Saintess Summons Skeletons

Erredis stood hunched over a table in her workshop, observing Sofia’s six Saint set items. Before her trip to Sorrow’s domain, Sofia had left them with her. Now they had all been tempered in Odalite blood, which seemed to have had no effect on the enchantments, but had at least made them even sturdier than they already were. After doing that, Erredis had tried to work out the full set effect.

“I give up,” the rabbit-eared dragon sighed as Sofia entered the workshop.

“Too complex?”

“Quite, but not anything I cannot replicate, inferring the full effect, however, out of my league,” Erredis admitted, “I doubt anyone could decrypt that, honestly. It would be way easier to just find the last piece.”

“Well… We already know what to look for…”

“Since all the pieces were spread around the human continent to begin with, it’s likely still somewhere around here. You need an expert in divination magic. Ah, and, I did find out something about the full set, just not the effect.”

“Not the effect?”

Erredis nodded, “Yes, the pieces are meant to fuse together once they are all reunited. It’s not just a full set, it’s a single item.”

“... I have a hard time imagining how all these gold pieces could fit together.”

“Of course you do, sweetie, because they will morph into a new form. If it’s a headpiece as long as the size is not too big we can adjust your helmet to fit it instead of the headband, if it’s not I’ll re-complete the helmet with a replacement piece. For now let me put it back in.”

Sofia handed over the helmet, letting Erredis put the headband back inside. She put on the six pieces again, and got ready to depart for the Ur Ur tree where she would meet with the mysterious ascended elf Eternal Mountain.

With the saint set on, Sofia tried her transposition, moving from one side of the workshop to the other.

Divinity: 59/130

Fifty-nine. So this transpose cost me 71. The 6-set is a 29% divine penalty resistance? More than I expected!

But still not enough to transpose twice in a row.

Erredis had been watching, and Sofia turned to her again, “So, grandma, do you think this will let me escape the forbidden layer?”

“Not impossible… But unlikely. The rules of the world down there… You cannot take anything for granted. Are the others ready?”

Sofia nodded, “All waiting in the halls. Pestle hasn’t let go of that knife for a single second since you reforged it yesterday.”

“Ahah. Next time I’ll do the fork too. Let’s go see the Ur Ur tree.”

Leaving the city in Zephir’s hands for the second time since Ihuarah was away dealing with Liches, Sofia flew along Erredis in her humanoid form towards the south-east. They flew at Sofia’s top speed, chatting along the way.

“We’re here,” Erredis said at some point some ten hours later, abruptly stopping above the ocean with nothing in sight.

“Can’t say that I see any tree nearby. Underwater?”

Erredis nodded. “The Ur Ur tree is the holy tree of Hobgoblins. We are in Hobgoblin territory.”

“We can just enter and go near their holy tree?”

Erredis lightly laughed, “Who will dare to stop me?”

Sofia laughed with her, a sight that would make any onlooker tremble.

Erredis plunged first, and Sofia followed into the temperate equatorial waters of the Hobgoblin territory. At first there was nothing but increasingly dark water, a few ocean fishes swimming here and there, then as the sunlight started to completely disappear, a strong blue light became apparent near the seabed. Illuminating the depths was a giant underwater tree with glowing leaves, a round city built on the seabed under the wide canopy.

Hobgoblins and other aquatic monster races swam around the streets, with a few andarians, a few aquatic rave beastmen, and a rare undead walking here and here. Despite the Hobgoblins’ generally repulsive appearance, they had a vibrant little society rich with street stalls and open-water markets. The entire city was one big bazaar swarming with activity under a constant shower of glowing leaves.

Sofia felt the water pressure around her progressively lower as they approached, while all sorts of sounds started to reach her, muffled and distorted by all the water, music, voices, noises.

Ur e Rarad, the main hobgoblin city. Sofia heard Erredis’ voice say in her head. Eternal Mountain is already here. In the dry district, follow.

Swimming down under the tree, Sofia noticed several Hobgoblin guards swimming around. A rare few of them were clearly higher level than she was, they looked back, snuck quick glances at the rabbit-eared monstrosity next to her, and pretended not to see them.

Finally, they swam above a rather small section of the city between two huge roots of the giant tree where water was kept out by a dome-shaped mana net. There, below, in a small park between a few rows of houses, Sofia noticed the elf.

Holy…

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This guy should rename himself Mithrium mountain! An entire full-plate armor?!

And that hobgoblin next to him! That scepter is a Kleptra’s stinger!

Seeing Sofia eyeing the chatting duo, Erredis shared their Identify as they swam down.

[Warrior - Lv.519]

[Supporter - Lv.480]

That’s one strong Hobgoblin…Sofia and Erredis swam through the mana net, and flew down, landing next to the duo.

The mithrium-covered elf nodded first as the two landed. “I see you have come well accompanied.”

“You as well,” Sofia answered, eyeing the Hobgoblin next to him. If Andarians were the elegant fishmen one could imagine with lustrous scales and sharp features, Hobgoblins were the opposite. They were a monster race through and through, and despite possessing looking vaguely humanoid in shape, this one with white hair and a beard to boot, their thick, slimy skin was like that of a toad. And their crooked body and messy face did nothing to inspire confidence. Even this one, with all the charisma a level 480 was sure to have, only barely looked more like a person rather than a bloodthirsty creature.

“Moon guardian, Ark champion, welcome to Ur e Rarad,” the hobgoblin acknowledged with a grating voice and a curt bow, “I am the guardian of the Ur Ur Tree. Please feel free to act as if I were not here.”

Sofia bowed back, while Erredis just gave him a quick nod and addressed Eternal Mountain.

“No traps?” Erredis asked simply.

“No hidden traps nor falsehoods in my letter,” Eternal Mountain answered, not the least bit offended, “We only need to retrieve one ancient artifact. Whether they survive the forbidden layer is another matter entirely.”

“Hmm. Can I see the skeleton?”

Eternal Mountain threw Erredis a thin Mithrium ring.

“Seems legitimate. Full skeleton from the lost epoch. You found that under here?”

“In the Carthene plains chasm,” Eternal Mountain corrected, “Took quite some time to bring out.”

“Without storage items, I can imagine. Is that thing you’re looking for truly that valuable?”

“Without a doubt.”

“Well, I see no issue. Where is the person from your side?” Erredis asked.

“Waiting at the entrance of the layer already.”

Sofia could barely fit a word in while Erredis and the elf had a long back and forth, ending with Erredis confidently telling Sofia that there was no foul play. In the end, Sofia followed the Hobgoblin to a small gate at the base of the tree. Beyond it was a dark hole surrounded by roots.

After quick farewells, Sofia jumped down alone, mithrium ring in hand.

I don’t know why but I expected the meeting to go differently… I could barely talk at all.

Oh well…

Looking at the huge pile of bones tightly packed inside of the ring with a space larger than her own, she could hardly complain. Too bad I have to return the ring.

But finally! A dragon!!!

At her waist, Bookie was shaking in anticipation.

After a long fall, Sofia finally arrived at the very bottom of the tree’s roots, in a large cavern where a single person was waiting, sitting next to a campfire. Sofia recognised her instantly.

Sonia Rotfallen!

It was the winged beastwoman whose fake she had fought in the tournament Ark, the deadly archer with Mithrium arrows. She looked pretty much exactly like Sofia remembered, save for slightly different clothes, and the huge backpack next to her. The beastwoman turned around, watching Sofia fly down.

“So you did come! Hiiii!” she said with a wave, “I hope Mountain wasn’t too much of a bore!”

“Hello…” Sofia answered, landing softly next to the fire, “He barely even said anything to me. I didn’t expect to recognise my teammate.”

“Eheh, such things are bound to happen now that you’re strong. The circle of powerful people only gets smaller the stronger you get! It was interesting watching you duel me. I’m much stronger than I was back then, by the way!”

“Level?”

“349,” Sonia answered, “Can’t go past the filter or the forbidden layer will be too much for me, so I’ve been stuck here for a good decade now.”

“Admiteddly that’s not too long compared to most people, I think,” Sofia commented, “When are we going?”

“We have a few hours to chat and prepare until the entrance opens for the month, lucky timing on your part,” Sonia said, “Care for a seat? And are the skellies not coming?” she asked, looking at Bookie at Sofia’s waist.

“Oh they are, they’re just busy playing cards right now. They’ll come out in a bit, Bookie is dying to finish quickly and get those dragon bones.”

Sonia nodded, “So retrieving that damn thing wasn’t for nothing. It took me a whole month, you know?!”

“I believe you. Was it dangerous?”

“Not really, it was relatively near the border of the forbidden layer, more tedious to find it and move it than anything else.”

“Thanks for that, then. And I’m supposed to get the other half of my advance payment from you?”

“Ah, the dead god? Yeah it’s in the same hole I found this skeleton in, Carthene plains, basically on the other side of the world, if you don’t know where that is. I can guide you there after, if we make it out of here alive.”

“Confident?” Sofia asked.

“More now that you’re here. It’ll still be dangerous, but much better than when I was doing this alone. We already know each other’s fighting style, too, a good start for this cooperation.”

“True. And can you tell me what we are after exactly?”

“The people from the lost epoch tried to survive the change of the epochs, they created tools for that. As you can guess, they failed miserably, but that doesn’t make the tools worthless, quite the contrary. I’ve pieced-together the likely location of one of them, and this is what we’re after.”

Tools to survive the cataclysm? She worded that the best way possible to avoid censoring.

“And what do you intend to do with that?” Sofia asked. Depending on the answer, she was ready to give back the skeleton and leave.

“Different epoch, same goals. The current epoch is coming to an end, we want to stop it. As for the details, I can’t tell.”

I can’t tell… Spoken as if you didn’t know, but what you mean is that you literally cannot. I understand. So Eternal Mountain is just like Cecless, trying to stop the Looming. If that’s true, then we are all on the same side.

“Does your group have a name? Is it just Mountain and you?”

“We’re a small group of under thirty people, I’m the latest recruit. As for the rest… Maybe I’ll tell you when I know you a bit better,” Sonia said with a smile. She started opening the backpack at her side, “I’m getting hungry. I’ve got orcish Gurmak sausages, want some?”