Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia jumped out of the window and let herself fall. She used the same trick she had used before in the Veik hive, activating the graveyard on herself at the last second to dive into the ground.

She hadn’t done that to escape the red light because of her bad experience with the Veik King. She would rather not bet her life on such a trick against an opponent who could possibly attack her in the spirit realm. That and she would not have had the time to fall all the way to the ground before the creature even reached her, which she hadn’t even accounted for at the time.

Now phasing under the city, Sofia was biding her time, quite deep underground. She waited for the worm-people above to start leaving their homes. She did not have to wait long. Very quickly, the streets were filled by an unending flow of worm-people going to work.

They also have very strong spirit bodies… That explains how they can also be so strong without mana just like the Veik. The one question left now is: where is the line?

Why are the Royal Veik part of the system but these worm people are not? The system really treats them like monsters from start to finish. Still, they have a certain level of individuality. I would rather not just slaughter them indiscriminately… But if we think of the context, I would also rather not lose my head. The trial would be a lot harder without a functional neck even if this is not going to kill me.

Sofia observed the streets above. Slowly, as she was lost in her own considerations, the city roads were emptying as the worm-people got to where they needed to go.

I don’t trust that I can get rid of the parasite before it can cut my head off. Maybe my spine can survive with the blessing, maybe, but that’s still all the fleshy bits severed…

If I think of this as mercenary work in war time, which it is; it should be fine if I kill a thousand soldiers. No more cleaners… It was unfortunate but it had to be done…

But! Let’s find that Matriarch thing I need to kill too, first. Chances are I cannot even kill it, it would make the rest of the quest meaningless. If I can kill it, I will see then.

The hard thinking done, Sofia chose an empty apartment building to hide in. She would rather not stay in the spirit realm too long to avoid the unwanted side effects. The plan was to spend the day mapping out the city from above, jumping from building to building when no one was looking. She would find where the important facilities were, and go explore them during the night when the workers returned home.

Observing the worm-people work was unsettling. They all looked the same, all acted in the same way, in the same rhythm. Watching cleaners swipe the streets despite them being already clean was one thing, but they were all distant from one another. The guards were the same, patrols would walk around the streets, lined up and walking at the exact same pace, it was like looking at something stuck between two mirrors.

It was all just strange, Sofia could look at the same place a few hours apart and be welcomed by the exact same sight, the same groups of worms, doing the same things, walking the same path.

It all felt uncanny, unnatural. Like an empty façade, a mockery of an actual society.

Most staggering of all was the complete lack of interaction. Even if the worms possibly had a way to communicate that Sofia could not perceive, there was no sign of them ever interacting with each other. They never stopped to take a break, were never distracted or slacking. So far the only time she had seen a worm not ‘do its job’ properly was the sleeping guard in front of the mining facility the previous night.

She never saw any of the worms eat or drink anything.

If apparent individuality or emotions are part of the system-having requirements, the stone Ogres were more qualified…

In the end, she stopped observing the Kidjikkiks, and focused on her objectives.

Come night, she had a shortlist of five major buildings to check out, and she was already in place in an apartment near the first one, which was a small house-like building in the middle of the residential area with a peculiar architectural style, distinct from the rest, more refined.

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It was like a house from the outside world had been transported in the underground city. Sofia had not seen a single worm go in or out in the three hours she had spent watching it, but she did see a few spirit bodies inside when looking from the spirit realm, so it was by no means empty.

The chances that the Matriarch would be there were slim, in Sofia’s opinion, but it was also a small building so checking it first made sense.

The worms inside the building left a bit before nightfall, they were all guards, but one of them wore an actual piece of clothing, a yellow scarf draped over its back, between his four arms.

A distinctive trait! Maybe this one has an actual personality?

[Guardian Kidjikkik - Lv. 284 - Imprint power : 30 - Effect : +3000 Health]

‘An elite Kidjikkik of the guardian variety. They have the ability to fight in a vicious way to compensate for their lack of strength.’

The description changed. Better to stay far from this one.

As the guards left, down the street, Sofia could see another group of four guards coming from around a corner. They also had a yellow-scarfed warrior who was a level 276 guardian.

Nevermind about personality…

So are the more dangerous individuals recognizable by the scarves? It’s like a military medal, I guess.

I better hurry up before they make it here.

Sofia graveyarded through the ground and crossed the one street separating her from the peculiar building, reappearing directly inside it. There was a single, mostly empty room inside, it was very brightly lit, and served a single purpose.

Within a small shrine, in the middle of the room, was a round lump of pulsating dark blue flesh. That was all.

So this is the source of the sticky walls? This thing spreads around from this shrine and reaches all the way to the back of the mining facilities. Can I Identify it?

Before she could get the result, she had to hurriedly phase back into the ground, the guards were entering.

How lousy, I would have had time to steal it if I wanted.

She started moving in the direction of the next place she wanted to check.

[Journeying Algae Nodule]: A small nodule of the Journeying Algae, a plant native to the winding caverns of Avross.

Avross. That’s the small yellow planet. Not far from Cerberus beta. Did the worm people bring it over somehow?

Journeying Algae… Maybe it came on its own.

Alright, the next building is not too far away.

The next building in question turned out to be a bed, shelf and table manufacturing plant. That was all the furniture the worm-people’s houses got to have, and they were all made there. They had plenty of excess piling up, stacked in a corner, entirely too much, enough to furnish thousands of new homes, yet it was clear from the work-in-progress furniture on the workstations that the production was not stopping. Sofia found it perplexing but she quickly left for her next target.

This third building was the last ‘in city’ building she had to explore, the last two targets being dug straight into the cavern walls like the mining facility. This was the tallest building in the city, which she had only seen from a distance until now. It seemed to continue into the cavern ceiling. It turned out to be nothing but a giant stairwell hidden within a tower, going far both up and down.

Up is probably the way to the surface. Down… Who knows.

Finding an intended way out of the city was actually a relief, Sofia quickly decided that she would go explore the lower level if she failed to find a Kidjikkik Matriarch in the last two points of interest in the city.

On her way to the second to last place to explore, she noticed a big gaping hole in the ground between two buildings. As if there had been a building there before but it had been swallowed by the depths of the moon.

The hole was actually large and straight enough for Sofia to see something, far, far below at the bottom. Red light.

She quietly withdrew and proceeded with her exploration of the city.

I will need to be extremely careful if I go down the stairs…

The second to last place was in fact where the worm-people manufactured their more refined products: weapons and four colors of what the system identified as ‘elite garb’ scarves. Sofia grabbed a few samples to examine later and moved on.

Finally she made her way to the last facility, and phased through its unguarded, large ominous doors carved into the cavern walls.

Sofia almost fell. In front of her was a giant pit, the vision of which left her mouth agape.

Bookie?

The flying book appeared next to Sofia. It shivered in excitement.

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