Chapter 896: Say cheese |
Two old ‘men’, although that appellation was very questionable, sat in a richly decorated spectator room, they were Archmagus Rayra and master craftsman Zurug-Et Thu’ul Nak, two of the Arege Union’s three leaders. They were casually snacking on what by all accounts looked like grilled fairies, but were in fact just a non-sapient feral sub-species.
Thu’ul Nak looked up at the screen with a crooked smirk, “Look at her writhe. It’s horrifying to look at even without the sound. And they still call us the monster species. Humans never cease to crack me up.”
Rayra idly nodded along, “My poor daughter got quite unlucky eh, she might have scored one of Jin’s items against a different set of opponents.”
“Puts into perspective how humans conquered most of the world back then.”
“Bah, you say this as if you weren’t there, you old hack.”
Thu’ul Nak heartily laughed at his friend’s remark. “Wahahah, you know me. I was just a poor worm back then, far away from the surface… Life was simpler, eh. Ah, she got another one out.”
“What a spectacle. What’s the current best for this?” Rayra asked, being more of a sporadic watcher of the Ark compared to the ancient craftsman.
“Saint of Strength Tartaros, 18 teeth. It was a spectacular run, by all accounts,” Thu’ul Nak
answered, “The burning hovel and interior staircase were already fully gone by the time he climbed the volcano, but he still managed to climb down to the shrine barehanded.”
“Are we civilised or are they all freaks?” Thu’ul Nak snickered, “Either way, makes for a good show, hah. Go on girl, almost there, just a few more teeth!”
Alith woke up in a pool of her own blood. A violent throbbing pain stemmed from her jaws, spreading through her entire body.
She had barely any teeth left, and the pain was horrendous, but at least she was no longer in immediate danger. Slotting the teeth into the skull had kept increasing the completion counter, giving bonus points and spawning in more reward chests. Luckyly at the twelfth tooth, the new chest had contained a weak healing potion, a few drops in between each tooth extraction was just enough to prevent her from completely bleeding out, and she had downed everything that was left in it just before passing out. It wasn’t strong enough to regrow her teeth or even completely stop the pain, but it did fully stench the hemorrhage before she passed out, the last tooth still in hand.
Looking like a genuine undead, with burnt skin, missing most teeth and fully covered in her own blood, Alith struggled to stand up, making her way toward the skull with staggered steps.
I– Did it.
A trembling hand brought the last back molar to the blood-covered skull whose glowing eyes now brightly illuminated the entire room. With a click the tooth embedded itself in the sole remaining empty spot.
[Amaralak’s grin 32/32]
[You have scored bonus completion points!]
[You have completed a hidden quest! An exclusive Master item will be available for you to buy after the finale, regular Master item rules still apply.]
The system notification was almost like an electric shock jolting Alith fully awake and making her forget the pain.
★★★★★★★U [Amaralak’s tooth and nail Tournament Master’s cursed grasp]:
Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a bored deity, the cursed grasp allows the user to directly consume magic, restoring Health, Stamina, and Mana while inflicting severe curses and backlash on the caster.
Confers the user full immunity from any negative effects incurred from eating.
Must be primed before use.
Becomes a permanent part of your body.
Consumes seven skill slots.
Is only available for purchase after fully restoring Amaralak’s grin during the Lost island event.
‘I seriously don’t know what she was thinking, but I know where I want to hide this one. I’ll make it easier to buy because I really don’t want to watch someone unlock that and not buy it. Hopefully you’re a career dentist.’
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Price: 666 666 TP
WHAT?!
HOLY FUCKING–
IT’S SO FUCKING CHEAP?!
Seven skill slots though, ugh…
And I still need seven gold stars… Easy. The effects are, huh… Well I’ll have to try? Stamina regen is really good for me so–
Zerei must be drooling. She’s watching right? She has to be.
Ahh… I’d almost forgotten the pain but… Shit. How long have I been here now?
Still feeling weak, Alith let herself fall to the floor, and weakly grabbed the very first box that had appeared, downing the full contents of the water gourd in one go. Then she looked at the small stack of dried meat jerky left in the box with a conflicted expression.
“Hoo aah wewy aat at befo iss…”
Shaking her head, Alith sorted through the contents of the other boxes, there was one for every two teeth slotted into the skull, sixteen boxes total.
They contained a bunch of practical things that would make returning to the Ark easier, ranging from climbing attire to an invisibility or a swimming potion.
Alith had her own plans to make a water-walking potion, but it was invalidated by the last chest, which had appeared after the last tooth.
It just contained a teleportation scroll.
With the meager mana she currently had, Alith activated the ritual engraved in the scroll, appearing directly on the Ark’s main deck, in her own clothes, fully healed, her messy hair the only indicator of her previous wretched state.
This feels illegal somehow.
[EVENT: Fresh start at sea - Lost island, cleared with a full smile. Cheers!]
… Yeah, sure…
Hell. I need a memory-erasing potion…
Oh the scores are… HOW MANY HOURS?!
[Fresh start at sea - Lost island : Event historical rankings]
‘By default, only your score and 4 closest ranks will be displayed, you may search through the full rankings at your own leisure in your system logs’
[Rank 1 - Tartaros : 322]
[Rank 2 - Alith : 255]
[Rank 3 - Zuluk Amok’ok Rayra : 238]
[Rank 4 - Ezerid Rodes - Time : 229]
[Rank 5 - Happy Cloud - Time : 224]
[Detailed results:
Tier 2 event - Maximum point reward : 145 000 000 TP
Time breakdown:
Return time = 103.8 hours
168 - 103 = 63 out of 168 possible time points
Completion breakdown:
6/32 Teeth of Amaralak found (8 points each) = 48 points
32/32 Teeth of Amaralak Slotted (4 bonus points each) = 128 points
1/8 Elite monsters defeated (16 points each) = 16 points
Total points: 255
TP reward for a (255) points score : 145 000 000 TP]
‘Placement : top 0.004%’
‘You have received Placement reward : Ark’s Gold Star Pin *1!’
‘You have received 145 000 000 tournament points!’
Tartaros’ score… What in the shit… Even if I didn’t pass out in that room and got more time points I still wouldn’t have beat him!
After watching Alith’s latest performance and deeply wondering if she was a truly bad influence on her close friends, Sofia returned to the real world for a bit, aiming to tackle her absurdly long checklist of things to do as quickly and efficiently as possible.
For the time being she refilled the blood reserves of the Odalite forge, hoping that Erredis would come back as soon as the moon was back to normal, and warped herself off to deep space to train the transposition.
This time she felt a bit adventurous, so she actually targeted a spot in the middle of nowhere where her light was halted by something, wondering if she was going to land on some unknown planet.
Aaaaand… It’s just a space rock.
Sofia had to hurry to anchor herself to the gigantic flying black rock that quickly flew away. Securing herself on it with a bone hook, she started looking around. The thing was a massive potato-shaped asteroid, easily a few hundred kilometers tall, that looked carved in a single big chunk of porous brittle black rock like lava stone.
I should target actual things more often. Could find interesting things… Maybe there’s some meteoric iron in there? It’s not worth much sadly… I still kind of want to blow it up and see what’s inside.
It turned out that the explosive bolts were not the right tool for the job, they were still a bit weak to get through a rock this size, but the piercing bolts dug very clean holes, letting Sofia see inside.
Oh, it’s a bit glittery. Looks like gold. Too bad I’ll have to leave it there.
Hmm… I should bring back some space rock for Bookie, I’m sure he’ll like it.
Hopefully I can target something a bit nice next time.
Back in Ser’Extra, Sofia grabbed a map, and started planning her next course of action.
Chino will have to wait a bit more… I don’t want to start that before I’m done with having to watch the trial.
But I can do some quick traveling until then. Herzal first to ask the diviner about Izuka, then Arege for the charm. And if I still have time, I’ll go collect the remaining dead god with Sonia. I’ll also go to the flying fortress if it’s anywhere close while I’m on the move…
Better get moving fast.