Saintess Summons Skeletons

After Kyle told Sofia where to go and left, she opened the box and popped the mana pearl into her mouth.

“Uegh. Mines taste better.”

And having to chew on this without being able to swallow is… Urgh.

Sofia looked down at her bone body. With her clothes on, it did not look too far from the true thing on the outside, aside from it being quite rigid and made of bones, but the truth was that the only semi-functionnal thing inside were here manually-activated lungs to speak.

Should I make myself a fake stomach in there? That is gonna be awkward in a lot of ways… Maybe I should just not eat…

She identified the other things in the box, and it was clear now that the current descriptions were all just Mr Scribe guesswork. He identified the catalysers as a medium Slashing, a medium explosion, a large slashing, and two unknown giant ones, but that was where the certainty ended.

For the four stat pills, Mr. Scribe was drawing a blank.

[Large Something pill]: Gives a 100 000 of something. Only for lv. 250+. You know what to do with it.

[Large Something else pill]: Gives a 100 000 of something else. Only for lv. 250+. You also know what to do with it…

Sofia picked up the smaller of the two books, it was fully hand-written, the first page read ‘The schools of mana-strengthening’, and it came with a short message from the author: ‘Here’s what you asked for, Jin. I only included the techniques which have successfully led to Pinnacle Ascensions, so there’s not so many. Hope you like it; Anna<>

Anna again?!

A certain Anna writing books… Is Jin the human admin, then? Wouldn’t this be considered a legendary relic of the system or something? Can Kyle just give that away?

The other book had no title, and the only sign of the author being credited anywhere was a signature that looked like an ornate K on the last page. Did Kyle write this one, maybe?

Sofia quickly read over the introduction pages of both books and while the magic-creation one was full of technical terms that would take a while for Sofia to really analyze and understand, the one on ‘mana-strengthening’ was extremely straightforward.

It presented five main ways of ‘reaching Pinnacle Ascension’.

Aura resonance (Natural ability of the strong races).

Warpath Scriptures (Training through repeated half-deaths and suffering).

Evolving technique of the Old Lord (Mana reforging).

Eddarinian dark arts (Soul grafting).

The ancient human method (Mana circulation).

This is all very intriguing. The ancient human method must be what Ihuarah was using. Aura being associated to strong races is just a given since it’s what Dragons have… Never heard of the ‘Old Lord’ but it’s hard not to think of the Deep when I read this. Hmm. Never heard of the Eddarinians either. Soul grafting… I wonder if that’s how RIchard trained.

And the Warpath Scriptures… I mean… Except for the distasteful name, this sounds like something I could have come up with.

Have I been unknowingly getting stronger with all my Unlife rune activations? My system stats never reflected something like that, at least.

I’ll be sure to give these books a good read later.

Finally done chewing on the tough mana pearl, Sofia stood up and left the corridor, following Kyle’s direction, Pareth followed behind, carrying Bookie on his shoulders between his three necks.

Making her way through the underground complex, Sofia crossed path with a few paper people. They all completely ignored her as they floated from room to room.

I guess they work for the system in one way or another like the Sunless? That would explain why they’re allowed to live on Cerberus Beta.

Finally reaching her destination, Sofia entered the ‘common room’.

It’s just another fucking underground city!

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A paper-people city!

It’s not that big, though. Maybe a few thousand people can live in there? I have a good view from up here.

She spent a few seconds trying to find any non-paper-person in between the rings of steel houses of this city build inside the walls of a large chasm, but even from her vantage point at the very top of the city, she failed. Wait… I’m dumb.

Sofia exchanged positon with Ihuarah. He took a few seconds to accept, and when he did, she found herself standing on a couch next to Everelle in what looked like a small tavern. Nearby, Alith, Astelia and Michael were sitting at a table with a few other people, and quite a few other tables were occupied by groups of paper-people.

Sofia awkwardly stepped down from the couch. Thankfully, it was in a corner booth and there was some kind of privacy ritual preventing sound from going in or out, so Everelle was the only one who had noticed the embarrassing entrance.

“Sofia, I presume?” Everelle asked from the couch, crossing her pointy black legs.

“Yes… Did I interrupt something?”

“Not really?”

Pareth appeared next to Sofia, holding onto Bookie and Ihuarah.

“I am glad to see you safe and sound, Lady Sofia,” Ihuarah greeted with a nod.

“Happy to see you again, Iwa. How are things? Oh, should I start with fixing Everelle’s memories?”

Everelle herself instantly answered, “Please do. I am already aware of the details. Just grab my arm,” she instructed, raising one of her long black sleeves.

Sofia nodded and grabbed the sleeve. Everelle jumped out of the couch in shock, she started shouting as she grabbed her head.

“HOLY FUCK! SOFIA! I’M GONNA KILL THOSE FUCKING SCRIBES! THEY RUINED IT! THEY RUINED OUR PO- THEY RUINED OUR DUEL! THE SHIT-EATING ASS GARG-”

Ihuarah stopped her by grabbing her and gently shoving her back into the couch, “Calm down Eve. This is not like you.”

The Sunless sighed from the couch, letting herself fall back weakly.

“Yeah… I’m just mad about this shit, you know. They erased my damn memory!” she complained. Then after another loud sigh, she had calmed down. “Hi again, Sofia. Sorry about all this… Good to see you all still alive. Oh, by the way, this is for youn Bookie,” she said as she tossed a small glove to the skeleton.

Bookie’s jaw dropped as he scrambled to catch the glove. “Miss Everelle is the best!”

“Thanks. Maybe we’ll have an occasion to duel again later? I didn’t expect you to be the first person I catch up with after getting back from… Yeah.”

“Well, you have the fake Sunless over here to thank for that. Dumbass wasted his bonus task reward to get me out of a job contract a few hundred years early,” she explained while looking at Ihuarah with a smile in her voice.

“A worthwhile investment, if you ask me,” Ihuarah commented.

“Oh, looks like the others noticed you, Skeleton-girl.”

Sofia turned around, and indeed, Alith was waving at her from her table with a big smile on her face.

“I should go,” Sofia said.

“Then do, oh, Bookie can stay, I need to explain a few things about the gloves.”

Sofia shrugged, she turned to Pareth and Bookie, “You guys do what you want, we’ll probably be here a while.”

There were already ten people at the table, but Alith made some space next to her and did all the introductions. Besides Alith, Astelia and Michael, there were also four more trial takers, three Exidians and an Orc, along with three Sunless, one of which Sofia recognized as Tarren, the sword-wielding dungeon boss.

The introductions were fast, especially since Sofia had already unknowingly achieved urban-legend status as the Saintess who got erased from the system. After Sofia helped Michael and Tarren regain their memories of her, she could barely breathe as she spent the next few hours drinking and answering a thousand questions.

It was only twelve days later that everyone was allowed to resume the trial.

Sofia observed the battle through a bone token. It had been two weeks since the hunt started, and finally, the creature was on its deathbed. Her skeletons had tracked it relentlessly every time it escaped to tend its wounds, never letting it rest or sleep, never letting it find her. Finally the beast was cornered. Pareth grappled the Lion head of the large chimera while the hundreds of Skeleton Kidjikkik Soldiers slowly closed in from all sides.

The beast was barely holding on. Its serpent-head tail had been the first to go, destroyed by a very-long-range piercing Angel’s bolt, and the goat head on its back had been later cut off in the twenty-third battle against Pareth.

The Chimera’s tough hide used to be impervious to the Kidjikkik Soldiers’ attacks, but the Skeletons under Bookie’s command would now send their spears straight into the open injuries of the beast, slowly gnawing at the last bits of its strength. The creature struck back, but it was weak now, and under the shining sunlight, the skeletons were invincible, no matter how far their bones were sent flying, the came back like an endless army of mindless soldiers.

Pareth’s hammer landed a solid hit on the side of the lion head, the creature stumbled and toppled from the blow. The Kidjikkik Soldiers rushed and piled up on the falled beast, and Pareth’s size grew to the maximum. He raised his arms, shifting his hammer into a sword, and mercilessly plunged it into the lion’s skull.

‘You have defeated [Chimera - Lv. 370 - Imprint Cannot be Damaged]’

Sofia cut her connection to the bone token and opened her eyes. She was sitting cross-legged on thing air, at the maximum altitude she could go before the violent mana currents around Cerberus Beta stopped her. The battlefield was right below her.

What a tough one... Good job everyone. Give me a second Pareth, I’m coming to give you your heart.

We finally have your keystone.

She quickly updated Pareth’s heart’s page and gave another look to her own.

[Chimera’s Complete mana heart of Knowledge]: /SSS tier/

[Destroyer’s Complete mana heart of Aphenoreth]: /SSS tier/

Extra ranks, here I come.

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