Since she was finished with the Sloth Dimension Trial, Maria quickly exited from the place and brought out the next skill book for the Gluttony Dimension Trial. This skill book gave her [Stockpile], a rather peculiar passive ability judging by the skill’s description.
Skill Name: Stockpile Level: 1 (0/2500) Description: Stores 10% of any excess player resources such as HP, MP, SP, etc. into a sub-realm that can be accessed by the player at any time Permanent Passive skill. Cannot be dispelled or negated.
Maria didn’t know how useful this skill could be since it only stored 10% excess resources like her HP, MP, SP, and other things, but hopefully, the effect would get stronger the more she leveled it up. If at level 10 the skill only stored 20% of her excess resources, then it would be a bit of a letdown as compared to her other Seven Sin skills.
“Well, let’s get to it then.”
Death’s Incarnation appeared once again and without further ado, Maria, Ash, and Carmilla quickly entered the next trial’s dimension. The landscape was the same as all the previous trial dimensions so Maria quickly found the sealing artifact that kept Gluttony sealed at the center of the dimension. This one was a bit weird since it was only a well-polished rock but without any hesitation, Maria quickly broke it, and the statue of Sin Devil Gluttony quickly began to break apart like its predecessors.
The monsters that Ash and Carmilla had to deal with in this trial were a bunch of high-grade slimes. They were quite difficult to kill because of their physical resistance and magic resistance to certain elements so things didn’t proceed as smoothly as they did when Maria challenged Sloth.
{GAHAHAHAHAH!}
As usual, Maria could never get those Sin Devils to shut up with their annoying laughter even when she smashed them around the battlefield.
“These devils are so annoying.”
A few of the slimes were able to merge with Gluttony and give him a slight power increase but since Maria’s stats and levels had completely eclipsed the requirement to clear this trial, the battle wasn’t significantly too difficult. Maria didn’t even need to use all of her unique abilities to fight Gluttony but managed to defeat him in the end.
*DING*
You have learned the skill: Stockpile!
Maria quickly dismissed the notification window and the [Skill] window that appeared before she started searching Gluttony’s body for its unique item drop. It took her a while to find it because the item was located inside of Gluttony’s body.
The item she obtained from Gluttony was called [Gluttony’s Heart] and just like its name, it was actually Gluttony’s damned heart. It was black with shining purple veins that formed Gluttony’s sigil on one side of the heart and oddly enough, the heart was still beating even though the Sin Devil was already dead.
When Maria went to pick it up, the heart began to uncontrollably beat as it suddenly shot into Maria’s chest and disgustingly merged with her. She was incredibly panicked when she saw the disgusting thing slowly enter her chest as black veins began to creep all over the rest of her body from where the heart entered her.
The item also turned out to be Gluttony’s Life Essence because once the heart completely merged with her and settled down right next to her original heart, she received the notification that her SIN stat had risen while also obtaining the item’s unique Stat boosting effects. Unlike the previous items, [Gluttony’s Heart] gave her a specific 100% increase to her VIT stat. As for the item’s ability, it enhanced her [Stockpile] skill which was overall, a great effect.
*DING*
You have obtained Gluttony’s Heart!
item Name: Gluttony’s Heart Rank: Epic Level: 90 (Upgradeable) VIT +100% Item Effect: Increase the effects of [Stockpile] by 100% Restrictions: None Bound Level Requirement: 90 Description:
The Sin Devil Gluttony’s evil heart. Gluttony was a devil that overindulged in all sorts of luxuries. Anything that could be consumed physically, magically, or spiritually were all just forms of sustenance to the Devil whose hunger for everything was insatiable. Gluttony was feared as an existence that could one day devour the entire Universe if his bottomless hunger grew strong enough
The item effect was extremely great because, at level one, Maria’s [Stockpile] skill could now store 20% of all her excess resources. She tried to overheal herself and sure enough, thanks to her new skill and [Gluttony’s Heart]’s power, her HP went over the limit.
Player Name: Maria Level: 125 HP: 381,780/318,150
MP: 952,200/793,500
SP: 47,231/39,359
“This skill has more potential than I thought it would,” Maria thought out loud as she looked at her [Skill] window and [Status] window.
If she could level up the skill to Level 10 quickly, she wanted to see how many excess resources she could stockpile. If she could stockpile at least 50% that would be good on so many levels. Having extra mana and HP was always a good thing and from how things are, Maria saw that she wouldn’t need to invest so much of her FSPs into her VIT and INT stat anymore. She could invest those FPSs into her two other stats, AGI and STR. Her INT was already pretty damn high so her magic spells and magic-based attacks were already powerful. Her main mode of attack was her two weapons so being able to invest in AGI and STR to increase her speed and power was definitely good.
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“Let’s not hesitate. I have 600 FPSs so I’ll spend 400 on STR and 200 on AGI!”
Player Name: Maria Level: 125 HP: 381,780/318,150
MP: 952,200/793,500
NE: 1,342
BE: 476,100/396,750
SP: 47,231/39,359 EXP: 0/13,750,000 REP: 137,890 Race: Fallen Ophanim - Awakened Variant
Class: Dark Priestess
Sub-Class 1: Magus
Sub-Class 2: Queen
Titles: Species Eradicator A, Fallen Angel of Sin, Angel of the Apocalypse, The Unlucky One, Fallen Priestess, Fallen Saintess, Harbinger of the World’s End, Queen of the Dire
ATK: 97,471(+5000~6250)
DEF: 23,040 (+15)
M.ATK: 12,219 (+5000~6250)
M.DEF: 43,313 (+15)
STR: 11,062
AGI: 7,529
VIT: 8,378
INT: 15,750
LCK: 22
SIN: 134
FSP: 0
Maria took one final look at her new status screen before closing it and opening the last skill book from her Dark Priestess class skills. Death’s Incarnation appeared once again to open up a portal for her to enter the final trial dimension but this time around, Maria wasn’t allowed to bring anyone with her.
“Child, you may only attempt this final trial by yourself. With your current abilities, I trust that you are confident?” Death’s Incarnation asked.
Maria only scoffed before saying, “Of course. Ash, Carmilla, remain on standby! Once I clear this trial, I still need to hear your reports on the current situation!”
“Yes, my Queen!”
“Yes, Your Highness!”
She quickly stepped into the portal by herself and entered the final Sin Devil Trial.
*DING*
You have entered Pride’s Domain (Trial)! You have been inflicted with the debuff: [Mortal Coil]! All stats reduced by 50%
*DING*
You have 6 out of the 7 Original Sins! You have resisted the debuff!
“That’s an interesting debuff.”
Maria looked around and this time, the trial dimension’s layout was actually different compared to the previous ones. She had appeared in the middle of what she thought was an abandoned, modern-day city from Earth.
“Weird…this place looks oddly familiar.”
She began walking down the broken road and finally realized why the city felt so familiar despite everything being in ruins.
“It’s where I live in the real world!”
Just as she came to this realization, the ground began to crack and rumble so Maria quickly pulled out her weapons. This was obviously a sign of a monster stampede so she got ready for battle. She had been wondering where all the monsters in the dimension had been since she hadn’t encountered a single one. In the previous trial dimensions, the monsters would usually be within close proximity of her the moment she entered the trial but this time around, it seemed that the monsters were all grouped together from the beginning so she wouldn't be able to pick them off one-by-one.
Fighting a large number of monsters was normal for Maria but she hated drawn-out battles. However, this was good in a way since she wanted to test out how long she could last with her new passive ability. When the monsters came into view, Maria noticed that all of them were white humanoids that didn’t have any facial features except for their mouths.
“What were these things again? Mimics, right? [Inspect].”
Maria used [Inspect] on the monsters rushing at her and she was right about what they were.
Name: Mimic Level: ???
HP: ???/???
MP: ???/???
SP: ???/???
“Ah dammit, if they’re mimics, then–”
Sure enough, her worries came to fruition because once one of the mimics got within range, they immediately used their [Mimicry] skill and transformed into white-colored, faceless versions of herself. Mimics weren’t that uncommon in Unitale as there were some dungeons and fields that were teeming with them. They came in many different shapes. Some of them had pre-formed shapes like treasure boxes which were employed in dungeons to trick players while others were quadra-pedal versions of the faceless mimics Maria was currently facing that had the ability to transform into other monsters.
There were also bipedal ones like the ones Maria was facing but they were the rarest kind and often appeared in both dungeons and fields as boss monsters so seeing so many of these mimics running straight at her was a bit mindboggling. They had the most annoying type of mimicry too which was why most players tend to avoid these bipedal mimics if they ever met with one of them alone.
Maria dodged the mimicry Zantetsu-R that came chopping down at her before recalling the info she read about these bipedal mimics; annoying [Mimicry] skill, 'These bipedal mimics can mimic players and NPCs. They can also draw out 100% of their target’s abilities so it will be like you are fighting against yourself.'
It was because of this annoying 100% mimicry that players avoided these monsters if they were alone. Common sense stated to never fight against these monsters unless you were in a party but Maria was by herself and facing a horde of these bipedal Mimics. There were easily over 100 of these monsters so it was like Maria had to face 100 of herself right now.
“If I was inflicted with that [Mortal Coil] debuff, this trial would be impossible to complete…”
Maria checked on the Mimics’ statuses once again but noticed something odd.
Name: Mimic (Maria) Level: 125
HP: 190,890/159,075
MP: 476,100/396,750
SP: 23,616/19,680
All of the numerically displayed information was exactly half of hers and she smirked after realizing that these things couldn’t copy her resistance ability thanks to the 6 Original Sins she possessed and were debuffed by the dimension’s [Mortal Coil] debuff.
“I guess the guide's information was wrong, their Mimicry isn't absolute. If it's like this, then fighting against them will be easier than I thought!"
Maria stopped running as she transformed her wings into [Bahamut’s Wings] and dashed towards them as she got into a stance mid-flight.
“[Odin’s Swordsmanship, First Form]–”
A phantom of Odin appeared behind Maria, shadowing her movements, and just as she was about to crash into the horde of Mimics, she yelled, “–[Full Burst]!”