Chapter 647 - Still on the job

Sofia kept going down as fast as she could, breaking floor after floor like this was not a dungeon but a demolition job, and in just a few seconds, she finally entered the final boss’ abyssal chamber.

The monster was a gigantic water snake, as large as the Destroyer, with tough scales and constantly casting a barrage of underwater lightning attacks. It fought with the ghostly skeleton, both of them suffering some heavy damage already, but not nearly enough to bring either of them down.

This thing has to be over level 300.

To kill such an enormous and swift monster, it would be quite hard, just like it was when Sofia killed the original destroyer, she would probably need to destroy multiples of the snake’s vitals, or to break its mana heart.

[Timer : 00:04.058]

It should be fine if I don’t move, right?

[Paradise Toybox]

Sofia had been waiting to use her trump card at a key moment. Since it allowed her to see through things, rather than using it to roughly map out the dungeon at the start, this was a much more discreet use. All she needed was an instant to locate the boss’ mana heart, and hopefully none of the thirty five thousand watchers would notice anything.

This proved to be a good idea, as the colossal snake’s mana heart was lost somewhere in the middle of its body, where it would have been very hard to find. In the short moment she spent in the stopped time, Sofia also clearly noticed the strong presence of ‘the item’ the monster was guarding, which was something she couldn’t quite make out which was stuck inside of its mouth.

Pareth, chains! Sofia ordered as soon as the stopped time ended.

As the boss was too busy avoiding the Destroyer’s incessant attacks, it had yet to noticed Sofia, Pareth and Bookie. While Sofia dove down to the monster, Pareth used his [Chains of the four seals]. The four golden chains of light shooting out from the nearby coral-covered walls, and tightly wrapping around the struggling creature.

The Destroyer took the opportunity to sink its ghostly mandibles in the snake’s throat, snapping the monster’s spine in an instant.

Sofia used [Summon Self] to teleport down, appearing right next to the snake’s half-severed head. 

[Timer : 00:05.561]

Take the item in its mouth! She communicated to Pareth who had just teleported to her, while she grabbed the snake’s spine with both hands. The bone was large like a tree trunk, and since the snake was too long for her to influence its bones all the way to its mana heart with [Bone Dominus], she opted for a different strategy than usual. In an instant, she widened the monster’s spine, and plunged inside of it. She did not even need to severe the nerves thick like her arms, as the Destroyer’s first attack had already done so, she simple followed the spine down, enlarging the space as she went, carving her way through the monster’s body. Her descent was swift, and when she was at the level of the mana heart, she felt its mana even through the flesh and bones.

[Timer : 00:08.753]

In her demon form, she activated [Runeforged Overlord] with the little mana she still had for any bit of speed and strength she could get, and punched her way through the spine. Her punch did not reach quite far enough, so Sofia had to plunge her hand further into the flesh. At last she felt it, the snake’s mana heart, a deceptively small cube-shaped crystal. Sofia’s hand closed, and the dragon scale claws crushed the monster’s life away.

[You have defeated ‘Guardian of the blade’ - Level 349 (349 - timer minutes)]

[Timer : 00:09.426]

Sofia looked through Pareth’s eyes, he was inside of the creature’s mouth, his skeletal hand hovering above a curved blade’s handle. The blade was stuck inside the roof of the dead snake’s mouth, all Pareth had to do was to grab the item, and both clear conditions would be achieved, but his hand did not move. He was waiting, waiting for a fairy.

[You have defeated Elite monster 3/3 ‘Dead ship canonneer’ - Level 299EX’ ten seconds have been subtracted from your timer.]

Pareth’s skeletal fingers finally closed, and he pulled the blade out of the creature’s palate.

[EVENT: Dungeon Time Attack - Sea-lost adventure, COMPLETE!]

[Live spectator count - Sofia Aphenoreth : 38201]

In Sun’s VIP spectator room there were only two people watching the screens. A deep voice resonated in the room, “What in the seven realms did I just watch?”

“That is quite the neat timer,” Sun answered, “I expected nothing less.”

“Zero seconds… Is that a new record?”

“No, read that again. It’s not even zero seconds, it’s better than that.”

“Oh, fuck.”

“See? I told you! Everyone is still looking at me like a lunatic for giving her five essences, but when the Deep does the scouting for you, this is what you end up with! And I get to watch that show every day from the comfort of my couch! Who’s laughing now?!”

“Ah! But you ARE a lunatic, Sun,” the deep voice clapped back, “Yet I doubt anyone still questions your judgement. Outside of that fringe group anyway. Do we believe Scripture is actually watching?”

“Undoubtedly, you know him. He must be utterly fuming in some dingy private room.”

“Hmm… With how you’ve described things, I am surprised he hasn’t killed her yet. As he truly fallen that far?”

“Water… Water… You have spent far too much time playing around with your wife, you should keep up with the recent happenings a bit more. He has been trying to get rid of her, obviously, but she has the protection of the Lords, and quite a few powerful connections, now. He cannot make reckless moves anymore.”

“She does have you on her side. On could hardly wish for a better ally, these days. It wouldn’t be your first time purging one of us either.”

“These days are behind me… As for allies, that is not even the half of it, brother, Erredis took her under her wing, so to say, and you know how many people are still loyal to her even after everything.”

“That Dragon… Well, there is hardly a more fitting holder for her. It just pains me to think of the troubles this might cause me later down the line…”

“Cause you troubles?” Sun asked, “Oh, because of Speed?”

“So you are also aware.”

“Of course, she carries around a fifth of myself in case you fucking forgot. There is hardly anything concerning her that I am not aware of, aside from her meetings with them, which are inscrutable as ever.”

“For the best, in my opinion. And yes, if she seriously gets together with Speed, this will technically make me distant ‘family’ with the moon guardian, won’t it? How troublesome…”

“About time you and Moon reconciled anyway, It’s annoying having to juggle between the two of you. You’re both as old as I am, isn’t it time to stop acting like damn kids?”

“Sun, you know very well how it is…”

Sofia and all other skeletons found themselves in a wide and completely empty white space.

“What’s this?”

“Did we break something?” Bookie asked, looking around, “It’s all white.”

“Ah, no, I just got a few notifications, look at this one,” Sofia told Bookie, sharing the system prompts.

[Congratulations on completing the event! You have been transported to a waiting room while we review your performance and await for all participants to complete the event. In the meantime, you may say the name of your teammates out loud to spectate their current event if they are still ongoing.]

Bookie read the message and immediately came up with a request, “I want to watch Kuli!”

A large screen appeared in the white void. The guildmaster’s event had just begun, she was currently walking through a military camp, walking into one tent after another, recruiting dwarves.

“Why you do think she picked dwarves instead of elves?” Bookie asked Sofia, “I would have picked elves!”

“You can ask her later. But let’s see, elves are naturally born slightly higer level, even if not by much… Maybe she just picked dwarves because she’s the same size and know how to best fight when you’re short? I’m not sure what their racial traits and drawbacks are beyond appearance, actually, I kind of just never asked.”

“Can’t we just ask my skeletons? We have a dwarf and elves,” Bookie suggested.

“You forget none of them is able to speak. We could ask Pestle about fairies though. She might even know about the other races too. Pestle?” Sofia asked, looking up at the direction of the invisible flying skeleton.

The little invisible fairy grumbled, and dispelled her invisibility.

“Speak weird. Embarrassing…” she complained.

“Is that why you are not speaking much? Come on, none of us care, Pestle, you’ll learn faster if you talk with us, you already understand everything quite well too.”

“Understand easy. Speak no easy,” Pestle continued her complaining, flying around in the white void. After some hesitation, under the weight of everyone’s gaze, she reluctantly started to explain what she knew, “Race understand easy. Fae aura, but very spread,” she explained opening her arms wide, “control no easy.”

“So you don’t really control the corruption? That can’t be very practical for everyday life… What about the other high races?” Sofia asked.

“Dragon very hard kill, but slow grow, very no egg,” Pestle explained, “Kelpra very strength, all klepra hear all klepra, but lot klepra very not smart. Klepra smart, very danger.”

“That’s… Quite worrying, actually… A race of world-endingly strong dumb giant insects… No wonder nobody wants to have anything to do with them…” Sofia commented, “Right, do you know anything about the Leviathan?”

Pestle’s jaw opened and closed a few times as she seemed to think about what to say, in the end she only said two words, her voice trembling a little, “Levatan kill.”

Seeing everyone silent, she continued, “Dragon kill. Klepra kill. Fae kill. God kill. Everyone kill.”

“Alright… I think that’s enough… Thanks, Pestle.”

“Wait wait! What about the elves and dwarves?!” Bookie asked, mildly annoyed that the original question had been skipped.

“Easy understand,” Pestle told Bookie, flying up to his face, “Elf very smart, body very strength, very weapon! Magic very no easy.”

“That’s it?” Sofia reacted, “Not so surprising I suppose, it’s true that most elves I’ve met all had very physical-oriented classes… And the dwarves?”

“Darf very everything. All strength…” Pestle started.

“But?” Sofia filled in.

“Very…” Pestle started, searching for her words, “Very…” She struggled, not finding the word she wanted, so she started mimicking it instead, putting both of her hands to the side of her eyes to obstruct the sides of her vision. “Very!”

“Do they have vision problems?” Bookie asked.

“No!” Pestle answered frustrated, “Very… Very… Very addiction!” she finally exclaimed, finding a semi-fitting word. “Very very addiction! Smart no, all addiction!”

I’m going to need a translator for this one…

What started as spectating Kuli ended up becoming a language class for Pestle. The poor fairy was completely mentally spent by the time the wait was over, and she was the most excited to finally escape her lumian teacher to receive the event’s results, more than Sofia herself.