“It’s fair to say he’s gotten a bit of an upgrade recently, we haven’t really had the opportunity to show it off to many people yet. What do you think? Looks good, right?”
Michael teleported away to get a better view then back in. “It’s… Huh… What kind of creature’s skeleton is this?”
“Oh that’s a custom-bred hybrid, a senior necromancer made it for me. Or for him, rather. You won’t find anything like this in the wild. I was worried it might look weird with the three heads but it ended up fine.”
“The three heads aren’t even the weirdest part…” Astelia commented.
“Can he see through the three heads at once?” Michael wondered aloud.
“He can and he does. I have a way to see through his ‘eyes’, and it’s quite disorienting, honestly, especially considering how the three heads are arranged to look in different directions in the kind of triangular formation. He got used to it pretty fast, though, so it worked out well,” Sofia explained.
Michael nodded at the explanations, and kept on looking.“I can’t decide on what I find most disturbing between the hooved legs and the oversized hands and claws.”
“It’s the hands,” Astelia chimed in, “Clearly the hands.”
“I don’t find them so bad? The skulls actually are a bit creepy if you look at them from the front, can’t really see from below though. But if you want my expert opinion, the really weird part is the bone structure. Just look at the arms, five main humerus bones instead of one. I can’t even begin to understand how the muscles would connect in there,” Sofia told them. “And also, if you look closely, the tail is not actually a continuation of the spine, and that’s really strange.”
“You say that… But I don’t even understand how the thing would have looked alive, with all the bone spikes and these armor plate-looking things…” Michael continued.
“I didn’t get to see it when it was still alive, actually, but it must have been quite the beast. The result speaks for itself, just look at the six meters high mountain of bones it left behind.”
“It’s quite impressive… But does he not use any equipment?”
“Well, he could use a storage ring but then he wouldn’t be able to go hide in mine, so I just do all the carrying. As for armor and weapons, he’s got skills for this. The only real piece of equipment he has is a float ring I just bought for him. It’s inside the main skull.”
“Float?” Michael asked.
“Yeah, he can’t fly, and he’s too big for most of the flight items’ spells to work for him, and making a custom one would be a pain. So we just went with float. Not as good, but enough for some additional movement. He can jump really damn high with those goat-like legs too, so it’s not like he lacks verticality.”
And he’s still got the air step enchantment too.
And the bones are soooooo much tougher than any other bones I’ve ever seen. It’s no Dragon Scale but it was almost as good as pure mithril even before putting Pareth inside. Truly a premium skeleton.
A smile formed on Sofia’s lips as she pulled up the old and new status sheets she had made for Pareth.
///
Name : Pareth
Age : 3(?)
Class : [Holy Eclipse Skeleton] /Boneplate mauler Edition/
Level : 249 ♢
Health : 995 100 / 995 100 (2 905 692 With sanctified grounds and halo)
Stamina : 403 399 / 403 399 (1 177 925 With sanctified grounds and halo)
Mana : 49 800 / 49 800 (200*level)
///
Name : Pareth
Age : 4(?)
Class : [Holy Eclipse Skeleton] /Hellspawn Abomination Edition/
Level : 249 ♢
Health : 12 721 500 / 12 721 500 (37 146 780 With sanctified grounds and halo)
Stamina : 4 315 200 / 4 315 200 (12 600 384 With sanctified grounds and halo)
Mana : 49 800 / 49 800 (200*level)
I get a bit giddy every time I look this up… The before and after is so staggering! I still can’t believe it. A forty two tons skeleton.
Meanwhile I’m still…
///
Name : Sofia Aphenoreth
Age : 21 ♢
Class : [Saintomancer] ♢
Level : 249 ♢
Health : 85 980 / 85 980
Stamina : 21 042 / 21 047
Mana : 417 100 / 417 100
Well. Surely this trial will change that.
Sofia was brought back to reality by the return of Kyle. “Alright, ladies and gentlemens, follow me, I will explain the details of the trial once you’re all seated.” Saying so, Kyle walked up to the edge of the pit at the center of the tower grounds. Sofia almost expected him to jump, but when everyone joined him, the portion of ground they were on started sinking instead, slowly bringing them underground.
“Can you not teleport us around?” Michael asked as the platform slowly crawled down into the abyss.
“I could, but it’s customary that we take things slow here. Used to be that the tower needed a while to gather the energy for the launch, but now it’s more about theatrics,” Kyle explained, “I like the tension the slow ride creates. You should revel in that downtime, you will not be getting much during the trial.”
Astelia looked over the edge of the platform, but she couldn’t see the bottom, “Can you see anything, Sofia?”
“Yeah. There’s like a big pointy thing in the middle down there. No idea what it is. Oh, I see a door on the side. It’s some kind of tiny metal tower inside the tower, I guess.”
“A pointy metal tower you say?” Michael repeated with a smile, “I can already guess where this is going. I have to say, I admire the admins’ sense of taste. Truly immaculate.”
Astelia turned to Kyle, and with a sigh, he explained, “Way to spoil yourself. This is the vehicle that will take you to the real trial grounds. Codename IPS, for Interplanetary Shuttle.”
“Yeah of course you’d call it a weird name…” Michael commented.
Is there something weird about it? What I find weird is the shape, not the name…
“How does it work?” Astelia asked Kyle.
“... To make it very simple, we wait until the destination planet and the tower are aligned, then the tower uses a crapton of mana to send the IPS there like a giant arrow. That’s it. And this shit is very noisy, that’s why the tower is in the middle of nowhere. You’ll have to use something similar to come back.”
“Is teleportation not an option?” the small vampire continued to ask.
“Not that it’s impossible with enough mana, but it’s a hassle to target the planet even with proper preparation. The flux of mana out there also makes the landing destination unstable, and most people would experience severe soul damage from a teleportation this far away,” Kyle slowly explained.
Once at the bottom, Kyle had everyone get inside the IPS, which was a lot larger up close, and more than wide enough for Pareth to fit in without going back to the storage. There was even a seat for his size prepared inside.
There must be other big races taking the trial. Do they have special Dragon-sized accommodation for the level 450 trial?
Besides the four seats turned toward the center of the shuttle, the interior of the IPS was a rather bland mix of different metals all covered in enchantments. There were no windows, and after Kyle closed the door behind them, only the weak red lights on the ground lit up the interior of the shuttle.
“Alright, sit tight. The seats will latch onto you and keep you in place, that’s how it works, don’t freak out, make sure that you’re properly secured in there, or you’ll be in for a displeasing ride.”
Michael was the first to sit down, and the bottom of the large steel chair opened up and gobbled his lower-body while elastic black straps latched around his torso, sticking him to the chair. Only his arms and head were left relatively free.
Oh wow.
Soon enough, everyone except Kyle was in a similar situation.
More comfortable than I thought it would be.
“Looks like you’re all ready. Now this trial has officially started, and leaving the premises will be counted as forfeiting. I will explain first, you may ask questions at the end.”
Kyle walked to the center of the four seats and a floating image of a large green sphere surrounded by three strange gray disks appeared beside him.
“This is Cerberus-beta, the planet of rebirth. Situated much farther from the sun than our planet, this was originally a frozen, rocky hellscape, with no air on the surface, until the admins appropriated it for the purpose of this trial. Three thousand years ago, the actual trial grounds were only a small enclosed space, but it has since expanded to the entire planet. From its sky to its underground, its debris fields and its three moons, the entire thing is the trial grounds. If you were to leave the trial area, you will get a warning message, and should you fail to quickly re-enter the zone, you will be automatically forfeited.”
Kyle took a second to catch his breath and continued, “As explained, the mana currents out there are a bit messy, because most of the mana on the planet is sent there from here, so to reach the Moons and the debris field, assuming you have the capabilities to survive in their environment, you will have to use small IPS towers scattered across Cerberus-beta. They can be hard to find, so be on the lookout for them. If you were to enter a failstate or want to forfeit, the way to leave will be to return to this very IPS we are using right now, so take care to remember where we land, as no one will be coming for you otherwise.”
Again, Kyle paused, letting everyone digest the first set of instructions before he started again. “Now, I’m sure you are all wondering, ‘what is it that we’re going to do on this planet?’, and this, friends, is what you’re going to be doing,” Kyle said, holding up a rugged glassy stone between two fingers above his head, “I present: an empty mana heart!”
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What is a stone?
Let's ask Wikipedia!
A stone is a piece of rock. It is a mass of hard, compacted mineral. The word is often used to mean a small piece of rock.
The word "stone" also refers to natural rock as a material, especially a building material. Natural stones used as building material include granite, marble and sandstone. Manufactured, artificial products, such as concrete or clay bricks, are not stone.
Stone takes a while to heat up, and stays hot for a while. It does not conduct electricity well
Stone was one of the first materials used to make tools and buildings. It is a very sturdy material. It is less affected by weather than wood or brick. Depending on the type of rock, stone weathers away much more slowly. A stone in the river is reshaped by the water and sediment flowing around it.
Stones can be used as primitive weapons. A person can throw it at an enemy or animal, or use it to cause more damage in hand-to-hand combat.
A stone is larger than a grain of sand, gravel or pebbles. A boulder is a large rock or stone.
The stone is a unit for measuring mass in the Imperial system. It is equal to fourteen pounds. 160 stone make up a long ton. In the metric system, 1 stone = 6.35029318 kilograms.
The short way of writing stones is st.
The stone was outlawed in Ireland and the United Kingdom, in 1983 and 1985 respectively. However stones and pounds are both commonly used in non-official cases, most commonly when stating the weight of a person. Often in American-British boxing matches, the contenders weight is stated in pounds then stones and pounds. The same in horse racing.
Jewels (or gems or gemstones) are rare minerals. They usually come in colours and sizes. They begin in a rough rock form, but can be cut and polished to turn into a jewellery.
However, some other non-mineral rocks (such as lapis lazuli) or organic materials can also be also used for jewelry and are called gemstones. These include amber or jet. Pearls and coral are sometimes also called gemstones.
Most gemstones are hard. Soft minerals are used in jewelry too, because of their luster that gives them value.
Being rare or in short supply also makes a gemstone valuable.
The Ancient Greeks began to decide which gems are precious and semi-precious. This continued in other cultures.
In modern times, the precious stones are diamond, ruby, sapphire and emerald, with all other gemstones being semi-precious.
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