Saintess Summons Skeletons

Astelia teleported above a bed, falling face first into it, alone in the Ark’s room 1. After lazing around on the soft sheets for a few seconds, she let herself float up and turned around to look outside, watching as a pink-scaled fishman appeared right outside the room. He glanced into it, giving Astelia a wide-eyed look, before rushing to another door.

‘Room 2 has been secured for his team by - Ezerid Rodes - in 14.67s’

Seeing the sudden notification, Astelia noticed the one she had missed previously.

‘Room 1 has been secured for her team by - Astelia Glacier - in 3.028s’

Another came an instant later.

‘Room 3 has been secured for his team by - Saint Tartaros - in 16.198s’

Astelia shivered reading that name. “This one is going to be tough,” she muttered to herself, but she internally sighed of relief, because a certain Saintomancer was nowhere to be found so far.

“Surely she would have at least made it to third place…”

While Astelia already started making plans for ways to deal with Ezerid and Tartaros, an Avian man in a red suit landed in front of the door. He adjusted his white tie before walking in.

“It truly seems I could not have hoped for a better teammate,” he commented as he walked into the room, “astounding performance.”

A dwarf with long red hair walked in after him, she kicked him in the shin just as finished talking, “Watch it, Relkei. You ain’t here to be a damn flirt.”

“Oh, I would never dare, lady Camilla. My heart is solely devoted to yo- Urck…” The avian winced after a second kick, shaking in head and walking to the most isolated bed in the corner of the room. “Is our fourth member struggling to find the room?” he asked Astelia.

“No need to worry about her. I am sure she will be here soon.”

Alith was outside, in the middle of the hallway, taking notes on the people passing by. She had been a bit slow to get there but still managed to get a good look at all the groups starting from room fifteen, all the while keeping track of those entering the other already taken higher rank rooms.

As the trickle of people started to slow down, she closed her notebook.

“And I used to think [Accounting] was a bad skill…”

Just as she got ready to join the others in room 1, she heard footsteps and got a strange feeling, making her look back.

“PARETH?!”

Pareth stopped in his tracks, raising a hand to greet her as he usually would, and gave her a nod as he passed by her and entered room 6.

“What…”

I could understand if I missed the others but how the fuck’d I miss Sof and her bright-ass wings?!

Actually no… Room six?! Did they bring her fake in here with no wings and no legs or what?!

The hell…

In a blank room with about twenty people, Sofia stood with Pareth, Mornn joining them there.

“Hey hey! Kuli’s not coming?” she asked.

Sofia shrugged, “She must be busy dealing with politics, hopefully she’ll find time to come watch later.”

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“Hmm hmm, from what Sun told me, most people only come to watch midway through.”

“Ah, right, she’s the one who bought our tickets, actually.”

“I know, I know, she was training me before she got distracted by you. Thanks for that. Working me to the bone…” Mornn complained, “You were here before me, what did I miss?”

“Nothing, really. We just arrived too. I’m guessing everyone here is a first-timer,” Sofia noted, seeing that some of the other people in the room were mostly either random vampires or the few real people that were against them in the previous trial, although Ezerid and his group were nowhere to be seen.

“Looks like it. You guys have changed a lot since last time. Nice beard,” Mornn complimented Pareth, “What up with the arm though?”

“Long story but… Blueprint injury,” Sofia answered, “This replacement’s made of Silk gold for the mana conductivity, I’ll enchant it later. What about you? You look a bit different, but I can’t quite tell what changed…”

“Oh. Yeah, it’s a work in progress. Sun’s been looking into the higher Orcs like Saint Tartaros recently, she decided she wants to make higher Elves now, and you can guess who the test subjects are…”

They chatted for a few minutes before a tired-looking man with big round glasses appeared in the middle of the room, clapping a few times to get everyone’s attention.

“... Hello everyone… This is the introduction for spectating on the Ark. The room tickets you have bought, no matter the room type, are valid until the end of this edition, so you don’t have to worry about leaving and coming back. A system menu will let you move around between rooms and, if you have the permissions for the room you are in, control the viewing feed.” The man paused for a second, yawning loudly, before getting back to his explanations, “Any attempt to interfere with the ongoing trial will have you removed and heavily penalized, and do note that all offensive magic is disabled in the spectator area. Lastly, concerning worldly issues. You will notice as soon as you leave this room that you will partially regain control of your actual body, and may experience disorienting double vision. This is a safety feature, so that you may react to real world events and stop spectating at any time, since time flows at the same speed in and out of the Ark. I wish you all a pleasant time on the other side of the Ark.”

With the man’s last words, blinding light inundated the room, and when it died down, Sofia, Pareth and Mornn were together in a different place, in front of a black screen.

“Here they are,” Speed commented from behind, sitting on a large grey couch.

“You all better sit down fast,” Saria added, “it’s gonna hit you any second now.”

Bookie summoned himself next to Sofia, “Oh, it’s just like when I go away from myself!” he excitedly said, before falling to his knees, “Eugheuk… I’m seeing triple…”

Sofia grabbed Bookie and sat on the nearest seat with him on her lap, she could see the spectator room clearly, while the vision from her real eyes was like a thin transparent veil overlapping her current sight. It felt a bit like being half-asleep, still aware of the exterior world yet clearly not quite fully there.

“What happens if I try to move my real body?” Sofia asked.

“If you go slowly you can move a bit”, Saria said, demonstrating by slowly raising a hand in the real world just barely in Sofia’s field of view, “but if you move too much you’ll be kicked out of here. From what I’ve found the most comfortable thing is to have your real body in the same position as here.”

Speed nodded on the side, “Yeah, same. Works the same for everyone.”

“Well, not quite, Sun is fully able to move fluidly on both sides at once, from what she’s told me,” Mornn chimed in, struggling to stand upright.

“It still works the same way,” Speed argued, “She’s just… Anyway, the first wave is still eight hours off, but we should get a recording of the two first tests relatively soon. I am curious to see how your friends will do.”

“Well, the first test won’t be very interesting,” Sofia said, “Asty can teleport several times a second, I don’t see how anyone could snatch the first room away from her. Though I’m curious to see who the main imprints will be. I got a feeling our team won’t be there but maybe Ezerid will? Could also have other strong imprints that we haven’t seen before, right?”

“Possible,” Saria answered, “it looks like Sen and Tartaros are the two big mainstays, but the rest of the top rankings looked pretty different in my run compared to yours.”

Speed looked at them, awkwardly scratching his horn, “Sen and Tartaros are actually rather rare sights, it’s just that your groups were too strong…”

“Well, maybe… But Saria’s not wrong either, I mean, Asty and Alith together will need at least that much to have a real challenge,” Sofia confidently said.

“I do not doubt that, just saying. How it is. Also I have heard rumours that things were getting switched up a bit with the admin back in charge, so who knows what can happen. Ah, and, speaking of, Sofia…”

“Hmm?”

“I just remembered another rumour I heard,” Speed said, leaning forward on the couch, “Apparently the system locked you out of leveling… Because they needed time to prepare an alternative fifth trial for you.”

“We’re not going to get the same fifth trial as everyone else?” Sofia said, turning to look at Pareth, “I could have expected that. This one was already cutting it close to properly awaken my mana heart in time… Well… I just hope they’re already working on the sixth one as well then. I’ve only got five years.”

Saria interrupted the discussion, “Hey look! The replay for the starting tests are in!”