Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Almost there. Last step, now that everything is properly connected, sever the three coupling branches from section Growth12A to Amp36E in the left shoulder third quadrant. Yes, this one.”

The inert runes on Sofia’s body lit up altogether with a soft glow.

“There you have it. How is the system scan compared to my simulation?”

“It’s… Almost perfectly identical,” Sofia answered, bewildered, as she compared her new skill description to the one haphazardly scribbled by Suhen on a piece of paper ten hours prior.

“Almost?”

“It lost the confusion on hit effect and the Stamina penalty is 10% instead of 15.”

[Runelord]:

You have become master of the runes of power, at a cost.

Maximum Health -20%

Maximum Stamina -10%

All skills are always at the maximum level possible for your current filter.

In rare cases, skills that cannot level may level up.

In your field aura, all undead and yourself gain the following effects:

+150% Stamina substats (Skill level*30)

Reduce all incoming damage by 10%

For a cost of 2.5 (0.4)% max mana per second, double these effects and also gain the following:

Omnidirectional free flight & Acceleration resistance

Effective Active Skill level +20EX (Skill level*4)

Undead that attack you are excluded by the runes.

Suhen scratched her chin reading the description. “Huh… The confusion was a compound effect riding on several other modules. There must be a conflict I failed to compute somewhere. There is still time to correct that before it fully sets. Are you trading 5% stamina for confusion on hit?”

“I’ve rarely noticed the confusion doing much at all but it is applied to everyone… And I very rarely get down to 5% stamina…”

“No wrong choice here. Confusion is a weak affliction but it being constantly applicable makes it very decent, while your raw stamina is your least important stat. A negative 5% multiplier is always annoying, however. Balanced tradeoff.”

“... I think I will keep my stamina. Confusion has always been the weakest part of the skill so I can live without it. And this saved me half a skill slot. Well well worth the effort. Thank you so much…”

“Keep the soppy thanks for yourself, kid. Once you accomplish your goals, show your goodwill through your actions. That is how one repays a teacher.”

“I will keep that in mind! N– Now would you mind giving me more advice for–”

“Such insatiable greed! Enough for today! Come back for practical training when you have fully cleaned up your shit, and not one fusion before!”

Suhen proceeded to open her door from a distance with magic and literally kick Sofia out of her room.

Barely recovering from the kick before her face could smash through the corridor’s window, Sofia stabilised herself and looked back at the closed door of Suhen’s room.

“I suppose I did deserve that one…”

“Damn right you did! Move it, soldier!”

After bowing deeply to the closed door, Sofia transposed herself away.

Sitting on her bed in the palace, watching Bookie run around the room chasing Crowie, Sofia continued to contemplate what to do with her skills. Suhen was still correct in saying it needed cleanup, and in general she needed to make space for the last skill of her sub-class and the skills she would get by leveling up. The more space she left for the high scribes to give her more power, the better.

I also need to find a proper set of aura for the Abereth… So much to do.

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But well… Summon Self’s rework can wait. The primary offenders right now are my active skills.

Summon blood will just take too long. Maybe after we resurrect mom I can afford spending the time. I guess for now it’s Iwa’s skill on the chopping block. He said I could go ahead and do whatever but still…

Whatever will the stars skill become at that point? It’s already such a strange amalgam of a skill. I almost wish I’d just kept the rot and the curse separate even if they were just as clunky.

The best outcome here would be to have an easily applicable debuff, instead of this wide area thing. I already have the explosive bolts for wide area destruction which is why the stars get so little use.

I don’t see Iwa’s skill doing it, though, even though the fusion looks like it would be easy with the number of similar modules.

Hmm…

Sofia spent the next few hours analyzing the mana circuits of the two spells in detail, while reviewing all the classless skills she had access to, hoping to find something that seemed like a powerful combo to fuse with them.

It was quite late in the night when she realised a slightly disquieting detail.

The core module of the aberrant sunlight curse– it kind of looks like a soul parasite, doesn’t it? I get a glimpse of their mana structure every time the blessing killed one of them. Back then I lacked the level of comprehension to understand what I was looking at but…

It’s really similar.

Maybe if I could turn the rot into a soul affliction somehow I…

That was how Sofia came to knock on the door of Zerei’s school, which had only just that week finished moving to Ser’Extra, at four in the morning.

Zerei opened the door, wearing a patch lab coat and smelling strongly of grass. “Sofia? Something urgent?”

“No, I just had an idea for a curse and–”

“Say no more, no!” Zerei happily reacted, grabbing Sofia’s wrist and pulling her inside, “New spells lab is third underground, I’ll be here in a minute, yes!” she hastily said before rushing upstairs.

Meanwhile, a young human girl with dark hair, maybe thirteen at most, holding a large open grimoire of curses in her hands, watched the scene from the couch with wide eyes. Sofia stared back, for an entirely different reason, as she did a very obvious double take when the number above the young kid's head showed three digits.

Level 153?!

The girl pointed a finger at Sofia, mouth agape, “The– The face-ripper!”

“Who, me?!”

Hearing the commotion, Zerei came back down the stairs, “Is something wrong, Eleonore?”

“It’s her!” the kid answered, “The face-ripper necromancer who gave me gold coins!"

The light-neurons finally connected in Sofia’s brain, “You’re that kid from Hooasow!”

Zerei watched her student and her friend point at each other in utter incomprehension.

“You two know each other?”

“Erm… I– Woah. It’s a small world, after all,” Sofia managed to answer, “I… She happened to see me, uhh… cleaning up a few skeletons in a river back when I was a lot weaker… That was like… Five years ago.”

“Yes? Really?! That’s so funny! Well… Let me do the formal introductions, then, yes? Sofia, this is Eleonore, she’s a very talented self-taught hexmaster, she has been one of my students for about eight months now, yes. Eleonore, this is my good friend Sofia, I owe her my life, and she is the local city lord, also. Hmmhmm.”

“The– The city lord?!” Eleonore repeated, shock written all over her face.

“Yes? Haven’t you seen the statue on the central square's fountain, no?”

“I- It– The statue has a big armor and wings!” the kid argued.

“I don’t tend to wear those in the city,” Sofia commented, activating her armor and regrowing her wings for demonstration.”

Eleonore was so speechless that the heavy grimoire she held slipped from her hands.

“Well… Nice to meet you again?” Sofia said, “And sorry, I guess…”

“Sorry what, that she ended up with me as her teacher?” Zerei joked.

“That I ruined her childhood? Do you know many level 150 kids her age?!”

“Heh, apologizing for giving her talent a chance to express itself, are you, yes? Stop spewing nonsense and get to spells lab, both of you! I’ll be here when I’m done with my powder.”

Thus, Eleonore followed Sofia down the stairs without a word, staring at her like she wanted to burn a hole through her back with her gaze.

Making it to the wide underground room with ritual-engraved walls and lined-up target dummies, Sofia looked around with curiosity. “It’s better than the one she had in Vasperia,” she commented, hoping to break the awkward silence. “I didn’t remember you being so shy,” she added, seeing the teenager not react.

“I’m not shy,” Eleonore answered, having seemingly regained some composure, “I never thought I would ever see you again. I– I bought a magic book with the money you gave me back then. It has gotten me to where I am today, I am incredibly grateful, thank you!” she suddenly said with a deep bow.

Sofia scratched her head, not too sure how to reply, she had mostly just given the kid some money as an apology for exposing her to a grueling sight, mildly hoping it would help her someday. “Happy it helped. Although… It’s clear that you got here through your own effort, level 153 isn’t something one can buy for a handful of gold coins. I am glad that you have a good teacher now. Zerei is great, right? She taught me a lot too.”

“Teacher Kralan is the best!” Eleonore proudly acquiesced, “She always knows exactly how to fix my spells’ weak points.”

“Right? This is why I wanted to see her today, too.”

“Oh! What about your skeleton knight?!”

“You mean Pareth? Right, back then… Anyway, he’s still with me, let me check… Hmm, he’s underwater right now, working on the southern docks, I think. Want me to call him here?”

“Ah- No, nonono, please, I don’t want to be a bother…”

“Don’t worry I’m sure he would be happy to see you again. Ah, while we’re here, since you’re Zerei’s student, let me give you a little something…”