Chapter 684 - Return

Author note:

Hi! I will likely make a general announcement post for it, but also saying it here, here are the first (and hopefully only) days I'm taking off from writing to edit book 4:

Thursday 29th (You get one more chapter after this one tomorrow then 686 on Friday)

Tuesday June 3rd

Thursday June 5th

I'm hoping that spacing them out a bit like this will help not create too big gaps/ cliffs.

Happy reading :D

[King of the mountain - Lonely thrones : Event rankings]

[Rank 1 - Historic 1st - Sofia Aphenoreth & Pareth (twin ruleset) - 20836 Event score]

[Rank 2 - Historic 212th - Cinthia Molgdann - 4049 Event score]

[Detailed results for Sofia Aphenoreth:

Tier 4 event - Maximum point reward : 20 000 000 TP

Event score:

• Golden throne score : Sat for 3580 seconds -> 10740 points

• Silver throne score : Sat for 3548 seconds -> 7096 points

• Golden ending : 2000 points

• Silver ending : 1000 points

Total event score : 20836 / 12800

Total TP earned : 32 556 250 TP

Your first place earned you a bonus Gold Star Pin!]

‘You have received rank 1 reward : Ark’s Gold Star Pin *1!’

‘You have received 32 556 250 tournament points!’

‘Current balance : 251 133 126 points’

[Tournament activities will resume 12 hours after all other ongoing events are concluded, please enjoy your break exploring the Ark!]

Points are going back up nicely at least… I broke this one without even trying…

Too bad it was another tier 4 event. I guess they’re keeping the heavy hitters for the end?

That makes it my sixth gold pin, four events to go.

At this rate can I really awaken my mana heart?!

…

Since she had some free time, Sofia played some board games with Bookie for a bit before sending the skeletons to search for more hidden shops. This time however, she did not go for the hidden shops herself, and instead returned to the third floor with all the trainers.

Every trainer’s prices were more or less the same, so the best training available was always a 1 hour session for 100 000 tournament points. Sofia thought that surely two or three millions points would not make a difference considering how expensive the items she wanted were in comparison, so she endeavored to take as many of the master level training courses as she could.

To begin with, she walked up to the white-haired elf she had briefly spoken with before, the sprinting trainer.

“Oh, you again,” the elf called out, “here to learn?” she asked.

“I think so yeah, I should have some time until the next event so I’m thinking of going through some training.”

“Good, good. I assume you went for the throne event, right? Typically the Sunless city lasts for five days, so it is fair to say you have some free time in front of you. Me and my colleagues have been wondering though… Where is everyone else? The thrones should have ended an houre ago already, right?”

“Ah… Do the workers not get to spectate the events?”

“Usually we do but this time around the spectator rooms are too full because some big shot is taking their… Oh,” the elf suddenly stopped as she realized something.

“Yeah, sorry,” Sofia apologized.

“Sofia, right? Well, no need to apologize, everyone was pretty excited to receive that alert, though we don’t get too much information on what’s going on usually. We will still get to watch the recordings of the events after everything’s over so it’s not too much of a loss for us not to be able to spectate in real time,” the elf explained.

“Well don’t waste time watching the thrones event… It seems I scared the other competitors enough that no one came to fight me. I just sat on the golden throne and waited for the hour to pass…”

“Are you for real?”

Sofia silently nodded.

“Well shit. And that’s with that freak Tartaros in this time’s contestant pool? I’m pretty sure he went for the thrones every time he was there…”

Uncertain what to even say to that, Sofia just stood there with an awkward smile.

“Hey now that I think about it, you look a lot like that girl from last time, if we look past the horns and the glowing hair. How do you even do that? I wouldn’t mind having hair like that.”

“That would be my sister,” Sofia confirmed, “She’s one of the fakes this time… The hair you can’t easily copy, sorry, it’s from my evolved race. But I reckon some illusion magic could get you there? By the way, I’ve noticed the fakes train here, too, aren’t they just wasting your time?”

“Oh, no. We only actually teach when real trialees come, we have our own imprints taking over otherwise.”

“Woah… Isn’t it weird? Having a fake version of you like that?”

The elf shrugged, “You don’t ever get to interact with your own imprint so it’s not too bad. If they went on to have a life of their own it might be disturbing but they really only exist for a few hours at a time in this fake world so… Right, should we get onto your training? The others are staring.”

“Sure. No reason not to go for the master course, right?”

“The more you pay the more we share our best techniques, but as I said last time, I’m sure you could still learn a thing or two from the cheaper courses, your choice.”

“Alright, master course it is.”

Sofia crossed the last box of her thin bone notepad.

Athletics

☑ Sprinting

☑ Flight

☑ Parkour???

☑ Mana jumping

☑ Swimming

Physical Combat

☑ Grappling

☑ Staff techniques

☑ Strategic blocking

☑ Throwing techniques (done twice)

☑ Hand to hand

☑ Proper tail use

☑ Zero gravity battle & mobility

Magical Combat

☑ Mana tracking

☑ Evasion: targeted spells

☑ Evasion: tracking spells

☑ Evasion: hail spells

☑ Elemental counters

Misc.

☑ Weak points

☑ Counter teleportation

☑ Enchantment disarming

☑ Fortress rituals

☑ Walling

☑ Trapping

☑ Demoliton

☑ Basic of level 300+ monsters

☑ Stone economics

☑ Trading basics & item valuation

☑ Developping new spells crash course

☑ Out of body spellcasting

Three million points gone just like that. These were definitely worth the price… Most of them, at least.

I think I left the trading course more confused than when I got in…

Best value was definitely the throwing class. I’m still shocked I can alter the bolt’s trajectory so much without even modifying the spell… Should I go a third time? Maybe not… I can figure things out, I just need to practice. Maybe I’ll go on the moon train where it won’t harm anyone.

Learning to mana jump was so fun too. Who knew you can do that? Not using any spell just burning mana in a basic projectile propulsion formation to make yourself the projectile… So simple and yet, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone use this… I guess it does make sense because I have a lot of mana to burn, it was quite expensive. Still, what a great tool to have.

And now… What now? I have three more days?

I guess I could check the skill optimizations again. I still haven’t looked at the ones for the choir and graveyard. I could still request a new branch for the unlife runes, too… But maybe I should keep that one for after I know which uniques I’ll get.

Sofia returned to her room, which was empty and silent as even Lepo was not there. After spending a few minutes looking at the calm night ocean through the windows, she placed her hand on the skill optimization device.

[Skills available for guided optimization:

‘Spine of the Black Sun’

‘Graveyard of the Nymphs’

‘False immortality’

‘Skull Choir’

‘Blessing of the Deep’]

Seeing as it was still only five skills available like the previous time, Sofia was about to absentmindedly select the graveyard when she realized something was wrong and had to do a double take on the last line.

What?

Sofia looked around, half expecting to see the Orator or Aphenoreth silently watching her, but everything was as it should. All she could hear was her own breathing, the calm sound of waves hitting the Ark, and the low whirring of the optimization device.

Have the high-scribes lost their mind?!

She selected the blessing.

[Skill : Blessing of the Deep - Skill version index UNREGISTERED]

Current version : 

[Blessing of the Deep] (2 out of 4 essences) : The Saintomancer was granted a name.

They may see inhabitants of the Deep.

The Saintomancer and their summons are immune to the [Mind control], [Hypnosis], [Confusion], [Insanity], [Domination], [Soul Parasite] and [Instant Death] status effects.

[Available branches:

0 - DO YOU BELIEVE - 0TP

0 - IN PREORDAINED FATE  - 0 TP

0 - ALL IS WRITTEN - 0 TP

0 - FREEDOM IS FAKE - 0 TP]

Sofia’s mind blurred as she read the ominous words. She felt herself lose consciousness without being able to fight back. With her last thoughts, she weakly called for a name.

Aphenor…

A cold hand on Sofia’s face obscured her vision. Her previously sluggish thoughts were instantly reawakened, but her body was frozen still. While the hand kept covering her eyes, she heard the unknown voice of a man piercing the deafening silence, whispering in her ear.

I Was Late Again

Sorry, Daughter

This Is The Enemy Of All Things

Forget Its Lies

My Mark Makes You Free

For a few seconds, he stopped talking, before giving his final lines.

You Need Not Fight This Battle

Do What Your Heart Desires

The hand disappeared from Sofia’s face, and time started to flow freely again.