Chapter 165 - Final preparations (Patreon)

Author note:

Hey!

Two quick announcements today.

First of all, I'm warning in advance that I'll be taking a one week break sometime this may, probably from the 12th to the 19th, so no chapters during that time.

Secondly, thank you everyone for voting on the art poll! In line with the results, I have commissioned an artist for an illustration of demon form Sofia! It will probably be the cover of book 2 whenever I release to amazon. Royal Road will probably get to see it a week or two after you all, If I can restrain myself from sharing it for this long. But I have no idea how long until it's ready, probably two weeks to a month? Stay tuned.

And stay subscribed so that I can afford more artworks. Damn that stuff is expensive. (☆_@;)

Take care and Happy reading (｀• ω •´)b

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - First step of the Shadow gathering realm :

The primeval void was born of the universe’s first shadow.

Shadow gathering realm :

A single hit cannot take away more than 99% of your maximum health.

You are 50% more resilient to explosions

You are able to see in extremely low light levels and to breathe light

You cannot be hurt by the cold and cannot be traced in the spirit realm

Shadows and light are two faces of a single coin.

Light forging realm :

Starting step : You no longer age.

First step : Your skin becomes tougher and opaque (0/1000%)

Second step : ???

Light forging realm unlocking requirement : possess ten divine essence or more.

Current divine essence (5) :

• Scripture (1)
• Aphenoreth (1)
• Dread (1)
• Sorrow (1)
• Ormoncleth (1)

Ten. If you think about what each of those represents… That’s an absurd number.

That’s going to take a while unless I start murdering every saint and apostle I come across. With Zerei’s help, I could probably get one or two from the pyramid. I have to assume that killing Scripture’s Oracle could give me one. That’s still two or three of them missing.

I guess the training for this one stops here. I wonder how good the ‘Light forging realm’ will be. To no longer age is middling at best. Leveling up already helps with that. Though I suppose it could help in the long run… Tougher skin is nice, especially if it’s 1000%; but I’m not so sure about the opaque part. I guess skin is slightly see-through, but why would the skill specifically want to avoid that? So that I can no longer see my veins? I guess that would also mean no light gets to my eyes when they’re closed… Yeah, I don’t really see the point.

Maybe the later steps will require that somehow?

Sofia shared the description around.

“Too bad. I found it funny to see you do these dumb things to train. Back to watching you summon blood into the sea, I guess?”

“Exactly, yes, and you're back to the phasing doors; how is [Planar shift] progressing, yes?”

“Level 12…”

Sofia lost count of the weeks of training. Sometimes they would go out to train against random monsters and put into practice what they learned.

When she wasn’t doing that or mindlessly emptying her mana into a new spell, she was also training to fight with Zerei. It was hell. Zerei was an efficient but merciless teacher. Sofia was confident that if she didn’t need to be so mindful of her mana spending, Zerei would have her put on the runes and kill her during the bouts.

Nevertheless, the results were clear, whether in her actual combat abilities or on her status page.

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 21

Class : [Saintomancer] ♢

Level : 199 ♢

Health : 7355 / 10995    (5*level + 5000 filter2 + 5000 Minor Health Candy)

Stamina : 28 / 3662    (5*level + 1000 filter2 + 1667 Minor Strength Candy)

Mana : 12 / 89000          (-10000 Alith) (-5000 Scribe Link) (5000 base + (500*(level-1)))

Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]

Alteration chance : 100%

Active Skills (7 / 7)

[Spine of the Black Sun] - Level 199

[Heal Undead] - Level 70

[Summon Blood] - Level 199

[Angel’s bolt] - Level 100

[Maiden Banshee] - Level 199 (Lv.199)

[Graveyard of the righteous] - Level 199

[False immortality] - Level 3

Passive Skills (6 / 6)

[Blessing of the Deep] - (2/4)

[Armor of Bones]

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] ♢

[Holy Wings of undeath] ♢

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - Doors of the Light forging realm

[Bone dominus]

Classless Skills (6 / 6)

[Fast reading] - Level 55

[Way of the Fool] - Level 20

[Poker Face] - Level 36

[Identify] - Level 2

[Sanctity] - Level 100

[Mana manipulation] ♢

Special Skills (1)

[The Book of Skeletons] ♢

Summoned heroes (3 / 4)

• Lv.199 Pareth (Holy Alpha Ogre Eclipse Skeleton)
• Lv.199 Alith (Maiden Banshee)
• Lv.199 Book of Skeletons (Book)

[Mark of Aphenoreth]

“I’m rather proud of my progress,” Sofia couldn’t help but say.

“And so am I, yes. But you’re not ready for the trial yet.”

Alith joined the conversation, “Where do we start, the scroll or the lich?”

“The Lich isn’t there, no.”

Sofia’s plans to prepare for the trial involved meeting with the famous lich, crafter of storage items, Richard ‘T.L.D.R.’ the Arch-lich, boss of Red Carpet. It turned out the Red Carpet was responsible for managing prestigious auction houses where only the rich could come to bid. Zerei had not only been busy training Alith and Sofia, but as she fancied herself their coach, she prepared the next steps. When she could, she had been flying away to other places, including a Red Carpet auction house.

“He’s gone, yes. From the information I have, he left at around the same time you said the Fox Saintess should have left. Nobody knows when either of them will come back. It’s too bad; I wanted to meet them both, yes. They might even be older than me.”

“Then we’re left with the plan to use this,” Sofia continued while taking out the Miner’s scroll.

“You never told me what we’re after with this,” Alith quipped.

“Because I don’t know, we don’t know.”

“Let me explain, yes. Since it lets us search for a mineral vein. If you want the rarest metals you can find without going into the more dangerous areas of the planet, there are three choices with this scroll. Either you go for Orichalcum and hope to find a gigantic vein, in which case, if you’re lucky enough, we could make several armors out of it, yes. Or we go for Mithril, and the average size of the Mithril veins is much, much smaller, but it’s also more precious. With enough of it, we can make terrific weapons, yes. The last choice, we go for Mithrium.”

“Mithrium?”

“Mithrium is the fusion of both Mithril and Orichalcum. Its properties are stronger, and it’s the best thing you can get here, yes.”

“But?” Alith asked because there was obviously a problem with it.

“But it’s so rare that even finding a bit of it to track down with the scroll might take forever. And the vein could end up being minuscule, yes.”

“If it’s so good, can’t we mix the two metals and make it ourselves?”

Also a question I had.

“No, Mithrium was never artificially recreated, not that I know of. And I searched while I was in Hooasow. The latest theories are still the same as in my time, yes.”

“Which would be?”

“Mithrium cannot be created anymore. We think the conditions of existence used to be different enough that it allowed such an impossible alloy. And now it has become impossible, yes.”

Sofia also still had a question, “Wouldn’t all of it already have been found then?”

“A valid concern, but its properties make it hard to find unless you stumble upon it through blind luck. And also… The higher levels do not care about it. Why would they when their own body performs worlds better than this ever could?”

“That…”

Is a good point…

In the end, the trio couldn’t decide what mineral would be the best to search for, so Sofia decided to ask Karlson. Because who better than a blacksmith to give an opinion on that?

Past the initial surprise at Zerei’s appearance, Karlson’s opinion was clear-cut.

“Orichalcum. Not even a question. Go for the pink stuff. Why? The veins are huge. Always. They’re rare, but if you find one, you’ve struck it rich. Mithril comes in small pockets, geodes. You’re gonna get scammed if you search for that. And Mithrium is out of the question. Yes, it’s worth a thousand times more than Mithril by the gram. But that’s the thing; you weigh it by the gram. You’d be lucky if your ‘vein’ is larger than your thumbnail.”

“It’s that bad, yes?”

“Yep. Just go for Ori; I’m serious. There’s no way this isn’t the option that gets you the most money. I’d even go so far as to say, first go to the highest mountain in the northern chains and then use it. Since it locates the nearest, this is where they should be biggest in the area. There are dangerous monsters there, but with someone at Kuli’s level with you, this won’t be a problem.”

Is he that confident we’ll hit a big vein?

“What if the vein is small?”

“That basically never happens. On the off chance that it does keep digging, it’s pretty much guaranteed you’ll find at least a decent-sized one nearby. You could even get a Mithril node or two if you're lucky.”

“Speaking of digging… Should we bring a pickaxe or something like that?” I mean, we do have the Mithril weapons, but we know very well how slow that is.

“Just have Ma'am' Apostle over here punch the stone a few times? Doubt some mere stone could stop her. Honestly, you could probably do it yourself too. Don’t worry about damaging the metal. As long as it doesn’t disappear, I can work with it.”

“I think I can do that, yes. Will you be available to help these two fledglings craft some armor? We should be done in a day or two at most. I will be the one to enchant them. I can teach you some runecrafting while doing so if you wish.”

“Of course, it would be a pleasure… Just don’t tell my wife I’m crafting with someone else…”

“Karin helps at the smithy too?” She’s already got her hands full with the financial management.

“Not as often as she used to…”

Karlson was right. The Orchichalcum vein they found was massive. Enough to make at least three armor sets. Dopple ate well, and Zerei covered Sofia’s armor in so many utility and protection enchantments there was no way to add any more, even if Knowledge Himself tried. Thanks to the shade dust, they even managed to dye it perfectly black.