Chapter 396: Slithering nightfall

Chapter 396: Slithering nightfall

Sofia spent the next three hours flying around far above the forest, and tracking down nine more Firebirds, which all had the same mana imprint. She had also tried to absorb the imprints with Pareths heart after taking it with her own ,but as she suspected, each imprint could only be taken by one heart. This must have been why cooperation was an unrealistic expectation for the trial takers. After each fight, only one person would get the spoils. For Sofia it wasnt as bad, as she had planned to share with Pareth from the start. As she absorbed the last imprint, she checked on her mana heart again, which she had Mr. Scribe rearrange the description of.

[Nascent mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /F tier/

9 months, 32 days, 22 hour

Imprint progress : 17.57/50

Effects (Will be doubled) :

All stats -30% (F rank base)Mana + 1757

Decent progress. These birds are easy to spot but there arent so many of them around

I managed to get three of them in decent enough shape for Bookie to eat. I just dont know if I should do one page with three or three pages with one One with one and one with two?

Ill decide later Still plenty of space in storage.

Still havent lost any life, so thats good. Though there was that one close call when the Ironbeaks went after me. Had to sacrifice a bird carcasse to get rid of them

Could have probably killed them without losing any life but I better get used to being overly careful.

The sun is starting to go down already, I feel like the days here must be a bit longer, but we arrived late. According to Michael, the night could be dangerous. I should find some kind of shelter, just in case I need it. Ill backtrack to the tower if I dont find anything else.

Sofia flew back up as high as she could, and looked around for anywhere that could offer some decent natural shelter to build a discreet bone-base. A good part of her bone storage was occupied by what were essentially building blocks to construct a large shelter; she had prepared enough bone walls in advance to build a castle, had she wanted to.

I wonder if just staying up there could be safe enough. I can use the latest level of VPPV to hide the light my wings make now, so flying at night isnt as bad anymore. Still Id feel safer with walls around.

I can still use the unlife runes to hide my presence too. But I might be overthinking. If anything, as long as nothing changes, night should be safer, in theory, with most creatures going to sleep.

Finally Sofia found something to her liking, a cave entrance on a small hills side, looking a bit like a bear den. She landed on top of the hill and sent Crowie down to scout the cave.

Using the runes tokens she had learned from Eternam and perfected since, she could see what Crowie was seeing. The cave was somewhat deep, going about twenty-five meters into the hillside and finishing in one large open cavity. And there was already a big occupant of the reptilian kind sleeping in the back.

[Emperor pearled snake - Lv. 283 - Imprint power : 85 - Effect : +8500 Health]

A fearsome giant snake with deadly neurotoxins, its scales are almost as hard as mithril. It boasts outstanding physical power and resilience as well as an innate resistance to magic but is also almost completely unable to use magic himself

Oh, wow, that is one BIG snake.

Come back before it senses you, Crowie.

The sneaky crow skeleton made it back to Sofia and Pareth without waking the sleeping white snake.

Lets deal with this and get in that cave before nightfall. The health should go to Pareth, so I dont have to worry about fucking up the imprint.

Now how should I proceed?

I almost want to bolt it but a piercing bolt will never be enough to kill this in one hit unless I hit the head. Even if I hit the head it might survive And an explosive bolt strong enough to potentially harm it will also destroy the entire hill

Rot might not work and risks collapsing the hill too. I cant take the risk to go there myself either.

Sofia brought up her small notebook, looking through Bookies increasingly long list of summons.

10 female stone Ogres100 000 mana

Thatll be perfect.

Not now, Bookie. We have to loot it first.

This trial is great!

Sofia started by handing his mana heart to Pareth, who collected the imprint by copying how she had done it for the birds.

Using the admins dagger, Sofia butchered the huge snake. She collected what remained of its poison and poison glands as well as the entirety of its scaly skin, which had held out pretty well against Pareths assault.

It died of internal bleeding

This is why skeletons are superior.

Sofia let the stone Ogre consolidate the walls a bit more and flatten the ground before she dispelled them, while Bookie was devouring the giant snakes remains.

The book came back to Sofia in the middle of its meal.

Is something wrong?

Sofia walked up to the half-gone snake, and she could immediately see why Bookie had stopped his meal. Right in the middle of the snakes abdomen was a big pearl as large as her head.

Oh. Pearled snake. Thanks.

Sofia stored the pearl in her eye and let Bookie get back to his meal.

She let the pearl out on the ground a bit further, and summoned a water stone to clean it up before identifying it.

[Pearl of the Emperor pearled snake] : A big pearl with a weak magic-repellant field.

That it? Alright, well, got it. I half-expected a new catalyst.

When Bookie came back again, he had a brand new page featuring the big snakes skeleton and the number 300 000.

Thats an expensive one, like three whole sandworms.

Sofia patiently waited inside the cave for the night to come, while she kept track of the outside with her mana senses. As the sun fell, things started getting weird.

The first thing was the cold. Sofia was functionally immune to the cold thanks to VPPV, but low temperatures were still slightly uncomfortable, and the outside was getting colder by the minute, slowly spreading to the cave.

Hoooly crap its freezing!

Frost formed on the cave walls, and Sofia had to stop breathing because despite dealing no damage, inhaling the cold air felt a bit like getting slapped from inside.

As night truly fell and no light made it through the caves straight shaft anymore, the temperature stopped dropping, but something else caught Sofias attention. The mana outside was doing something weird. It no longer flowed through the air like water currents, but started clumping up into bundles near the ground.

What the hell?

The formation of these clumps was sucking up all the ambient mana, even the cave she was in couldnt escape it. Despite no clump of mana forming inside, all the ambient mana got drained by the ones forming outside.

No ambient mana at night Im used to mana-dry environments but its still uncomfortable, much more so than the cold. And it means I cant fly at night

Still, something else stopped Sofias train of thoughts.

The mana clumps started moving.

Not good!