Saintess Summons Skeletons

The book didn’t want the dead worm thing, so she stored the burned corpse and moved on.

Maybe they’re worth something? I could collect the corrosive fluid, there’s got to be some interesting uses for that.

Sofia didn’t even understand how such high-level monsters could sustain themselves here, this was a calm region with few inhabitants and creatures alike. Would the Church not take care of things like these? What if they created other hives and spread out?

But maybe this is something recent? Or just undiscovered like the elven tower was? It depends on whether the mine was abandoned because of the monsters or if they’re here because it’s abandoned.

Well then, how do we do this? The small tunnels are risky, they allow me to fight one on one against them but Pareth cannot fit… Let’s get the rat to explore a bit. Wish I had more than one… Actually, the birds are small enough to explore the caves, are they ready again?

Despite being many, the birds weren’t very mist or mana expensive, since the previous batch had already disappeared, she could summon them again. Spread out and explore the caves, if you find an intersection but there aren’t enough birds to enter all paths, fly in circles, if there is a dead end, stop there, and if you find a monster, come back.

The many tiny birds spread out, some of them in the Thrombber’s tunnel and most of them in the mines. Sofia simply sat down to regenerate some mana. Without counting the expenses from her items and the bonus from the ring and the saint set, it was now up to 24 mana per second. It was satisfying to see her mana go up so fast now, it used to only go up a few points a second. Relative to her total, it was still slow, but that was still not bad.

The birds spreading out revealed that many more tunnels were branching out from the main mine. Some were straight lines and likely the original mine shafts, and others were branching and sinuous. So far most of the birds had stopped, there were a lot of dead ends, and a few were spinning in place since they were left alone at a crossing, but two of them had returned from different directions.

One came from deeper in the same tunnel they had killed the first creature, the other from far away in the mine’s main corridor. Sofia sent the birds to continue their mission by ordering the ones in the dead ends to regroup with the spinning ones and go again. For now, her plan was to keep going forward in the main tunnel of the mine.

About two hundred meters further they found the other Thrombber, or rather it found them and rushed toward them, its legs swaying as if they were gliding across the stone.

The fight was a close repeat to the first, the only change was Pareth changing his weapon to a greatshield to keep the creature away instead of using his chains. This Thrombber was even weaker than the previous one, dying in only three hits of the whip.

‘You have defeated [Male Thrombber - lv. 159]’

‘[Spine of the black sun] reached level 107’

‘[Graveyard of the righteous] reached level 106’

Sofia stored the worm’s dead body, waiting for her mana to recharge before moving on.

The mine was deathly silent, Sofia could only hear her own breathing. Until she heard footsteps, many of them, echoing through the mines from behind her.

What’s going on? Someone else would come here? Are they adventurers tasked to clean up the mine? Let's be careful…

Sofia ordered Pareth to turn off all his lights, and they moved a few steps into one of the side branches of the mine.

“Fucking hell, it’s a Thrombber hive! And in the middle of Skyreach! Zerilda what the fuck, is this the right place?!” a gravelly man’s voice complained, the echo making the sound crystal clear to Sofia’s ears. A woman answered, quite annoyed at the remark, “Shut the fuck up Duraud! Read my level again, do you think I’d mess up such a simple divination?!”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, ma'am’s a whole important level 250 now, uh? About fucking time! Now pay up for all that shit YOU bought with OUR funds for YOUR trial, you old bitch!” Duraud answered back.

"You’re the old bitch! Each and every one of your ancestors is an old-”

A third, deep voice interfered, cutting off the dispute, “Shut it already you two, do you want to wake the whole hive? If she’s here then she is, this is the easiest catch of our career, so focus and stay in formation.”

To which a fourth, more childish voice, added, “I still think it’s fishy that they offer so much…”

“Are you doubting my skills too?!”

“No, I-”

Exasperated, the man with a deep voice spoke again, “Remind me who the group leader is? That’s right, listen to me and stop blabbering, I don’t want to stay here forever, usual formation. Tiar, don’t forget the buffs. Be ready to clear the whole hive if we need to.”

That’s for me, right? I’m the easiest catch. Divination? That’s a whole lot better than getting directly summoned. But they found me so fast even though I was so far away…

How do I deal with this? I can always teleport to the Zangdar castle if necessary but that’s risky, if the mana is already too low I’m stuck.

By the sound of it they likely only have one person over the fourth filter which is the divination user, others could still be too. Maybe Pareth can still handle a 250 with grounds active. Either way, I need to get rid of them or they’re sure to keep pursuing me thanks to these divination powers.

I get it, I’d also chase myself for fifty thousand gold…

But I expected to have a bit more time.

Sofia had entered the dungeon expecting to be a hunter but she was the hunted instead. However, her opponents had made a fatal mistake by unknowingly announcing their arrival to her. In their squabbling, they had given away a lot of information.

It’s time for some underground [Shenanigans]... I need the birds to hurry up and map out the whole place… Can I loop around them? The hive has to have more exits too. They’ll see the traces from the battle and know I’m near, I need to move on fast.

Lit only by the weak, flickering golden shine of Pareth’s eyes, she entered one of the few Thrombber tunnels that were large enough for him. The birds had already explored this one quite extensively since it was mostly free from the legged-worm monsters’ presence.

Sofia had deactivated the bone armor in an effort to make less noise as she progressed through the tunnel. She focused on ways to deal with her pursuers while her fingers trailed against the oddly smooth cavernous walls, closely following Pareth and a couple of birds that had taken over the navigation.

I have to assume the level 250 could be just as strong as Orvod and Kuli. I could die in a single hit.

I’m pretty sure a cave-in won’t kill them. Maybe it’s time for the demon form? But I came here to gain levels and that would make me lose so many…

That won’t do. They came to profit off of me, it’s only right that I profit off of them. But the divination could be annoying to deal with depending on how often she can use it and how much information it gives.

I might be able to use the birds to lure a few beasts on them but that wouldn’t be enough to do any real damage. I don’t know enough about Thrombbers…

Sofia stopped and dumped the dead and charred body of a Thrombber on the ground.

This will leave more tracks but whatever, I need to do this before they reach me. Time to abuse the identify function, sorry scribe friend, lots of work coming your way.

[Charred male Thrombber corpse]: Thrombbers are big invertebrates that live underground and rarely leave their hives, the males are distinctively weaker than their larger female counterparts and lack a stinger. This one is well-cooked, but inedible, do not put it in your mouth.

I really don’t know what to say to that advice. Interesting information though, next. Using her mithril knife, she sliced off a leg, the corrosive fluid failing to attack the blade’s coating.

[Thrombber Acid]: A Thrombber’s potent acid, it is sticky and will melt through most things when given enough time. If touched, the best practice is to cut off the affected body part before too much of the acid can reach and infiltrate the blood.

[Thrombber Leg]: Flexible appendages covered in a dangerous acid, the Thrombbers use them to move around in all directions at high speed, ensnare invaders and dig tunnels.

Next, she quickly cut what she could salvage of the eye and mouth.

[Thrombber Maw]: The many mandibles of a Thrombber, specialized to be efficient at taking care of fungus.

Fungus? Do these things eat mushrooms?

[Thrombber eye]: It’s a Thrombber’s eye that they used to see…

Alright, I get the message, thanks for your hard work.

I need to do more research on scribes… Now, where do I go from here? Ideally, I’d want the Thrombbers and the group to kill each other. If I can find the main hive…

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