The discussion between Sofia and Richard had gone over the story of finding Saria and back to necromancy. Sofia explained that she needed another skeleton for Pareth, and ended up showing him the ritual circle as well as the description for the skill.

“So why is it that it only works with ‘genuine’ and unaltered skeletons? It would be so much simpler if I could just make one myself…”

“Souls, even fake ones, don’t take well to ‘objects’ is the issue. Any skeleton that wasn’t slowly built as the host by an actual soul is nothing but that, an object.”

“What about golems?”

“Not souls, what is hosted in a golem’s core is a magical construct, like a set of instructions. It’s not ‘someone’ , not even remotely. You can force a soul into an object, though, it’s just generally not very stable.”

“Generally… Liches like you being the exception?”

“Yep. This is the one stable way. Basically you’re trying to trick your soul into considering something its host. That’ll inevitably lead to permanent changes in both the soul and the object, it’s a slow and painful process. You can iterate on it but you cannot revert it.”

“Right… So for Pareth to fit into a skeleton I made he would need to become a lich?”

“You can forget about it. That’s just not a good option. Perhaps later, when you have plenty of time. Centuries of free time. Until then, you would be better served just finding another regular skeleton.”

“But then I am really stuck with upgrading him. At best I can beg you to sell me another bone mauler…”

Richard laughed. “Ke ke, well, I may just have a better solution for you… If you can convince me.”

“I… What do I have that could even interest you?”

“Same as last time. Or feel free to offer anything else.”

“Not knowing what it is exactly that I am paying for is not helping… But I think I know what could interest you.”

“And that would be?”

“I can share what I know about the four Lords.”

“Oh oh oh, you know me better than you let on, saintess. Give me a second to get the machinery started.” Richard said, before his skeleton fell to the ground, bones scattering on the floor.

His skeleton guard named ‘Mountain’ moved for the first time, catching Richard’s skull that was rolling away and putting it back in the middle of the pile of bones.

He’s rather nice to speak with. I don’t know if it’s his pajamas and slippers doing that but I feel pretty relaxed here. We might just get a better skeleton for you again. Any special request?

Pareth shrugged as he kept looking at the dark abyss out the window.

Just the usual, then.

Sofia also tried looking outside while she waited for Richard, not seeing anything until his bones reformed into a complete skeleton.

“Everything is ready. Let’s talk while we walk. I am curious to see what you may be willing to share, miss Aphenoreth.”

“So you did know about my name,” Sofia remarqued as she followed Richard who was walking toward the door.

“Only from looking into your presence as a brighthall teacher. It is very intriguing, though.”

“As it should. Are you not scared of saying it, my name?”

“No. The inquisitor is peculiar, but fair. If you can use the name, then it is but a logical consequence that we may use it too. The Lords do not cause unnecessary mayhem… Not this one, at least.”

The group of Sofia and three skeletons walked through the similar-looking corridors of Richard’s subaquatic facility.

“You seem to know more than most do. No one else has been this calm when talking about the Deep so far…”

“A calculated risk. Even the Lords would have to expand significant efforts to take me down. So long as I go in their direction, it should be alright.”

“And their direction would be?”

“That is for you to find out. I would say more than the bare bones, but as interesting a topic as it is, I would rather not invite them into my home.”

“Is it going to be fine for me to say my piece, then? I cannot guarantee they aren’t going to show up. One in particular…”

“Right… Please avoid the topic of this one. If possible. He already knows, I’m sure, but let us not play with fire.”

“He does? Well, maybe. Let me just give you the story of my name, then. Do you know about my class?”

“I have not dug that far, no. Oh, be careful not to bump your skull here, the ceiling is a bit low. Had to work around the deep sea reef.”

The deep sea reef? Those purple things glowing outside? Anyway, one thing at a time…

Sofia carefully walked down the stairs watching out for the low ceiling, and started explaining her class. “The class is Saintomancer. Mix of Saint and Necromancer. Scripture fucked with the system and I was on the receiving end.”

“That explains a lot. The system can be flexible like that if the need arises, this sounds a lot like an automated response, high scribes must not have been available.”

“The thing is, I only get half the skills of each class, but not in the way you might think. For example, one of my level 1 skills was [Summon Blood].”

Richard stopped in the middle of the corridor and turned around.

“Summon blood. Now this… This is quite something. Does it…”

Sofia held out a hand and summoned a few drops of blood above it, falling into her open palm.

“Oh oh oh, very nice. You must be expanding a boneload of system resources. So that would be a skill made by fusing [Summon Hero] and [Drain Blood]. Your class must be quite something to try to navigate. I understand now why you wanted a list of necromancer skills last time we met… And I see where this is going. A level 2 necromancer…”

Sofia nodded, “That’s right. [Scent of the Deep] got fused with a saint skill. Now let’s see if you know your classes well, Mr. Richard, what is the only passive skill a saintess of Scriptures has at level two?”

“No… You mean to say…”

“That’s right. Ever seen someone Blessed by the Deep? Now you have.”

Richard could resist throwing his skull back and laughing like a madman.

“It would be so funny if the admins were still here to see this! Ha ha ha, imagine searching for the Deep so hard only for you to stumble upon it unintentionally! And it wouldn’t have the authority to do anything, so a skill named blessing of the deep would be entirely useless! Unless…”

“Unless an inquisitive someone came to see what this blessing thing was about and decided to make it real.”

Richard laughed again.

“How was it? Did you see him? Did you feel his power? Did the world break around you?!” he asked manically, stepping closer to Sofia each time.

“W- well. He came when I was asleep-”

“FUCK!”

“And that woke me up…”

“YES!”

“He… Looked down at me and poked my cheek with a finger.”

“HE TOUCHED YOU?!!” Richard screamed, his mental sentence somehow shaking the walls, making the entire underwater facility rumble and creak.

Doing her best to stay calm despite the foreign skull almost touching her face, Sofia continued, “It was like everything had stopped. I couldn’t even feel my heart beat. Couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move… Then he disappeared. The sky suddenly changed from night to day, I could move again, the skill had changed into an actual blessing from the Deep, and the system informed me that my name had been changed.”

Seeing that she was done, Richard finally calmed down and took a few steps back.

“Hmm. I let excitement get the best of me, that was unsightly, I apologize.”

“N- no problem…”

Richard shook his skull and started walking again. After a while of walking silently, he spoke again. “Could I see the skill?”

“The blessing?”

“Yes. I will get you the best skeleton you could hope to have for your trial, that is all I ask for.”

“Sure thing. If I’m going to be honest, the blessing’s effect itself probably isn’t that incredible; from your perspective, at least. It’s just… What I wanted back then.”

“What you wanted?”

“What I wanted, yes. Freedom. Tools to escape from Scripture’s grasp. Have a look for yourself.”

[Blessing of the Deep] - (2/4) :

The Saintomancer was granted a name. They may see the inhabitants of the Deep.

The Saintomancer and their summons are immune to the [Mind control], [Hypnosis], [Confusion], [Insanity], [Domination], [Soul Parasite] and [Instant Death] status effects.

(Next function unlocks at 3/4)

“That is fascinating.”

---

 

“And that is why [Domination] is included, it has only ever been useful that one time, but it did save my life, so…”

“To have the approval of two of the Lords… You truly are something. Sadly it seems our discussion on this topic has reached its end. We have arrived.”

“This… Is just another corridor like we have been going through for the last twenty minutes?”

“No, this is the entrance to my incubator, I usually do a simple skeleton-warp inside, but there is a regular door. Just hard to see, look, the joints are right here,” Richard explained, his skeletal fingers pointing at a very thin and almost invisible line on the wall.

“Why hide it like that? Isn’t this place safe enough?”

“I just like it when everything around me is clean, as you might have noticed. I’m not like Valy who can’t help but keep huge piles of junk around. I find doors ugly.”

Thinking back, Sofia could only remember seeing about eight doors on the way to this place despite walking through the unending corridors of Richard's place for a long while.

“How many of these hidden doors have we walked by on the way?” she asked.

“Like fifty or so. The visible doors are usually only for the places I need other people in. Or rooms I just never enter.”

“Was the point of building so deep in the sea that the scenery outside the windows would be ‘clean’?”

“Do you have a bone to pick with my sense of aesthetics?”

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