stjorthotic Chapter 433: Upgrade
Chapter 433: Upgrade
Thalion spent the rest of the eighth stage in the cave, working tirelessly on improving his affinities, soul, and essence blood. His soul was now stronger than ever, with multiple strong spirit veins reinforcing his soul body. He was now confident he could withstand most mental attacks—at least if it wasn’t a Chosen on the other end.His essence blood had also grown more potent, improving everything even if it didn’t show directly on his stats. Strengthening soul and blood was always nice, but most of Thalion’s time had gone into upgrading his fire affinity in his human form and the new ice affinity of Eagly. He would likely use the two large crystals at the end of the treasure hunt, which was why Thalion wanted to squeeze every last bit out of them.
Thalion had to admit he was a bit confused by the ice affinity—not by how it improved during tempering, but because he didn’t really know what Eagly was supposed to become. At the moment, it only meant that he wouldn’t be negatively affected if someone used a frost domain against him.
The bigger question was his future. Would it be possible to combine storm—which was already a mix of wind and lightning—with ice? Thalion had no idea, but in his mind, a snowstorm threaded with lightning sounded pretty fucking cool. The problem was that he had no clue how to get there. He didn’t have a snowstorm skill, and if the system didn’t grant him one, he had no idea where he would even get it. At least so far, he couldn’t remember encountering any beast capable of something like that. Maybe in the snow stage—but back then, he had other things to worry about.
On New Earth, he hadn’t spotted any cold regions so far. It probably wouldn’t matter anyway, since the E-grade evolution would happen right after the system event. Thalion wasn’t willing to wait even a second after this was all over.
With fire, Thalion had made massive progress and was now confident he wouldn’t get burned by Kaelir’s flames like last time. The Sanguis Impera had also made great progress in fire resistance, which was a huge bonus in any fight—especially against fire-based enemies. Against normal fire mages, Thalion had already been immune thanks to his divine passive, but now he should also be relatively safe even against a Chosen using fire skills.
The fire affinity had also slightly improved his bloodline flames, which was another big bonus.
The stage was ending, and Thalion was ready to give it his all in the next one. With these upgrades, he might even be able to survive if a Chosen tried to kill him—at least if that Chosen relied on one of the affinities he had improved over the last few days.
Thalion tried to hype himself up. The last stages had been a bit depressing. F-grade was simply a joke compared to high E-grades—and especially the Chosen.
Thalion was automatically teleported to the next stage after a small message appeared, stating that he had passed the requirement by earning over two million leaderboard points. There was a second of darkness, which was strange for teleportation, before light almost painfully pierced his eyes.
He stood inside a circle in the middle of a massive harbor. The buildings and the pier were gigantic, as were the ships docked there. They were sailing ships—each nearly half the size of a cruise ship from old Earth. Inside the circle, several other trial takers appeared, all solidly in E-grade. Each of them was surrounded by sailors who watched them with interest.
The first thing Thalion checked was whether Ryan was still on the leaderboard. If Ryan had survived, then the mission would have been a failure, and he wouldn’t have been allowed to return to the kingdom. That could have caused the Chosen to drop out—either by failing to reach two million leaderboard points or out of fear that the king would activate the tablet.
Thalion scrolled through the top two hundred ranks. When he didn’t spot Ryan, a slight smile appeared on his lips.
Turning to the top rankings, Thalion frowned slightly. Only five million points separated him from the First Daughter, who was in second place. That was a much smaller lead than Thalion had hoped for. The top ten were extremely close overall, and Eric, Ethan, and Felix in particular seemed to have had an excellent stage—they were right behind the Second Daughter.
The prince had almost dropped out of the top ten, sitting in ninth place. The top fifty were almost entirely Chosen, which was honestly insane in Thalion’s opinion. He hadn’t expected there to be this many. Sure, they weren’t all from Earth—probably from dozens of different planets—but still.
It didn’t seem fair at all. What chance did a normal person have to reach S-grade or godhood if they had to compete against monsters like these the entire way?
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Those fellows likely already had a massive advantage thanks to their bloodlines, but then to also receive the personal assistance of a god was just unreal. Not that those thoughts helped Thalion right now, which was why he pushed them aside and focused on the important things.
First was the information about this stage and the requirements to advance to the next one, which was always announced in a short text in his notifications.
Welcome to Stage Nine
All on planet Tandorus are in a hurry to find the Elixir of Gurgaorus
Right now every faction is locked on its island, waiting until all of you arrive before heading out to hunt for this ultimate treasure
The ultimate treasure will grant thirty million credits
There are, of course, many islands where multiple valuable treasures are hidden
On those islands, you can also find pieces of the treasure map that will lead you to the grand treasure
Take care when heading out onto the sea
The water is special, and you will be unable to stay underwater for too long. Flying over the water will also be impossible over large distances
Using ships to traverse the ocean will be crucial if you want a chance to get through this stage
In ten minutes, the barriers will be lowered, and everyone may enter the open ocean in search of the grand treasure. Be careful—there are multiple threats hiding above and beneath the waves.
You have fourteen days to earn ten million leaderboard points.
When the time runs out, you will be automatically teleported to the final stage of this treasure hunt
Good luck
It was a lot to take in, but Thalion already didn’t like that the grand treasure was worth that many leaderboard points. If he didn’t find it, he would likely end up in second place. After seeing the rewards, first place was by far the best option for him, and none of the other rewards even came close.
In the last stage, the others had managed to close the gap in a single run, and it looked like this one would be even more rewarding—especially since ten million points were required to reach the final stage.
When it came to trial takers, there weren’t many left. Considering they had started with millions, the last stage had been the end for most of them. Now only around eight thousand remained. With only the absolute elite left, this stage would be far harder than the previous one.
Before Thalion could think further about the information, one of the captains standing on a slightly elevated platform shouted loudly at the newly arrived group.
“Welcome, everyone. I’ll keep this short. The other captains and I will add you to our crews and give you a quick rundown of how these ships work, because they’re quite special—and also about the sea creatures we might encounter.
“You’re here to earn as many leaderboard points as possible, and we want to find as many treasures as possible. There’s no reason to cooperate. Once you join our crew, you’ll need to follow our rules and listen to us captains.
“Are there any questions before we get started?”
Thalion actually had a bunch of questions, but he wasn’t the first to speak up. A woman at his side raised her voice. She seemed to be a water mage in high E-grade—at least that was Thalion’s guess, judging by her blue robe and the wand with a blue crystal.
“According to our information, we can’t fly or dive into the ocean for too long. How will fights against other ships play out? And how are we supposed to react when we encounter other crews?”
“Those are all things we’ll explain after you’ve joined our crews,” the captain answered loudly. “In general, we attack every other ship we meet. We all started with the same ships, but we had a full year to upgrade them—and I think we did a damn good job. We don’t need to hide from anyone.”
Another trial taker stepped forward, a burly man covered in scars. “What about boarding actions? Are we expected to jump onto enemy ships, or do we fight at range?”
“That depends on the situation and the captain,” the man replied. “Some ships are built for ramming, others for ranged combat. You’ll learn soon enough.”
A third voice joined in, sharp and suspicious. “And what happens if a ship gets destroyed? Are we dead, or just stranded?”
The captain grinned. “That depends on how good you are at swimming—or killing whatever finds you first.”
A short, uneasy silence followed.
“So, since there are no questions,” the captain continued after a moment, “we’ll get going. Time is of the essence, after all.”
Thalion decided it was better to ask his questions later—and probably not to the captain. Asking whether there were shapeshifters on board or if they could move freely through the water didn’t sound particularly smart. Any question he asked right now would just draw unnecessary attention. So far, no one seemed to have realized that he was only F-grade—and the one sitting at the top of the leaderboard.
There were several captains present, each choosing between one and three trial takers for their crew. Thalion was picked by a captain with the build of a bodybuilder—bare-chested, covered in scars, with chains hanging from his neck adorned with multiple shark teeth.
From there on, everything happened fast. The crowd immediately dispersed, and each trial taker followed their assigned captain to their respective ships. Thalion’s captain had also chosen the water mage who had asked the first question. The closer they got to the ship, the larger it looked.
On the ship and the dock, crew members were finishing the last preparations—carrying provisions, ammunition, and all kinds of equipment. The deck was so high that there wasn’t a traditional plank leading up. Instead, some kind of antigravity rune was embedded in the dock, automatically lifting cargo upward.
“Haha! Welcome to my awesome ship, ,” the captain laughed loudly. “We’re not fully loaded yet, so don’t just stand there like you’re glued to the ground. Help the others bring the equipment up. They’ll explain the rest.”
He grinned, shark teeth clinking. “I hope you’re ready for adventure and blood—because in the end, there can only be ship that gets the big treasure. Haha!”