Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Death game?” Sofia repeated, not very enthusiastic at the idea, “One of us has to die here? I would rather not participate, then.”

“No, I mean, yes, it’s, uh…” Velania said, flustered by Sofia’s sudden tone change, she took a step back, clumsily stumbling back onto the couch, “D- don’t you have ways to avoid death? I- I can revive you myself if you lose, but you will be stuck like Romuald…”

“Oh… I see, resurrection works? I can do that, yes. Can you also revive yourself?”

Velania nodded, “My mana just… Re-summons me?” she explained, sounding like she didn’t know herself.

“Alright then. I will participate if it is like that, but before that, I notice you just said mana? Since you’ve been here for so long wouldn’t you call it lifeforce or something like that?” Sofia asked.

Velania seemed happy that Sofia wanted to keep going for the divine item after all, but she seemed a bit distraught by Sofia’s new question, she scratched her scarred arm a bit, taking a while to answer.

“D- do you have the system too?” she finally asked.

“Everyone has it,” Sofia answered with a shrug.

“Oh… Just like Romuald said…” Velania commented, fiddling with her hair, “It… It was about two hundred years back, I think? It just appeared out of nowhere, magical transparent blue windows and white lines of text, Romuald got it too. It said the ascended had all accepted to start using the system, that it would help us get stronger and teach us more spells, as well as give us a scribble. I don’t really remember all the details…”

“Scribes are like a magically enhanced part of your brain, the system uses that as a link to teach you the spells and basically everything else,” Sofia explained, “Am I right to guess that you have not been using it much?”

Velania stopped fiddling with her hair and frowned, “Not really… I don’t like it… It calls me mean things.”

“Wait… Really? Can you show me? Just think about showing me your status and I should be able to see it, just like this,” Sofia explained, showing Velania basically her full status page, just censoring her last name.

“Scribbles can do that?” Velania said, surprised. She looked through Sofia’s status, a look of complete non-understanding on her face, and she looked up at Sofia when she was done. “You don’t have Auntie’s apostle spells?” Velania asked, tensing up visibly.

“I do, they’re just not shown there. Now that you say it, they probably should be.”

Velania seemed genuinely relieved by that answer, “Good… Then… I can show you mine too… I-”

She stopped mid sentence, her mouth agape.

She blinked a few times, looking utterly lost.

“Say, Sofia…” she started, taking a short pause, “W- what year is it… Outside?”

Oh… Yeah I should have thought about that. She must have seen her age…

“About that… I wanted to bring it up but… It’s been a bit more than three thousand years since the system was created, that is what we use as the calendar year now…”

“R- Right… I- Sorry… You can look at mine if you want, does that work? I need a moment to…” Velania said, her voice becoming weaker until it was almost inaudible.

Oh, much shorter than I expected.

Name : Velania Ibristina

Age :16463

Class : [Corruptor] ♢

Level : 449

Mana : 553 394 415 / 553 398 455

Main Specialization (Systemless): [Aura body]

Signature Skill (Systemless)

[Pure mana heart]

Mana Heart Abilities (1)

[Ancient human sky tier scroll: Overflowing aura]

Active Skills (4)

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[Telekinesis]

[Invoked world]

[Corruption]

[Desecrate]

Passive Skills (4)

[Brand of Sorrow]

[Immutable Corruptor body]

[Destroyer]

[Meridian cleansing]

Classless Skills (5/5)

[Cooking] - Level 100

[Frail-minded] - Level 100

[Menial Chores] - Level 100

[Singing] - Level 100

[Architect] - Level 100

Corruptor? No Health nor any stamina? A Destroyer passive skill? [Menial Chores] without stamina? A classless named [Frail-minded]?

Just what… I don’t have permission to see the skill descriptions but Mr.Scribe should be able to find the classless at least, can you look up [Frail-Minded]?

A few seconds later Mr.Scribe answered her query.

[Frail-Minded]: You take 10.4 (10 + 0.4*Skill level)% less damage while unconscious.

And she has it at level 100?!

Sofia looked up from the description only to see that Velania had fainted again on the couch.

“In hindsight, not that surprising…”

I wonder how that stacks with [Sanctity]. Probably multiplicative like everything else, but if it was additive… All saints could be immortal while sleeping, I guess. It’s quite a strong skill, in a way. I wouldn’t be that surprised if someone had a class built entirely around fighting while unconscious. That’s probably a thing, right? Maybe some kind of summoner as well?

Sofia stood up to fix Velania’s posture on the couch, covering her with the blanket, then sat back down and ate another cookie, she just had to wait for Velania to wake up by herself, until then she was alone with her thoughts.

Sixteen thousand years old…

She probably didn’t even realize herself. What an absurd number.

Does that make her the oldest non-god person I’ve met, I wonder? She’s older than Grandma Erredis, and Beligenus should be the same generation, but I don’t know about Phillip and Richard… And all the Seraphs.

“She took half an hour to wake up last time…”

I’m curious about the mana pulses coming from upstairs every few seconds but it would be impolite to explore the house without permission…

Sofia drew a small bone tablet out of her armor and cut it off, writing a message for Velania on it, ‘I’m out walking around your garden, take all the time you need.’ She placed it against the teapot right in front of Velania where it was impossible to miss, and quietly stepped out.

She was almost blinded by the giant lightstone as she stepped out, she could feel the wind and hear the birds singing, unconscious or not, Velania’s magic felt just as real.

“Seriously, this is quite something. I wonder…” Sofia bent over and picked up a green blade of grass. She observed it, finding nothing wrong with it, it did not seem in the least bit magical. It felt and smelled like grass, crushing it between her fingers released the faintest quantity of sticky green sap.

Huh? I think I felt the mana rearrange a bit when I crushed it. So it’s really all fake?

There was a quick way to find out, Sofia ate what remained of the grass blade, it dissolved into mana in her throat, and tasted like charcoal, as opposed to the warm dirt cookie from earlier.

Why is the taste so wrong when everything else is perfect?

Sofia walked away from the house, wanting to explore the lakeside. If she had to find one giveaway that this place was actually all a product of Velania’s imagination, there was one thing that stood out upon close investigation; there were no insects. Sofia could hear them, but when she tried to locate the source of the sound, it unnaturally shifted around, or completely disappeared.

They sound a bit like the summer leaf-shaped insects we had in Sovuln…

Sofia’s stroll took her to a remote corner of the indoor forest, where she found stone fences. Letting her curiosity win, she checked out the structure, and immediately regretted doing so.

This was a cemetery. It was pretty empty, with only four tombs and two gravestones.

The two gravestones bore familiar names, ‘Big Brother Vakarian’ and ‘Cousin Ackenohh’.

Cousin Ackenohh… If she calls Sorrow auntie, that would make me, as Sorrow’s daughter, Velania’s cousin. So I assume Ackenohh was the previous Apostle before Ihuarah. And Vakarian, well… What I fought was only an echo alright.

Sofia could feel bones buried beneath the dirt, likely genuine, only one skeleton, that of Vakarian himself.

It’s tempting but I’m not going to be that kind of necromancer.

She wouldn’t have the heart to dig up the remains of someone Velania considered a brother, let alone after the gut punch the names on the four other empty graves inflicted on her. These did not need any explanation.

“Vatebian Ibristina. Erikka Ibristina. Olson Ibristina. Lily Ibristina…”

Sofia couldn’t help but envision herself in front of a grave bearing Saria’s name. She suddenly felt a bit sick.

I think I still have a few bone flowers from when I was training to make them.

After leaving a flower on each grave, Sofia returned to the lake. She completely deactivated her armor, leaving the dragon-scale armguard in the grass next to her, and sat on the border of the lake, her feet in the water. The water was a bit cold, but the radiant light from the lightstone up above felt just like real warm sunlight on her skin.

What if I was in her place?

I might just lock myself up in a ‘fake’ world too…

Sofia closed her eyes and lost herself in her thoughts.

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