Saintess Summons Skeletons

Left alone in the group’s room with Lepo again, Sofia went over the results a second time.

[Track record - Hot summer days : Event rankings]

[Rank 1 - Historic 1st - Eternal Lights; Times survived: 28]

[Rank 2 - Historic 5th - Holy Human Empire; Times survived: 24]

[Rank 3 - Historic 5th - Obsidian Mountain; Times survived: 24]

[Rank 4 - Historic 6th - Gods Calling; Times survived: 23]

[Rank 5 - Historic 9th - Sandy towels; Times survived: 20]

[Detailed results for Eternal Lights:

Tier 3 event - Maximum point reward : 50 000 000 TP

Times survived reward: 50 000 000 TP

BONUS - Reached Extra Round : 10 000 000 TP

Total earned : 60 000 000 TP]

‘You have received rank 1 reward : Ark’s Gold Star Pin *1!’

‘You have received 60 000 000 tournament points!’

‘Current balance : 308 111 126 points’

It would have been nice if this was a higher tier event… The historic rankings are per times survived it seems, let’s check.

Oh wow. Not alone in first place. I don’t see that jewel of truth guy’s team anywhere but Sen also got 28 points on his real run. Saria and Tartaros got 27.

For only having an S rank mana heart Cinthia has been keeping up astonishingly well. Hopefully that helps her keep up with sis a bit easier… Thinking about it… They must both be watching everything here, right? I wonder what they think about my performance.

And now… Next should be a solo event, then a last group, and the floor 100 ending. Probably solo.

The Sky merchant event should take a while to complete so we’re going to have more free time on the ark. Time to check the upgrades for the graveyard.

“Hey Lepo,” Sofia called out to the furry merchant, “Can you really not tell me which master item my sister got?”

Lepo shook his head, “Sorry, I cannot even confirm or deny whether your sister bought one of them.”

“Alright alright, won’t pester you with it more than that. It’s pretty obvious that if three have been bought she got one, though. Probably not the daggers so gloves or bracelet… Hmm… Oh, unrelated, but seeing as you seem to have some insider knowledge on the system artisans, would you be able to tell me who made a few of my items? And who is that FairyHands who made my awakening pill?”

“Hmm… If I personally know the artisan I might be able to tell, but no guarantees. As for lady Fairy Hands, I am not allowed to share anything, sorry.”

“Understood, then I just want to ask about these items,” Sofia said, bringing out the her parts of the Saint set and putting them on his stall, “Im just curious who made these and if there is a way to know what the full set effect actually is.”

Lepo nodded and carefully examined the items, before pushing them back toward Sofia. “Impossible to tell you who exactly made those, or what the set effect is. What I can tell is that what led to their creation is a bounty issued by the system itself as part of the ‘magical arsenal program’ which aims to push high level artisan classes to keep honing their craft instead of just settling down with their accumulated wealth.”

“Oh, so these could have been made by anyone?”

“If you want to call the few people above level 450 with an enchantment-focused class, then yes. I couldn’t really give your more data than that, but there are probably ten to twenty people at most would could enchant something so intricate.”

“Interesting, thank you for the help again. I’ll get back to my things.”

“My pleasure.”

Huh… And grandma didn’t seem to know either… I guess I’ll just have to find the other parts to know the full set effect. If it’s true that Water’s saint has a piece, then I only need to find the two more.

Many such small things to do before the next trial… I need to prime this damned ring, also. It’s still hasn’t shown me the location for its next meal, is it broken or something?

Sofia’s vision suddenly warped, as the gluttony ring took over her senses.

Oh, so I just needed to ask.

Unlike the previous time, where the vision had started from space and closed in on the location on the hidden moon, this time it started in the middle of a foggy swamp.

Uh? Feels familiar.

The view slowly shifted, and the fog cleared as the vision showed a dark forest with huge black trees.

The spirit forest?!

The vision entered the forest, moving between the giant black primus trees, going deep into these dangerous territories. It stopped in front of a hole in the ground, hidden under massive roots, and ended right there giving Sofia her own eyes back.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

This should be a short trip. I wanted to explore the forest in more detail anyway. Since there were three parts of the saint set on the tiny human peninsula, I wouldn’t be surprised if the missing two were there somewhere too, and what better place for an item to be lost than in a dangerous dark forest?

Ah, enough getting side-tracked. Graveyard upgrade time!

[Skills available for guided optimization:

‘Spine of the Black Sun’

‘Graveyard of the Nymphs’

‘False immortality’]

[Skill : Graveyard of the Nymphs - Skill version index SK_GOTRO_2.0]

Current version :

[Graveyard of the Nymphs] : Create a 834 meters (3*Skill Level) large and wide consecrated graveyard around the Saintomancer (Must be solid ground).

The skeletons of the powerful Nymphs are buried in the graveyard, they may surface to grab the Saintomancer’s enemies, incapacitate them and - or drag them underground.

The skeletons have the relative strength and resilience of a level 278 (1*Skill Level) Paladin and cannot inflict any direct damage.

The Nymphs grants the graveyard the capacity to highly bolster plant growth. And may spontaneously create plant matter.

Requires a 4.02 seconds (10 - class level/50) channeling to deploy. Costs 100 mana per second to maintain.

[Available branches (same version lettered upgrades are mutually exclusive):

2.0A - The graveyard’s casting time is now instantaneous - 10 000 TP

2.0B - The structures of the graveyard are greatly improved - 10 000 TP

2.0C - The graveyard no longer requires solid ground - 10 000 TP

3.0 - The graveyard’s cost is now of 10 000 mana per second, the skill now adds its effects to your aura instead of being a standalone channeling - 100 000 TP

Request new branch - 500 000 TP base fee + Branch cost]

Change it to an aura buff? Hmmm… Does that mean it will move with me? It would also greatly improve the range. If I take that along the 2C variant I could just always let leave it active like another passive skill. That’s not a bad idea. The mana cost could be a bit of an issue right now though. Even with the staff making it 5000 a second that’s a real chunk of mana at the moment. Would be almost nothing after this trial, though. I’ll just pick the C variant for now and I’ll take the 3.0 at the end of the trial if I still have enough points.

‘You have spent 10 000 tournament points’

‘[Graveyard of the Nymphs] has been optimized to branch 2.0C’

‘Current balance : 308 101 126 points’

“Hey Lepo, sorry to bother you again,” Sofia said.

“What bother? I’m the one standing in your room you know?”

“I just wanted to make sure, we will have time to buy things after the final event, right?”

“Of course, a full week, in fact. To spend your remaining points however you want,” Lepo confirmed.

“Good to know, thanks. Well… I’ll go see what my skeletons are up to, have a nice evening, Lepo.”

“Thanks, you as well.”

Sofia spent two very uneventful days on the ark. Everyone seemed to be getting a bit tired of the high pressure of the constant trials. The search for more Master item hidden shops proved to be getting much harder now that only a few very well hidden ones must have remained. The entire team got to work searching for them, but despite finding a few hints here and there, no actual shop was found during this downtime. Eventually the next wave of events came, a bit different this time.

There was no event choice, no warning, Sofia and Pareth were sent to a changing room much like the one for the previous event, though the walls and furniture this time were of a dull gray, illuminated by a flickering ceiling light like the ones from the secret admin house.

“At least we’re together in this one,” Sofia told Pareth, who had forcefully been swapped to his human skeleton yet again, “are your stats impacted?”

Pareth denied it.

“Huh, nice. That’s a positive then, since you like this skeleton better. Ideally we’d make you a heavy human skeleton somehow, would be nice. Maybe we can find some kind of thin ogre and you can size it down with the draconic shapeshifting? Anyway, let’s get dressed.”

The rules seemed to be the same as last time, though Sofia did not even have Victory’s crown this time, the only item of hers still present being Aphenoreth’s glove and her regular clothes. The clothes provided now were rather plain, with traveling boots, black pants, and a featureless gray shirt.

“Still strange to see you dressed up like that,” Sofia commented, “but you also look a bit more imposing somehow. I guess the fabric hides the emptiness between the bones.”

When they were both ready, Sofia tried to open the door, only to be faced with their first system prompt since the start of the event.

[Please read the rules before proceeding]

[You have been selected for Lobby 1]

[Event : Last man standing]

[You will battle to the death with 99 other trialees]

[Ranking is determined by order of death]

[Your stats, items and magic will be locked. Everyone will start with a starter kit of choice, and similar stats equivalent to that of a classless level 20 human]

[Defeating strong monsters, or other events may award participants with unlockers that allow you to regain the locked attributes. Trialees will also drop 1 unlocker upon death for every 2 they have used. There are no other rules]

[Available starter kits, please pick one (Two for twin ruleset):

-Wooden arming sword

-Wooden spear

-Wooden round shield

-Old bow & 5 wooden arrows

-Speed potion

-Healing potion]

Oh… Level 20 human? With all skills and magic locked?

The first person to get an unlocker basically just needs to unlock their stamina and instantly win the entire event with overwhelming speed and strength, no?

Hmm… We’ll see how that goes.

“What do we do? We could take Shield and bow as a good all-rounder option. Or you take two swords. Hmm…”

Pareth mimicked holding a spear.

“Spear? If you want… Maybe you take the spear and be our fighter at the start, I’ll take the speed potion and try to get an unlocker as fast as possible. Sounds good?”

Pareth nodded. They selected their kits, and received the items directly in their hands, a tiny vial with silvery liquid for Sofia, and a straight pointy stick a bit longer than a meter and a half in length that could barely be called a spear for Pareth.

“Looks underwhelming but they’re only useful to get the first unlocker so I suppose it’s fine. We just have to go in now, hard to strategize without knowing the starting position or who else is going to be in the lobby.”

[Please wait for all participants to be ready: 63/100]