Chapter 972 - Does a sleeping skeleton dream of bones

Extinction slowed by a few days? Well it only took us an hour to kill that thing so it’s a net positive…

Letting Pareth out again, Sofia was surprised by a sudden notification.

[Missed loot has been delivered - please remember to grab your spoils yourself next time]

Huh?

Just like that, a twisty white pebble dropped at Sofia’s feet.

[Grade 4 esoteric marble]: The remains of a Dangerous-level esoteric threat.

Can be used to create truesight pills or other equipment with the appropriate machinery.

Oh, is that how we’re supposed to get more pills? It is nice that this trial has some extra guidance. Even if it isn’t much.

Sofia checked the trial’s system window, there were hardly any changes.

[Main quest: Save the world before humanity becomes extinct.]

[Sub quests: - Progress further to unlock - ]

[Day 1 - Humans remaining: >99%]

At some point while they fought the time counter had turned to day one, but it seemed killing that strange door creature did not even count as enough ‘progress’ to unlock any sub-quest.

At least the human population isn’t dropping too fast so far.

While Sofia wondered what exactly counted as a day, the fog fully cleared, and she could see the low morning sunlight hitting the top of nearby trees, illuminating the forest.

So a day begins at dawn? Strange but sure.

“That should mean we still have about twenty four hours to take our first pill. But let’s get that out of the way as soon as possible.”

Pareth seemed to agree, pointing at the dirt road in the direction of the city.

“I was thinking that too. I’ll set up a few eyes in the city and we can look for a safe space there. Better to take the pills while it’s still broad daylight.”

While there was no indication that in this trial the days would be any safer than the nights, Sofia was too used to stories and real life both, knowing that the most dangerous shenanigans and skullduggeries always happened at night. Plus her mana regeneration was better during the day so it was simply a better time to fight if anything happened.

Before anything else, however, Sofia flew into other parts of the forest, raising all the buried skeletons she could. The fog had somehow consumed all of her previous outside thralls and there was no reason not to fill up the halls. Before long the painted halls were packed to the brim with forest animals’ skeletons.

I really have to wonder how that thing got the thralls and other animals, it’s not like they would open any doors…

The forest was still completely devoid of life, and so was the city.

While they searched for a safer place, Pareth found what looked like a military base surrounded by high walls and barbed wires. Sofia had some fun grabbing a gun and shooting herself in the legs a few times, the bullets failing to even scrape her skin, but ultimately it was not a suitable location.

The local bank’s vault was quickly taken into consideration, but Pareth found it lackluster, so he and Sofia ended up setting up camp on top of a radio tower on the outskirts of the city. Sofia first covered the tower’s frame with a layer of bone, and set up a small bone shack at the top. The pre-existing structure made the process fast and effortless, and surrounding the radio tower was a wide vacant lot, so anything approaching from the ground would be very visible.

Pareth flattened the nearby forest to make the clear zone even wider while Sofia gave the tower the blessing of permanent frame, and flew around the city to leave eyes on rooftops.

The sun was getting higher in the sky when they both came back to the tower.

“You sleep first,” Sofia decided, “I can keep track of the surroundings better with the eyes and my aura so I should stand guard first in case sleeping triggers something.”

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Pareth did not argue, he silently activated his [Sanctified grounds] so that Sofia would have the buff up even if he was out as long as she stayed nearby, and grabbed the pill Sofia was handing him.

Sitting cross-legged in a corner of the shack, he crushed the tiny blue pill against his mana core, and the cold fire burning in his eye-sockets immediately died down as his posture slouched.

Woah that was fast.

He’ll be out for about an hour, then…

Sofia connected to the [Myriad eyes] she had left all over the city, jumping from one viewpoint to the next. The only movement to be seen in the city were the shadows of clouds and of the Choir’s Destroyer skulls patrolling high in the sky.

I suppose if we stay here we are likely to encounter the other escapees of the local ECA facility. It’s just pointless to speculate about them with only the names, however…

The interesting thing, though, is the letter denominations. They were all either S or D.

Hard not to link that with the ‘Dangerous-level threat’ thing. But then if D is Dangerous, S is Safe?

How was I rated Safe and the door thing Dangerous? And I was in a full-body shackled sarcophagus while the door just had a shitty padlock?

Yeah no wonder this world’s humanity is about to go extinct if the clowns who set things up like this were the ones supposed to protect it.

The only other cell marked with a D was ‘Interceptor’. But that’s not saying much. Maybe that’s the one who killed the guard and destroyed the front door?

As Sofia reviewed the information she currently had, twenty minutes passed in a flash, and for the first time she got a direct connection request from one of the eyes. Letting it take over her vision, she watched as a shadow on the ground disappeared into one of the city’s alleyways.

There’s something!

Sofia quickly spread her mana senses over to that part of the city while she switched between other nearby eyes trying to get a better view. No eye had direct vision into that particular alleyway, but they covered all three of its possible exit points.

However, two minutes later, there was still no sign of anything coming out from the narrow alley between buildings. Sofia wanted the skull choir to check, but the destroyer skulls were simply too big and she couldn't see through them.

I can’t just leave that be. But I can’t leave Pareth either and if I send him to the halls or storage the sanctified grounds will disappear…

Sofia dismissed the choir and waited off the cooldown to summon a single Bloodlight echo skull.

I wonder if I gave the skill my own skull again if it could maybe produce my new blood?

Dismissing the idle thought, Sofia stuck four zombie eyes all around the skull, and sent it off of the tower.

Unlike the destroyer skulls, this one was stuck on the ring array formation, so it could only fly at the same altitude Sofia was at currently, but could otherwise move rather freely as Sofia controlled the radius of the ‘ring’. However when it flew over the alleyway, it could not see anything strange.

So there’s nothing?

My mana senses still aren’t picking up anything either… Hmm…

Sticking her hand out through the door of the bone shack, Sofia started channeling an explosive bolt, and so did the Bloodlight echo. Almost immediately, she threw it straight up into the air, and when it was high enough, detonated it. Of course the echo did the exact same thing. Two violent explosions illuminated the already bright blue sky, chasing away the sparse clouds.

The two simultaneous flashes of bright light engulfed the city from different angles, erasing most shadows. There was still nothing in the alleyway, but immediately several Myriad Eye sent Sofia alerts.

She switched from one to the other, trying to catch the most recent ones.

There she saw it again, a fleeting shadow moving through the ground and walls, clearly doing all it could to avoid the light, all the while following a very distinct direction. It was coming toward her.

Stepping out of her bone shack, Sofia smiled. Even such a sneaky shady opponent had been discovered before it could try anything. It was really no wonder why even an old ascended lich was still extensively using this spell, having invisible eyes everywhere was just too convenient and oppressive in a battle of information.

Sofia jumped on top of the shack, and summoned an array of piercing bolts over her head alongside the one forming on her Atlatl-form scepter.

As the light from the explosions died down, the eyes also lost track of the shadow.

But Sofia already had a feel for the shadow’s direction and speed, so she aimed at a building and released all the piercing bolts.

Show me what you can do, Shadow.

The bolts ripped straight through the building, striking the street behind it, each creating a [Spine of the Black Sun] solar burst around impact, drowning the city in numerous flashes of golden light that charred the buildings and roads black while setting everything on fire.

The shadow roared and twisted to avoid the light making wide jumps from a dark corner to another.

Sofia clicked her tongue.

A few more piercing bolts forced the shadow into a corner, before a skewering bolt nailed it against a concrete wall. The shadows’ ear-piercing otherworldly screams echoed through the lifeless city as it twisted and squirmed, unable to escape the burning grasp of the skewering bolt, the light of which completely scattered all nearby shadows leaving it with nowhere to go.

“So weak.”

Without stepping down from her bone tower, Sofia pierced the shadow with a few more skewering bolts.