Mornn
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Chapter 646 - Move the needle
🕑 Added 2025-04-03 15:19:17 +0000 UTC“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]
Comments
OmniGlitcher
She went for the dungeon? Nice, I'm happy. Speedrunning challenge seems like fun. >You can call me Afil. About time she got a name :P >Elöllök, Calamity of Spirits Noita ass creature. Pestle enacting her "Very kill" routine, I enjoy. Damn, 10k+ followers for that, I don't blame them. I'm not sure what I want more, her finishing with a negative time, or finishing in exactly 00:00.
Inv7ctus
Negative time!Negative time!Negative time!NEGATIVE TIME!
Emily Gurnavage
That was a great one
Tejing
Increased strength to punch the floors out with, I suppose. Also, good for fighting the boss when she gets there. And no, there's no mention of randomness: Channel any amount of mana over 1,000,000 to invoke one of five Elemental Skeleton Destroyers hereby known as the five calamities. Also, she clearly thought about which one to summon and got the one she wanted the first time she used it, outside Sorrow's palace. (ch523)
E
Very kill, Pestle. Very kill. Wait why did she turn herself into demon form if she is riding on the swordfish and letting her minions do everything? Did she do it just to reduce drag (like putting on a swimsuit)? As another stated, she should've used [Paradise Toybox]. She wouldn't even need to move. Sofia said she could sense the entire ark and false reality (trial) while using the ability. There was no need to summon the skeleton fishes to scout. Also, I thought the calamity type was random? I think I remember it saying it would randomly create a calamity of one of five element types. Sofia sure is acting like she knew it would be spirit.
Mornn
With resetting cooldowns, they're going to show up a lot :D
Mornn
Nope that's not how it works, here's the description for reminder: [Pillar of creation]: When your Health goes from 30% to 20%, your skin starts to crack, revealing the primordial light hidden within you. In this state, you will rapidly lose the ability to move, but your spellcasting range is multiplied by your remaining percentage of mana (from 0 to 100 times), and you take halved damages from all sources. Healing back up over 30% will end this state. But I won't say that it wouldn't have some effect on bone dominus :p
Tejing
Incidentally... does the cooldown reset also apply to switching titles? In this case, iirc, she was on Olympian, so there was no need, but on other challenges, it'll probably be helpful to go in with a well-suited title, and possibly change it partway through.
Silver Dawn
I don’t think I realized how big an advantage Sofia would have in this dungeon.
Tejing
I would have gone with the hunt, I think, but I can see the logic for this. Sofia is quite good at speed, and she can plan and control the situation better when there are no other contestants interfering. Ooh. Cooldowns are reset for every event. Kuli will be happy to hear that. And Sofia suddenly has some new options open to her... Bit of a continuity error here: Sofia doesn't need to kickstart her mana regen anymore when she goes into demon form. [Infinity Engine] makes her immune to the regen suppression now. (I'm fairly certain this has been explicitly stated in the story...) Yup, this is very much the Sofia approach to a time attack dungeon. Why explore the maze when you can just punch through the floors? It would be hilarious if she actually finished with a negative time... Corrections: Bookie immediatecly reacted, immediatecly -> immediately on the Ark’s deck, to the surprised of the onlookers. surprised -> surprise many of them to stop looking, those some couldn’t pry away their eyes those -> though just for this kind of occasions. this kind -> these kinds OR occasions -> occasion Go kill youserlf in a ditch youserlf -> yourself Shethen jumped over the railing Shethen -> She then (also, get rid of the second space after)
Matt Grayson
Gods: "Screw it. Let's make her one of us. All in favor?" *shouts of drunken approval* "All right, then. Yo! System! ..."
Matt Grayson
“But… but I’m the final boss! That makes me the protagonist, right? Right?!”
Kennyevilmonkey
The boss at the bottom: The fuck is all that noise? Oh, holy shi-!
Matt Grayson
Hee hee hee! Love her strategies, and nice to see the giant skeletons again.
Wensber
Boss: "I'm in danger."
Cyclone001
Enjoy the party, Mornn. So... theoretical best is -30sec... pick up the pace, Sof :) at this rate Erezid will beat you. I still think she should have used paradise toybox to scout, but who am I to second guess. I am starting to feel pity for the boss tho.
Lazy Monster
No her mana should regenerate on its own with the engine but I suppose it would be more to work with since heat death still takes a bit more than the cost of a spell
Tom Asciola
The Destroyer!🥹
Lazy Monster
TFTC. I can’t wait for the negative time score for this time attack! I really want to see some of the spectators losing their minds over this! Glad we got to see another of the Calamities, the seem awesome since so far we’ve seen them fight on par with roughly 100 level stronger enemies. Nice to get it confirmed that happy cloud killed his own team. Side note: I forgot to ask last chapter when I had the idea, would the Fae potion expanding Sofia’s aura also dramatically increase the range bonus from [Pillar of Creation]?
Vettu
TFTC! It'd be really funny in she somehow finished with her timer in the negatives. Wonder how the spectators or the fish hero would react, as I assume it's never been done before Does she even need to kickstart her mana regeneration anymore in demon form now that she has infinity engine?
Chance Rose
Damn, I guess you could say Sofia completed the dungeon in..... no time. *removes sunglasses to the roar of YEEEEEEEAAAAAAH*
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the early chapter! I’m surprised Sofia didn’t bother summoning any additional calamities. It’d be saying a lot if anyone else is capable of going this fast through the trial… she’s been there for what, 20 ish seconds and her official timer is still at zero… Go Sofia!
Mornn
Get a better look at when Pestle kills the first Elite ;)
Extra7
Would the timer go in the negatives if say she kills an elite at the 7 second mark?
Songy
I had to move to a different room because I couldn't contain my giggling as soon as she dived into the water. Thanks for the chapter Mornn! ദ്ദി( ˶ˆᗜˆ˵ )
Codered999
It would be pretty hilarious to beat a time attack dungeon with a negative seconds record
Nicole Widrig
This is so cool!
Mornn
The world is big, very big :)
GoodKat
Where are all these level 300 and above people hiding? I was under the impression that there would be like 10k max. Anyways great chapter and really looking forward to sofia beating everyone!
Daemion
Oh Sofia, never change. She's going to break the entire trial, isn't she? Though I wonder how sensible it is to reveal all your abilities to a large audience, many of which might be hostile to you...
Mornn
Hey! Posting a bit early today because I'll be busy this afternoon but still wanted to be able to react to the first comments (｀• ω •´)
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the early chapter!
