Chapter 665 - Check them Specs

In one of the cheaper spectator rooms with hundreds of seats, the crowd was in a serious uproar as the main screen turned white.

Calmer than the others were two avians sitting in a corner.

“Quite the sight to behold…” Eternam commented, “To think I would forget about such a proficient necromancer, and colleague. Truly shameful, yes.”

Zerei cackled from the seat next to him, “And she forgot to fix your memory, she should be the one who’s ashamed, yes? But she has been quite busy… I’ll tell her to go see you after the trial if you want, yes?”

“No, that shall wait,” Eternam rebuted, “considering her performance here… I am sure she will have no time to spare for this old man any time soon, no. Just look at them,” he said, looking down at all the tiered rows of seats below. Reactions were varied, from people being flabbergasted at the sight, to others debating on what had just happened in heated discussions. “No doubt she will receive many an offer and proposals in the near future, yes, necromancer or not.”

Zerei laughed again, “No need for you to worry about that, no. Not many necromancers around, you might not remember but you used to talk a lot when she was a teacher, yes. Sofia is not the kind to shun her friends, no.”

In the room of the lich tea party, the screens all showed the same pure white light.

“D- Does anyone understand what just happened?” a bear-skeleton lich asked, scratching his skull.

“After the King died, I’ve not the faintest clue,” a female skeleton answered, “Richard? You have the better understanding of the system among us all, any ideas?”

“Hmm… It looks like to me that some parameters of the trial changed when she hit the core with Anna’s key. But there is only so much one can see through a screen… After that she used the storage eye prototype I gave her to steal the core. That should not work, on several levels, but it did. And my guess is that the instance crashed due to the sudden displacement of its core into the margin, which isn’t fully simulated for mana efficiency. She must be stuck in that white void still,” he explained to the other liches.

“The seraphs must be at their wit’s end right now,” another skeleton wearing dark robes snickered, “even the room transfers have just been shut down. We’re stuck here unless we disconnect completely.”

In yet another private room, a small group was waiting for an old Dwarf to speak.

The tension was palpable as he confirmed his findings. “It’s the toybox,” he announced, “I am sure of it. It was faint, but I felt the freeze.”

“Really?!” the youngest of the group asked, shock in her voice, “How? You don’t mean to say she got past the guardian like you did, right?!”

“I have no clue,” the old dwarf answered with a stifled laugh, “I’m tempted to say she would not survive that trip, but it is clear that person is not to be underestimated. Her name is worrying enough even without the deep magic.”

A tall elf in almost integral mithrium armor paced back and forth in the room, a frown on his face, he stopped and turned to the old dwarf, “We should recruit her and her skeletons... No, we HAVE to recruit them,” he confidently said, “They could be a great asset to the cause!”

“They could probably survive the expeditions like me!” the youngest member rejoiced, “ And I’d no longer have to go alone!”

“Others might have recruited her already. The sheer amount of divine essence she carries is honestly baffling,” the old dwarf noted, “Nonetheless, it would indeed be a great boon for us to have more people able to go on expeditions, our time runs short…”

“But how do we convince her to join our side?” the younger one asked.

“I have an idea, Sonia,” the elf said, staring at the white screen, “We’ll have you give her the location of another mirror as an incentive for joining. She’s almost certain to be interested, and we can gauge whether she is trustworthy and truly capable of surviving an expedition.”

“You still have doubts after what you just witnessed?” a fourth member who had been silent until now asked from the side, “the crown alone is proof enough in my eyes,” he told the others, “ask any other Orc, Victory’s approval is no laughing matter.”

Sofia was stuck as nothing but a thin stream of consciousness in an endless white void, the constant notification of error messages ringing in her mind for only company.

Finally achieving what I set out to do. This should net some real points!

Hopefully…

That’s got to be an historic first, right? Maybe not the longest survival time, though… But I doubt anyone else ever managed to ‘kill’ the god. Even the Queen gave no bonus time, it’s safe to say she wasn’t supposed to die at all, it’s basically certain she never did. Until now.

Suddenly the stream of error messages stopped.

Oh! Is it about time I get an earful from the Seraphs for breaking everything?

[EVENT: Unavoidable death - Awakening of the slumbering god, HUMANELY OBLITERATED!]

I guess not? That doesn’t look like the usual message…

[Unavoidable death - Awakening of the slumbering god : Event historical rankings]

‘By default, only your score and 4 closest ranks will be displayed, you may search through the full rankings at your own leisure in your system logs’

[Rank 1 - Sofia Aphenoreth & Pareth (twin ruleset) - Time : NO]

[Rank 2 - Jewel of Truth - Time : 12:42]

[Rank 3 - Saria Aphenoreth - Time : 08:26]

[Rank 4 - Sen - Time : 08:16]

[Rank 5 - Sonia Rotfallen - Time : 07:59]

[Detailed results:

Tier 2 event - Maximum point reward : 145 000 000 TP

Time breakdown: NO 

Actual survival time (including bonus): 8:12

Time reward (Assuming infinite time) : 145 000 000 TP

Hidden reward: ‘Take the Queen’ : 55 000 000 TP

Hidden reward: ‘I am the god now’ : 100 000 000 TP

Hidden reward: ‘Beat you at your own game’ : 1 TP

Hidden reward: ‘Totally fair human-only reward’ : 1 Message

Total earned : 300 000 001 TP]

‘Placement : top 0%’

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

‘You have received : Folded piece of paper *1!’

‘You have received 300 000 001 tournament points!’

‘Current balance : 368 587 021 points’

Finally some capital P POINTS! Now we’re talking!

No wonder the results came so quickly, it looks like even this kind of thing was within the expectations of the admins. 

Humanely obliterated, totally fair human-only reward… I assume the human admin had a lot of fun setting this up. I did learn from the unique titles that he bet a human would be the first to take Victory’s crown, so this kind of thing isn’t all that surprising, I suppose? Even if I’m not really human anymore…

I wish I could read that ‘message’ but I’m still stuck…

Looking at the names… Jewel of truth dominating again, though I beat him for a second time. But damn, almost thirteen minutes… Saria also did well, and Sen too, no wonder he was valuable enough to end up working as a Seraph. He might actually be the strongest human alive, since the admin is gone.

Well... Richard is there too but he’s not alive alive. And maybe there are some more level 500 humans that I never heard of. Hmm.

And lastly, Sonia Rotfallen… This name rings a bell too…

After a quick search, Sofia found the name again in her logs, that person had ranked current third and historic twelfth in the dungeon time attack.

I see… Must be one of the fakes this time. That winged beast woman who took room 5, maybe? I should try to ask her name if I find the time.

Ahh… Finally I can relax a little. With so many points I can buy the Awakening Pill and the Specialization point right away.

I’m quite certain of what I want to do with that specialization now, but I need to get another fusion ticket first. I’ll buy the pill as soon as I’m back to the Ark and search for another one of the hidden shops. The only issue is that the new skill might not be specializable right away if my ‘comprehension’ is too low. I’m so used to the two skills, though, it’s hard to believe I wouldn’t master the fusion right away. It will probably be fine…

It took about half an hour for Sofia and Pareth to be sent back to their room in the Ark. There was no one there to welcome them, not even the Odon shopkeeper to sell her the pill nor the Seraphs to comment on her performance, so Sofia wasted no time and returned to the hidden shop right away.

‘You have spent 100 000 000 tournament points’

‘Current balance : 268 587 021 points’

‘You have received : Specialization point (Passive) *1!’

Sofia bought her third specialization while Pareth bought his ‘first’.

“Eheheh. Finally! I should just check the details before I commit to a skill fusion though… Let’s see…”

[Skill specialization point (Passive)] : This reward for completing the fourth level of a hidden shop event is not to be used lightly. This will be your third and last specialization. Use it to permanently imprint a known passive skill in your entire being. 

The chosen specialization will have different effects depending on your chosen ancestry. 

Item level : -1.

Grade : Virtual

[Please pick an ancestry for you specialization]

“Wait wait wait! I’m not ready yet!”