Saintess Summons Skeletons

Chapter 72: Identities

She read the line a few more times.

This skills summon is willing to protect the summoner at any cost.

Willing

Since when?!

From the start?!

No, no way. It was absolutely brainless at the beginning The level 70 upgrade!

Lv.70 : Pareth can now understand complex commands.

So all this time in the armor, then on the boat

She stared at the skeletal chicken that also looked straight at her, like it did most of the time. Waiting for an order.

Sofia spoke without giving an actual skill driven order, Jump twice if you understand what Im saying. But the chicken didnt move. It only kept staring at her, occasionally tilting its head Like a chicken.

Not quite there yet she mumbled. She didnt know if she was disappointed or relieved. Probably both At least now she could use her own wings to get bones for her armor instead of dismantling Pareth every time. Though its not like he can feel pain Right?

Youre feeling better? Ive a few ideas to share.

Yes. Sorry about that, Alith, these last few months have been hard

Dont worry about it, Sof. As long as you stand back up.

Thank you Did you know Pareth is starting to become a bit sentient? Sofia asked, scooping up the chicken skeleton with both hands.

Starting? Poor girl, youve never seen how fervently he guards you when you sleep.

What?! What the UH?! Sofia looked back and forth at Alith and the skeleton.

Alith shrugged it off, Anyway, these ideas of mine

Aliths mind hadnt been idle for the half hour or so Sofia had spent motionless on the ground. Her very first suggestion was a way for Sofia to find food: cannibalism. Usually healing magic would expand the energy of the person being healed to repair the wounds; which made eating your own flesh and then healing yourself completely useless in terms of nutrition.

But in the case of Alith She didnt need to eat. Her nature as an undead meant she could survive and be healed up purely with mana. So Sofia could enjoy fresh Alith meat for as long as she wanted. Granted it was weird, but better than starving to death. And for water? Blood. After all [Summon blood] gave them an infinite supply. They werent so sure if drinking blood was completely fine for a human, but if they could eat raw meat

Despite the source of the meat volunteering it by herself, Sofia wasnt too excited by the idea. Though she accepted to do it as a last resort, if she was really going to starve. Hopefully it doesnt come to that

Then Alith explained her second plan, My other idea is to train up your skills a bit before going. The only ones of mine I can still level up by myself are [Planar Shift] and [Botany], so we dont really care about those now. But you, we should at least level up [Sanctity] a bit. So heres the plan

Aliths training program was a very involved one, whereby she would continuously cut off Sofias wings, training [Sanctity]. Then Sofia would heal them up with [Heal Undead], leveling that too. And of course, Sofia would spend the whole time not falling while standing on the very edge of the walls parapets, to try giving some love to [Way of the fool] that was also still criminally under-leveled for some reason.

[Shenanigans] used to level up by itself Well, it took more than a decade to reach level 48 so it only makes sense that the upgraded version is harder to level And [Identify] is stuck at level one.

Leveling [Sanctity] and [Heal Undead] would make their whole group harder to kill, so in a situation like this, they really needed it. And it would also work to fill up Sofias now gigantic bone storage space, which could hold up to 10 tonnes of bones. They would have to cut a lot of wings to get there.

Before we start, Alith said while twirling her blades, one last thing. She slashed at the blue crystal parapets, carving out half a brick in a single swing. She caught it, and weighed it in her hand before handing it to Sofia, [Identify] this, maybe we can learn more about the Phageids. You said the Alpha was made of the same stuff, right?

The chunk of brick was not unlike all the debris they had created when Sofia used to bombard the place with lightning bolts, rigid crystalline stuff, with a mass more akin to wood than stone. It didnt scratch or break easily, even if it couldnt withstand the [Angels bolt] or the mithril blades, it was quite tough.

[Midenicite] : A crystalline mineral with the unique property of being completely unable to retain any mana. Item level : 0. Grade : Valuable.

Interesting property, kind of like mithril, though mithril is more like mana repulsion if I understand it correctly.

Alith looked at the key-ring, Isnt it made out of that stuff? It had mana though.

Theres probably something else inside, who knows, I dont know anything about that stuff, maybe we can ask Karlson.

Oh well, guess were back to Drakron after this. That and investigating that vanished capital city of yours Alright then, stand on the edge and show your wings. Its time to level up.

I'm very happy that my wings cant feel pain.

It didnt take long for Sofia and Alith to get in a good rhythm and start filling up the [Armor of Bones] storage space. Cutting wings, healing them The skill levels came fast at the start, then it slowed down before stopping to a halt. They continued until the storage was full anyway.

[Heal Undead] reached level 57

[Heal Undead] reached level 64

[Sanctity] reached level 2

[Sanctity] reached level 24

[Way of the Fool] reached level 4

[Armor of Bones] : Gather and reform bones to create a blessed bone armor protecting the Saintomancer. The armor can store up to 10 000 kg (100*Skill level) of bones to repair itself in combat. Protective strength goes up every level.

Stocked bones : 9 999.6 kg.

A good harvest That took so long

Sofia sat down against the parapet, How are you still so energetic after doing that for hours?

More stamina? I just dont mind repetitive things as long as they benefit me.

Youre always so quick to want to do new things though? Like how you forced me to come here the first time?

What I dread most is doing nothing Were exploring next? How about a stroll through the outer ring?

More than a stroll it was accurate to say that they flew around the place. They searched for traces of the Phageid, but they didnt find any. However, they made a few discoveries.

Firstly was the massive Midenicite gate linking the outer and inner city, as well as a gate leading to the void outside, they were both still closed.

Another point of interest was a hole, which looked like a byproduct of Sofias [Angels bolt]ing of the lower street, that opened a path from the outer to the inner city. Maybe all the phageids went through there

And lastly was a large church-like building, hidden in the chaos of the street level, in which they found an orb shaped item the size of a fist on the ground near a crystal pedestal.

[Midenicite catalyst] : A masterfully crafted spell catalyst made of Gold and Midenicite. Enhances the speed of mana projectiles by up to 20%.

Item level : 80. Grade : Forgotten.

Restriction : Only applies to instant projectile spells cast through the catalyst core.

The only compatible skill they had with it was [Summon blood]. They debated whether to sell it or to keep it for later if Sofia managed to make a decent skill for it. They could only keep it for now anyway, so in the necklace it went. Also its weird how it says spells instead of skills.

That had to be the magic item required for the place to count as a dungeon. Perhaps the boss had been there too.

Sofia had a solid theory about the Phageids by now, well, an idea at least.

Because the Phageids looked like the crystal that cannot hold mana, her guess was that they were bad at it too. If they couldnt hold or take mana from the air, obviously they would have to eat it.

Her thought was that the Phageids ate everything they could find that wasnt made of Midenicite. This singular thing escaped their hunger. Because unlike other elements, it couldnt hold mana.

That would explain why everything here was so empty, and why the Alphageid had tried to stuff his baby with humans, after all, they held much more mana than the natural elements around them.

If the Alpha was any indication, they needed that mana. To reproduce.

Or I have it all wrong and the Alphageids are carnivorous. Wouldnt explain why everything heres missing except the walls though. Especially seeing how the palace looks intact. It has to be protected from them in some way.

Being done with the outer city, they decided to send Pareth scout the inner city. If there were monsters like the Earth golems from the desert dungeon here, they needed to know. Pareth would first check the palace, as it might be the safer place. And next would be the mansions. Which Sofia guessed had to house all the Phageids that used to be in the outer city, if they were still alive. Because where else could they be?