.

This one could help against Scripture as long as Orator is recognized as a God, which isn’t too far fetched. Still, it’s not incredible or very versatile, but it could be good still, especially if I get another Deep quest, after all, [Blessing of the Deep] still says (2/4).

[Radiance] : Healing dealt and received +0.5% (0.5%*skill level).

Straightforward, not so useful for [Heal Undead] because of how it scales but the synergy with the blessed constructs of [Bone dominus] is nice. With this skill at level 100 they would each heal for 1% health per second instead of 0.5%. Dominus is already level 2, if I can get it up to three or four and start getting as much passive healing it’s going to be a lot. If Pareth could have healed faster against Victory the fight would have been very different. Also should work on potions and healing candy so that’s a plus.

[Death resistance] ♢ : When under 5% health, take 99% reduced passive damage.

This one if I understand correctly means that I can’t die from being cursed, standing in fire, bleeding out, being poisoned, all the things like that which would be counted ‘passive damage’. It synergizes very well with the first passive from VPPV which can leave me at low health like that, but I’m not too sure about this one since the system refuses to give any precision on what ‘Passive damage’ really is. Also it’s locked which is a bit annoying.

[Sniper] : You are 1% harder to see for every 10 meters between you and the observer.

One of the best ones I think, especially with the precision range of the charged Angel bolts. If I fly high enough it would make me almost invisible to those on the ground even with the big glowy wings.

Sofia’s only issue with this skill was the strange name, part of the ‘Poker face’ line of classless skills with names that meant nothing.

[Meditation] : You may now gain skill experience through meditation by intensively envisioning yourself using the skills.

This was a bit of a weirder one that Sofia already knew of, it wasn’t too bad, allowing to train some skills without the usual mana consumption or other side effects like creating lakes of blood. It was good to have to make the most of the downtime when regenerating mana, but it also kind of felt like a wasted slot in combat.

[Sculpting] : You are 5% (5*skill level) faster and more precise at sculpting and producing handmade art.

Utility to make better objects through [Bone dominus], should also help at ‘sculpting’ my wings and armor I think, and at ‘sculpting’ the enemies bones if I can touch them. All in all, not bad. Does channeling an Angel’s bolt count as sculpting it? It’s basically giving it form so… It could also be called handmade art if you stretch the definition a bit…

And for what it’s worth it probably works with drawing rituals too.

[Unrelenting] : Your movements are 90% less affected by pain and status effects.

Basically the Health related variant to Zerei’s [Tireless], and no need to level it up. This one never showed up before so it must be hard to unlock.

[Crystalized] ♢ : Your body will slowly produce mana pearls (Growth speed linked to mana regeneration), which can be used as ritual fuel or eaten to provide a temporary 100% bonus to thinking speed.

This was maybe the weirder one of the bunch, but its scaling with mana regeneration and the huge ‘thinking speed’ bonus it could give made it hard to ignore. Where and how will the pearls be produced is the big question. I feel like this should be part of the description… Also how big do they get? Do they need to be manually ‘harvested’? No matter how I think of it, it sounds gross. I can’t help but imagine the worst. AND IT IS LOCKED. WHY?!

[Shining] : The light created by your skills is 1% (1*skill level) brighter.

Not much to say about this one, I don’t think I’ll take it. But with my new passive skill, it could be good, that’s essentially a range extension, which is why I kept it…

It would also make the Angel bolts unbearably brighter than they already are. Which would make aiming with them quite hard… Alright, not this one…

[Safekeeping] : Objects infused with your mana are sturdier.

Again, not much to say, the worth of this depends on the level of sturdiness. Technically my armor and all my skeletons can be treated as objects, and they already have my mana too. So depending on how this applies, this might actually be the strongest choice out of everything I’ve found. Such an unassuming name for a potentially incredible effect.

[Evasion] : While moving out of the way of attacks or projectiles, gain a temporary bonus of 1% (skill level) movement and reaction speed.

It doesn’t go quite as high as [Sprint] but they can compound when I’m on the ground and it also works while I’m flying. Also if I take [Crystalized], and taking [Way of the fool] into account, it would start to be a lot of brain power when all stacked together. And being able to quickly process more information in combat is really helpful, not just for dodging but also to strategize and direct the skeletons. So nothing fancy here, but I think it’s really good.

That leaves two more to consider, these ones are really powerful.