Saintess Summons Skeletons

?=9; That’s a riddle? How is this helping right now?

The answer is nine? Doesn’t mean much. And if that was it, just saying ‘=9’ would have worked better. Question equals nine, then?

Sofia looked around in the den and tried to make sense of the Scribe’s hint but she was stumped, she kept visualizing the three characters in her mind until she figured something out.

Ninth… Oh. Ninth question? There haven't been many occasions where I was faced with nine questions in a row. I think I get it now. Thanks Mr Scribe, that’s not something I had thought about. But that could indeed explain how Saria could have done this.

‘ “Ninth question : What one rule would you add, delete or change if you could modify the system?”

“I would add a rule to punish harming children.”

“I see. You might be interested in knowing that there is, in fact, such a rule.” ‘

So in the end, it was the system that helped her, as a punishment for the slaver?

Since she was the one who did this, and considering she survived the monsters after that… The most likely thing that happened is that she unlocked an unusually strong class which allowed her to accomplish all of this. Unless the system just gave her a bunch of stat or levels for free, but would it do that without giving her a real class first? It could also have given her a strong item… But then the possibility exists that the person it was meant to punish could steal the item and profit off of it.

Once again, Sofia’s total health tracker opened up by itself, but it came with a small bout of pain around her temples this time.

You confirm, then? Thank you, really. But don’t overdo it, it looks like even the opening of the health counter is starting to hurt you…

Sofia was now relatively certain that Saria had gotten a strong class, something violent enough that she could instantly fight back against the head slaver at level one and embed him into a wall. That was an encouraging start, but the trail stopped there. It didn’t seem like Saria had stayed for long inside of the cave, or she would have moved the dead body out.

Should I call for the others with the tracking device? No it’s probably better to just let them search too, who knows how long Saria has been here? There might be traces everywhere.

The next logical step was to find a place to build a survival camp, hidden from the monsters, and with easy access to food and water. Sofia searched around the den and the camp for now.

The mountain streams have died out, looks like the snow isn’t really melting much at this altitude. Going closer to the top is bad though, the monsters have dug their tunnels on the way. And I don’t see Saria going there when the forest has more resources and looks untouched by the monsters for the most part.

No matter what, the best place should still be around one of the dried streams, even not much water is better than no water. There can’t be no snow melting at all.

Searching along the dried-up streams of water of the mountain ended up being a good bet, as Sofia found a small metallic door in a recess of the mountainside. A large boulder was on the side, which might have once hidden the entrance, judging by the horizontal markings on the wall. Saria could have never built this.

Sofia grabbed the handle and opened the door. It was unlocked, inside was a clean and straight but low passage cut directly through the mountain. Sofia had to almost get on her knees to advance, this size was probably perfect for Alith. Or dwarves.

Walking further and further into the straight tunnel. Does this lead to the other side of the mountain? Finally she reached the iron door on the other side. Behind it was not the forest on the outside, it was nothing but a vertical shaft with a ladder going both up and down. In the way down, just a few meters under the door, the ladder had been bent and broken, and the way was sealed. It had been plugged by a blackish material that looked like it had been liquid at one point and hastily poured. The walls were a strange material too, It was smooth and rigid, but completely uniform in color. Like fake rock.

Sofia couldn’t resist the urge to break a piece from a corner and [Identify] it. The material was really tough and she was surprised that she had to really give it all she had to break a small piece, when she could crush regular stone barehanded without even trying now.

[Broken piece of Dwarven Ultra-High Performance Wall Mix]: This material is the greatest pride of the Gray Dwarf Clan’s engineering. Be it boats, ridiculous architecture or even armor, if they have the money, this is what they will use. Goblins cower in awe of its impervious nature. The Gray Dwarves Elders would sooner kill themselves than reveal the secrets of its confection.

Grade : Valuable.

The gray dwarf clan. Never heard of it. Dwarves live in clans? I thought most of them just lived in the dwarven isles as a unified kingdom of sorts. They have a King, right? I’m pretty sure they do.

But most importantly, the dwarven ruins extend all the way to here? To think they had us dig all the way down in the valley when there was an entrance to dwarven ruins so close-by…

I hope the monsters haven’t dug their way through these walls. Ultra-High performance or not I don’t see that holding up against a level 300 monster. Though I suppose they would probably just dig around hard stuff like this.

Sofia looked up the shaft, even with her dark vision it was hard to tell if the whole ladder was intact, but it looked like it. Sofia climbed up quickly. Guess the monsters really never dug through the dwarven walls. The ladder was so tall, Sofia was convinced it had led her to the top of the mountain.

That would have been hard to do for Saria… But maybe not if she had the strength to do what she did to the slaver. Sofia pushed up the iron trapdoor at the top of the ladder, she was welcomed by a strong gust of glacial wind. At first she thought it was the outside, but once again, it wasn’t. Or not quite.

The trapdoor was in the middle of a room, this was a small room carved inside of the very top of the mountain there was a door on one side, and large windows on the two others giving the impression that this was some kind of an observation post. The last wall, opposite the one door, was missing, there was instead only a gaping hole leading straight to the snowy and abrupt mountainside, giving an unparalleled view of the monster-filled sky.

Looks like I found Saria’s camp.

In a corner were stacked weird dwarven devices, in the opposite one was the remnants of a collapsed makeshift bed frame made of twigs, cloth and iron wire. I guess she stole one of the slavers’ bedrolls, but it’s no longer there. Must have gone through the huge hole in the other wall. There was a bunch more stuff on small handmade shelves and in crude wooden boxes, as well as a few flying monster skulls decorating the furniture.

Before she could inspect the rest of the items in the room, as well as whatever was behind the door, Sofia couldn’t help but examine the hole in the wall a bit more. Something about it felt off. The ‘ultra-high-performance wall’ had been cleaved through cleanly, this couldn’t be the work of the flying monsters.

Sofia flew out of the room. Even from the outside, the cut was really clean, not only had it cut the wall, it had also cut the mountain around it as if it was someone’s dessert that they took a giant spoonful out of. Something else attracted Sofia, something strange in her peripheral vision. A handprint.

It was the kind of trace one would leave if they tried to grab the tower of a mud castle only to realize they would only crush it if they did that while their hand was already half buried into it.

Except that trace was taller than Sofia, and the hand was a scaled paw with long curved claws, strong enough to leave an imprint on the side of a stone cliff.

Well, shit.

I get why she picked the Dragon mask, now.

So I just need to search for whichever Dragon rescued and-or kidnapped Saria…

I’m relieved that there’s a trace at all. And a real confirmation she survived. And a big hint on how she might have escaped this flying mountain. I don’t need any divination skill to understand what happened here…

But now I have to find a Dragon? And my only clue is a paw-print the size of an average tree?

I need to return to the bottom and activate the tracker to let the others know I found what I was looking for. I might as well return inside and inspect the room in detail before that.

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