Munching on a dessert Kuli had brought from the nearest town, she and Sofia’s conversation continued, eventually looping back to the subject human continent itself.

“You know,” Sofia said, “Now that I’m there, I’m surprised there aren’t more high-level people here. There were quite a few high-level humans among the spectators…”

“Neh, that’s just how the place is. The magical resources here a pretty low, and so are the opportunities for leveling up. Hell, if you don’t step into some old ruin or go deep into the mountains, the toughest monsters you’ll find around here are around level 60, and that’s the rare old bear or wolf pack leader. Even for those who want to grow stronger the opportunities are scarce.”

“Fair point, I didn’t exactly get my levels fighting against the wildlife here… But even then, it feels weird to think that I’m already as strong as the Emperor here, you know.”

Kuli laughed, “Ahah, you shouldn’t underestimate Xeros, he may not be the best fighter but he’s resourceful enough to deal with people of higher filters.”

“Making deals with fairies and all, huh. I guess I should go meet him first thing when I leave, just to make everything official for my city…”

“Bah, don’t worry about it. If anything he’ll be glad you’re willing to stick around. Another reason why there aren’t so many strong people around here is just because it’s a self-feeding issue. Nobody wants to stay in the backwaters where there’s nobody on their level. Even strong humans and beastmen usually end up leaving for the bigger places. Exidia, Herzal, even Vasperia now, and that’s just for the ‘nearby’ places.”

“Right… Now that I think about it… I don’t really know much about the rest of the world outside of this general area. It’s a bit embarrassing honestly. I don’t even know if there are bigger cities. Exidia seems hard to beat.”

Kuli shrugged, “You’re young, places change, how much can you be expected to know? The Andarians’ places has been developing a lot lately, but if you want the places with the most power gathered, there are a few standouts.”

“Like the fae kingdom?”

“That’s one. But it’s still mostly fairies there. Not many people are willing to deal with living around their aura and stuff, from what I understand. Similar thing for the main Kleptran hive. I’ve heard stories about it but I wouldn’t even try to go near that place. I don’t even know where it is.”

“Do Dragons have a city like that, too?”

“Not that I know of, but who knows. You know more of them than I do.”

“Guess I’ll ask Erredis. So what are the other standouts?”

“Well. You have Councillia, probably the main one you should check out, since it’s a city ran by a council of liches. Probably the highest population of undead worldwide. I hear entry is on invitation only, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get.”

“... How have I never heard of a place like that?”

“World’s wide, Sofia, it’s an underground city, and three continents over, so not exactly a place that’s brought up often around here. I think the demons have a fortified city only open to them and their relatives, you might want to look into it too, though that’s all the information I have on this one.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to find, I need to give my thanks to the demon King anyway so I have a reason to visit. Is that all?”

“No, other than that, you have another big human city on an archipelago in the middle of some sea, literally on the other side of the planet from here, but it’s not that big compared to the other places I’ve mentioned.”

“Oh! That must be where all the dark-skinned humans in the public were from, right? We don’t really see many of them around here, basically only heroes.”

“Exactly yes. They have multiple ascended humans leading the place, if I remember correctly, so arguably they’re the stronger ‘human continent’ compared to ours… And lastly, the most significant two cities would be, without a doubt, Tirage city of the Arege union, and the flying fortress.”

“Ah! I’ve read about the Arege union actually, the place built by monster races on the remains of an ancient human kingdom, right?”

“Yes, It’s a pretty nice place. Had to go there once for guild business. It’s definitely a city like no other.”

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“Maybe I’ll take Rem there one day. But the flying fortress? I’ve absolutely never heard of that one,“ Sofia admitted feeling a bit indignant that there had been so many holes in her general knowledge despite all the reading she had done during her time in Exidia.

“Well, it’s just as the name suggests, a relatively new city built inside of a fortress in the sky, founded some one hundred and fifty years ago. It tends to move around a lot, and it’s… Uh… A little piece of hell in the sky? Probably a third of all the level 500 worldwide live there, I think. It’s what Valeure told me, anyway. That alone should say a lot.”

“Oh. Ooooh. Yeah, I can imagine… Why would so many of the world’s strongest all congregate in a single place like this?”

“Neh, be damned if I know. But I received an invitation to go there in between all those letters… I would be surprised if you did not get one as well, so you can go ask them if you want.”

“You won’t be going?”

“No thanks,” Kuli answered without hesitation before taking a sip of her drink.

“Well I’m curious to see how it’s like now. I’ve got a year of mana debt anyway… Plenty of time to go visit new places.”

“A year goes by pretty fast these days…” Kuli answered absent-mindedly, swirling the drink in her glass.

Back in the bedroom with the ripped pillow, Sofia sat by herself on a comfortable reading chair, and opened her system menu again.

[1 Passive build available for ‘Saintomancer’]

[Skill builder (Passive) - Target skill level:300 - Affix limit:3]

‘- Unused Affixes will be discarded -

Available prefixes (Saint):

* Veil of

* Champion

* Natural

Available suffixes (Necromancer):

* reading

* soul flame

* decay

Hmmm…

“Hey, I have a request. Could I get the partial skill descriptions back? I didn’t say anything for the actives, but I used to at least get a hint of what the original skills the keywords came from did. It wasn’t always helpful but it made the skill building a lot less of a blind choice. I feel like I should be at least entitled to that if you’re going to give double-locked ‘curses’ without warning.”

[Please wait…]

[Request granted]

Just like that? You’re pulling some weight Mr.Scribe, thank you.

[Skill builder (Passive) - Target skill level:300 - Affix limit:3]

‘- Unused Affixes will be discarded -

Available prefixes (Saint):

* [Veil of ]: Protect the target with a

* [Champion ]: Gain+1 compressed level to all

* [Natural ]: Spellcasting no longer cost

Available suffixes (Necromancer):

* [ reading]: Health of any living or undead target.

* [ soul flame]: flames when touched.

* [ decay]: fromyour enemy’s weapons.

Now I feel right at home. Much better!

The descriptions certainly change the perspective on some of the words. And also… Those are pretty good. The original champion skill just gives other skills 100 levels? That’s actually insane. Though I assume it’s restricted to one type. Like… Champion of light? Only light-related skills? Probably something like that.

Reading being health-related certainly is unexpected. Life reading? It would certainly be quite strong to be able to just read people’s health bar during a battle.

Natural is an interesting one. Spellcasting no longer cost… Probably not mana… Stamina? Some of the more complex skills are quite tiring. It has never been much of an issue for me, though, even if that’s often my main stamina drain.

The other three are pretty generic.

I feel like freehanding this one.

Veil of soul flame decay… The perfect counter to Sen’s final move. Pretty useless otherwise.

Champion reading sounds pretty funny but it might actually be incredible if it’s like an upgraded fast reading. At this rate I might actually be able to decipher the mana circuits people are casting before they can even throw the spell my way. Very reliant on my knowledge of mana structures though. So it would be hard to use, if the end skill is even that.

I wonder if Champion decay could possibly be an aura effect that reduces skill level. That has some crazy potential.

Honestly if I could I’d probably just take Natural Champion, that sounds awesome. But I need a suffix…

Natural reading sounds like a skill for Alith.

I don’t really know what to do with soul flame… I wonder if Natural soul flame… Natural Champion Soul flame? Not too sure what it would do but that certainly would be interesting.

Veil of decay could be a good defensive skill.

Veil of natural decay to disguise as an undead? Well… A level 300 skill wouldn’t be that simple.

Or just Veil of soul flame.

Hmm… I have no strong feeling about any of those, really. Another tough choice.