Mornn
patreon
Chapter 649 - Combo maker
🕑 Added 2025-04-08 16:00:13 +0000 UTCFailing to get this one will be the standard for what I consider a failure then. The effects must be pretty incredible for it to be so hard to get. Next, the awakening pill section…
[B rank Awakening Pill - 1000 TP
A rank Awakening Pill - 5000 TP
S rank Awakening Pill - 10 000 TP
SS rank Awakening Pill - 100 000 TP
SSS rank Awakening Pill - 1 000 000 TP]
Oh wow, the last two tiers are quite expensive, considering the cost of unique items. But then again anyone with an SSS rank heart had to kill on of the big monsters in the last trial so a million point should be easy even if they aren’t outliers like me. Pareth can already buy his share, which is nice, even though I’m not so sure a ‘pill’ will work…
There’s another issue too...
“Hey Lepo,” Sofia called out.
“Yes?”
“Pareth is a skeleton, he can’t usually eat stat pills or things like that. Will the awakening pills even work for him?” Sofia asked.
“Of course! This isn’t our first undead! He just needs to rub it on his mana heart until it’s fully absorbed instead of eating it, simple,” the shopkeeper explained.
“Alright, thanks. And second question, which one do I buy? There isn’t a pill for my rank.”
“There isn’t?!” Lepo repeated with a frown, “please wait a second…” he said, before spending a few seconds staring into the void, dealing with system windows that Sofia couldn’t see. Finally, he places his hands on his waist, “Ah! You had me scared for a second. Yours is a special case apparently, that can happen sometimes, where the generic pills won’t work. Your pill has already been brewed, I just need to add it manually… Oh my, now that’s a price tag I’ve never seen on an awakening pill before…”
One last line appeared on the shop’s window in front of Sofia’s eyes, and she directly opened its description.
[Special package - Infinity Engine Awakening Pill - 100 000 000 TP]:
This was an absolute pain to make, don’t waste it – FairyHands
“I could buy a five star pin unique for that price…”
“That must mean the ingredients were very expensive,” Lepo said with a shrug, “but looking at your current points right now, I doubt that will be an issue… You already have more than you’re supposed to be able to get by now…”
“That doesn’t seem to surprise you very much?”
“It’s above my paygrade,” he answered, shrugging again with his tail slowly waving left and right, “If the Seraphs aren’t blowing everything up then it’s probably fine.”
“... Does that happen?”
“Hopefully not!”
Reassuring…
“Anything else you think I should buy? There are quite a lot of tabs here…”
“Personally I would just save up for the pill first, if I were you. The earlier you get it the more time you will have to try to level up your mana heart,” the shopkeeper suggested, “but if anything, you could look at the skill optimization device right there.”
“That’s already what I was planning to do,” Sofia told him, closing the shop window and walking up to the blue pedestal. She put her hand on it and a screen lit up like the first time.
[Skill optimization available]
[Your point balance is ‘30 180 153’]
[Please wait a moment for your skills to be analyzed, do not remove your hand]
[Scan ongoing]
[Scan complete!]
[Contacting DATABASE]
[Download complete! You may now buy optimizations for the available skills]
[Skills available for guided optimization:
‘Spine of the Black Sun’
‘Graveyard of the Nymphs’
‘False immortality’
‘Skull Choir’
‘Summon Self’]
Oh! That’s more than I expected. And there’s false immortality in there! This could be big!
Impatient to see what this was going to be, Sofia selected that skill first.
[Skill : False Immortiality - Skill version index SK_FAIMM_0.42.2]
Current version :
[False Immortality] (Level 4) : Carves an un-life rune on your own body.
While under the rune’s effect :
Your soul is concealed.
You no longer emit mana.
You no longer emit heat.
You no longer emit light. (This has been disabled by : Lumian)
You cannot regain mana. (This has been disabled by : Infinity Engine)
You cannot regain stamina.
You cannot regain health.
If you were to die, a rune is consumed, granting three seconds of invulnerability, and completely restoring your physical body, health and stamina included.
Costs 670 648 mana (Half of maximum mana / skill level) per use.
Requires 10 (5 due to [Hand of the first Saintomancer]) minutes channeling to carve a rune.
Up to 4 (skill level) un-life runes may be borne at once.
You may dismiss the rune at any time, this will not restore your body.
[Available branches (same version lettered upgrades are mutually exclusive):
0.42.3A - One more rune can be engraved at base level, global time to engrave increased from 10 to 20 minutes. - 10 000 TP
0.42.3B - Health can now be recovered while a rune is active but doing so will degrade the rune accordingly. (1% health recovered = 1% reduced rune completion) - 10 000 TP
0.42.3C - Body reconstruction and invelnerability time reduced to 1 second, thought continuity is no longer interrupted by rune-prevented deaths. 10 000 TP
0.43.1 - Skill becomes passive. Rune will now engrave themselves. 50 000 TP
Request new branch - 500 000 TP base fee* + Branch cost
*fee refunded if completion of request is impossible]
Hmm… There’s actually nothing too exciting there. One more rune but the cast time goes back up to 10 minutes is quite an annoying tradeoff. The healing is nice but reduced rune completion is annoying, means I will have to recast it, doesn’t it? Faster body reconstruction could be better at higher levels, but for now I’m not so sure, the three seconds buffer has been nice to have, and it even works against level 500s. If not for that Hugo would have truly killed me for sure.
I could maybe take both 0.42.3B and 0.43.1. That would allow me to still heal in battle, and the degraded runes would recomplete themselves, but since it becomes a passive it’s no longer a channeling cast, which means the engraving time goes back to ten minutes. That might really be the best move, considering it will help me keep the VPPV one-hit-kill protection up by healing back up over 99% health. And not having to manually cast the runes will be a lot less annoying even if it’s slower.
I’ll think about it. What about the other skills? ‘Summon Self’ is the most basic of basic teleportations, so I’m curious.
[Skill : Summon Self - Skill version index SK_SUMSF_2.2]
Current version :
[Summon Self] (Level 54) : Instantly teleport yourself to a nearby location you can reach with your mana.
Range: 8.40 (10.22) meters (0.1*Skill level+3)
Coodldown: 30 seconds
Mana cost dependant on distance
[Available branches (same version lettered upgrades are mutually exclusive):
2.3 - Further Reduces Planar Drag - 2000 TP
3A - Range is doubled - 10 000 TP
3B - Cooldown is halved - 10 000 TP
Request new branch - 100 000 TP base fee* + Branch cost]
‘You have spent 10 000 tournament points’
‘Current balance : 30 170 153 points’
‘Notice: You are about to skip an intermediary branch (2.3), its effects will no longer available if you proceed’
Don’t care, I’m immune to planar drag already, give me the reduced cooldown!
‘[Summon Self] has been optimized following branch 3B’
“Points well spent. Quite cheap too,” Sofia mumbled to herself, already keen to look at the other skills.
This on is in a dire need of an upgrade.
[Skill : Spine of the Black Sun - Skill version index SK_SPOBS_1.0]
Current version :
[Spine of the Black Sun] (level 263): Invokes the weapon ‘Spine of the Black Sun’.
The Spine is a blunt segmented longsword that may also be used as an extendable whip.
Deals low physical damage.
Upon hitting an enemy with the Spine, creates a solar burst, damaging all enemies in a 6.26 (8.08)m (1 + skill level/50) diameter sphere around the point of impact.
The explosion’s power scales with the skill level and the strength of the hit.
Recover Health equal to 26.3% (Skill level/10) of the damage dealt by the explosion.
The spine will disappear if it leaves your hands.
Requires a 3 (1.5) seconds channeling to deploy. Costs 100 (50) mana per second to maintain.
[Available branches (same version lettered upgrades are mutually exclusive):
1.1 - Channeling is now instant 1000 TP
1.2 - Unlocks a greatsword form, physical damage equivalent to unenchanted orichalcum - 2000 TP
Request new branch - 50 000 TP base fee* + Branch cost]
Wait… That’s it? Really?
I mean, I can get both of those, they’re almost free… But come on, those can barely be called upgrades!
The possibility of new forms though…
‘You have spent 50 000 tournament points’
‘Current balance : 30 120 153 points’
[You may request for any change to the skill. The more your request deviates from the base skill, the more unlikely it is to get through, and the more likely it is to cost a lot of points.]
[Please write your branch request here: ]
It might get rejected but… Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And if it’s rejected I get a refund right? No reason not to try.
[Please write your branch request here: Hello, I would like a ranged form to shoot [Angel’s Bolt]s from, thank you in advance.]
[Branch Request sent]
Perfect. And now to…
Huh?
It’s stuck?
Sofia tried to take off her hand from the machine, but the screen was still stuck on the same message.
Sofia looked in Lepo’s direction, a confused evxpression on her face.
“Oh, did you request a new skill branch?” he asked, “The machine will no longer work until you receive the answer.”
“That is quite the terrible design,” Sofia commented with a sigh.
“I have to agree, but it should be fine, requests usually come through in a few seconds. If you didn’t ask for something unreasonable, at least, else it’ll be rejected just as fast.”
“Well… It’s still stuck, for now.”
“Just give it a bit,” Lepo confidently said.
Sofia spent the next twenty seconds staring at the screen while Lepo stared at her. “S- Still stuck?” he asked.
“Sure is…” Sofia confirmed
“Now that is a bit strange, it’s normally quite fast…”
Comments
Jonathan Wint
She Broke the system... LMAO It's going to agree but it knows it does not know how but it KNOWS that she asking for something more over powered than it looks!
Inv7ctus
Is it just me or is she underestimating the benefit of not having the continuity of her consciousness interrupted? Is one of her very few moments of weakness and is likely to be a problem at the highest levels. Also, turning the spine into a ranged weapon is genius, as it takes a highly niche part of her skill set and turns it into basically an always used tool, synergizing all the other shit she can do. Also makes the healing through the rune totally worth because now all her primary attacks heal her as well as spread rot, that's ridiculous(Especial since she already has lots of healing from Bone Dominus constructs). It may even be worth trying to get more attack spells that could be channeled through both her staff and spine to really compound those passive bonuses. I'm picturing the Spine merging with her staff when conjured become another channeling device stacking effects with each other. Or maybe like a cross bow thing? Still hoping for more skill fusion opportunities. My heart yearns for synergy. False Immortality as been a sore sport in her kit for a long while now with the anti synergy of her many healing effects, yet still being blatantly and obviously useful and powerful with its potent synergies (I.e. One with suffering, and 6th Melody). It's like a stubborn burr that needs to be smoothed out. If we can get even more optimization past the initial upgrade its likely worth sinking A LOT of points into at least mitigating the contradictions.
Mrluigi1111111
Turn false immortality passive + tournament greaves doubling a passive skill's potency = profit?? But yeah the reduced reconstruction time seems like a side grade that wouldn't help her much, the time spent dead is time her summons can do work without worrying about her.
E
I'm imagining Nex personally addressing Sofia's shenanigans as payback for saving him and to avoid upsetting Lords/Erredis. High Scribe: "Sir, she wants to turn her longsword/whip ability into a lightning+solar+rot bazooka. We clearly can't allow this, right?" Nex: "Sigh... guess I'm doing overtime. She better not try to combine this with that Avatar of Zeus skill..."
Michael Gordon
can pareth rub stat pills on his mana heart and gain those efforts also or no???
Tejing
Ouch, 100 mil for the awakening pill is a fair bit. I mean, probably not a lot on Sofia's scale by the end, but still... She needs to buy it in time to have the chance for it to work. False Immortality has been in need of some improvements for a while now. Hmm... if the skill becomes passive, does that mean the mana cost of engraving the runes goes away? It's just a time-based thing? Also, if it becomes a passive skill, I suppose that would make it a potential target for her tertiary specialization? That could be useful. The 3 options for it are... kinda underwhelming, though: One more rune is good, for sure, but the longer application time is unpleasant, especially considering that it also doubles when the skill becomes passive, since the staff stops affecting it. The time might not be that big a deal if it's passive, though... this would actually probably be my pick if I were Sofia. The health thing is sort of good, but also would actually decrease the number of lives she effectively has in pretty much all cases, since Bone Dominus healing would degrade the runes faster than they would reapply, even with the reapplication being passive, so it would at least disable the final rune before it was used in basically any real combat scenario... (unless a "degraded rune" still resurrects her, just with less health?) it also doesn't do anything about stamina, so she'd still need to kill herself regularly just to replenish the stamina spent on normal day-to-day stuff... especially if it becomes passive. The reduced reconstruction time is definitely a mixed bag. Shorter invulnerability time means she can withstand extreme damage for less time, though the ability to get back into action quicker might be worthwhile at higher levels. The thought interruption thing probably barely matters for her. She's already super used to that, and can even continue channeling spells during a resurrection. So we finally see the actual description for [Summon Self]... about time :-P. Halving the cooldown is pretty clearly the right move here, yeah. Interesting request. I'm not sure I understand quite what she means by it. Exploring the synergy of the Spine and the Bolts, in general, does make sense, though. If it's taking this long, I'm betting DATABASE is going to come up with something crazy, though... Corrections: [Skill : False Immortiality - Skill version index SK_FAIMM_0.42.2] Immortiality -> Immortality Rune will now engrave themselves. Rune -> Runes Body reconstruction and invelnerability time reduced to 1 second invelnerability -> invulnerability
Draxas
Reread the chapter where she mentioned the Dragon Admin and now I'm wondering what a side chapter of him laying down the law on the rogue system elements would look like
Chance Rose
Spine of the black sun evolves into a tesla coil. Make the bolts have sounds like those tesla instruments so she rave while she raids.
Mornn
it's fine, the machine is stuck but she isn't
Libery
What would happen if she is stuck when the next event hits?
Joshua Nutter
Maybe the highscribes enjoyed making her absurd skill fusions and now that they haven’t been able to due to her using the key instead, they are using this as an excuse to have fun again
Silver Dawn
At this point I think Sofia should ask for Spine of the Black Sun to be a passive or an active channel that works through her own body/bones. This would fit her fighting style way more. She is not a swordswoman or a weapons fighter. Would make her demon form more damaged focused and would act as an additional counter against melee fighters since they would be damaged upon contact.
Phsteven
Is it going to be a Black spine greatbow/long bow that when used in conjunction with her staff becomes a crossbow that launches angel's bolts in either piercing or explosive form and always has a solar burst at point of impact? (So she can now spread rot with the angel's bolts) Or is it going to be something similar to the demon lord's sword from Solo Leveling, where it just throws out lightning bolts with every swing?
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! Looks like database has to go looking for a certain angel and whoever originally made the black sun skill. Or is crafting something truly special It is kind of scary that false immortality is at version 0.42 though, while even the spine is at v1. Makes you wonder how the versioning was decided by database and what it could imply
Mornn
no no, the good thing about the tournament being in a fake world is that we don't have to deal with that kind of issues
BOT
At some point the Admin should take notice of the shenanigans Sofia is pulling, though granted he doesn have a few mellenia worth of logs and notices to go through first
Cyclone001
I'm a little confused how this upgrade would look like. Like a bow or a gun that shoots angelbolts that explode on impact with the aoe and health regen effects? More than that though, Sofia should really save up for that pill first since awakening her mana heart earlier (i.e. hitting 300 from what I understand) should be a bigger upgrade than these skills. If I'm understanding this Tournament Ark correctly, the later events will have the new lv 300s competing against the remaining 299s?
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Next time on SSS Sofia gets a bolt gun. It’s probably stuck because the spine can apply Erridian Rot and firing the bolts through it would probably also apply that to the bolts. It’s nice that we get to see what the skill optimization machine does. The awakening pill costing that much is absurd, though it makes sense. Side note: if the bakery does have unique items can one be a cookbook written by Anna that Sofia will at least buy just shut up her friends mocking her inability to cook. Lol
Matt Grayson
What's the worst that could happen? *** SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IN 10 MINUTES .... *** SYSTEM SHUTDOWN IN 9 MINUTES ... *** ...
ArtTheGreat
I wonder if this means the request is unreasonable but DATABASE is trying really hard to do it anyway.
Tom Asciola
Sofia, this isn't what "breaking the trial" was supposed to mean!
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
