Saintess Summons Skeletons

The rest of the dungeoneering was spent in silence, the magisterium maimed zombies and Shaily finished them off with the dagger. The leveling was quite slow, but it was enough to push her to level 30 before they left.

Shaily received a warm meal and a fluffy carpet to decorate her prison room as a reward for her efforts, and she spent her meal time eating in front of the room’s large magically-strengthened windows, just observing the view of the human city below. It was quite similar to both Exidia and Vasperia, yet so different.

I could already escape…

Almost… Just a few details to be dealt with.

First of all, temporarily disenchant these windows with [Dispel mist], teleport through with [Summon self], and have Pareth catch me with the Blessing of the weightless, assuming I’m a ‘wearable’ thing, and that I’m not too heavy…

Shaily looked down, unable to see her feet because of Sofia’s inherently high charisma.

Maybe the church’s strict diet is a blessing in disguise…

Well, I’ll see when I get there. Worst case, there has to be another way down. Maybe through the bottom of the dungeon? Either way, Pareth is still going to take a while to come here, so I’ve got some time on my hands. He’s been making steady progress, and hasn’t been spotted a single time, I think, but going slow is inevitable even with infinite stamina. It might take a while until he makes it here and navigating around the capital will not be as simple… But since I’m used to giving orders to the sprites, this much is easy.

Skeletons and sprites have about the same intelligence when it comes to understanding commands, interestingly enough.

This leaves a few issues. I’m not so worried about the level 200 and some old priests, but the Oracle is dangerous, and the magisterium can teleport me back.

I need to escape on a day when the Oracle is busy or absent, otherwise it’s foolish to even attempt anything. Maybe if I could get access to the library. Hmm…

Then for the magisterium… Finding an anti-teleportation skill or item on short-notice and with no funds can’t be easy, so it’s better to kill him if I can, that’s probably what Sofia did. If I do it around when I’m level 50 it might get me up quite a few levels, too, since people give experience…

Out of curiosity, Shaily called up the murder history window.

[You have no murder history]

Really?

Teacher had a cleaner childhood than I did…

Well, it was an accident…

Trying to change her mind, she then brought up the passive skills panel, which she had looked at at least twenty times in the last hour.

Available Passive Skills :

“It really doesn’t look good. Can I get a good result thrice in a row? That would be pushing my luck, really.”

Sighing, she closed the window and walked back to the cart near the door, to pick up the golden headband which she had been given along with the other things. It was an item that she recognized, as Sofia wore it often.

[Saint’s pride] : A Saint is already above mere mortals. Halves the Saint’s aging speed. Part of a seven-piece set.

Item level : 20. Grade : Legendary

Seriously, they really couldn’t have given her a more useless thing. Halving the aging speed of someone who’s fated to die soon, that’s some really bad taste joke. Then again, everything here is of bad taste, except maybe their clothes. I’ll admit, their priest garbs look a bit nice. Just a bit.

Alright… I’m a bit more familiar with the place now.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Shaily summoned a shadow sprite.

Go, stay in the walls, I’m pretty confident you won’t be found as long you don’t go near the higher floors, just stay on the first two, help me draw a nice map.

Time to put those summoner tactics classes to good use.

Once the sprite was done exploring the Holy-See, Shaily turned herself to a new sort of training. She had drawn a sound-absorbing ritual on the floor with [Summon Blood] and covered it with the carpet once it was dry, then propped up her mattress against a corner of the room. Her bed was pushed to the side so that she could train [Maiden bolt] by shooting from one corner of the room to the other. She would supply the ritual with a few seconds worth of mana then send herself flying into the mattress. That way, she could practice landing on her feet and level up the skill while being unnoticed, and she had a shadow sprite hiding outside to warn her if anyone was coming.

That only worked for a while, as when the skill reached level three, the mattress was already starting to tear from the repeated collisions at high speeds, forcing Shaily to stop.

With the speed being at thirty meters per second, it was almost like a teleportation now. One instant she was in a corner of the room, the next she crashed face-first into the mattress. She did her best to lessen the impact however she could, but that was as far as she could go for now.

It’s a 50% speed increase from level two so that was worth taking… Maybe if I could convince the magisterium to let me go into the dungeon alone…

Or what if I sneak into it? That feels possible, maybe.

Yeah, no… Too dangerous, even if they’re slow there are still zombies over level 100… I should tidy up the room before anyone shows up.

Shaily was busy putting her bed back together when she heard a knocking sound from the windows.

Huh?

She turned around, finding a man dressed in all black casually standing in the air right outside the window. [Hero - Lv. 243]

The man then teleported inside without a sound.

“Hey there, I’m Michael, but everyone calls me Mike; you the new saint?” he greeted Shaily in a friendly tone.

“I am, sadly. Sofia,” she introduced herself with an extended hand, “Are you with the church?”

“Oh, no, not at all, I’m not even from this country,” he denied, shaking her hand, “It’s just my job to keep track of what’s happening here, including stuff like this.”

“Are you some kind of spy? How did you teleport through the space magic ward?” Shaily asked, knowing full well that teleportation through the windows and even the walls should be impossible.

“You know about that? Damn, must be the most educated Saintess these guys ever got. Let’s just say that my Hero’s blessing allows me to do some neat things like that.”

“Interesting… Say, you wouldn’t happen to want to rescue me out of here, perhaps? I can give you this in exchange,” Shaily offered, pointing at the golden headband on the cart.

“And risk worsening the war? Sorry but you’re on your own, maybe if you make it out somehow you can seek asylum in our Empire, but that’s if you manage not to get teleported back before then.”

“Your Empire?”

“Red Winds, it’s just about two hundred kilometers east from here, never heard of it?”

“Oh, of course I did, I just didn’t, you know, make the connection. Who should I look for when I’m out?”

Michael seemed to think for a second, “You’re quite enthusiastic. Well… Your best bet is the adventurer’s guild where I work . That or Sleep’s temple, if you hold onto that item, they’ll bargain for it, no doubt.“

“Alright, understood, thank you, Michael. Any more advice for a Saintess on Death row?”

“Well… Let me think… If you’re serious about escaping… The Oracle leaves the Holy-See for the grand mass on the twenty-third of every month, just like right now, and comes back after a few days when he’s done visiting all the temples, so that would be a good timing. There is usually only one High-priest here at a time and they are always pretty busy so if you don’t make a big ruckus when you leave and you time things right, you really only have the old paladin to worry about,” Michael explained, trying to piece together useful informations to plan an escape.

“Still a big hurdle…”

“I could end him in one strike, but yes, for you it’s another story… From what I know, he’s had to spread himself a bit thin, warrior spells, paladin spells, cleric spells, his class is a bit of a mishmash, so he’s not especially good at anything. I bet with good planning you could drown him or poison him, something like that.”

“You say poison as if I had a way to get that right now,” Shaily commented with a raised brow.

“Hey, I’m just giving options, I know poison is what I’d do, at least. Can’t be too hard to find something… Anything can be poison if you look hard enough, it’s got to be fast-acting, though, or the priests will just bring him back from the brink… Still, the man can kill you with a single slap, so be careful, alright? Oh, speaking of, someone’s coming. Was a pleasure to meet you, Saintess. Take care,” he finished, his body disappearing in a thin cloud of gray smoke.

Shaily bowed to the disappearing man, “The pleasure’s all mine. I’ll be sure to repay this debt if I make it out.”

The smirking face of the disappearing hero vanished last, just as Shaily started to hear the footsteps of someone approaching the door.

A lucky encounter. I get how teacher Sofia managed to avoid getting caught by the Oracle now… That still leaves the magisterium…