Mornn
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Chapter 636 - Sofia, you look scary.
🕑 Added 2025-03-07 17:43:36 +0000 UTCSofia only quickly had time to glance over the messages, as the Scribe started grabbing all of her attention with system notifications.
[CLASS QUEST UPDATE!]
[Class Quest: Find the missing skills!
You picked an experimental sub-class not meant for use, three out of four skills could not be retrieved, but there are traces of their recorded locations.
UPDATE: You found one of three missing skills, two remain!
Warning: This class’s skills cannot be learned.
Hints:
One of four skills was discovered in a labyrinth.
One of four skills was discovered in the deepest trenches of the ocean.
NEW! ‘Paradise Toybox’ was discovered on the warped moon. (FOUND; ESSENCE MISSING)
‘Singularity Edict’ was discovered in ruins of the lost epoch beneath an unholy cathedral. (LEARNED)
Sub-Class Quest progress: 2/4]
[WARNING!]
[Spell schematic is being recorded. Please do not look away.]
Of course the essence is missing… It ended up being Yvraveteth’s skill and not Aphenoreth’s. Unlucky. I just need to stare at it while you record it?
Hopefully it’s not too long, Izzaro could wake up any moment...
[Recording complete!]
[You may now learn ‘Paradise Toybox’]
Available Sub-Class Active Skills :
[Paradise Toybox] : Create artificial realities.
[ERROR]
[Sub-Class skills slots are full. Attribute one of (2) remaining free slots to ‘False Lord’ Sub-Class in order to learn ‘Paradise Toybox’?]
Technically we have three slots since I got rid of Alith’s skill, but anyway, of course yes. Why even ask?
‘You have acquired the active : ‘Paradise Toybox (Incomplete)’
Incomplete? Oh, because I lack the essence? Alright… Now I just need to quickly copy the message in a system note. I’m sure Richard would pay good money to read this.
Annnnnd done.
I think I’ve got everything, now I just need to grab the dead god’s body and get the fuck away from this moon. I don’t think I could possibly save Remia right away, not when an admin failed at it before me…
Making as little sound as possible, Sofia walked away from the throne, and returned to the group.
“I got the spell. Let’s get to a safer room,” she told them, and just like this, they left behind the sleeping tree.
They ended up sitting in one of the palace’s better furnished rooms in the light world, where they were relatively safe and comfortably seated, if one just ignored the creeping mass of deep stalkers walking all over the windows on the outside.
“So, success, right?” Alith asked.
“Yes, but give me a second to check the spell description, I’ll explain everything I discovered, it’s quite a bit.”
“Maybe let us read the description too?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Sofia shared the system window for ‘Paradise Toybox’.
[Paradise Toybox]: Who has never dreamed of a perfect world?
Creates an artificial reality according to your will.
WARNING: Essence of Yvraveteth required for safe use.
Using this skill without the required essence will instead cost mana.
In such cases, the artificial reality will be extremely unstable and will not function as intended.
Possible malfunctions include: Failed activation, Uninhabitable artificial reality, Permanent Blueprint alteration, Critical memory loss or alteration, Failure to return to reality, Reciprocity of state in the real world, Sudden artificial reality failure, Clones, Spontaneous Explosion, Split mind, Insanity, Uncontrolled timescale alterations, Reality Slipping Sickness, Aura corruption, Sudden Death, and more!
However, two Spell snippets can safely be used with mana only:
Leave the Toybox: Allows the user to dismiss themselves from an artificial reality.
Freeze the Toybox: Allows the user to temporarily stop an artificial reality’s timescale except for themselves.
Mana costs will vary depending on the artificial reality’s settings.
“Possible malfunctions… That’s… Quite the list,” Sofia commented first as she was the fastest reader.
“Yeah woah, that explains a lot about what we just went through, huh,” Alith said next, “And that must be how the system created the trials. And Joah’s class.”
“Also my guess, yes. The malfunctions do line up somewhat too, with time in trials being slower than reality, and with the reciprocity of state just meaning that you actually die in reality when you die in the trials. Blueprint alteration also happened when I did Sorrow’s ritual I think.”
“But the trials are not ‘extremely unstable’ are they?” Alith noted.
“I don’t think so, the admins must have altered the spell a lot, Anna was the God of Mana after all so if anyone could have pulled off successfully modifying a spell from the Deep it was probably her,” Sofia guessed.
“Agreed, well, you’d better not try regular activations until you kill Scripture. Wouldn’t want to see you turn into a giant tree.”
Bookie seemed shocked by Alith saying that, and he grabbed Sofia’s arm, “You can’t use it, Sofia! I don’t want Sofia to be a tree!”
“Don’t worry Bookie, I don’t think I want to try, considering all the possible ways it could turn out, better safe than sorry. But I think the way Izzaro and the people here turned out had a lot more to do with them drinking Ormoncleth’s blood than with the spell itself…”
“You mean the queen?” Alith asked.
“Yeah, about that… Remember how we had that discussion about whether she was the real deal or just a marked one like me? Look at the message that was inscribed on the throne…”
“Oh that pretty much settles it,” Alith said after reading the message. “It’s surprising that the lords would choose to just become humans. A bit as if we decided to try becoming ants, I guess? What’s ‘it’, though?”
“Well, Orator told me back when we got stranded in the Deep, that they were tired of, huh… Scattering their will, is how I think he said it? And I can imagine that, especially for Ormoncleth, if they see everything at all times as I think they do, I don’t know about you, but that sounds tiring. But the ‘it’, no idea. Maybe the cataclysm that erased the lost epoch. Probably that, actually, since Remia seemed to think it was going to happen again.”
“Well shit. Hopefully not. Whatever happened back then killed even the gods… But well, at least we know why there are relics from the lost epoch featuring the lords now. By the way, didn’t that tethered count say the queen was the tenth lord or something like that?”
“He did, but I don’t think the ‘human lords’ from back then were all actual lords of the deep. Six of them were likely just regular humans copying the title. I learned a bit about that from one of the palace guards in the fake world actually. He seemed to think that if his skill with the blade was a bit better, he could have become a lord himself. That says a lot… Hmm, now that I think about it… That was probably the guy who cut your arm.”
“... He was good with the blade alright… I’d describe his face if it hadn’t been all blurry…”
The discussion continued for a short while, with Sofia explaining the rest of what she knew about the situation, and some debate about how to best use the ‘skill snippets’ from Sofia’s new skill. Needless to say, Sofia was now really hoping the next trial was in a fake world. Just how much would she be able to break the trial given the ability to freeze time?
The skill also gave Sofia some hope that she would be able to use it to free Remia once she killed Scripture and got Orator’s essence. After all, if the incomplete spell could already alter the fake realities created by the system, perhaps the full spell was capable of more, despite the awfully short description Mr.Scribe gave it.
This done, the group did not linger in the palace much longer. They were not about to make the same mistake as before and travel through the deepling infested surface, instead Sofia summoned the digger Kidjikkiks.
Making slow progress to avoid any possibility of ending up in an infested underground part of the city or to surface at the wrong place, the Kidjikkiks dug under the Palace and the streets until they were under Oviron’s spire, or what remained of it.
“Sofia…” Bookie complained, grabbing her leg as the Kidjikkiks were starting to dig upwards, “Look…” he said, pointing at the stone wall of the tunnel. It was subtle, but thanks to Bookie pointing it out, everyone noticed the pattern hidden in the stone’s grain: eyes.
“That’s a bit creepy,” Alith commented.
“It’s just a sign we’re getting there. It’s the body of a dead god we’re after, tainted remains, according to gluttony’s description.”
“Did Speed’s corpse do that too?” Alith asked.
“No idea. Speed’s domain was already full of eye patterns everywhere so I doubt I could have told if the corpse created more.”
The Kidjikkiks dug up carefully until they reached a hard layer, the building’s foundations, after which Sofia dismissed them and started digging herself, carving away at the foundations with the admin dagger.
Midway through she had to stop. Her senses were tingling.
“Is something wrong?” Alith asked from below.
Sofia looked down.
“No. Something is right,” she answered. “Very right!”
The others looked up at her in incomprehension.
“I feel bones,” she revealed with a scarily wide smile.
Comments
OmniGlitcher
Paradise Toybox is definitely quite the skill. Looking forward to seeing it in full action, or even just partial. I see what you mean by yesterday's comment about "easily" adapting it now, honestly impressive they managed to limit the side effects to just what it does. Mr. Scribe's "and more!" after the list of horros made me laugh. "Reality Slipping Sickness" is certainly a thing that intrigues me. Also, you'll be glad to know I haven't just glossed over the paragraph from Yvr yesterday, I'm cooking with some premium tin foil to be unleashed at some point.
Cinnamon Toast
If this is true do you think the person who interferes in Sophia’s 3rd trial might be an iteration of her that progressed far enough to think of a work around to being reset
E
I also suspect the 30,000 "event" might be a kinda-sorta time loop. Uncle Ed could be the "memory retainer" of this loop and is trying to figure out how to break the cycle with Marked or something. I feel like Orator having a blurry face is evidence of the real world being a reality loop.
Tejing
Random thought: Is the skill that's "in a labyrinth" perhaps at the bottom of the Abyss of the Damned? Is the whole deal with the "sinner" stuff some kind of backlash of abusing a Deep skill, like the light world is? That's... uh... quite the terrifying list of possible malfunctions. Now my brain is immediately coming up with situations where Sofia would be stuck having to use it anyway... Don't do it, Sofia! Bookie freaking out like that is adorable. The other Lords of the lost epoch being normal humans makes sense. ... It's just occurred to me that Aphenoreth freezes time when he appears. Just like this skill would let Sofia do in a fake world. Is the real world just a really big and long lived fake world? Is there even a true real world anymore, with Time dead? Is that what the Orator meant about the universe finding a way?
Sky
Oh, the time limit to kill Scripture could be a decent hint for about how long their world has, since the lords are the ones most aware of the cycle and its timing. And if she can't even kill a weak god by then she is not surviving 'it' anyway.
Cyclone001
I shudder to imagine how much mana a god will need to be summoned. Assuming, of course, it's not Izzaro's Bones in there too. On the plus side, whichever skill location she chooses next, she'll have the essence for it. I wonder if Sofia will go hunting more skills and dead gods before the next trial or try to speedrun to 500.
E
The Lords put on some meat bag disguises, took a vacation, and messed around with making the craziest spells possible in this reality. The admins found these spells and built the System. If the System is this powerful with mana instead of essences, then what will Sofia be capable of? I wonder what the Eye of Creation is. Is it a "Lord Spell" fueled by mana? What would the essence-fueled version of it look like?
Matt Grayson
Indeed, yes!
Songy
*bonks the Sofia* Down girl, you can drool over those hip-bones later! (◡̀_◡́)▬▬█
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! It’s a sudden thought regarding the false lord subclass, but I’m wondering if the angels are based on the Annihilator’s unique skill. I had not even considered using the false reality skill to manipulate trials, that’s crazy powerful. I feel like it says a lot about how the small throne could hold the core spell that the admins needed a sky scrapping tower to match. Lastly, it sounds like the time has come for Sofia to get a god’s bones… next step is the god? of time stuck in the Deep.
Tsorov
That's just called being a Paleonthologist. Well, she does it a bit earlier than most, before they become fossils, but that is just something the science community has to accept
Kennyevilmonkey
Sophia, giving you those hungry eyes and biting her lips: "Mmm, the things I would do to your femor~. After I'm done with you, you won't be able to stand properly for a week!" 🦴🫦
Tom Asciola
So now I'm wondering whether the "real" world and/or the Lost Epoch were also fake...
Kennyevilmonkey
Some people go digging for gold. Sophia? She digs for BONES 🦴🦴🦴
Chance Rose
Bookie straight up called her out for beating it with a bone. I don't remember the chapter but that definitely happened.
Chance Rose
So, the calamity that caused the lost epoch could be the sorrowful tidings. That's good to know, but still tells us absolutely nothing lmao
Chance Rose
No worries
Mornn
:D
Libery
We know they have toys. And we know she was alone and "unsupervised" some time when she built the bone city after the black hole incident. I would guess she did not build all the time, and seeing as she had lots of bones...
Matt Grayson
Has she (or anyone else) ever suggested otherwise? (And didn't someone ask her about her penchant for making bone replicas of some piece of anatomy? 🤣 )
Daemion
Thank you for the explanations in this chapter, it helped a lot. :)
Matt Grayson
Bones! Yay!
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
BOT
No one can convince me Sofia doesn’t get off by bones by now
Mornn
A bit late, sorry about that X.x
