Chapter 646 - Move the needle

“I am taking the commander event,” Kuli said outright when Sofia suggested that everyone should take a different trial for the chance at the most gold stars.

“Right, you should have some experience there,” Sofia agreed, “think you can win?”

“Neh, win I’m not too sure, Xeros is probably going to be there, and I learned from him, but I’m relatively confident I can get at least a third place. Unless one of you really wants to take it, then I can probably do well in the dungeon.”

“I’m fine with both the dungeon and the hunt,” Mornn chimed in, “What’d you want, Sofia?”

“Well… I’m thinking about it. Logically, Ezerid will probably take the Dungeon, he’s got a natural advantage underwater due to his race I would assume. Saria will pick the dungeon also, it’s a great environment for her. Meanwhile I think Tartaros and Happy Cloud are likely to go for the hunt. After the stunt we pulled, whoever goes for the hunt is going to have a huge target on their back….” 

“Sounds about right,” Mornn agreed, “I don’t know if you noticed but Cloud killed his own teammates right away at the start of the last event. They probably agreed on it beforehand, but that was undoubtedly his idea, he’s a ruthless man. No doubt he will go for every opportunity to kill other participants when he can. I can handle him if you and Pareth want to take the dungeon.”

“Let’s do that then. An underwater dungeon isn’t the best but it’s also not too bad for me. Fine with that, Pareth?”

Pareth answered with a silent nod.

“Then we’re all set! Good luck everyone,” Kuli enthusiastically cheered, jumping off from her bed.

Sofia and Pareth followed the instructions given by the system to go for the dungeon event. They found a large group already waiting on the Ark’s upper deck.

As expected, Ezerid was among the people waiting; he immediately noticed Sofia and Pareth, and teleported in front of them.

“So you can use regular teleportation too? You must be a pain to fight,” Sofia said, taking off her helmet.

“So must you be. I’m surprised to see you here. What give you the confidence that you can beat an Andarian on his own turf?”

“When it comes to speed, even if it’s underwater, I am pretty confident. But if you want me to be honest, it might not even be me you have to worry about. My sister is probably going to be here too.”

“So she’s your sister… And you both went in separate teams? Interesting move. She could be a strong contender, yes.”

“Looks like it’s starting,” Sofia said, looking over Ezerid’s shoulder, “Let’s see who gets that gold star.”

“This one is mine,” Ezerid confidently answered, turning around and walking back into the crowd.

In the air, above the ocean, the Andarian Seraph was looking over the participants for the dungeon event, her eyes met Sofia’s, and she smiled lightly.

Welcome, everyone, your participation to the Dungeon Time Attack has been acknowledged. Let me explain the rules.

When you jump off of the Ark, you will be teleported to your dungeon, everyone gets the exact same layout and monsters. You will be timed, and your time ends whenever you kill the Dungeon’s main boss and take possession of the item it is guarding.

You will get tournament points separately from two sources: your overall completion speed, and your place in the rankings among all the participants present here. And as will be the case from now on, Star pins will be distributed to the top three of the rankings.

That is all. Everything is ready, so you can jump off whenever until noon, the timer will start whenever you hit the water.

Oh, and one last thing. All of your skill cooldowns will be reset both at the start and the end of every single one of the Ark’s events going forward, and deaths will usually count as a forfeit for the current event. Act accordingly, and have fun!

With her last words, the seraph disappeared.

Some people jumped in immediately, while most stayed behind for now.

Cooldowns will be reset…

That’s good.

Very good.

My four runes are up. Mana is full. Bookie’s fog is full… And we have time to do some setup if we want to. Now the main question is this: can I clear this dungeon in under five minutes?

I have to take the risk, don’t I?

“Bookie!”

“Yes!” Bookie immediatecly reacted, summoning himself between Sofia and Pareth.

“Do you have enough fog to summon the Dwarf, the flailers, the spinefish, and Pestle?”

“I’m not sure, Sofia… Pestle and the dwarf are really expensive…”

“Alright nevermind then, no demon form this time… Summon Pestle and the fishes.”

“Pestle!”

Bookie summoned the skeletons himself, pulling on Sofia’s mana, Pestle appeared next to him, completely invisible, while hundreds of small carnivorous skeletal fishes appeared flapping on the Ark’s deck, to the surprised of the onlookers.

“What, first time seeing a necromancer?” Sofia asked the other trialees staring at her, prompting many of them to stop looking, those some couldn’t pry away their eyes from the flailing skeletons. One last bigger skeleton appeared afterward, it was a large three meters-long fish with a sword-like protrusion jutting out of its skull, a Saltwater Spinefish, that Sofia had kept for forever in Bookie’s pages just for this kind of occasions.

The skeletons including Pareth and Bookie then all disappeared inside of Sofia’s different storage magic.

I just need to let my mana fill back up, and we’re good to go.

Everyone, here are your orders. The spinefish will be my mount, it’s our fastest way to move underwater. Pareth and Bookie you stay in storage until I tell you to come out, that way the fish can carry all three of us, or come out right away and teleport to me when I need you, up to you. The flailers will be our scouting unity, all five hundred of them spread out as soon as we arrive and explore every corner. Pestle, you’re responsible for killing anything the flailers find, starting from the zone around the entrance, and any other monster that comes at us.

As for the boss… I will take care of it.

Mana is full, time to go.

Sofia was one of the last trialees still on the deck, she looked at the ocean over the Ark’s guardrails.

“I just need to jump off… Hey, miss Seraph, you’re still here, right?”

You can call me Afil. What is it, number one? A lighthearted voice resounded in Sofia’s ears.

“People are watching me right now, is that right?”

Of course.

“Can I ask how many?”

Sofia heard a giggle, and a small system window opened at the side of her vision.

[Live spectator count - Sofia Aphenoreth : 23526]

Holy fuck… You could have just said everyone is watching me. These are all people above level 300? Hell…

“Alright. Who am I to keep them waiting, right? Please enjoy the show, everyone. If any deities are watching, I’m still looking for more divine essences. And if scripture is watching… Go kill youserlf in a ditch, you piece of shit. Thanks,” Sofia said with a wide smile.

Shethen  jumped over the railing, but stopped her fall above the water, braking with a beat of her wings before stepping on the air right above the ocean. She started to compress all of her mana in her mana heart.

The channeling took a few seconds, and when she was about to be completely out of mana, Sofia let herself fall.

As soon as her feet touched the water, Sofia felt the pressure rising around her, she was teleported underwater. The water was cold and salty, and completely flooded the large stone-walled hall she had appeared in. Her own shinyness was the only source of light around, illuminating the colorful coral growing everywhere and the hundreds of exotic fishes swimming in the darkness.

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

[Timer : 00:00.526]

[Awakening of the five calamities], Calamity of Spirits!

Emptying Sofia’s mana up to the last drop, a gigantic skeletal destroyer of gray ghostly flames surged from Sofia’s mana heart, its monstrous scream resonating through the underwater ruins, shaking its walls.

[You have invoked Elöllök, Calamity of Spirits]

‘Remaining lifetime : 50s’.

Find the boss! She ordered the ghostly skeleton, who instantly dove through the floor and disappeared into the depths of the dungeon.

At the same time, she released Pestle and all the fish skeletons except one, that she kept in her left hand. Pareth and Bookie also came out, staying near Sofia for now.

After that, Sofia ate her heart. The transformation was fast, in her demon form, Sofia looked at the time.

[Timer : 00:05.666]

She crushed the skeleton fish in her left hand to absorb its mana with [Heat Death], kickstarting her mana regeneration.

She could already tell from the other fishes’ movements that the dungeon was some kind of inverted tower, the room she was in being at the very top, every skeleton was swimming down. Anchoring herself to the floor with her dragon claw, she extended her mana senses downwards.

Thousands of monsters. A few of them stand out but none feel like a proper boss. We need to go deeper.

Sofia punched a hole through the floor, and the spinefish engulfed itself in it before the debris even cleared out, Sofia holding on to one of its ribs.

As she dived down, she felt Pestle suddenly move much faster than usual, far to her right.

[You have defeated Elite monster 1/3 ‘Anthropomorphous Eel King - Level 299EX’ ten seconds have been subtracted from your timer.]

What? That was one of the stronger presences!

[Timer : -00:01.854]

Good work Pestle! Find the other Elites and kill them, they’re both on lower floors; let us handle the boss.

Sofia kept punching through the floors one by one as her mana slowly crawled back up, and her timer hit zero again.

Multiple traps fired off as she broke through the floors but Sofia was deft enough to avoid all the physical projectiles and could easily [Heat Death] away the magical ones even with the little mana she had. Some monsters attacked her, but Pareth would always teleport right to her and fend the aquatic beasts off with a harpoon of light. Bookie’s ice glove proved to be extremely efficient underwater, instantly freezing over the multiple liquid-shooting traps that spewed out different kinds of poisons and substances into the dungeon’s waters.

Finally, as the timer was about to hit ten seconds, she felt a stronger presence much further below, right as the Destroyer got there. The entire dungeon started quaking.

We must go down faster!

Right at the same time, Pestle killed another Elite monster.

[You have defeated Elite monster 2/3 ‘Young Abyssal Swallower - Level 299EX’ ten seconds have been subtracted from your timer.]

[Timer : 00:00.000]

[Live spectator count - Sofia Aphenoreth : 34553]