Electricity started to gather around Sofia’s staff and in the choir skulls’ mouths. The light was getting suppressed by the palace’s strange darkness, but the crackling electricity existed nonetheless, and before the ghost got to even do anything, the wide array of Sirhellion skulls showered the ghost with lightning, sending sparks and loose currents flying in all directions.
Out of the interesting things that Sofia got to learn from Eternam’s necromancy classes, the fact that the volatility of lightning when mixed with mana was great to incapacitate ghosts had not been forgotten. Sofia was also protected from the rampaging electricity, first thanks to the passive protection offered by the bolt, then by [Singularity edict].
Yet, Sister Meilyss stood in her spot, unaffected. Raising a hand, she summoned a swarm of ghostly mechanical spiders flooding the room.
Sofia instantly unsummoned the choir as the skulls were getting jumped on and quickly broken by the ghostly spiders, which she herself was barely managing to avoid.
A ghost immune to lightning. Sofia thought, releasing the weak piercing bolt she had been charging at the ghost, and watching it harmlessly pass through her.
Just my luck.
The ghostly spiders were knocking over the candelabras that had survived the choir’s electricity, and the room was starting to rapidly turn dark. Sister Meilyss unleashed a continuous barrage of electricity at Sofia, which only shaved off a few thousand health points before Sofia answered with a skill of her own, as the room was plunged into complete darkness, with the many ghosts being the only thing visible. Using three million mana, Sofia unleashed a violent beam of mana at Sister Meilyss and all the ghostly spiders in its path. That was so much mana in such a small room, that the attack bounced off of the walls and Sofia herself was affected like everyone else around, her vision uncontrollably locking onto the ghost of Sister Meilyss, the ‘brightest thing’ in the room.
The light!
COME!
OFFER YOURSELF TO THE LIGHT!
The countless ghostly spiders threw themselves at their summoner, and Sofia had to forcefully expel her remaining mana into the air to prevent herself from doing the same.
The ghost mechanical spiders clumped up in a ball around Sister Meilyss, and Sofia could hear the ghost woman scream as she got consumed by her own magic.
Holy… I feel a bit bad…
It was only a few seconds before the ghostly spiders all disappeared, the ghost of sister Meilyss was in such a bad shape that she was barely recognizable, her soul had been torn to bits by the creatures enough that they could not even be sustained by her remaining magic any longer.
“The light…” the ghost whispered as it fell to the ground, and as if escaping from the curse in a last moment of lucidity, she muttered a few more words as her form became blurrier, “I, too… fall to my own creation… a fitting… end…”
“I’m sorry. Rest in peace,” Sofia said as the ghostly light faded, plunging the room in complete darkness once more.
‘You have pacified [Sister Meilyss - Lingering obsession]’
No level indication, again; weird.
Sofia heard the hollow sound of something hitting the ground as the notification appeared, coming from where Sister Meilyss had disappeared, followed by the sound of something rolling.
She left something behind?!
Sofia extended the bone tendrils again, quickly finding the thing responsible for the sound and bringing it to her left hand.
Some kind of glass ball? Feels a bit like the backup eyeball implant I have… Can we identify that, Mr.Scribe?
Although with her mana senses blocked, Sofia couldn’t identify things from a distance, as long as she touched whatever she wanted to scan, her mana could easily reach it and come back.
[Phased mana stone]: Once a perfectly normal mana-heart, the physical side of this stone has mostly shifted to the spiritual side after the owner’s death, anchoring their remnant soul and obsessions to this world.
As even the owner’s soul is no longer of this world, this no longer has any interesting properties. Surprisingly, however, an inscription in ancient human can be found engraved on the inside, reading: ‘Heart of Velania’.
So that’s one way ghosts form. Interesting. I wonder what’s up with this heart of Velania thing but now isn’t really the time to investigate… Still to think I’d find an elven ghost here… And the creator of the mechanical spiders no less? They were the exact same as the one Saria was standing on when I found her in the simulation. Just much smaller.
Then Joah’s dreams might really be of real places. Crazy to think that underwater elven city must be out there somewhere.
I wonder if the fight would have gone differently had the room been larger.
Thinking that, Sofia walked up to the walls, trying to find the impact point of the piercing bolt she had released during the fight. Using the bone tendrils to probe the walls, she quickly found it, a brick had been pierced through, and the second layer of the wall behind that was intact, as far as Sofia could tell.
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Those are some damn resistant walls for just being bricks. And the graveyard skeletons can’t even appear in there.
Eager to see just how resistant the walls were, Sofia plunged the admin dagger into it, and it pierced through the second layer without much resistance.
Alright, not that resistant. So I guess I can still carve my way out if something goes wrong. Better to refrain from it unless I really need to, though, I’m not here to destroy Sorrow’s place.
Sofia stored the mana stone, quickly checking her stats.
Health : 799 082 / 822 762
Stamina : 203 623 / 204 336
Mana : 816 233 / 5 022 238
Do I want to break my runes to heal that up? Feels like a waste of time. I still find it strange that the mana heart prevents the demon form from changing my stats, but I suppose it makes sense. I still get stronger thanks to the passive pathways and Sorrow’s spells so it’s fine.
The ability to breathe in ambient mana is becoming weaker, though. As I expected, relying on ambient mana is a handicap when one’s mana pool becomes too large. I really have to thank my past self and Bookie’s quick thinking for settling on [Infinity engine].
Right, then, where to now? Eight more trials of might? So far, easy enough.
Since I turned left once, let’s keep going left.
Sofia opened the left door, which revealed another long corridor with a lit candle at the end.
Well, I already know how this goes.
This time Sofia simply walked past the candle when she reached it, and opened the door. The newly opened room was well-lit, as a group of candle-holding zombies were sitting in a circle around a small altar that held a closed box.
The zombies facing her direction immediately noticed her. Their eyes were hidden by black flames, but their heads all turned to face her.
“H- hey…” Sofia said, unsure of what to do, as she was ready to fight but the zombies strangely did not show much hostility besides all staring intently in her direction.
Of course nobody answered, and Sofia simply stood there awkwardly facing the zombies.
No way, don’t tell me…
Is the damn passive from the first tier of [Runeforged Overlord] finally being useful?!
Sofia brought up the description she basically never looked at anymore.
[Runeforged Overlord] ♢ : Your body has become one with runes of power.
This skill has three tiers of power, you may activate the higher tier at any time, but returning to a lower tier requires to either take no damage for 100 seconds or become unable to sustain the tier’s cost or conditions.
The effects and cost of subsequent tiers are added together when active simultaneously.
In your presence all undead and yourself gain the following effects:
___
Tier 1 (No cost; Requires the user to have arms) :
Become unwilling to attack this skill’s user.
+[24.9]% Speed (Skill level /10)
___
Tier 2 (0.5 (0.25)% max mana per second; Requires the user to have a torso) :
+[24.9]% Speed (Skill level /10)
+[24.9]% Strength (Skill level /10)
+[24.9]% Agility (Skill level /10)
___
Tier 3 (2 (1)% max mana per second; Requires the user to have wings) :
Successful attacks inflict a short lasting [Confusion]
Reduce all incoming damage by 20%
Omnidirectional free flight
Acceleration resistance
+[124,5]% Speed (Skill level /2)
+[124,5]% Strength (Skill level /2)
+[124,5]% Agility (Skill level /2)
I never thought I’d see the day.
They also get the extra speed, but I can’t do much about that. No wonder the ghost spiders were so fast…
I could cut my arms to see if they’re going to attack me.
But I’m not sure I want to fight them without my arms. I’ll just see when I find an isolated zombie. They can’t always come in big groups like this, right?
“I’m going through, then…” Sofia awkwardly said, walking around the circle of undead to the door on the other side, being followed by their dead gaze all the way around.
I’ll need to come back here and fight them to check what’s in that altar box. I’d steal it with the eye implant but it’s sure to make them attack me. I know firsthand that unwilling doesn’t mean unable to. I hurt myself all the time despite the effect, after all…
This entire place is full of only undead, isn’t it? This is going to make me regret giving up the [Lead the dead] mithrium ring even more…
Sofia sighed as she put her hands on the door’s handles.
Alright, see you later, zombies…
Sofia opened the door, entering yet another corridor, and closed it behind her.
Again, a candle on the other side.
Why is it that only one side had a candle, though?
Opening yet another door, Sofia entered a room where dozens of zombies were sitting at decrepit wooden desks, busy sewing robes with gray silk.
Ah, yes. Of course, the robes they all wear have to come from somewhere…
Perhaps alarmed by the sound of the door opening, the zombies all stopped sewing. Staring at Sofia instead. Their silent gaze was chilling.
So awkward… Sofia thought with a shiver. If only they were skeletons, it wouldn’t be so bad.
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