Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia brought back a lot of random stuff from Azurian’s shop, it barely made a dent in her gold reserves, so much that she was starting to wonder whether Sun might actually be annoyed at her for taking it. Not that it would have survived anyway, but still, before the deep whale destroyed everything, she had technically stolen it.

She stopped in front of the academy.

“Back already? You’ve only been gone a few hours, teacher Sonia, were my recommendations not to your liking?” the dog man asked with a bright smug smile.

“No, it was good, a bit too good, even. You have some flair, Senior Caneb, I must admit it.”

“Glad to hear it from you, well, get in,” he invited her, showing her the gate.

“Wait, before that. Would you happen to know of a good place to test destructive spells? Is there a room like that within the academy?”

“Not quite within, no, but deep beneath, surely. That is outside of the barrier, but you can go all out there. Make your way to the arena, but instead of entering it, keep going forward, then take every stairs down that you see until you reach the cube. Very easy!”

“The cube?”

“You’ll understand,” he confirmed, nodding to himself.

Sofia phased through the gate and followed Caleb’s instructions. Since the Academy’s corridors were mostly empty, she rushed through at dangerous speeds and made her way down to the deepest part of the academy’s underground. A weird lift took her straight through the barrier and down several kilometers into the ground. The lift took quite some time to descend and the air gradually got hotter and hotter as she went deeper.

Finally it stopped! Is it over?

The doors opened, revealing a small glass cabin overlooking a giant ‘cube’. To be exact, a cube-shaped cavern, glowing with flowing magma on the sides. A short old-looking Exidian man with a cane approached Sofia from the side, he was under level 100.

“Come to try out a boomin spell or two? I’ve seen yer mug in the teacher book, go right ahead,” he said after observing her face for a second, pointing at the door leading to nothing on the side of the cabin.

“Is it safe? What if one of my spells reaches this cabin? It’s pretty high but not out of reach.”

“Dun worry, tis all quite safe ya? Headmaster himself comes here to try new magic, walls carved through a natural mana leyline and reinforced so much, tell ye what, I’ll eat mah cane if you can scratch ‘em.”

That’s not exactly what I asked but sure then…

Sofia headed through the door.

The reason she had sought out this place was quite simple: she needed to use the ring of Zar’s [Collapse] to absorb the curses of the necromancer’s chest after activating them, but it was currently still full of mana. To activate it again, she was going to train the piercing Angel’s bolt some more, which would drain the ring’s remaining mana to give the bolts more power.

The magma flowing down the walls gathers in this vortex at the center… Is the city built on a volcano? It looked quite flat. Maybe it’s that thing with a mana leyline? I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of those before… More reading ahead, it seems. But first!

Sofia landed on a spot far away from the several magma rivers coursing through the ground, and she dumped out all of the bones she had just bought, then summoned the book of skeletons. Have a nice meal.

The bones were devoured by the book, and a new page took shape showcasing the drawing of a short skeleton holding a book and an ornate cup overflowing with a misty black liquid. Hiding the mana cost with her hand, Sofia had a good look at the drawing.

Now that I can see the full skeleton, that’s a bit thin for a male dwarf. She slowly slid her hand to reveal the mana cost. There wasn’t one.

No cost? What do you mean no cost?

Is something wrong, Bookie?

The page freed itself from the book and split into two down the middle.

What’s going on now?

Before Sofia were two new pages, one with the small necromancer and only the goblet; this one had a cost of 100,000, while the other still had no mana cost, and on it, the necromancer held a book strangely similar to Bookie.

Oh, I think I understand where this is going.

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So you want me to choose? Is the left one the original and the right one… The skeleton holding you?

I feel like I'm not being given enough information right now. This is a bit like picking a blessing, isn't it? So it can be either a regular summon or yourself? That's a bit of an unexpectedly tough choice. I cannot get both, can I?

Sofia sighed and picked the page with the book.

You happy now?

The book shuddered, and the page Sofia chose reattached itself while the other one disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I guess this means yes. What now?

Floating in front of Sofia, the book presented its new page, which she ripped off. The mist started flowing, and in front of her formed the small skeleton of the necromancer. It instantly felt more lively than the usual mist skeletons. It looked around, then at Sofia, and held out a hand as if waiting to receive something.

[Solar Book of Skeletons - Lv. 249]

Health : 24900/24900

Mist : 99%

Lifetime : 14932s/14940s

Well, that has the merit of being quite clear. I guess Bookie was always a necromancer. You want the actual book, right? There you go.

The small skeleton grabbed the book and walked up to Sofia with a skip in its steps. Somehow, she could tell it was proud.

I'm not exactly sure what the benefits of this are, but hey, if you're happy, I'm happy for you. One good thing, I guess, is I can now see exactly how much mist is left, although I could already kind of guess. But it's nice to be able to put a number on it.

The skeleton turned its head, looked at Sofia, and handed the book back to her, insisting for her to take it.

You changed your mind quickly.

The skeleton shook its head, and the book opened by itself. Sofia understood the new changes; maybe there were more, but at the very least, one thing was obvious—the mana cost of the skeletons had changed. The book had opened at the page of the High-Priest, and instead of the usual 50000, the indicated cost was only 45000. Sofia checked every page, and they all showed the same 10% discount.

“Hey, this isn't bad. It's not what I expected, but I'll take it.”

Looking at the small skeleton, she asked, “Does it also reduce the mist cost?”

And the skeleton nodded in response.

“Nice, too bad I'm still a few tens of thousand mana points short of what's needed to summon the ingot monster. Do you have any more surprises for me?”

The small skeletal nodded again, gesturing for Sofia to flip the book so that she held it upside down.

“And then?”

Not sure what to do, she opened the book again and noticed there were fewer pages than usual. The first one was Crowie's page, showing the picture of the small skeleton with a crow on its shoulder. Turning to the next page, there was the picture of the small skeleton with a helmet and holding a bow.

“That should be the page of the bow soldier. I think I understand now.”

The next page in the book should have been the one with 50 crows, but instead, what showed up was a picture of the small skeleton with a broom.

“So it's only the pages with a single skeleton on it?”

Sofia flipped to the last two pages, which were normally the ones with the ingot monster and the quartz giant. On one, the small skeleton became huge and encased in a larger, thicker skeleton, while on the other, the depiction had become much smaller, with twig-like wings, and looking ferocious. With a chuckle, Sofia gave the book back to the skeleton, which he grabbed, then let go. It moved by itself and hovered behind his skull.

If the book is Bookie, and the skeleton is Bookie, I’m going to start having naming issues.

“Can you summon stuff by yourself?”

Once again, the skeleton nodded.

“All right, summon the elven caretaker then. I want to see you with a broom.”

Without the skeleton doing anything, the page ripped itself from the book and turned into mist, which very quickly collapsed on itself and became a broom in the skeleton’s hands.

[Solar Book of Caretaker Skeletons - Lv. 249]

Health : 12450/12450

Mist : 98%

Lifetime : 14725s/14940s

That's cute. Wait, you actually lose health? Is that because of this fusion in particular? Does that happen every time? Well, only one way to find out. “Summon the bow soldier now,”she told the broom-brandishing skeleton.

Once again, a page ripped by itself, and an instant later, Bookie’s new form was now fitted with a small spiked helmet as well as two more arms above his original set, holding the broom, a bow, and with a quiver filled with bone arrows attached to his waist.

[Solar Book of Caretaking Soldier Skeletons - Lv. 249]

Health : 24900/24900

Mist : 97%

Lifetime : 14711s/14940s

“Oh! The health is back to normal. Can we add more?” she asked.

Not only did Bookie acquiesce once again, but the book flew to Sofia once again, opening at the page of the sandworm. It showed Bookie’s upper body sprouting out of the sandworm’s back. The sandworm was much smaller than usual, as if scaled down to Bookie’s size.

“Sure, go for it!”

The result was exactly as Sofia expected, she lost 90000 mana for the summoning, and the four-armed ‘Solar Book-Worm of Caretaking Soldier Skeletons’ now slithered happily around Sofia, waving its broom as if fighting imaginary enemies. Its stats had also changed quite a lot.

Health : 249000/249000

Mist : 54%

Lifetime : 14623s/14940s

Oh yeah, this is fun. I think I like that a lot more than a regular old necromancer skeleton.

“You were always a member, but now it feels a bit more real. Welcome to the team, Bookie.”

Bookie brandished his broom high in the air in celebration.

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