A Sinner’s Chance

As I walked back to the campus I looked at the small note Ellie had given me before I left. It was directions to what I assumed was her residence along with a flirty message that beckoned me to come whenever I wanted. I likely wouldn't be back to the Skill shop anytime soon but I guess she had figured as much.

I got back to my room just after noon, missing my cultivation with Arya. With not much else to do I visualized my Status and got to checking my new Skills, however there were a few notable differences since the last time I'd checked.

There was a brand new line for Skills called Aspect Skills which housed the four new Skills I'd gotten along with one called Seshat's Library, which seemed to have replaced Vision of Seshat. In addition, Divinity Breaker had somehow made a great leap in level, all the way up to five, despite it only being two not that long ago.

Unlike Vision of Seshat it didn't seem that Seshat's Library was activated by sight or focusing on something, and it took me a moment to figure out how to use it. Now all I needed to do was think of a Skill and open a mental book and its information would flow into me, and going by what I learned about this Skill, it seemed to be rather useful.

'Seshat's Library: A fragment of the Divine Recorder Seshat. Grants access to Seshat's library, a repository of all knowledge that has been recorded. Minor increase to Intelligence growth correction. Major influence increase among Grimoires. Divinity Breaker has broken the seal, removing the penalty for using the ability."

'Rokasut's Witchcraft: A fragment of the Divine Hag Rokasut. Greatly enhances one's ability to control and manipulate mana, brew potions, and increases the strength of coven members. Minor increase to Wisdom growth correction, moderate decrease in Charm growth correction. Minor influence increase among hags. Divinity Breaker has broken the seal, increasing the effectiveness of all magic and removing the restriction to learn Pact Magic.'

'Sekhmet's Wrath: A fragment of the Divine Paladin Sekhmet. Increases effectiveness and growth rate of melee and healing Skills. Major increase to Strength growth correction. Minor influence increase among felines. Divinity Breaker has broken the seal, removing the restriction to learn Holy Magic and allows one to harness the power of Ra for vengeance and retribution."

'Bastet's Allure: A fragment of the Divine Prostitute Bastet. Increases one's desirability and skill in sexual relations. Pinnacle Increase to Charm growth correction. Major influence increase among felines. Divinity Breaker is unable to break the seal.'

'Nuhrot's Loom: A fragment of the Divine Spider Nuhrot. Increases effectiveness and growth rate of thread related Skills. Minor increase to Agility growth correction. Pinnacle influence increase among arachnids. Divinity Breaker is unable to break the seal.'

There was so much to take in from the new Skills, though the most troubling was that the first sentence of each description called them fragments of a Divine. Besides that however I was extremely pleased with the description of each Skill. Seshat's Library wasn't too different from when it had just been Vision of Seshat, but I felt that once I leveled it I'd be able to use it on even more things.

Rokasut's Witchcraft was just what I needed for my magic Skills, and I knew it worked as I had used Elemental Magic on me and Ellie once again and it had been significantly easier than when I'd done it just a week ago. I wasn't sure how I felt about Pact Magic, or the strengthening of a coven, but if I managed to learn Pact Magic, or form a coven it wasn't like the Skill was forcing me to do it.

Sekhmet's Wrath was a straight up buff to my main combat Skills which was nice, but the part from Divinity Breaker was just too vague. Another new magic type that I'd never heard of had appeared, though since Sekhmet was likely a paladin, I imagined it would be mostly related to what the Skill improved. As for harnessing the power of Ra, I had no clue what it meant, nor what the trigger of vengeance and retribution was. It could be simply something that only works combat, but what if it extended outside of it? Would I be able to harness the Ra's power on anyone who had wronged me? Or was it vengeance and retribution for the sake of someone? Unfortunately thinking about it wouldn't get me anywhere and I could wait until I could test it out.

I had complex feelings about Bastet's Allure. I wasn't going to say no to increased prowess in the bedroom, especially since my Skills were becoming focused around sexual pleasure. However Divinity Breaker was unable to undo the seal, which had granted me quite decent boons on top of it, but I couldn't imagine what this Skill would give me. If it followed the pattern, there would likely be a new type of magic, though I couldn't think of any type of magic that would be related to prostitution.

Nuhrot's Loom was actually the one I was most pleased with. It was a Skill from an Arachne and my thread related Skills had gotten a boost. While that was obviously Thread Creation, I had a feeling that Artifice was benefiting from it as well, since it had absorbed weaving, sewing, among other thread related crafting Skills. On top of that whenever Divinity Breaker managed to unseal it the additions were surely going to be related to spiders and therefore my Arachne heritage.