Chapter 129: Odd Meals

Chapter 129: Odd Meals

Sofia was flying over the lazy volcanoes in the jungle north of Skyreach.

This one looks about right, I think?

It was a very small active volcano and currently its lava flows were unimpressive semi solid black sludge trails running down its sides. Oh, right, the poison gas ring, that was a thing that volcanoes do. Im rather lucky I didnt have any trouble with that last time. The book did say it could be very dangerous.

Well well. Time to summon the High-Priest.

Sofia landed near the middle of the lava trails length, it was still flowing, if quite slowly. Mostly black crust, doesnt look that hot even But the burning plants nearby tell another story.

The book appeared in her hand like it had always been there and opened by itself, the pages flipping to reveal the one Sofia wanted. This was a neat trick she had been practicing during her flight. The book actually somewhat listened to orders much like any other skeleton, but it was quite limited in the actions it could take. She could also use [Heal undead] if it got damaged, which was entirely useless as it repaired itself when re-summoned.

More than half of her mana disappeared into the page she ripped off of the book. The usual mist spread out and converged until it had become the unimpressive white robed high-priests skeleton. No weapon. I guess the Magisterium has it if theres one. Well, whatever.

Do you have a sustained and precise healing spell? Answer with a thumb up or down.

Of course he does. As expected of a high priest.

Alright, when the lava starts burning me, you heal my legs. Only the legs. If youre about to run out of mana, signal for Pareth to take me out of there before.

Should all be recognizable orders with how I broke them up.

Next, after I cut myself, you must heal the bleeding. Nothing else from that injury. Only focus on the cut veins and arteries. Can you do that?

Thumbs up again.

Alright, were all set then.

Sofia sat on a rock near the lava flow, she could just dangle her legs on the side and they would touch the atrociously hot stream of molten stone. Her mithril dagger appeared in her hand.

Hmm. Thats the hard part now. I think as long as I dont go too deep and focus on slicing horizontally that should do it. Better if I can go between two vertebrae but I cant really aim for that. Hard enough to cut my own back

Lifting her robe, she put the tip of the dagger against her spine. The wings are getting in the way. Somewhere under the waist should be fine, right?

She was no stranger to self-inflicted pain by now, and she didnt think twice about it when casting [Angels bolt] but somehow when holding a blade against her skin, there was still a bit of a mental block.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

She had one hand on the blade, to aim it and to act as a stopper to make sure it wouldnt go too deep, and a hand around the handle. Pareth was holding her by the shoulder so she wouldnt fall.

Do what must be done. Come on now

The blade sliced through her spine like it was thin air. She had no need to check if it worked, the difference in feeling was instantaneous. She groaned from the pain as the high-priest skeleton moved closer to follow the order to stop the bleeding.

Sofia stored the dagger and wiped the sweat off her forehead.

Could be different with the right setup if I fight inside of the sun rune ritual.

But the mist skeletons cant regenerate mana at all Disappear already, she ordered, giving a head sign to the skeleton standing on the side. His bones became mist and he disappeared.

But it wasnt like the book could absorb that mist, it had to build it back up by itself, and the high priest was very mist-expensive. Sofia believed the mist cost to be proportional to both the size and power of the summoned skeleton. The maximum amount of mist the book had also seemed to have increased a bit after her huge level boost, but it was hard to tell. After all there was no clear way to tell what quantity of mist was held inside the book aside from watching at what rate it flowed out of the edges.

She could only wait until the priest was good to go again. She occupied the downtime by giving Pareth orders on how he should fight alongside each type of summon from the book.

When it was time, she summoned the high-priest again and started another lava bath feeding frenzy.

Midway through the day she had to change rock because the wind had turned, blowing the smoke of her burned legs right in her face, and that was pretty much the only interruption. There were some low level monsters in the jungle, mostly monkeys and birds, but none dared come close to Pareth.

This circus went on for a long while, she had to stop with the skill at around 40% completion because she was starting to run low on food, and the diminishing returns were starting to make progression too slow.

Ill finish it off by holding my spell version of angel bolts as long as possible. Should work well, I wont explode myself again if I dont need to. But I guess Ill still use the rune for healing. Its way cheaper.

My back is sore and I cant stand the sight of any more food for today

This new training method was a bit slower and required more concentration, but she still pushed through until the first step was finally complete. Nothing of note happened, the skills description was updated and that was it.

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] :

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

Second step : Become able to see in the dark (0/100%)

Third step : Breathe anywhere

Fourth step : ???

Current step training method : Explore dangerous environments while in low light or total darkness.

[Sanctity] reached level 56

[Sanctity] reached level 73

Probably still wont save me from an [Angels bolt] blowing up right in my face but for everything else it should help a lot.

The second step will be a very different thing to train. But the third step is quite enticing. Too bad the order isnt reversed, I think the oceans depths would make for a good training place for the second step. If I could breathe there.

That will also make it much more comfortable for me when flying at high altitudes.

Cant wait!