Saintess Summons Skeletons

In the beginning, when Sofia first used her ability to look through Pareth’s eyes, she had needed to close her own to not be disturbed by the double vision. By now it was already something she was used to, though it was still distracting. Flying in place under the city with the top of her head against the blue bricks, she took control of Pareth.

“I’m moving Pareth carefully but I think the mansion’s still safe. Doesn’t look like they followed inside.”

“Check through the windows, just in case.”

“Hmm. No, don’t see them nearby, maybe they returned to their own mansions? Let’s go back up.”

They reunited with the chicken skeleton.

It had been clear for a while that if a way out of this city existed, it was in the palace. Now, they could probably take down this shield in a few hours by stealing all the remaining cores and throwing them to the void. Or just flat out destroying them, though that could be dangerous, as they were still full of mana. But that meant the Phageids would get access to the Palace too, potentially damaging, or consuming?, what was inside.

So they had to get rid of them first anyway.

If they settled back down in their mansions then there was always the strategy of the holes. It had worked twice, surely it would keep working. If not then they could only fight them.

Time flew by. The big squids had indeed returned home to perch on their spheres. Except for the one Phageid whose power core was nabbed by Alith, it had relocated to another already occupied mansion, so that was their next digging target.

Sofia decided not to use the skill level boost for now, and she kept training [Summon blood]. Another thing she had started working on was teaching Alith the spell version of [Identify]. She had expected it to take forever but Alith had actually been very quick on the uptake, managing it after only a few days of personal guidance. Or could be that I’m a genius teacher. Not sure how long that took actually. Time is hard to measure without the sun…

They were starting to get very good at digging with the mithril blades. They had even been offered the classless skill [Excavation], which they both ignored. I swear, next time we can we’re buying a mithril pickaxe and shovel.

Soon this mansion too fell in the great void, and without making a ruckus this time.

'You have defeated [Phageid Larvae - lv. 232]’

‘You have defeated [Phageid Larvae - lv. 239]’

‘[Way of the Fool] grants slight bonus experience’

‘You gained a level!’ * 1

To say that the result was underwhelming was an understatement. By now it was clear how harsh the diminishing returns of killing without taking risks were. No wonder it took us so long to reach 99 the last time, I’m surprised we even managed to do it at all. It would’ve probably taken a fifth of the time if only we hunted the lesser Phageids in actual battles back then.

Still, that was one fewer power core, and two fewer dangerous monsters on the map.

There were eight mansions left with a power core and a Phageid larvae inside each. They were already working on the next one when Sofia noticed something going on with the Palace’s shield. It was wavering. It was a very subtle fluctuation in the mana layer that surrounded the Palace, some kind of flickering that happened every so often, once every few minutes. But Sofia had been staring at the palace so much, since it was the only thing that broke the uniformly blue scenery, that she had managed to see it.

It didn’t take long for her mind to search for a way to exploit that. She brought Alith near the boundaries of the invisible shield.

“Try teleporting inside with [Lady Double],” she told Alith. Who looked at her like she had lost her mind, “You alright, Sof? We tried that like two days ago or something.”

“No no, I know this, just… Pareth, jump every five seconds. So, I noticed the shield’s disappearing for like a fraction of a second every so often. It’s not enough to go through, but if you time your teleportation properly…” That has to be because of the missing power cores.

“Oh, I see, should’ve started by saying that. Well… I can’t even see the shield, let alone when it’s off, so give me a countdown or I’ll just be wasting mana.”

 

Getting the timing right was no easy task. And Pareth jumping on the side was actually more distracting than anything so they had him stop early on.

It had been quite a while, and they were considering going back to digging when Alith actually pulled it off. She appeared on the other side, leaving a motionless image of herself behind.

Smirking, Alith gave Sofia a thumbs up. Now for part two of the plan, Alith took Pareth out of the storage pendant. The power core that Alith stole was actually in their house, the Phageids didn’t notice when they took it out, it was likely that the huge walls separating the inner and outer city acted as enough insulation. That or their mana detection had a terrible range.

Storing Pareth in the pendant was something they had never done, because he was always too big and could go in the bone armor’s storage instead. Now that he was a chicken though? He fit right in.

Right now the link to Pareth wasn’t working, even out of the pendant, the shield blocked it. She couldn’t use his senses or send any order. Weren’t we soul-linked? I get that it doesn’t work when he’s stored but even a mana shield blocks it? That’s kinda sad but also good to know.

At least it wasn’t useless that Pareth was on the other side, he could still help Alith fight whatever was inside. They had convened on a signal for Alith to give Pareth to order him to teleport back to Sofia. It probably wouldn’t work unless it was during the shield malfunction but at least that was something.

Alith entered the palace through the main door, it was unlocked, Sofia could see hints of a hall inside, she nodded to Alith as she entered. With nothing else to do but wait, she sat on the ground.

She couldn’t even check Alith or Pareth’s Health, which was worrying. If they died she wouldn’t even get to know until the next time the shield malfunctioned.

She didn’t have to wait for long as the next time the shield flickered for an instant, Pareth appeared on her lap. He was holding a weird flat rectangle of Midenicite inlaid with gold in his beak.

It looked like some kind of playing card. Why would she send me this? She identified the thing.

[Matrice Shield Key-Card] : Through the shield, the card shall give access. Has never been used. Item level : 0. Grade : Forgotten.

I can enter too?! Also, wait, isn’t this a recycled version of the key-ring’s description?

Sofia stood up, Pareth jumped on her shoulder. Holding the key-card, she approached the shield. But she stopped before touching it. Wait, do I need to activate it first somehow? She remembered how she needed some blood to activate the vampire’s membership card. But the people here weren’t vampires I don’t think. Let’s push some mana in there. Sending mana in the crystal part did nothing, which in retrospect was logical since the material couldn’t hold mana.

When she sent it to the golden filaments instead, the card started glowing. Yep, that was absolutely needed. This time she tried crossing the shield for real.

It worked. It felt like nothing special, as if the shield wasn’t there in the first place. Sofia activated her bone armor as she walked through.

[You have entered the dungeon : Zangdar Castle - Lv. ???]

Okay… What’s up with the question marks?

Alith came back from inside, “You waiting for the sun to set?”

Rolling her eyes, Sofia jogged to the entrance.

The inside was nothing like the drab blue city outside. Every wall was decorated, the ice blue stone was finely sculpted, there were paintings up for display, columns supporting the ceiling. This was some kind of large entry hall. It looked built and furnished to impress guests.

“I checked the side room first, it looked like a guard station, the card was in there. Identify’s a really useful spell to have, although it doesn’t say much about most things, but at least it told me enough about the keys,” Alith explained.

“Alright. How do we explore this? The castle seems big. Almost like half the holy-see.”

“You send Pareth first and we follow if it’s safe?”

“I meant where do we go, but sure.”

“Oh… Let’s just go straight forward? I don’t know much about castles but there should be a main hall with a throne room or something, no? Nobles love that kind of display. And I guess our best bet to find another ring would be a treasury or something? There wasn’t one in the guards’ room.”

“Straight forward it is then.”

Opening the double doors at the end of the hall just enough for Pareth to go through, Sofia sent him in.

“You were one hundred percent correct about the throne room… Well, it’s more like a banquet hall with a big seat of honor, looks safe.”

“Told ya.”

Alith strolled into the main hall first. But she was actually still near Sofia, it was the double that had walked in. Nothing untoward happened to it either. Reassured there wasn't a trap, they entered for real this time.