Saintess Summons Skeletons

Erredis’ chair creaked as she patiently waited for Sofia to [Identify] the item.

[Saint’s envy] : A Saint’s life is impractical. Halves the Saint's weight and prevents accidental destruction of furniture. Part of a seven piece set.

Item level : 140. Grade : Ancient.

Sofia blinked several times as she tried to process the information she just got.

First of all, she found the item’s effect ridiculous. Then she was convinced she absolutely needed it, for reasons. And finally, she remembered a detail of her first conversation with Valeure, and everything clicked together in her mind.

‘ “Why can I never get the full set?”

Valeure giggled, “A Dragon uses the anklet. That’s why.” ‘

A Dragon.

Sofia looked up at the soft-spoken rabbit-lady again.

Erredis.

A Dragon.

Do you mean. Like. The Erredian Rot? The ‘breath of the outcast’? Like that of a Dragon exiled on the Moon?!

“Is something wrong? Do you not like the item?”

“N- No, I like it. I would love to have it, actually.”

“Then why do you look so tense? It’s not some kind of test or anything, if you want you can have it, I laid out the conditions rather well already.”

“It’s… Complicated. How… Alright, I have it. I just understood something. And I think… Well, words won’t do, so I will show you. This is the description of one of my skills.”

Erredis’ face was painted in incomprehension until she saw the system window. Her eyes widened as she seemed to read the short description multiple times, her mouth slightly agape.

[Erredian Rot] : When activated, the light of your holy spells spreads ‘The Erredian Rot’.

Upkeep : 10 000 mana per second

“You chose to take such a spell?! No, wait. The system offered you this in the first place?!”

All pretense of grace and calm was gone, Erredis looked like a lunatic, or rather, she looked at Sofia like she was one. Standing up from her chair, she almost pounced at Sofia, her hands on the table as she spat out her questions.

“Not exactly, for both questions… You’re a bit close…”

Eredis seemed to regain her senses, Sofia could see her face turn visibly red as she sat back into her chair, grabbing her teacup and bringing it up without really drinking as if to hide her face.

“Hum… Sorry about that. I was a bit surprised is all…”

“N- No worries…” You left handprints on the stone table… “I guess my assumptions were right, then.”

“Did you come here to show me that?”

“No! No, absolutely not, I had no idea that there was even anyone here, in fact I didn’t want to come on the moon, and… It might be better if I explain all that. Can I still have the anklet?”

“Of course! Yes? Please take it. I can copy most of its magic by now anyway.”

Fourth piece of the set acquired! Now, where do I start, the encounter with Sun maybe? I need to go one thing at a time…

“So, to start with how I ended up on the moon… I was sent away from the planet by a quest given by Sun.”

“Sun… That harpy is still going around causing troubles? Such a handful…” Erredis chimed in, almost rolling her eyes as she mentioned the Goddess's name.

This one is certainly not afraid of divine retribution. “A- Anyway, I had to come back from very far, but I failed to gauge my flying speed. I wanted to avoid the planet but I did not see the moon. And you saw the result.”

“That would explain the huge crater you left behind. You can consider yourself lucky you crashed far away enough from the Castle, it has automated protection against attacks.”

I’m more afraid of the person inside than whatever magical protection it might have…

“As for the skill. Truth be told, my class is a bit special.”

“I guessed as much, yes. Your mana circuits are all over the place. Your relationship with your Patron God must be just as unusual as mine.”

“Oh, I have a quest to kill them. Given by the Deep.”

“Of course you would… Let me guess. The talkative one, am I right? Hmm, just as I thought.”

Ah, my face is giving away the answers without me even realizing… I wasn’t intending to hide anything anyway. As long as it doesn’t put me in a bad position at least. “Can I ask a few questions of my own now?”

Erredis gave her a slight nod while she took another sip of moonspring water.

“Could you present yourself in more detail? I have never met a Dragon before.”

“Quite tha vague question, there is much to be said, but what would you want to know? Is it myself or Dragons in general that piques your interest?”

“Both?”

“Well, you know my name already. As you can guess, my current appearance is nothing but an illusion of sorts. My age… I would rather not talk about it. I have been staying on the Moon for about… Ten thousand years, maybe. Though I occasionally go to pay a visit to the surface. I did a lot more before that, but it’s all ancient history now. So… Disappointing, isn’t it?” Erredis finished her presentation, slouching on her creaking chair. Her bunny ears were drooping like dying plants.

“Not really? I cannot fathom what I would be doing if I lived that long. I just spent about three weeks alone in the void and it already felt long. I’m not one to judge how you live your life. Especially when you seemed to imply others avoid you… That has something to do with the Rot, right?”

“Partly, yes. Though the issue is not simply the power of my breath but also how I used it… I did try to scrape the records, but Dragons live long…”

Sounds like a sore spot. I should avoid prying too much into the exact reasons.

“Do you know about all the other Dragons?”

“All the individuals? That would be hard, but I know of every lineage, and they know about me. That is a peculiar question to ask. One you speak with anxiety. Did you anger one of us some way or another?”

“No, but I am looking for one in particular. I will get back to it, but I have a few other questions about you and the Rot, if that is alright.”

“We’re having a friendly discussion, are we not? Forget about my identity and what is alright or is not, just speak your mind.”

“Then, I would like to learn more about the higher levels of the system. Yours, the Dragons’, the Angels, the Gods? It seems like everyone past a certain threshold can simply hide their level or do not have one, I can never get a grasp of where the limits lie,” Sofia explained, giving up on trying to hide her emotions and frustrations with the system.

“Everyone is so hung up on these numbers nowadays… My current system-given level is 524. Though that is proper rubbish in my opinion, anything above 500 loses any meaning. You’re better off not worrying about it, by the time you get there, if ever, you will already know what and who you can or cannot fight, levels be damned. As for other Dragons… The ones born after the system’s inauguration have all hatched somewhere in the low four hundreds, those I know of anyway, they usually grow up to somewhere around 460 through the next thousand years until they can be considered an adult.”

“Adulthood is a thousand years?”

“Do you find it surprising? We grow slowly compared to you humans. If anything, the ephemeralness of your lives is more unsettling to us. So brittle, fragile, so quickly gone. Young Dragons often like to hide among the mortal races, they seek to experience new things; they never do that for very long. The cultural and lifespan difference is a lot to handle.”

“We can grow just as strong and long-lived, can we not? You must know about Richard, for example.”

“The old bag of bones? Did he teach your necromancy? That is a sturdy one for sure. I should duel him again sometime. But yes, you can, the issue is, how many will?”

“I only met him once. My skills are varied because the system messed up with my class, as I’ve mentioned before. And quite a few will, with the help of the system. I have met a lot in quite a short time.”

“You do reproduce fast, so the system’s help would lead there eventually. It was the entire point, I suppose. I doubted it would work but I am being proved wrong with the rapid rise of individuals like you. How old are you exactly? It seems to me that you are young even for a human standard, even if your magic is majorly messing with your body.”

“Is it bad?”

“No, the system handles it all, but it is a mess. So?”

“Oh, right. I turned twenty-one a few months ago. That must feel like nothing to you.”

“You’re not wrong… Last time I left this domain, you were not even born.”

“Why do you even stay here? Does the moon really need guarding?”

“No? Moon Herself is more than strong enough to step in should there be any issues with Her celestial body. And as you have seen now, it takes more than a crater or two to make Her move. It was indeed a necessary duty, in older times. Now I live here… by habit. I’m just an old lady spending her forever and after in an old castle. Sorry, I tend to speak a lot. Prolonged isolation does that.”

“Are you kidding? You are like an infinite well of knowledge to me. I could sit here and listen to you for months, if I didn’t have other pressing matters…”

“As, yes, the blabbering one’s quest. Let us make that the next topic of discussion, I have been meaning to ask this whole time. Would you explain more about your name, Sofia?”

At this point I can probably trust her with the details… She’s nice. Reminds me of grandma Lydia before her passing. The entire orphanage was devastated at the news…

“I was an orphan from the Sovuln kingdom, on the human continent…”