It took Sofia all day to catch three more Sirhellions. Finding them had been the easy part, as two of them had attacked her during her first fight, and she had simply asked her bird to follow their clouds, but fighting them safely had been another story entirely.
The main issue was that these three Sirhellions were aware of her now, and they stayed relatively close to each other. It was impossible for Sofia to attack one without having all three of them on her back, showering her with an uninterrupted stream of lightning attacks.
On the flipside, now that Sofia knew their tricks and attack patterns, it was impossible for them to ever touch her unless she made a critical mistake.
She had to abort the fight multiple times to rest and regain her mana, and when she did, the monsters healed up as well. In the end it was when she decided to focus on speed by using [Runeforged Overlord] that she managed to break the stalemate. Rather than using [DODGE - ME]’s spatial protection and [Heat Death] to negate attacks, she flew faster to avoid them, cutting back on the mana cost of her defenses, allowing her to keep up her offensive for longer.
Eventually another Sirhellion fell from the sky after a well-placed explosive bolt, and its fate was sealed. The remaining two were much easier to take out now that their third wheel was gone, and Sofia absorbed her fourth Sirhellion imprint in the middle of the swamp as the sun came down.
‘You have defeated [Sirhellion - Lv. 275 - Imprint Badly Damaged]’
‘You have defeated [Sirhellion - Lv. 286 - Imprint Mostly intact]’
‘You have defeated [Sirhellion - Lv. 299 - Imprint Mostly intact]’
The explosive bolt really ruined that first one. Better than nothing but such a waste of effort, the badly damaged imprint only gave 4600 mana out of 10 000…
Still, very good progress for a single day. And I still haven’t lost any life.
[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /D tier/
9 months, 31 days, 19 hours
Imprint progress : 441.51/ 500
Effects (Will be doubled) :
* All stats +20% (D rank base)
* Health + 561
* Mana + 33 590
* [Relocate Core]
Already almost up to C tier. Or rank. It literally says both tier and rank a few lines apart… The all stats line going up to +20% was expected but appreciated. It’s really linear for now, so that means B rank is +70% and A rank +95%.
It’s harder to predict imprint progress. The breakpoints have been fifty, two hundred and fifty, and five hundred. It could still be a plus 50 each time so the next breakpoint would be 800… That feels reasonable? That would already be the minimum to pass the trial then. Eight hundred imprint power. That’s honestly not too bad.
But it’s also only eighty thousand stat points. Even with the 70% bonus, it’s still not a lot.
I think… Barely passing at B tier probably makes you a garbage level 250.
Like that head-hunter dwarf I indirectly killed by trapping her in the thrombber hive. She didn’t feel all that exceptional. But she was 250+.
The cutoff point for both this and the previous trial have been quite generous.
Then again, I’m a special case.
The swamp started freezing under Sofia’s feet.
Ah, I should get back up before the Sunless appear.
She stored the hole-ridden corpse of the Sirhellion she had just finished and flew up right before the ambient mana started clumping up to form the Sunless drones.
It’s really happening again. It’s safe to say they’ll be back every night.
I know the land monsters get imprisoned into sunless cocoons for the night but I wonder how that works for the Sirhellions or the underground mosquitos.
Let’s kill a few drones to get Pareth his last few [Relocate Core] skill shards.
[Nascent mana heart of Knowledge]:
Rank : D Tier
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Imprint power until next rank : 258/500
Effects (on use) :
All stats +20% (D rank base)
* +8500 Health
* ??? Skill shard (1/10) (Sunless Amalgam Skill)
* [Relocate Core] Skill shard (73/100)
Maybe I should see what I can do about the Amalgams. Could I get just two drones to fuse to make a weaker one? It’s not like the Sirhellions, the Amalgams can actually hurt me quite badly with their black spears. I need to find a safe way to hunt them.
Sofia released the Angel’s bolt she had been channeling while looking over Pareth’s stats.
‘You have defeated [Sunless Drone - Lv. 201 - Imprint Intact]’
So weak, these things.
It took about two hours to get the remaining skill shard for Pareth while moving through the frozen swamp. She was starting to get more comfortable with the cold and mana-less night environment. The fact that the only creatures she had to worry about were the Sunless drones was actually a breeze of fresh air compared to the daytime when random creatures roamed around everywhere, be it in the sky or underground.
Then, suddenly, things around Sofia became dark.
Huh?
She looked up. Did something happen to the moons?
It took her a moment to realize why she could not see any stars.
Wait… Don’t tell me.
[Sunless Nightbringer - Lv. 334 - Imprint power : ??? - Effect : ??? ]
‘And the sky disappeared, giving place to his endless majesty.’
Sofia quickly summoned the graveyard and had it bring her underground through the cold muddy waters of the swamp.
Holy fuck. How big is this thing?
I couldn’t even see what it looked like, just that it covered an entire half of the sky!
What in the world… It might have been as big as the Sun whale, even.
At least I think it didn’t see me.
This isn’t something I can fight.
At the edge of the graveyard’s perception, Sofia could feel a tiny empty space, prompting her to go investigate.
Maybe a Skitrill gallery? I don’t see anything weird as far as the spirit realm vision goes… I might as well explore underground while this thing is outside.
After a few long seconds for the graveyard skeletons to drag her all the way down to the underground gallery, Sofia found herself alone on all fours in a dark cave.
Too tight for Pareth. Bookie, you’re up.
Bookie’s small skeleton form appeared near Sofia, he seemed happy to come out as a skeleton for once in the trial, he could stand upright in the small tunnel, but barely.
“Happy to have you around too. Wanna fuse with something?”
Bookie nodded, and handed the book upside down to Sofia with the High-Priest page in evidence.
“Expensive tastes, but whatever you like, not a bad choice to explore underground. The priest’s mana shield could be useful if we get surrounded,” Sofia commented as she ripped off the page, and watched Bookie gain a new scepter to fit his high-priest functions. “Let’s get Crowie out too, while we’re at it.”
The unusual trio started exploring the underground tunnels. They were clearly not human-made, dug straight through the stone and dirt, they were not always horizontal either, sometimes going straight up or down. A few times, different tunnels crossed through this one, but Sofia chose to follow the same one path, for simplicity’s sake. It would make it easier to get back to her starting spot near the surface.
Worst case I can dig my way back up with the sandworm skeleton if I find somewhere large enough to summon it. It doesn’t dig very well in dirt and stone compared to sand but it’s not like it cannot do it.
Sofia kept following the tunnel, not finding much of anything.
How long has it been?
Checking the timer on her Mana heart, Sofia sighed.
More than an hour crawling through the dirt and still nothing. Not even a glimpse of a single mosquito monster. The ambient mana is still empty, too, even this deep. So there might be Sunless drones underground. Haven’t seen any yet, though.
Should I just go back up? The thing is likely to be long gone by now.
But it feels bad to leave now after having accomplished nothing…
Sofia sat down and summoned her rat swarm to explore the tunnels.
“I should have started with that.”
She plugged the sides of the tunnel she was in with a bunch of bone, brought out a pack of cards, and played with Bookie while his rats ran around the underground tunnels. She didn’t bother trying to map out the place, only telling Bookie to warn her if the rats found something.
Sofia even had time to eat a nice warm meal with some hot tea of Alith’s making, and to make a few sculptures of Crowie by the time Bookie jumped up, more than an hour later.
“No way? Did they really find something?”
Bokkie nodded enthusiastically, and Sofia watched as her connections to all the rats disappeared one by one until there was only one left.
“Oh, woah. It’s quite far away. It’ll take us forever to crawl there. Worth it?”
Bookie shrugged.
“Don’t know either, huh? Can’t you see through the rat’s eyes?”
Bookie grabbed Crowie, and held it near himself, nodding. Then he held Crowie as far from him as he could muster with his short arms, and shook his skull.
“Not when they’re that far. Got it. Not very different from me with the tokens then.”
It only took a second for Sofia to come up with a plan.
“Let’s go back up, we’ll walk on the surface until we’re right above the rat and use the sandworm to get down.”
With a thumbs up from Bookie, the plan was set in motion.
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