Chapter 207 - Race : race

I think what I’m most curious about is this, let’s see.

[Skill fusion ticket] : This ticket allows you to fuse any two skills of the same skill category. If no satisfying result is produced, the fusing will not happen and you may try again with another combination. A fused skill is usually not the exact sum of its parts.

Item level : -1.

Grade : Virtual

So I can combine two skills and there’s a probability that effects will be gained or lost is what that means?

There’s a combination that I really want already, but it might be kind of dangerous. Though, there are both relatively simple skills so perhaps… Yeah I don’t think it would go wrong, they could go well together and if any of their current properties disappear the skill would become worthless so I don’t think it would be a ‘satisfying result’.

I could also keep it for later since I have more skills to make. But then, depending on what the result of this is, I may not want to make the same skills later. There’s really no good order to this. I might as well just try, I think.

[Skill fusion ticket (1) is being used to combine ‘Armor of Bones’ and ‘Holy Wings of undeath’, are you sure?]

“It really works despite the wings being a locked skill then… I think I really want this, yeah. The main thing I hope is that the wings become a part of the armor and profit from the fast regeneration. My wings are too vulnerable as is, and they’re important for my mobility. I might even get Zerei’s body enhancement tattoo, I really understand why the Avians all used it… I would have been able to outspeed Victory’s eye tentacles much easier, maybe even the target seeking sword.”

[Skill fusion ticket has been used]

The next system message was in Draconic, Sofia couldn’t read it but since both her skills disappeared, it must have meant the fusion worked. Sofia’s bone wings fell, only the bone directly taking root in her body was still there, and she couldn’t feel her wings any longer. The sensation was disquieting.

Sofia waited for the result with bated breath, in these short instant, she wondered a thousand times if she had been too impatient again, if using this so soon was a mistake. But she was actually pretty confident that she knew what she was doing, just that she could never get rid of the doubt. The fear of missing out on something better. Then a new passive skill came along with yet another unreadable system message. Sofia’s wings didn’t regrow which had her a bit worried.

[Exalted Exoskeleton] ♢ : Praised be the Saintess’ external body of bones, for it is as glorious as it is eternal. It is all yours, use it how you see fit.

Stored bones: 0 / 1 000 000 kg

Sofia almost rolled her eyes at the useless description that resembled the wings’ original one. The only notable change was the two additional zeros in the maximum capacity of the bone storage. Sofia activated the skill and nothing happened, which freaked her out a bit, only to remember that the storage was empty.

She could still cut off the stump of her wings and heal it back to refill it, but that would be too slow, so she just transferred one of the stone ogre bodies she kept in her storage ring to her skill’s storage, she still had three more anyway. She activated the skill again. Much faster than usual, her body was covered in a bright white armor of bones, and the wings were included. Immediately, she noticed two things, first of all, this new fused armor was much more flexible in its usage. Without even using the control from [Bone dominus], she could retract all or parts of it at will and alter the way it looked. But the holy golden glow that usually only covered her deployed wings was now a part of the armor, like an additional layer of protection. But this only activated when she was wearing the complete armor with her helmet closed.

Sofia quickly made a small bone ring and gave it the blessing frome [Bone dominus], then she deactivated the armor, leaving only the wings active, and emptied her bone storage. She now looked exactly like she usually did. Except the small ring’s blessing started healing the missing armor, which it usually didn’t do.

Just like when I used to heal my missing wings with it or [Heal undead] to fill the bone storage. So I still have infinite bones if I just take the time.

“So, the armor is sturdier thanks to the added holy layer, I can now retract my wings with it if I want, it’s easier to reshape the armor, the storage space is larger... And it still has all the properties it used to have?”

Oh, I haven’t checked the repair speed.

After some quick testing, it was still the same improved speed she had gotten from altering [Armor of bones] herself with [Mana manipulation]. Except it now also extends to the wings!

“It’s nothing but improvements AND it freed a skill slot? This is such a great start!”

Sofia had also already had her hands on the rewards from floors 98, 99 and 100, that only left the reward from floor 97 to check out, [The dark orb]. It was the exact same orb that was actually the key of that floor, the one that hid away in the void. Sofia walked up to the table to inspect it.

[The dark orb] : The dark orb is a level 199 golem with the following skills :

‘Invisibility’, ‘Flight’, ‘Mana shield’, ‘Heal’, ‘Mana arrows’, ‘Skull crusher’, ‘Evasion’.

It can be gifted as a guardian and will protect its new owner against attacks.

Will not help the owner if they are the ones initiating the fight, even indirectly.

‘May those who cannot protect themselves be protected’

Item level : 199. Grade : Precious.

Restrictions : Will not protect owners over level 99; requires ambient mana to function.

“That’s a strange reward for such a high floor, something you cannot even use… But I see the utility. Gifting a level 199 autonomous guardian to someone is quite something. I would give that to Chino if I knew where she is… Well, that is nice to have I guess.”

Now, everything else I already know of, the specialization point will be nice but I fear I might have to start learning Draconic for it. I also need to open the gachapon boxes and then get to the best part. The new skills!

Let’s have a look at my whole status page first I guess. A few skills leveled up during the fight with Victory but I didn’t really pay much attention…

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 21

Class : [Saintomancer] ♢

Level : 200 ♢

Health : 20 000 / 20 000

Stamina : 20 067 / 20 067

Mana : 319 100 / 319 100

Main Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]

Alteration chance : 0%

Secondary Specialization : Inactive

Active Skills (6 / 8)

[Spine of the Black Sun] - Level 200

[Heal Undead] - Level 71

[Summon Blood] - Level 200

[Maiden Banshee] - Level 200 (Lv.200)

[Graveyard of the righteous] - Level 200

[False immortality] - Level 3

Passive Skills (5 / 8)

[Blessing of the Deep] - (2/4)

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] ♢

[Exalted Exoskeleton] ♢

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - Doors of the Light forging realm

[Bone dominus] - Level 2

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] ♢

Special Skills (1)

[The Book of Skeletons] ♢

Summoned heroes (3 / 4)

• Lv.200 Pareth (Dormant Soul)
• Lv.200 Alith (Alith)
• Lv.200 Book of Skeletons (Book)

[Mark of Aphenoreth]

Three hundred thousand mana. Now this is starting to really look like something!

The level 199 skills all leveled up as usual, [Way of the Fool] and [Sprint] went up during floor 100. Oh, and [Heal Undead] as well. There’s already a line for Secondary Specialization even though I haven’t used the point yet, interesting. And so many free skill slots!

Alith got her level 200 too!

But… Alith (Alith)? That used to say ‘Maiden Banshee’. Is Alith’s new race that Sen made to fix her issues… The Alith race?!

Sofia couldn’t help but giggle at the idea. “Alith the Alith.”

She laughed out loud, “Come on, Sen, you could have at least tried, hahaha.” And I also got back the ten thousand mana from her, which is nice. I no longer have any external factor reducing my mana.

Also, the stats I get for every level look pitiful now. Five heal, five stamina and five hundred mana. That’s basically nothing at this point. This is where class evolutions come in I think.

Except I got none? And Orvod was a level 299 Stonemason too. Maybe class evolutions mostly happen after level 300? But can I even get one? My class isn’t really normal. Also I don’t think the Saint class can evolve, right? Many questions…

“Well. I will open the boxes last I think. They’re just not too important, chances are there won’t be anything good coming from them anyway. The specialization is classless. I don’t really know what I should do with it. Maybe [Mana manipulation] or [Sanctity]? Let’s do the easier part first, class skills.”

‘New available skills have been altered by your specialization! (won 100% probability check)’

Available Active Skills :

• [ command] : soul that none can resist.
• [Restore ] : Infuse the target with mana to
• [Ritual skulls of ] : ERROR
• [ penumbra] : ERROR

Sofia stared at the new keywords for a while, wondering what she could possibly do with these. The specialization had done its job, whatever ritual related Saint skill she could have now had a skull in it, and the necromancer part would have probably been shadow related, she thought, which had been replaced by ‘penumbra’.

She didn’t know what penumbra meant exactly but she knew it was related to shadows and solar eclipses. The issue was, she couldn’t really see what this could do for her. She had used the keyword ‘Shadow’ previously, but that was for a passive skill. Even if I think of penumbra as meaning shadow, which I think is inaccurate, then what? Restore shadow? Ritual skulls of shadow? I don’t know…

I could try [Restore penumbra] and [Ritual skulls of command] maybe ? Or go by what the master said, pick [Restore command] which is a safe choice, and then try [Ritual skulls of penumbra]. All the three word combinations are really weird this time. I don’t want any of them.

And of course I can just wait for more keywords. That will be a while though. If we follow the usual order, level 210 is more passives, so I need to go to 220 for new active keywords.

But I already have a twenty level debt from using the demon form twice, and I will likely pick up more debt through the specialization. The next active keywords could take forever to come, and all that time, I’ll be weaker than I should be because I didn’t pick anything.

I’ll have a look at the new passives first and then decide…