Mornn
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Chapter 647 - Still on the job
🕑 Added 2025-04-04 16:00:21 +0000 UTCSofia 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.
Comments
posidein
I think the leviathan makes since. Maybe it was created by Edrazeketh and that is how he got his title the anighlator
OmniGlitcher
Negative time achieved, nice. >He must be utterly fuming in some dingy private room.” Good. >Well, there is hardly a more fitting holder for her This constant tease about holders. When will we find out :D >aside from her meetings with them, which are inscrutable as ever.” You know, I was wondering if Sun's "everywhere the light touches" thing meant she could see at least some of these interactions. Guess that answers that. Water and Moon hate each other? I mean, given how tides work that makes sense... also slightly concerning given that what happened to Sovuln constantly referred to as a monster tide and seemingly tied with Water to some degree. >“Dragon kill. Klepra kill. Fae kill. God kill. Everyone kill.” Well, that puts Leviathan into perspective. Given the ebb is from Ormoncleth, I wonder if the Leviathan is from some other Lord body's corruption. So fae get their special aura with the downside of not being able to control it, dragons are powerful but grow slowly and can't reproduce easily even for the already hard level they're at, Kleptra are largely just stupid (Not sure if that means non-sapient?), elves are strong physical fighters but can't use magic easily, dwarves are all rounders but suffer from hyperfocus and maybe alcohol addiction.
BOT
I think it was explained during the academy arc, along with the EV unit maybe? If I remember correctly the gods are vying for the faith/essence created by mortals, it's what keeps them alive and makes them stronger the more of it they have. I don't remember exactly what the essence does for a mortal but I the gods get them back when the recipient dies
E
Do we know what a God gets out of these divine essence "investments?" Sun makes it sound like an investment rather than donation. Does the strength of a holder of an essence contribute to the strength of the essence? Maybe a stronger/larger domain in the god plane? If this is an investment, then Sofia is about to have a line of deities waiting for her outside this tower.
E
"Well of course I know him(her). He's(she's) me"
Holly Gregorio
Suddenly wondering if there is a god of bones, and if Sofia will ever meet them?
Cinnamon Toast
I’m thinking you’re forgetting that each gap in power between filters is bigger and bigger
Cyclone001
Really enjoyed the chapter but upon rereading, there is one small knitpick you might want to consider retconning. When Sofia killed the Destroyer, it was 2 filters above her which made it impressive (edit correction: 3 filters above her). This boss monster is only 1 filter above her despite having a self nerfing mechanism the longer the trial goes. Up to this point in the story, Sofia has been consistently slaying monsters a filter above her with ease (in fact the early church chapters showed she wouldn't even get exp if the slimes she killed were lower level than her). I think it'd be better if the starting boss level was some 15-30 levels higher at least (thus putting the boss into killable range for normal trialees in about 15 minutes). This would also indirectly help buff Sofia's signature skill, since you'd expect an Ultimate tier heart to wipe the floor with a monster only 1 filter higher without Pareth's intervention and Sofia needing to go after the heart. At 2 filters higher though, acting as a stall tactic for Sofia's kill is reasonable I feel. Might want to consider a small level buff to the -10s sub bosses too. Pestle veryer kill!
Tejing
Nice. I am surprised she didn't just use Bone Dominus to hit the mana heart once she was partway down the spine, though. Seems simpler. Not that it would have mattered to her time, since they ended up waiting on Pestle. Yes! We finally got a "what the hell" moment from the spectators! Perfect. :-) From their conversation, I'm guessing her final time is -0.000 seconds, but I guess we'll see next chapter. Pestle is quite fond of the word "very", isn't she? Anyway, sounds like she's saying that dwarves are obssessive. Corrections: it had yet to noticed Sofia, Pareth and Bookie. noticed -> notice She did not even need to severe the nerves thick like her arms severe -> sever nerves -> nerves, which were she simple followed the spine down simple -> simply As he truly fallen that far? As -> Has On could hardly wish for a better ally, these days. On -> One These days are behind me… These -> Those elves are naturally born slightly higer level, higer -> higher and know how to best fight when you’re short know -> knows
Jonathan Wint
She WON!
Ceasar Salas
Mornn mentioned that the rooms are also in the fake world down below. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if the toybox skill also dilates time, so to others it’d seem like she did something instantly. So to others it might appear like an instant movement skill instead
Lazy Monster
That will probably be factored into the points in some way. Everyone in the time attack has to kill the boss to pass but I’d imagine killing it at full strength since it looks like it was supposed to lose a level each minute would result in more points.
E
How do the time pauses register to the spectators? Trial time pauses but spectator time obviously doesn't. Or, are all these observation rooms within the trial as well? If within the trial and a being like Sun can be in multiple locations at once, then does that mean she is registering the pause?
Matt Grayson
It's negative. She was under 10 seconds when she got a 10 second bonus!
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! I hope the Sofia gets a bonus for killing the boss. Since it seems like she couldn’t benefit from the intended bonus effect timer subtraction. Unless I read that wrong of course
Chance Rose
VERY HURRY MORNN, VERY ADDICTION
Mornn
The rooms are in the fake world for the most part, the private rooms are what they are, but most of the 'regular people' are in the public rooms with like 1k+ people in what's basically a big theatre
Mornn
Yeah it's personal and real people only, no real reason to make the fakes wait when you can just pause them + skip ahead
Daemion
Sofia's timer is not at zero? Interesting. Maybe that has something to do with Paradise Toybox or the level of the boss, which was tied to the timer. Anyway, she placed first even with her late start since the waiting room is empty except for her team. Her opponents are going to be so upset, I can't wait to see their reactions. 😁
Cyclone001
We going to get a Romeo and Juliet between the houses of water and plague? I do wonder what their gripe is. I do have one question. With almost 40k viewers, where/how are they watching? These "private" rooms seem near empty despite people coming and going. Where are these rooms anyways?
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Is the waiting room personal, team, real people only, or everyone? I’m guessing if Sofia was able to give a lesson it’s probably the first 2. Would be kinda funny for Ezerid to show up being “I definitely got first… What are doing here?!”
Tom Asciola
So has Moon been bullying Water? Maybe... pushing him around? :3c
Mornn
And now you know why the dwarves are all drunkards :p
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Codered999
I'm guessing that dwarves are good at everything they put their mind to, but they have issues involving addiction and obsession. They can get lost in their desires is how I'm interpreting this.
Matt Grayson
Focused, driven, goal-oriented... blinders!
Tom Asciola
Oh shit, are the Kleptra a hivemind? Did we know that already? And Pestle is very learn!
Songy
Sun being a shipper doesn't surprise me and ships kind of come with the territory of being Water I guess. ^^
Mornn
And on a friday too... Sorry but the chapter was already too long :')
Dan N
Heh, Sofia and Speed have been on one date and people are already complaining about the seating chart at their wedding.
Songy
Evil cliffhanger there Mornn, you know very well how addicting numbers-go-brrr are! ಠ_ಠ Thanks for the great chapter, though :P
Matt Grayson
She is SO AWESOME!
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
