Saintess Summons Skeletons

After thorough preparations, the group departed in search of Aphenoreth’s mirror, Sofia carried Alith in her storage ring for a little detour in space.

Ah, I was wondering what could possibly be that close, but it’s just a space rock again. Wait, no, it’s ice. Space water, I guess.

Alith stepped out, briefly looked at the tiny icy comet slowly drifting away from them in the vast nothingness of space, then turned around to look at Veliadren from above for just a moment.

Test, test. Can you hear me? Sofia asked in her head, she still could not use mana communication, but she had gotten a set of five paired bracelets mimicking the effect for now. Even Pareth had one, despite being unable to say anything through it.

Loud and clear! Alith answered without moving her lips. You?

Huh. Your inner voice is a bit higher pitched than I am used to.

Hey what?! You’re gonna make me self conscious, don’t say stuff like that.

It’s cute.

Shut up.

Alith pulled a funny face, and promptly returned to the storage ring.

We really all need to learn that mana communication skill proper at some point…

Anyway… Aiming…

Sea east of the Cobal Arids… It was a good call to go at night otherwise this side would have been dark. Not too familiar with all the landmass still… This continent should be the Arege Union I think? So the next continent over, and then somewhere to the south west of there. It would have been easier without all of these clouds everywhere, seriously.

It’s supposed to be a darker blue… Ooh, found it!

That was easy.

Now to aim.

Sofia reappeared high in the sky, above a jagged mountain-range of dark blue stone.

Sensing the transposition, Alith came out again.

“Really weird how those teleportations feel from inside there. It’s like a mental shockwave? I don’t know well how to describe it,” she commented, “that where we supposed to be? I thought we were going swimming.”

“No, we follow the sea east of here until we reach the ocean, and then it’s a matter of finding the deepest hole down there, pretty much.”

“Classy.”

“It is what it is. Ah yeah, and the further hint I got from Sonia’s group was ‘The sunken vessel, seek the condemned.’ So we’re shipwreck-hunting, really.”

“Oh it’s on a ship? Should’ve called Zarrow, I’m sure he’d have plenty of shit to say,” Alith idly commented, starting to fly toward the sea.

“Your speed has gone up a lot,” Sofia remarked, flying alongside her.

“And it was about time, what’s even the point of being a ghost if I fly slower than a toddler walks? The only persistent issue is that a lot of my vision is spirit plane right now, so it’s a bit like flying through clouds, but you get used to it.”

“You could always just get a dedicated flight skill.”

“Yeah no thanks, my class is still the same, you know, a million disparate pieces barely fitting together, I need all the space I can get.”

“Will your new blessing effect even work under water?”

“Damn right it will, it’s Phoenix flames, no amount of water can extinguish that, you should know.”

“I cannot wait to see how my Phoenix reacts to that…”

The lighthearted discussion continued until the long flight brought them where they needed to be, above a warm, dark ocean.

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“So,” Sofia started, looking down, “The great serpent’s fault should be around here, goes almost perfectly north-south for about ninety hundred kilometers, but supposedly the shipwreck is around here next to the Cobalt Arids, so… Probably a two–three hundred kilometer range?”

“And we need to find one sunken ship from like forty thousand years ago, based on that. Well, doesn’t sound any crazier than finding one lost city on an entire moon.”

“Hmm? No, no. Once was enough, thank you very much. I am prepared this time.”

Sofia flew down to the surface of the water, and pulled a bunch of stuff out from her eye storage: floating wooden boards, large colorful parasols, waterproof cushions and a bucket full of ice, drinks and snacks.

“I thought… I don’t mind the vacation but is that really what we’re supposed to be doing?” Alith asked, already reaching into the floating bucket.

“Absolutely! I am thinking like a necromancer now. And you know what a necromancer does? Let their summons do the job.”

“I am still technically your summon, not sure how to feel about that,” Alith snarked, lying down on one of the boards.

“You sure look like you are getting ready to work suuuuper hard, hmmhmm. Well, boys?”

Sure enough, Pareth and Bookie were also getting ready to work extremely hard, popping out of her eye storage already wearing enchanted floaties, landing straight into the water.

They all had a relaxing time between the waves while, one of Bookie’s summons, a new page containing 1000 Filarine skeletons, small and swift snake-fishes, were sent to explore the depths in their stead.

In just a few hours, the skeletons had already located a few ‘shipwrecks’, and the group had to store everything and get ready, seriously this time.

“Where did you even get all this?” Alith asked, watching the things and inflatable balloons disappear into Sofia’s eye one by one.

“So, you remember Phillip? That Dragon I mentioned who lives on a tropical island? I made a quick trip to Exalta recently and so, he started selling those through his daughter’s store. Quite cheap, too.”

“Those were dragon-made?”

Sofia shrugged, “He must get bored on that small island, I don’t know. It was only like five hundred gold for the whole set.”

“Only five hundred gold?! Sofia…”

“Shush, I don’t want to hear it! Money well spent, I’m telling you. Now let’s get down to business, down we go!”

Everyone plunged down, Pareth and Bookie letting themselves get pulled by Sofia’s aura. Sofia already had low light vision, and the others could all see relatively well in the dark to some extent, but Alith had shared a batch of potions earlier letting everyone see much better under water. It was not perfect, but as they started to reach the depths, it still allowed them to see dozens of meters away even with no lights. Using too much light so far down could attract unwanted attention, so even Pareth’s eyes shone as dimly as he could get them to.

We’re about to hit the bottom. Sofia warned. The fault is further east but there’s something nearby.

This way! Bookie nodded, pointing north with an extended finger. He seemed particularly happy to be able to answer Sofia directly in her head like she often talked to him.

Everyone moved, with Alith and Pareth at the head of the group. You know Sof, I’m really enjoying your new runeforge overlord effects.

It is just Runelord now, but yes the permanent free 150% Speed strength and agility is really convenient. Just don’t go too far, outside of my field aura the effects get weaker.

Isn’t that like three hundred meters now? That’s plenty.

Not enough, but it’s a start. The fishes are waiting just a few hundred meters ahead, we should see the thing soon.

Too dark, and like swimming through sludge, I can’t see anything yet, mana senses are getting gutted too.

It’s not too bad for me, I can sense there’s an actual shipwreck there already, Sofia shared, seems pretty barren, though.

You know back on earth we had a lot of legends about ghost ships? Pirates who make pacts with demons and stuff, witches raising storms at sea. Tales of stolen treasures laying at the bottom of the ocean. Was all superstition of course, but my grandpa had a lot of stories like that. Makes this trip a bit more exciting for me. Ghost ships could well exist here, after all.

Ghost ships? Do you mean the crew? Because otherwise I am pretty sure this is not how ghosts work. Certainly explains why you were so eager to get us on Zarrow’s ship back then.

Alith shrugged, picking up some speed as she could finally see the shipwreck ahead. It was a rather long wooden ship lying sideways on the seafloor, the rear half of which was completely missing.

Looks like it has been for a long time.

I’ll take a look inside.

As one might expect, there was little of interest to be found in the algae-covered wreck; not even bones remained of the crew who once took this vessel to sea. The only thing of note was that it looked to be of ancient human design.

After that, they checked a few more wrecks in the area, all with little remaining inside, but notably all missing their rear ends just like the first one. The bottom of the ocean so far was calm, quiet, and not too cold, with very little activity, the only traces of life being algae, barnacles, sluggish flat fishes crawling on the seabed, and transparent jellyfish here and there.

Hopefully it stays that way.

The next shipwreck to check was no longer on this level, but much deeper, within the dark and narrow fault line they had been avoiding until then. Standing at the edge of it, it was like looking down at a dark canyon, less than fifty meters wide, with no bottom in sight.