Saintess Summons Skeletons-Chapter 818 - Ant-restingly reasonable

Sofia barely had time to react, in front of the huge monster of wood and mushrooms, she was like a bug, and apparently, she was treated as one. The monster shrieked when it realized what had transpired, and reflexively slammed Sofia with its huge staff. The skull of the behemoth ant that sat atop it like a bone catalyst banged against Sofia’s armor faster than she could even see, and she was sent flying, slamming against a nearby wall of leyline wood.

Her body was splattered against the wall, yet, protected by her helmet and armguard, some of her upper body was still intact as she fell down to the floor.

For good measure, the monster slammed her a few more times.

The constant banging made it hard to even think, but Sofia somehow survived a second hit, then a third, then finally she died, even if her helmet held, the monster’s horrified strikes had reduced her insides to a scrambled mush and her mana heat eventually gave out.

The mushroom creature was trying to grab Sofia’s corpse with a long pair of giant wooden tweezers when she came back to life three seconds later.

The monster shrieked again, jumped back, speaking a few disgusted words in an incomprehensible language, and blasted her with a huge magic laser, the exact same the behemoth ants used, but stronger. Sofia couldn’t do anything as her lower body was obliterated again, the spare parts of the saint set scattered on the ground being the only remaining part left of it.

The fungus monster stared, horrified or bewildered, perhaps both, as Sofia’s body quickly rebuilt itself from her passive healing. It uttered a few more words and for now, stopped attacking, while its four beady black eyes still stared holes at Sofia.

Sofia was still fighting to recover the ability to form coherent thoughts after the sudden beating, and any minute movement she made provoked a jitter of the monster’s hand on its staff.

“I- I’m not moving!” Sofia said, “Please… Don’t…” she pleaded as she recovered her health and bearings.

The fungus man answered with a few words in his own language, his body language hard to interpret.

“Do you understand me?” Sofia asked.

The fungus man’s expression shifted, he answered again, in a different language, while his previous one sounded like a series of shrieks, this one had slightly clearer words that Sofia might actually be able to repeat if she tried, but it was still not anything she could make sense of.

I don’t think he understood…

Like him, she tried a different language. Ancient human first. The monster tried a third language made of strangle clicks, still no match. Sofia tried elvish, and even the fungus man seemed to start getting frustrated, taking a few seconds before trying something else. To his credit, this time it actually sounded like an actual spoken language made of clear syllables and words. But still not something Sofia knew.

“Is this one better, hello?” she tried next in Draconic, and finally, it seemed to click, she could almost see a light shine in the tall creature’s eyes.

“You annoy me ant. Hard kill. What here for? Need leave,” the monster twenty times Sofia’s height asked in draconic tongue even more broken than hers.

“I will leave! I will leave!” Sofia answered right away, “All I need a leyline seed, I don’t need to take it from here. I can get it somewhere else!”

“Seed, you?” the monster asked, bending over, his massive wooden head towering over Sofia.

“A- A leyline seed…” Sofia said again. I don’t have the wrong word, right? Why did it have to be draconic?!

“You leave, seed I trade,” the monster answered, straightening back up and turning around, “Seed treasure. You what value?”, it asked, walking away from Sofia and the small pond she had initially teleported into.

Sofia was slightly surprised to see him go like this. From trying to kill her to communicating to turning its back to her the creature had changed its attitude toward her completely in seconds.

Not even going to restrain me or anything?

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

I really am like a bug…

This thing… Level 450 at least… I don’t think it’s an ascended… But probably not far.

Even with the deadly concentration of mana inside of the leyline’s core that made Sofia nauseous, the monster’s mana shone brightly to the naked eye, leaking out of the cracks of its wooden body.

She quickly picked up her scattered things. Nothing critical was lost, but her backpack with supplies and some of the loot from the forbidden layer thus far had been destroyed beyond saving, leaving her with nothing of value to trade with.

I can’t access my storage either… What am I supposed to trade with? My bones? 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

I can make blood but would it be of any use to this thing?

Sofia followed the walking giant out of the gigantic room and into a corridor. The entire place was carved directly inside of the innermost core of the leyline where mana veins visibly pumped bright white liquid through the wood. The ground was covered in a thick layer of yellow mushrooms, which Sofia walked on as she followed the creature, not daring to fly up for fear of getting swatted like a fly again.

“What value do you want?” she finally managed to answer the monster, yelling so that her voice wasn’t drowned in the sound of the monster’s footsteps.

The wooden monster stopped, its head turning 180 degrees as it looked down at Sofia for a second, “Your weapon value. Trade?” It asked.

“My staff? Not selling, sorry, something else?” Sofia answered, clutching her scepter.

“Hard sell weapon… Understand… Trade spell?” It said next, “New spell. Two hundred and half. Seed yours and you leave. Can?”

Spell schematics? Two hundred and fifty of them?

That’s… Depending on what he accepts that could be doable?

“I agree,” Sofia quickly accepted.

“Good. Come. Show seed,” the wooden giant answered calmly, continuing its slow walk through the leyline.

Pareth can you hear me? Sofia asked in her head as she followed the giant, I’m in a bit of a precarious situation but I’m safe, I think. I might even manage to get my hands on the seed. Stay safe.

Finally left with some free time to think, Sofia analyzed her own situation as she walked behind the creature.

She had teleported here into a pond when she used quantic transposition to escape the behemoth ants. So it was watching me through that pond somehow. Since it was showing me, light in my image, that was a valid target to transpose with… I never even expected that this could happen… I’m lucky that it didn’t try any harder to kill me.

It said I annoyed its ants, I think? Its draconic is even worse than mine… The ants are all covered in the same yellow fungus as it is, and it used the same magic beam attack. Is that actually the ant king sharing its spells with them?

Do I need to apologize for the worker ants we killed? Maybe it’s better not to mention it…

Though the creature walked slowly, its sheer height meant it covered a lot of distance. As she followed, Sofia had the opportunity to look around, there were more rooms on the sides of the twisting wooden corridor, all full of yellow fungus and gargantuan furniture. Despite its monstrous appearance, the huge creature of wood and fungus seemed to be living a relatively normal hermit life inside of the leyline. A few worker ants could be seen here and there in the rooms, carrying giant leaves and things around.

It was only now that Sofia took some time to properly observe the ‘person’ she had been talking to. Its tall and thick frame was like an old tree given life, its two legs ending in wide stumps that flattened the mushrooms on the ground with each step. It had long legs and arms, although they were slightly hard to discern from the main body, as it was all covered in mushrooms. The same flat-topped yellow mushrooms that were everywhere, in all sizes, some growing to truly impressive size on that creature’s body, especially around its shoulders. Meanwhile its head was a hard to describe knot of wood and fungus, with four beady black eyes each the size of a boulder that stuck out from all the bark. Its entire body creaked every time it moved.

Without another word, it led Sofia through winding corridors, the mana concentration in the air climbing with every turn, to the point that it was getting hard to move and to see. Stopping in front of a wall of giant tangled leyline roots, the giant tapped on it with its staff. The roots untangled, and Sofia had to squint to see what was inside. Three shining dots seemed to float in a dense sea of mana. The giant waved its staff. Attracting one of the dots. The shining thing landed atop its staff, and the tangled roots closed back up.

“This seed,” it announced, “pay.”

“Can we move somewhere else?” Sofia asked, suffocating from the ambient mana. Her health was tanking almost as fast as she could heal herself just from standing there. As it was she doubted she could have recovered the seed from that room even if it was unguarded.

“Yes, come.”

The giant stepped over Sofia, and led her to an empty room they had passed by earlier on the way. It waved its staff and the shining seed flew off, still too bright for Sofia to even see what it really looked like. It settled in the center of the room, and long roots grew from walls and ceiling all at once, latching onto it. Exactly two hundred and fifty of them.

A gigantic wooden stool appeared out of nowhere, and the giant sat, without a word, looking down at Sofia.

I got the message. Time to challenge my knowledge.