Sofia wiped her tears again, alone in a changing room her smile wouldn’t leave her face as she struggled to get in the stretchy black combination.
Zephir had explained that due to the caster’s limitations, she would only be able to take one item with her inside the simulation, and storage items wouldn’t work. Sofia could actually take off the crown of victory as long as it was kept no more than a few meters away. She chose to take her scepter, as it was her most versatile item. Th...
2023-09-05 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“Can I see Saria? Is she here?!” Sofia pressed the sweating dragon for answers.
“Uh… Yes… but not really. You can see her, and she’s here but… Hmm… You see…”
“Get to the point kid.”
Zephir was looking for a way out, but there was none, he reluctantly gave up, “Argh whatever, what are my secrets worth anyway… She’s much further down, come, I’ll explain on the way,”
“What have you done to the girl, Zephir?”
“I’ll explain ev...
2023-09-04 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Sofia followed Erredis through the paved roads and stairs of the Obsidian Mountain Sect. Most people looked curious about their identity, but seeing the entry permits around their necks, no one stopped them.
“Are you just walking randomly?” Sofia asked after a while when they were on a path with no one else in the vicinity.
“Not really? The entry point inside the mountain with the most guards is at the top of the mountain, so that felt like a good place to start.”
...
2023-09-03 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Erredis flew around the planet, drawing a wide curve in the sky to join the sunlit side and quickly coming closer to the surface. Sofia felt a surge of heat as the sky turned from black to blue, but the sensation was instantly drowned out by the Dragon’s mana. Before she could reflect on what happened, they touched ground, Erredis stopping almost instantly and landing against the flank of the highest mountain Sofia had ever seen.
Looks like you held out well. The ruffian w...
2023-09-02 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“Hmm…”
Sofia contemplated her options, she quickly decided that since what she wanted first and foremost was protection for the bolts, she wouldn’t settle on a low grade resistance, no matter the bonus.
Then the question was, S grade resistance with a random bonus and enchantments, or SS+ resistance with nothing on it.
What are the chances that I’ll outpace the resistance of the S grade? It’s still a Dragon’s scale. Even the lowest grade would probably last...
2023-09-01 16:00:19 +0000 UTC
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“Anything, you say? I admire your enthusiasm but you shouldn't say such things. But no matter, here are my conditions. First of all, on your next encounter with the verbose lord, ask them about the location of the fissure. They will know what you mean, just say that I’m the one asking. I want to know where it is. Good so far?”
“I can try, if he gives me enough time to ask. But I cannot guarantee Orator will give an answer.”
“It goes without saying.” Erredis approved,...
2023-08-31 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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“Didn’t you say you had birds? It has to be birds, then. The Health scaling is something but the reliability of an attack that will never miss is often preferable.”
“Birds it is, then.”
Sofia summoned the book and grabbed the first page that appeared when she opened it, without even looking. As the mana entered the book, fog started spreading over the floor of the castle’s courtyard.
Erredis looked with curiosity, “This book hero of yours really is an anomaly....
2023-08-30 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Unnatural heat formed inside of Sofia’s body. The packets of mana she had spread throughout her body were condensing, reshaping into something new. The heat rose higher and higher, until something changed. Sofia felt a sudden jolt of pain stemming from her heart, and with it came light. From within her chest, bright white light like the sun shone through her flesh and skin, inundating the surroundings. Then, like a sudden migraine, two jolts of pure pain through her skull sent Sofia reeling...
2023-08-29 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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So… A few hundred plant monsters for Alith, and I don’t know how many thousand spirits all with different names for Ihuarah. These three should be our dungeon bosses I think.
‘You have defeated [Bloomstalk Hydra - lv. 249]’
‘You have defeated [Ormoncleth’s Envoy - lv. ???]’
‘You have defeated [Knight of the mirror - lv. 249]’
Looks like Alith was fastest and I w...
2023-08-28 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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“Are you good to go?” Erredis asked with joyous impatience.
“Ah, uh, kind of? Actually I was hoping to get an hour or two to sort out all the system notifications I received when leaving scribe-only mode and get my reward for the quest…”
“Oh right, Sun sent you on one of her fool’s errands. What did she promise you that you ended up crashing here in the end?”
“Five divine essences.”
Erredis froze, then burst out in a roaring laughter “FIVE?! You g...
2023-08-27 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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“What do you mean you DROWNED IT?! Stop, stop, you’re gonna give this weak old lady a heart attack!”
“Well hey, at least I would become a Dragon slayer for real. It would be an honor. I promise to give you a nice and comfortable afterlife inside Bookie. So anyway, I finished first, do you already know what the last floor is?”
“Killing me off already? I’ll have you learn I have three perfectly healthy hearts, so I’ll be fine even if you burst one. And yes I know, bu...
2023-08-26 16:00:06 +0000 UTC
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Erredis’ chair creaked as she patiently waited for Sofia to [Identify] the item.
[Saint’s envy] : A Saint’s life is impractical. Halves the Saint's weight and prevents accidental destruction of furniture. Part of a seven piece set.
Item level : 140. Grade : Ancient.
Sofia blinked several times as she tried to process the information she just got.
First of all, she found the item’s effect ridiculous. Then she was convinced she a...
2023-08-25 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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The ‘moving thing’ closed-in extremely fast. Too fast for Sofia to do anything, but Pareth was out, his weapon ready. Not that he could have done anything against someone with that kind of speed, but he tried.
Human? No… Rabbit beast-lady?
The elegant woman that just appeared had white bunny ears just like guildmaster Kuli, and that was about where the comparison stopped. Though a bit shorter than Sofia, the woman also had significant curves, highlighted by her silk...
2023-08-24 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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It took Sofia a good while to locate her planet again, it was barely visible even with her unnaturally excellent eyesight, and she had to thank Aphenoreth for showing it to her before, or she wouldn’t even have known what to look for. With her mana regeneration being only a quarter of what it would be in an environment with mana, a full refill took a bit more than an hour, so every hour, she would use her wings again, and go further from the sun in the direction of the planet. That was the ...
2023-08-23 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The archangel sent me to the broken part of the temple that was orbiting the sun from further away…
What about them? The whale?
I should worry about myself first. How’s the quest?
Still not completed… Come on, this is the last remaining part of the temple, does that not make it count? I only needed to get rid of all the monsters. Unless there’s more parasites here? I’ll have to check this whole pyramid… whenever my mana decides to c...
2023-08-22 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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In the center of the room throned an imposing mechanical pillar of gold and steel which held at its top a glass ball the size of a small hut, covered in golden tracks. The emissary of the Deep had been covering it with its body until now.
Inside was a presence that Sofia recognized. As the rune rebuilt her body, she observed the being through Pareth’s eyes.
An Archangel.
The blurry humanoid figure made of blue electricity floated inside of the sphere. Its appearan...
2023-08-21 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Author's note:
The title is as much the chapter's summary as it is how I feel after writing it.
Have fun reading, I really hope you'll like this one ;)
Every skeleton in place. Bring out the dummies.
The graveyard skeletons had spread around, they were in every wall of the room, with half of them in the ceiling. On Sofia’s signal, th...
2023-08-20 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Sofia had to stop herself from phasing down into the unknown room.
Her blood boiled but her brain battered her with the image of the orphanage and the paladins. The murder list. The Templar dying at her hand in incomprehension.
The situation was different but the root of the problem was the same, she had to keep her calm in situations like these. Tone down her emotions not to make a fatal mistake. To avoid doing things she would regret, were she still able to.
She was going ...
2023-08-19 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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There was a survivor?
That wasn’t in the contract. Did an elf survive here alone for three thousand fucking years?
Are we doing a Zerei volume 2? I’ve had enough of this crap once! What is it with people surviving in shitty places every time? Seriously, every single damn time! The dread apostle, the dominion apostles, Zerei… That’s a lot of demons actually.
Urgh. Fine. I’ll go save whoever again. It’s only been lucrative ventures so...
2023-08-18 16:00:12 +0000 UTC
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‘Doors module models’.
Well, that’s it for the western building then. Only the center left.
Before finally entering the main temple, Sofia still had two things to do, first she had to check the broken walkway to the missing south building. At first her theory had been that it might have been destroyed by the parasites, but upon closer inspection, it did not look like that was the case. The break on the walkway was a straight line where it seemed to have bee...
2023-08-17 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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The shrinking ball of rot shook once. Then twice, then thrice, and finally, it imploded, collapsing on itself. The shrunken rot consumed its remaining matter in the blink of an eye, leaving behind only a small puff of carbon powder.
One down! Sofia was overjoyed. She smiled at Pareth who had landed below her.
Then she ran out of mana and fell like a bag of sand. Right. Forgot about that.
She expected to hit the ground, which wouldn’t hurt her that much an...
2023-08-16 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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The throwables are ready.
Sofia was already taking a liking to the engineer skeleton. She could just give him a bunch of bones and random crap from her storage ring and he would make useful items out of it in a few minutes. It seemed the items made like this were limited to non-magical but this was already great. Right now she was playing with her eight shade-dust-balls. Now I just have to throw it at the thing and it’ll be covered in dust. Then I blast it with the light....
2023-08-15 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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26 days remaining…
Sofia was having a hard time, forcing the monster out of the elf’s body had been a mistake. Before then, it was still quite slow when it walked, and predictable, it used to follow the rat Sofia used as a lure without fail. Now its behavior had completely changed. It had never stepped into the trapped room again, and didn’t follow the rat. Instead, it ran around the corridors, fleeting from hiding spot to hiding spot. It was impossible to keep track of i...
2023-08-14 16:00:10 +0000 UTC
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Sofia was still at the door of the walkway. She had been staring at the sun until her eyes started to hurt, which wasn’t too long, but the Deep whale hadn’t resurfaced.
Maybe I saw wrong. Ahah.
Let’s just say that I did… I need to focus on the small one first. There may be multiple even. If they took over every elf that was manning the temple except those that managed to end up like the engineer one I found.
Let’s hope there weren't too many p...
2023-08-13 16:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Sofia wanted to try eating the three pills at once, hoping that it would help her better feel the effects and understand what the ‘Processing’ stat did. It could be a bit dangerous though.
But also I have three runes on, it’s not like it’s going to kill me three times over, even if there’s some pill toxicity.
At the same time, they will magically enhance my body, so I don’t want it to emit too much mana… I’m going to have to take them one by o...
2023-08-12 16:00:07 +0000 UTC
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If I want to keep my unlife runes up, I can’t keep wasting mana hiding in the walls…
Sofia had her ghostly skeletons carry her through the thick walls up to the third floor, taking special care to avoid the air vents.
The skeletons had previously backed up from that room, letting Sofia know that there was an elf in there, but the graveyard skeletons were quite dumb so maybe they had been mistaken. Slowly nearing the closed room, Sofia focused without producing any res...
2023-08-11 16:00:12 +0000 UTC
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An important detail about the corrupted elf growing wings was that he had been clearly looking in the direction of Sofia.
With little options left, she did two things, the first was to start channeling the graveyard, the second was to order the skeleton spiders to jump straight into the sun if the elf found them. She debated leaving Pareth alone on the roof to confront the thing and see if he could at least injure it, but ultimately decided against it. Losing Pareth now would be more th...
2023-08-10 16:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Sofia ran all the way back up to the roof of the station, where she knew for sure that nothing could ambush her from behind. It felt safer even if it meant there was a possibility she might get cornered there. Of course she could always use the graveyard to escape, but if she was left with enough time to do that, the thing probably wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant her escape in the first place.
At least for now it did not seem like that creature had detected her.
How do I ...
2023-08-01 16:00:22 +0000 UTC
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I’m free to move again. Did he leave? Didn’t even see him.
Oh right, I better put the black glasses back on. Really can’t see much with these on…
It’s a bit harder to move here. I feel heavy.
Sofia used the graveyard skeletons to phase through the door. Now she could use it with or without the graves popping up without much effort, and the channeling was fast enough that she could use it to almost seamlessly activate it and walk through w...
2023-07-31 16:00:20 +0000 UTC
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Sofia observed the teleportation platform, wondering if it was even safe to use such an old technology, “When do we go?”
“Whenever you want. A few things though, first of all, you will need to put these glasses on if you do not want to end up blind,” the Oracle answered, handing Sofia a pair of almost pitch black glasses which blocked light from all directions.
Sofia tried the glasses and she couldn’t see anything anymore. “This is as good as being blind.”
“Y...
2023-07-30 15:59:59 +0000 UTC
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