Chapter 397 - Sunless (Patreon)

Go check this shit out, Crowie. Try not to get spotted.

The small crow skeleton jumped up from Sofia’s shoulder and hopped to the entrance of the cave where it landed behind a small rock, unable to fly due to the lack of ambient mana.

You got a mana clump about fifty meters to your left, can you look?

Crowie carefully hopped out of the cave and through the short grass to a tree, which he jumped straight up into the leaves of. From there he tried to move through the leaves to get a view on the direction Sofia had pointed out.

Too many trees in the way… It’s moving somewhat towards you, just don’t move. You know what to do.

After what felt like an eternity, a shadowy figure emerged through the trees. It was like a tall lump of black oil, slithering between the trees without a sound.

A shade? No, I feel no link to it, can’t be one.

What the fuck is that thing.

[Sunless Drone - Lv. 234 - Imprint power : 1 - Effect : ??? Skill shard (1/100) ]

‘The weakest kind of Sunless, be wary of them when they are in large groups’

Sunless? Because they appear at night?

It’s like… It looks like a slime shade… Like a big black bubble of oil… It looks stretchy.

A skill shard imprint, shard because you need 100 of them to actually get the skill, I assume? That’s 10000 stat points for the skill. Double that for me since I have the crown. And for a mystery skill? I don’t know how I feel about this.

It doesn't look like it sees you, but stay careful Crowie.

If these appear every night we will have plenty of opportunities to learn what that skill is, so let’s just observe for now. The cheater description says it’s the weakest kind, meaning there are several stronger types.

Sofia pushed her mana perception as far as she could. She felt several more mana clumps all around the small hill she was in, but as far as she could tell, they all felt about the same as the Sunless Drone. Observing their mana move around, she noticed that they seemed to have some kind of core.

Do they have a mana heart inside of them or something like that? This feels a bit like a golem core. The clumps are held together by something inside. A denser core of mana. Yeah this really really looks like a golem core, no matter how I look at it.

So either a natural weak point. Or a testimony to these creatures being artificial creations. Which is it, I wonder. I could see them being golem-monsters created by the admins to populate the world faster. I will need to kill one to be sure.

Wait for it to be far enough and come back, Crowie. Booki, I need the engineer and the archer.

Sofia took a big crate full of scrap metal and parts she had no idea how to use out of her storage ring as Bookie presented the two pages she had asked for. When Crowie made it back to the cave, the other two skeletons had appeared.

“Engineer, we need a musket, let’s say the electric one for now.”

Ever since the engineer skeleton had proved his worth in the fake world where Sofia had found Saria, she had been collecting random mechanical parts to be able to give him when the need arises. After some testing, the easiest and best use of his powers was to assemble temporary magic muskets. He could do electric, fire and regular muskets with what Sofia had. Their strength was quite decent, and as long as the Engineer was there, other skeletons could also use his creations.

The human archer skeleton was equipped with a rifle and given Crowie as a scout, then sent through the roof of the cavern to the surface by the graveyard skeletons.

The most isolated Sunless is about five hundred meters in the direction I’m looking at. Try to see if you can spot it.

Sofia looked through the token Crowie was wearing but all she could see from there was a view of the nearby forest from the top of the hill. After about twenty seconds, the archer gave a thumbs-up to Crowie, then pointed at a spot down in the forest.

You see it?!

Sofia tried her best to spot it but the vision from the token wasn’t nearly as good as her own eyes, and she still couldn’t find it. It really is in this direction though, so…

Shoot!

With her mana senses, Sofia could see the lightning-imbued projectile pierce straight through the Sunless Drone. The gaping hole it left immediately closed back up, as if nothing had ever touched the creature. The archer skeleton was already reloading the musket.

They’re closing in on you, you only have time for one more, aim a bit higher!

As all the Sunless Drones rushed for the top of the hill, the archer skeleton shot once more, following Sofia’s instructions. The shot hit the core.

‘You have defeated [Sunless Drone - Lv. 234 - Imprint intact]’

The mana making up the Drone dissipated, while the core which had been hit but not destroyed fell to the ground. At the same time, the graveyard skeletons hurriedly retrieved the Archer and Crowie as all the other Sunless Drones reached their position.

Oh, damn.

What Sofia’s mana vision was telling her was that when the Sunless Drones had all reunited in one spot, they had fused. There was no boundary anymore, the multiple Drones had become one large entity with several cores.

Do not fight when they are in large groups… I get why now. They can combine like this… I assume the sum is greater than the parts. And even if this thing isn’t higher-level, which it might be, if we need to hit all the cores to kill it…

Maybe this trial is not so easy after all, huh. Who could have guessed.

Sofia summoned a rat skeleton from Bookie, it was a new addition to replace the rat she had lost on Sun’s space temple. She sent it out with the graveyard with the mission to retrieve the core of the fallen Drone.

Sofia played with the small black pebble in her hand. It was quite heavy for its size.

[Small Debris]: The busted core of a Sunless Drone. Contains a rapidly-deteriorating imprint.

Debris is a weird way to call it. But I guess it’s literally just a slightly heavy rock.

I should at least check what the skill is even if it costs me 200 stats points. I just need to be sure not to fall for that sunk-cost fallacy thing the ‘hero’s guide to gambling’ book warned about...

Sofia pressed her mana heart against the Debris and absorbed the imprint.

[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /F tier/

9 months, 32 days, 19 hour

Imprint progress : 18.57/50

Effects (Will be doubled) :

• All stats -30% (F rank base)
• Mana + 1757
• [Relocate Core] Skill shard (1/100)

Relocate Core? Can I get a read on that?

[Relocate Core] : Your Mana Heart gains the ability to move within the confines of your body to avoid blows.

Oh wow that’s good, isn’t it? I would imagine that the Mana Heart getting hit is quite bad.

Killing 100 of these drones shouldn’t be too hard, but that’s quite the stat loss, though. I really need to pick and choose what skills I want to get in there…

Or maybe not? Do I actually have a maximum number of imprint power I can take? Regular hearts do but I have Aphenoreth’s boon, so maybe thinking about it like that is just dumb. I don’t even know if I’ll manage to go past the regular maximum in the first place. Might as well take everything that Pareth doesn’t need.

Chances are, I can get ALL the skills!

But for now I’m hiding in a cave…

Sofia checked the outside with her mana senses, the Drones were still all fused, and roaming around the hill as one big entity.

I wonder how that thing would fare against a shower of Rot. Let’s try that out.

The skeletons other than Crowie were dispelled, and Pareth returned to the storage. Sofia slowly snuck out of the cave, half of her attention focused on following the cluster of Drones’ movements.

I feel so vulnerable without my wings. This is awful.

Wait… No…

Sofia had to stop herself from laughing out loud.

She took a single step forward, but instead of the ground, she willed to step on the air.

Ahahahah!

Suck it, trial! No mana? I don’t need any mana, I walk wherever the fuck I want!

♢ [DODGE - ME] ♢:

Experience gains +10%, Thinking speed +100%, Reading speed +1000%

Order form :

Attacks curve around you.

Aura, Charisma, and Processing +100%

Gain the ability to walk on matter in liquid and gaseous forms.

Sofia happily walked up stairs that did not exist until she reached the tree tops, giving her a good view of the creature shambling around on the small hill.

Oh damn this thing is a mess. Are those white things eyes? This looks oddly similar to that God-layer creature in floor 99 of the last trial, just black instead of blue and with no teeth. There might be a link between the two.

How does this one Identify?

[Sunless Amalgam - Lv. 289 - Imprint power : 100 - Effect : ??? Skill shards (1/10) ]

‘A bunch of Sunless Drones turned one, just as dumb, much more dangerous.’

It really became a single entity. It’s a different beast alright. Different imprint too. From about twenty drones the imprint power jumped up to 100.

Oh shit, it saw me!

The creature had made a sudden turn and was rushing in Sofia’s direction worryingly fast, its bulbous oily body crushing the trees in its path like twigs. Sofia blasted the shambling amalgam with a bright column of holy light as she let herself fall to the forest ground, and summoned the graveyard skeletons to escape underground.

I think the rot worked?