Saintess Summons Skeletons

The Reviskiviel’s enraged hums shook the valley several times throughout the remainder of the night. It never found Sofia and Pestle. The creature seemed to have moved on, but still, Sofia dared not take any risk, only when it was well into the day outside, with the monkeys and forest creatures making a lot of noise, did she vigilantly leave her hiding spot in the tree.

Thankfully the lost health to the bubbles has finally come back when the day started.

Pareth has moved a lot throughout the night. We need to rejoin him and Sonia, but first…

Sofia tore off her demon tail, summoning the [Hollow Grief], covering it in a bone armor identical to her own, and sending it away first in another direction as a decoy.

Can’t take any chances, that thing could still be lurking nearby.

An invisible Pestle on top of her helmet, Sofia ran through the forest. Even without her mana senses the helmet made her eyesight good enough that avoiding most threats wasn’t a hard task. Whenever she was still ambushed by the forest’s creatures, she used [Regret], to send herself somewhere else. With the limitations of the forbidden layer it always ended up sending her somewhere random nearby and not wherever she wanted, but that was enough to make her escape. Only the monkeys still tried to chase after she teleported away, different groups of them communicating with each other through feral noises to chase her. Pestle dealt with those. The bigger monkeys showed no signs of showing up so far, and Sofia could only hope it would stay that way.

Upon getting closer, she came to a realisation, Pareth and Sonia were still on the ceiling of the mirror valley, while she was on the ground in the regular forest.

So they’re around there. She thought, looking up at a dense patch of dark trees up above in the distance.

It’s a big concave… No mountain tall enough to reach the top anywhere nearby… Ah, wait. I can just transpose there.

Still not used to this.

Pestle, get inside.

A hole appeared in Sofia’s bone armor, the heart cavity of her demon form was the perfect hiding place to take Pestle around in transpositions. Sofia transposed herself right under the canopy, quickly diving up into the leaves.

Jumping from tree to tree, she followed Pareth’s link, until, surprisingly, she couldn’t anymore.

She was on the branches of a small tree, her helmet almost touching the dirt on the ceiling, and her link to Pareth was pointing straight up.

I should just leave a small statue of myself with Pareth…

Graveyard.

Just like before, the ghostly skeletal Nymphs were reluctant to come out, a single hand finally popping out of the dirt after a bit.

I don’t understand why you guys dislike the inverted trees that much. Sofia thought, grabbing the extended hand. Pulled into the spirit plane, the Nymphs carried her up through the dirt and stone.

Sofia expected to end up in some sort of cavern, her vision in the spirit plane blurrier than ever, but instead, the Nymphs dropped her and Pestle off in a triangular room with walls of dark green bricks. Sonia and Pareth were just waiting for her, sitting around a small campfire.

“Back already?” Sonia asked in surprise, “No lasting injuries?”

Sofia opened her helmet’s visor, changing back to a Lumian without even wanting to, “No, you?”

“We’re both perfectly fine, thanks to you.”

“Good. I was honestly afraid the thing would go after you when it failed to find me,” Sofia said, sitting down near the fire.

“Maybe it did,” Sonia answered, “We lucked out finding this place, though. The bubbles don’t reach here, and there are no monsters around either, so we got some rest at the end of the night.”

“Can’t say I had any of that,” Sofia quipped, “My bad about last night, it’s my fault we were caught, I think.”

This book’s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Yeah likely,” Sonia said with a shrug, “We should’ve known all that bone dust falling through the leaves would attract attention, we need to find another way if we spend more nights in the forest. Or just go to the bottom one.”

“Not holding it up against me?”

“After you saved my ass? Any guilt is repaid as far as I’m concerned, but doesn’t matter anyway, the place is dangerous enough, we don’t need petty squabbles. Someone’s bad idea is the team’s bad idea. We’re all still alive–” Sonia paused, eyes turning to Pareth for a second, “-- kind of, and that’s all that matters.”

“Barely alive, honestly it was kind of a miracle that I made it out. You don’t look too surprised though.”

“Of course not, if that guy isn’t worried about you why should I? He just turned me down when I asked if we should search for you,” Sonia explained.

“Since you were already safe here, no reason to come back out for me,” Sofia confirmed with a nod, “What is this place, though?”

“Absolutely no idea,” Sonia said, looking up, something looking like some kind of altar was on the ceiling, which was actually this room’s ground where the doorways were, “Never seen anything like this. Those green bricks are also a material I don’t recognize. These ruins could be hundreds of thousands of years old. No clue.”

“Explored it entirely already?” Sofia asked.

“No, this is close to the hole we used to enter, actually.”

“Are we going to explore it?”

“We could. If we’re lucky we can find some magical relics or weapons from back then. You never know what you can find. Could find our death, also. There’s probably a reason the monsters don’t enter here despite the entrance being relatively easy to find.”

“How bad could it be?” Sofia asked.

“Extremely bad. For example, if you ever stumble upon a place that looks like a castle of iron, a place with undecipherable gold inscriptions lining metallic walls, those are ruins from the dark epoch.”

“It’s my first time hearing about that one.”

“Before the lost epoch,” Sonia clarified, “So, if you find those, just stay away. You’ll die.”

“You’re that categorical even when I could escape the Reviskiviel?”

Sonia seriously nodded, “There are some you can find outside of the forbidden layer, and even the Kleptras don’t go anywhere near those.”

“That is certainly one way to measure dangerousness… So should we explore this one or not? You’re the expert here, we’ll follow your decision.”

“Well… Considering the importance of my main mission, I’m tempted to say we should ignore all distractions on the way…”

“But?” Sofia asked, as Sonia’s words trailed.

“At the same time. If we can get stronger by plundering a ruin or two, won’t that make the job easier?”

“Ahah, so the potential danger isn’t even part of the equation?”

“We’re risking our lives whether it’s in here or outside, unless it’s something like the dark epoch ruins that I know for a fact is too dangerous, why piss away a free opportunity for strength, knowledge and riches?” Sonia said, eyes gleaming.

“You’re one greedy owl,” Sofia commented, closing back the visor of her helmet, “I feel like we’re going to be good friends, you and I.” She tapped on the book at her waist, “Bookie, you’re up, summon a recon force and lead them from here.”

“Right away!” Bookie enthusiastically said as he summoned himself. He looked quite eager to finally do something. Sofia had felt his restlessness until now, so she wanted to give him a distraction.

A swarm of skeleton rats scattered through the dark corridors of the green brick ruins.

“Your necromancy sure is convenient,” Sonia quipped from the side, “Usually I’d make a small golem out of a monster core and whatever I can find to do this.”

“Nobody’s preventing you from learning necromancy,” Sofia answered with a shrug.

“I already can’t afford to carry an extra golem core, you think I got space for bones? Not to mention, my blueprint’s pretty packed.”

“You got space for those massive Mithril arrows on your back but not a small golem core?”

“It’s more that there are fifty other things I’d pack in first if I had more space. Not to mention–!”

Everyone stared at Sonia who held a dramatic pause before finishing her sentence.

“I gotta keep space for the loot!!!”

“Ah, so that’s why you brought so much food? Space that makes itself.”

“That and I like food.”

“Like leg,” Pestle echoed from atop Pareth’s head.

Bookie interrupted the lighthearted discussion, ”Sofia, some of the rats are getting killed.”

“How strong are your rats?” Sonia asked.

“Level 300 but their stats are more like the filter below,” Sofia answered, “No magic but they’re pretty fast and smart.”

“Unlikely that they died in some sort of trap then?”

“I’d say so. This being a stronger monster’s territory would at least explain why the weaker ones don’t come here?”

Bookie nodded, confirming the theory, “Only one creature I think, and it’s not just killing the rats, it’s hunting them.”

“Hmm… Alright, send the gold dwarf. We’ll see how dangerous that hunter really is.”