Saintess Summons Skeletons

After three nights of relentless slaughter, Sofia, Alith and Nicet were slowly headed for the coast where they would take the exact same route they had used to reach Sovuln while avoiding Skyreach. They flew in relative silence, and Sofia took the opportunity to go over her status a bit.

One night for 113 levels of debt.

Three nights for 37 more levels… The experience penalty really isn’t playing around. The last level took almost a hundred-thousand kills!

Total progress for the sky, twelve point eight percent. Not bad.

The classless skills are leveling nicely at least. I still haven’t looked at any of the new keywords, I’ll keep that for after I’ve had a good rest…

Name : Sofia Aphenoreth

Age : 21

Class : [Saintomancer]

Level : 221

Health : 20 420 / 20 420

Stamina : 4030 / 20 487

Mana : 9553 / 361 100

Main Specialization : [Eclipse Skeleton]

Alteration chance : 7%

Secondary Specialization : [Heat Death]

Active Skills (6 / 8)

[Spine of the Black Sun] - Level 200

[Heal Undead] - Level 200

[Summon Blood] - Level 200

[Maiden Banshee] - Level 221 (Lv.221)

[Graveyard of the righteous] - Level 200

[False immortality] - Level 3

Passive Skills (6 / 8)

[Blessing of the Deep] - (2/4)

[Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow]

[Exalted Exoskeleton]

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] - Doors of the Light forging realm

[Bone dominus] - Level 2

[Erredian Rot]

Classless Skills (9 / 9)

[Fast reading] - Level 58

[Way of the Fool] - Level 26

[Sprint] - Level 38

[Identify] - Level 2

[Mana manipulation]

[Evasion] - Level 75

[Radiance] - Level 51

[Quintessential]

[One with Suffering]

Special Skills (1)

[The Book of Skeletons]

Summoned heroes (3 / 4)

Lv.221 Pareth (Holy Boneplate Mauleur Eclipse Skeleton) Lv.221 Alith (Alith) Lv.221 Book of Skeletons (Book)

[Mark of Aphenoreth]

It’s starting to become difficult to all keep track of.

Let’s check how the staff is doing, I’ve been spending all my extra mana on it, especially when I was still learning draconic inside the spire. It should be at least 20% done.

[Sofia’s Shadow Scepter] :

Must be primed to unlock advanced functions (524 097 086 / 1 000 000 000 mana).

Basic functions (Fueled by ambient mana or the user’s if lack thereof)

Absorbs the backlash of forcefully canceled channeling. Cannot be damaged by the user’s magic. Cannot be forcefully un-equipped. Attracts and absorbs weak magical projectiles aimed at the user.

Advanced functions (Requires Priming)

Halves channeling time Halves the mana cost per second of sustained magic

Currently holding : [Midenicite Catalyst] - (Legendary)

It’s almost halfway done?!

Yeah, this is why I picked [Rubedo], so much mana. If this speed is anything to go by… I could probably finish this in about two weeks by using the sun ritual to its full extent. We’ll go see Valeure first, then I need to finish the priming as soon as possible.

 

The group made their way back without troubles, they teleported from one city to the other, and arrived in Hooasow early in the morning, after a bit over a week of expedition. Rather than rushing to Valeure’s home, Nicet invited them to come and wait in a lounge at the Red Carpet’s auction house while he did the paperwork for his job and went to look for his higher-ups.

He came back after about an hour and led them to his office.

“Sorry to disappoint, boss’s not here. Neither is Elder Orvod or the Saintess, they still haven’t returned from when Elder Orvod left us. The only information I managed to get is that apparently the boss gave Red Carpet plans for a few months in advance, which means he probably does not expect to be back before then.”

“What can we do then?”

“As weird as it is to say, come back in a few months. I’ll be in this building most of the time, so you can come to this office or just ask the reception for me if I’m out, and I’ll keep you updated whenever you want. If you can make a copy of the Dragon handprint I’ll show it to the boss as soon as he comes back so you’ll get his opinion even if he leaves again and you miss him.”

“Sure I can do that, thank you again, Nicet.” It’s a bit of a pain to sculpt, but I can do it…

“Just doing my job, you can leave the hand here or at the reception when you’re done, if there’s nothing else, I’m gonna go. I left without warning so… My wife is gonna kill me.”

“Tough luck, snakeman. I think we’re done here unless you know where I can get these ingredients,” Alith off-handedly said, giving Nicet a list of materials longer than her arm.

“This… Go to the reception desk, tell them I sent you and give them the list, they’ll tell you what you can buy from us. Some of these names I’ve never even heard of though, so we probably won’t have everything. You can always try your luck with the Adventurers’ guild or the Vasperians for the rest.”

“Will do thanks. Here, take this, as thanks for helping us so much and for free.”

“Candies?”

“You can [Identify] them on the way to see your wife. Oh, and be careful not to give these to someone who’s low level, that could end up badly. Go appease your wife, then? Are you waiting until she finds another snake?”

“Oh, right. It was a pleasure to help you both, ladies, come here whenever, see ya!”

Nicet left his office in a hurry, pocketing the handful of candy without even trying to identify them.

“Which ones did you give him?”

“I gave him my whole stock of Health ones, there were like fifteen or so.”

“That’s worth a small fortune.”

“Eh, we’re about to make the better version with the ingredients he just gave us an easy way to acquire. You said you’d come find the stuff with me, right?”

“Of course. If we need to move out of the city, though, It would be nice if I could finish to prime the scepter first. If that’s okay with you.”

“Not a problem, I have a few other things to take care of too, and a good bath is very very high on that list right about now.”

“Weren’t you supposed to always be [Presentable]?”

“The skill can only do so much…”

 

Sofia and Alith spent the rest of their morning at an expensive inn where they could enjoy a nice bath and good food. Then they scoured the city’s many shops all afternoon, buying piles of useless stuff, some new clothes and other such things that they knew they were never going to use. Sofia’s crown certainly drew some attention but this time no one was dumb enough to ambush her in a back alley. The night ended in a dwarven pub where Alith instantly became friends with everyone, perhaps in part because of how well she handled her alcohol but probably more because of all the drinks she bought for everyone all night.

Come morning, Sofia headed out of the city to set up the Sun ritual somewhere calm and sunny while Alith returned to the Red Carpet auction house.

[Sofia’s Shadow Scepter] :

Must be primed to unlock advanced functions (538 511 042 / 1 000 000 000 mana).

Just a regular day’s worth of mana and it went up by like fourteen millions? Guess I’ll only be sitting here a few days.

Sofia had flown up north and set up her ritual on a bone platform she formed on the peak of the highest mountain she could find nearby, so that she could be above the clouds.

Who am I kidding, there’s still clouds above, but not as much. That should be as much sun exposure as I can get without climbing on a trial tower or something like that.

Finally set up, Sofia sat in the ritual circle and sacrificed the usual 100 gold to it. Her regeneration was about 330 mana per second with the ring and crown, it shot up to almost a thousand points per second with the ritual.

After a full day of doing nothing but charging the scepter, the count had gone up by almost sixty million mana.

[Sofia’s Shadow Scepter] :

Must be primed to unlock advanced functions (597 539 625 / 1 000 000 000 mana).

I kinda wish I had taken [Meditation] right now so I could still train instead of doing nothing, but I can’t afford to lose any of my current classless skills. At this pace, I still need to stay here for about seven days…

Sofia spent the following week sitting on her platform atop the mountain, steadily feeding all her mana to the gluttonous staff. Since there was nothing else for her to do, she spent the whole time sculpting random things out of bone with [Bone dominus], as that didn’t cost any mana. Or rather, she could tell now after using it so much, it used mana, but not hers. It used the ambient mana or the mana already contained inside the bones.

Her sculptures were a bit rough at the start, about the same quality as the Dragon handprint, and throughout the week, they became quite a bit better, if still not incredible. Her best creation out of the whole was a life-sized Alith statue. She still felt that its facial expression was a bit off, but no matter what she tried she couldn’t make it better. The worst statue was the one representing Valeure. Sofia had struggled a lot with the fox tail, and even after spending a whole afternoon on it, it still looked like a trail of wildfire behind Valeure’s ass rather than a fluffy tail.

I need to get better and take those to a painter. Bone is nice but I don’t have much control over the color, it’s all white after I work it into shape.

Sofia sat under the gentle moonlight waiting for the regeneration of the last few tens of thousand mana points needed for priming the staff.

I wonder how much these might sell for, maybe I have a career as a sculptor just waiting for me if I decide to give up on chasing a God. Is sculptor a class? I wonder how they’d fight. It’s not like you can sculpt your enemies mid battle, that’s just called being a swordsman…

Perhaps they can make golems out of their sculptures? But they’d need to craft a core every time, then? That‘s got to be expensive. Yeah, necromancy is just better. Kill stuff and steal their skeleton, easy.

Sofia was lost in her thoughts and didn’t notice the counter of the scepter’s mana reaching its limit. In her hands, the weapon started glowing.

The black wooden staff was hot, it trembled. Charged with mana, it was glowing stronger and stronger, dispelling the night, Sofia had to cover her eyes. The blinding light only got stronger, Sofia could feel the weapon change in her grasp, like a snake shedding its skin, scales of black primus wood flew off of the weapon. Its shape changed, the mana inside it concentrated and swirled in thousands of small ritual circles that Sofia couldn’t make any sense of. It all got more and more intense until the crooked staff straightened into a new form, making a sound like shattering glass. The light receded, and Sofia opened her eyes to find a transformed weapon in her hands.

The staff was longer and straighter, almost as tall as herself, while still made of the same black primus wood, it was no longer black, but transparent white, and covered in countless golden runes. Inside of it, Sofia could see orichalcum veins, and a small but majestic Dragon horn brimming with mana from which the veins all originated.

The hand atop the staff still held the catalyst, but it had changed, no longer was it a skeletal hand or an avian hand, it was a stronger, more violent hand, a replica of Sofia’s hands in demon form.

Speechless, Sofia could only identify the scepter once more.

[Hand of the first Saintomancer] :

A weapon that has grown to resemble its user’s most used attack spell.

It speaks to you: ‘Never let me go’.

Absorbs the backlash of forcefully canceled channeling. Cannot be damaged by the user’s magic. Cannot be forcefully un-equipped. Attracts and absorbs weak magical projectiles aimed at the user. Halves channeling time. Halves the mana cost per second of sustained magic. While casting [Angel’s Bolt] through it, absorbs 50% of the damage the channeling would cause to the user. Extends the maximum reach of all skills by the length of the scepter (if applicable). Inflicts electrical damage on hit (melee use only).

Currently holding : [Midenicite Catalyst] - (Legendary)

The weapon hungers for endless mana.

Item level : Sofia Aphenoreth’s current level.

Grade : Flawless.

Restriction : wearer must be able to cast [Angel’s Bolt]. Soulbound.