Chapter 126: Purpose achieved

Chapter 126: Purpose achieved

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

The primeval void was born of the universes first shadow.

Shadow gathering realm :

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

First step : Become more resilient to explosions (0/50%)

Second step : See in the dark

Third step : ???

???

Current step training method : Damage body through pressure or heat

Complete first step to unlock further steps.

Complete all steps and gather divine essence to unlock further realms.

Current divine essence (5) :

Scripture (1)

Aphenoreth (1)

Dread (1)

Sorrow (1)

Ormoncleth (1)

Couldnt I get that BEFORE I blew myself up?!

Well, its a very loaded skill it seems. If each step gives a different effect, and theres at least a second realm, thats at worst seven different effects.

Just the protection against one-hit kills is worth it I would say. Could have survived even the angels true bolt if I had that. Maybe. Also its a great synergy with the false immortality rune since it heals me back to full health. I could survive three hits that would kill me in a row with this, then the rune, then this again. That is if I start off at full life.

The protection against explosions looks exactly tailored to my bolting needs. And I wouldnt say no to seeing in the dark, though getting light isnt that hard anymore.

It still feels a bit underwhelming for now, but that should get better as I complete the steps. Theyre merely an alternate way to say level up it looks like.

The more intriguing part is the divine essence thing. But can kind of get it Aphenoreth and Ormoncleth must be the reason [Blessing of the Deep] says (2/4), Scripture is because Im the Saintess, Sorrow is because Im half an Apostle. But Dread? I got that by killing the demon in the tower I guess?

He was a Son of Dread, but its not like I inherited anything from killing him. Or so I thought Does that mean Ill have to kill Saints and Demons to level this up? It doesnt say how many of those Divine essences I need so perhaps I already have enough. In fact I doubt many people could have that many.

I imagine that Oracles and Gods themselves have divine essence too. Since theres a little (1) after each essence it stands to reason that I could get more somehow.

Well. One more thing to train.

Since Sofia had to repeat this process at least a hundred times she wanted to find a way to make it more useful than randomly exploding the ground.

So she flew back to the Thrombber hive.

The process was quite simple : carve the rune, run up to a Thrombber, [Angels bolt] in hand with Pareth in tow, blow up. Pareth would shield her from potentially collapsing tunnels, [Graveyard of the righteous]s skeletons would phase her out of the collapsed zone. Get out of the mine, regenerate mana, repeat.

There was still the question of whether Pareth could handle the tons of collapsing stone, so just in case he couldnt she would cast the graveyard before going in with the bolt. Like this she could get some experience, clear up the dungeon, and level up her two new skills all at the same time. She also wanted to keep intensively destroying her bone armor and abusing [Angels bolt]. That was in hopes she would manage to either upgrade them thanks to [Mana manipulation] as Astelia had explained, or get to know them well enough to be fine with deleting them. Freeing up a skill slot or two could be useful.

Even better, this will help [Sanctity] level up too. I dont have the luxury of having a huge health pool so I have to pay extra attention to leveling defensive skills.

With the plan laid out, she returned to the mines and got to exploding.

A full day of efforts in the mines amounted to not much.

She had killed a total of sixteen Thrombbers, ten of them lower than her own level, the rest not giving enough experience to get her a single level up from 180. The process of finding a monster, blowing up, and coming back out, took anywhere from ten to twenty minutes. But the most time intensive parts were the mana regeneration afterwards which took about twenty minutes, followed by the carving of the rune. With all that taken into account, she could only do the thing once per hour. And it was getting worse as the mines and tunnels were starting to collapse even in places she didnt explode in.

She looked at the results of a day of hard work.

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] :

First step : Become more resilient to explosions (6.109%/50%)

This isnt gonna work the diminishing returns are already kicking in, at this rate Id be lucky to reach 10% tomorrow, and itll be even worse after that.

This isnt an easy skill to train

At least [Sanctity] went up nicely. Up to 25% damage negation.

[Sanctity] reached level 45

[Sanctity] reached level 46

[Sanctity] reached level 47

[Sanctity] reached level 48

[Sanctity] reached level 49

[Sanctity] reached level 50

[Sanctity] reached level 51

If I maximize both [Sanctity] and the first step of VPPV thatll be two 50% resistances against explosion. I doubt thatll add up to 100% though. Most probably itll reduce by 50% twice effectively leaving 25% of the damage through for my armor and body to take.

Wait, does my armor benefit from the other skills? Don't believe so Then itll be 25% of whatever remains after going through the armor.

Sofia walked to the entrance of the mines, it was still the same dungeon. The dwarf diviner has to have died against the boss. Maybe I ought to stop before I anger the thing too But I should be close to a level up, I could just do one mo-

Her monologue was cut short by a wave of mana crashing into her, she only noticed it at the last second.

The scenery warped and shifted to a dark crypt lit by a singular light stone. In Sofias vision two images went by one after the other. First, the sight of two persons, a tall woman in pink plate armor supporting a middle-aged sweating paladin, they didnt wear their helmets and held no weapons. Second was Pareths back as he appeared before her.

And then her bracelet activated, eight thousand mana points escaped her reserves, and she was back in front of the mines, alone.