Saintess Summons Skeletons

She read the line a few more times.

‘This skill’s summon is willing to protect the summoner at any cost.’

Willing…

Since when?!

From the start?!

No, no way. It was absolutely brainless at the beginning… The level 70 upgrade!

‘Lv.70 : Pareth can now understand complex commands.’

So all this time in the armor, then on the boat…

She stared at the skeletal chicken that also looked straight at her, like it did most of the time. Waiting for an order.

Sofia spoke without giving an actual skill driven order, “Jump twice if you understand what I’m saying.” But the chicken didn’t move. It only kept staring at her, occasionally tilting its head… Like a chicken.

“Not quite there yet…” she mumbled. She didn’t know if she was disappointed or relieved. Probably both… At least now she could use her own wings to get bones for her armor instead of dismantling Pareth every time. Though it’s not like he can feel pain… Right?

“You’re feeling better? I’ve a few ideas to share.”

“Yes. Sorry about that, Alith, these last few months have been hard…”

“Don’t worry about it, Sof. As long as you stand back up.”

“Thank you… Did you know Pareth is starting to become a bit sentient?” Sofia asked, scooping up the chicken skeleton with both hands.

“Starting? Poor girl, you’ve never seen how fervently he guards you when you sleep.”

“What?! What the… UH?!” Sofia looked back and forth at Alith and the skeleton.

Alith shrugged it off, “Anyway, these ideas of mine…”

Alith’s mind hadn’t been idle for the half hour or so Sofia had spent motionless on the ground. Her very first suggestion was a way for Sofia to find food: cannibalism. Usually healing magic would expand the energy of the person being healed to repair the wounds; which made eating your own flesh and then healing yourself completely useless in terms of nutrition.

But in the case of Alith… She didn’t need to eat. Her nature as an undead meant she could survive and be healed up purely with mana. So Sofia could enjoy fresh Alith meat for as long as she wanted. Granted it was weird, but better than starving to death. And for water? Blood. After all [Summon blood] gave them an infinite supply. They weren’t so sure if drinking blood was completely fine for a human, but if they could eat raw meat…

Despite the source of the meat volunteering it by herself, Sofia wasn’t too excited by the idea. Though she accepted to do it as a last resort, if she was really going to starve. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that…

Then Alith explained her second plan, “My other idea is to train up your skills a bit before going. The only ones of mine I can still level up by myself are [Planar Shift] and [Botany], so we don’t really care about those now. But you, we should at least level up [Sanctity] a bit. So here’s the plan…”

Alith’s training program was a very involved one, whereby she would continuously cut off Sofia’s wings, training [Sanctity]. Then Sofia would heal them up with [Heal Undead], leveling that too. And of course, Sofia would spend the whole time ‘not falling’ while standing on the very edge of the wall’s parapets, to try giving some love to [Way of the fool] that was also still criminally under-leveled for some reason.

[Shenanigans] used to level up by itself… Well, it took more than a decade to reach level 48 so it only makes sense that the upgraded version is harder to level… And [Identify] is stuck at level one.

Leveling [Sanctity] and [Heal Undead] would make their whole group harder to kill, so in a situation like this, they really needed it. And it would also work to fill up Sofia’s now gigantic bone storage space, which could hold up to 10 tonnes of bones. They would have to cut a lot of wings to get there.

“Before we start,” Alith said while twirling her blades, “one last thing”. She slashed at the blue crystal parapets, carving out half a brick in a single swing. She caught it, and weighed it in her hand before handing it to Sofia, “[Identify] this, maybe we can learn more about the Phageids. You said the Alpha was made of the same stuff, right?”

The chunk of brick was not unlike all the debris they had created when Sofia used to bombard the place with lightning bolts, rigid crystalline stuff, with a mass more akin to wood than stone. It didn’t scratch or break easily, even if it couldn’t withstand the [Angel’s bolt] or the mithril blades, it was quite tough.

[Midenicite] : A crystalline mineral with the unique property of being completely unable to retain any mana. Item level : 0. Grade : Valuable.

Interesting property, kind of like mithril, though mithril is more like mana repulsion if I understand it correctly.

Alith looked at the key-ring, “Isn’t it made out of that stuff? It had mana though.”

“There’s probably something else inside, who knows, I don’t know anything about that stuff, maybe we can ask Karlson.”

“Oh well, guess we’re back to Drakron after this. That and investigating that vanished capital city of yours… Alright then, stand on the edge and show your wings. It’s time to level up.”

… I'm very happy that my wings can’t feel pain.

It didn’t take long for Sofia and Alith to get in a good rhythm and start filling up the [Armor of Bones] storage space. Cutting wings, healing them… The skill levels came fast at the start, then it slowed down before stopping to a halt. They continued until the storage was full anyway.

‘[Heal Undead] reached level 57’

…

‘[Heal Undead] reached level 64’

‘[Sanctity] reached level 2’

…

‘[Sanctity] reached level 24’

‘[Way of the Fool] reached level 4’

[Armor of Bones] : Gather and reform bones to create a blessed bone armor protecting the Saintomancer. The armor can store up to 10 000 kg (100*Skill level) of bones to repair itself in combat. Protective strength goes up every level.

Stocked bones : 9 999.6 kg.

A good harvest… That took so long…

Sofia sat down against the parapet, “How are you still so energetic after doing that for hours?”

“More stamina? I just don’t mind repetitive things as long as they benefit me.”

“You’re always so quick to want to do new things though? Like how you forced me to come here the first time?”

“What I dread most is doing nothing… We’re exploring next? How about a stroll through the outer ring?”

More than a stroll it was accurate to say that they flew around the place. They searched for traces of the Phageid, but they didn’t find any. However, they made a few discoveries.

Firstly was the massive Midenicite gate linking the outer and inner city, as well as a gate leading to the void outside, they were both still closed.

Another point of interest was a hole, which looked like a byproduct of Sofia’s [Angel’s bolt]ing of the lower street, that opened a path from the outer to the inner city. Maybe all the phageids went through there…

And lastly was a large church-like building, hidden in the chaos of the street level, in which they found an orb shaped item the size of a fist on the ground near a crystal pedestal.

[Midenicite catalyst] : A masterfully crafted spell catalyst made of Gold and Midenicite. Enhances the speed of mana projectiles by up to 20%.

Item level : 80. Grade : Forgotten.

Restriction : Only applies to instant projectile spells cast through the catalyst core.

The only compatible skill they had with it was [Summon blood]. They debated whether to sell it or to keep it for later if Sofia managed to make a decent skill for it. They could only keep it for now anyway, so in the necklace it went. Also it’s weird how it says spells instead of skills.

That had to be the magic item required for the place to count as a dungeon. Perhaps the boss had been there too.

Sofia had a solid theory about the Phageids by now, well, an idea at least.

Because the Phageids looked like the crystal that cannot hold mana, her guess was that they were bad at it too. If they couldn’t hold or take mana from the air, obviously they would have to eat it.

Her thought was that the Phageids ate everything they could find that wasn’t made of Midenicite. This singular thing escaped their hunger. Because unlike other elements, it couldn’t hold mana.

That would explain why everything here was so empty, and why the Alphageid had tried to stuff his baby with humans, after all, they held much more mana than the natural elements around them.

If the Alpha was any indication, they needed that mana. To reproduce.

Or I have it all wrong and the Alphageids are carnivorous. Wouldn’t explain why everything here’s missing except the walls though. Especially seeing how the palace looks intact. It has to be protected from them in some way.

Being done with the outer city, they decided to send Pareth scout the inner city. If there were monsters like the Earth golems from the desert dungeon here, they needed to know. Pareth would first check the palace, as it might be the safer place. And next would be the mansions. Which Sofia guessed had to house all the Phageids that used to be in the outer city, if they were still alive. Because where else could they be?

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