Saintess Summons Skeletons

After spending a bit more time with the former princess, Sofia brought her back to the city, and passed her management to Ihuarah, who announced Leverle would arrive later the same afternoon as he happened to have some free time. She gave him her concerns about the health system, and the general state of the outer city, but Ihuarah assured her that things were going to get fixed soon. It was simply that the focus on food and sanitation had taken precedent amidst the rapid rise in population. It turned out that her city had somehow attracted not just the princess, but thousands of destitute Skyreach refugees.

The city concerns being temporarily dealt with, Sofia started roaming the streets again, first going for a quick inspection of the temple district, which somehow had the fewest issues with it aside from a temporary material shortage. Sofia noted more things to do on her way out.

I should stay here a while to let the bone factory run. Maybe I should start making bricks to make it easier for others to work with? At least with the size of each black primus there is no shortage of wood…

Staying still for a second on the side of the road, Sofia fully expanded her mana senses for the first time since returning.

Oh fucking hell…

The awareness of everyone’s skeletons through her aura was already a bit overwhelming, but the mana senses were just useless now. Even while restraining their aura, the few ascended in the city still had such excessive mana that they were like beacons of light piercing the sky, and where Sofia stood, she was surrounded and almost blinded by the three pillars of mana around her.

One of them was from Ar’Zoth who she had just checked on a few minutes prior, carelessly sleeping on the floor of Love’s temple, while the other two were from the two new ascended.

Grandma’s still nowhere to be seen. Sofia thought with a frown. She would have easily recognized her mana otherwise, but it wasn’t there. According to Ihuarah she was still around just a few days ago, so it was likely just an unlucky timing of Sofia coming back when she was doing something else.

Well… I still have a few hours until Leverle gets here. Let’s check these guys out.

… Could I even kick them out of the city if I wanted to?

Feeling a slight sense of unease, Sofia walked toward the nearest unknown mana pillar.

The source was a random, quite narrow three-storey house near the city center.

Oh I remember building this one. Had to make it narrower because I wanted to make the building next to it a library so I expanded it midway through…

Said building next to it was still just a skeleton of a building, because she wanted to finish it herself but hadn’t gotten the time to.

I would have never thought an Ascended would want to live there.

Sofia hesitantly knocked on the door.

A rough voice came from inside, “Door’s unlocked, come in.”

Since the owner was this direct, Sofia was not going to stand on ceremony, entering and closing the door behind her.

The interior had been decorated with wooden walls, the old planks making the place look like an antique shop, while the owner of the place stood hunched back in front of a tiny forge with a mithril crucible.

He looked like an old dwarf-sized orc, with green, wrinkly skin, two short horns and a full head of hirsute bright-red hair. He wore nothing but wide gray pants with pointy boots and a dilapidated leather apron.

It was clear this floor of the house had been turned into a small workshop of sorts, with the walls being lined up with all sorts of strange tools, but no finished products anywhere to be seen.

“Rebb, am I right? Are you… Melting my bones?”

The ascended Oarf answered without even glancing in Sofia’s direction once, fully focused on his forge. “Yes, yes. Such pristine material so readily available. Only a fool would pass up this opportunity, Lumian bones…”

Sofia had plenty of questions, like where this guy had picked up the bones from, considering she had never put any up for sale, but most of the city was made from it so it was easy to guess how he had procured that. Instead she asked what any dwarven craftsman would never resist answering.

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“What are you making?”

“Spellcasting seal,” the Oarf answered succinctly, summoning a strange object that quietly floated in front of Sofia. It was also clearly made of Lumian bones, with visible orichalcum veins inside, gleaming through the semi-transparent bone surface. “Failed prototype, you can have this one for free,” he added, still not sparing her a single glance.

The object was unlike anything Sofia had ever seen before, composed of three flat bone triangles with an emptied center, floating inside of each other, with the middle one turned upside down. It was held together by magic, floating and spinning silently in place.

Unsure of what to expect, she poked it with a finger, letting Mr.Scribe proceed with their homemade Identify.

It took a few seconds before the system window opened in front of Sofia’s eyes.

[Necromantic Seal]:

A seemingly new technology adapting ancient ideas. This seal acts as an external catalyst for specific spells, allowing to tack-on extra mana circuits for almost no cost or effort.

Can affect spells already cast through a catalyst.

Only one seal may affect a spell at a time.

Effective spellcasting level +12EX for [Spine of the Black Sun], [Graveyard of the Nymphs] and [Skull Choir].

+12EX? So +12 levels but not surpassing the filter boundaries? If he can do that… Then doesn’t that mean he has the schematics for those spells?!

It was either that this Oarf was capable of reproducing her spells just from watching her trial, or that the system was shamelessly selling her skills’ blueprints. Somehow Sofia had a suspicion it was probably the second option. But seeing as she was given the thing for free, she decided not to ask a potentially vexing question.

“That’s considered a failed prototype?”

“It is. Does twelve levels sound like a lot to you? My spells are all around level 530, what good is twelve levels, huh? It should at least reach fifty!” Rebb replied, finally grabbing the crucible out of the forge with his bare hands, and pouring the molten bones into a round mold.

“You’re changing the shape?”

“My spells are more suited to circular structures,” Rebb explained succinctly, carefully proceeding with the pour.

“Alright… Well I won’t keep bothering you while you work, quick last question, the shop you mentioned opening, you’re going to sell seals like these?”

“That and other trinkets I make in my free time, don’t expect much. Ah, while you’re here, may I get more bones?”

“... Here…” Sofia said, dumping two one cubic meter bone cubes in the entrance of the workshop.

“Much appreciated,” the Oarf thanked with a nod, getting right back to his work.

Sofia nodded back and left the small workshop, the floating necromantic seal latching onto her mana and following by itself like her scepter usually did.

I wonder if the odalite forge would make it better… I’m just surprised I’d never heard of something like this before.

Should I open a shop to sell my bones?

I would be worried about them being used for divination but I do have VPPV protecting me against that… It might be an idea… I’m already selling blood to the vampires anyway.

I guess I should go see Eltiel next? I wonder what kind of summoner she is. Nobody really had much to say about her at the academy, but she was friends with Eternam so she must be a good person.

She was away on an imperial mission or something like that I think? Now that I think about it, considering how strong she is, she was probably going along with the plan against Hugo. Though it’s unclear if she ascended before or after that.

Let’s see, she’s in that direction… Moving around, it looks like…

Do I need to set up some kind of mana sink to avoid the air getting too saturated?

Huh, maybe that’s why that city with all the ascended is a flying fortress… All the extra mana must just fall down and spread out to harmless levels by the time it reaches the surface.

I knew the logistics for the city would be a pain but the complexity I imagined didn’t even scratch the surface… Thank the lords I have Ihuarah to deal with this.

Sofia idly walked through the city center, going toward the obnoxiously bright mana pillar while having a look at the surroundings. This part of the city was quite calm, and a lot of shops had opened everywhere, although many of them were still in the process of getting set up. A majority of people would turn to look at her walk around, but nobody actually tried talking to her, which was a relief, and certainly not a consequence of her being followed around by a carriage-sized skeletal dragon that would stare down anyone who even tried to step in her direction.

Finally, Sofia reached the current location of the mana she was following, which had stopped moving for a bit, ending up at the entrance of a rather large building which at a glance had really strong security, with all kinds of protection rituals engraved directly in the walls for everyone to see.

Kokola’s bathhouse…

We had something like this?

… I guess another bath can’t hurt.