Mornn
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Chapter 651 - Pestle on her last leg
🕑 Added 2025-04-10 16:00:15 +0000 UTCPestle attempted the challenge a few more times, with Sofia activating the third tier of [Runeforged overlord] for the fifth level, but the difficulty proved to still be too high. It was no longer even an issue of speed or flight control, which Pestle already excelled at, it was purely just information overload. Keeping track of the lights in five different directions with only one pair of eye was far from easy.
Sofia thought she might stand a chance using her demon form, as it gave her vision all around her. She entered the glass cube, and watched as the space inside of the pillar unfolded into a much larger room, to make enough space for her to play in the glass cube. Her starting squares were much larger, several meters wide, enough for her wings to comfortably fit. It took her a few tries to get through the second level, and the third proved to be too hard, so mch that she never even tried her demon form, as she knew she would never reach level 5 like this. Unlike Pestle, she was not very good at making sharp turns, and her heavy weight made managing her momentum a lot more difficult, even if her flight capabilities and speed were not bad by any means, there was no competing with a fae.
Maybe if I spent the entirety of the trial’s free time to train on it, and even then, what a waste of time that would be…
Sofia grabbed something from her storage ring and turned to Pestle, “Rested enough, Pestle?” Sofia asked the tiny skeleton perched on Bookie’s skull.
“Rested,” the fairy answered.
“Good. Time to get this over with. Get back in there.”
“I win, leg,” Pestle told Sofia like an order.
“Sure thing, if you make it through, you’ll get all the food you want, even if I’m not sure you can eat it like this…”
“Can eat,” Pestle confidently confirmed.
“Alright, well, you hae to win first. This time, I will guide you through the last level, alright?”
“Guide?”
“Yes. Whenever a difficult pattern appears, I will tell you where to go by thoughts.” Like this. “You just need to follow my instructions.”
“I understand!” Pestle said, “now I win! And we eat!” She clamored, jumping down from Bookie’s skull and walking toward the glass cube.
The cube shrunk as the tiny challenger approached once again, and once again, the grids lit up with red and green squares.
Pestle flew through the first four levels flawlessly.
It was time, Sofia activated the third tier of [Runeforged Overlord] again, and ate the things she had taken from her storage before, one of her [Crystalized] mana pearls. With an external point of view of the entire cube, a tripled thinking speed thanks to [Dodge - me] and the mana pearl, and the instant thought transmission to her summons, she was ready.
The fifth level started, as hard as the previous times, the thousands of minuscule squares of the grid lighting up in red, blue and yellow, with a few green zones.
The first green zone appeared right above Pestle, she flew into it in an instant, and the lights flashed. There were two green zones this time, in two of the cube’s oppposite corners, with cerved paths of red and yellow light that forced Pestle to exerce fine control of her flight trajectory while moving at an extreme speed, but this much was still fine. Pestle reached the green zone with milliseconds to spare, and the lights flashed again. This went on for about five seconds, Pestle needing no help at all so far. And after that the difficulty immediately went up immensely, not only was there only one safe zone, very far away, but the grids were like a three-dimensionnal maze of yellow and blue lights going off in all directions. A labyrinth one needs to fly through at full speed, that was where Pestle had failed most of her attempts until now.
But now she had a guide.
Two down. Eight left. First turn right. Up to ceiling. Forward twelve. Right, S turn. Twenty down. Diagonal upper right then second turn left.
Thinking was much faster than speaking, and Pestle’s reaction time was almost as good as Sofia’s tripled thinking speed, she immaculately followed the orders, and landed right in time in the green safe zone before the lights flashed again.
Stay sharp. That was only the beginning.
With Sofia’s guidance, Pestle made it to the halfway point. There, yellow lights started flashing unpredicatbly, forcing Pestle to make many sudden stops. When a column of blue light she was speeding through unexpectedly turned yellow, she was eliminated before she could stop.
“Good try,” Sofia called out to Pestle, who looked mentally crushed by the inevitable defeat despite the many layers of what she already considered cheating.
“I no strong. Shame,” Pestle complained, dragging her feet out of the cube.
“Hey, hey. What are you doing? Get back in. I have a few more mana pearls. We’re winning this. Don’t you want the leg?”
“Winning!” Pestle repeated, clenching her tiny fists and turning around with heavy steps, her motivation and drive instantly recovered by the promise of food.
Pestle failed again two more times, reaching and failing at the fifty-ninth second on the final pattern both time. Sofia was starting to feel physically sick from consuming the mana pearls in such quick succession, but the thinking speed bonus was so short lived that had no choice but to eat one every time Pestle reached the fifth level.
I think I understand how the grand finale goes. One more time, Pestle.
Pestle had turned silent, without even need to wait for Sofia’s motivational speech, she had already started a new run. She was in the zone, with complete and uninterrupted focus on the task ahead, leaving no place for emotions.
Reaching the fifth level again was no issue. Pestle had done it so many times that she could probably do it without any speed buffs by now, just from sheer ‘muscle’ memory and knowledge of each level’s possible pattern.
This time, there was no hesitation, no wasted movement. Pestle moved like lightning, weaving through the chaos of colors with monstrous precision, guided by Sofia’s thoughts like a second brain. When the final green zone appeared, hovering at the opposite edge of the cube, tucked behind several walls of erratic yellow flares, Sofia’s heart clenched. But Pestle did not falter; she curved, rolled, and slung herself around, diving through the narrow passages through the last barriers in a series of flawlessly timed arcs on Sofia’s calls.
At the last second, after flying through a whirlwind of rotating yellow lights, Pestle jumped into the final green zone.
The cube’s lights went out.
Pestle hovered in place, stunned, wondering if she had failed, she had seen no red flash, but the last instants of the level were so chaotic, she wouldn’t be surprised if she had missed it.
The entire cube flashed green.
‘Level 5 cosmic cube shop unlocked! Congratulations!!!’
“Leg!” she screamed. “We eat leg now!”
Sofia, drained, dropped to her knees with a dry laugh, rubbing her forehead. “Yeah, Pestle… You earned it.”
Pareth and Bookie helped Sofia stand back up, supporting her as she started uncontrollably puking out a stream of liquid mana that burned through the floor. Her body felt weak, and her thoughts were scrambled, but that didn’t matter now. What mattered was the hidden shop.
Pestle. She communicated by thought as she wiped her mouth. Open the shop.
The shop window appeared to Everyone, showing on the cube’s walls.
[Cosmic Cube Shop - Level 5]
[Categories : Consumables (LV1-2) - Cosmic Cube Replica (LV3) - Skill tickets (LV4) - ★ Special shop (LV5) ★]
Pestle tapped on consumables first, shouting “Leg!”, only to discover that it was only potions and quickly switching to the second tab, growling.
[ Cosmic Cube Replica (unlocked):
Cosmic Cube (Tiny to Very large, select one) - A perfect replica of the Cosmic cube, to polish your skills at home! - 10 000TP - Limited to one sale per Ark Tournament - 4 out of 10 still in stock
Hmm…
“Do you want it?” Sofia asked pestle.
“No! I want leg!”
“Ahah alright alright, get me the other tabs first.”
I guess I might buy the medium-sized one for myself if I have leftover points at the end of the trial.
[ Skill tickets (unlocked):
Skill fusion ticket - Allows the user to fuse two compatible skills making the result stronger and potentially freeing up a skill slot - 10 000 TP - Up to one per trialee per shop
Skill ablation ticket - Allows the user to attempt to remove a locked skill with the help of the system, results may vary - 100 000 TP - Up to one per trialee
Random specialization ticket - A specialization ticket for a skill category you do not already have a specialization in, allowing you to substantially alter a skill and your class - 100 000 000 TP - Up to one per trialee]
Oh shit. Just like that?!
This… Forget everything else, if I can get the specialization ticket early, I’ll have a huge advantage for the rest of the trial!
I still need to buy the awakening pill though. And it is quite expensive… Ugh. I was going to say it’s quite an easy specialization point to get ocmpared to the others but… I couldn’t have gone through level four myself, and the price…
A lot of things are competing for my points already.
After a few seconds, Pestle opened the last and most important tab of the shop. Which only contained two items. Sofia’s gaze immediately jumped to the more expensive one.
As expected, there was more.
★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Master’s Hell to Heavens Pauldrons]:
Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, the master pauldrons enhance your flight in any environment with a constant stream of mana.
On first equip:
Choose a skill, its channeling speed is doubled.
Choose another skill, its cooldown is halved.
Choose another third skill, its range is doubled.
Choose another fourth skill, its mana cost is halved.
Cannot be destroyed.
Must be primed before use.
Price: 1 000 000 000 TP
Oh my Lord. Now that is an item.
Comments
phantom
The thing special about the space station was only the stuff worked without mana. It was not all that advanced. and it also means someone specializing in equipment without mana is certainly not winning on crafting mana items.
Jonathan Wint
I think Sofia Found her one true love! The Tournament Master’s Hell to Heavens Pauldrons!
E
All I want to see is Engineer dunk on all the craftsmen. This engineer was on a space station with tech more advanced than almost everything we've seen on the main world. You've got Sofia over there with a stockpile of Lumian bones, bone dominus, and sculpting able to make anything the Engineer can communicate to her. She used Pestle like a little Tinkerbell lock pick. Trying to think of what other "exceptional" summons she has. Maybe a combination of Dryads and Herbologist?
Draxas
You know, with her friends included she just might get enough points to get everything
Michael Gordon
the more I see whats going on, the more that I believe that this armor going to pareth. They both will have 10 gold stars by the end. They will probably need to combine their points to get the set. Sophia will probably later on get the saintess set, modify it and upgrade it later. I don't know why I don't think pareth can equip equipment but if he can't, probably the skill optimization on his shapeshifting skill will allow it. He also can start combining skills. This filter might be the biggest upgrade chance for pareth yet
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! Sofia promised Pestle a feast, now she’ll need to deliver on it
Lazy Monster
The only item sets we’ve seen are the saint armor, Sorrow and Progress’ relics, and now the tournament master set. I could see the Perfect Run Star giving something like a huge discount and the ability to just buy the remaining pieces of the tournament master set since
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Tejing
Interesting idea, splitting up the thinking and the moving like that. Just goes to show her communication with her skeletons is actually quite high bandwidth. The skill fusion ticket isn't too expensive. Too bad it's only one per shop. She'll have to search for every one she can get ahold of. Going forward, she's going to need to fuse skills a lot to make room for more. The skill ablation ticket sounds useful. At least for [Mana Manipulation], if she can't fuse it with something to free a slot. And here's how she gets her passive specialization point. Definitely on the short list of things to buy. I wonder what happens in later trials when she would otherwise have gotten a specialization point and she already has all 3? Now those are some nice effects... channeling speed - hard to decide... False Immortality could work, but she'd need to do it before making it passive I think... or Angel's Bolt (if it works on wildcast skills) cooldown - Skull Choir, or maybe Summon Self range - Bone Dominus mana cost - Runeforged Overlord, or maybe Angel's Bolt (if it works on wildcast skills) Corrections: with only one pair of eye eye -> eyes so mch that she never even tried mch -> much you hae to win first. hae -> have the cube’s oppposite corners, with cerved paths oppposite -> opposite cerved -> curved (?) forced Pestle to exerce fine control exerce -> exercise (or "exert"?) yellow lights started flashing unpredicatbly, unpredicatbly, -> unpredictably, on the final pattern both time. time -> times an easy specialization point to get ocmpared to the others ocmpared -> compared
Cyclone001
If only Alith was in this trial. Some yummy Alith leg for Pestle and Sofia could reminisce about those early Zangdar days too.
Mornn
Yes, Pareth is starting to feel very rich at the moment :)
Sky
Pestle is a fairy that will never skip leg day.
Lazy Monster
They will only have to face her if have met her personally or if they did well enough in the ranking tower for her to be a seeded opponent. Poor all of Sofia’s students.
Stephen
From my understanding even if she had enough points, she can only buy 3 of them right? Only 3 uniques (but the badge for a perfect clear doesn't count)
Cyclone001
So... Pareth is getting the same amount of points Sofia is, right? And his level up pill is dirt cheap. Meanwhile, Sofia's pill costs a fortune, as does the specialization point, potions, skill upgrades, training, etc. I suspect Pareth is going to be getting a new set of armor while Sofia gets to do some serious skill tampering to make a really broken build. I assume Pareth already bought his pill?
Daemion
I hope the trial has enough points for Sofia's shopping spree. Would be fun if she got the maximum possible and obtained all possible rewards. Whoever takes that trial next will have to compete with Sofia's replica... hahahaha...
Emily Gurnavage
Gotta wonder how much of this Set she will be able to afford. We have seen quite a lot of expensive stuff already but there will only be so many points to gain. And I kinda doubt the organizers made it possible for someone to get the entire set on their own. And Sofia's heart is already pricey and the potions and the skill stuff... lots to buy. So Im really wonderin what all she will actually end up with and what will have to be left behind. I also wonder if gear sets can be combined at all in this world. We haven't dealt much with sets yet, have we? Her Saintess set that still isn't fully complete is pretty useful to her and its made of cloth. This new set sounds like its plate armor or somethin. You don't wear plate on bare skin. Could she wear the saintess gear as the underclothes for the armor set?
Lazy Monster
TFTC. This item is much better for Sofia. The point costs are really stacking up though. She needs a minimum of 250 million points assuming no uniques that’s pretty brutal. Though considering how much I expect her to utterly destroy this trial it seems doable along with getting some uniques. Also with the specialization it would be a class special which would make turning false immortality into a passive a better idea
Matt Grayson
She'll be walking away with everything, won't she. 😇
Tom Asciola
Surely there's no way Sofia can earn enough points for the entire Master set?
Songy
That challenge truly had Pestle on her tiptoes with its thight error margins, but fortunately, she had a leg up thanks to Sofia. Speaking of Sof, she must be feeting pretty lucky her fairy has found this shop looking at the wares it sells.
Inv7ctus
Wow that is an item better than the boots for Sofia I think. Theres the skill fusion I was waiting for! I'm so excited to see how Sofia l's kit develops over this trial
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
