Mornn
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Chapter 738 - Rags to Richards
🕑 Added 2025-08-14 15:00:19 +0000 UTCAs the world faded to black, Nex muted the sound of the many agitated watchers.
“Sorry to interrupt, but this concludes this installment of the tournament Ark. Despite the circumstances, the usual post-Ark rules apply, so please mind your actions from now on, as I will personally be enforcing security. Additionally, you will soon receive notice of the relaxed hero-world censorship that will be applied from now on. We thank you for your mostly orderly conduct so far.”
With a swipe of the admin’s finger, the watchers were all sent back to their respective spectator rooms.
A bunch of skeletons appeared around a table, steaming teacups in front of each of them.
“Quite the spectacle,” Richard commented, slouching in his seat, “And I got to enjoy it for free too. I ought to repay that at some point.”
“My wallet is bleeding,” the bear skeleton lich complained, “I doubt you need to repay anything, they must be filthy rich now.”
“Oh the profits have to be of a few old stones at least, yes,” Richard confirmed, “Love must be drooling as she counts her share right now… Something on your mind Irina? You looks troubled.”
“I- I have a proposal.”
“Hmm?”
“If the girl herself is not interested… We should recruit the book.”
The bear lich leaned over the table, “Does he count? We can’t start bending the rules now.”
“I’m pretty sure he does!” Irina argued, “From the looks of it the book itself is the phylactery, he’s definitely a Lich!”
“That would be your youngest member ever, but any Lich over level 300 with an invitation does qualify…” the bear said, “Rich, thoughts?”
“I suppose I shall bring the topic up next time I see her. She will be busy, though.”
“That she definitely will…” Irina agreed, “I doubt she’s ready for what she got herself into.”
“She has been through the Deep and back,” Richard said with a shrug, “I doubt this much is something she can’t handle.”
The bear Lich stared at Richard, the flames in his eyesockets lightly wavering, “I know that look, rotten old bones. You’re sending a Red Carpet team, aren’t you?”
Two dark-skinned humans appeared in a tiny private room.
“Kalla,” the man immediately called out, “About the delegation-”
The woman put a hand on the man’s mouth, but the man kept speaking anyway.
“You should go with them.”
Kalla rolled her eyes.
“Fine… Anything else?”
“I’m heading out first, I’ll prepare a congratulations gift for you to bring.”
“Why don’t you just go yourself if you’re that interested?”
The man shook his head, “You know why. Nolla alone isn’t enough to defend.”
“Tssk.”
I many spectator rooms, similar scenes played out.
Meanwhile, Sofia and Pareth appeared in a white void.
[Due to the sensitive nature of your rewards, you have been transported to a safe space.]
“Hey partner. Welcome back”, Sofia said with a smile as her body slowly transformed back to her regular Lumian form, “Were you able to watch the end?”
Pareth nodded.
“Oh, good. I feared you might not have. That would have been bad. Close call this one. Had you not finished the second one off I would have probably gotten surrounded.”
Sofia had more to say, but her train of thought was interrupted by a new notification.
[You have received hidden reward - Jin’s Earth Language Compendium: English; French; Spanish; Russian; Modern Chinese; Japanese; Korean]
“Oh! So that’s why I could understand them at the end. Figured. Seven languages… You received that too?”
Once again Pareth nodded.
“Me too!” Bookie chimed in, summoning himself.
“So we all got it? Nice. Probably won’t be too useful, but I can see some uses. I still have those old notes from Jin’s Cerberus house in my ring somewhere. It was one of the weird rune-like languages. Japanese I think?”
Again she was interrupted by a new notification.
[Objective 1: Survive until I expire |COMPLETE| - Reward secured: Gold Star Pin & 500 000 000 TP]
“Good to know this was accounted for. The system is being a bit slow today it looks like,” Sofia commented.
“It’s probably because there were so many people watching!” Bookie guessed.
“That and I’m sure Earth’s simulation was quite something to get working, too. Right, how’s Pestle?”
“Pestle is sleeping!” Bookie said enthusiastically, “She’s dreaming about food, I think. Is your awakening all done, Sofia?”
“All done yes. It got completed fairly early into the fight against Lilith, actually. The first big explosion in the desert had already pushed it forward a lot.”
“That’s a relief… Do we get to buy the master items now?!”
“One thing at a time Bookie, more notifications are coming, I think.”
[Accounting complete]
Accounting?
[You will receive the following proceeds from your spectator ticket sales (each sufficient denomination has been traded up):
48 Copper coins
3 Silver coins
84 247 Gold
2 Tiny Stones
7 Small Stones
9 Stones
4 Old Stones]
[You may now request currency exchange. Coins, Ingots and Stones available.]
Sofia’s eyes widened as the read the system window.
“We’re rich!” she exclaimed, grabbing Bookie and throwing herself into Pareth’s arms.
Wait, Ingots! Can I… Buy Mithrium? What price is it?!
[Mithrium Ingot (100g) - 1 Stone]
Oh. That’s… A hundred thousand gold a gram?
After a few seconds, she let go of the hug.
“Guys… We can buy almost five kilograms of Mithrium…”
“Do we even need that much?!” Bookie asked, in shock.
“We could use more, actually,” Sofia answered, “But I don’t think it’s very wise to use all of our money like that. That being said, this might be a unique chance to buy so much Mithrium in bulk…”
Exchange two old stones for Mithirum, and 3 stones for Mithril.
[Old Stone (2) has been exchanged for - Mithrium Ingot (100g 20)]
[Stone (3) has been exchanged for - Mithril Ingot (10g 300 000)]
[You have closed the currency exchange. Currency will be delivered to you after you exit the Ark.]
“Alright… I just bought two kilograms of Mithrium… And three tons of Mithril…”
Bookie’s lower jaw fell to the floor with a clank.
“You know… For once I almost think you’re under-reacting,” Sofia said with a giggle as she bent over to pick up Bookie jaw and place it back where it belonged.
“THREE TONS!”
“That’s right. Honestly I would have bought more, but I gotta think of the storage space. And we probably won’t be using that much in a good while anyway, even if a lot if going to go to my new leveling box.”
“I think I need to sleep also…” Bookie said, returning back to his book form.
“Alright alright, rest well, you deserve it. Want to rest too, Pareth? No? Too excited for the other rewards? Well I’m with you on that. Any minute now…”
A lone wooden box appeared between Sofia and Pareth without a sound.
Oh?
Sofia crouched down and opened the box, it contained a paper note with a few scribbled words, and two items.
‘Handler will send you the real ones once you wake up, but here’s a preview. I hope you enjoyed your little trip on earth, whoever you are - Jin’
Sofia picked up the two items, the mithrium key, and the red tear-shaped gem.
Ah… The item description is in… Korean? I can read it but it feels a bit strange.
[Jin’s second spare key]: The password is ‘SoWon-Erika-Lilith-Anna’
Insert in any door’s keyhole.
Turn right to unlock the door.
Turn left to access the penthouse.
Sofia shared the window with Pareth.
“Looks like we just inherited a new house?”
Pareth scratched his middle skull.
“Yeah I know we already have Zangdar and a city to build. But well. One more can’t be bad. Looks like it’s supposed to be able to open any lock, too, if I’m not misinterpreting the description. Good to have around, next time we find a cursed chest we can just unlock it properly.”
Pareth’s attention quickly switched to the gem. Sofia was also burning with impatience, feeling the gem she was holding already liking with her mana, its power spreading through her body from just touching it.
“Alright. Moment of truth. Was this extra challenge truly worth the effort?”
Sofia quickly translated and read the description.
Lords.
[The philosopher’s stone]: The brightest miracles and darkest tragedies all have one thing in common: humanity’s relentless drive to create change. Yet, one thing they wished was eternal.
Water purified by the philosopher’s stone may be used to cure all diseases and fully heal anyone under level 200. Can bring back the recently passed if conditions are right.
While wearing the philosopher’s stone, you are immune to all negative status.
Upon death, the philosopher’s stone shall grant you a powerful new life, once.
Can only be destroyed by its creator, or the final death of it’s wearer.
Restriction: Born human.
Mr.Scribe’s note: Unlife runes will not trigger it. While indestructible, it is easy to lose.
Immune to all.
ALL?!!!
EVEN THE BLESSING OF THE DEEP IS CONDITIONAL! WHAT ALL?!
“I need to try something,” Sofia said, before putting the tiny gemstone in her mouth.
Pareth seemed to sight, but he did not try to stop Sofia when she sliced through her own neck with her dagger.
With her mana heart in her head, Sofia watched her health drop, as she had technically just lost her entire body. The skin of her head cracked, letting bloodlight go through. He health dropped down to about twenty percent. Using her aura, she moved her head around by pushing on her skull.
Her lip slowly drew a wide smile.
[Pillar of Creation] can no longer stop me from moving.
Sofia let her head fall back on her neck, and her passive healing immediately reconnected everything. Sofia spat back the gem into her hand.
“The runes! I don’t have them on right now… But they can’t prevent me from healing anymore, can they?! This is INSANE!”
Pareth nodded in agreement.
“Hey. It’s pretty clear I should be the one to use it most of the time but…”
Sofia held the gem out in front of Pareth. “Try.”
Pareth gently grabbed the philosopher’s stone. It seemed to respond to his mana just as well as it did Sofia’s. “Eheh. Well, the shape of your soul already said as much, but now we have confirmation that you are 100% human before being a skeleton, mister demigod.”
Pareth seemed to find the idea amusing, but he quickly passed the gem back to Sofia.
“It feels a bit bad to take the rewards for myself you know.”
Pareth shook his head, and grabbed the key.
“Pfft. I know you don’t really care about it either way, but thanks for considering my feelings. Keep the key then,” Sofia said with a bright smile. “Now all that’s left should be the regular event results, right? About time we got that tenth pin! The Perfect Run is ours!”
Comments
Jaimy Nijenhuis
That's why Mr. Scribe added the note that it could be easily lost. They're *also* keenly aware of Sofia's tendency to... lose her head.
Tejing
Heh, I could see Bookie joining the lich's club. He'd probably demand Sofia be made an honorary member or something, though. Then again, it wouldn't surprise me if they have some provision for non-lich permanent partners or something. Earth languages... doesn't seem overly useful, but understanding those papers she picked up or other stuff left by Jin or other Heroes may make it very useful at some point. What's her TP at now? I lost track. I do feel like it's probably less than I was hoping, though. I don't think she can afford 3 Tournament Master items. Hopefully there's still a "main TP reward" for this event to go. Hmm, so I guess we have enough info now to relate the currencies with a fair degree of confidence: 1 silver coin = 100 copper coins 1 gold going = 100 silver coins 1 Tiny stone = 100k gold coins 1 Small stone = 10 Tiny stones 1 Stone = 10 Small stones 1 Old Stone = 10 Stones Ok, the philosopher's stone is awesome. Seriously awesome. She just got a zero-downsides solution to at least three of her biggest current issues with her build (spatial lock at low health, health/stamina gain through unlife runes, lust effect when using the avatar skill), and a really broad protection against a lot of problematic enemy abilities, all in one go. Then there's the vague phrase "powerful new life"... powerful how? I feel like there might be more behind that... also I wonder if she could put it in the [Tournament Master’s trinketeer belt] and get the resurrection ability to be applied repeatedly? She definitely needs a foolproof way to not lose it, though. The philosopher's stone does now overlap with some of her best abilities, though, like [Blessing of the Deep]. I wonder if the Lords will adjust it to make it more useful again? Corrections: And I got to enjoy it for free too. free -> free, Something on your mind Irina? You looks troubled.” mind -> mind, looks -> look That would be your youngest member ever, your -> our (from context, this seems like what he must have meant) I many spectator rooms, similar scenes played out. I -> In Close call this one. call -> call, Exchange two old stones for Mithirum, Mithirum -> Mithrium as she bent over to pick up Bookie jaw Bookie -> Bookie's even if a lot if going to go to my new leveling box. lot if -> lot is feeling the gem she was holding already liking with her mana liking -> linking Pareth seemed to sight, but he did not try to stop Sofia sight -> sigh He health dropped down to about twenty percent. He -> Her Her lip slowly drew a wide smile. lip -> lips
Rocinante
I many spectator rooms, In many...
Cyclone001
Actually, the best place to install the gem is Sofia's crown. Was just thinking about this earlier
Emily Gurnavage
Maybe the crown can be modified to hold the stone? *Someone* made it in the first place, after all. And she has Godly connections.
Emily Gurnavage
Well, that key wouldn't have been made till after he was on this new planet long enough to get powerful already. So maybe SoWon and Erika are his daughters, while Lilith and Anna are others who were important to him?
Kennyevilmonkey
If the stone can't be soulbound, losing it or getting it stolen is a serious issue. Best way around this would probably be to have her staff hold it as its new catalyst, or to get her dragon scale gauntlet refitted with a slot to securely hold it for her.
Cyclone001
At least we know a bit of the reason for the censor. Spoilers for the trial (and complete unfair advantage for Earth's heroes).
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Cyclone001
I see Jin didn't take any basic cybersecurity courses. I assume SoWon is his Earth wife? Kinda weird to put his Mistress into the list, but that does explain Anna a bit.
Greg Johnston
Great ending. I’m excited to see how crazy everything gets for her in the real world after this. I imagine her new town will either be full of fans from this
steamrick
>[Jin’s second spare key]: The password is ‘SoWon-Erika-Lilith-Anna’ Are these Jin's daughters? I know that the goddess admin is called Anna, but it's hardly an uncommon name.
JasmijnHamster
Really fun chapter. Loved it! How many skills does she have which give negative statuses? It's a lot right? Also no longer angry and horny Zeus form I guess
The Arcane Emperor
I wonder if the stone can also prevent the system censor from affecting Sofia.
Matt Grayson
>Huh, wonder if that's the Cerberus Beta apartment. Penthouse?
Matt Grayson
Handy for spell retrieval!
Matt Grayson
11:00 on the nose. Someone comes to the door. Had to wait an HOUR to read this. Oh, Sof. It's a good start! And Bookie is going to be one Kick-ass Lich! Next time: System awards her an "I win" button. She responds. "No thanks, I have better."
Amythyst
Immunity to negative status... Wasn't the Leviathan's aura purely a pile of negative statuses?
Mornn
Yes, the fight is absolutely and completely over :D
DX
I many spectator rooms -> In many spectator rooms
Emily Gurnavage
THE TITLE CHANGED! Is it finally safe to binge this whole Earth fight in one go? I realize most chapters always end on a cliff of some sort, and that there is a whole week on the Ark still and prize stuff to go over surely, but at least the fight is over entirely, yes?
Tom Asciola
Philo stone acquired. Went expected an entire multi-language package, but it makes sense. Now I'm itching to see Sofia try to talk to various earth heroes in their native tongue just to see their surprise
Chance Rose
Great item, but i dont know how well it will work with her tendency to..... misplace her body.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! So Sofia has finally unlocked her greatest restrictions. Seems like this largely resolves issues related to high level fights going forward. I wonder if Sofia can somehow get the system to lock it to her person like the crown. That would truly remove her restrictions in that case.
Mornn
Does not work :p
Mornn
what meatsuit, he's still a skeleton you know? x.x
ff8otaku
Thanks for the chapter. The key is overpowered...^^
Crashutopia
Pareth could have said his first word, if he tried with the stone.
OmniGlitcher
Thanks for the chapter! Yeah I figured the censor would be a bit moot after all this. Neat though. Sofia speaking to Alith in French will be very funny if she does it. Nice to see the reactions of the others too. >“Alright… I just bought two kilograms of Mithrium… And three tons of Mithril…” Okay Sofia. :P >Turn left to access the penthouse. Huh, wonder if that's the Cerberus Beta apartment. >[Pillar of Creation] can no longer stop me from moving. >The runes! I don’t have them on right now… But they can’t prevent me from healing anymore, can they?! Oh. Oh no. >Eheh. Well, the shape of your soul already said as much, but now we have confirmation that you are 100% human before being a skeleton, mister demigod.” Huh. Well I suppose it makes sense? Weird how that works though.
Songy
Oh, right, the Philosopher's Stone. Because our favorite blonde cockroach needed even more abilities to survive things no sane entity should be able to survive. Well, it checks out then (–⩊–) Also, no description of Pareth's meatsuit? With Sof being the PoV, it might be understandable that she doesn't care because we all know she has a calcium-fetish, but still :P
Mornn
It's not even written yet x.x
Dan N
Pareth's Private Penthouse is my new favorite spell. Between the sweet new digs and his striking fashion sense the dude is going to be such a playbone.
Mornn
Nope
Vorpal Corporal
Wonder if Pareth could use it to talk?
Endicar
If I slip you a crisp 20 can I have tomorrows chap now?
Mornn
Alas, it's a limitation of his being, not a status :p
Clara
For a second there I was hoping the stone would also remove the "Pareth can't talk" restriction lol
