Saintess Summons Skeletons

Unnatural heat formed inside of Sofia’s body. The packets of mana she had spread throughout her body were condensing, reshaping into something new. The heat rose higher and higher, until something changed. Sofia felt a sudden jolt of pain stemming from her heart, and with it came light. From within her chest, bright white light like the sun shone through her flesh and skin, inundating the surroundings. Then, like a sudden migraine, two jolts of pure pain through her skull sent Sofia reeling back. Pareth appeared behind her, helping her stay upright. Two more lights appeared, from the points of pain, one a tern gray, the other a vibrant red. The sudden strokes of pain followed the pattern of her mana, illuminating her from within, it was impossible to tell which light was which anymore as Sofia shone like a miniature Sun.

Just like she thought the pain was over, Sofia felt something moving in the middle of her chest. It was only mildly painful compared to what came before, but not less unsavory, as she could only describe the sensation as a thousand bugs crawling under her skin. The ‘bugs’ spread out, following some grand design, carving new paths inside her flesh, all over her body. The shining motes of mana became agitated once again as the crawling sensation spread. They whirred like a channeled spell about to explode and backlash, but started harmonizing instead. One by one, they were now vibrating at the same frequency.

All the lights disappeared at once.

Sofia no longer felt any pain, but she was bleeding all over, and the packets of mana were still there.

Is… Is it over? She stuttered in her thoughts.

The packets of mana collapsed into a single point at the center of Sofia’s chest. The pain was swift like a lightning strike, and Sofia erupted into light once again. A singular shining star, likely enough to blind Sun Herself, but not for long. The light faded, revealing Sofia’s new and enhanced body. A body that was essentially still exactly the same, if one could look past the thousands of glowing veins of light slithering beneath her skin.

Out of all the things I expected… I did not expect to transform into a glowing life-sized diagram of blood vessels. And why is it moving?!

Sofia felt lost, her mind was blank as she observed her hand and the streaks of light undulating inside.

She changed to Pareth’s point of view. Even my face?! She opened her mouth, it was the same, her lips, her tongue, everything but her teeth was host to the glowing veins.

My hair is probably the only part of my body I wouldn’t mind seeing glow and it’s one of the only unaffected parts!

Sofia looked at VPPV again.

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] - First step Light forging realm :

The primeval void was born of the universe’s first shadow.

Shadow gathering realm :

A single hit cannot take away more than 99% of your maximum health.

You are 50% more resilient to explosions

You are able to see in extremely low light levels and to breathe light

You cannot be hurt by the cold and cannot be traced in the spirit realm

Shadows and light are two faces of a single coin.

Light forging realm :

Starting step : You no longer age.

First step : Your skin becomes tougher and opaque (0/1000%)

Second step : Further enhance your body through the use of light.

Third step : ???

Current step training method : Withstand the breath of a chromatic dragon.

Complete first step to unlock further steps.

Complete all steps and gather divine essence to unlock further realms.

The second step hint is basically saying nothing! But… At least the ‘opaque’ part of the first step makes a lot more sense now. Sofia thought as she looked at her skin again, the movements inside made her shiver.

The training method is a special level of absurd though.

But it's good timing.

Oh shit, the time!

Sofia flew back to the castle as fast as she could. It hadn’t been twenty minutes yet but not far from it.

 

“I’m here on time, right?!” Sofia asked as she slid into the kitchen.

“Oh! Yes, food’s almost ready. But are you sure you’re good? I saw some light from outside, quite something, just like your new look.”

“Uh, oh, yes. Kind of. I know it looks weird but I can’t help it. It should go away at some point but… Wouldn’t you happen to be a ‘Chromatic Dragon’ by any chance?”

“Couldn’t be furthest from it, no. Why do you ask? Is this related?”

“It is… Look.” Sofia said as she shared VPPV’s description.

Erredis untied her apron while she read the system window. “Hmm, that’s alright. I can find you one, I think all three of them are still alive, can’t be too hard to coerce one into sneezing on you.”

Coerce? I’m not sure I want to know the consequences of that. Maybe I asked the wrong person…

“But let’s not let the food go cold, let’s use that table in the corner. I usually eat standing anywhere but I should at least sit down for my guests.”

 

The food was nothing special, just a warm and savory home cooked meal. In short, Sofia found it incredibly good.

Erredis was scraping the last bits of sauce from the pot with some hard bread and she finished answering Sofia’s questions, “So I like to eat often even if I don’t need to. It’s still something your mind and body yearns for no matter how useless it is.” She let out a pleasured moan as she savored the last bits of sauce. “Right, isn’t your other skill ready by now? You ought to give your scribe a slap or two if it’s that slow.”

“I never checked, it has probably been ready for a while but I was too focused on the meal.”

“Can’t blame you for that dearie. So how did it turn out?”

“Actually, please look first, you tell me what you think. Be honest.”

Erredis didn’t answer but Sofia could see the Dragon’s eyes slowly shifting as she read the description line by line, her expression undecipherable.

“Do you not have [Fast reading]?” Sofia asked, trying her best to sound curious and not impatient.

“I like to take my time with entertainment. I have plenty of time… Alright, I’m done reading. Your skill… It’s uh. It reflects the name well. I’m honestly shocked the system allocates the precious time and resources necessary to assemble spells just for you every time. I would kill to have something like this instead of having to do research by myself. I mean... Yeah actually I would.”

“Are you trying to change the subject?” Sofia asked calmly while her eyes stared daggers at Erredis who had stood up to put away the dishes as if the conversation was over.

“No… No! Obviously not! Uh, hum. The skill seems, hmm, yes; usable…”

“Usable?”

That’s not at all what I hoped to hear. Am I getting another completely failed skill like [Pristine essence]? It was bound to happen at some point…

While Sofia’s heart sank, Erredis had gone into a full-fledged rant. “You know, it’s no big deal, skills really aren’t all they’re propped up to be. Back in my days, we used to…”

[Saintess’ madness] : The Saintess grabs and throws one of her undead minions. They are infused with a random element and explode on impact, releasing a burst of elemental magic. The power of the burst scales on undead minion’s base health and the amount of mana infused, multiplied by this skill’s level. Direct hits also inflict a related elemental affliction upon the targets. There can only be one infused minion existing at any one time.

You gain a minor magical resistance against the infused element until next use.

(Next function unlocks at skill level 2)

What even is this?

A random element, really? It would already be a dubious skill to have if I could choose! And this kills my skeletons! This really isn’t it…

At least the elemental affliction and the resistance can be useful depending on what elements I get. If I know what I’m going to fight next, I can chain cast with the rat swarm until I get the resistance I want. Hmm… It’s not completely useless. I just don’t know if I really need more attack skills when I already have so many.

I would have liked another movement of defense skill better. Can’t change the keywords though. They weren’t good enough that I feel bad about wasting them.

“... and this is why you should always target the eyes first!” Erredis proudly declared, concluding her rant that Sofia had unknowingly tuned out of.

“Grandma Erredis?”

“Yes, child?”

The Dragon lady’s demeanor and expression reminded Sofia of the Orphanage’s kids when the matrons caught them trying to sneak away with extra servings of food. I can’t believe you’re five thousand times my age…

“Would you allow this weak and naïve kid to try her new spell on an extremely benevolent and incredibly wise flying lizard?”

“Ahah…” Erredis laughed nervously then sighed, defeated. “Sure,” she finally said, rolling her eyes. “Just don’t go trying to explain to another Dragon that you started calling me grandma and that I let you hurl explosive skeletons at my face. They’ll think you’ve been afflicted by [Saintess’ madness] for real...”