Saintess Summons Skeletons

Richard put on his best salesman voice, “I present: a mature Boneplate Mauler’s full and intact skeleton. A rarity this one, considering their tendencies to maim each other. These bear-like beasts have fully functional hands with thumbs as well as claws sprouting from the top of the wrist. But more importantly, as you can see and guess from the name, they sport a total of one hundred and twenty six external bone-plates akin to a full set of natural armor, along with numerous horn-like spikes all over. This one was slightly above level 450 if I remember correctly. They fit in most human-made habitats as long as you have large doors, and have quite a long reach, truly one of nature’s most elegant land-bound creatures. And as you requested, this is a heavy one, weighing in at exactly three thousands and sixty-eight kilograms.”

“Are you done Richie? We don’t need so many details.”

“Oh, excuse me, I got carried away, anyway, It’s a very good base skeleton. Happy with it?”

“Yes! Thank you!”

Sofia quickly stored the bones, they were so heavy that it took a lot more mana than usual, about as much as Alpha Ogre Pareth. But that was with his 200% density boost active…

I hope you like this one, Pareth, because I think it’s going to stick around for a long time. Even Bookie wanted to come out and eat it!

“You can always come to one of my Red Carpet stores if you-”

Valeure’s calm expression crumbled out of nowhere, showing a frustrated frown, she interrupted the lich mid-sentence, “Richie, we need to go, right now.”

“Already? This never ends… It was a pleasure to meet you, ladies.” The skeleton and Saintess of Wind vanished out of the room. Leaving Sofia and Alith alone with Orvod.

“Where did they go?” Alith wondered aloud.

Orvod sat down on a chair now that the other two were gone, “They have matters to take care of, I will be joining them after I send you off with Nicet. But take a seat, ladies, I will explain when he arrives.”

Not long later, the stone doors opened, controlled by Orvod’s magic, revealing the presence of a beastman waiting behind them. He looked almost human, if not for the smooth black scales climbing up the sides of his head, the lack of ears, and his vertically slit irises.

A Snakeman?

[Mage - Lv. 230]

“Hi? The boss called me here without giving a reason… Oh, Elder Orvod, did you need me? Is something wrong with the barrier?”

Elder? Well he is old yeah… But he also looks like he’s thirty or something like that.

Only after his confused introduction did he notice the two women in the room. “Ah, my apologies, hello, I am Nicet from the Red Carpet research team,” he introduced himself with a polite bow.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Nicet, you will be accompanying these ladies on a mission in the western region of Sovuln. Depart as soon as they are ready. Consider them VIP clients, they have a deal with Richard.”

“Understood, Elder.”

Will I also be called Elder someday? Please no.

“They will explain any details needed along the way, I merely need to brief them on the environment first, is your expedition material ready?”

“Always, Elder.”

“Good, this is Lady Sofia, and Lady Alith, they need to locate and investigate a specific one of the south-west's floating mountains. I estimate it to be around the second ring, which means monsters at levels around 200. Do you still have one of the Ebb samples?”

“Right here,” Nicet answered, producing a rune-covered glass sphere with a single tree leaf inside, which was pale pink. As if caressed by a soft wind, the leaf shivered inside of the glass.

The corruption. So this is what they call ‘the Ebb’. The notification from that time I put a finger through the barrier was mentioning this too…

‘[You have entered the dungeon : Sovuln, the ebbing kingdom - Certain Death]’

The sphere flew directly to Orvod’s hand, who stood up and came to stand in front of Sofia and Alith’s seat.

“This is a sample of the Ebb. It is a peculiar kind of monster, both an ooze and a mushroom. The spores spread by contact to most organic matter, and they will self replicate by consuming the host until nothing but a hollow shell remains, such as this leaf.”

Great, I thought the color was weird but now it’s the least terrible part of this thing. “Does it also spread through dirt?”

“No, but it does through roots, however, we have contained the spread to the remains of Sovuln for now.”

Alith seemed like she didn’t understand something, so she interrupted to ask, “How can there be monsters in Sovuln if this thing spreads through organic matter? Wouldn’t they all get consumed?”

“Good assumption, for the most part, yes, but some have adapted. There are three main types of monster you need to be wary about in Sovuln. The first one would be the mutated animals and monsters which have somehow developed a symbiotic relationship with the ebb. The vast majority of those cannot fly, but they are generally powerful and territorial.”

Orvod gave a sign to Nicet who picked up the job of explaining, “Next are the many flying monsters. An almost infinite amount. If a flying island is still free from the Ebb, it will be one of their nests without fail. Their strength is all over the place but the weaker ones usually get chased to the borders of the kingdom, which is what we call the first ring. The strongest ones near the center of the kingdom are a danger even to someone as strong as Elder Orvod.”

Then Orvod held up the sphere containing a leaf corrupted by the Ebb, “And the last entity you need to be aware of is the Ebb itself. Anything the Ebb takes over eventually becomes a monster. Plants, trees, wooden houses, animals, humans– as I said, most organic matter can become a part of the Ebb. Their level is usually proportional to their size, so stay away from corrupted houses and the like.”

How does a house even attack? “We can kill them, right?”

“Of course, but physical attacks are very inefficient, you need magic, fire is best at dealing with the Ebb, but whatever you do, no water magic. And in case of rain, you need to fly above or into the clouds,” saying this, Orvod gave the sphere back to Nicet.

Well, I guess lightning should work well.

Nicet summoned and put on a steel glove with long claw-like steel nails, then he activated the ritual circles engraved on the glass sphere and a small hole appeared in it. With his gloved hand, he held a weird glass vial containing a clear liquid. Through the hole, a single drop of liquid left the vial and entered the sphere, landing on the light pink leaf while he quickly plugged the hole with one of his long steel nails.

“This is what happens when the Ebb is exposed to water.”

Inside of the glass, the leaf bubbled and bloated, many tentacles burst outward flailing wildly in the sphere. Using these new appendages, the leaf crawled around in the glass, poking it, bashing against it for a few seconds until it seemingly ran out of energy and shriveled back to its original leaf form.

And the whole kingdom is covered in this?!

Fuck, I was lucky that it took a while to spread. Forget the monsters the caravan had to fight when we escaped the country through the mountains in the north, this would have killed everyone.

And Orvod’s barrier around Sovuln is all that’s keeping it from spreading through the whole human continent? I know I killed him during my first trial but I’m really glad he’s alive right now…

Now that the leaf had calmed down, Nicet had time to reactivate the glass ball’s enchantments and close the hole, “Now imagine what happens when it rains, and every single blade of grass, every tree, every mutated monster becomes like this.”

The discussion continued like that for a while with Nicet and Orvod explaining all that one needed to know to safely navigate the ‘Certain Death’ dungeon that Sovuln had become.

Orvod had left after making sure Sofia and Alith understood all the information about the Ebb.

“We will be working together for a while then. I am ready to go when you are, but I should get you protection suits just in case, that might take an hour or two.”

I don’t think we need much preparation besides swapping Pareth’s skeleton. I don’t have much gold left after using the Sun ritual so much, so maybe I can also try to replenish that a bit, I can go to the Vampire embassy and sell the scrap Orichalcum from my armor and the egg? I feel like the fused bone armor is probably just as strong now, so there’s no real point in wearing both.

“We also have a few things to deal with first… It should be about four in the morning right now… Can you meet us at noon in front of the Vampire embassy? I think we should share more about our abilities and fighting style before going, might as well do that around a meal. We’ll depart after that.”

Nicet smiled at the proposition, he adjusted his jacket and nodded, “Fine by me. I will just need your measurements to adjust the suits, may I?” he asked, already holding a tape meter and a notebook.

The snakeman was very professional about the measurements like an actual tailor would, although he looked a bit uncomfortable, which might have had something to do with Alith’s death glare which followed him during the whole process.

“See you in a few hours, then,” the man said as he left the room before teleporting away.