As the world faded to black, Nex muted the sound of the many agitated watchers.

“Sorry to interrupt, but this concludes this installment of the tournament Ark. Despite the circumstances, the usual post-Ark rules apply, so please mind your actions from now on, as I will personally be enforcing security. Additionally, you will soon receive notice of the relaxed hero-world censorship that will be applied from now on. We thank you for your mostly orderly conduct so far.”

With a swipe of the admin’s finger, the watchers were all sent back to their respective spectator rooms.

A bunch of skeletons appeared around a table, steaming teacups in front of each of them.

“Quite the spectacle,” Richard commented, slouching in his seat, “And I got to enjoy it for free too. I ought to repay that at some point.”

“My wallet is bleeding,” the bear skeleton lich complained, “I doubt you need to repay anything, they must be filthy rich now.”

“Oh the profits have to be of a few old stones at least, yes,” Richard confirmed, “Love must be drooling as she counts her share right now… Something on your mind Irina? You look troubled.”

“I- I have a proposal.”

“Hmm?”

“If the girl herself is not interested… We should recruit the book.”

The bear lich leaned over the table, “Does he count? We can’t start bending the rules now.”

“I’m pretty sure he does!” Irina argued, “From the looks of it the book itself is the phylactery, he’s definitely a Lich!”

“That would be our youngest member ever, but any Lich over level 300 with an invitation does qualify…” the bear said, “Rich, thoughts?”

“I suppose I shall bring the topic up next time I see her. She will be busy, though.”

“That she definitely will…” Irina agreed, “I doubt she’s ready for what she got herself into.”

“She has been through the Deep and back,” Richard said with a shrug, “I doubt this much is something she can’t handle.”

The bear Lich stared at Richard, the flames in his eyesockets lightly wavering, “I know that look, rotten old bones. You’re sending a Red Carpet team, aren’t you?”

Two dark-skinned humans appeared in a tiny private room.

“Kalla,” the man immediately called out, “About the delegation-”

The woman put a hand on the man’s mouth, but the man kept speaking anyway.

“You should go with them.”

Kalla rolled her eyes.

“Fine… Anything else?”

“I’m heading out first, I’ll prepare a congratulations gift for you to bring.”

“Why don’t you just go yourself if you’re that interested?”

The man shook his head, “You know why. Nolla alone isn’t enough to defend.”

“Tssk.”

I many spectator rooms, similar scenes played out.

Meanwhile, Sofia and Pareth appeared in a white void.

[Due to the sensitive nature of your rewards, you have been transported to a safe space.]

“Hey partner. Welcome back”, Sofia said with a smile as her body slowly transformed back to her regular Lumian form, “Were you able to watch the end?”

Pareth nodded.

“Oh, good. I feared you might not have. That would have been bad. Close call this one. Had you not finished the second one off I would have probably gotten surrounded.”

Sofia had more to say, but her train of thought was interrupted by a new notification.

[You have received hidden reward - Jin’s Earth Language Compendium: English; French; Spanish; Russian; Modern Chinese; Japanese; Korean]

“Oh! So that’s why I could understand them at the end. Figured. Seven languages… You received that too?”

Once again Pareth nodded.

“Me too!” Bookie chimed in, summoning himself.

“So we all got it? Nice. Probably won’t be too useful, but I can see some uses. I still have those old notes from Jin’s Cerberus house in my ring somewhere. It was one of the weird rune-like languages. Japanese I think?”

Again she was interrupted by a new notification.

[Objective 1: Survive until I expire |COMPLETE|- Reward secured: Gold Star Pin & 500 000 000 TP]

“Good to know this was accounted for. The system is being a bit slow today it looks like,” Sofia commented.

“It’s probably because there were so many people watching!” Bookie guessed.

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“That and I’m sure Earth’s simulation was quite something to get working, too. Right, how’s Pestle?”

“Pestle is sleeping!” Bookie said enthusiastically, “She’s dreaming about food, I think. I you awakening all done, Sofia?”

“All done yes. It got completed fairly early into the fight against Lilith, actually. The first big explosion in the desert had already pushed it forward a lot.”

“That’s a relief… Do we get to buy the master items now?!”

“One thing at a time Bookie, more notifications are coming, I think.”

[Accounting complete]

Accounting?

[You will receive the following proceeds from your spectator ticket sales (each sufficient denomination has been traded up):

48 Copper coins

3 Silver coins

84 247 Gold Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on novel·fire.net

2 Tiny Stones

7 Small Stones

9 Stones

4 Old Stones]

[You may now request currency exchange. Coins, Ingots and Stones available.]

Sofia’s eyes widened as the read the system window.

“We’re rich!” she exclaimed, grabbing Bookie and throwing herself into Pareth’s arms.

Wait, Ingots! Can I… Buy Mithrium? What price is it?!

[Mithrium Ingot (100g) - 1 Stone]

Oh. That’s… A hundred thousand gold a gram?

After a few seconds, she let go of the hug.

“Guys… We can buy almost five kilograms of Mithrium…”

“Do we even need that much?!” Bookie asked, in shock.

“We could use more, actually,” Sofia answered, “But I don’t think it’s very wise to use all of our money like that. That being said, this might be a unique chance to buy so much Mithrium in bulk…”

Exchange two old stones for Mithirum, and 3 stones for Mithril.

[Old Stone (*2) has been exchanged for - Mithrium Ingot (100g *20)]

[Stone (*3) has been exchanged for - Mithril Ingot (10g * 300 000)]

[You have closed the currency exchange. Currency will be delivered to you after you exit the Ark.]

“Alright… I just bought two kilograms of Mithrium… And three tons of Mithril…”

Bookie’s lower jaw fell to the floor with a clank.

“You know… For once I almost think you’re underreacting,” Sofia said with a giggle as she bent over to pick up Bookie jaw and place it back where it belonged.

“THREE TONS!”

“That’s right. Honestly I would have bought more, but I gotta think of the storage space. And we probably won’t be using that much in a good while anyway, even if a lot if going to go to my new leveling box.”

“I think I need to sleep also…” Bookie said, returning back to his book form.

“Alright alright, rest well, you deserve it. Want to rest too, Pareth? No? Too excited for the other rewards? Well I’m with you on that. Any minute now…”

A lone wooden box appeared between Sofia and Pareth without a sound.

Oh?

Sofia crouched down and opened the box, it contained a paper note with a few scribbled words, and two items.

‘Handler will send you the real ones once you wake up, but here’s a preview. I hope you enjoyed your little trip on earth, whoever you are - Jin’

Sofia picked up the two items, the mithrium key, and the red tear-shaped gem.

Ah… The item description is in… Korean? I can read it but it feels a bit strange.

[Jin’s second spare key]: The password is ‘SoWon-Erika-Lilith-Anna’

Insert in any door’s keyhole.

Turn right to unlock the door.

Turn left to access the penthouse.

Sofia shared the window with Pareth.

“Looks like we just inherited a new house?”

Pareth scratched his middle skull.

“Yeah I know we already have Zangdar and a city to build. But well. One more can’t be bad. Looks like it’s supposed to be able to open any lock, too, if I’m not misinterpreting the description. Good to have around, next time we find a cursed chest we can just unlock it properly.”

Pareth’s attention quickly switched to the gem. Sofia was also burning with impatience, feeling the gem she was holding already liking with her mana, its power spreading through her body from just touching it.

“Alright. Moment of truth. Was this extra challenge truly worth the effort?”

Sofia quickly translated and read the description.

Lords.

[The philosopher’s stone]: The brightest miracles and darkest tragedies all have one thing in common: humanity’s relentless drive to create change. Yet, one thing they wished was eternal.

Water purified by the philosopher’s stone may be used to cure all diseases and fully heal anyone under level 200. Can bring back the recently passed if conditions are right.

While wearing the philosopher’s stone, you are immune to all negative status.

Upon death, the philosopher’s stone shall grant you a powerful new life, once.

Can only be destroyed by its creator, or the final death of it’s wearer.

Restriction: Born human.

Mr.Scribe’s note: Unlife runes will not trigger it. While indestructible, it is easy to lose.

Immune to all.

ALL?!!!

EVEN THE BLESSING OF THE DEEP IS CONDITIONAL! WHAT ALL?!

“I need to try something,” Sofia said, before putting the tiny gemstone in her mouth.

Pareth seemed to sigh, but he did not try to stop Sofia when she sliced through her own neck with her dagger.

With her mana heart in her head, Sofia watched her health drop, as she had technically just lost her entire body. The skin of her head cracked, letting bloodlight go through. Her health dropped down to about twenty percent. Using her aura, she moved her head around by pushing on her skull.

Her lip slowly drew a wide smile.

[Pillar of Creation] can no longer stop me from moving.

Sofia let her head fall back on her neck, and her passive healing immediately reconnected everything. Sofia spat back the gem into her hand.

“The runes! I don’t have them on right now… But they can’t prevent me from healing anymore, can they?! This is INSANE!”

Pareth nodded in agreement.

“Hey. It’s pretty clear I should be the one to use it most of the time but…”

Sofia held the gem out in front of Pareth. “Try.”

Pareth gently grabbed the philosopher’s stone. It seemed to respond to his mana just as well as it did Sofia’s. “Eheh. Well, the shape of your soul already said as much, but now we have confirmation that you are 100% human before being a skeleton, mister demigod.”

Pareth seemed to find the idea amusing, but he quickly passed the gem back to Sofia.

“It feels a bit bad to take the rewards for myself you know.”

Pareth shook his head, and grabbed the key.

“Pfft. I know you don’t really care about it either way, but thanks for considering my feelings. Keep the key then,” Sofia said with a bright smile. “Now all that’s left should be the regular event results, right? About time we got that tenth pin! The Perfect Run is ours!”