Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia introduced her bird squad and even got to try her new design for Eternam’s transmission ritual, which she had embedded on a bone coin with a mana battery ritual on the other side to have the birds give a live view instead of just their position.

The coin didn’t work at all, Sofia lost the connection as soon as the birds turned a few corners, still, under the watchful eyes of Astelia and the students, the three dimensional map of the entire dungeon quickly took form in Sofia’s hands. The 100% bonus in processing she got from the Order form of March of the Envoy allowed her to flawlessly keep track of all the birds and sculpt the map at the same time.

“This makes it almost too easy,” Astelia commented, looking at the work-in-progress map, “I can already tell that the boss is probably in that isolated deeper section.”

“It helps in that way but if you want to be a treasure hunter you have to explore the entire thing anyway. The good stuff in a dungeon isn’t always anywhere near the boss. Though I guess it will be less of an issue when the transmission tokens work. It also doesn’t work as well in places where the birds get killed by the monsters.”

“How much health do they have?”

“A few hundred points each, varying depending on which birds I use,” Sofia answered, “The Crows are slower but have a bit more health than the Turvins and are smarter. The rats are also an option sometimes, they’re better for places with a lot of closed doors since they can fit in small holes or quickly dig their way around.”

“How many different skeletons do you have?” Shaily asked curiously.

“I’m… Not sure. Actually. I lost count, but I have some good variety. I even have things like a bunch of carnivorous fish that I have never used. Oh, the last few birds are done. Here it is, that’s the entire dungeon.”

“There is no exit?” one of Astelia’s students asked as he perplexedly observed the map.

“It looks to be that way, if the map is accurate” Astelia answered, “Maybe the boss guards an exit, but most likely the way out was the collapsed section behind us when we were teleported here.”

“The exit does not really matter anyway, both me and Astelia can get us all out of here if needed. Anyway, just give me a second to equip all my things and let’s clear this place out.”

“Right you’ve not been wearing the crown and the saint set,” Astelia noted.

“I should really wear them all the time but it feels a bit pretentious.”

The shielder from Astelia’s students interjected, “Teacher Vakaria, if I may… Why a crown? A lot of us have been wondering if you were Human royalty but…”

“Oh no, this is just the reward for the best ever performance in the second trial,” Sofia casually answered as she stretched to adjust the jointings of her bone armor just how she liked them, “I didn’t get to choose what it looks like.”

“B- Best ever?”

“You heard me. Astelia wasn’t far behind either. You didn’t get just anyone as your teachers. Oh, right, speaking of which, see this bell on my staff? This is a scribe bell, I just do this,” Sofia said as she shook her staff, “And you should get a small experience bonus for a few hours when you participate in fights alongside me. It’s a bit finicky though, not everyone can always hear it for some reason and if you don’t hear it you get no bonus. Did anyone not get it?”

The students looked at each other. “I heard it just fine,” Shaily said first. “Me too,” Topaz confirmed, and soon enough the topic went from wondering whether they all heard it to asking Sofia where she had gotten that, which she expertly ignored.

They all heard it then… That’s a bit reassuring.

Just a bit. Sofia did a surprise scan of the surroundings, expanding her mana senses as far as they could reach. She found nothing out of the ordinary, and could only put the nagging feeling that something wasn’t right to the back of her mind. “Anyway, if everyone is ready, let’s go!”

The zone behind the half-boss room started out very peaceful, therein, no more mechanical creatures were to be found anywhere, first were a few completely empty rooms, where mural paintings depicted multiple races united in the worship of a large faceless being, and after that came the forest.

It started with the vines and roots on the floor reappearing, then, as the group ventured further and deeper into the dungeon, the ground turned busier and busier, eventually being so covered in verdant flora that it had developed a layer of soil. And with the soil came the trees. Thick trees with dark brown, almost black trunks, and dark green leaves.

Sofia and Astelia were near the entrance to the big room with the fist trees, hiding on either side of the door, while the students were a good thirty steps back waiting with Pareth behind a corner.

Sofia opened her helmet’s visor and whispered to Astelia, “I think we found our first group of monsters. Do we just rush in?”

But while her mouth said one thing, a bunch of small bone letters appeared across her face within the helmet, saying something else. ‘Possible Danger. Assassin? Priest gone dangerous. I bait later. Student safety first. Catalyst? No worry about me.’

“Your plan seems fine but be careful,” Astelia whispered back.

Good, she got the message. Alright, for now, let’s give some love to my most neglected skill.

[Spine of the Black Sun]!

The explosion has a radius of almost four meters now. The only thing is that I need to stop using it as a whip, to make the explosion stronger, I need to leverage all my strength bonuses and strike with the sword form. It also heals me for 20% of the damage dealt… Actually more like 35% with [Radiance]. Now that I have a proper health pool, it would be stupid not to use it!

Sofia and Astelia rushed into the room. The trees awakened, each six to eight meters tall, a few meters wide, and each worth their own several tons of wood and sickly red sap. The trees were stupendously fast. Before the two women could engage the fight, the largest two trees had uprooted themselves and rushed up to the frontline, acting as the vanguards for the smaller ones.

Sofia was first to make contact. March of the envoy just switched from the Order to the Chaos state, her senses narrowed and her body was strengthened instead. Diving straight through the raised branches of the tree, and taking a few glancing hits. Her scepter-turned-bone-sword hit the tallest tree, leaving a large dent in its bark and sending electricity coursing along its trunk. Then the solar burst triggered, engulfing the entire upper half of the large tree. Sofia’s health shot back up to full as the tree burned and shrieked, sending dozens of its burning branches after Sofia like creaky wooden tentacles.

Astelia engaged the other vanguard tree, using her specialization, she simply gestured as if she pushed the tree away. With loud tearing noises, the countless roots of the tree ruptured at once, and its massive trunk was sent flying toward the other side of the room, barrelling through many of the smaller trees, destroying them on the spot, and finally exploding in a rain of wooden shards and blood-like sap against the far wall. The entire dungeon shook from the impact.

Holy shit Astelia you’re not joking around!

Sofia kicked against the trunk of the tree to get some distance and quickly checked through Pareth’s eyes that everything was fine on his side. Reassured, she quickly started channeling a piercing bolt over the Spine and charged in again. The normally very blunt Spine of the black Sun tore through the rough bark thanks to the Angel Bolt’s raging plasma. It penetrated deep into the tree leaving charred marks on its path, and as the swing stopped, the solar burst triggered from within the trunk. A large portion of the vanguard tree blew up from the sudden accumulation of energy within. Sofia was blown away by the burst and flew right back in, the second internal explosion burned away the last sparks of life within the tree.

‘You have defeated [Blackbark Hallowed Purifier - lv. 243]’

Further in the room, Astelia was smashing the smaller trees against the walls one by one while under a deluge of physical and magical attacks as the branches swung and the leaves flew, sharpened by the concentrated mana on their edges.

I need to speed up or there’ll be nothing left for me!