Saintess Summons Skeletons

“I see it!” Astelia told the others. She pointed up and everyone looked in that direction. It took a few seconds for Sofia to find it as well.

“I see it too. Cerberus-beta… Looks just like what Kyle showed us. You see it Michael?”

“My eyes must not be as good as yours, not seeing it. Or maybe I’m just not looking in the right spot.”

The planet and its three small moons grew closer and closer until the shuttle aligned itself with it and they could no longer see it. The walls became opaque once again, and a feminine voice coming from the walls gave instructions to the group.

“Dear trial takers, please sit down and prepare for arrival to IPS pad 3, I wish you good luck.”

Everyone sat back down into their own seats and as the shuttle was starting to vibrate and rumble, new system messages appeared to them.

[Trial task : Upgrade your mana heart to B tier or above and bring it to the planet’s core]

[Additional rewards task : α ]

What? Is that a weird looking a?

Pareth seemed just as lost. Suddenly, with a thunk, the rumbling and vibrating all stopped and the seats opened back up.

“That’s it?” Michael asked, standing up, “I guess we landed?”

Sofia looked around. “The door still looks locked.”

“We’re no longer moving,” Astelia told them.

“We must really have landed then. Right, before I go, do you girl know what the sign for the additional task is about?” Michael asked.

Astelia and Sofia both shook their head.

“Well, I can tell you what I know, but if I do then you must agree to tell me if you find what to do with it and we meet each other on the planet again, are you okay with that?”

“Okay? Another hero word thing?”

“Right… Are you fine with that is what I meant, sorry.”

“Sure… Asty?”

“Same.”

“Nice, then here’s what I know, this weird letter is the symbol for Alpha. I can’t explain how that works but Alpha and Beta are like alternate symbols for letters, with Alpha for A meaning one or first or primary and Beta for B meaning two or secondary. And since the name of the planet is Cerberus-Beta, this makes me think there could be a Cerberus-Alpha, or something in that vein. That’s all I got.”

“Another planet?” Sofia said, “I see, how does that sound?” Sofia asked Astelia.

“Well, I don’t know about another planet, but he’s not lying. Hasn’t lied since the beginning, so it’s definitely something to keep in mind. We can trust him, I think.”

“You could tell if I’m lying or not just like that? Good that I always go with open honesty then ahah. So, you will help me if you find something with that information, right?”

“Yeah,” Sofia agreed, “That is, if we do ever meet up on the planet or around it. Chances are we won’t, a planet is big.”

“Sure thing, but you never know. Worst case, I’m making friends for later, heh, trial ain’t what life’s all about. Door just unlocked, by the way, I can tell, I should be able to teleport outside already. I’ll be going, then, see ya.”

Just like that, the hero was gone from the shuttle.

“Not wasting a second, huh. I’m going to be staying in the shuttle for a bit longer, I need to figure out how to protect my mana heart, what about you?” Sofia asked Astelia.

“I will be leaving carefully. Do we meet here if there is a big issue?”

Sofia nodded, ”The tangled rings from Nyse should work, if they break it’ll be our signal to try to meet back here, or at least to leave a message here.”

“This could go wrong in many ways. Let’s just hope we never have to break them.”

“True that. Well, I won’t slow you down, then, good luck, Asty, take care out there.”

“Will do,” Astelia answered as she walked to the door of the shuttle, it opened by itself, letting in blue light from outside and a strong metallic smell, “Be careful too, Sofia.”

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The shuttle door closed back behind Astelia, leaving Pareth and Sofia alone in the IPS.

There we are. Third trial. Do you feel ready?

Pareth nodded confidently, his armor of light flaring up around his massive body.

Well, don’t get so worked up. One thing at a time. Let’s prepare.

“First of all, let’s switch the bone blessings around. I keep the one on my bones, but I think the one you have should go to a shield for me instead. You hardly need it anymore but I could use more protection since I’m not allowed to lose life.”

Again, Pareth nodded.

I still have that small mithril shield. Let’s use it as a base…

Sofia brought out the mithril kite shield she had kept stored in her ring since before the Sun quest and never used. She wrapped it in bone, making it taller and larger until she could comfortably hide her entire body behind it, after which she blessed the bone part of it with [Bone dominus].

Slightly unwieldy but this should keep me a lot safer. Right arm for the staff, left arm the shield. Armor covering the entire body. I’m also using all the saint set pieces and Victory’s crown… Title is on ‘the glorious’ for now but if I change it will be a day until I can swap again… Let’s wait on that for now.

Sofia summoned the book of skeletons.

“You have permission to come out whenever if that feels needed, Bookie, rest of the time… Can you get me Crowie and resummon him whenever he expires? We can really use an extra pair of eyes.”

An ethereal golden page appeared in front of Sofia for her to rip, and after she repeated a motion she had done a thousand times, the page turned to fog and then to her favorite skeleton crow, who happily jumped onto her shoulder.

“Good job. Stay alert Bookie, might need you anytime.”

The book’s pages fluttered, and it disappeared, ready for Sofia to call it again.

Last question is, what do we do with the mana hearts?

There, Pareth seemed to have a suggestion, he pointed at his pelvis, the thickest single bone of his body, very well protected behind several layers of armor-looking bone plating.

Sofia had to ponder on the question.

“I don’t know. On one hand, hiding them in there, this might actually be the best protection we can give them unless I use one of the blessings to make a casing for them, but on the other hand, you’re going to be fighting on the frontline while I hang back, so they would be safer with me.”

Pareth stroked his chin, considering Sofia’s point of view, until he seemed to change his mind, and pointed at Sofia’s arm.

“What? The Dragon-scale armor? Do you think I didn't consider it? There’s no space to put them inside of th- … Wait… Do you think this is why Erredis said she needed to tinker with it and wouldn’t tell me what for?!”

Sofia hurriedly took her arm out of the dragon scale and gave it a better look.

“No way! Is this what these new notches near the armpit are for?! I thought this was to allow the bone armor to fuse with it better…”

After putting the armor back on, it felt obvious now, these were indeed a sneaky change Erredis had added to give Sofia a safe place to store hers and Pareth’s mana hearts. The small rocks fit right inside of there, just under her armpit, and when she activated the bone armor, they were snuggly locked inside of the Dragon-scale arm.

This is that taken care of, then. Let’s get started?

I need to complete the additional task as soon as possible. One year…

Saria, Alith, Cinthia and Ihuarah are also on this planet somewhere right now. As well as potentially four more people, one who came with the girls and three with Ihuarah. I’m not too worried about Michael trying anything funny, but these four unknown people… I’ll have to be careful.

Well, let’s get it.

Sofia and Pareth walked up to the shuttle’s large door, which opened for them.

“This looks just like the tower.”

Stepping out of the shuttle confirmed that observation, the IPS was at the very bottom of a deep cylindrical pit, just like the tower it had launched from.

Sofia looked at Pareth, “Get inside, I’ll fly us up.”

The ground level of the tower was similar as well, but the safe-house in the walls was missing. No free food here. Exit should be around there?

Walking straight through what looked like a solid wall, Sofia and Pareth finally made it outside. The sky was a weird tint of blue-ish green and tall blue pine-like trees grew all around the tower. The air was hot and moist.

Immediately, Sofia saw monsters, everywhere. Large flying birds in the horizon, tall creatures with their heads showing up over the treetops, slime-like things crawling around one the metallic ground surrounding the tower, everywhere she looked, there were unheard-of creatures. Some of the slime-like things nearby noticed her presence and started crawling in her direction, immediately bursting up in green flames and dying almost instantly.

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 89]’

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 93]’

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 57]’

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 88]’

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 89]’

‘You have defeated [Rustlicker - lv. 84]’

I might need to quickly change title before this attacks something I can’t afford to fight…

Remembering Kyle’s last advice, Sofia identified one of the further Rustlicker which hadn’t entered her title’s range yet.

[Rustlicker - Lv. ??? - Imprint power : 0 - Effect : none]

Very interesting. Monsters can indeed be identified for the trial, and it gives information on the imprint in advance. I see how this trial is going to work.

Let’s change to [Cheater] for now, the sooner I do, the sooner I can change again. Let’s see what this adds.

[Title changed to ‘Cheater’]

[Title change function is locked for the next 24 hours]

And now…

[Rustlicker - Lv. 72 - Imprint power : 0 - Effect : none]

‘A brainless and mostly harmless creature, can be used to detect near-surface iron deposits’

I even got a description. You spoil me, Mr Scribe. Cheating indeed.

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