Saintess Summons Skeletons

Some time before leaving for Sorrow’s Palace, Sofia, Cinthia and Astelia are having a relaxed chat at the Silent Haven bar. Pareth and Bookie are well-dressed and reading a book together in a corner while the women sit at the bar. The air is heavy with the smell of Dwarven alcohol and the metallic tinge of blood.

Astelia was biting into Sofia’s arm, a frown on her delicate face.

“See. No way you’d be able to drink that, I told you,” Sofia commented with a smirk. She swirled the drink in her glass before taking another sip. “Are your teeth stuck in there?” she asked as Astelia kept biting.

The short vampire finally let go, pulling back and taking a deep breath. “It’s weird!” she finally said, “I can kind of taste it,” she continued, nodding to herself.

“Wha- Really?” Cinthia reacted, while Sofia examined the two tiny holes in her arm that were not healing as fast as she’d expected and her glowing bloodlight coursing under it.

Sofia also bit down on her own arm, only for a few seconds until she let go and started laughing. “All I can taste is the alcohol.”

“I don’t think that has anything to do with your blood,” Cinthia noted with a giggle.

“Damn right, I can still taste it right now. This dwarven stuff Shaily got us is way strong. I gotta keep a bottle for Alith.”

“Hey, right, why did she not come?” Astelia asked with a pout. She had organized the outing, but most had declined to participate for one reason or another.

“Too busy with her alchemy,” Sofia answered as she took another sip of her drink, “Once she starts brewing nobody can stop her. At least she’s doing what she li-”

“WAH!”

Sofia was interrupted by Cinthia letting out a shocked yelp and almost jumping out of her seat.

“Is something wrong, Cinthia?” Astelia asked.

“I… My chat is having a stroke or something. It’s throwing me a ton of error messages! I’ve never seen anything like this. Daddy and Suffering were just arguing about cheese and then it all went scrambled outo nowhere?!!” Cinthia explained, speaking much faster than usual.

“I can see it!” Astelia exclaimed as Sofia also saw a tall rectangular semi-transparent system window filled with error messages show up near Cinthia. Since it was facing Cinthia, it was all mirrored, so both Sofia and Astelia stood up to go behind Cinthia and have a look.

The Vampire barman seemed to be able to see it as well, only throwing a quick glance in that direction before focusing his attention back on the window and the stars shining in the night sky as he cleaned a glass.

[ERROR]

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“TWENTY EIGHT THOUSAND?!” Cinthia shouted, before quickly deciding to down another glass of alcohol in one go.

“Well shit I didn’t know there were so many Recessed,” Sofia commented.

“I’m pretty sure there aren’t,” Astelia chimed in, “Also what’s english?”

“Hell if I know!” Cinthia answered. “Oh shit, someone is typing. Hatred?”

To Cinthia’s dismay, the message that appeared only had a blank space for its username.

[ ] : Hi Cinthia! I have a question, is there anyone you would like to have in here aside from the Recessed?

Sofia and Astelia both looked at Cinthia, who was silent.

“Well, are you not going to answer?” Sofia asked, nudging closer to Cinthia to get a better view of the chat.

“If they’re speaking like that it’s probably not a Recessed asking the question,” Astelia commented with a hiccup, “I wonder if they can see us,” she continued, self-consciously fixing her clothes so that she looked less disheveled.

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“Uh… I… If I could add anyone… My mom?” Cinthia answered the question.

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“Woah!” Astelia exclaimed seeing the tokens arriving instantly when Cinthia answered. Another question then appeared.

[ ] : Hey Astelia, what’s it like having an infamous dragon as a coworker, would you prefer a different moon saintess to work with?

“W- Wait, this one is for me?” the short vampire realized, blushing all of a sudden.

“Looks like it,” Cinthia answered, as surprised and lost as Astelia.

“Answer!” Sofia pressed her excitedly, “I bet the next one’ll be for me!”

“I-... Erredis is nice?” Astelia tentatively said, “I’m used to much worse with the Queen, at least Erredis isn’t always trying to create chaos so… I just wish she would let me read her books just like the Queen…” she finished, visibly pouting.

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[ ] : Sofia… Why are you still holding onto those paintings?

“Paintings?” CInthia and Astelia said in unison, turning to Sofia, whose face took a shade of red she would be hard pressed to explain as someone without blood.

“I- ju- Huh. Wawa it’s… uh… I-” She stammered, taking a few wobbly steps back, “What paintings. There- there are no paintings…”

“She’s lying,” Astelia confusedly commented, slightly tilting her head.

“You traitor!” Sofia blurted out, “I- I just don’t feel like throwing them out, alright?!”

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“Oh lords, it’s not stopping,” Sofia said with a gulp as more questions appeared, and she walked to the bar to ask for another drink as the next question wasn’t for her.

[ ] : Cinthia, how is your class seen by other Orcs? By your parents and family?

“Huh? Yeah it’s definitely not my usual chatters asking these,” Cinthia commented, her head spinning when she looked at the number of viewers again, seeing it climbing up by hundreds every few seconds. “Other Orcs don’t really care? I know my tribe’s leader was sad when she realized it was Recessed and not the other Gods so Victory couldn’t participate… But everyone sort of accepts that it’s the system doing system things? My parents are very proud that I speak with gods, actually!” Cinthia answered with a big smile.

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“My turn, my turn!” Astelia rejoiced, jumping up and down while holding the armrest of Cinthia’s seat.

“You’ve drunk too much blood,” Sofia commented from the bar, only to see the Vampire sticking out her tongue cheekily in answer before turning back to read the next question.

[ ] : How much do you weigh without cheating with gravity magic?

“Ahah… This question must not be for me,” Astelia said, looking away.

“Who else? Only one gravity mage here,” Cinthia asked, genuinely confused as the dwarven alcohol blurred her thoughts.

“You can’t lie!” Sofia laughed from the bar, scoffing at Astelia’s attempt to avoid the question. She already knew the approximate answer anyway, having carried Astelia to her bed one before and often training with her. While Sofia’s leveling had shifted her weight toward the ton, it was different for the Moon Oracle.

“T- Twenty eight…” Astelia said, looking down.

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“Twenty eight… Kilograms?” Cinthia asked in shock, widening her eyes at Astelia’s following nod, “Woah… How does that even work… I’m in the three hundreds now I think…”

“I don’t know either… I used to be heavier a few years ago… At this rate it feels like I’m going to disappear if I keep leveling up,” Astelia shared with a slightly shaking voice.

She received a hug from behind by Sofia, “Nonsense! You’re growing up to be a hot young lady! You’re already packing more than Alith, you know; and she’s literally weightless,” she said with a giggle. “Better be light than be like me, at least you have a chance of finding a husband strong enough to pick you up.”

“You’re made primarily of light at this point, how are you not light?” Cinthia asked curiously.

“Heavy bones,” Sofia said with a shrug, releasing Astelia from her bear hug. Then she bent forward to read the next question, as it was probably for her.

[ ] : If you didn’t have this ”kill god” mission, but a more ”subdued existence.” What would your goals have been as a normal necromancer?

“Oh wow… I… Never thought about that. But let’s see… If not for this disgusting god’s conspiracy… Without the necromancy book… I would have moved to a bigger city and tried becoming a librarian, probably… At least I would get to read a lot of books and maybe find a way to get a magical class like that…” Sofia theorized, thinking about her past possibilities and ambitions. “That or I would have taken the special [Fool] class for leveling [Shenanigans] to fifty and improvised from there. Actually, that would have been it, most likely.”

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“Fool? That’s a thing?” Astelia asked.

“Yep. One of the older orphans we met with Saria way back when Sovuln was still an actual kingdom had that class. To this day I’ve no idea what it’s about other than it having some kind of illusion skill at low level. The guy used it to steal bread and share it around with the city’s orphans. I kinda hope he survived somehow honestly, he was nice.”

“How do you know he wasn’t lying about the class or how he got it?” Cinthia asked.

It was Astelia who answered, “Now that I think about it, seeing how her [Shenanigans] evolved to [Way of the Fool], it does seem pretty coherent,” she explained, pulling up the description of both skills.

“Right… I mean, Saria has [Shenanigans II], I just never questioned it. Why pick [Way of the Fool] instead?” Cinthia asked Sofia after she read the descriptions Astelia showed her.

“I was ambitious and thought the extra experience would be nice in the long term. And look at me now, I can’t even get experience anymore,” she answered, laughing to herself.

“Alright next question for Cinthia…” Astelia said, licking her lips, “Oh… It’s for Pareth and Bookie?”

[ ] : Pareth, what’s your favorite body so far? And Bookie, who’s your favorite skeleton?”

“FOR ME?!” Bookie excitedly exclaimed, running up to the girls, and bending over Cinthia’s lap on his tiptoes to read the question.

After reading, he nodded to himself, and ran back to Pareth, relaying his question to him. Pareth answered with an incomprehensible hand gesture, and Bookie ran back to Sofia’s side.

“My favorite is Crowie and Pareth says he likes his first skeleton best!”

“I could have answered that,” Sofia commented with a smile as she grabbed Bookie to hug him before he could run back to Pareth again.

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