Saintess Summons Skeletons

After half a day in confinement, a broadcast of Beryl’s voice announced that the teachers’ tower, the dining hall and the restrooms were now safe zones in which students were not allowed to attack the teachers for tokens. After that, Mistral was allowed to leave, and Sofia spent the night with Astelia discussing how they would handle their classes.

The time has come. You ready, Pareth? Activate all the lights, I think it’ll be better if you just stay out and ready at all times, both for the tokens and for intimidation purposes.

Sofia summoned the skeleton high-priest, activated her armor, made sure the token pouch was visible at her waist, and departed to find her classroom.

Saint set, crown, staff, scale arm, token pouch, skeleton… I’m not forgetting anything?

“Let’s give these kids a good first impression.”

Sofia’s classes were early in the morning, so she expected the academy to be still calm. The corridors were swarming with students. Wearing the academy uniform, going to and fro, students were everywhere she looked. And all of them would stop and make space for the armored teacher and her two level 249 skeletons to pass.

There were quite a few who eyed the pouch, but none tried anything for most of the route, until someone with some kind of invisibility skill tried to sneak close. Unluckily for them, Sofia and Astelia had discussed the steps to take to protect their tokens the night before. The main takeaway was: always use your mana senses at their full potential. It required some effort and focus, normally Sofia only paid that much attention to mana movements during battles or when exploring dangerous places.

Sofia spotted the mana disturbance made by the invisible student. She tried to identify them.

[Mage - Lv. 173]

Pareth kicked the student away, sending the invisible person crashing into the ceiling as they screamed in fright and pain.

I’m getting faster at Identifying. “Better luck next time.”

The other students were already walking at a respectable distance before, but suddenly there was even more free space around Sofia.

SP6… SP7… SP8!

Small Practical classroom eight. There we go. Five mana signatures inside, looks like the students are all already there. Class only starts in about half an hour, no? Am I late? No way, the sun is barely starting to show up.

Let’s enter through the floor, see how they react.

Under the flabbergasted gaze of nearby students, Sofia, Pareth and the high-priest skeleton were pulled underground by bony hands.

I think this should be around where my desk is?

Sofia rose from the ground inside the classroom, surprised by the complete silence. The students were definitely looking at her and Pareth, mostly Pareth. They each sat at a small individual desk facing the same direction.

It was interesting to try to read their emotions. The dwarf was clearly enthusiastic, excited, while the other boy looked serious and focused. Of the two Exidian girls, one looked impressed and the other looked scared. Lastly, the youngest student of the class, the ‘Odon’ girl, was some kind of small orange furball, at most a meter tall, with two long triangular ears, like a mix between a fox and a rabbit, as well as three fluffy tails. She wore a heavily altered version of the academy uniform with a completely open back, and her expression was hard to decipher beyond saying that her eyes were wide open.

She looks harmless but she’s the highest level by a lot. All around 50 while she's 99.

“Good morning everyone,” Sofia greeted them, refocusing their attention on her. “I am Miss Vakaria, your combat strategy professor.”

“Hello Miss Vakaria!”

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Good morning.”

Already talking all at once. “Do you five already know each other?”

“Yes, teacher!” the dwarf happily confirmed. “We all shared a common class last year.”

“Great. Since there is some time before class officially starts, how about we start by some free talk. I’m open to any questions you may have,” Sofia explained while she spawned her bone throne and sat on it after pushing away the boring wooden chair meant for her.

The five students all raised their hands.

“What are you all doing?”

“T- Teacher, this is usually how we ask for permission to speak…”, the shortest of the two Exidian girls explained.

“Really? Well, you get to speak first then, start with your name. You can all lower your hands.”

“I’m Shaily. I wanted to ask… What is teacher Vakaria’s patron God?”

[Mage - Lv. 52] Alright, so this one is the [sprite Caller].

“Sorrow.”

“Eh? But I thought Saints…”

“You really started with the hardest question. Let us just say my class is unique and special among the saints. Whatever the case, if you’re asking what God I consider my patron God, that would be Sorrow, next, you,” Sofia answered before pointing at the Exidian boy.

“Erian Proudwall. My question is: why does a teacher hide their face?”

Sofia dismissed her bone armor, she was wearing the simplest of her new outfits, a tight white shirt and black pants, it was the most comfortable to wear under the armor.

“No reason in particular,” she answered while she crossed her legs.

Erian looked like he wanted to say more but he had lost his words. At least pretend not to stare at your teacher… Aye… Next… “Your turn,” Sofia said, pointing at the small girl covered in orange fur.

“Name is En! Are we going to do a lot of fighting in this class or only theory?” she asked with a hint of worry in her voice.

“Lots and lots of fighting. The plan is to spend ten minutes at the beginning of every class discussing theory while you guys warm up. Then I’ll have practical exercises for you, including battles between yourselves or with my skeletons; lastly we’ll spend the last five to ten minutes recovering and going over how the session went. Happy with that?”

“Yes, very! Thanks teacher!” En answered from her seat, her cute voice significantly more upbeat than it had been when she asked her question.

“Thank me after we’re done. Red hair next.”

“Thank you teacher! My name is Guerand. Has teacher ever fought Sea monsters? Goblins? Basilisks?”

“Truly a dwarven question to ask. Are you from the isles, Guerand?”

“I am! My parents are both boatsmiths. But I was never allowed to go on expeditions except to come study here.”

“Nice, well, I haven’t fought many sea-creatures, but I killed a Siren Queen once when I was at En’s level.”

The dwarf turned to look at the small girl and the three tails sprouting out the back of her chair, then he turned back to look at Sofia, uncertain, he asked, “T- Teacher, aren’t Siren Queens supposed to be around level 200? They also never attack alone…”

“It was a level 180. I almost died. And I wasn’t alone, I had another level 99 friend there, as well as my most loyal skeleton. This is Pareth, by the way, treat him with as much respect as you ought to show me, he’s much smarter than he lets out even if he doesn’t talk.”

The students all looked at Pareth again, and to Sofia’s surprise, he gave them a nod, which they all silently reciprocated with a surprised look on their faces.

Feeling expressive today? You’re going to be hitting them later, you know?

“Alright, sorry for picking you last,” Sofia called out to the taller of the two Exidian girls with her long drill-shaped hair, “Lola, am I right?”

“You are correct, teacher Vakaria, I am Lola ElderPlain. I want to ask what your occupation was before becoming a teacher at Brighthall. Is it true that humans’ natural level is 1?”

“So you want to know how I got to the level I’m at?”

“In a way, yes. If it is not too presumptuous to ask.”

“It is fine. I said you could ask any question, did I not? Humans are indeed born and stay at level one as long as they do not kill anything. Our race might be the one with the weakest starting point. That being said, I like to think we make up for it in adaptability and unpredictability. If you meet a high-level elf for example, you can already infer some things about them: they probably worship Sun, are most likely fine in very arid climates, tend to favor martial classes, and so on and so forth. A high-level human though? Chaos,” Sofia explained. She stood and walked around to make it less boring. “As for what I did before and how I leveled up. That is another story. But I will let you in on a little secret. Three years ago, I was still level one. I’m only a few years older than you lot.”

“What?!” Erian cried out before apologizing profusely, “Ah, sorry, I apologize, I did not mean…”

“No worries. We’re going to the practical part of the lesson next, you will all take turns hitting Pareth then being chased by him for today’s exercise. But first, actually, let me show you my age, class, and stats. See what your teacher is made of. I will not show you my full name yet, though, so you’ll have to trust me on it.”