Saintess Summons Skeletons

“Hmmm? Is someone thinking about me?”

Cecless looked up, as if trying to peer through the Margin’s pure black void that reigned over the maze’s walls like an oppressive ceiling.

“NAAaaaah… This old maze never ends…!”

Pulling out a piece of parchment paper, she scribbled a few barely-visible lines at the very top of what looked like a perfectly black square.

“It’s going to take another eight hundred years at this rate! Too evil! The people from the dark epoch were too evil!!!”

As she stored her map back, the cold steel walls of the maze started shaking.

“Ah. I made too much noise again.”

Blaring alarm sirens loudly echoed through the maze, and In the three paths that surrounded the intersection Cecless was in, mechanical beings emerged from within the walls. They were tall machines that vaguely resembled a large human upper body, made of half gold and half unrecognizable metallic alloys. Mechanical guts, weird looking parts, and loose wires dangled from the bottom of their chest. Hidden within them were tiny black spheres that seemed to contain boundless, raging energy. The three creatures crawled on the walls, throwing themselves at the tiny dragon standing calmly under a pile of white rags.

Multiple invisible attacks hit the dragon before the creatures reached her, but all were absorbed by the layers of cloth, like water thrown at a sponge.

Finally, after what had actually only been a fraction of a second, the emerged monsters reached her. Almost. As their extended mechanical arms entered the dragon’s close vicinity, their fingertips fell, turned to white dust, and their entire existence followed. Even the energy cores were silently consumed.

Cecless looked at the three piles of white dust surrounding her with a sigh.

The alarms stopped blaring as abruptly as they had started, and the maze’s shaking ceased.

‘You have defeated [???????? - lv. 499EX++]*3’

Crouching down, the dragon’s delicate white-gloved fingers drew a spiral in the sand.

“Not even sending the big guys anymore since last year… How boring.”

Feeling a light pang of hunger, the dragon sprung back up. “I could use a snack.”

Fingers fumbling in the air, Cecless grabbed on empty nothing and pulled out a chitinous blue claw as tall as herself, looking inside.

“I’m all out again?!”

The claw turned into a fourth pile of white dust.

“That’s enough for today. I’ll go grab more snacks.”

Cecless slapped her hands together a few times to get rid of the dust, carved a mind-breakingly intricate ritual circle on the ground beneath her feet with a single glance, and jumped up. Just as her sight was about to go over the top of the walls, she was pulled out of the Margin. She appeared in a pleasantly warm full-body bath that completely whiteout her vision. No matter where she entered the annoying maze from, this was always where she ended up when she left, not even teleporting to another place in the Margin worked to escape the mandatory ‘bath’.

Mmmm… Maybe my two new cute juniors could come explore with me? Nexxy is always so busy…

With a lot on her mind, Cecless took her time to leisurely swim out of the sun.

Ducking under a sword swing, Shaily’s palm struck the cuisse of an armored skeleton.

She summoned several lightning sprites directly inside of the armor. After a series of bangs, the skeleton fell to the ground, black smoke rising up from inside the armor.

Shaily let herself fall back, lying on the cold stone ground of a minute.

Finally done… So many… The ghosts were fine and the zombies easy to trap, but those skeleton knights!!!!

Her orichalcum armor was full of holes, covered in dried blood, and her right horn was broken, missing the tip, but she felt pretty good about her situation.

Almost there…

Standing up, she did a round trip around the entire floor of the maze she had cleaned, throwing annoyed glances at all the dead undead that lay burned on the ground. She would bet an arm and a leg that without experience being locked by the filter, she would have already reached level 249 with all the monsters she had killed in this floor of the trial alone.

I just knew it would be that smelly ooze that guards the orb… Of course…

She had suspected as much even before starting to clean up other monsters, but with the time dilation the trial offered, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to train. She knew the world was already full of incomprehensibly powerful people, and she was going to do everything she could to catch up.

Checking that her mana was back to full, she made her way to the zone the Necrotic Ooze was staying in, and crouched down while staying just out of its sight.

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Taking some things out of her storage ring, she started munching on a meat skewer while summoning a bunch of fire and shadow sprites. The two types of sprites paired up, and the shadow sprites entered her right hand, bringing the fire sprites with them. After she had stored as much as her hand could contain, she did the same shadow and ice sprites in her left hand. Fully prepared, she waited for her mana to fill up again, and downed three potions in a row.

[Iron skin potion]: Makes your body heavy; reduces blunt damage taken.

Duration: 63 seconds

[Slow fall brew]: Reduce falling speed.

Duration: 144 seconds

[Alith’s energizing tonic]: Processing +50.

Recommended dose: no more than 2 flasks a day.

Duration: 452 seconds

A lightning sprite appeared next to her, and with a silent command, she sent it crashing into the necrotic ooze.

The huge purulent creature shifted with a gargling howl, and left the room it was guarding, engulfing itself into the maze at high speed, coming directly for Shaily.

It was much faster than she could run, but Shaily had no need to run, she jumped, the slow fall keeping her in the air momentarily, and used her custom version of [Maiden bolt] to launch herself backwards while still facing the Ooze.

She studied the creature as it followed. Her back crashed against the maze walls, but the skill’s protection and the Iron skin potion together was enough to reduce the violent impact to a negligible loss of a few health points. She waited until the Ooze almost caught up, observing it from closer, before jumping again and bolting herself down another corridor of the maze.

After a few such turns, studying how the ooze’s fleshy body shifted, she was pretty confident about its core’s location.

She summoned a few fire sprites, sending them crashing into the Ooze like tiny fireballs, slowly lowering its health while she led it back to the room it had come from.

With a last [Maiden bolt], she flew through the room, past the ruined remains of soldier barracks, and crashed into the dead end of that part of the maze, her only way out blocked by the enraged Ooze getting closer and closer.

When it was just a few meters away, she unleashed the sprites in her left hand. The sprites all left at the same time, but the shadow sprites were faster, like a giant ball of black light sinking into the ooze and seemingly doing nothing. The ice sprites then unleashed a violent glacial wind.

The Ooze was frozen solid. Its outer layer of rotting, bleeding corpses had become an icy shell, but it instantly showed signs of breaking.

The sprites in her right hand came out. Fire and shadow sprites still paired, they formed a long string of lights that flew from her hand in an arc above Shaily, picking up momentum. When the ice shattered an instant later, the line of sprites hit the Ooze one after the other. Battering it fiery explosions, concentrated toward the spot where it hid its core. The core shattered, and the Ooze instantly crumbled, flowing into the corridor in a sickly rotten, frozen and fiery mess.

Shaily immediately spotted the orb she was after in the pile of flesh. Wading through the Ooze’s corpse, she grabbed the orb. It sent her to another floor of the maze, one she knew well, by now, its blue-purple walls covered in staring eyes. Right ahead, a scary amalgam of eyes and maws, shimmering in countless colors immediately noticed Shaily’s presence.

But Shaily ignored it.

I knew it.

Just a few behind her was an ugly statue holding another orb. Shaily bolt-launched herself toward the orb before the creature could even start moving. She grabbed the orb, and seeing that it wasn’t sending her to another floor, did what she already knew she had to do to leave this floor, she quickly spun around.

Before she knew it, she was back to the main floor of the maze.

Using the ritual to return to the cavernous floor, she appeared right in front of Edrazeketh’s statue.

Three of his hands were still empty. She gave it the two orbs she had just connected, and used her latest skill to fill the last one, summoning a ‘mana sprite’, that flew up to his hand.

The statues’ seven arms started moving, and Shaily stepped into the portal that they created without hesitation.

She found herself in a tiny black space, surrounded by seven pedestals.

Treasure room?!

Seven pedestals but only three items… I have to exchange the ritual activation rock, huh…

Shaily frowned when she discovered the items couldn’t be identified.

“So much pain to get through the 99th floor and the reward is still random?!”

They’re tied to the seven planes… So… A dried finger for the dark gods… I’ll pass…

The earrings are cute. Since they’re linked to the void dimension, maybe they’re a big storage item? Tempting.

Lastly was a golden piece of armor for the physical plane, a bracer with intricate carvings that were as detailed as they were devoid of apparent meaning.

It looks like it would fit me at least…

As she observed the piece of armor, she finally remembered the words of advice she had received from the Kleptran Seraph after her first trial: take the bracer.

So that’s what it meant!

Oooooh, the earrings, though! They’re so cute!!!

After some hesitation, Shaily sighed, and traded her ritual stone for the golden bracer.

If it’s bad I’ll find that Er’Zgat and beat him up!

She was instantly teleported to the floor 100’s waiting room. Not even taking the time to look around, she identified the item.

WHAAAAAAAAT?!!!!

[Commander node arm casing] : Found in a forbidden space by the faceless wanderer; this bracer is the repurposed arm-piece of an ascended mechanical creature from the dark epoch. Made of an alloy of unknown metals made to resemble gold, it can withstand even a dragon’s attacks.

Passive effect: Charisma is doubled.

When worn, the arm casing allows you to use the contained skill: [Commander’s cognisance]

Warning: Once worn, it will integrate with your skin and blueprint. Cannot be removed without permanently severing your arm.

‘You want this toy? Sure, you can keep it. - The faceless wanderer to admin |REDACTED|.’

[Commander’s cognisance]:

Anchor yourself in the physical realm, making you temporarily immune to aura and non-physical attacks.

Processing increased tenfold.

All healing received is halved.

Cost: 5% Max Health per second.

Minimum activation time is 1 full second.