The skeleton paladins marched out from under the large trees’ canopy. As the sun hit them, their entire body changed from the pure white of bones to a gilded yellow. What followed was a one sided massacre.
The full squad of Skeleton Paladins spread out around the five horse-sized salamanders lazing in the slow lava current. They waltzed right through the melting rock, not taking any damage. When they had all the beasts surrounded, they slowly tightened the encirclement until they launched their assault.
Sofia knew they would have some skills at least, but it looked like they had the full goddamn kit, complete with [Slash of light] and an assortment of the other Paladin spells. However she noticed that their mana didn’t regenerate at all. Still much better than no skills. Also from what she tried, she could give general orders, but nothing too complex, much like Pareth had been at the start. She didn’t worry too much about it. The Skeletons were already quite smart about how they went about things and managed their finite mana pool. They had proper group cohesion, not hindering each other during the fight. This was an actual squad of paladins, not twenty five individual ones in the same place.
The Salamanders wouldn’t go down without a fight, but their attacks had no effect, little by little, the Skeletons whittled them down, until they came bringing the dead beasts back to her.
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 92]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 142]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 133]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 120]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 78]’
‘You gained a level!’
The book had very little mist left in it, just to see what would happen, she tried to summon another group of paladin skeletons, but she only grasped air when she reached for the pages. Looking at the skeletons and the dead salamanders, she thought that maybe if she un-summoned the paladins the mist would come back. Which would allow her to summon a new batch. So she ordered for them to disappear. They had a limited lifespan anyway.
The skeletons burst into a thin mist, but it didn’t gather back into the book or anything, merely spreading like real mist. Still, she tried to summon them again, but it was the same. I guess I need to wait for the book to build up the mist again before I can summon more…
Let’s feed the book a bit more. The five salamanders disappeared into the book, and as expected, a new page appeared. Above the drawing of five salamanders was the number ‘15000’.
Oh, I could get used to this really fast… The possibilities are endless!
Now for the real question. Do Gods have skeletons?
Only one way to find out. I have a hundred years to get ready, that’s plenty of time.
Sofia flew above the lava river and explored more on foot. She tried to understand more about the book and how exactly it worked. She caught a few wild animals to conduct tests.
A single crow for 50 mana. A toad for 10. Couldn’t put them both on a single page. Looks like a page is only able to have ‘copies’ of the same skeleton.
After searching for more amphibians, she first tried adding just one, which made its own page. Then she sacrificed two more, creating another page. No modifying a page after it appears, and I can make the same page multiple times. What about fusing the pages. No matter what she tried, be it visualizing the pages fusing or giving an order to the book, she didn’t manage to fuse pages. But erasing the pages worked without trouble, and the pages with toads all disappeared. I’ll keep the crow.
The book had a bit more fog now, it slowly recovered by itself. Sofia tentatively pulled on the paladin squad page again, which didn’t work, but she did manage to summon a level 130 Skeletal Crow. It didn’t seem to know any skill, but could fly like the real thing. Would make a reliable messenger bird. Though only to places it can reach within its lifetime. Now the question is, how far does a crow fly in two hours?
Upon considering the question Sofia was saddened to realize she didn’t really have anyone to write to anymore. The only useful contacts she had were Kuli and Valeure. The former which she didn’t doubt would smash the undead bird to bits, and the other one living on the opposite side of the continent.
I should try to expand my social circle a bit.
The opportunity came faster than she ever imagined. Sofia kept walking through the trees, petting the skeleton crow on her shoulder, when she stumbled upon a campsite in a thicket. It was a nice one person camp with a small tent, a circle of rocks for a fire-pit, stripped logs for sitting and a line between two trees to hang wet clothes.
Someone was sitting near the fire, roasting a bird on a stick above the flames. All kinds of alarm bells rang in Sofia’s mind.
[Hero - Lv. 248]
She was a narrow-eyed ‘teenager’ with long straight black hair tied in a ponytail. She wore a simple short-sleeved black shirt and pants, with heavy reinforced boots, she had a longbow slung across her chest, a shortbow tied to her leather belt, and a strange bow without a string on her lap. And that was it. She looked up at the intruder in her personal space, scanning Sofia top to bottom, not giving more of a reaction. She focused back on her roasting bird.
“Want a seat? There’s another log. But you eat your own food,” she said offhandedly, her eyes burning holes through the almost cooked bird.
She doesn’t have [Identify]? And not a word about the wings or the crow? Sofia wasn’t wearing her armor but she still wasn’t someone you would mistake for a normal person. Not that a normal person would take a stroll through these volcanic mountain jungles anyway.
“Sure…” There’s not much sunlight making it through the leaves, no skeleton invincibility. But Pareth could still probably deal with her. Maybe. She has to be a ranged fighter with all these bows, she’d be at a disadvantage fighting here.
“So you’re the escaped Saintess the King has been pestering me about?” the girl said, slowly rotating her bird above the fire. She was very soft spoken, and she sounded curious more than anything else. Curious and uncomfortable. Sofia stopped midway through sitting down at the question.
So she does know. Ok.
“That’s me,” Sofia acquiesced, plopping down on the log since the Hero didn’t react to her answer.
“Oh. Can’t be helped. Well done on escaping…”
Aside from the fact that she didn't look at Sofia while talking to her, she was quite polite, seemingly only caring about her food.
“Yeah… Thanks,” Sofia took out a large pot of hot soup from the foodlocker in her ring, along with a wooden ladle and two bowls, “Do you want some?”
If the personality she shows isn’t a façade… I might have just found myself a new ally, or at least an interesting source of information.
If it’s a trap then… I’m ready, she thought, caressing with a thumb the red ring containing Pareth.
The Hero looked up, surprised at the proposition. She looked unsure but if Sofia read her movements and expressions right, the smell had convinced her. She nodded.
The girl said thanks as she received the bowl with both hands while the bird was still roasting, the stick now planted in the dirt. They ate in silence after that.
At some point while they ate, Sofia’s crow, out of lifetime, burst into a thin white mist, startling the Hero who almost dropped her food. Sofia apologized, the girl nodded and went back to eating.
They had finished their meal, and the sun was setting, plunging the thicket in a dark but warm atmosphere. The girl opened the conversation again, she was a bit apathetic but she tried her best, “Why did you come back after your trial? They’re looking for you, you know.”
“They?”
“The King, the Church, even the Vampires, from what I heard. I wouldn’t be surprised to find you on the public bounty hitlist. In fact you could already be up there, I haven’t left the jungle for a while now…”
The Vampires too? My face must not be so well known for now, no one recognized me in Mountain Hall. I presume the King wants more Heroes to fight for the kingdom, no luck for him. I wasn't planning on fighting the king and the royal guard, but if I must…
“Are you not going to try to stop me then?” Sofia asked.
“I… Only hunt monsters,” she said, still avoiding looking at Sofia.
“I see, well, thank you for your hospitality, uh…”
“Izuka.”
“Thanks Izuka, I’ll be leaving since you don’t look too comfortable about me being around. If you want to know, I came back to… Do some cleaning.”
The girl made small noises to signify she was paying attention while Sofia spoke, it was a bit strange but also cute in Sofia’s opinion. She looked a bit surprised at the mention of cleaning, but Sofia was convinced she completely understood what she meant.
Sofia was already up and about to leave the thicket when the Hero interrupted her, her extended hands presenting a small wood-carving statuette of a fat raccoon with a straw-hat.
“Wait, Sofia. Take this, I… If you show it to the other Skyreach Heroes they’ll leave you alone.”
So she knew my name too, not too surprising.
“Thank you, I really appreciate it. Is there any place you want me to avoid during my cleaning?”
“Th-... The royal princess is a friend…”
“Noted,” Sofia smiled and winked, though the girl was still not looking directly at her, “Be safe Izuka, it was nice to meet you.”
Sofia’s mana sense was constantly monitoring behind her as she left, but the girl did nothing besides sitting back on her log for as long as Sofia was in range.
That was… Unexpected.
Sofia flew up, examining the wooden statuette.
The skeleton paladins marched out from under the large trees’ canopy. As the sun hit them, their entire body changed from the pure white of bones to a gilded yellow. What followed was a one sided massacre.
The full squad of Skeleton Paladins spread out around the five horse-sized salamanders lazing in the slow lava current. They waltzed right through the melting rock, not taking any damage. When they had all the beasts surrounded, they slowly tightened the encirclement until they launched their assault.
Sofia knew they would have some skills at least, but it looked like they had the full goddamn kit, complete with [Slash of light] and an assortment of the other Paladin spells. However she noticed that their mana didn’t regenerate at all. Still much better than no skills. Also from what she tried, she could give general orders, but nothing too complex, much like Pareth had been at the start. She didn’t worry too much about it. The Skeletons were already quite smart about how they went about things and managed their finite mana pool. They had proper group cohesion, not hindering each other during the fight. This was an actual squad of paladins, not twenty five individual ones in the same place.
The Salamanders wouldn’t go down without a fight, but their attacks had no effect, little by little, the Skeletons whittled them down, until they came bringing the dead beasts back to her.
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 92]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 142]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 133]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 120]’
‘You have defeated [Salamander - lv. 78]’
‘You gained a level!’
The book had very little mist left in it, just to see what would happen, she tried to summon another group of paladin skeletons, but she only grasped air when she reached for the pages. Looking at the skeletons and the dead salamanders, she thought that maybe if she un-summoned the paladins the mist would come back. Which would allow her to summon a new batch. So she ordered for them to disappear. They had a limited lifespan anyway.
The skeletons burst into a thin mist, but it didn’t gather back into the book or anything, merely spreading like real mist. Still, she tried to summon them again, but it was the same. I guess I need to wait for the book to build up the mist again before I can summon more…
Let’s feed the book a bit more. The five salamanders disappeared into the book, and as expected, a new page appeared. Above the drawing of five salamanders was the number ‘15000’.
Oh, I could get used to this really fast… The possibilities are endless!
Now for the real question. Do Gods have skeletons?
Only one way to find out. I have a hundred years to get ready, that’s plenty of time.
Sofia flew above the lava river and explored more on foot. She tried to understand more about the book and how exactly it worked. She caught a few wild animals to conduct tests.
A single crow for 50 mana. A toad for 10. Couldn’t put them both on a single page. Looks like a page is only able to have ‘copies’ of the same skeleton.
After searching for more amphibians, she first tried adding just one, which made its own page. Then she sacrificed two more, creating another page. No modifying a page after it appears, and I can make the same page multiple times. What about fusing the pages. No matter what she tried, be it visualizing the pages fusing or giving an order to the book, she didn’t manage to fuse pages. But erasing the pages worked without trouble, and the pages with toads all disappeared. I’ll keep the crow.
The book had a bit more fog now, it slowly recovered by itself. Sofia tentatively pulled on the paladin squad page again, which didn’t work, but she did manage to summon a level 130 Skeletal Crow. It didn’t seem to know any skill, but could fly like the real thing. Would make a reliable messenger bird. Though only to places it can reach within its lifetime. Now the question is, how far does a crow fly in two hours?
Upon considering the question Sofia was saddened to realize she didn’t really have anyone to write to anymore. The only useful contacts she had were Kuli and Valeure. The former which she didn’t doubt would smash the undead bird to bits, and the other one living on the opposite side of the continent.
I should try to expand my social circle a bit.
The opportunity came faster than she ever imagined. Sofia kept walking through the trees, petting the skeleton crow on her shoulder, when she stumbled upon a campsite in a thicket. It was a nice one person camp with a small tent, a circle of rocks for a fire-pit, stripped logs for sitting and a line between two trees to hang wet clothes.
Someone was sitting near the fire, roasting a bird on a stick above the flames. All kinds of alarm bells rang in Sofia’s mind.
[Hero - Lv. 248]
She was a narrow-eyed ‘teenager’ with long straight black hair tied in a ponytail. She wore a simple short-sleeved black shirt and pants, with heavy reinforced boots, she had a longbow slung across her chest, a shortbow tied to her leather belt, and a strange bow without a string on her lap. And that was it. She looked up at the intruder in her personal space, scanning Sofia top to bottom, not giving more of a reaction. She focused back on her roasting bird.
“Want a seat? There’s another log. But you eat your own food,” she said offhandedly, her eyes burning holes through the almost cooked bird.
She doesn’t have [Identify]? And not a word about the wings or the crow? Sofia wasn’t wearing her armor but she still wasn’t someone you would mistake for a normal person. Not that a normal person would take a stroll through these volcanic mountain jungles anyway.
“Sure…” There’s not much sunlight making it through the leaves, no skeleton invincibility. But Pareth could still probably deal with her. Maybe. She has to be a ranged fighter with all these bows, she’d be at a disadvantage fighting here.
“So you’re the escaped Saintess the King has been pestering me about?” the girl said, slowly rotating her bird above the fire. She was very soft spoken, and she sounded curious more than anything else. Curious and uncomfortable. Sofia stopped midway through sitting down at the question.
So she does know. Ok.
“That’s me,” Sofia acquiesced, plopping down on the log since the Hero didn’t react to her answer.
“Oh. Can’t be helped. Well done on escaping…”
Aside from the fact that she didn't look at Sofia while talking to her, she was quite polite, seemingly only caring about her food.
“Yeah… Thanks,” Sofia took out a large pot of hot soup from the foodlocker in her ring, along with a wooden ladle and two bowls, “Do you want some?”
If the personality she shows isn’t a façade… I might have just found myself a new ally, or at least an interesting source of information.
If it’s a trap then… I’m ready, she thought, caressing with a thumb the red ring containing Pareth.
The Hero looked up, surprised at the proposition. She looked unsure but if Sofia read her movements and expressions right, the smell had convinced her. She nodded.
The girl said thanks as she received the bowl with both hands while the bird was still roasting, the stick now planted in the dirt. They ate in silence after that.
At some point while they ate, Sofia’s crow, out of lifetime, burst into a thin white mist, startling the Hero who almost dropped her food. Sofia apologized, the girl nodded and went back to eating.
They had finished their meal, and the sun was setting, plunging the thicket in a dark but warm atmosphere. The girl opened the conversation again, she was a bit apathetic but she tried her best, “Why did you come back after your trial? They’re looking for you, you know.”
“They?”
“The King, the Church, even the Vampires, from what I heard. I wouldn’t be surprised to find you on the public bounty hitlist. In fact you could already be up there, I haven’t left the jungle for a while now…”
The Vampires too? My face must not be so well known for now, no one recognized me in Mountain Hall. I presume the King wants more Heroes to fight for the kingdom, no luck for him. I wasn't planning on fighting the king and the royal guard, but if I must…
“Are you not going to try to stop me then?” Sofia asked.
“I… Only hunt monsters,” she said, still avoiding looking at Sofia.
“I see, well, thank you for your hospitality, uh…”
“Izuka.”
“Thanks Izuka, I’ll be leaving since you don’t look too comfortable about me being around. If you want to know, I came back to… Do some cleaning.”
The girl made small noises to signify she was paying attention while Sofia spoke, it was a bit strange but also cute in Sofia’s opinion. She looked a bit surprised at the mention of cleaning, but Sofia was convinced she completely understood what she meant.
Sofia was already up and about to leave the thicket when the Hero interrupted her, her extended hands presenting a small wood-carving statuette of a fat raccoon with a straw-hat.
“Wait, Sofia. Take this, I… If you show it to the other Skyreach Heroes they’ll leave you alone.”
So she knew my name too, not too surprising.
“Thank you, I really appreciate it. Is there any place you want me to avoid during my cleaning?”
“Th-... The royal princess is a friend…”
“Noted,” Sofia smiled and winked, though the girl was still not looking directly at her, “Be safe Izuka, it was nice to meet you.”
Sofia’s mana sense was constantly monitoring behind her as she left, but the girl did nothing besides sitting back on her log for as long as Sofia was in range.
That was… Unexpected.
Sofia flew up, examining the wooden statuette.
