Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia decided that they should go see Tyrene, for no real reason other than wanting to socialize. Anything to forget where they had spent the last few months. But the winged woman wasn’t at the glass workshop anymore. In fact there wasn’t much left there beside empty buildings. Seems like they finally came to pick her up. Too bad. She could have told us more about this Arch-Lich guy. I wonder if it’s worth it trying to bring him the letter. Would he reward us? Or would he kill us on the spot? And let’s not even talk about the Dragon.

The ‘green’, cursed zone thing, was getting dangerously close to the abandoned workshop. It was a tall wall of thick vegetation growing so dense one couldn’t see the ground. It had still been a few thousand meters away when they came here the first time, now it was already just a few hundreds meters shy of reaching the first house.

No wonder they had to relocate.

Sofia was about to grab Alith to fly up again when Alith interrupted her, “Say Sofia… I think I want to go alone for a bit. Ah! Not right now. I mean… When we reach civilization again, maybe we can go our own way for a little while. I kinda want to try some things, relax, take some more time to understand how this world works, you get me?”

“What are you going on about? I thought I had been clear about this stuff, wasn’t I? You do what you want, I don’t mind either way. We need to set up a way to reunite after is all. Oh and you should take some of the gold too if we’re going to do this…”

They discussed this for a while then departed south. Alith didn’t elaborate too much on what she wanted to do, only that she wanted to roam around alone for a while. Sofia was much more interested in trying to spend her newfound money, amassing knowledge and perhaps even pay a visit to the Vampire nation. In her mind, as long as she managed to buy her way into being safe from the Church’s summon, she was as good as done with the subject. She wouldn’t mind being able to live and progress at a more relaxed pace.

And after the clusterfuck that had been her first trial, she wouldn’t enter the second one before being as ready as she could. No rushing it. She needed time. It was pretty clear to her that, compared to Alith’s, her trial had been way too hard. If the second was going to be the same, she would be ready for it.

And she had a new goal. One that would motivate her to progress.

She would find whoever sent the soul parasite her way, and make a blessed armor out of their bones.

The mountain range south of the desert was vast, way more than Sofia had imagined. It would have taken them forever to cross it without wings. Like at least half a year.

To finally be able to use her wings freely was liberating. No more restricted space, no more mana devouring sand. And sometimes she picked up mana currents that were so strong it propelled her forward at speeds she never even reached when she sprinted with the demon form in the trial. Meanwhile Alith was reading books in her ring. Funny how that works. An interesting fact was that the sand pendant couldn’t go in the ring, likely because it could never be empty due to the sand. Sofia was curious about how spatial storage items really worked. She was more willing to go visit the Lich by the minute. Though it was unlikely he would be willing to share anything if he even deigned meeting her.

The mountains flew by, giving way to a snowy forest of dark pines. Is it winter already?

Between the trial and Zangdar, she had no clue what time of the year it was anymore.

Eventually she flew across a river, and found a village by following it.

Should I cut my wings before going there? Ah whatever.

Bone wings or not she didn’t believe with her appearance anyone would take her for a necromancer. Not unless I take out Pareth and the spine at least. What did countryside villagers know about wings anyway? She knew actually, she had been one. They don’t know shit.

She spotted a young man fishing in the river a bit further, he was about sixteen years old, an easy target. If her looks weren’t enough to make a teenage boy think twice before running away screaming, then she didn’t know what could.

She did her best to land discreetly a few meters behind him. The river was quite loud. She folded her wings, but they were still partly visible behind her back. She stood out quite a lot with her light green robe, knee-deep in the untouched snow.

“Hi, excuse me? Can you help?”

The young man, who sat on a rock overlooking the river, was slightly startled. He turned his head to see who had called him. He looked like he didn’t understand what was happening, “Hello?” he tried.

Sofia smiled, “Sorry, I know that it’s a bit weird but can you tell me today’s date and where this is? I’m a bit lost.”

The question only confused him more, but he finally spotted the pointy bone bits coming from behind Sofia’s back. It wasn’t clear what he thought of it but diligently answered.

“The new year was yesterday… And you are at Flat River Hamlet, north east of Couvauz.”

Damn, Couvauz? That’s way far off to the north-east, I’d need to cross it and two other kingdoms to get back to Drakron. Also, new year already? So I’ve been a Saintomancer for what, seven months? And since we entered the trial… About three-and-a-half? Seems about right I guess.

“Can you point me toward the general direction of…” Wait, what was Couvauz’s capital city again? ”...Hooasow?”

The fisherman nodded and pointed toward the direction he had been facing when fishing, “It’s straight south, there’s a road not far off from here, it’s a three week walk…”

"Thanks!" Sofia threw a gold coin to the guy and flew up before he had the chance to say anything else.

Sofia flew straight south uninterrupted and reached the capital about nine hours later. Most of Couvauz was covered in snow around that time of the year, but the capital wasn’t. Sofia instantly understood why. Mana shield.

It surely wasn’t there to protect from the snow in the first place, she guessed, but that was a nice added benefit. The mana cost must be tremendous. Because the city was. It was without a doubt the largest man-made ‘thing’ she had ever seen. Built in several concentric circles, it would put both Drakron and Einsen to shame.

Wait. The whole city is a ritual circle!

Everything from the ramparts and the houses to the streets were neatly aligned to draw precise shapes. It would be nigh-impossible to notice from the ground but from where she was, Sofia found it extremely obvious.

I can’t decide if this is smart or crazy. But at least I can guess how the shield works now. Well. how do we go about entering… Let’s see if the good old Vampire card trick works again. As long as someone can [Identify] me as a Saint I’m clear from being taken for a necromancer anyway, even with the wings. Right? No necromancy here. Only saints. Don’t mind the wings…

I don’t want to cut them anymore… Feels too weird missing a part of my body.

What she did hide however, were the two parts of the Saint equipment set. If someone could overlook the red gem storage ring from afar, no one would miss the obvious gold headband. Wouldn't wearing that be like asking to get robbed?

She was surprised to find that there was a ‘high-level’ entrance door next to the main gate. She entered with Alith in tow.

A bespectacled lady was waiting behind a desk, she signaled them to come closer and to close the door.

[Mage - Lv.165]

So this is what retirement looks like…

“A Saintess and a Hero. Not registered I presume?” she asked, already searching for something in the filing cabinets behind her.

Not waiting for an answer, she turned to face them, presenting two sheets of paper and pencils. “Fill this in. The high-level card is valid for six months and allows for free access to all parts of the city,” she looked at the large mirror on the wall behind them, “Flying is forbidden inside, except for life threatening emergencies. Just be civilized and you won’t have any troubles. The registration fee is one gold each.”

Name, age, level, class, reason for visit. That’s it? Half of this they get from [Identify] already.

“Do we need the card?” Alith asked.

“You do if you want to access anywhere interesting, if you lack money for the card in the first place then it means you will not need it.”

Sofia, 20, 119, Saintess, Training.

Alith, 23, 119, Hero, Relaxation.

A few minutes later, they entered the city by the other side of the room, each a purple metallic card in hand. “Have a nice stay in Hooasow, and please don’t forget to close the door!”

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