[Skill nodes successfully generated. You may select up to four to create a skill.]
[Skill will be passive or active depending on chosen nodes.]
[Skill may be permanent depending on chosen nodes.]
Available skill nodes:
Golden
Smartphone
Storm
Overclock
Triangular
Of
Salt
Consequences
Tower
Crystal
High
Velvet
Amulet
Ripples
Ichor
Swarm
Fork
Fire
Order
Splintering
Sofia quickly read through the list, and sighed, before showing it to Pareth.
âNo skeletonâ¦â she complained, fully aware that the chances of getting that particular word had been extremely thin, but being disappointed nonetheless.
âThere are a few good ones there, but I donât even understand all of them⦠Say, Mr.Scribe, it wouldnât be possible to get me a definition for Smartphone, Overclock and Ichor?â
[Smartphone] : CENSORED
Oh.
Really? Are we doing this? I guess Iâm not using this one then⦠Must be a hero thing, I could ask Alith or Everelle...
[Overclock] : Overclocking is running theCENSORED of a CENSORED at a speed higher than that intended by the manufacturers, improving speed and performance, at the cost of a higher energy consumption and the risk of overheating and or damaging the CENSORED.
Alright, this one I at least get partial information⦠Forgetting about the censored parts⦠This could mean pumping more mana into a spell to make it stronger, kind of? Isnât this what I am already doing with the angel bolts? Am I overclocking the bolts? This one could be useful.
And lastâ¦
[Ichor] : The blood of gods in the ancient CENSORED mythology.
Wait⦠The blood of gods in some mythology? What⦠Iâm pretty sure there isnât a thing like the blood of gods. They have essence and thatâs it, isnât it? This could go one of three waysâ¦
Either the dagger makes Ichor real somehow and creates a new kind of blood; or it just means divine essence; or it does nothing at all.
I think I could try this one.
Sofia shared those three system prompts with Pareth, and while he read, she quickly created twenty bone cards, inscribing the words on them, before frowning and storing the smartphone one away.
Since Pareth seemed to be done with his reading, Sofia talked to him, âNot too bad honestly, no skeleton in there but most words are usable. Smartphone weâre leaving out since itâs fully censored, and Iâm guessing we are not going to use Salt either, but thatâs about it. Any suggestions?â
Since Sofiaâs usual way of trying all combinations was a bit of a dead end with so many keywords at once, she decided to just play around until she found enough good combinations to choose from.
Pareth hesitated for a bit before moving some bone cards around.
âStorm of Golden Fireâ
âThat has got to be the most basic combination possible, but I canât argue with the fact that it would at least create something useful. âHigh Storm of Fireâ also works⦠Wait, actually, even better, get rid of the âofâ; âHigh Golden Fire Stormâ,â Sofia analyzed. ÅＡɴÅBÎṦ
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Pareth seemed very happy about that suggestion, nodding along with Sofiaâs train of thoughts, so Sofia spawned a bone tablet and wrote a first line: 1- High Golden Fire Storm.
Sofia played with the bone bits, moving the storm card around, âHmm⦠Storm in general is a great base, but it doesnât go well with many of the other words. Fire works, I think Crystal and Splintering could also work well⦠Storm of Consequences also sounds interesting. And I donât know why but Velvet Storm feels like a funny combination.â
Since the last other couple of people on the upper floor of the tavern beside them had just left, Pareth took off his mask, and he thought about Sofiaâs rumblings while scratching his chin. After considering things, he started moving the bone cards.
âSplintering Velvet Ripples Stormâ
âOh! I like the sound of that!â Sofia reacted, etching that on the second line of her bone tablet, and âHigh Splintering Crystal Stormâ on the third line. âThat should be enough storming for now. Amulet is an interesting keyword too, that could create a nice invoking skill. Letâs see⦠âAmulet of High Overclockâ feels like it could help make other skills stronger, maybe?â
Pareth had no suggestion right away, so Sofia continued, âGolden Triangular Fire Amuletâ sounds like it would just be Sunâs divine rune, doesnât it?â
Although she said that, she didnât think it would be a good choice, if anything, she thought it was time to stop relying so much on the gods if possible, too much of her power was tied to Sun in particular already.
Pareth came up with another combination he thought worthy of showing Sofia.
âHigh Tower Of Orderâ
Sofia was a bit surprised by the strange suggestion, before she caught on a few seconds later. âOh! That kind of feels like an alternate name for the systemâs trial towers. Is that it? Yeah I can see it. Not sure what the spell could do though. Tower is going to be a hard keyword to use, honestly. Maybe âHigh Crystal Towerâ can summon new midenicite buildings for Zangdar?â She suggested with a giggle.
But these are all kind of bad⦠Or, not very exciting, rather. That was to be expected considering the words are random, but itâs still a bit disappointing.
âHighâ might just be the luckiest word of the lot just because it intrinsically makes everything that follows it âbetterâ.
âI see you playing around with Swarm a lot,â Sofia noticed, âIâm thinking about it too, but there arenât many good combinations with it at first glanceâ¦â
Pareth seemed to agree; fumbling around with the bone cards, he put together: âHigh Order Crystal Swarmâ.
âYeah I thought about this as well, especially putting together âHigh Orderâ, it lets us use Order in an actually meaningful way. But then again it also just works better with storm. âHigh Order Fire Stormâ just feels stronger than crystal swarm, doesnât it? Sotm just eclipses swarm in general despite swarm being quite good.â @@novelbin@@
Again, Pareth seemed to agree with Sofiaâs opinion, but he kept moving the words around swarm, hoping to find something good.
âAlright, this might be ridiculous but hear me out: âStorm of Tower Swarm.â Doesnât it sound like it would start raining towers? That could actually be good. Or maybe⦠âConsequences of High Orderâ? Golden Ripples of Ichor? High Overclock Order Storm?! I feel like there is no obvious choice. This is going to drive me crazy!â
Pareth reached over the table to pat Sofia on the shoulder, and seeing that that calmed her down, he suggested something new, making a simpler combination of only two words :âGolden Towerâ.
âRight! Up to four words. Meaning⦠We could even pick a single word? That actually⦠You know, a spell named âConsequencesâ sounds really fucking strong. Or literally just âOverclockâ or like⦠Golden Swarm?! Ichor Crystal? Splintering Order?!â
This last one seemed to resonate with Pareth, and he pointed at the bone tablet that Sofia had completely abandoned, with only three lines written on it.
Sofia immediately understood, and started to write new lines on it, starting with that latest one, Splintering order.
âI can imagine it. Just point at something and order it to explode, basically. The Splintering Order. Insane! Oh, also, isnât âConsequences Forkâ literally just Sorrowâs [Regret]?â
About two weeks later, Sofia met with Alith in one of the sectâs meeting rooms, before entering the room, she checked again on the skill she had picked, sighing as the dagger was still not finished creating it.
âSo?â Alith called out to Sofia, leaning back on the couch, âIs no one else coming?â
âIâve only asked you. Not only because youâre probably the only one who isnât going to try to change my mind,â Sofia replied, âYouâre also⦠Uniquely suited for what weâre about to do. Remember how I said this was going to be extremely dangerous?â
âOhoh? As I thought, itâs time to revive the dream team, just us and your skeletons, like the good old times?â
âThat was like⦠Five years ago?â Sofia waved off, âNot that long.â
âThatâs like a sixth of my life and you call it not long? Well, whatever, get to the point! Where are we going this time?!â Alith asked with stars in her eyes.
âYouâre not going to even pretend to be reluctant to jump right into some dangerous place?â Sofia asked.
âI knew what I signed up for when I accepted to go with you,â Alith answered with a smirk.
Out of her storage, Sofia produced a bone slate with a drawing of Veliadren as seen from space. She pointed at the farthest of two dots drawn on the side.
âAlright, since you trust me sooo much. Hereâs where weâre going. To the moon. The hidden moon.â
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