Saintess Summons Skeletons

“The skill I chose to specialize in is [Utterly unimpressed]. It’s really good but the sixty seconds cooldown and limitation on movement makes it impractical as a defensive skill. So I hoped to get rid of that,” Altih explained, bringing up the skill’s description.

[Utterly unimpressed] : Strike a disinterested pose and gain 100% (0.5*Skill level) resistance to all damages and ailments for up to 12.45 (Class Level/20) seconds (max: 30s). Performing any other action cancels this effect. Sixty seconds cooldown.

“So, the first decent thing I got, after thirty something tries, was this.”

[Path of the Fabulous Antagonist :

Unlocking requirements :

Has a three letters name

Used to be Human

Strikes fabulous poses during battle

Menacing

Has visible abs

Wears an old and powerful artifact

Description : Be the unexpected.

Enemies? All you see is your next meal.

Who dares try to harm you? You are time itself, the blows rain, so pitifully slow. They shall never reach you.

Defeat? But a temporary setback. You will come back, and in style.]

Alith was waiting for the sisters’ reaction. “Thoughts?”

Saria had a slight frown, “Three letters name?”

“Oh, yeah. That would be my old name before I was a Hero. I don’t get how it has anything to do with anything though, but all the requirements for this one path are quite weird so…”

“The effects sound… Interesting?” Sofia said. “I think this might be a big enhancement to your perception skills, so you can dodge everything because it ‘feels’ slow even if it isn’t? That’s how I would interpret it. Not really much else to go on.”

“Don’t forget the style part,” Alith added. “What d’ya think, Sar?”

“It’s not bad. Zephir’s theory about specializations with very unordinary descriptions like this one is that they were custom made by the admins instead of derived from your skill. So they’re normally never a bad choice. But it could end up very different from what you started with. My secondary specialization was like this too, and it ended up really strong. As for how it fits with your fighting style and existing skills, you would know better than me.”

“Hmm… Thanks for the input. Then this is the second one, which I got after a total of ninety six tries.”

[Path of the Soul-Chaser :

Unlocking requirements :

Has debated the ethics of consuming souls

Has followed souls through the spirit plane

Has a strong link to fire

Is an undead

Can revive

Has avoided attacks by rolling

Is always lightly armored

Runs fast

Wears an assortment of magical rings

Description : The Soul-Chaser hungers for more souls. Capable of enhancing their own body through untold dark magic, their capacity to avoid blows is uncanny. Effortlessly parrying all blows and rolling around the battlefield, as long as their stamina does not run out, they might as well be immortal.]

“Oh… Well. This one does sound stronger,” Sofia started, “but it’s also… Rolling around the battlefield….”

“Yeah it does sound a bit dumb, no?” Saria continued. “The whole soul eating stuff is weird but it’s not like dead people are gonna miss them so I guess that’s fine.”

“I had a skill that did something similar with souls at some point. It’s best not to think too much about it.”

“So do you both think I should go with this one? The fact that it looks like a growing type and that it mentions stamina are both good, but the other one is also really speaking to me…”

Saria shrugged. “Both are really good, in my opinion. But I would go for the growth type, personally. They both seem to be focused a lot on evasion, so it’s what you wanted either way.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Sofia approved as she munched on a dried fruit.

“I’m going for a life of rolling then…”

[You have received a debt of 96 levels, new total : 116]

This one might be a bit harder to repay. Well. It’s just a matter of a few weeks in Sovuln at worst. And something tells me that I’ll have a lot more debt by the time I finish the next trial. Especially if we spend the whole scholar year at the academy. “How is it?”

“Simpler than I expected, but I like it. It’s definitely still a big departure from the original skill though. I got an alter token also, it says I can use it to alter one of my current skills.”

Saria chimed in, “One for each filter passed after the first but without a specialization, that’s to help you catch-up a tiny bit.”

“Alright, I’m altering [Maiden’s Kiss]. This skill is too much of an embarrassment to level up. And here’s the main thing.”

[Soul-Chaser] Level 1 :

You take 100% less damage from all sources and cannot be affected by any afflictions while performing a dodge-roll while above 0 Stamina, but lose up to ( 100*Class Level +0.5%Max Stamina) Stamina each time if able.

You and your weapons take 90% less damage if you perfectly block an enemy hit with your weapons. You lose 50% less Stamina from blocking with your weapons.

You may absorb the soul of enemies you kill to gain soul-power; higher-level enemies award more soul-power.

You must spend soul-power to upgrade this Specialization’s level.

Each level of [Soul-Chaser] gives an increase of 5% Stamina divided equally between Agility, Strength, and Speed.

Cost to level 2 : 1 SP

“Animals still don’t have souls, right?” Sofia asked Saria.

“They don’t, but the undead usually do.”

“So I need to become an undead hunter if I want to level that up without killing actual people. That might take a while but it’s not too bad. At least now I can use the invincibility whenever… As long as I can roll around.”

The three girls did some tests in Alith’s room to see what counted as a roll. It seemed that as long as the intent and attempt to perform a full roll in any direction was there, the specialization’s effect activated. That counted even for backflips and other such ways of doing any kind of acrobatic full body tumble, and the length of the buff was usually the full length of the roll up to two seconds, stopping whenever she was stable again.

Also, Alith noticed that she had a much better sense of what was happening around her when she rolled around. It was not as good as just being able to see it without rolling, but that was better than nothing and allowed her to avoid coming out of a roll directly into an attack. Most of the time.

Finally, chaining rolls was a completely safe way to become infinitely invincible, as long as she had stamina to spare and good timing, there could be no downtime if she wanted. It also no longer prevented her from doing something else at the same time, but the number of impactful things she could do while tumbling around was inherently limited by the nature of the action.

The blocking feature was exactly as advertised, as long as she blocked correctly with her Kamas, it felt like the opponent wasn’t putting much force into their weapon and she could easily deflect it. She was still affected by the electrical discharge of hits from Sofia’s staff though, so it clearly had its limits. After a bit of testing with Madness-thrown rats, if she could block the ‘projectile’ skeleton directly with her weapons, that would work to mitigate the damage from the explosion. Against the angel bolts it did nothing, so the conclusion was that there needed to be some kind of solid physical component to block for the damage reduction to activate.

After sufficient testing and trying things out, Alith had her verdict about the choice.

“It’s good, but without the growth it would be a scam. I don’t think it’s as strong as either of yours right now. Maybe when it’s level 40 or so.”

Sofia nodded. “I think it’s perfect for your fighting style. And there’s no mention of a maximum level, so that can be a lot of stats in the long run. The issue will just be to find the souls. It is certainly living up to its name. How did the kiss skill turn out? You never said how it went.”

“Right! Sorry, it was processing it for a while, so I didn’t have the description. I think it turned out quite nicely, although it’s a bit mana expensive at the moment.”

[Soul Flasks] : You may summon up to 5 (Skill level +2) Soul Flasks for ten thousand mana each. Drinking the full contents of a soul flask immediately restores 50% (20 + (Skill level*10)) +10000 Max Health and cleanses all ailments.

If you are the one drinking the Soul Flask, also restore 9% (Skill level*3) Max Mana.

Used flasks disappear and can be summoned again after spending a full ten minutes out of combat.

She doesn’t have enough mana to summon all five at once but they don’t mention any duration limit. So she can prepare them in advance and heal for 250% of her health in a single fight.

And she gets 9% mana back each time?

She can probably even drink while she’s rolling. Nothing you can do to stop her from healing.

That’s reaaaaaaaly good. Damn.