Saintess Summons Skeletons

“It’s the dwarf you sent against saint Tartaros, right? How strong?” Sonia asked, watching the dwarf skeleton eagerly venturing down the dark corridor near the ceiling, shovel in hand.

“That one, yes. He was already pretty strong before, but now that I’m up to his filter he’s basically on Pestle’s level. He retained basically all the skills he had when he was alive, unlike most other skeletons, really strong.”

“How’d you even get it, did some gravedigging in dwarven territory?”

Sofia shook her head, “He attacked me out of nowhere. I killed him.”

“Hah. I’ve had a few of those.”

“Being hunted too?”

Sonia nodded, “Nothing serious, but people knowing I regularly come down here was always bound to give some people some nasty ideas. Sometimes they send people down after me,” she said with a dark chuckle.

“Didn’t end well for them, huh. They can’t send people that are higher level after all… Isn’t it strange that nobody stronger managed to make it down here when the stronger monsters and Kleptras can?”

“Not strange, no. Kleptras supposedly appeared here, but even for them now that they have evolved to the point where they have a proper mana heart, going too deep is impossible. The stronger monsters only survive here because they don’t produce any mana.”

“The mana heart is the issue… Isn’t there a single ascended with a Physikstone or Spiritstone around?”

“There is but they still produce mana,” Sonia said, “It’s the link to the mana plane that’s the issue. To really oversimplify, the more you level up the stronger that link is, even with a Physikstone core, as long as you produce your own mana, it grows. The stronger the link is, the easier it is for external mana to enter. Anywhere else it’s not an issue but with all the mana that gathers here an Ascended coming is like asking for their blueprint to become scrambled eggs.”

Sofia silently nodded at the explanation, then turned to Bookie, “Progress?”

“I-... I’m not sure. He’s fighting, I think,” Bookie answered.

“Not just instantly dead? Good sign; let’s go,” Sofia said, standing up and channeling a piercing bolt over her sword-form scepter.

“Give me a second,” Sonia called out, stopping Pareth from jumping up to the corridor near the ceiling. She instead jumped up to the opposing corridor leading to the ruin’s entrance. She grabbed a mithrium arrow from her quiver, and used the sharp tip to scribble a few ritual circles over the walls. “Small trap to cover our back,” she explained from above, “made this one an ice trap since you’re both immune.”

“Good to go?” Sofia asked.

“After you.”

Pareth nodded, going first, following a trio of skeleton rats, while the others followed right behind.

The group was silent as they walked through the ruins. Unlike the impression the first room could give, the upside-down ruins were quite open, with long corridors leading to many rooms and halls, the function of which were completely alien to the group.

I don’t get it at all. It being upside down doesn’t help but… I really don’t recognise a single thing. It’s like walls, stairs and doors are the only thing we and whoever built this space had in common with modern civilization. And even the stairs are… Why are the steps so tall and narrow? Sofia wondered, looking up at the staircase above her while she walked up its ceiling’s steep slope.

Compared to the level 300 rats that had rushed through the place before them, the group was advancing with caution. The place did not seem to contain any traps, if Sofia had to guess she would pin this place as some kind of research facility more than anything else. Even then, she could only give puzzled glances to the ancient contraptions in every room.

Soon enough, Sofia started to hear the sound of clinking coins in the distance. The dwarf!

Sonia lightly drew her bow, an arrow of blue energy forming as she pulled on the string. The arrow was let loose, almost silent, and it shot down the corridor leaving behind a bright blue trail, taking a sharp 90 degrees turn into another corridor before hitting the back wall.

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“It’s a hit,” Sonia said two seconds later as released another seeking arrow. The group upped the pace running after the rats, arriving at the scene of the battle just in time to see a four-armed grey-skinned thing pull the dwarf skeleton’s temporary mana core out of his skull and crush it between long white claws.

The dwarf disappeared in an instant. The creature was riddled with holes, a third of its skin and one of its four arms turned to solid gold, and a dozen skeleton rats chewing on its two long legs, but it did not seem to care, after crushing the dwarf’s core, it lunged straight at Pareth.

A mithril arrow and a piercing bolt skewered the monster’s head and chest before it could even reach Pareth, but they did not slow it down in the slightest. Its three remaining functional arms swelled up before they crashed down against Pareth’s shield.

Pareth’s chains appeared, wrapping themselves tightly around the thing’s arms and neck, freezing over the creature’s sickly gray skin.

Sonia had the same idea, icy arrows curving around Pareth’s shoulders to plunge deep into the creature, further immobilizing it. Sofia had rushed up to Pareth’s side.

The monster kicked in Sofia’s direction, caught in time by Pareth’s sword, and stabbed at her face with its whip-like tail.

Perfect.

The tail crashed into Sofia’s helmet with the sound of bones breaking. The monster had no time to pull its tail back, Sofia grabbed it with both hands.

“Pestle.”

Fully immobilised, the monster could no longer even struggle, all of its bones held firmly in place by the direct contact of Sofia’s aura.

The invisible fairy moved with a bang, and the creature slumped, a new hole in the middle of its lower abdomen. Against the dwarf alone it had been able to fight back, against four people it had died in a single move.

“Ugly heart,” Pestle commented, holding up a tumor-looking Physikstone twice the size of her head dripping with dark-blue blood.

“Weaker than it looked,” Sonia noted, “If there’s a reason the other monsters don’t enter here, that’s not it,” she warned.

“What is that, even? It looks a bit demonic, don’t you think?”

“A fucked up cousin of the monkeys from outside, maybe,” Sonia guessed, “the legs remind me a bit of mimics.”

Sofia shivered at the idea, she could see exactly what Sonia meant. “There better not be any mimics around…”

“Mate, do I have bad news for you… Are you not taking the skeleton?”

“Considering it,” Sofia answered, “I don’t think it’s worth one of Bookie’s slots honestly. If we could find like ten of them, though, that’s another story.”

“The corpse doesn’t look particularly valuable either… Well we have one Physikstone for loot so far. It’s a start.”

“Surely we’ll find something else in this huge place?”

To begin with, the group searched the room the creature had been in and the nearby ones, but aside from small piles of monster excrement and some orange monkey fur here and there, there was no trace of anything interesting. That was until a rat returned with something in its mouth.

Mithril rod?

Sofia grabbed the object, a mithril cylinder the length of her hand, covered in connected lines and square carvings. It ended in a fist-sized ball on one side, while the other side’s end was the flat end of the cylinder.

Sofia called the others, but no one seemed to have any idea what the rod could be for, only Pestle guessed it could be a key. The rat led them to the place it had found the rod in, a hidden compartment in one of the many strange ceiling contraptions.

“I’d have never found that by myself,” Sonia admitted, watching the rat crawl back out of the green brick and glass inert machine, having shown them the hidden internal button it had pushed to open a secret drawer.

“Honestly, me neither. The rats really have a talent for finding things. That rod was well hidden so it does give credit to it being a key of some sort. Haven’t seen any hole it might fit into, though. The sliding brick doors don’t even have handles, let alone locks.”

“Might just be for one of the machines,” Sonia said, “Worse case it’s still a nice bit of Mithril.”

“True. Let’s keep exploring. I’m sure the rats will find what it opens if anything. Just need to give them more time.”

“Speaking of, how are they doing?” Sonia asked.

“All good!” Bookie answered, “But the ones going too far I am starting to lose track of…”

“Of course… Let’s move, then.”

With the relative certitude that the place was free of traps, now, the group advanced much faster through the strange corridors. They ventured deeper and deeper into the strange facility, finding nothing much but green bricks and dust.

Until they stepped into the largest hall they had found yet, and Bookie yelped out of nowhere.

“Aaaah! The rats!” he cried out.

Everyone stopped, looking at him.

“They’re all dead!”