Saintess Summons Skeletons

The lift slowly brought the group to the higher floors of the tower, and Sofia decided to just say what she wanted to.

“I thought it was harder for the Recessed to come to the physical plane.”

“Much harder,” Ridoni said with a laugh after a few seconds of silence, “but not impossible.”

“So it’s really you?!” Cinthia blurted out.

Ridoni laughed again, and the lift reached its destination on the last floor of the tower. The dwarf stepped out, “I best not overstep my boundaries too much, lest a certain hothead from a lasting grudge,” he explained without looking back while he led Sofia and Cinthia to the door to his office.

Does he mean Hatred? Yeah…

“However, it is nice to meet you in person, miss streamer,” Ridoni finished as he opened the door and invited them in with a smile.

“I-... I imagined you differently,” Cinthia said, sounding embarrassed, “It’s nice to meet you too, thank you for all the donations.”

“This is but one of my many forms,” Ridoni explained as he made his way to his desk, “but it is certainly the one which I use most often. The dwarves are very serious about money and that resonates with me in a way that is hard to explain.”

“Just a god thing, right? After seeing the other ones I can imagine. Do the other people working here know about your divine identity?” Sofia asked, curious, considering that even the office was labeled ‘Bank manager Ridoni’.

“Just a god thing is one way to say it,” Taxes confirmed, “the sun is bright and hot, you see what I am getting at?”

“Gods are shaped by their concepts,” Cinthia approved, she was interacting with them often enough to know.

“Whether we want it or not, annoyingly enough. Some fight it, some embrace it, I don’t really care either way. And no, daughter of Sorrow, most of my employees do not know. I would rather not make things awkward for them. I like that they like me as Ridoni the dwarf, and not as what I was born as.”

“Cryb- ah, I mean, Sorrow should be quite strong too,” CInthia started, “shouldn’t she be able to come to the physical plane too?”

Ridoni fiddled with a pen from his desk while he answered, “being able to and it being wise to are different things. Now that she has a proper daughter, for the most part, at least, she should be able to come.”

“For the most part?” Sofia repeated, slightly offended.

Ridoni just ignored her interruption and continued, “however, for those of us unlucky enough to be birthed from direct emotions, such as Hatred or Sorrow, things are slightly more complex as their simple presence near people’s souls is enough to strongly influence them.”

“I see… Also, sorry to ask so many questions,” Cinthia apologized, “but do you know why the chat is completely silent right now?”

“Simply a sign of respect that the others not interrupt our conversation,” the dwarf in a suit answered, looking at Sofia.

“What? You expected me not to interrupt when you’re saying I’m not a proper daughter? I thought a god of taxes ought to be more careful with their words,” Sofia struck back with a calm voice.

“Well, at least you take your position seriously,” Ridoni noted, “but it remains that you are not a proper ‘apostle’ quite yet. You still draw on Sorrow’s energy when you transform, more akin to an infant yet to be birthed than a daughter. None of that is your fault, mind you, it is simply how things turned out. Reach level 300 and you will be a true legitimate apostle of Sorrow.”

“That’s true…” Sofia conceded, “I just didn’t like how you said it. But I understand.”

“Right, what about the trade?” Cinthia asked in an attempt to defuse the tension.

“A hundred and forty five thousand three hundred and twenty two gold coins, thirty three silver and three copper,” Taxes announced without more explanation, writing the number on a small sheet of paper.

“That much?!” Cinthia asked in shock, turning to Sofia.

“Hmm… About three hundred thousand… Sounds about right…” Sofia mumbled.

“WHAT?!” Cinthia exclaimed.

“Yeah, I mean, I don’t have that much in gold, maybe a hundred thousand, but I do have plenty of Orichalcum and Mithril, like… A lot.”

“W- Where? How?!”

“Well… I’ve been selling blood to Vasperia quite often, then there is also Alith’s pill business, and just generally, I tend to grab anything valuable I can find to sell later, and then I spend almost nothing, just trading gold for mithril ingots because they take up less space… So wealth kind of just accumulated in my storage ring…” Sofia explained, “I should count myself lucky that equipment isn’t counted, would the price have been a lot higher if the mithrium ring counted?” she asked Taxes.

“Considerably higher, yes. Mithrium is not cheap, your staff and gauntlet would have also blown up the prices, did they count, not to mention the crown and dagger you are wearing, which can by all means be considered priceless treasures,” Taxes explained, “So, are you going to pay?” he asked with narrowed eyes, stroking his red beard.

“I am, I’ll trust that you are not scamming me, that being said, how can you tell how much the currency and materials I own are worth? You should not be able to see inside my ring. And also, did you not count the bones?”

Taxes laughed, “Bones would hardly be considered a valuable material by most. Although your current ones have most impressive qualities, I daresay there is no market price for them, so I obviously would not count them. As for your storage ring, I cannot see into it, as Taxes, I simply know your worth, you need not search further than that.”

“Three hundred thousand gold…” Cinthia mumbled, still in shock.

“Fair… Well, do you have a storage item you want me to put the stuff into? I’ll be paying a large part in gold coins, and I don’t want to make a mess of your office.”

[Venerable physique of the primeval void] ♢ - Peak of the Light forging realm :

Gather divine essence (30) to unlock the Boundless space realm.

Current divine essence (19) :

Scripture (1)

Aphenoreth (1)

Dread (1)

Sorrow (1)

Ormoncleth (1)

Victory (1)

Sun (5)

Creation (2)

Life (1)

Death (3)

Rejection (1)

Taxes (1)

Almost two thirds of the way there.

Sofia closed the system window and walked out of Remia’s room. She was back in Zangdar after returning from the Dwarven isles. Saria had already found one of the missing rings in the wilderness east of the beastmen continent, and after leaving it with Zerei for safekeeping, she had resumed her search before Sofia could even come back.

The dryad was still sleeping soundly, despite Alith making sure she had frequent exposure to sunlight, it seemed that it was still not quite enough. The situation was perplexing, but in both Alith and the plant hero’s opinions, Remia was actually slowly getting better, so Sofia decided to just trust them.

Alith had taken over the higher floors of the castle, previously Zhǎng Lú’s laboratories, and turned them into one large alchemical lab and indoors garden where she was growing a variety of mushrooms and other underground plants that did not need sunlight. She was still working on trying to figure out the formula for the four large stat pills Sofia had given her during the trial, these ones proved to be much harder to recreate than the two previous tiers.

Meanwhile, Ihuarah had apparently been busy working on their collective level debt, hunting and clearing dungeons with Everelle.

Sofia entered her own room, which was still quite barren of decorations, and plopped down on her bone bed.

“I barely sleep anymore… What a waste of silk bed sheets,” she said for herself as she carefully rolled around in the soft sheets, being careful not to tear anything with her horns.

After a while she sat up on her bed.

Sofia brought out the leveling methods book she had received from Kyle after getting kicked out of the leveling system. Reading through the introduction again.

Aura resonance (Natural ability of the strong races).

Warpath Scriptures (Training through repeated half-deaths and suffering).

Evolving technique of the Old Lord (Mana reforging).

Eddarinian dark arts (Soul grafting).

The ancient human method (Mana circulation).

Now that I know about the Eddarinians, I’m not so sure I want to try whatever they were doing. I have to give it to them that it allowed the Fae’s soul to survive for very long after its physical death, though.

Kyle said ancient human is too slow.

By elimination what the system actually uses is probably mana reforging…

But knowing myself… Mr Scribe is probably working on the Warpath Scriptures.

“It still feels kind of bad that I left them with my level debt… Now Alith and Ihuarah are still linked but not with me. Pareth is still leveling with me though, or stuck with me, to be exact… Mr Scribe, didn’t you say your plan for leveling was almost ready?” she asked, closing the book.

Sofia felt her strength leave her as the scribe was taking over her mana to be able to talk, which he basically never did anymore unless she asked him to.

[I am working on the final details, but the main plan is mostly complete. Do you want to hear more now or wait until I’m fully done?]

“You’ve been keeping me in the dark for a while, I’m getting really curious. Are you even going to use one of the techniques from the book?”

[One technique?]

“Two? Are you trying to mix two of them together? Is that what’s taking so long?”

[Two?]

“What, three?!”

[No.]

[All of them. :)]