Saintess Summons Skeletons

Two out of three is good! 66% chance of getting the armor, now I’m out of here!

The zombies had all awoken, they roamed the halls of the pyramid, searching for the intruder.

They clearly saw Sofia when she ran past them, turning their rotten heads to follow her movements despite the rune and the cloaking charm actively hiding her presence. But the many zombies did not attack. They simply looked. Afflicted by the passive effect of the runes on Sofia’s arms, they were ‘unwilling to attack her’.

The Apostles kept screaming, the pyramid shook, but they were not pursuing. They couldn’t. The number of prompts warning that [Domination] had been canceled increased in frequency, but the protection of the Deep was unshakable.

Sofia made it to the exit point, she summoned the graveyard and the skeletons carried her to the surface of the desert through the red sand.

Alith ran toward Sofia when she emerged, “Are you alright?!”

“I’m good, let’s run!”

The whole pyramid was still visibly shaking from the outside. Just in case, they ran, going all the way to the entrance of the golem dungeon in the abandoned desert city.

 

Relatively sure that they were not being followed, the group allowed themselves to stop in the abandoned city. Sofia recounted her findings; Ihuarah was very proud that his whole plan had worked as he hoped, bragging that he ‘still had it in him’. He refused to elaborate.

Sofia was bummed that she only got two of the three boxes, but both Alith and Ihuarah reassured her that this was more than enough. There was no suspense as to whether Sofia had the armor, Alith already knew well before Sofia escaped, because the compass’ needle moved on its own while she stood still. From their point of view, she was sad that she got bonus loot.

Ihuarah inspected the stone boxes, curious about their design, “This is vile. Riddled with curse. Forcing these chests open is a very bad idea.”

“Well, it’s good that we have the key.” Alith grinned as she held the key up like a victorious warrior’s sword.

To take no risks, the group had one the book’s skeletons open the chests with the key, they both popped open with any issue.

“Let’s see what you got.”

The first chest was the one that was in the middle of the room’s pedestal. It contained a breastplate, a chainmail hauberk, leg armor and the sollerets to go with it.

“I guess the other dwarf got the gloves and the helmet for building the pyramid,” Alith remarked. “Any commentary, mister walking shadow?”

“Armor-making is not my specialty. But this is a lot of mithril, while the inside looks like an enchanted adamian lining.”

Sofia had expected the armor pieces to be dwarf-sized, and they were, so she wouldn’t be able to wear them even if she wanted.

“Let me inspect them, the level 2 [Identify] will help. Starting with the breastplate.”

[Gadur’s unbreakable breastplate] : The main piece of a full plate armor of Mithril and Adamian steel of the highest purity. This armor is heavily enchanted with one goal in mind and one goal only: being unbreakable, or as close as possible.

Grade : Legendary.

Inspecting the other parts, Sofia gave the final verdict. “The legs are like this too, and the mail is literally just tempered Mithril.”

“I think I’ll wear the legs, the size looks alright. Dopple will eat the breastplate, I don’t need the mail.” Alith shrugged.

“Not going to feed it to Dopple too?”

“No point, the armor is better, giving the mail would be like throwing it away for no reason.”

Ihuarah looked at the mail hauberk, weighing it in his hands. “This has to be at the very least fifteen kilograms of mithril. This mail is an incredible boon. You should smelt it and get better weapons and tools forged, since armor is not an issue anymore.”

“What about you,” Sofia asked, “do you not need any armor or weapon?”

“No. I merely need easy-to-procure materials. Though I suppose a bigger storage item would be practical, if not I will go back to wearing many pouches like I used to.”

Sofia then said they would look for a storage ring while at the elven city, before proceeding to inspect the contents of the other box. A single old parchment was rolled inside of several protective layers of silk. Sofia unfurled it and was surprised to find a blank scroll.

Ihuarah gave some advice before she could inspect it, “Send some mana into it.”

What if it’s a trap? It was in a protected chest though, no one would do that.

Sofia sent some mana into the blank parchment, a single line of text appeared at the top, with decorative flair around.

‘Bastion of Domination’

“That’s it?”

With a name like this, maybe this used to be the plan for the pyramid and the Apostle ritual? Let’s identify that.

[Secret map of Domination]: Domination has left behind a map to the bastion of his previous Apostle. Only the worthy may enter. The blood of an Apostle shows the way.

Item level: 0.

Grade : Divine.

“Divine grade? Made by a God?”

“This is not unheard of, I once possessed an Item gifted by the Merciful Mother Herself.”

“Is that buried with your old body?” Sofia couldn’t help but ask.

“No, it had been a single usage apparatus, I would not die while still in such a weapon’s possession. But are you not going to proceed further with the map, lady Sofia?”

“Oh, right. I don’t know if it’s worth worrying about it though, these guys had the ritual to become Apostles already, my guess is they probably ransacked whatever that Bastion is long ago.”

“I do not believe so. Divine gifts usually disappear once their intent is fulfilled, for it to still be there to this day, the true treasure of the Bastion must remain, untouched.”

Is that so? The necromancy grimoire was a Divine item too, wasn’t it? It was made by scripture after all. But its purpose was not fulfilled. Probably because I’m still alive and that wasn’t in the plans, if I had to guess. Alright, the blood of an Apostle.

Sofia brought out the Mithril dagger and slashed her forearm, slathering some of the blood on the map. To her dismay, nothing happened.

“Is it because I’m only half an Apostle?”

“This… Lady Sofia, I believe it would only work if you take on your Apostle form.”

“You mean to say I need to take another ten level debt to reveal the map?”

“Precisely.”

“Yeah, well. We will keep that for when we reach the limit then. We came to this dungeon to get experience, not lose it.”

A grumpy voice interrupted the discussion, “Can I please eat already? I’m starving! Come on!”

Alith rolled her eyes and grabbed the breastplate,”I can give it to him, right?”

“Why do you even ask?”

“Finally! Yes! Ah, my strength from the good old days, it’s coming back! Uogh! This is-”

“Eat in silence, you freak,” Alith ordered as she fed the Mithril armor to Dopple.

 

[You have entered the dungeon : Ruined city of Azar - Lv. 200+]

Alith took the head of the expedition once they entered the underground dungeon, since she knew the way already.

“Here we are again. So, for a reminder, big earth golems everywhere, and that’s it. We can explore the houses but I only found a few vases and stuff last time. Nothing really useful. There’s two big locked doors at the end that I couldn’t reach last time, probably where we’ll find the boss and the item. I could go get the loot right now through the walls I think, but there’s no reason to ruin the surprise if we’re going to clear the place anyway.”

We might not get that much experience here, now that I think about it, especially with three of us, even with shared experience, the danger will be lower.

“Ihuarah, can you fight the golems alone?”

“I cannot be absolutely certain that it would be easy before I see them, considering my only plentiful resource right now is sand. However, I am not concerned about my survival.”

“Great. Let’s stay in a group and kill one each, if we all manage, then we split up, clean the whole place, and regroup in front of the locked doors. All good with the idea?”

“Good for me, I really just want to try out the new armor. I like the leg armor.”

“The Mithril’s dark green suits you well, Alith. With such an armor, you might want to practice your kicks, these solleret’s points are deadly hidden weapons. I am also agreeable with the idea of spreading out.”

“Alright, let’s go, me and Pareth first.”

The sandstone walls of the abandoned underground city showed no obvious sign of deterioration, but the interior of houses, dug inside the walls, were in ruins. Most of the doors and windows that had once been there to separate the streets and the houses were gone. The houses were mostly empty, the group guessed that the inhabitants had left by choice or obligation, but with enough time to pack up either way. Or the place had since been ransacked, but that explanation clashed with the remaining presence of the golems.

After only two turns through the streets, the first earth golem stood in their way, as tall and wide as the street, it was a wonder it could even navigate these underground tunnels without scraping the walls. Its body was entirely smoothly packed dirt controlled by streams of mana. Its core was hidden beneath, controlling the magic. Sofia could feel the location of the core in the golem’s left foot.

As soon as the golem detected the intruders, it charged.