Saintess Summons Skeletons

The quake lasted for fifteen long seconds, during which Alith internally debated getting back out into the rain downpour. Some small rocks fell from the cavern’s ceiling, but luckily nothing major, so Alith returned to her attempt to sleep. It was still dark and raining outside, so there was really not much else she could do.

The night was cold in the humid cavern, yet the shelter from wind and rain was quite good, and Alith managed to get some uncomfortable shut-eye.

Alith opened her eyes in complete darkness.

Fifth time… Still night…

Oh, it stopped raining. Good enough.

Fumbling around in the dark, Alith grabbed her sundress she’d left to dry laid down on a big rock, it was still a bit wet, but better than wearing nothing. She took a few more minutes to wake up slowly, chewing on some leaves and berries she carried in her pouch, and untangling her hair before roughly tying it into a ponytail with a loose string pulled out of the sundress.

The outside was not nearly as dark as the cavern, the sky had cleared up and revealed a beautiful dome of stars that seemed to bathe the entire island in a faint white glow. Alith smiled at the sight, but only spent a moment looking up, quickly getting back into the meat of things.

So. The Ark seems to have moved a bit. But it’s definitely it, so much light. Rest of the island’s dark as coals though.

In a way it’s reassuring, but shit, I could have really used some fire. Making one with how wet everything is now… Ugh.

The quake from earlier doesn’t seem to have done much of anything at least. Wait, no! That tower lighthouse thing… It’s gone. Must’ve collapsed. Tssk. Fricking volcano island of all things. Not trying to get burned alive again. Speakin’ of! Back to the climb.

Winds got stronger as Alith continued to climb the stone stairs going all the way around the volcano. Gradually, the ascent got harder as air started to become thinner and the stairs steeper and narrower. She often looked up, on the lookout for flying monsters, but the night was peaceful, and she made good progress toward the top of the volcano, until, as she climbed onto a boulder that obstructed the stairs, she saw two lights in the distance. One of them was the rising sun, barely peeking over the sea on the horizon, the other was a soft red glow in the jungle. It only lasted for a few seconds before dying down.

Something there for sure. It’s not too far from the beach that way. Might be able to check it out on my way out.

About a hundred steps later, Alith stopped again, hearing a new sound from above, like a large bird flapping its wings. She looked around, but failed to see the culprit anywhere.

The hell? Doesn’t sound like it’s very far up either. Some big bird nesting in another cave above? Tssk, the steps are getting too narrow, how do I look up?

Intrigued by the constant sound, Alith tied her spear to her bandolier on her back however she could, and started climbing the uneven rocky cliff. Thankfully the porous rock was no longer too wet from the night’s rain, so climbing a dozen meters up was relatively easy for Alith. She found the source of the noise on a tiny alcove in the cliffside, where a thick banner of flag was flapping in the wind, tied to some kind of small stone shrine. Said shrine contained a small locked mithril box.

Alith grabbed the box and lightly shook it.

Another tooth, from the sound of it. Tough nut to crack. I might be able to pick the lock if I had tools but… Hmmm…

Alith slammed the box against the rockface a few times, hoping the locking mechanism might just give out, to no avail. Clicking her tongue, she pushed the herbs in her pouch to carefully slide in the box in the middle, fearing the pointy corners might rip the fragile woven leaves pouch.

Carrying this potential fourth tooth, she resumed her climb, idly snacking on the few remaining berries she had, reaching the summit at around noon.

“Phew, I was starting to think these steps never end.”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

A handful of steep steps remained, Alith pushed herself over the last one, finally standing on the rim of the volcano’s crater.

“Oh fuck…”

The inside of the volcano was an empty, vertigo-inducing near-perfect cylinder, with a hot-looking black layer at the bottom, that was full of glowing cracks and clearly just the thin top layer of an immense lava lake.

The stairs that Alith had just climbed continued on the other side, just going back down along the inside of the crater, leading to a very out-of-place shoddy wooden settlement built like a matchstick sculpture along the cliff midway down.

“Who in their right mind… Don’t volcanoes like these emit toxic fumes, too? Hell the fucking wood looks charred just from the rising heat from below… I have to check it out.”

Going down was a lot faster, Alith fully ignored the gradually rising heat, almost running down the stairs. She debated leaving her pouch up for a minute, but eventually brought it with her. If anything it would help dry some of the herbs she had.

Surprisingly, she found a few weapons on her way down, rusty iron spears and swords, laid down against the cliff along the stairs. It was tempting to pick one up, but the forest weaver antlers she had were a lot sturdier and more lethal, no matter how unwieldy.

About halfway down to the strange settlement’s level, she started noticing movement inside. There were definitely ‘inhabitants’ in there, although it was hard to tell what kind, but they were for certain not human.

The closer she got, the better of a look she got at them, the small village’s occupants were what Alith could only describe as perpetually burning strawmen, floating around the streets and hiding inside the houses. They left a trail of burning ashes wherever they went, yet the darkened yellow wood the settlement was made of was not catching fire.

As Alith quietly observed them from above, the island started to shake again.

Fuck.

The quake was more violent than before, almost knocking Alith off of the stairs, she only managed to hold by slamming her antler knife straight into the stone stairs before being knocked off. Her feet dangled above the void and the lava lake below for an instant but the firmly lodged antler gave her all the grip she needed to quickly pull herself back up and wait for the quake to be over.

She sat on the stone stairs, watching as an outer section of the wooden volcano village crumbled and fell into the lava. When the shaking stopped, watching the previously still lava lake below furiously bubbling and steaming, she was starting to reconsider going down.

The completion score… Not many people would have made it here so fast. If it keeps crumbling, this might be a place very few people actually get to. I have to go!

Alith ran down the stairs. Not knowing when the next quake would come, she wanted to be in and out of the fragile volcano village as fast as possible.

She stopped just a few dozen steps away from the entrance, reaching down into her pouch. The village was close enough to the lava lake that stepping on the stone stair started to feel like walking on hot coals. It was uncomfortable, but really handy. Alith grabbed a handful of select herbs, and laid them down on the stairs, watching them fully dry up in seconds.

Perfect. I don’t even need a fire. Not my best work, it’ll do the job.

Using the Mithril box like a pestle, Alith ground up the dried herbs against the stone stairs. The powder was uneven and mixed with some scraped stone, but it would still work. She made a small pile of powder like this, and stopped for a second to consider her options.

I could eat it like this but it’s really supposed to be an ointment for best effects… I have neither oil nor water is the thing…

I could maybe…

[Live spectator count - Alith : 11352]

Oh, mother of fuck…

“Hey… Can I ask for some information? Is a Seraph listening right now? Can I ask for people to stop watching for a bit or…?”

[Privacy break has been activated (Spectating will resume automatically later)]

[Live spectator count - Alith : 0]

Oh, that was a thing?

Ah, that’s not even the first time, this was already in my logs from last night, looks like. I just didn’t notice. Neat.

By the time the spectators were allowed back in, Alith had miraculously procured a noticeable amount of moisture and transformed her tiny pile of ground herbs into a liquidy paste that she slathered on her skin with an unhappy expression.

This shit you have to do for these trials…

No matter how icky she felt, the ointment worked wonders, making the air against her skin feel like a fresh breeze and the burning hot stairs under her feet like blocks of ice.

I just knew as soon as I saw this damned volcano that it was the right move to grab the ingredients and substitutes for a fire resistance cream. I just fucking knew. The jungle damn near had everything I needed to make a top tier one, too, especially with the forest weaver.

I swear if all I find in there is another tooth…