Saintess Summons Skeletons

Sofia and her skeletons stood in a ‘clearing’ surrounded by bone trees, this was their attempt to create a somewhat decent living environment for the dryad. Despite the black void above them, the atmosphere felt calm in Zangdar, especially because ever since Sofia had unlocked the [Sixth melody], they were constantly listening to ‘A Graceful dream of Spring’, and not getting tired of it.

“Alright, here comes the seed,” Sofia said as she brought out the marge wooden ball big like an ogre and as heavy as one. “The dryad should be already formed in there, we just need to wake it up.”

“Will it be friendly?” Bookie asked, looking up at the big seed.

“Well, according to Jen, as long as it is fed my mana to wake up, it should recognize me as its family, so we probably won’t get attacked outright like in the dungeon with Astelia… It is still a violent and dangerous magical creature, though. One of the more special ones, at that, as Dryads can produce their own mana unlike most monsters and animals,” Sofia explained, recounting both information she got from Jen and things she had found out through her reading binge before leaving the academy.

“Most monsters don’t?!” Bookie asked back, shocked by the discovery of this common knowledge fact.

“Bookie… You’ve never noticed despite all the hunting we do?”

“Sorry…”

“You don’t have to apologize, I’m just surprised that you did not know. Bookie is so smart I forget that you’re only a few years old sometimes. Well, now you know, just ask when there are things you don’t understand, alright?”

“Yes!”

“Good skeleton. Now, let’s get this dryad business started. It should be born at level 249 like the ones from the dungeon, so even if it attacks we will be fine, but still, stay a bit further away, just in case,” Sofia told Pareth and Bookie as she walked up in the air to kneel just above the seed.

And now, just a trickle of summoned blood. It would be best to do it with my own blood supposedly but that’s no longer a possibility. The summoned blood still has my mana so…

Sofia summoned some blood in her upturned palm and let it overflow, trickling down between her fingers and splashing on top of the big wooden ball. The blood was absorbed by the wood, and almost immediately, Sofia started to feel some mana movements inside.

It’s working!

She let the steady flow of blood water the seed for a whole three minutes before the seed started to crack.

“It’s coming out!”

Sofia jumped back, landing near her skeletons. She watched as the seed cracked all over like an egg about to hatch. Instead of bursting open, the wood spliced and warped, layers peeling off like the petals of a giant flower. After most of the layers were gone, only a large wooden bud was left in the middle of the crackly wooden flower, and it too slowly opened up, red blood flowing from between its petals.

The dryad was there, rolled up in the fetal position, and it looked different from the ones Sofia had fought in the dungeon.

Everyone silently observed the dryad waking up for the first time. The wood creature stretched and sat up on the bloody wooden flower, it looked around and made high pitched sounds that Sofia couldn’t understand.

“It kind of looks like you,” Bookie commented, looking up at Sofia.

“I see what you mean. It even got horns… My mana changed its appearance, I guess?”

“I don’t know but it definitely looks like a woman!” Bookie continued.

And he was right, the dryad looked to be about two heads shorter than Sofia, and had a body entirely made of dark-red wood with very few defined features, as expected, but its overall body shape was just that of a woman. Or, to be exact, a Lumian woman, since it had wooden horns copying the horns of light. This was a vast contrast with the dryads from the dungeons which were best described as rough and jagged stick-figures, when this one was all smooth and curvy.

Still lacking some key features, though, no hands, no feet, it does have a discernible ‘head’… But no face.

In terms of mana… Maybe twenty thousand? She is definitely producing more, even if it’s just a trickle.

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Sofia took a few steps forward, observing the reaction of the dryad. It was hard to tell what the creature was thinking, especially since its cries made absolutely no sense to a Lumian ear, but its mana was flowing calmly and it was not moving from its flower, so it stood to reason that it might not feel too threatened or unsafe.

Finally, Sofia stepped onto the wooden flower. The creature threw itself at her. Sofia could have stopped it, but realistically the dryad could not harm her much, so she decided to let things play out. The dryad jumped at Sofia… And latched onto her like a toddler hugging their mother’s leg, its wooden limbs curving around Sofia’s neck and waist.

Oh.

Sofia turned around, with the dryad holding onto her, “Well. I think she likes me.”

Pareth dispelled his sword, and Bookie… Bookie looked jealous, as far as Sofia could tell.

“Want a hug too, Bookie?” Sofia asked while she hesitantly caressed the dryad’s back with her left hand. The dryad’s wooden skin was smooth and glossy, hard like regular wood, and surprisingly hot to the touch.

“I… I can wait,” Bookie shily answered, “What should we call her?”

Sofia stepped down from the flower and walked up to Pareth and Bookie, the dryad seemed not to want to let go.

“Good question… What about… Remia? Like that lost Goddess of music and art? She was born while listening to that music, after all.”

Pareth approved with a thumbs up, and Bookie copied him with a slight delay after glancing in his direction.

“Remia it is! You might not be able to understand what we’re saying, but welcome to the family,” Sofia told the hug-starved dryad while patting her back. “It would be nice if you could let go of me, though…”

Of course the dryad did not understand a single word they said, and she continued to make incomprehensible high-pitched noises every so often while not letting go of Sofia at all.

At least she’s not hostile like her siblings from the dungeon…

While Sofia was contemplating on what to do, an unexpected system window opened up.

[You have triggered a hidden quest!]

[Quest: Raise Remia to the scribe-earning threshold

A low intelligence creature capable of producing mana has recognized you as their parent.

They may earn the right to have a scribe by reaching certain criteria.

Requirements:

Now way, Mr.Scribe, really?! There was something like that?!

This explains so much!

The academy’s goblin professor! The Veik royals! So this is how it works…

Wait… The Veik did not produce mana, did they? They must be a special case.

I wonder now, can this naturally occur? Most of these things should happen by themselves if someone has the brain capacity for it, so… All it really takes for most of the mana-producing monsters to become a part of the system is being smart and curious enough to try to learn one non-monster language?

Oh, I think she fell asleep…

Making a bed out of bone and a thick carpet from her storage, Sofia had to teleport out of the dryad’s embrace because she was afraid of hurting her if she pried the wooden limbs away from her.

“This used to be a guest bedroom I think. That will be Remia’s room now. She can be the first citizen of our hidden city, that sounds good doesn’t it?”

Bookie tilted his skull, “Aren’t you just opening an orphanage, Sofia?”

“Hey you don’t have to say it out loud… But it’s pretty much what it is. Isn’t it better if we have people waiting for us here and taking care of the place while we’re away? Alith and Pareth are both on board with the idea.”

“But if we bring Orphans here, who will take care of them while we are away?” Bookie asked.

Sofia smiled at the innocent question, a pile of books appeared on the room’s floor between Sofia and Bookie.

‘Higher golemancy’

‘Necromancy rituals of the red coast’

‘On engraving golem cores’

‘Personality imbuing’

‘The rise and fall of Elven automatons’

…

“You have been hanging out with Pareth in my storage ring a lot so you should have seen these. I had Asty help me gather those, I just never had the time to do anything with them. But now that we’re stuck here?”

“IS IT TIME?!” Bookie shouted in excitement.

Sofia glanced at the dryad, but it seemed unperturbed in its sleep despite Bookie’s sudden outburst.

“It is time,” Sofia confirmed with a wicked smirk, “Golem skeletons!”