Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia wanted to try eating the three pills at once, hoping that it would help her better feel the effects and understand what the ‘Processing’ stat did. It could be a bit dangerous though.

But also I have three runes on, it’s not like it’s going to kill me three times over, even if there’s some pill toxicity.

At the same time, they will magically enhance my body, so I don’t want it to emit too much mana… I’m going to have to take them one by one I guess, maybe I’ll still see the difference anyway.

Sofia ate the first of the small pills.

They could seriously work on the taste a bit.

She chewed and patiently waited for the pill to take effect, but she couldn’t really feel any change, so she ate another one. Still nothing. After she had consumed all three, she still had no idea what these could possibly do. Unsure what to make of this, she opened the book again. It was the same thing with the same unknown words, and yet, Sofia felt that she understood the meaning much easier now.

How does that even work?

It’’s like… Like I think a bit better? Like a sudden burst of clarity except that’s my new baseline? No, more like I can focus harder. I can’t quite put my finger on it.

But that sure helps! I should be able to understand most of this book now, it’s still just guessing for the most part, but it’s easier now. So processing is like baseline intelligence in a way. The ability to understand things faster? I bet that’ll help with modifying spells.

Even with a simplified learning process, the book was still very technical and full of unknown words, but after spending half a day on it, Sofia was certain she could set up at least the mana isolation field without trouble. The shield looked like it was much harder to use, so much so that three quarters of the book were dedicated only to it.

First, insert an empty power core in the lower socket of the brass engine…

To adjust the range, turn the thing below the third spiky wheel…

After a good three minutes of fiddling with different buttons and dials all over the machine, Sofia finally heard a ‘click’ which meant the engine was ready to start.

Now all I have to do is insert at least fifty thousand mana in there, preferably in a short time.

So, either it works, and the mana isolation field hides the mana emissions, or I’m becoming a big beacon of mana for the elf monster and its swarm to collapse onto. I better double-check that I set it all up correctly…

It works!

In a bubble around Sofia, contained inside the room, she could see the excess wastes of the mana she just used to start the engine, it was all trapped within. And now if I step out of it… I can’t see the mana!

To think you can set up something like this anywhere. That’s quite something.

Finally, Sofia could dispel her unlife runes and watch her mana slowly come back up. It was only a quarter of the usual speed, because there was no ambient mana to fuel her regeneration. If I stay here to have the zone soak up my excess mana once I’m full, I can use it as a fast mana regeneration bubble later.

I should make a small sun ritual circle inside while I’m at it. She’s the employer, no reason for Her not to help.

After the ritual activated, her regeneration went up from about 86 to 102 points per second.

Better than nothing.

Finally, she could let bookie loose without fear of it attracting the monster. The old elven corpse disappeared in the fog between the pages. Sofia grabbed the levitating book and inspected the newly formed page. As expected, it was a single elven skeleton, going for a measly 500 mana. Should I say it’s worth two and a half paladins, or rather a twentieth of a Templar?

Sofia summoned the skeleton. Like most other skeletons from the book, it did not move with an order. No weapon, not much magic, what is he?

[Solar Engineer Elf - Lv. 226]

Engineer? Something to do with that thing being called a brass engine? The Zangdar hero did have an elven wife, so there is some kind of link. Hmm… Didn’t I see a similar word somewhere recently? I did I’m pretty sure, like in an [Identify] description. Oh yeah, that’s it, the weird walls on the flying island was supposedly ‘Dwarven Engineering’... Walls have nothing to do with this engine contraption though. I might have been jumping to conclusions too fast.

But, then. What can you do?

Can you make walls? Were you the wall-repairman or something like that? Annoying that I can’t see its skills. Show me what you can do. But don’t leave the bubble, and don’t break the room.

The skeleton executed the orders. It walked up to the seat that used to host its dead body and started with a light touch, disassembled it. It had only taken a few seconds, the previous elven design seat had become three neatly arranged piles of metal, stone and leather, with a handful of nails and thick jagged nails on the side. It was still the same old materials in the same form, waiting to be reassembled.

Interesting... Is that all?

The skeleton proceeded to start drawing in empty space, its fingertip leaving behind luminous trails of unmoving light. The drawing of a chest appeared, and when the skeleton was done drawing, the light expanded and shot over the materials, sticking them together until they formed the same chest the skeleton had just drawn. A stone and metal chest with an interior lined in leather, complete with an integrated lock and assorted key.

Interesting. Can you make anything as long as you have the materials?

The skeleton didn’t move but Sofia understood that the answer was no.

What about defending yourself?

The skeleton disassembled the chest and drew a large shield and a rapier instead, once assembled, it promptly equipped them.

I see. The materials are really limiting. I’m guessing you can assemble some crazy stuff, because if not I don’t see how you’d survive with just custom made swords and shields.

One thing she noted about the process was that the creation of items sometimes cut the materials into smaller pieces, but it didn’t seem to be able to stick them back together. However, she could clearly feel that the sword and shield's relative power and toughness was much better than that of the base materials, they were infused with cyclical flows of mana, the same as her own spine-sword-whip.

This is a great find! It won’t be very useful in battle, but the quick manufacturing of items would make many craftsmen die of jealousy. It will no doubt be very useful… Just not now.

Great skeleton, terrible context. I wish it could tell me what it’s still living past him knew about the weird Deep parasites. Why can’t skeletons talk…

Sofia hadn’t yet unsummoned the book of skeletons, she felt it become agitated. What’s up with you? It shook a bit and opened by itself weakly ejecting a small piece of jewelry. A ring? Oh, I didn’t even loot the corpse before feeding bookie. He usually eats everything so why spit out the ring?

[Ring of the clean hand]: This silver ring has been imbued with fluid-repellent magic. It prevents liquids from sticking to your hand.

Pretty random but I’ll take it. Liquids already don’t stick to my gloves though. I guess I’ll give it to Alith.

Now let’s carve the runes again and go on a hunt!

Sofia had first expanded the size of the mana isolation zone past the walls of the room before having the graveyard crew take her to the other side. Staring down the abandoned corridor, she immediately remembered being chased by the iridescent swarm and had a sudden urge to go back to the safety of her closed room.

It’s gonna be alright… These things aren’t very intelligent or I’d be long dead. I’ll be fine…

The eternal silence of the solar station only added to the pressure she felt. Being deaf in such a dangerous environment was more terrifying than any monster she’d hear until then. With the place and the enemies being devoid of mana, her mana senses were also useless. She had to deal with two of her senses being cut out. Weirdly enough she could still smell some faint odor of something burning when she was not even breathing, but that wasn’t much information to go with. Probably just the smell of the sun?

Sofia carefully made her way down to the lowest floor of the building, she followed her three dimensional map to the entrance walkway that linked this subsection to the main building, there were no windows anywhere so this was the only way she could check on the outside without having to go through the walls.

Still flying right above the sun… Oh shit. Hey, Sun, this is a bit too much, don’t you think?

From this new point of view, she had spotted something she hadn’t noticed before. At the bottom tip of the inverted pyramid main building, there was what looked like a long pole going down, straight into the sun. Sofia had followed its path down with her gaze, it was hard to see up to where it really extended, staring straight at the ball of fire and trying to see small details wasn’t exactly easy even with protection. But the part that gave Sofia an existential crisis was not the pole itself, nor the sun beneath. It was the giant iridescent whale-like creature that ‘swam’ at the surface of the sun for a second before fading under a sea of raging fire.

She checked the quest again.

[Sun’s ordinance : Meet Sun’s Oracle in Herzal; Defeat all monsters in the Orbital Sun Temple]

No. No, no, no, no.

It’s not IN the temple. It doesn’t count.

It cannot count.

This thing is the size of a small city.

I’m already having trouble dealing with a single small one.

There’s no way I’m supposed to get rid of that.

Am I right?

Please…

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