Chapter 708 - No air and no hair

The two ships made their way down to the fourth checkpoint in a few minutes. They now had a significant lead on everyone else, so their alliance stopped there.

[You have reached the fourth checkpoint! Vote on a perk for your vessel!]

[Available perks (3) :

• Self sustaining mana shield

• Maneuverability +100%

• Periodical Invisibility Module]

“Maneuverability?” Sofia asked the others.

“Yeah,” Mornn confirmed, “we don’t really need anything else, might as well gain more mobility.”

With another unanimous vote, the galleon was upgraded and the group started sailing toward the next checkpoint, which had no name on the map.

“So, how was the Leviathan?” Kuli asked, looking at the calm sea of the leviathan’s territory behind the ship.

“Honestly?” Sofia answered, “I understand why nobody wants to have anything to do with it. It’s a monster straight from your worst nightmare.”

Mornn looked back from behind the wheel, “ And not even that could stop you eh, to think Sun ever wanted me to compete with you…”

“Can’t say it was easy but I did manage to escape. Barely. And weren’t you the one who said you were confident in beating me one on one?”

“Still am, but I have to acknowledge that you are damn good at surviving.”

“What can I say, I do really appreciate staying alive, even if I have to die a few times in the process.”

Kuli slowly shook her head with a sigh, “Sometimes I ask myself whether I really scrambled your brain with that punch back then.”

“Ahahah! You think you can take credit? I was always like this. I do wonder sometimes, though, what I would be doing with my life now if scripture had never decided to mess it all up for me.”

“Neheh, what -ifs, huh. Plenty of that going through everyone’s head when we live so long,” Kuli said, some nostalgia in her voice, her ears swinging in the wind, “A man proposed to me when I was about your age.”

“I assume you said no?” Mornn chimed in.

“That I did. I was too busy trying to build a business. Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been if I’d just told him yes. A few years after I rejected him he married another person from the friend group we had back then. They’re all dead now. Ah, Sofia knows their son, now that I think about it.”

“Karlson?!”

“Hmmhmm,” Kuli confirmed with a nod, “If I could go back to the past, I wouldn’t change a thing, but still. The mind wanders.”

Pareth offered to take the wheel, so Mornn let him and fully joined the conversation. “Why’d you not marry someone else now then? You don’t have to leave your family life to your imagination.”

“Ah, maybe I’ll think about that if I find someone interesting. Not so many men out there looking for an old woman like me.”

“I mean… You look like the youngest of us three. I’m not sure if age would be that much of an issue,” Sofia said.

“Oh, for sure,” Kuli approved, “Plenty of young guys wouldn’t mind, but I do. I’m nearing five hundred, do you know how strange it feels to be with someone not even a tenth my age? I tried but I just can’t…”

“Never seemed to bother Sun…” Mornn commented.

“Well, don’t worry,” Sofia said, “I’m 100% sure you’ll find someone very very soon.”

“Why wou–” Kuli started, before she realized, “Oh god, I forgot…”

Sofia said nothing, with a bright smile, she shared a system window.

[Live spectator count - Sofia Aphenoreth : 33567]

The fur on Kuli’s ears stood on end, “Oh no…”

“There were a lot of people interested in getting a close look at the Leviathan.”

“Well, that’s good news, right?” Mornn asked,” Hey! I’m single too! Everyone watching, if you’ve got a son who’s super good looking or a prodigy swordsmith I’m interested! You can send a letter directly to the Oracle in Herzal!” she added, taking a provocative pose.

Kuli facepalmed while Sofia had a good laugh.

“Those are the things you’re looking for?” Sofia asked, still half-laughing, after Mornn stopped posing.

“Can’t really afford to be more picky when Sun’s the one doing the vetting before she’ll even let me date anyone,” Mornn said with a shrug.

“Sun does that?!” Kuli asked, incredulous.

“Quite hypocritical coming from Her,” Sofia commented.

“It’s because of my parents, they…” Mornn said, “I probably shouldn’t say more here, we can continue this later. It’s fine though, I don’t mind too much, long life ahead, you know.”

“If you don’t want children, yeah…” Kuli said.

“I’m sure it’s not that bad,” Mornn answered, “If even Kleptras can do it I’m sure we’ll all manage if we really try. Hopefully. Worst case I’ve got my swords.”

“Your swords?!” Sofia repeated, “Suddenly… I think maybe it’s better if you don’t have kids.”

“Like you’re one to talk! If you had kids they’d go bald from stress before reaching adulthood with how you go about your life!” Mornn jokingly accused.

“Gah!” everyone heard Pestle loudly gasp from further on the deck. “Boki bald… Prett bald… PESLE BALD! Sofia everyone make bald!” she realized in horror.

“You’re a skeleton, you leghead!” Sofia shouted back, throwing a random bone in her general direction.

“LEGHEAD?!!!”

Somehow, Pestle proceeded to eat her own skull.

“Should be right here…” Mornn said, looking at her map.

Kuli nodded, “Just empty sea… Above the clouds probably.”

“Ezerid’s group has been flying high, since we didn’t see them go down, probably up, yeah,” Sofia agreed, “we should hurry, another ship made it to the fourth checkpoint already.”

“Faster than expected,” Kuli noted, “They must have someone capable of speeding up their ship quite a bit.”

“We will probably be fine,” Sofia continued as the ship started to fly up at a steep angle, “we have that boost from the phoenix module almost ready.”

The galleon quickly made its way through the lowest layer of clouds, and there was as expected a faint column of light far up above.

“Space again,” Sofia commented, “anyone know what these green rings on the way are?”

“Not the faintest clue…” Kuli said, looking at the strange rings of green light that seemed to form somewhat of a lightning-shaped column up to the checkpoint.

Mornn piloted the ship up to the first green ring in a quasi-vertical ascension. Arrows of light appeared, pointing up to the ring, so the group guess they they had to go through it, and as they did, they discovered that it was a simple speed boost. Each time they went through a green ring, the speed of the ship seemed to almost double, and these bonuses showed no signs of running out. With the improved maneuverability it was easy to take them all, reaching the checkpoint in space in no time. 

[You have reached the fifth checkpoint! Vote on a perk for your vessel!]

[Available perks (3) :

• Speed +100%

• Maneuverability +100%

• Outer Space Life-support module]

Though Kuli and Mornn were both unable to speak without air, it seemed that just surviving by itself was not an issue, so the group opted to pick the speed upgrade again.

The map zoomed out, after they got their perk, showing the direction of the next checkpoint, which was vaguely in the direction of the sun, named ‘Comet shower’. Looking in that direction, there were a few more green rings to show the path on the way.

With Sofia’s demon form having ran out, she felt a bit physically weak, but her mana was back up, and so were her unlife runes. She looked at how far the checkpoint was, and the name of it, then looked at Mornn.

She produced a tablet of bones to write a few words. ‘Just use it. We’ll protect the ship.’

Mornn gave a thumbs up, finished to properly aim the ship toward the first green ring, and pulled on two levers simultaneously. The temperature on the ship immediately shot up as the trail of flame behind the Phoenix module grew massively and changed color. The flying galleon started picking up speed. A lot of speed.

It wasn’t long before Sofia saw the first comet coming. Sofia was almost mesmerised by the sigh of the ethereal blue trail that followed the gigantic block of ice, which had appeared out of nowhere, and was flying in a curve toward the galleon.

As it turned out, she did not have to do anything, as the ship was too fast, and the comet just passed by behind them. However, that was only the beginning, this was only a raindrop before the shower. Hundreds of comets appeared in the galleons’ path.

Oh crap! That many?!

How much of that can the others deal with? Maybe half? Mornn could do more but she’s at the wheel…

Alright, well, didn’t prepare those for nothing.

Sofia grabbed a tiny red crystal from her storage, playing with it in her hand. This was the byproduct of her new fused skill, [Crystallized Suffering].

Debilitating pain and soul damage… Let’s see how debilitating. Give me the 500% processing boost!

Throwing the crystal into her mouth, Sofia aggressively bit down into it and immediately swallowed. It felt like swallowing daggers. She instantly felt the immense pain well up from inside her, her entire body ached, like getting shredded by a thousand blades.

That’s it?

Ahahah! Mr.Scribe you scared me for nothing! This isn’t even half as bad as our new level up method!

Looking at the incoming comets in the distance, they seemed to have slowed down somewhat. Ooooh. This I’m not used to. That’s some potent candy.

Sofia ran up to the bow of the ship and summoned the five Destroyer skulls of the choir, while preparing an explosive bolt in each hand.

I beat the shooting target game for the master bow. Look what I do with your comets!

Shooting several explosive bolts a second, Sofia illuminated the black void of space with fireworks of her own making.