Mornn
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Chapter 696 - Rare useless bones
🕑 Added 2025-06-17 16:00:14 +0000 UTCWhen all participants were ready, the door opened, leading to a small round room with a circular platform in the center.
Sofia looked up. No ceiling, blue sky, looks like we’re some fifty meters underground?
Pareth stepped on the platform and Sofia followed. With the sound of spinning gears and grinding metal, the platform slowly started going up.
It feels so strange to have all of my magic shut off…
I feel heavy.
Even my mana senses are stunted, it’s really like I’m back to my Orphan days… Even my racial skills are gone I think… But the physical transformations are still there.
“I wonder if my wings will work. They might, right? Like, they wouldn’t clip an Avian’s wings, surely?”
Without her mana senses and with no space to open her wings, she couldn’t tell whether they were functional or not, but they were still there and she could move them.
[Please stay on your platform]
Alright? Strange message to get out of nowhere.
The platform slowly reached the surface. There, Sofia observed the starting location of the event.
So that’s ‘Lobby 1’. This isn’t going to be easy.
Tartaros, Sen, Saria, Ezerid, Happy cloud, and more, every strong contender was present. That was ‘lobby 1’ the strongest member from each of the strongest teams. They were all on similar round platforms at ground level, placed in a large circle in the middle of a clearing surrounded by forest. The platforms were about ten meters apart from their two neighbors, and at the center of the clearing was a pillar of white stone about three meters high with a floating golden rotating key above it.
A key. So the ‘unlockers’ are literal keys? At least it’s easy to understand. There’s only one here. I wonder who will get it. Let’s see…
My fake sister took the spear, Happy cloud has a bow. That winged beastwoman from room 5 also has a bow. The others… It looks like a lot of people took the speed potion.
Let’s see… If we get the first unlocker… Pareth can unlock his stamina or strength depending on how it works, and we start a massacre. I could also get my mana but that’s a dangerous bet, if wildcasting is locked we’re dead.
It’s probably best to give up on this one. All of those who picked a speed potion will have to fight it out to get the unlocker, and if I and Pareth go in there, especially taking double damage, this could end up very badly. There are no rules against teaming up. Saria might side with me, but even that isn’t certain because of the gold star pins. Everyone is bound to attack us, be it because of the pin or just because we’re the strongest contenders. Eliminating us early is without a doubt the best strategy, they might even form temporary alliances just to get rid of us.
Yeah, Pareth, I think we both get half of the speed potion and escape into the forest as soon as the event start. That’s our best bet. Fighting here is just too dangerous. We just have to hope the person who gets the first unlocker won’t immediately chase after us.
Pareth silently nodded, he seemed to be of the same mind. Sofia nodded back and nervously caressed Bookie at her side. The poor skeleton was locked into his book form and could not even be opened currently.
The participants all eyed the unlocker and each other, all ready to start at a moment’s notice. But instead of a signal to start, someone they couldn’t see started talking.
“Hello everyone! I hope everyone is ready! I’m your lovely host, Love herself! Presenting this new edition of the LAST! MAN! STANDING!”
Another, more familiar voice sounded next, “And I– Am Er’Gakk! Today We Will Be Spectating Lobby One!”
“That’s right! It’s a special day! We’ve never had so many viewers at once, and I understand them! This edition is PACKED with some of our strongest imprints and contestants! Who is everyone betting on? Let’s do a quick round up of this edition’s four, or five, real participants!”
“First Is Merinda.” Er’gakk announced, a bright light golden shining on one of the platforms.
Oh, that tall dwarf, I remember her, she was in the final sixty last event. Couldn’t have guessed she was real… It looks like the fakes aren’t reacting at all to the announcers. It’s only me, Ezerid, and that vampire looking at Merinda.
“A serious contestant!” Love commented, “Coming straight from the dwarven isles, and with a SS rank mana heart sponsored by Taxes, she performed admirably so far despite being outshined by other contestants. She secured an historic 19th for her team in the casino event, best of luck for this event, Merinda!”
The dwarf nervously bowed, seeming to relax a bit as the spotlight on her moved to someone esle, shining on the vampire next.
“Next, We Have Jonathan Firewall,” Er’Gakk presented.
“A contestant having a bit more of a hard time,” Love said, “It’s not easy standing out with a S rank mana heart in such harsh competition, but unlike the others here today, he has already awakened his mana heart, so everything he wins here is just more free things! Congratulations Jonathan, try to survive at least a little bit!”
Who knew Love was this trial’s god. Isn’t she one of the strongest gods? At least she sounds like she’s having a lot of fun with this.
“Directly To His Left, Ezerid Rodes.”
“A rare Andarian contestant! He was quite unfortunate in his timing for the trial. A certain winner turned underdog, who could have thought?! Reaching this trial at just sixteen years old, fostered by Progress himself, this is still definitely someone who has many eyes on him! Good luck Ezerid, you’re going to need it against our last participant!”
“Indeed. Lastly, I Present This Edition’s Annoying Troublemakers, Sofia And The Steadfast Skeleton Pareth.”
“Oh! Be careful about what you say, Gakk, everyone is watching, you know? But yes, it’s definitely the troublemaking duo. There is no god of chaos but if there was one they would certainly be their emissary! Are they going to completely throw this event upside down like they did multiple others? Who’s to tell? I don’t care, Mid is doing all the cleanup! The favorites this time around without a doubt! Go Skeletons!”
“I Will Be Cheering For The Andarian Instead! But Enough Introductions!!! Let This Event… BEGIN!”
Ready, Sofia quickly downed half the speed potion and splashed the other half onto Pareth’s mana heart before they both turned around and bolted into the forest.
“About a third of the contestant decided to fight for the initial unlocker! Surprisingly all the real ones escaped! What are they planning?!” the voice of Love echoed through the forest, continuing with her live commentary as Pareth and Sofia ran.
Nobody on our tail so far I think! We need to find monsters fast!
“And We Have Our First Death!”
“Ah, as usual! Sonia Rotfallen’s arrows are deadly! Right through the skull! She might steal the first unlocker this time again, but it looks like Saint Tartaros is also decided on…”
As Sofia and Pareth ran, the voices of Er’Gakk and Love faded leaving them alone in the silent forest. They kept running in a straight line away from the starting point until Pareth pointed at something.
A ruin?
A structure of white stone blocks overgrown with moss was hidden between the trees, some distance to their left.
We go check it out!
The two ran toward the structure, and Sofia immediately spotted the first enemy. A skeleton covered with moss, holding a steel scimitar, playing dead, sitting his back against a wall outside of the ruin. Even with all of her magic and senses stilted, she could tell this by how the bones looked that it was an undead.
This might be our first unlocker, you’re up Pareth!
With no weapon Sofia had no choice but to let Pareth take care of the enemy. The skeleton started standing up when if noticed Pareth was running straight at him with his spear up, but it was a bit too slow. Pareth jabbed the wooden spear in between the two bones of the skeleton’s left forearm, holding the scimitar. Unable to fight back, the undead fell as Pareth kicked in his knees. Sofia was right behind him, as the skeleton fell, she stepped on his hand, further pinning his weapon down, leaving Pareth free to use his hands to attack. Pareth grabbed the skeleton’s skull and slammed it against the stone wall. It shattered after three strikes.
‘You have defeated [Mossy Skeleton - lv. 19]’
It’s dead. No unlocker?
Sofia looked quickly looked around, but there was no golden key to be seen anywhere.
I suppose it wouldn’t be so easy. Can’t do anything with the bones sadly, but we’re up a weapon.
Pareth grabbed the scimitar and gave Sofia the spear, and the two quickly checked inside of the ruin without exchanging a word. It was some kind of dilapidated old stone house. There was nothing interesting inside, just mouldy furniture and some old pottery. They only spent a few seconds looking, every moment counted.
Nothing else. Let’s move.
On their way out, Sofia threw another glance at the dead skeleton, just in case the unlocker took a while to appear, but no, there were still no golden keys to be seen, just a skeleton with a shattered skull.
They started running again, quickly, the forest terrain started to shift, the trees became sparser, the air colder, and the ground was in a slight incline up.
Can’t see past the canopy but looks like we’re at the base of a mountain.
Keep going for the vantage point? Sofia wondered, knowing that the stamina of a level 20 was going to be a huge limiting factor if she kept running uphill. She was already starting to feel some signs of fatigue despite the event having just started a minute ago.
Comments
Peter Smith
More likely than not it is also locked. If she could wildcast using it then maybe but, seing as to how its counted as a skill she would have to use an unlocker to get it. Though unlocking that and vppv would make her a goddess among men in this trial, at least, until everyone else unlocks their ultimate abilities.
Amythyst
I wonder if her ever reliable Bone Dominus is still useable. She didn't need mana before the specialization to use it, and I believe this is the first time it would be suppressed after. Would be a huge advantage early depending on how much of it she has access to.
Silver Dawn
I have to think wild casting is available otherwise how would tiny races ever compete
Guenther
Not to move or change anything, just to look around and plan.
E
I'd like to see how Toybox has been impacted if at all. It would be an interesting test to see how "connected" Deep powers are to her stats or if there is a secret Deep-like strengthening going on that's not being measured by conventional means. Didn't Sofia say she had enough control of Toybox to be able to move within the frozen world for around a second before time resumes? That would be a huge advantage at these low levels.
Tom Asciola
What a sad skeleton. I'm still reeling at the nonsense lineup Sofia has to deal with here lmao
phantom
Bah. For all we know Kleptra are full of love. It is just they are also full of hate to balance it out.
Matt Grayson
I can imagine how Love chose a Kleptra as Saint. The previous delicate Elf Maiden Saintess got too many lewd catcalls. So Love thought “I’ll teach those fuckers!”
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Mornn
Truth be told there isn't that much luck involved, it's mostly about perception and decisions ;)
Daemion
A Battle Royale but it mostly depends on luck? Well, that could go either way. Anyone who can find weapons, enemies or unlocks the fastest has an advantage here, similar to knowing all the spawn points on a FPS map. If Sofia can unlock her mana senses, maybe that would help finding the unlocks? But as she pointed out, it's also a massive gamble because mana on its own might not be that useful. Pareth with his health unlocked would be nearly unkillable, I believe. But would his victory count if Sofia died? Twin rules and all that? Maybe Tartaros will help. He wants a rematch, right? Perhaps he will defeat everyone except Sofia and Pareth, then share all the remaining unlocks with them so they can fight at full strength. Both need to fight more to awaken their mana hearts after all.
OmniGlitcher
It would be pretty pointless to simulate the event if it contains only fakes. They probably just use past rankings with some RNG to simulate where they would have placed if it becomes relevant.
Mornn
Andarians are originally fully a hero race, so whatever population they have are the summoned people + their descendants, like the beast people. The difference is, the beast people are a lot more palatable physically to the other races compared to Andarians...
Cyclone001
One thing about the event though. This is lobby 1 and has the lead member of the teams. This implies 4 lobbies. And each lobby has 100 people from the last chapter. 400 people is at odds with the 10,000 contestants we were told. Thus multiple lobby 1s and Sofia just got unlucky, or the Seraphs just removed some of the chaff like Jeffery.
BottledChaos
"We go check it out!" Sofia half turned into Pestle for a second there.
Mornn
He still has infinite stamina yes, but his strength is currently level 20 human like everyone else, so he can definitely carry Sofia, but that'll slow him down compared to everyone else.
Daemion
If you were in his position, would you? With tens of thousands of important people watching? Better to get this round going and not embarrass yourself even further.
Matt Grayson
The odds *are* always in her favor. :-)
Matt Grayson
So it begins! (Useless statement #17 in a series...)
OmniGlitcher
Huh, the divinity is Love? I mean, it kind of works? I would have thought Water, but there we go. > SS rank mana heart sponsored by Taxes I do wonder what Taxes' wager would be. >god of chaos Perhaps a Lord? :P Interesting that Er'Gakk votes against Sofia. Maybe he just likes an underdog. >Jonathan Firewall That's certainly a name. I read it like this meme for some reason: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/john-darksoul-john-dark-soul >A rare Andarian contestant! Are Andarians rare? Or do they just not reach high levels much? Maybe both?
ArtTheGreat
Pareth has infinite stamina by virtue of being a skeleton even with the restrictions, right? And with such a long stride wouldn’t Pareth be faster than Sofia at the moment? Maybe she should ride on his shoulder until they find a monster for their first unlocker.
Cyclone001
Nice to know the real contestants. Chapter felt so short though... the 23h45m wait is agonizing.
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Neat that they introduced all of the real competitors and the god running the trial.
Songy
May the odds be ever in your favor, Sof! ✺◟(＾∇＾)◞✺
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! Interesting that Gakk isn’t commenting on Sofia further.
