Mornn
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Chapter 645 - First wave
🕑 Added 2025-04-02 16:01:53 +0000 UTCSome interesting potion choices. If I had to buy one… Probably the Fae concoction? Not only would that spread [Misfortune] further but I’m relatively certain that would help my mana vision see farther away too. One million flat mana is not bad either but it’s probably better suited to someone with very low base mana, since one million will likely not account for much anymore after this trial. Too bed the health one is already sold, this I could have used.
I guess I might buy the Stamina potion for Alith if I have points to spare at the end.
Or well, depending on how the trial is designed, could there be a chance I can buy them all?
Feels unlikely, people like Tartaros are likely to have utterly crushed the tournaments in their time too and even the first shop isn’t empy of uniques yet, so the number of points one can get has to be quite limited.
Well, either way I’m not buying any Unique item until the very end when I have the maximum possible discount.
Sofia closed the shop window.
“You… You’re not going to check the regular potions?” the shopkeeper asked, surprised to see Sofia already close the catalogue window.
“No thanks, I will likely come back to check everything in detail later, but we don’t have much time today, and I intend to check every single shop. Any idea what the most expensive thing on the Ark is? Can you tell me?”
“Ahah… The most expensive? Well. Everyone knows, and you really cannot miss them, but you will have to find that for yourself… I would not get my hopes up, though, even if you have a good track record, what with the announcement and all. The number of points you need for those things is truly ridiculous…” the shopkeeper answered, averting her eyes, her rabbit ears drooping a little.
Them? Those things? Is there more than one most expensive thing?
“Alright. Watch me be ridiculous, then. See you later, Poya.”
Sofia turned around and left the store, only to end up face to face with a familiar hero, with a silver star pinned on his chest.
“You again? You know we can’t fight now, right?” Sofia asked Ezerid, her eyes meeting his.
“I know,” he answered with a frown, “I came to apologize. I am sorry about my outburst earlier.”
“Really? You sure don’t look like you mean it…”
“I do!” Ezerid cut in, his frown deepening.
“Sure, whatever. I don’t hold it against you anyway. It’s a trial, we do what we have to do. Apology or not, though, I am not going to pull any punches!”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way!” Ezerid answered with confidence, “Let’s clash again in the next test, Saintess!” he continued, “The next gold start will be mine!” he finished, before tapping his staff against the ground and disappearing once again.
“Good luck,” Sofia concluded, though the andarian hero had already left.
“I don’t like him,” Bookie chimed in from behind Sofia.
“He certainly has a personality. I do not mind the competition, though. But enough time wasted, let’s check out the next shop!”
Sofia spent the entirety of the free time break to check every shop she could find on the Ark’s first two levels, as the levels below were all ‘temporarily closed’.
Not every shop contained interesting things or unique items, and a lot of those who did had very little stock, all in all, about 60% of all unique items were already gone. The unique items left were mostly the really expensive ones, or those with very niche utility. For example there was an entire collection of unique tools for craftsmen, and very few of those had been sold, only for the more popular crafts like smithing.
So far, there were three items which had really captured her attention.
The first she found was in a shop selling defensive artifacts, the item was the Liquidmana coating, its effects were not all that interesting, but the price tag alone meant it was a desirable piece of protection.
★★★★★U [Liquidmana coating]:
A stable flask of liquid mana which can be used to envelop and protect your mana heart or a lich’s phylactery.
Price: 100 000 000 TP
Second was located in a rather well-hidden jewelry boutique that required at least a gold star pin to enter and with a silent old dwarf sitting behind the counter. This one item was rather cheap in comparison to the first one, but it had a good synergy with [False immortality] and in turn with [One with Suffering], allowing Sofia to revive a bit more safely in battle.
★★U [Ring of the thousand-lived]:
This ring redirects the wearer’s lost energy upon death to create a strong magic barrier around their body. Must be primed before use.
Price: 1 000 000 TP
And lastly was an item that was very hard to miss as it was featured prominently in the very center of the second floor down, displayed for sale on a pedestal that wasn’t even in a shop. It was a shining pair of armored boots that required a whopping 9 gold star pins to even be available to buy, and was likely the most expensive item Poya had spoken of earlier.
★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Master’s Greaves]:
Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, the master greaves envelope your every step with illusion-dispelling magic light.
The wearer’s Speed is doubled.
The wearer’s Agility is doubled.
On first equip: Choose a system passive skill, its potency will be doubled at no additionnal cost.
Cannot be destroyed.
Must be primed before use.
Price: 1 000 000 000 TP
Someone put their hand on Sofia’s shoulder as she was staring blankly at the radiant boots.
“These are crazy. But you know what I’m thinking?” the person asked.
Sofia recognized Mornn’s voice, she looked back at Sun’s saintess with a smirk.
“That I’m going to get them?” Sofia answered, only half-jokingly.
“Ah! You’re too confident for your own good, and that’s not what I was thinking, no. As I look at these, really, I only have one thing in mind. ‘Tournament Master’s’ sounds like an equipment set’s name, doesn’t it? I just wonder… If there’s a Master’s sword somewhere out there. If there is… It’s mine.”
“If there is… Well I don’t need another weapon, and neither does Pareth, so I have nothing to say if you want it. Assuming there’s one and you even get enough points.”
“Hey I am no pushover, you know? I improved a lot since last time. I was fighting Phageid on the frontline while you were doing who knows what playing teacher and whatnot.”
“No slight to you, the price for the boots is just that high. I trust both you and Kuli for this trial, honestly, you both survived basically without injury against Tartaros in the last test, that by itself says everything I need to know. Are you ready for the next test?”
Mornn took a step back and looked around, everyone was already grouping up, grabbing their weapons, “Hmm… I’ll do like you and put on this ridiculous star pin. Of course I’m ready. Always ready! Any moment now!”
‘You have received a new quest’
[Tournament begins!]
[Catch the first wave: Individual trials]
[For the first wave of tournament events, you must choose to compete in one of four individual events. Tournament points and Star Pins will be awarded individually.]
[To successfully pass the trial, you will need to buy an awakening pill, available after the first wave for tournament points, and awaken your mana heart in the trial’s main event: The Ark Tournament!]
[Available first wave events:
Hunting competition - Drake Invaders
Dungeon Time Attack - Sea-lost adventure
Commander Masters - Dwarves versus Elves
Armed to the teeth - Craftsmen showdown]
Individual trials. So I’ll be with Pareth under the Twin ruleset. I need to take that into account.
Expand descriptions.
[EVENT: Hunting competition - Drake invaders]
[Compete for the most kills in a wide environment. All the monsters are elemental drakes. TvT enabled (Trialees may attack and kill each other).]
[EVENT: Dungeon Time Attack - Sea-lost adventure]
[You and other participants will be teleported to mirror copies of an underwater ruin full of traps, monsters, and featuring a strong final boss! Be the fastest to solve the ruin’s secrets and kill the final boss for the win! Ranking established based on time to clear only.]
[EVENT: Commander Masters - Dwarves versus Elves]
[Compete against other Trialees as commanders of an army of either Dwarves or Elves with soldiers that you pick yourself out of a wide selection! You cannot fight yourself, and your army is not replenished between battles. Whose commanding ability will shine? Who will bring their army to the ultimate victory? May the best leader win!]
[Event: Armed to the teeth - Craftsmen showdown]
[Choose between a Soldier, a Golem or an Undead warrior, and equip them to the best of your ability! You cannot give your own items, but everything else from items crafted on the spot to summoned weapons and enchantments are fair game. Crafting materials and tools are provided for free! The chosen warriors will then compete against each other. Only one may stand!]
Comments
Matt Grayson
Sofia never disappoints!
OmniGlitcher
>A stable flask of liquid mana which can be used to envelop and protect your mana heart or a lich’s phylactery. Richard selling stuff to the admins again maybe? >Cannot be destroyed. >Must be primed before use. Why do i get the impression that these two combined means it's a Deep related artifact? Am I just that lost in the sauce? As much as I'd like to see Sea-lost adventure, Sofia seems the type to go for Drake invaders.
Tejing
I don't think we know that there are multiple most expensive items. The shopkeeper did say "those", but a pair of boots is referred to in the plural anyway, so that doesn't mean anything.
Tejing
So there is some crazy-expensive reward that's possible to get... 3 guesses what Sofia's aiming for, and the first 2 don't count. Ok, so Ezerid is capable of recognizing that the sore loser thing isn't a good look. My opinion of him has improved. (I do hope this is a copy of him, not the original, though. Would feel a bit bad if Sofia stole all the gold stars off him for real) Some protection for her mana heart would be pretty helpful, especially since Ihuarah says it's so clearly visible. The ring certainly seems really useful for Sofia, even if it's not considered super valuable for most people. Double speed and double agility? Damn. That's good. The passive skill thing... Runeforged Overlord? If she used it on that, her physical stats would be absolutely insane when it's up. And I don't mean "for a caster." Not to mention her summoned undead. Also, illusion destroying is a nice perk. Hmm, either Hunting Competition, or Dungeon Time-Attack. I'd go with the Hunting Competition, personally. Corrections: Too bed the health one is already sold bed -> bad The next gold start will be mine! start -> star
Sky
Knowing her, she and Pareth will pick two different options at the exact same time.
Libery
Choose an undead warrior, equip him with summoned or self crafted stuff and then let them fight... Why do I now see Pareth in Bone forged armor, with blessings and a Spine of the sun in hand demolishing all others and then even going out crushing the other trials as there is time to spare?
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! Mornn-sama, you did great choosing the trial first wave options. I think those 4, more or less, properly sum up every class that would be going through this trial. So many other books are like, “great, tourney time, let’s drop the value of every non combatant”. I love your attention to details, thanks so much! Anyway, I kind of doubt Sofia will get anything from a store worth more than 10 mil points. Just because I feel like she will find something else that still takes points but more value, maybe some kind of “leave the ark” day pass?
Silver Dawn
To me hunting or the dungeon are the best two options. Option 3 wouldn’t be bad if she could use her own skeletons but even still I think she looses out to the true tacticians. Option 4 is interesting but is really only good if she can summon the skeleton otherwise her crafting abilities are sub-par
William Ristau
Crafting quest everything provided time for bookie to summon the engineer and maybe something that else can craft to I forget all he has anymore.
Mornn
Yeah google docs does not like the word star for some reason and it's really fucking annoying (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Some typos. It looks like golden star keeps getting changed to start. Also “Too bed the health one” The ring, mana coating, and fae potion all seem incredibly good for Sofia. The master’s greaves are cool and all but they don’t seem to be particularly good for Sofia’s build. The Olympian title makes her speed and agility equal to her strength since it’s far higher than the other two stats and she doesn’t have a great passive to double with it. Erridian rot and sixth melody are the only passives that could realistically be doubled. I’m expecting the dungeon raid or an all out slaughter of the drakes.
Mornn
Her own skeletons can't participate in the commander and craftsman events, that'd be cheating :p
Cyclone001
Hmm... hunting or dungeon... honestly, with her time stop ability, the time attack might be better, but Sofia will do what she wants. I'm honestly glad the others though will be given a chance by doing some other trial. As for the greeves, they are nice, but honestly a massive waste of points. The point scaling is way off. Better to get all the other unique items instead (especially with Alith's duplication services). At least we know there are at least 9 events now though.
Phsteven
Would song of winter work again in the drake hunt? If not, it might be a good use of Zues, so long as they keep coming it will never run out. Maybe just blanket the area in rot, or, if the sun is out, an army of unkillable undead to sweep the field. For the Armed to the teeth contest, could Pareth be the undead warrior that she has to equip? Would be pretty sick. The time attack dungeon seems ok, she could probably brute force it with skeletons. Commander masters is the one that I would assume she wouldn't do, unless her sending squads to hoards of skeletons to fight with her army does not count as her fighting.
Wensber
Oh dang, the price on these blows the ones from last chapter out of the water. I am going to guess the only reason anything 1 mil is still there is cause there is simply better things to get. People are probably not going to get niche unique stuff just cause its there when generic stuff relevant to their build exists. Now the question is, are the boots a red herring? It looks like the kind of thing that is similar to Sofia's crown. It's something not expected to earned for thousands of years. There are also multiple most expensive items, so we'll have to see what they are to decide which is best, and whether we can get multiple.
Songy
I guess either drake slaughter or Dungeon speedrun? drake is probably the most straight forward, but the other trial takers will expect her to do a lot of friendly fire, so some might try to target her down at the start. Don't know what to expect from the dungeon.
Tom Asciola
Ooh, I could honestly see Sofia doing any of the first three. Any necromancer worth their calcium should be a capable commander, after all
Mornn
Welp, I wanted to make this one a bit longer since a lot of it is system prompts, but I ran out of time so...
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
