Mornn
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Chapter 638 - The twin ruleset
🕑 Added 2025-03-24 15:55:45 +0000 UTCBefore leaving the city, Sofia left a large bone slate propped up against a wall with a message for Remia, since she could somewhat see outside of the fake world.
‘I can already think of multiple ways I might be able to get you out. But I need to get stronger for any of them to have any chance to succeed. I will be back in at most 4300 resets, stay strong until then. I won’t forget. – Sofia’
After that, the group left without ever returning to the surface until they were well past the lake surrounding the city.
That is when trouble began.
As it turned out, finding their way back through the moon’s dark and dust-covered wasteland was not easy. When, after three days of fruitlessly running around, the giant deep stalker appeared again, running even faster than the previous time, Alith did not even wait for Sofia’s opinion. She teleported everyone to Zangdar using Erredis’ single-use emergency device. “Putain de merde! This fucker almost got us!” she cursed, breathing heavily.
Sofia looked at Alith with incomprehension.
“Wha- What? Did you want me not to use it? It was right abou-” Alith started asking, but Sofia cut her short.
“No, no. What you said before. Did you swear in Orcish or something like that? I didn’t get what you said.”
“What… What’d I say, again?”
“Pootain dmarde!” Bookie proudly repeated from the side.
“Oh shit! Really?! That’s my native language. I’m not even supposed to be able to speak it…”
“That’s what your original language sounds like?” Sofia asked, “I wonder why it got through. The censor is really starting to break, huh. Can you try saying it again?”
“Fucking shit? No, that sounds like the usual, right?”
“It does. Oh well… You are cursing a lot these days,” Sofia pointed out.
“I’ve had plenty of reasons to use a lot of expletives. I’ll say, I’m not mad about finally being away from that moon!”
Sofia nodded, “I cannot agree more. Time was starting to run short anyway, I have to join Mornn for the next trial really soon, if I kept track of days correctly.”
“Right… Saria should have already gone while we were in space, correct?”
“That was the plan, at least, and Zephir was to take care of Remia then. Since I don’t feel Remia's presence anywhere here, she must still be at it, actually.”
“Remia…” Alith repeated, “Now it’s going to get confusing since they have the same name.”
“If anything we were lucky that we had avoided interacting with people who had the same name for so long.”
“Yeah true. Maybe we can nickname our dryad Rem, then?”
“I like Rem!” Bookie chimed in, jumping in place, “Can we use it?!” he asked Sofia.
Sofia shrugged, “The both of you are going to use it no matter what I say, aren’t you?
Alith’s light laugh was the only answer Sofia got, as she instantly changed the subject back to the trial. “You’re going for the next trial right away?” She asked Sofia, “I’ve still got to wait for Shadow-man myself, since our levels are still linked.”
“I probably will? I had plans to see Speed again before, but since I might be already late for the trial, we might have to postpone that… There are a lot of plans I have skipped on, actually… And to begin with, we should warn Grandma that we’re out. I need to see whether she made any progress with using the Odalite Blood as well.”
“Ah! Right, what about that?” Alith asked, untying Ormoncleth’s dull rapier from her belt. “It’s basically a very sturdy stick.”
Sofia shrugged, “You can keep it if you want. I don’t see why I should be the only one profiting from the trip if I can help it. Think you earned it, honestly.”
“Guess so. Or we could give it to Shaily,” Alith suggested.
“Up to you. It would feel right, but I don’t think Shaily could use it as well as you could. Didn’t you have a skill for blocking with a weapon? That’s a perfect tool for that.”
“True, true. Ah, I’m almost sad I didn’t get to show off my skill during our little trip to the moon.”
“It was for the best that we did not even try to fight anything. You will have plenty of occasions to show off later anyway. Unless you want to fight right now?” Sofia asked, sparks instantly starting to fly around her right arm.
“I’m good,” Alith answered, turning around toward the stairs of Zangdar’s castle, “You go do your things, I go do mine.”
“Just like that? What do you have in mind?” Sofia asked, the sparks around her arm dying down as Alith walked away. Alith stopped and looked back with a grin. She said nothing, and simply grabbed a bunch of dead-looking herbs from one of her pouches.
The plants from the light world!
After returning to the outside with Sofia’s Zangdar ring, she immediately found out that she was already a few days late for her appointment with Sun’s Saintess to start the next trial. She left messages for multiple people in her to-be bone city, and immediately left for the next trial tower, far north above the red desert, in the middle of a cold ocean with floating blocks of ice everywhere.
As she flew over the floating ice, before she could even see the tower appear, a tall elf teleported in front of her without warning.
[Seraph]
There we go again.
Hi. Sofia thought in her head, guessing the seraph was reading her thoughts as usual.
The elf said nothing, looking Sofia up and down. He was wearing a very feminine golden robe and many golden bracelets and accessories that one had to wonder how they even stayed on.
“Hmmm…” The seraph finally said, “I suppose you do look slightly impressive for your level.”
“And you are?” Sofia asked, mildly annoyed at the elf’s contemptuous expression.
“Hmpf. One of the overseers of this trial, though this you already know.”
“One of?” Sofia repeated. Multiple Seraphs?
“Four trial takers, four overseers. Do you not know basic maths?” The elf asked back with a raised eyebrow.
Feeling a headache coming, Sofia flew past the elf and kept going toward the tower.
The elf teleported in front of Sofia again. “Not fond of conversations, are we?”
Sofia rolled her eyes, “Quite the opposite, actually. But if you do not mind, I am already late, and quite frankly, I very much dislike your attitude.”
“Ahahah! Respect has to be earned, human. You show promise perhaps, but did you think all elves and seraphs would grovel at your feet because you snatched Victory’s crown and completed one of Sun’s little death games?”
What? That’s not what I meant at all…
“It seems, to me, that you’ve been lucky at every turn, Saintess.” The seraph continued, “You even failed the previous trial and still have the gall to present yourself here like none of the system’s rules matter.”
“Luck?” Sofia repeated, in shock, “Must you be so insulting? And whether you like it or not, I am, in fact, allowed to be here, so if you have an issue with it you can take it up to Nex, why don’t you?”
The Seraph stared at Sofia, wide-eyed and seemingly at a loss for words.
“Ah! Didn’t expect that name to come out of my mouth? Now if you’ll excuse me, my level 300 is waiting for me.”
Sofia flew past the Elf Seraph, leaving him behind. He turned around and watched her leave for the tower, scratching his head.
“Do we have more insiders leaking information?” he mumbled to himself.
“You don’t have to write a report,” another voice said from behind.
“Sen? What about your towers?”
“Look at me again.”
“Oh, one of your damn clones? You’re really making them difficult to recognize… No report… Because you’re monitoring her already?”
“That’s not even it, Mid, I just came to watch, you don’t have to report because she’s the reason he’s out.”
“UUUHH??!”
“Ah! That’s what you get for skipping our last meeting… You should go open the door before she breaks her way in.”
“Wha- Man! Hey! Human, stop that! Sen, the nutcases are from you species every time, I swear!”
Sen answered with a smile.
Standing in front of the trial tower’s closed doors, Sofia pulled up the relevant messages from her logs.
[Congratulations, you have reached the fifth filter. Will you witness the greats, or become one?]
[You will no longer gain experience]
[Please proceed to the trial site : Tower of the Ark, distance : 1m]
Finally having somewhere to stand on, Pareth came out of the storage, in his usual tri-headed skeleton, wearing his new favorite long jacket.
“Let’s get inside,” Sofia told him, starting to push the doors open.
Ah, is it locked?
The elf seraph yelled something in the distance, but with the northern winds blowing strongly, Sofia didn’t quite pick up what he meant. She looked back just in case.
He’s with a guy in white robes? Why does it look a bit like Sen?
Sofia enhanced her far-sight with her fake eyes, perhaps her favorite feature of the things beyond its storage-item capabilities.
Wait, it IS Sen!
Sen flashed Sofia a smile before disappearing. Meanwhile, the other seraph reappeared next to the door.
“You’re supposed to wait for me to take you inside, both of you,” the elf grumbled, “but never mind that, before you can go in, we need to get clear on something. This trial has both team and solo components. The annoying thing is with both of you being part of each other’s skillset, if we want you both to fight at full potential, you’ll need to go with a special ruleset. So here’s the deal, basically if you want to be allowed as a ‘duo’ in the solo parts of the trial, you need to accept a penalty.”
“I trust you are not making this up because you think I was lucky and don’t deserve to be here?” Sofia asked, doubtful.
“This is standard procedure, not the first time, there are rare duo classes for twins, you will go by their ruleset,” the seraph explained, “You can chose between the following penalties, which will only be for the solo parts. You only need to pick one for the both of you.”
System windows appeared in front of Sofia and Pareth.
[Brittle Twins: Take double damage from all sources]
[Broken Twins: Deal halved damage]
[Bonded Twins: All damage taken by a Twin is also taken 1:1 by the other]
[Botched Twins: Whenever a Twin uses an Active skill, the other one’s Active skills will disappear. Same for Passives.]
“Some pretty heavy penalties,” Sofia commented.
“You can also choose to both go solo if you don’t want a penalty, you’ll get a 20% overall stat buff in solo trials to make up for the missing power,” the seraph said with a shrug.
“Twenty percent stats to give up my first specialization… Yeah, no thank you. I would rather fight with Pareth. I think I know what I want to pick anyway.”
“Not gonna ask him?” the elf asked, motioning toward Pareth with a slight tilt of his head.
“Oh I don’t really need to. I’m relatively sure he would pick the same thing I would. In fact, I’ll let him choose. Go ahead Pareth.”
Pareth’s skeletal finger rose to pick one of the penalties.
Double damage, right? Sofia predicted before he could even pick.
His finger touched a system window.
[You have selected the penalty : Brittle Twins; welcome Sofia, Pareth, to the fourth trial]
Author's note:
Heya! Finally back!
The move went better than expected, surprisingly enough, and believe it or not, I was fully ready to start writing again last monday... Until the fever hit.
And that gets us to today. I'm still kinda weak, and still coughing my lungs out as I write, but the fever, at long last, is gone (yes it last a whole damn week), and that feels damn great.
I'm so happy I get to sit down and write again without feeling like I'm going to faint any second.
I might have been a bit too eager to get to the next best part though, hence why, huh, the transition from one arc to the other might have been a bit short, but whatever.
Sorry for the week of lateness. It's time! TRIAL ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRC!!!!
(Also if you're wondering, I posted this an hour early today because I was a bit too excited to be back, it is what is is.)
Comments
BAAAB The Blood God
Ah lalalala oui la meilleure lady est française, oui oui baguette
OmniGlitcher
>Putain de merde Oh no, the French censor was failing. >Four trial takers, four overseers. Do you not know basic maths?” So did Sen's trial have more Seraphs? Or was it just him? >Tower of the Ark Boat time, I suppose. >there are rare duo classes for twins There were those Spotter and Marksman classes a while back, so makes sense.
Ceasar Salas
Thanks for the chapter! I am glad that the move went well and I hope you return to prestige health soon!
Cyclone001
The loop was 7 or 8 days iirc. The calender outside is different to ours, so I didn't do an exact calculation, but it looked to work out to about 100 years. Meaning after she kills scripture and get the essense to power the skill she just learned.
Jonathan Wint
Glad the move was smooth!
Cinnamon Toast
There suicidal options that relate to the deep which Sofia can just take as warnings and then there is suicidal options relating to the leviathan which even the level 500s decide to avoid
E
How long was a reset of Izarro's loop? It was at least 5 days, right? Does that mean Sofia told Remia it won't take more than 50+ years? Also I like how they get Ormoncleth's rapier, an object that defies reality, and all they care about is figuring out which one of them has to deal with it.
E
The admins themselves told Sofia picking False Lord was basically suicide. Since when has that warning stopped her? Well, apparently now. I wish she had chosen Leviathan :(
Mornn
;)
Mornn
Still a single eye, just a typo x.x
Chance Rose
Yeah that's what I'm talking about. That would definitely help i think
Mrluigi1111111
Fever? I assumed your *worries* would Malta-way when you moved, not you! Glad you're feeling better. Any ways, no Kuli spar? Or are we gonna find out Sofia's meteoric rise motivated her to finally take the 300 trial?
Sanetless
You sweet, innocent individual... It's a RE:Zero reference. Only watch it if you like trauma.
Daemion
I had this one in my office: https://www.amazon.fr/Brita-Carafe-filtrante-Marella-polypropyl%C3%A8ne/dp/B0D4VD2C92 I can't tell you how much it changed the taste though because that was always fine. We got it so our kettle and coffee machine wouldn't have to be decalcified every week. The downside is that you'll need a new filter every month or so, which adds up in cost. Probably cheaper than buying bottled water though. There are larger solutions that might make sense, depending on your water usage. Or you might be able to have a filtration system installed directly on your main water pipe. Those systems cost aren't cheap and usually require maintenance, so you'd have to calculate if it's better than simply buying water.
Daemion
Welcome back and I hope you'll feel better soon. Sounds like at least your move to Malta worked out without major issues. Sofia isn't human anymore, shouldn't the seraph see that through the system? Why isn't she correcting him? "Sofia enhanced her far-sight with her fake eyes, perhaps her favorite feature of the things beyond its storage-item capabilities." ... eyes plural? I thought she had only one replaced with Richard's prototype? Did she switch both out before her latest adventure? I would have picked double damage, too. That's barely an inconvenience for someone who can dodge most attacks and overpower nearly all enemies. I hope Sofia and Pareth get to cut loose and just crush everything in their path. It's about time she shows off her gains. So this Mid guy... is he the designated butt monkey for this round? The one who gets to suffer from Sofia's antics and has to clean up after her? Because that sounds like exactly what he deserves for his attitude and the fact that he's making assumptions after skipping the briefing.
Tejing
Despite what might be assumed, Mornn, the author, actually took his username Mornn from the character, rather than naming the character after himself.
Tejing
iirc it was never actually stated that she upgraded it, but she must have done so before leaving for the warped moon. It certainly did seem like she was set on Odalite.
Malphir
Ah, thanks for clearing that up.
Lazy Monster
Before the next trial after this
Malphir
Didn't the Annihilator's quest for his essence involve fully priming Gluttony through one of the methods before this trial? Or am I just remembering wrong/mistaken?
Lazy Monster
She upgraded it before she left for the moon. Erridis told her picking the Leviathan blood was basically suicide. Nex is the dragon admin, and Sen is the Seraph from the second trial - the ranking tower. I think it’s a kleptra in charge of the 1st one since the archangel was replaced.
Emily Gurnavage
The non Goddess Remia is the dryad. I don't think she has done much yet, or even woken up iirc. I just remember her endlessly sleeping in Zangdar.
Draxas
WAIT A MINUTE, I thought she still hasn't decided on a summon blood upgrade, what chapter did she choose the upgrade? It might have been a crazy choice but I was really hoping for tantalizing or leviathan. Edit: Again been a while since I read but Sen was the first trial seraph and Nex is the dragon administrator right
Draxas
It may be because I haven't read this in a while. But I have just noticed that there's a character named mornn, Is that your self insert character?
Arthur
Thanks for the chapter and glad to hear you're getting better. Super excited for the trial! *Also was not expecting the putain de merde haha
Mornn
Twas french indeed :)
Kennyevilmonkey
Welcome back!
ArtTheGreat
Alith is pardoned for her french. Or is she? Given the censor kept her from saying anything more in french? (It was french, right?)
E
Can't visit Erredis yet. She's busy figuring out how to combine Nex' horn with the Odalite blood. I really wish Sofia had chosen leviathan blood...
BOT
So far there hasn't been a single trail Sofia didn't break, and for some reason I don't think the streak ends with this one. Not with the chekhov's gun you brought out last arc
Mornn
I'll look into it
Chance Rose
Ah got ya, so very heavy water. That stuff is awful. Yeah bottled is the way to go then. But I'd look for a Brita pitcher filter. It might make it taste okay and save you a ton of money. You can order it online if it's not sold in the shops there.
Mornn
It's not that it's bad quality, you *can* drink it, but it's an island so de-salted sea-water, ends up tasting bad. Everyone just drinks bottled water instead, me included now.
Chance Rose
Oh is it real bad quality? That's surprising actually. It could be the actual pipes causing the issue though. Do they sell brita filters at the shops? I. In America so I'd say hit Walmart, they sell them. But idk if they even have that there. I don't think so.
Mornn
Rem? Did you mean to write Ram? ( ° ᗜ ° ")
Sanetless
Hey Mornn... Who is Rem?
Mornn
It's different but kind of the same? That's what I get for staying in Europe I suppose, it's not bad, but there are a few things that need some getting used to, like the absolutely disgusting tap water. It's really horrendous. Like drinking liquid shit.
Tom Asciola
Hell yeah! Good to hear you're healing up, great to hear you're writing again!
Chance Rose
Geeeeeeeeze Mornn, what the hell man?! Making us wait a whole extra week because of something as trivial as your health?! Lol anyway, great to have you back bro. Glad your move went smoothly and you're feeling well. How is Malta?
Robinn57
Glad you are doing better. Was expecting some converations with people before trial some hand shaking or something but hey here we are. LETS GOOOO!!! (edit simulation: HELLO WORLD) lol
Mornn
You'll still get to at least see Water soon :p
Mornn
I'll be fine, in fact I think I was going to go crazy if I hadn't been able to start writing again today x)
Tejing
Glad you're feeling better (relatively). Hope your condition keeps improving. Thanks for pushing yourself a bit to get back to it even though you're not 100% yet! Too bad... I was looking forward to the meeting with Water. I guess it'll have to wait till after the trial. Plenty to look forward to in that, too! Wow, he really put his foot in his mouth. Did the very thing he wrongly accused her of doing... guess it was inevitable that one of the seraphs would be an ass at some point. They've all been pretty decent folk thus far. Yeah, doubled damage taken is the way to go. Won't affect Sofia that much with VPPV 99% limit and the runes, and Pareth can take the pounding. Sofia just has to lean even more toward offense than usual. Correction: the nutcases are from you species every time you -> your
Songy
Welcome back Mornn! It's good to hear that you're getting better but please don't push yourself if you need more time.
John Grizzly
Welcome back!
Silver Dawn
Ready for Sofia to break another Trial. The damage penalty is actually kinda funny as it basically just lets here power up One With Suffering more easily
Mornn
More technically Bookie is a book so he's counted as equipment. (also Orator made sure he could always enter the trials 'for free' because what kind of a lousy skill would that be otherwise?)
Cyclone001
Welcome back! Isn't Bookie technically a summoned hero too, so won't it be three for the solo parts? I was kinda looking forward to seeing Erredis again after the trial, but oh well.
Lazy Monster
TFTC. Great to have you back and it’s great that your move went smoothly.
Wensber
Welcome back! Thanks for the chapter!
Dan N
Glad you're starting to feel better! Good chapter!
Matt Grayson
Hallelujah! They're back.
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
