Sofia looked at the master item Pareth had bought for himself, it wasn’t primed yet, but he had still been able to customize it.

[Tournament Master’s Adaptive Cuirasse]:

Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, the master cuirasse lets you gain various immunities.

You have chosen the following:

- Immunity to [Burning].

- Immunity to Explosion damage.

- Immunity to Health regeneration impairments. Chapters fırst released on novel[f]ire.net

- Immunity to Strength impairments.

The physical protection the master cuirasse grants increases with your class level.

Cannot be destroyed.

Must be primed before use.

“Just say it if what you wanted was immunity from me!” Sofia joked,”Not a bad choice, all things considered, explosions seem to be a hallmark of high level fighting, since at some point anything we do produces shockwaves anyway. Light would have been good too, but I suppose immunity to burning does help with that. Did you pass on Blunt damage because you already have the resistance?”

Pareth nodded.

“Yeah… Still, it’s your biggest weak point even with the resistance. Also, with that cuirasse, your armor of light and the bone armor, you’ll be wearing three chestplates in battle now. Your mana heart might just be at its safest in its original position. Alright, you have to buy my earring now. And I have to buy you another master item. I know we’ve found three more but I haven’t checked them out yet. Already picked? We only have two more days.”

Pareth nodded again, gesturing for Sofia to follow him. He led her to a fried vegetables restaurant, walked straight into the kitchen past the cook, who completely ignored both him and Sofia’s presence, and opened a secret passage by removing the blackened iron back panel of a stone oven.

“Who even found that…”

Pareth pointed at the book attached to Sofia’s waist.

“Oh. Pestle? Why am I not surprised… Well… After you…”

The back of the oven led to a vast open throne room with cold stone walls, which could absolutely not fit into the back of the restaurant no matter how one looked.

What the fuck.

The walls were marked with traces of violent battles, and Sofia could easily recognise the burns left by Pareth’s [Arclight].

“Let’s get a look at this hidden shop.”

[Undead Throne Shop - Level 5]

[Categories : Consumables (LV1-2) - Undead Throne Replica (LV3) - Skill tickets (LV4) - ★ Special shop (LV5) ★]

Undead throne? That rusty thing at the back of the room? Yeah I don’t think I’ll be buying that. But that does give me high hopes for the item! Open the special shop!

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Master’s Crown of Eternal Frost]:

A sinister force seems to inhabit the crown’s dark alloy.

Grants the wearer:

Immunity to Cold damage.

Your successful melee attacks inflict [Permafrost].

If the wearer is not undead:

Gain strong authority over all non sapient undead.

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Necromancy and frost system skills gain five times more experience.

Your Charisma is doubled.

You will rise again as a random Elite Frost undead after death.

If the wearer is undead:

All stats +20%.

Your aura gains [Freezing].

Grants the option for a Frost racial evolution the first time you cross a filter while wearing the crown as an undead.

Must be primed before use.

Price: 1 000 000 000 TP

With wide-open eyes, Sofia bought the item before even reaching the end of the description.

‘You have spent 900 000 000 tournament points’

‘Current balance : 7 209 025 points’

‘[Tournament Master’s Crown of Eternal Frost] has been bought for twin: Pareth’

A spiky crown of black metal with a frosty sheen appeared directly on top of Pareth’s skull, making the air around him feel colder.

“It’s not even primed and it’s spewing out cold already… I hope you will be able to hold that in after priming or we might just have to make your wear a ring of heating. Twenty percent to all stats… Such a ridiculous buff! Not to mention everything else. I’ll be looking forward to your racial evolution, but you better still be a skeleton!”

Pareth answered with a shrug, taking off the crown to get a look at it himself.

“Don’t worry, it looks good on you.”

Pareth stared back with insistence at Sofia’s words.

“Hey hey, I’m not at all saying that just because I’m happy to no longer be the only weird one always wearing a crown!”

Pareth laughed silently.

Sofia played with the small mithrium earring in her hand, observing the reflections of the water in the blue gem it held.

[Tournament Master’s ALL-IN Earring]:

Carefully crafted from the rarest materials by a genius craftsman, that master Earring give a multiplicative buff of +77% to Mana and its three related sub-stats.

(Applied after all other modifiers)

Chosen stat can still be altered until priming.

Must be primed before use.

Becomes a permanent part of your body.

Consumes two skill slots.

Your two other main stats’ base growth per level is set to zero.

(They will now only grow from overcoming the filters)

Hard to believe this tiny thing is that powerful… But the mana circuits inside of that gem are so dense they look like a solid block. I knew very fine circuits were drawn for rings and jewelry but this one is on another level entirely. It’s no surprise it takes two skill slots.

Thankfully the priming isn’t too expensive, I should be done before the week is over.

If I wanted to fully squeeze every last drop of value from it I would first level up to 349 to get some extra Health and Stamina before putting it on… But at this point the extra mana will be more useful, even if it won’t speed up my debt repayment. The level up stat growth is basically worthless now anyway… Even for mana, not even the 77% improvement will make it count I think.

Failing to remember the numbers, Sofia pulled out an old bone slate from her storage.

‘Total stat gain for 49 level plus EX:

Health 3765; Stamina 2609; Mana 342,944’

“Yeah… Losing the health and stamina is really not even worth mentionning… And even accounting for earring if I get the same amount of mana from leveling, that would only be an extra six hundred thousand mana. It’s a lot now, but it will probably feel like nothing after the filter. Stats from leveling just stop being relevant at this point…”

Sending the wet bone tablet back into her storage, Sofia stepped out of the shower, “I should get ready, I’m going to be late to the farewell banquet…”

Pareth had taken his time to buy his two remaining uniques after buying Sofia’s earring, eventually getting his bony hands on the 10 million points curse resistance potion, and on a first shield to feed his master shield, costing him another 50 million points. After an evening of festivities with all the real participants of the trial, Sofia finally found the chance to be alone with Pareth on the way back to their room, and asked to see his new shield.

[Blazing Sun Crest Shield]:

The elderwood shield of a retired Paladin of Sun that has seen many battles. Tough and lightweight, it is counterintuitively very resistant to fire and heat.

The wearer gains resistance to Fire damage when holding up this shield, and their light-related skills gain +25% range.

Melee attacks with this shield inflict [Burning].

“So let me get this right… If you bash someone with this… You inflict [Burning]and[Permafrost]? I have to say I’m a bit curious about how this is going to work. We’ll definitely have to go on a Shield shopping trip after we’re out. Speaking of which, I made this for you.”

Sofia took out a shield made of her own Lumian bones, Pareth’s summoning ritual engraved on its surface.

“That way you have easy access to your own summoning ritual if you want to swap skeleton. I even modified it to directly use mana instead of blood. I’ve been working on this in secret for a while but I only managed to finish it now since I’ve had an entire free week… Do you like it?”

“Ah! W- wait, you’re gonna crush my bones at this rate!”