Saintess Summons Skeletons

Before spending more, Sofia headed to the local Vasperian Embassy. There was no crazy high-level monster present this time, in fact, the person in charge was a young-looking boy vampire, and he was level 112. He had made a funny face when she said she had three thousand liters of blood, saying he couldn’t even buy that much if he wanted to. Sofia made her way out with six more gold ingots to her name. Easiest money of my life. She was also told she could sell the same amount again in two weeks if she wanted. Who knows what ancient dungeon I’ll be trapped in two weeks from now…

She also tried to sell the old paintings from Zangdar in a few places but no one would give her an interesting price, so she kept them instead. And switched her mind to trying to spend instead of accumulating wealth.

 

After a day of running around different shops, Sofia felt empty.

She didn’t know what to buy. She didn’t need armor. Didn’t need weapons. Didn’t need any of the classless skill scrolls she could find… The magic items that she found were all very gimmicky or weirdly situational. In the end, despite trying her best, she didn’t spend that much.

Fifty gold had gone to as many health potions. And twenty-six more had gone toward filling the [Hero’s foodlocker] with nice food, buying stuff like maps, light stones, water stones. And that was pretty much it. The only interesting magic item she bought was a ring that warns the wearer when it detects poison gas. All it would do was allow her to find out about it before the system warned her that she was already poisoned. She just didn’t want to relive the situation she had been in during her first Phageid encounter. And that was also ten gold coins gone.

Her last stop was a small smithy. It had attracted her attention for a simple reason, the blacksmith was a rabbit beastman. It wasn’t Karlson, but from afar it wouldn’t be hard to mistake him for Kuli’s titular smith.

She entered the shop. The burly rabbit man was busy sharpening a longsword on a grinding wheel.

“Give me a second,” he said, concentrating on his work. Sofia looked around until the smith was done and came to her. “Hello, what do you need?” he asked. He wasn’t quite as engaging as Karlson had been.

“Would you happen to know another smith named Karlson?”

“No idea.”

Let’s just forget this ever happened… “Oh… alright. I need a mithril-coated knife, is that something you can do?” Woaw, his expression instantly changed. Creepy.

“What size would the blade be?”

“About twenty centimeters.” The blacksmith reeled back as if stunned by her words.

He pinched the bridge of his nose, looking deep in thought. Then he looked at her again, the equipment she was wearing, the wings sticking out from her back, the high-level card around her neck. Sofia could swear the man started sweating.

“I can do… Three thousand.”

Sofia turned around to leave.

“I meant two! Two thousand!” he called out.

She didn’t turn back.

Admittedly, if the minuscule ingot of mithril she had was worth a hundred gold, then two thousand gold for a coated knife with a sheath, accounting for the artisan’s work, it would be a correct price. But if she couldn’t trust him to not try to overcharge her, she couldn’t trust him with that kind of order. She would find someone else.

Not only did she find someone else, not far from there, but she didn’t have to order the knife, she bought it already made. It was an already used weapon but it looked good as new. The only drawback was that there was no sheath, though it wouldn’t be too much of a problem if she kept it in the storage ring.

[Garrett’s Bog Slicer] : An excellent dwarven knife with a mithril-coated blade. Its ivory handle is enchanted for maximum durability and to display the number of goblins it killed.

Item level : 50. Grade : Valuable.

A small number was embossed on the handle. ‘11322’ That’s a whole lot of goblins…

Now Sofia also had a wall carver, and it only cost her fifteen hundred gold.

 

Sofia spent the next few days gathering information. She bought quite a few books on diverse subjects that might be useful and asked around for more detailed information on a certain topic.

Now, she stood in front of the subject of her research. The local temple.

Situated in the third ring of the city, it occupied a third of it, embracing the city wall’s curved form. She had one immediate goal, meeting with the local Saint. She had heard only good things about this country’s Saintess from the locals. So hopefully this will go well. This country and its religion had a very different perspective on their treatment of Saints compared to Skyreach, in fact, the Saintess had supposedly been the same person for at least two hundred years.

This religion was also very clear about the god they venerated. It wasn’t some nameless ‘God’ like Skyreach’s Church, it was ‘The Goddess of Winds’. To Sofia that instantly made them look way easier to trust.

One crucial thing she had understood by reading some of the books here was that all Gods were named after things or concepts. This was something that she never knew due to the Church’s grasp on Skyreach’s common knowledge and information sharing.

Notably, the God of the Red Winds empire was ‘The God of Sleep’.

One other thing that this meant was that the ‘Recessed’, the ‘Fathers’ and ‘Mothers’ of demons, were actually probably Gods too. Dread. Sorrow. Domination… Death? Considering how the system had been ‘Overruled’ in order to give her the [Vakariazrehafin of Sorrow] skill, she didn’t think it was too outrageous to consider these to be Gods.

It seemed the major difference between regular ‘Gods’ and the ’Recessed’ was whether their ‘concept’ was considered good or bad. And then they either had Saints or Apostles. Saints being chosen, Apostles needing to conduct strange and deadly rituals. So Sofia was technically a bit both. And she also had ties with the Deep. Are they Gods too? They sure fit the description. And they also have conceptual titles. The inquisitor, the regulator… Can you be a double Apostle? Or maybe they’re a third category? I would bet on that…

That really made her wonder who had written the necromancy grimoire she had found at the orphanage. And how in the world could it have possibly landed there for me to find?

Either way, these were all merely tangential matters. Now she was free, quite strong, and safe from haphazard teleportations, it was time that she got back to the real reason she wanted a strong magic class to begin with. She’d fed herself all kinds of lies to rationalize her choice to follow the necromancer's path, but deep down, she knew why she yearned for power.

It was also why she had instantly picked the wings when the option had presented itself. They would be crucial for the next step.

The memories she had done her best not to think about until she was ready.

How long has it been now? Thirteen years…

Time to get closure.

I just need to make sure that I’m clear about everything else, and that I’m strong enough.

Strong… Am I strong enough?

Can I take it? This is just self-harm at this point.

But I need to see it for myself.

I will do what needs to be done.

For her... And for me.

 

Before heading back to Skyreach, Sofia wanted to do two things. Try to squeeze information and power out of the supposedly benevolent Saintess of Couvauz, and make Pareth the strongest he’d ever been. Since she didn’t know how strong she needed to be, she would aim high. Now that I have some sense of scale for these things… Some of the monsters were at least level 150. If all goes well with Pareth, I’ll be ready. Finally.

Anyone could enter the Winds temple and pray to the giant golden statue of the Goddess, so getting in wasn’t hard. Now she needed to find a way to contact the Saintess. She literally grabbed the first male priest she saw.

[Supporter - Lv. 3]

She put on her best smile. “Hello, sorry to disturb you, I would like to talk to a high-priest, could you help me with that?” she politely asked, pointing at the ‘High level’ card sitting on her chest.

It wasn’t long before she was led to a waiting room in a side wing, away from the main hall.

She had expected to be led to some kind of office next, but instead, it was a kind-looking, round middle-aged lady in ornate sky-blue robes who entered and sat on the couch opposing hers. She kinda reminded Sofia of Verenha’s baker, who used to give the orphans some leftover cake when ‘too much didn’t sell’.

[Supporter - Lv. 100]

She passed the trial and never fought again? Well, clearly a high-priest. Didn’t expect it to go so well already.

They had a short and polite conversation, where Sofia explained she was also a Saint, and that she wanted to discuss Sainthood-related things. She even offered to donate one of the old paintings from Zangdar as a show of goodwill. It depicted a forest shaken by a violent storm, so Sofia thought it was fitting, she just hoped they wouldn't take it the wrong way. But the lady priest had been very happy about it so all seemed good and well.

Once again she was told to wait after being relocated to a further waiting room, deeper into the temple.

It was a full three hours later that two fully armored female paladins entered the room.

[Warrior - Lv. 199]

[Warrior - Lv. 200+]

That has to be good since they’re not attacking…

“Our Lady will receive you, Saintess Sofia of Skyreach. Follow us.”

Oh. It seems my name travels faster than I do. Well. I can’t back off now.

The paladins led Sofia deeper and deeper into the temple. Until they stopped in front of massive double doors. They took position on either side. They’re not coming?

One of them addressed her, “You may enter. Close the door behind you.”

Sofia opened the doors.

What she entered was no room, it was a large covered terrasse, each of the ornate pillars supporting the temple’s roof probably worth more gold than Sofia had on her. Beyond was a magnificent enclosed garden with many fountains, chimes and colorful decorative wind wheels.

Slightly above all this, was a tall and slender woman. Floating, as if sleeping mid-air. Her long and fluffy fox tail was hanging in the wind.

There she is. Saintess Valeure.

[Saint - Lv. 448]

 

 

As I stood before the strongest person I'd ever met, for a moment, I wondered.

Was coming here a terrible mistake?