Saintess Summons Skeletons

“I didn’t know your bone skill could do that,” Mornn commented, prodding the boneless corpse of a zombie with her wooden sandal.

“Because I couldn’t,” Sofia answered, “I might have just unlocked my third specialization. The abyss god event was a big point-earner.”

“You just went and spent a hundred million already? Are you not scared you might not be able to afford the pill?” Kuli asked.

“Oh, no,” Sofia said with a chuckle, “I bought that too.”

“Hmm… Considering you should have had around sixty million after the demon invasion event, that means you got the maximum reward for the solo event? A hundred and forty five million points? Did you actually survive longer than the historic first?” Kuli asked, wide-eyed.

“Eh, not really? It’s a messy story, I’ll explain on the way, better not to waste to much time here,” Sofia answered, starting to walk toward the door, “How did you two do, by the way?”

“Historic fifteenth,” Kuli answered first, “Doesn’t compare to a first place but it’s still a gold star pin and thirty million points.”

“Wha… Only thirty for fifteenth place?” Sofia repeated, stopping in her tracks.

“The point drop off is… Uh… Pretty damn steep…” Mornn said from the rear of the group, “Twenty first place here. Also a gold star, but only eight million points…”

Maybe I should keep my mouth shut about getting three hundred million…

I… I’ll make it up to them by earning a lot this time too!

The group entered the casino. There more zombies guarding doors on the way to the main hall, but they were not hostile. In just about a minute of walking, the group found the main hall of the casino, a vast, bustling and noisy underground place bathed in warm lights where trialees and undead alike were playing all kinds of games, some traditional ones, some much less so.

“Looks like we really are the last group to arrive…” Kuli observed, “That feels a bit unfair, but I suppose I do not see a timer anywhere.”

“Personally I expected a bit more information from the event prompts… It says nowhere that we have to play the games here to accumulate value,” Mornn said, “Not a huge gambler. So unless you need me for something, I’ll see if I can find another way to make myself useful. Maybe they have an arena for fights or something?”

“I think I’ll try my luck at some good old gambling,” Kuli said next, “I actually know a lot of the games I can see from here.”

Mornn and Kuli then looked at Sofia, waiting for her opinion.

“Well… I’m not sure. I think… I will go with Kuli and gamble for a bit, for now. I doubt that’s the real way to score a secure first place, though.”

“It does sound a little too straightforward doesn’t it?” Kuli agreed, “to begin with we will need to understand how to leave, since we were ‘teleported’ here. I’m already wondering whether most other people here will be forced into dying to get out… But beginning by observing while we relax and gamble a bit would be nice, nah?”

“I will leave you to it then,” Mornn said, “If you need me… I shouldn’t be hard to find.”

Pareth interrupted, raising a hand to get the women’s attention. He took a few steps toward Mornn and nodded to her.

“I guess he is more into fighting as well,” Sofia said, “And he can teleport you to us if need be so that works out nicely. Have fun.”

“Sure, don’t gamble us into the ground,” Mornn joked as she turned around. She departed and Pareth followed.

“Alright!” Kuli said, sounding more energetic than usual, “Where do we start, any preference?”

“You probably know the games better than me so you can choose, just give me a second to give instructions to my skeletons.”

“Got it!”

Bookie. Come out.

“I’m here!” Bookie exclaimed after summoning himself.

Sofia patted his skull and gave him the instructions through her thoughts to avoid being overheard.

Alright, Bookie, you’ve got a very important mission today! Summon Crowie for me, then find a secluded place and summon Pestle, and the rats. You will be the one directing them this time, your job is to secretly explore the private parts of the casino. In particular you need to be on the lookout for two things, first, try to find where they keep all the money, they must have a well guarded place with a huge safe or something like that. If you find heavily-enchanted doors, that’s a good place to start. And secondly, try to locate the owner, but we don’t know how high level the lich is, and chronomancer sounds like a class that shouldn’t even exist, so be very careful. Send me Pestle if you find anything, or a rat if she’s busy. Got everything?

“Understood, leave it to me!” Bookie confirmed with a thumbs up, quickly summoning Crowie before running off.

“Everything taken care of?” Kuli asked seeing Bookie depart, “I found a nice place to start off with.”

“After you.”

Kuli led Sofia to a tall contraption standing next to a wall, a skeleton attendant was waiting nearby, wearing a dapper uniform and small cap in red and white, the colors of the casino.

There’s no one here…

“Ladies! Are you willing to give our strength test crystal a try?” the skeleton attendant heckled them as soon as he saw them approach.

At the same time, someone approached Sofia from behind, putin a hand on her shoulder. Crowie almost gave the hand a violent peck, but Sofia told it to hold it just in time.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Yes?” Sofia asked, turning to get a look at the person, it was a random human guy she did not remember the face of, who had been sitting at a game table just a few steps away.

“You’re that necromancer who got first place in the dungeon time attack, right?” he asked, ”I get that you might be strong but I wouldn’t play this skeleton’s game if I were you. It’s a scam, all the people I’ve seen trying for the hour I’ve been at this table lost their wager. Not a single one got it.”

“Really? Thanks for the heads up. I’ll see what this guy has to say, still. But I’ll keep that in mind,” Sofia told the man.

“Well, did my job warning you,” he answered with a smile, turning back to the card game he was playing against a pair of zombies at his table. “Hoy, I had four cards down! Why’s there only three left?” he immediately complained to the zombies, one of them rolling his eyes and slipping the man a card out from under the table.

Of course they cheat… They have more cards under the table, in their clothes and that zombie on the right even has one inside of his hat…

Meanwhile, the skeleton attendant had been explaining the game to Kuli. “It’s that simple,” he told her, “beat the house score and we double your wager!”

“Alright,” Kuli said, turning around to speak to Sofia, “Did you listen to the rules?”

“I was talking to that other guy but I overheard yeah, just gotta hit the crystal as strong as you can, no weapons, one attempt per person. Nothing too special. I’m not I’m the best suited for that though.”

Unless I go all out and burn all my unlife runes to stack One with suffering and go to my demon form. Not sure I want to start off the event like that.

“But I am,” Kuli confidently said, “give it a try first with a low bet, to see what we’re dealing with, and if it looks promising I’ll bet big on my attempt.”

“Sure. What can I bet?” Sofia asked the skeleton.

“Anything of value, even your life, if you so desire,” the skeleton answered very professionally, “we take everything from gold to stones and convert them to our crystal token house currency. You can bet directly or convert things into tokens first and bet them.”

“Can I buy tokens with gold coins?”

“Certainly, the conversion rate from gold coin to token is a hundred to one.”

Suddenly a system message popped up in the center of Sofia’s vision.

[Warning! Items and currency lost or converted to token will be confiscated. They will be available to reclaim on the Ark for a TP fee proportional to the item value.]

They can really scam us out of our things, then? Interesting.

Sofia produced a tiny gold ingot worth a hundred coins, “One token is enough to play, right?”

“It… It would make for a meager prize even if you win,” the skeleton said, looking at Sofia like she was a beggar on the street, “but certainly…”

He grabbed the gold ingot and the ingot simply disappeared from his hand, turning into a small purplish crystal coin.

Space magic? I barely felt that…

“Are you sure you do not want to wager more?” the skeleton pressed her, holding the token up.

“Plenty sure. Can I try?”

The skeleton sighed and stepped aside, “Go ahead, dear customer…”

Kuli also stepped aside with a nod, leaving Sofia plenty of space to strike the blue crystal embedded into the weird pillar-like machine.

“That’s the score I have to beat, right?” Sofia asked as she readied her fist, nodding up at the red glowing numbers shining above the crystal.

“Indeed,” the skeleton confirmed.

The house score was of 93 562, whatever that meant.

I might not go all out but I’ll still give it a good try.

Takign a few steps back, Sofia fully activated [Runeforged Overlord, and rushed forward as she punched, activated the chaos state of [Dodge - me] for some extra strength. With all of that, Victory’s crown, and the Olympian title, Sofia’s strength was nothing to scoff at, especially for a mana-centric class.

With a loud bang that drew the surrounding tables’ attention, Sofia’s dragon-scale armguard struck the crystal. She felt the recoil of the impact travel through her arm, but her bones were intact. And so was the crystal. Sofia’s punch did not even leave a scratch.

Another row of numbers appeared above the other one.

19 443

“Good attempt,” the skeleton attendant snickered from the side, “I will be keeping your wager.”

Huh… I might just about reach the record if I had really gone all out. Probably completely shatter it if I also had the sanctified grounds buff. I bet Pareth can beat that as well.

“So, do you think you can do it?” Sofia asked Kuli who wordlessly stared at the numbers above the crystal.

“Only one way to find out,” she said, “How much is my life worth?” she asked the skeleton.

“Ohoh? We have a serious client here, I see. Let me call our appraiser.”

Sofia’s mana senses noticed the appraiser coming from underground before he even got there, she easily recognized the incoming entity from the mana movement alone. Ghost.

The blurry semi-transpartent figure of a thin man with a monocle emerged from the ground.

“Yes?” he asked the skeleton.

“This lady here wants to wager her life.”

“Hmm…” the ghost said, observing Kuli through his monocle, “your mana heart seems quite valuable,” he analyzed, “I can offer you the maximum amount we allow for singular trades. Half a million token.”

Fifty million gold? It’s definitely a sum, but a bit cheap for a life.

“Fine by me, wagering my life, then,” Kuli confidently said.

I hope you know what you’re doing, Kuli…

“VERY WELL!” The skeleton attendant rejoiced, “Whenever you are ready, most valued customer,” he told Kuli, stepping back with a curt bow.

Like Sofia before her, Kuli took a step back and got into position, clenching her fists.

Sofia observed the mana movement with the guildmaster’s body, whatever she was doing, it did not look like the preparations for a simple punch.

After a long silence, the guildmaster struck.

Her fist collided with the crystal and then… It made a strange sound. Like the deafening ringing of a gong.

Only then Sofia noticed the shift, the entire casino had turned silent, everything was slowed down to a crawl, stuck in place. This was a familiar thing, Kuli’s signature skill, slowling down their perception of time.

Kuli punched again. And again, each strike sending shockwaves through the air. She unleashed an endless flurry of strikes at the crystal in just a few instants, while nobody could see it. The crystal cracked, fissured, and with one last, stronger punch, shattered with a bang, completely demolishing the wall behind it and sending several nearby game tables and the people sitting at it flying. No one noticed.

“A job well done,” Kuli said, rubbing her hands with a wide smile, she turned around, gave a thumbs up to Sofia, then carefully took back her initial punching position, her closed fist against where the crystal used to be.

Then her signature skill ended. The wall reappeared, the crystal too, along with everything else, perfectly unharmed, as if nothing had ever happened, and time started flowing again in the casino.

“Akakak! Looks like I just won big,” the skeleton cackled from the side.

Kuli pulled back her fist, and to every onlooker’s surprise, the crystal cracked, shattered, and fell to bits on the floor.

The red numbers above finally updated, much to the dismay of the skeleton attendant who had turned silent. They showed the same value on both lines: 999 999