In a rather small private room, one of the few level 500 humans was watching Sofia happily destroy a swarm of comets after her short run-in with the Leviathan.

With a deep voice, he spoke to the woman sitting next to him, whose yellow sundress contrasted against her dark skin, “Those humans from the other side are really something else. A shame I was too busy to start watching earlier.”

“Maybe if you’d not forced Nolla to go check that glimmer in the sky she could have taken care of that Alphageid for you.”

“Now’s not the time to get lazy about security. I’m sure someone will have recorded all of this anyway.”

“Most likely,” the woman answered, “no comments on her lightning?”

The man extended a hand, effortlessly and flawlessly reproducing Sofia’s explosive bolts. “Modified version of Zolander’s lightning spear,” he explained, “Reduced stability and speed, higher volatility. Channeling speed is where she is going to hit a wall with a modification like that. As she channels more mana the spear will grow too unstable to keep growing, unless she can massively improve the input channel.”

“Zolander… Was that not someone from your line who ended up working as an Angel?”

“A friend of the family,” the man corrected, dispelling the bolt in his hand.

“Hmm… Are you going to keep that base?”

“No, you know my style. What I want is that avatar form you mentioned in your report.”

“Can’t you just contact the scribes for the schematics?” the woman asked.

“I could… But where’s the fun in that? I’m thinking of sending a delegation.”

“A delegation? Where?”

“You said she was planning to build a city, no? Send some kids from class A and a few workers from the guild. Our island is starting to get crowded anyway.”

“That it is…”

“Oh, look, she’s done clearing everything already.”

“Barely a challenge considering what came before.”

“See, that’s your problem, Kalla, you can’t enjoy the simple things in life. This is why Nolla ascended and you didn’t.”

Kalla shook her head, rolling her eyes.

With the phoenix module’s speed boost, Sofia’s group overtook Ezerid’s again, in the middle of the comet shower. That being said, Sofia clearing most of the comets also helped them progress faster. The group quickly reached the sixth checkpoint and picked another speed boost out of the five choices.

Sofia looked at her map. It showed a very zoomed-out view of space. The sun itself was labelled ‘finish line’. They were hard to see, as looking in the sun’s direction was quite blinding, but there were more speed boost green rings leading to it.

‘Crazy ride into the sunset’, huh? We are supposed to just throw ourselves into the sun?

She looked at the others, who had all similarly pulled up their map, Kuli and Pareth both shrugged, and Mornn just adjusted the wheel, whistling a song that nobody could hear.

She gave another glance at the sun, then at Ezerid’s ship not far behind, who was getting out of the comet field.

I’m guessing this was supposed to be a tense race? We just pulled so far ahead there isn’t really a competition.

The final of this event ended up being anticlimactic. While two more ships managed to get past the comet shower before Sofia’s galleon reached the sun, they just had no chance to catch up, and everything turned white as the ship sunk into the sun.

They did say it was a backup event… Feels… Unfinished. But I won’t complain about an easy first place, Sofia thought as she reappeared on the Ark with the others.

“I thought the Ark sunk,” Mornn commented, looking around. Their room was just like they had left it.

“Theatrics,” Kuli guessed, looking out the window, “I didn’t get any notification for the end of the event, did anyone?”

“No,” Sofia answered, “Half-baked event, it seems, the results will probably come later, but we’re definitely out, the spectator count is off… We didn’t even get to see those Gobliaths a second time.”

“Weren’t you satisfied with the Leviathan?” Mornn asked with a raised brow.

“If you put it like that…”

“Well, ninth gold pin for me!” Mornn happily said, “this event might just have pushed me to the five hundred million points mark. Now I just need to almost double that with the last one and I get my sword!”

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Sofia nodded. “Time for us to compete for the perfect run pin!”

“Doubt I have a real shot at that, but I’ll fight you if I need to.”

Cutting short their conversation, Lepo entered the room without even knocking.

“Oh! You’re already back?! My apologies…”

“We just got back,” Mornn told him, “Anything you can tell us about the last event?”

“Hum… Not much, no. Aside from the fact that you will get an entire week on the Ark afterward to finalise your level up and spend your tournament points.”

“What about a timeframe for the start of it?” Kuli asked next.

“Usually is starts around an hour after the end of the ninth event. But since they used the backup this time, it could be different. Everything is ready, though. Ah! There is one thing I can share, actually, usually the last event is where most spectators come watch. Well, in no little part due to your group, we have beaten the previous audience record, and quite handily. From my own estimates, around 85% of all people above level 300 will be watching.”

“Great, thank you, that will do wonders for my anxiety,” Kuli deadpanned.

“Ahah… I- Uh, yeah, I- I’ll be at my stall if you need to buy anything…” he nervously answered, scratching his head.

While the others continued to chat idly, Sofia let herself fall on her bed and checked her progress while staring at the ceiling.

[Current Mana heart Awakening progression: 49%]

She felt a bit sick to her stomach reading the number. Her stunt with the Leviathan had almost doubled the awakening progress, and yet it was still not halfway done.

And there’s a single event left… This one better be difficult enough to get this number up. If I fail the trial because it was too easy… That would certainly be something…

Quite nervous, and with the stress from going against the Leviathan finally falling off, Sofia accidentally dozed off.

Shaken awake by Pareth’s bony hand, Sofia opened her eyes feeling refreshed, in a place she did not recognize.

Huh?

“Oh crap I fell asleep?! Where is this?”

She was a bit disoriented, finding herself somewhere new alone with Pareth. She could barely hear Love’s muffled voice in the distance, without being able to tell what was being said, and most of her vision was occupied by system notifications.

[Panic on the Ark - Crazy ride into the sunset : Backup Event rankings]

[Rank 1 - Eternal Lights]

[Rank 2 - Hero’s journey]

[Rank 3 - Holy Human Empire]

[Rank 4 - Gods Calling]

[Rank 5 - Obsidian Mountain]

[Detailed results for Eternal Lights:

Tier 3 event - Maximum point reward : 50 000 000 TP

First place reward: 50 000 000 TP

BONUS - Spectator’s vote:

Seraph vote (3/4): 3 000 000 TP

Spectator vote: (29 832): 29 832 000 TP

Commentator vote (1/2): 1 000 000 TP

Total earned : 83 832 000 TP

Your first place earned you a bonus Gold Star Pin!]

‘You have received rank 1 reward : Ark’s Gold Star Pin *1!’

‘You have received 83 832 000 tournament points!’

‘Current balance : 532 932 026 points’

Not bad… I assume Gakk’s vote cost us a million points? And one of the Seraphs. Is it the Elf who is still mad against me, or did the Andarian give her points to Ezerid? Well, doesn’t matter…

And this if for the current situation…

[FINAL ROUND: WELCOME TO THE TOURNAMENT ARK]

[Your time on the Ark nears its end. Did you accomplish what you set out to do? Has your mana heart yet to awaken? Are glorious golden stars pinned on your chest? NOW is the time to truly prove your worth in this final tier 1 event, with five hundred million points on the line!]

[More than eight thousand participants, thirteen consecutive battles, and only one first place, will you make it yours?]

[Winners bracket - Round 1/13 - Rank 8192]

[PERFECT RUN - SPECIAL NOTICE: Congratulations! You are in possession of nine gold star pins. A glorious accomplishment in and of itself. This alone all but guarantees you a master item. But should you win all thirteen of your rounds, you will gain access to the Grand Finale and get a chance to compete for the tenth golden pin and extra tournament points! We wish you great success!]

[Tournament rules:

* Half an hour of preparation time between rounds.

* Cooldowns will be reset between each round, and you will be fully healed. Spent consumables are not refunded, but all equipment will be repaired.

* You will not get to know who your opponent is ahead of time but will have access to a list of eliminated trialees after each round.

* Each duel is to the death, no surrendering allowed.

* Giving up or otherwise intentionally losing will result in HEAVY tournament point penalties. Your accumulated points are not safe. You have been warned.

* At the start of each round starting from round 10, a coin toss will give one side the opportunity to decide on the arena type.

* Losers brackets will determine the exact ranking from 3rd place down.

* Tickets are sold for spectators to watch the duels live, you will earn 40% of the proceeds for rounds against other trialees, and 90% for rounds against imprints. (Ticket prices varies depending on demand)]

[Scanning spectators]

[Ticket exception detected]

[Some of your spectating family and close friends are eligible for free tickets. Distribute free tickets? (Yes/No)]

Yes obviously, what kind of a question is that?

[Free tickets have been issued to:

Saria Aphenoreth

Cinthia Molgdann

Erredis

Eternam Aoldun

Sen

Zerei Evranarheimlein Kralan

Speed

Nyse Glacier

Theorus Livento Dereus Richard

Velania Ibristina

Jennifer Sellar

Oleron Sellar

Sorrow]

Oh wow. It’s really everyone above level 300 who is going to be watching, huh.

Sofia giggled reading Richard’s full name. He’s really named TLDR!!!

Wait… Oleron Sellar?

Who the fuck?!

We have another hidden ancestor we didn’t know about?!