Saintess Summons Skeletons

The next day. Sofia was back in Ser’Extra, her saint set items repaired free of charge, and with enough silk gold in hand for her new arm. All she was waiting for now was Sonia’s return with the money and the other reward for the forbidden layer expedition.

Sofia was notified almost right away by her birds when Sonia entered the city.

After having the skeletons lead her to the city hall, and exchanging quick greetings in Sofia’s office, Sonia got on to the serious business, placing an ornate golden box on Sofia’s desk.

“So fancy,” Sofia observed.

Sonia smirked at the comment, answering while leaning with an elbow on the desk, “It’s a big transaction after all, your share’s all inside, you can keep the box.”

“Alright. Do I get a detailed breakdown of the sales and price of things?”

“It’s included inside, if you care about it. The seed was of course a big expense, we valued it at twenty four stones so you lost twelve. Besides that, no major surprises, as expected the dark epoch alloys and pieces sold for a lot, and with me taking the mithrium and selling all the crap we collected while you were in a coma, you’re ending up with a good sum.”

“My original two old stones pay is included, right?” Sofia asked, a hand already on the box.

“As is the other part of your rewards,” Sonia said with a nod. “My offer to take you to that other dead god still stands, by the way, just tell me when.”

“That’ll have to wait a bit, but I will definitely take you up on that offer. Oh, by the way, here’s your share of the cursed sword.”

Sonia pocketed the three stones Sofia handed her, surprised at the quantity. “It sold for six? Really didn’t expect that.”

Sofia shrugged, “Valeure was very happy with her purchase. I’d be the same buying a rare skeleton so I get it.”

“Heh, you’re lucky we weren’t counting skeleton value in the revenue share. So, not gonna open the box?”

With a light flick, the latch keeping the box locked was swung open, and the box revealed its contents. Three large old stones, eight regular stones, the Zehollon bubbles gems cluster, Pareth’s adamian steel brute necklace, and two neatly folded pieces of paper.

One was the sales recap, which Sofia only briefly glanced at, while she greedily opened the other.

It only contained five lines of text, handwritten in shimmering ink.

“Right, I didn’t get the details but supposedly you should be able to read it?” Sonia chimed in, “I only see a blank page though. Is it working?”

Sofia nodded, “Yeah I can read it, don’t worry.”

‘None should linger in the four sanctuaries.

1- Hidden moon, beyond the moon. Exact opposite side of entry point. Seek the throne.

2- Sealed gate under the deepest part of primus forest, Human peninsula. In the darkness beyond the maze, seek the shrine

3- Ruins of Arrenham’s cathedral, Revinthius Kingdom outskirts. The temple below the temple. Seek the fountain.

4- Great serpent’s fault, east of Cobalt Arids. The sunken vessel. Seek the condemned.’

Revinthius Kingdom? The place that’s been gone for like twenty thousand years?

“Do you know where the Cobalt Arids are?” Sofia asked.

“Uh… I feel like I’ve heard the name before, but I couldn’t tell you where it is. Not everywhere nearby at least.”

“Alright… One more place to investigate…”

I definitely want to get Aphenoreth’s skill before the next trial.

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Sofia closed and stored the box. “Thanks a lot.”

Sonia shrugged, “business is business. Any idea what you’re gonna do with the new influx of money?”

“Eh, well, about a third of it is going to go into fixing my arm. The few spare stones I’ll keep as general funds, and the remaining two old stones I think should go to Pareth, Bookie and Pestle.”

“Not the crow?”

Sofia chuckled at the idea. “Crowie just likes the feeling of finding shiny things, if I don’t ask him to buy something with money I give him he just plays with it for a bit before giving it back.”

Sonia laughed with her. “Pfft… I see, I see. What about the others then? What are they gonna buy?”

“You want the honest answer?” Sofia asked with a smirk, “I don’t think they will accept the money. I am still going to try giving it to them, mind you, but… Pareth will likely just point at the ever-dwindling pile of our books that he still hasn’t read. Like ‘buy me more books if you really want to spend’... And Bookie… Well, I think he just likes not having to deal with the grown-up stuff like money. Even when he gets money by himself he just gives it to me and waits for me to buy him stuff.”

“Are you going to get him a replacement shield?”

Sofia shrugged, “Maybe. That old mithril one was really basic, maybe I can get him one custom-made along with a proper weapon.”

“Heh, I’m sure he’d like that a lot. I notice you didn’t comment on Pestle, though. Wouldn’t she just buy a ton of ‘leg’?”

“Ahahah… She’s not that short-sighted. No, no, at most she would try to make me stronger, so that we can go hunt stronger monsters for her to chomp on… But most likely she would reject the money saying something like… Pesle is make Pesle money, Sofia is can keep ugly rock.”

Always on the lookout for her name being mentioned, a certain fairy burst into the room after teleporting through one of the windows. She proudly stood on the desk, her tiny hands on her hips.

“Sofia right. Pestle is sell leg! Infinity gold! Pesle is buy more leg! Infinity leg!!!”

“See?”

“Heh, well, you know her better than me, that’s for sure. Speaking of, how is Elsep doing?”

“Oh, I did make her a small house, not too sure what she’s doing now,” Sofia answered.

“Not Pesle is be make clothes,” Pestle informed them, “Want see? Pesle is bring!”

Pestle disappeared from the room before anyone could answer her.

Sofia scratched her head, “Hopefully Elsep doesn’t mind what is coming her way…”

The two women kept their discussion going, switching to the subject of making a Ser’Extra house for Sonia, until Pestle returned a few minutes later, carrying two knitted wool berets almost as big as herself, one white and one black.

“Not Pesle is gift hat!” she announced, giving the black beret to Sonia and the white one to Sofia.

“Cute. It’s even got holes for my horns!” Sofia commented, wiggling her fingers through the two holes, “It’s actually been really annoying trying to get proper hats! Both the Orcs and Exidians have their horns in different places compared to mine so I can never find anything that fits.”

“Looks like I’ll have to prepare a return present,” Sonia added, the black wool beret already sitting on her head, “It’s not even a magical item, but it is pretty nice and warm.”

Sofia also put on hers, finding it fit her head perfectly. “Ah, it almost feels strange to wear unenchanted clothes now. I’ve really grown used to luxury it looks like.”

Sonia gave her a strange stare, “the luxury of sleeping on hay in a damp cave cooking monster meat over a campfire? Talk about luxury. Do you even have a house in your own city yet? I remember Bookie saying you didn’t.”

“Wha- Yes! Yes I do! I mean… It’s… Well I have a few functional rooms…”

“Right. You know what, forget about my house, how about you deal with your own first? Mithrium helmet homeless saintess. And your arm, too. Speaking of, a whole old stone? Are you getting a Mithrium sword installed in place of your arm or what, surely it can’t be that expensive to deal with a blueprint injury?”

“Eheh, no, no it’s not that expensive… If I wanted to be cheap! Do you think I’ve been ransacking the trials by skimping on my spendings?!” Sofia jokingly raised her tone, “Money is for spending and I am a champion at spending! Those three stones I just got? Consider them gone! Because honestly I can imagine I’ll still have them in a week!”

Sonia smirked but looked quite unphased otherwise. “Trying to make yourself feel better about your inability to hold onto money?”

“... Kind of,” Sofia admitted, “though honestly I’m not even sure what I can use the money for anymore. I feel like I am going to hit the equipment limit soon, the mana interference from the helmet is really quite something. I can’t change my weapon or catalyst, I don’t really need more armor, on individual pieces I’m also starting to hit the limit on rings and random parts because of the saint set…”

Sonia nodded along, before pulling out her black gold snake charm from her pockets, “What about charms? They’re small so you can put them wherever you don’t have much equipment already to fill up the holes.”

“Right… Somehow I had never really heard of charms before you showed me that one, honestly.”

“They’re more of an Arege Union thing,” Sonia explained, “the monster races tend to have very varied morphology so a charm that you can just carry in a pocket or pin on your clothes is an easier sell than a ring or bracelet with a fixed size. Also technically your Asterite pin would count as one.”

“I didn’t even consider that… Then maybe a quick visit to the Arege Union could be in order…”

But first… It’s almost time to get my arm back.