Chapter 963 - Bookie-keeping

Bookie returned first from the trip, Pareth was still out there by himself, wanting to explore the ruins where they had found the last dead god some more.

Bookie was overjoyed to receive a new catalyst from Sofia, he did not even care about what it did, and was just happy to get a gift, asking Sofia to insert it into his cover herself.

Since they had some free time, Sofia decided that it was a good time to get familiarized with Bookie’s new pages. She had given him full autonomy over his pages, and ever since her time passed out in the forbidden layer, Bookie had been deleting and eating new skeletons at his own discretion. Of course Sofia had seen a few of the new pages already, but she had not looked too much into it, since Bookie wanted to surprise her with his good work.

“Can I look now?” She asked, idly caressing Bookie’s cover, while he stood in front of her in the walled area east of Ser’Extra.

“Hmm! I’m all done!”

“Yeah? You have been very very secretive, especially about the pages in the back. Are you sure I can look?”

“Eheh…”

“Well, let’s see~”

Sitting down on a bone chair, Sofia delicately opened the book, and from the very first page she got a nice surprise. Instead of starting with the summons right away, Bookie had an actual decorative page, clearly less magical in nature than the others, but just as precious. It featured Bookie’s rough crayon drawing of the whole crew over a beautiful natural background painted by Pareth, and with a title in surprisingly beautiful golden cursive letters ‘-The Boki of Skeltons-’.

“What a beautiful first page.”

Bookie suddenly felt shy, hiding behind the chair, he hugged Sofia from behind.

She gave him a few head-pats and turned the page.

A little golden silk ribbon embroidered with hearts sat on top of Crowie’s page.

“How cute. Is the ribbon for Crowie?”

“It’s the category marker!” Bookie proudly explained from behind.

Sofia understood, “The Favorites category? You used the categories from my notes? What a smart little skeleton.”

Sofia had a quick look through the first category. Hers was usually sorted by mana cost but it seemed Bookie sorted by who he liked most instead. The first page was Crowie, and the second page was Crowie’s dragon form, followed by Pestle, then a brand new skeleton that looked like a strangely majestic elongated two-tailed dog.

“Ten million mana… Who’s that?

“It’s Lixi!” Bookie proudly said, “She’s super nice and fast and strong!”

“Lixi?”

The name felt familiar for some reason. Suddenly remembering where she had seen it, Sofia scrolled up through her system logs.

[You have defeated ‘Fae-blooded ice shadow demonic fox Lixi’ - Level 389]

“Right, it was Pareth…”

“Summon her, summon her!” Bookie excitedly pressed Sofia.

“Alright, alright.” Sofia softly ripped out the page, watching it become a cloud of golden mist that soon collapsed into a fox skeleton that was taller than Sofia even on all fours, and was accompanied by a gentle cold breeze. Its two skeletal tails lightly swayed behind it as it observed Sofia and its surroundings.

After some hesitation the skeleton laid down on the grass with its head at Sofia’s feet.

Sofia couldn’t resist the urge to pet its big skull that looked almost a meter long. The fox skeleton almost pushed its head into Sofia’s hand, despite its size, this skeleton was surprisingly gentle.

“Lixi… Let’s work together from now on, hmm,” Sofia said, then she turned to look at Bookie, “How intelligent is she? Do you know?”

“Very smart!” Bookie answered with full certainty, “As smart as Crowie!”

“Really? We are lucky to have her with us, then.”

Watching the fox’s tails start to sway a little faster at her words, Sofia understood that Bookie was not likely exaggerating. Continuing to pet her skull, Sofia looked through the rest of the first category. Engi, High priest, Pheonix…

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“Did you erase the pearled snake?”

Bookie shook his skull, “No! But he’s not smart enough. So I put him into the defense section.”

“Hmm… That’s fair. And this second ribbon, the recon skeletons, right?”

“Hn.” Bookie nodded.

There was some change there, as the first page was already a hundred crows. Sofia guessed that the single rat and the 50 crows pages must be gone. Next was a hundred rats, then the school of 1000 Filarine fishes Sofia had used recently while looking for the last mirror. Then the fourth and last page of the recon category were three huge fat-winged crow skeletons.

“Big crows?” Sofia asked.

“Harcrows!” Bookie said, “They’re really big and strong and they can fly even when there’s no mana at all! They can do wind magic, even make a tornado!”

“Hmm… Considering they cost ten million mana each they must certainly be worth something. I’ll see what they can do later. Next we have the utility crew, right?”

“Yes!”

“Let’s see… Hmm there a few new faces here… Huh, did you get rid of the sun mage elf?”

“We never used him so…”

“Don’t worry. You’re not wrong. And I let you do what you want so there’s no problem, I just wasn’t expecting that. Mind telling me about the three new recruits here?”

“Yes!” Bookie flipped the pages by himself, presenting the new utility skeletons. The first was a human holding a pan and a spatula. “This is old Jim! He was doing a food stand next to Pestle and he was very nice with me! But then he died of being old… He didn’t have a family so…”

“I see… Well he can be our cook now,” Sofia said, giving Bookie a light hug, “does he still remember his life?”

Bookie shook his skull in response. That was expected, even when absorbed freshly after death, very few skeletons seemed to keep more than some basic knowledge of who they were before. Even the smartest ones, like the Engineer elf, he was only an Engineer, with little to no trace left of whoever he used to be besides his profession and spells. So far Pestle’s original soul and the Phoenix seemed to be the only two who had managed to become a page while staying fully complete. Even for the new Fox Lixi, though she seemed smart, it was hard to tell more.

“Then what about this cute one?” Sofia asked to lighten the mood, pointing at a page showing a single cute rabbit skeleton.

“It’s a goldpaw rabbit…” Bookie said, looking up at Sofia, “It’s very good at sensing treasures and precious things. It’s the same skill like Sonia.”

“I see… Were did you get that one?”

“I don’t know, it was Pareth who gave it to me.”

“I’ll ask him, then. And that… Avian lady?”

“It’s from Zerei! She wanted my help to know who the skeleton was. But it was too old and I couldn't help much… But she’s a librarian!”

“So that’s who was organizing the library behind my back! Huh, I really thought it was Saria. Librarian then… You should let her out whenever we’re at home. Maybe get her a uniform even. We keep getting new books so she will always have something to do.”

Bookie seemed happy about the suggestion, while Sofia turned the page to the Support units section.

The very first page was already an army of strange four-legged insect-like creatures with a conical skull and a protruding spike like some kind of ground mosquito ready to stab someone’s foot from below.

“Eww… What are those? Forbidden layer, right?” Sofia asked, she had already caught a glimpse of those long before, but had never asked about them.

Bookie nodded, “Sonia called them dart shamblers. They crawl everywhere and go pew pew and spit poisoned bones like arrows!”

“Poisoned?”

“Yes, Sonia said it’s strong but she never got hit so… I don’t know. They look small here but they’re actually my size!”

“Some day you will really have to explain in detail all that happened during the time I was out…”

“Eeeeeeh…”

Turning the page, Sofia was faced with more forbidden layer monstrosities. They were pretty similar, clearly of the same breed as the dart shambler, but their four legs were sturdier, their sectioned conical skull much taller, and it was all topped off by a thick stinger like a scorpion’s tail.

“Let me guess… Stab shambler?”

“Spike shambler!”

“Close enough. Is there a particular reason there are only thirty of those ones?”

“They’re bigger, so it’s all I could fit…”

The next page showed a single one of an even bigger creature of the same ilk, this one with six legs instead of four, and a much larger spike-shaped skull aimed forward instead of up.

“Ram shambler!” Bookie exclaimed before Sofia could ask anything, “Its skull goes back, then bang! And it breaks doors and walls like it’s paper!”

“Oh? Good to have then. Better than having to carve things out with my dagger. How big is it?”

“Like a big house!”

“Oh.”

Quickly turning the page, Sofia found a new type of skeleton again, this time they looked even stranger, looking like little rings of bones with three Z-shaped legs, and there were a thousand of them.

“Spring zappers!” Bookie proudly introduced, “they jump on people and then it’s like a tiny angel bolt appearing in the ring to stab their prey!”

“So fierce? Why are they in the support category then?”

“Well they’re so tiny and weak… But they can help charge your big avatar form!”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into this, who got these ones?”

“I hunted them myself! With Pestle.”

“Well done, well done. It’s a good idea. That’s it for the new supports, right?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s see what’s changed in the defence and attack department, then.”