Saintess Summons Skeletons

Getting a closer look on the giant mosquitoes made Sofia wish she hadn’t. Their hideous appearance made it crystal clear that they were indeed from the same place the Kleptras originated from.

Sofia realized too late that her saintomancer’s stars would bring more harm than good with their current range of two meters, and even Sonia’s physical arrows somehow disappeared into thin air two meters ahead when they left her bow. Because of this, they were forced into close quarter combat against the insects.

They were fast and strong, but not particularly smart, mindlessly charging at their target. In this situation the best way forward was actually to abandon the raft and take the fight to the air. Sofia was just waiting for Sonia to be done with creating the golem, fighting off the insects alongside Crowie.

“It’s ready!” Sonia announced, the cube mimic’s mana heart now covered in glowing runes. It started hovering on its own, flying straight into a large group of incoming mosquitoes and unleashing an electric discharge that shocked them hard enough to disturb their flight and make them crash into the freezing waters below.

Nice!

“Let’s fight, but stay together! Pareth, Pestle, come up!”

Activating nothing but [Runeforged Overlord]’s third level, Sofia flew up into the swarm of giant flying insects. Each of her Scepter strikes killed a mosquito, and the two following [thunderbolt]s almost always killed another one behind it.

The swarm seemed endless, but as they could not use ranged attacks either, Sofia and the others never got truly overwhelmed. Sofia got hit often, but her healing was strong enough to offset that, Sonia was killing a lot less insects but just like Pestle she never got hit, while Crowie and Pareth basically took no damage at all from the attacks. In the end, it was more of an endurance battle than anything else, as Sofia’s mana did not even go down, the cost of [Runeforged Overlord] offset but the mana [Heat Death] leeched off of countless mosquito deaths.

After seven hours of constant fighting, the golem had long run out of juice and fallen into the waters, and even Pareth was showing signs of fatigue. They had continued following the current pushing the raft below all this time, but it had yet to lead them anywhere. They fought until ‘daybreak’ when despite there being no visible change, the endless swarm gave up on them and returned to the cavern’s roof hundreds of meters up above.

They were all so tired that no one even had the strength to say a word in celebration. Crowie had already run out of lifetime, Pestle had been resummoned mid-fight and now unsummoned herself, while Sofia and Sonia laid down on the bone raft. Only Pareth silently kept watch, leisurely swimming alongside the raft. For some reason, perhaps because of all the banquet dead mosquitoes floating dead on the frozen water, there were no more underwater monsters attacks.

“Bright side–” Sonia started after a very long silence, “that didn’t attract anything bigger.”

“What were the odds?”

“I’d say fifty fifty.”

“Let’s not do that again, then.”

“We just need to find shore. Can’t be that far away…”

“What are the chances we find the ruins at this rate?” Sofia asked.

“Pretty good, in a way we’ve been mostly moving in a straight line, which is a lot better than what I usually have to deal with. Whether we actually find it or not is all up to luck, though.”

“I’m already dreading the way back.”

“If we’re lucky we’ll find another exit. If we’re lucky.”

“Great motivation, thanks,” Sofia joked flatly.

“Happy to help.”

The two continued to chat, drifting in the currents. Sofia lazily charged another bolt to unfreeze the raft a bit, as it felt like lying on a block of ice, and she looked around without much conviction, only seeming more water and darkness.

“I don’t even understand how it’s possible that we haven’t seen a single wall yet,” Sofia mumbled.

“The underworld currents are quite vast, there are even a few seas…”

“Just what I needed to hear.”

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“No need to thank me.”

One hour later, Sofia’s motivation was at an all time low, aimlessly drifting on the underworld sea, when something new entered her vision. Just a glimmer, but enough to make her stand up and look.

“Found something!”

Sonia stood next to her and looked in the same direction. “Can’t see shit.”

“I barely saw a flash, but there was something, wait a second I’ll steer the raft.”

Sofia narrowed her eyes, staring at the darkness as the raft got closer to the direction she had seen something from.

Was I hallucinating?

Despite her doubts, she pushed the raft forward for another few hundred meters.

She almost gave up when she saw another flash, and pushed the raft even stronger, mobilizing all the aura she could muster.

The source of the flashes came into view, hanging over the freezing waters, a small silver pendant was hanging from a thick curved root coming from above. The light emitted by the veins inside the root, glowing with soft white and cyan light, was what had reflected off of the lightly swaying pendant.

Wait…!

“Leyline! It’s leyline!”

“No fucking way! What does it look like?!”

“Dark roots with glowing white and blue veins.”

“Holy shit! It’s actually a leyline?! Go, go! That’s our ticket out of this damned sea! We can even get you the seed while we’re at it!”

“Yes captain! Forward!”

Pointing toward the leyline, Sofia moved the raft to the roots. They could have flown there but at this point they were so bored they almost forgot that it was something they could do.

Sofia gave Bookie a light tap, “Hey, you can rest if you want but at least get Pestle to work.”

The fairy appeared on top of Sofia’s head.

“Time for leg?”

“If you’re interested on chewing on a leyline then maybe?”

“Line? Maybe.”

“I’d advise against that,” Sonia seriously quipped, as the roots finally came into her view. There were maybe roots spread about, most dipping their tip into the frozen waters, some on their way there. “Hey, is that a necklace?!”

“The glimmer from that is what I saw in the beginning,” Sofia explained, “I really wonder how it got there.”

“I doubt anyone could possibly tell you.”

“Heh, let’s see what it is exactly.”

As they got closer, Sofia noticed her mana being freed from the suffocating presence that had restrained her reach to two meters all this time, and before the raft even reached the root, she had sent a bone hang flying out to grab the pendant.

Grabbing the thing, it was much heavier than she had imagined. The chain was thick like a finger, and the pendant, an inverted three-sided pyramid the size of an egg was easily a few dozen kilos.

“It’s all adamian steel!” Sofia recognized, “Our first real loot!”

“I’d argue we have the coins but then again they aren’t for sale. Enchanted?” Sonia asked.

“Seems so, I can’t use [Identify] at the moment though, not even the systemless variant.”

“Gimme!” Sonia requested with an extended hand. She grabbed the necklace Sofia handed her, and returned the item description.

“That detailed without the system?!” Sofia gasped in shock at the system window before even reading it.

I might be slightly jealous.

[Pendant of the adamant brute]:

This adamian steel necklace and pendant features an unknown mana jewel in the center of the pendant, acting as the enchanting anchor. The size and effects suggest something akin to a female ogre.

No known craftsmanship techniques recognized.

Enchanting patterns not recognised; effects have been decoded.

The steel has no self repair or anti-theft feature but is enchanted for maximum durability.

Effects when worn:

Upkeep: 10% of mana regeneration

For best effects, do not wear more than one necklace.

“Steep upkeep but woah. Can we give this to Pareth for now? Ten percent extra health is huge for him.”

Sonia nodded, “It’ll still be part of the shared loot at the end as we negotiated before.”

“Of course.”

Sonia handed out the necklace to Pareth, who placed it around his ‘neck’ by slipping it through his spine in between two vertebrae, without even giving the item a real glance.

“Now let’s leave this ugly raft!” Sonia impatiently said, jumping up to the roots.

Sofia almost wanted to protest, but the raft was indeed ugly, and starting to freeze over again. She left it behind with Pareth on it, who jumped last, kicking the raft away. Sofia gazed up at the mess of glowing roots that extended up further than she could see.

Just you wait, mom.

I’m getting that phylactery for you.