Chapter 12: Boneanza
Chapter 12: Boneanza
Chapter 12: Boneanza
Skills first, escaping second.
Available Active Skills :
[Dispel ] : Dispels
[ bolt] : projectile from the hand.
[Maiden ] : Invoke the power of a maiden
[ mist] : in a thick mist.
[Angels ] : The ethereal call
[ soul] : to the necromancers lifeforce.
I have two free slots now
[Dispel soul] sounds like it would be good against undeads? I already have [Lead the Dead] though The soul keyword is like dispel, too good to waste on an uncertain result What I lack right now is offensive skills. [Angels bolt] has a nice ring to it, the descriptions dont really match but I think thats not that much of a problem anymore with the scribe. Right?
[Angels bolt] : Call forth the divine lightning bolt of Angel Acromegon to strike down foes.
May only be cast while airborne.
Costs 10000 mana per use.
Holy ok. Ten thousand mana a pop. Divine lightning. This must slap reaaaaaally hard. The only weird part is the airborne restriction. Falling counts as being airborne doesnt it? I should try to get a flying skill. Would be insanely cool. Well, I can only hope to get good keywords.
Speaking of which. Passive time.
Available Passive Skills :
[Pristine ] : Your soul is in
[ of Bones] : against physical projectiles.
[Armor ] : Gather prayers to protect
[ Essence] : per second.
Armor of bones? Armor of bones!
[Armor of Bones] : Gather and reform bones to create a blessed bone armor protecting the Saintomancer. The armor can store up to 100kg (100*Skill level) of bones to repair itself in combat. Protective strength goes up every level.
Stocked bones : 0kg.
I need to actually source the bones? Shouldnt be too hard. Its interesting that it ended up being a blessed armor somehow, I wont complain about it for sure, I guess regular bones wouldnt fit the Saintomancer theme? But what about [Summon Blood] then?
She was tempted to also try [Pristine Essence] but she really didnt like the idea of not knowing at all what the skill would do in advance so she refrained herself.
Level : 67
Health : 335 / 335
Stamina : 335 / 335
Mana : 38000 / 38000
Despite the steep mana cost of [Angels bolt] she could still cast it three times in a row if needed. Could Ovohen survive that? She couldnt know without trying but it still felt unlikely that a spell she got so early could kill someone that high level, especially with the skill being at level 1. However it was clear that being high level didnt mean you were suddenly not human anymore, you could still fall to your death, as she had assumed previously and verified today. Wouldnt have been like this if the guy could fly.
She looked down at the abyss, despite her glowing dagger being somewhere at the bottom she couldnt see a speck of light, maybe it was buried under the zombies, or maybe it was even deeper than she thought.
She wanted to take Ovohens sword to light her way back up but it was a lost cause, she had a difficult time even moving the large hunk of glowing metal, there was no way to lift it. It would be a bit weird to go back up in complete darkness but she knew the layout of the upper levels quite well. With how long she had spent here in the last weeks and by using the location of her rat skeleton still waiting at the entrance she was confident in making it back up in a few hours. Before leaving, she pushed the large sword off the edge. If I cant have it then no one can. She also threw her tattered chemise. Cant get rid of all the dried blood Well, hopefully theyll assume its mine.
Looking at the scene it wouldnt be too far-fetched to think both her and the magisterium had fallen off, there were clear trails of blood sliding off from the stairs. As long as they didnt have a way to know she was alive for sure she might have a chance to escape without even being pursued.
Going back was faster than she expected, the corridors being empty of all zombies and the [Way of the Fool] preventing her from falling when she tripped on the random junk on the floor made the trip in the dungeon easier than it had any right to be. She did some testing on the way, the [Armor of Bones] could literally suck up the bones from the surroundings, no need to manually gather them. There were so many skeletons littering the floor that she had the 100kg stored in there before she left the 12th level.
She did summon the armor but since she couldnt see anything it was rather underwhelming. It didnt seem to restrict her movements too much but it felt a bit heavy. It was a full armor with a fluid design, she couldnt see what it looked like but it seemed to embrace the shape of her body, more like an exoskeleton than real armor. Exoskeleton? Beware! The Insectomancer is here! Does [Holy Skeleton] work on insect shells? Its like every time I think about my skills I open the door to a sea of dumb possibilities.
A thing that bothered her was how she couldnt remove part of the armor like the helmet no matter how she tried. It was either fully on or fully off. When she turned off the passive the armor just sunk into her skin, it felt like swallowing a bunch of food except with your whole body. It was the same when she absorbed bones, they just flew to her and sunk in her skin, making it ripple like she was made of goopy mud.
Meanwhile, the rat was acting as a makeshift alarm clock, it sent her a signal by jumping thrice. That meant the guards would change shifts in ten minutes. Sofia was still on the second floor, she could make it back up in time but she would have to run.
Running in complete darkness proved way harder than walking. And although her tripping multiple times never made her fall, she hit a wall face first more than once. The second time onward she at least wore her armor.
She made it near the entrance with barely a minute to spare. She absorbed the armor and did her best to regain some stamina. She was still trying to catch her breath when her skeleton sent the signal. She had to trust her summon, no time to check if the guards were really gone, she just ran for it. The time where the corridor was empty usually lasted thirty seconds at most.
No one! She was quick to get past the dungeon doors and into the first room on the left, silently closing the door behind her. That was a room where the paladins guarding the entrance had more gear at their disposal, a room full of armors and swords, even some sandbags for makeshift barricades. The rat was waiting on a ceiling beam, it jumped on her shoulder without a sound. It was something she had practiced to make it easier moving around with it. She was going to leave from the other door but a stack of racks of tiny flasks on a shelf drew her eyes.
Potions?
Healing - Sieva extract
Anton P.
09-3209
Sofia didnt know much about alchemy but if there was one thing everybody understood it was that healing potions were worth a lot of money. To a village without a healer it was the only thing that could save someone if they were gravely hurt. Its probably worth at least a gold piece a flask! Theres hundreds of them!
She thought about it for a second and decided to only take one from the bottom row of the lowest rack. It would be terrible if the church thought she was dead then changed their mind when they saw potions gone missing. But if it was only one then maybe it was a human error along the way And she felt better having a potion as a lifeline.
She didnt know what was in any of the rooms she had to go through afterwards either, only the path and how often the rat observed people in there. She had the rat scout ahead before moving every time, she passed through three rooms linked to the first, then had to cross a corridor, another room, and she ended up in the servants quarters.
It was quite late and most servants were sleeping, doors closed, still she had to be silent. The wooden floor of these more rustic parts of the fort didnt play in her favor, nor did her tall frame or bloodsoaked clothes. If anyone saw her it was the end.
She had almost reached her destination, a room at the other end of the long servants dormitory corridor, when the handle of the door right next to her was pulled down.