Chapter 107: The Book of Skeletons

Chapter 107: The Book of Skeletons

The next morning, Sofia left Mountain Hall and walked north, regrew her wings with [Heal Undead], and flew into the mountains far enough to be out of sight. The mountains were still green and the weather warm near the volcano despite being in the middle of winter. Sitting on a boulder, she called the book. It felt quite natural contrary to an usual system provided skill. She felt like it used her natural vein structure as a mana conduit rather than having it be forced into shape. Somewhat like her demon form skills but not quite like it either.

That has to be why the system gives no description still. Alright, I need to figure this out.This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

Now blessed, the book could open. Sofia traced her fingers around the polished bones of the cover, and flipped it open. More mist? She narrowed her eyes. She couldnt even see the pages, it was all mist and glaring sunlight shining straight to her face. Closing her eyes, she looked at the book through her mana feeling senses, the book in itself was quite faint, but it was clearly trying to do something. Many thin tendrils of mana extended from the book to her ring, brushing around it like it wanted to devour it.

Does it want Skeletons?

There werent really any skeletons in the ring beside Pareths original body. She had a few spares but they were in her armors storage. Can I give it the Paladins? She took out one of the dead paladins, body still hot and bleeding inside a busted armor.

The book moved on its own, jumping out of her grasp, launching itself at the corpse. Absorbing the body in its mist bit by bit. In a few seconds the book jumped back to her hands, shivering. Hmm, yes, corpse eating book, of course. Hey, at least now I can empty my ring.

She was more than happy to dump all the other Paladins, Templars, and their equipment for the book to devour, and it happily did, leaving nothing behind. Am I weird for feeling like I can read the books mood from how it shakes? By now the wild sunlight escaping from the book had mostly died down but there still was only mist in there, no tangible page in sight. Plunging her hands in the mist felt like searching through thick water, but there was nothing she could touch in there.

One of her observations was that the number of tendrils extending to her ring decreased by one every time she fed it one of the skeletons. But there were still two tendrils and only Pareths first body in there. Theres still something it wants to eat?

Entranced by her new pet, Sofia took out the contents of her ring one by one, searching for the thing her precious book wanted to consume. The book started going crazy when the chest containing her precious ingots came out. What, it wants gold? The tiny bit of Mithril? Lets see, I guess, money is just that

She opened the chest and to say that the book dived in there would be an understatement. It paid no attention to the mundane ingots, instead gulping down the Dragon-forged Midenicite Ingot. Thats what it wanted? I kinda wanted to make a nice item out of that one

She brought up the old identifying prompt of it.

[Primal Midenicite Ingot] : Forged a hundred times in Dragon fire, this ingot of pure compressed Midenicite is completely impermeable to mana.

Item level : 0. Grade : Flawless.

Why would it need this, thats no skeleton? But I guess it did eat the armor and weapons too Well, thats it, Im not giving up on Pareths skeleton, so whats next?

What was next was The book jumped back into her arms, closed itself And slept?

For a book and something without a soul it sure feels very alive. Now I wait?

Sofia tried with all her might to apply Aliths new philosophy of not asking too many questions about nonsensical things.

Waiting for the book to finish its digestion nap, she walked with it in hand around the volcanic mountains. Forget a volcano, every mountain here is a volcano, thats crazy. Some places had lava flowing through the valleys, leaving trails of destruction tearing through the verdant vegetation. Sofia even spotted monsters with sparsely scaled red hide she recognized at first glance. They were having a great time lazing in the flowing lava. Salamanders.

[Solar Paladin - Lv. 130]

Above each skeletons head she could see the faint outlines of a status window.

Health : 7500/7500

Stamina : 7500/7500

Mana : 3600/3600

Lifetime : 7792s/7800s

HAHAHAHAHA!

She had spent so long reading stories of mighty Paladins fighting in unison under the lead of the high-priests, dreamt so many times of being a powerful necromancer leading armies of undead.

This was the best of both worlds, and she could even reuse the filthy corpses of her enemies. The killing part of her revenge hadnt been as cathartic as she had hoped, but in a way, this was.

To watch the High-Priests perish under the blows of their own Paladins. Oh the irony.

This is what you get when you go after those I care for.

I will hunt you.

I will crush your hopes.

I will stamp out your Faith.

I will destroy your very God if I have to.

She couldnt wait.

But for now, she had to keep her priorities straight. She didnt know what it would take to kill a god, but if one thing was certain, being level 130 was far from enough.

Rise, my soldiers! Its time to hunt some oversized fire lizards!

Sofia felt like this would have been an awesome line before attacking a mad Dragon. Alas all she could afford was a pack of wild salamanders. For now.