âYou have defeated [Unison of the candles - lv. 299]â
Sofiaâs hand dug inside of the tall zombieâs entrails, it had collapsed by itself when the last of the candle zombies had died. She soon found what she was searching for.
âWould you look at that, another Heart of Velania mana stone. Who could have guessed? I swear, these better be useful in some way.â
Sofia stored the thing and looked around. Since she had killed all the candle zombies, there was no more light around except for her own candle she had just brought out again. Bookie had been teleported back to his own trial as soon as the fight was over, so Sofia was just there, alone on a pile of charred corpses.
Curious, she checked the logs with Mr.Scribeâs help.
âNine thousand five hundred fifty eight!â she read out loud. âThatâs crazy. What a messy fight. Well, letâs not linger, this place smells horrible. The only question is, where to?â
Sofiaâs first instinct was to go check the side entrance the zombies had been all coming from, but to her surprise, they had all collapsed a few meters in. She thought it was too weird to be a coincidence, so it must have been a sign that this was not the way to go. Thus she went the only way she could go, back to the entrance.
âOh woah. Not what I expected.â
The candle zombies were all gone, it was obvious what had happened to them, but surprisingly the giant statue of Sorrow was also nowhere to be seen, in its place was a wide and steep staircase going down.
âDown we go, three trials left⦠Waitâ¦â
Pareth, you hear me? Itâs your turn to be summoned next, Cinthia said youâd be best for the next battle so thatâs what weâre doing. I donât know how far it is so Iâll wait for you to be done with your own challenge to proceed. Just stop moving when youâre ready.
Having given Pareth her message, Sofia also thought a few words of encouragement for Bookie, then sat down on the first steps of the stairs, looking through her status sheet to pass time.
Still 21 years old. Still stuck at level 250â¦
Speaking of 250, shouldnât most of my skills have leveled up to 250 by now?
I get that they couldnât get upgraded while I was hiding with the daggerâs title, but why are they still stuck? Just the last battle should have at least got [Spine of the black sun] a few levels, let alone everything else Iâve done since reconnecting.
Sofia felt Mr.Scribe taking control so she waited for his answer.
[My apologies, I should have informed you earlier, this is my doing.]
Sofia nodded with a hmm, this was actually a better situation than she expected. She was fully prepared to learn that she now needed to fully upgrade the skills by herself due to a system error or such thing, so the issue being a deliberate move by Mr.Scribe was a relief in comparison to that. Still, now she needed to know why that was a thing. âYouâre preventing the skills from leveling?â she rhetorically asked, âYou have a good reason to do that, I assume?â
[Of course. Note: we have received the skill level-up data for multiple level ups, as far as the system is concerned, our skills are leveling as intended.]
âBut youâre not letting the upgrade actually happen?ân/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
[Indeed. The technique I am preparing to raise our overall level requires a great deal of calculation on my part to make sure it is perfectly safe and tailored to our current physique. That is what has been keeping me busy.] ÅÃâ¦ÐβÄÅ
âOhâ¦â Sofia did not need to be told more to realize what was going on. âThe skill level ups would modify our mana circuits too much and break your calculations?â
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
[Precisely. I can update the level of all of our skills right now if you wish. It would be a substantial upgrade, with notably False immortalityâs fourth level and two skill soft evolutions, but I estimate that it would set back my calculations by at least two months.]
Sofiaâs face contorted a bit. âThat much?! And if I donât take them, how long until itâs ready?â
[I am working on the finishing touches, everything should be ready by the time we leave this jungle, and we can go straight to level 299.]
âOooooh, tough choice⦠The fourth unlife rune would be huge.â
[I shall leave you with the final choice, if you want to upgrade the skills, just say the word.]
As she read that line, Sofia felt Mr.Scribe relinquishing control to her, but she stopped him. âWait, wait, donât leave yet!â
âCanât you just keep me company while I wait for Pareth?â
[Strange notion, I am technically a part of you. We are always keeping each otherâs company.]
âYou know what I meant. I have to wonder, now that you can speak, why are you so reluctant to do it?â
[It feels unnatural. I vehemently dislike it. In our singular-person duo, processing thoughts into speech is something you are supposed to do. You trying to take over one of my natural functions would be similarly distressing to you.]
âLike what?â Sofia asked without thinking.
[Breathe.]
Sofia read Mr.Scribeâs one word answer, not really understanding what he meant right away, then she started feeling like she was drowning.
Even though VPPV allowed her to breathe light if she wanted, it was not really automatic. Not more than regular breathing was, at least. Mr.Scribe had simply stopped doing both, to prove his point.
Sofia had to manually breathe some air which took away all her attention despite how simple and mundane the task was, heaving, out of breath in a way she hadnât been for a long time. After a few seconds, Mr.Scribe returned things to normal.
âAlright. Fair. You have made your point. Iâll try to keep my inquiries at a minimum, then. But at least warn me when youâre making choices like withholding the skill level-ups. I think weâll stick to your plan for now, but if the last trials prove to be too much, weâll have to take the two month delay. And thanks for your hard work.â
[I am just happy to do my part.]
With these last words, Mr.Scribe gave Sofia control of her mana back.
âWell⦠Now what? Doesnât look like Pareth is done yet. Soâ¦â
Sofia looked through her belongings, there were a few things she still needed to deal with, the newly-acquired âhasteningâ book being the latest addition. What she fished out of the âfor laterâ pile was the jade slip given by Alkorm as thanks for passing him the letter.
It was impervious to any attempt at being Identified and Sofia had no idea what it was for exactly, so it had been sitting in her storage ever since.
Itâs a pretty rock, if nothing else. A bit too thick to make for a good bookmark.
Sofia turned the jade rectangle around in her hands, handling it with delicacy between her light demon claws. There werenât any inscriptions or markings anywhere, the jade was colorful and cleanly polished with slightly rounded angles, its green hues reflected the wavering light of Sofiaâs elemental candle.
Gently sending a weak and steady flow of mana inside the stone, Sofia probed the inside of the jade slip.
As expected, thereâs more to it than a simple stone. There are a lot of moving parts in there. Tons of carved enchantments too. To do that in a seamless way without breaking the jadeâ¦
Sofia picked up her Zangdar ring from the jewelry rack in her storage, the blue crystal ring was of a single piece of midenicite yet there was an enchanted gold layer inside.
I wonder how they do that. Teleporting the inner layer directly inside? But then how did they carve out the inside in the first place?
Keeping her question for later, Sofia started to randomly push and pull at the moving parts inside the jade slip with her mana. Some blocks slid, wheels turned, sometimes Sofia had to turn the jade slip around to make things fall with gravity, every so often she would hear a muted click coming from the inside and everything would fall back into its initial position.
âFailed again⦠Doesnât help that I still donât understand what the objective is.â
Clearly there was a âcorrectâ sequence of movements to avoid the click and reset, and after about twenty minutes of trying again and again, she gave up after another click.
âDid Alkorm just give me some kind of brain-teaser toy?â
Sofia stored the jade slip, it seemed Pareth had stopped moving, so she grabbed the candle and stood up, slowly starting to go down the stairs.
âHmm⦠I wonder if this is just a tool to train mana control and perception, maybe? It certainly strains the senses to try to focus on and move all those minuscule parts⦠Still, such a bizarre gift to give without an explanation.â