“Do you think you can get it?” Sofia asked Ezerid after walking up to the necklace master.

“It’s hard. I’m confident I can get it, yes, if I spend another hour or two practicing. Not sure that I want to try that hard, though, since I won’t be able to buy the damn thing anyway.”

“Again, sorry about that…”

“I don’t mind,” Ezerid said with a shrug, “It was my fault for rushing to this trial so soon. I see the difference in our abilities now. I just have a few years of catching up to do, is all.”

“It’s not going to be easy, I’m not about to wait for you,” Sofia said, “but hey, I appreciate having some serious competition. Makes things more exciting, don’t you think? Now, should I give this thing a try?”

“All yours, want me to share my findings?”

“I’ll try blindly first, let’s see how I perform.”

“Alright if you say so, just gotta send some mana to the necklace to start, good luck.”

Sofia answered with a nod and proceeded to send a small packet of mana to the master necklace. Immediately, it seemed to hit something and dissipate. A tiny electric arc shot out of the necklace, zapping Sofia on the forehead, and that was it.

“Ooh. Tingly. I messed that one up right from the start,” Sofia commented, scratching her forehead.

“Yeah my first attempt was the same,” Ezerid said from the side.

“Let me try again.”

Sofia sent her mana more carefully, trying to feel the ‘walls’ that her mana had hit before.

Oh, there’s a tiny hole in the back side. Just send the mana in there…

With precise control, Sofia sent a minuscule amount of mana in the hole, maintaining the link. There’s a turn in there.

Very carefully, Sofia led her mana following the path inside of the necklace’s pendant. This is just like this puzzle jade slip I got from Alkorm! Distracted by the thought, her control slipped ever so slightly, and received another shock on the forehead.

“Oop, lost concentration for a second. But I think I get it. Would be much easier if I could hold the necklace.”

Ezerid shook his head, pointing at the circle around the sitting necklace master, “Can’t step into the circle. You can stand on the edge but at that distance a few more centimeters doesn’t change much.”

“No reason not to,” Sofia said, getting as close as she could, “I think I can get it in under five more attempts.”

“I’d mock you for being overconfident but I know not to now,” Ezerid deadpanned from behind.

Someone else answered him, “Damn right, you’re not in your right mind if you still underestimate my lil’ sis.”

Ezerid turned to look at Saria, “Right… You’re not half bad yourself, does talent just run in the family?”

Saria laughed, “Nah, don’t think so, our parents were all but exceptional. We’re good at taking advantage of every little opportunity is our thing, I’d say. Just what you learn spending your early years begging on the street. That and a healthy amount of luck to get those opportunities in the first place.”

While Ezerid had a chat with the fake Saria, Sofia worked her mana through the necklace. After failing two more times and getting familiar with most of the path inside of the item, she got a good run going with perfect focus, and completed the challenge on her fifth attempt.

Easy enough.

Sofia completely ignored the reactions of the onlookers as they noticed the armor of the master glow golden, which meant the challenge was completed. She was much too absorbed by the description of the master items.

As expected, it’s just like the sword and shield.

Honestly I wouldn’t mind getting that necklace…

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I wonder what came first, these items, or the actual living ones.

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Dopple’s Master Sword]:

It’s not alive, barely. The one true sword, to swing them all.

May be fed other swords to gain some or all of their magical effects, up to a limit.

Shape can be altered at will to that of any of the absorbed swords.

Cannot be destroyed.

Must be primed before use.

Price: 1 000 000 000 TP

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Dopple’s Master Shield]:

It’s not alive, barely. It glows blue when a worthy shield is nearby.

May be fed other shields to gain some or all of their magical effects, up to a limit.

Shape can be altered at will to that of any of the absorbed shields.

Cannot be destroyed.

Must be primed before use.

Price: 1 000 000 000 TP

★★★★★★★★★U [Tournament Dopple’s Master Necklace]:

It’s not alive, barely. For some reason, you sometimes feel the urge to throw it in a volcano.

May be fed other jewelry to gain some or all of their magical effects, up to a limit.

Appearance can be altered at will to that of any of the absorbed necklaces.

Cannot be destroyed.

Must be primed before use.

Price: 1 000 000 000 TP

You really have to wonder where the limit is with all of those ‘can’t be destroyed’ items. Is it within system range only? Or do they become part of the blueprint like my eye? The crown is a system item, so maybe those work like that too. So far the only truly unbreakable items I got are the ones from the Deep. I don’t know if Anna’s dagger counts. Still not a single scratch on it despite all it’s been through, so maybe?

But yeah, this necklace… Feeding it any jewelry would be nice, I could buy and use a bunch of expensive rings and stuff without having to fear about them breaking. As for the shield… Pareth will probably be getting it? Plenty of master items he could use, the choice is his in the end. Just one more gold start and we’ll be allowed to buy those… Even if we don’t have the points yet.

Five long days went by slowly on the Ark. The end of the trial was drawing near, and many people had already awakened their mana heart by now, making them a lot more relaxed, leading to spontaneous parties, barbecue and other such events taking place between trialees all over the Ark. By the end of it, even the shopkeepers and training coaches had started to join the festivities.

In comparison, the awakening of Sofia’s mana heart was still lagging behind, at only 24% completion. There was not much she could do about it, since fighting was prohibited during the downtime between events.

If there were any master items left anywhere, they were extremely well-hidden, as none was found during those five days.

Sofia was playing an elven card game with Mornn, Pareth, Bookie, Pestle and one of the shopkeepers in their shop, when the Ark suddenly shook, as if hit by something. Kuli, who was napping on a chair, was shaken awake, her hair standing on end.

“Shopkeep, I think that’s our cue,” Sofia said as she stood up, storing up all the bone card.

“I was about to win!” Bookie complained, as he got up nonetheless and pushed his chair back under the table.

Mornn stood up unsheathing her sword, “Finally some action!”

Alarms started sounding throughout the ark, and not far from the shop, something pierced through the ceiling, crashing on a decorative fountain of the first floor.

What the hell is that?

Some kind of huge steel egg was there, in the middle of debris of the ceiling it had crashed through. From the constant shocks and sounds from all directions, many such eggs were striking the Ark all over.

The bone armor formed over Sofia as she summoned her staff and walked toward the egg, her entire group coming alongside her.

Full of mana.

“Strong creatures inside!” Sofia warned, “Five of them.”

“How strong?” Kuli asked.

“Hard to tell, but they have more mana than most level 299 mon–” Sofia started, interrupted by the sound of something banging on the egg-shaped thing from the inside, creating a small bump.

Everyone took position to attack, after banging on the egg thing thrice, the creature managed to kick out a steel panel, sending it flying straight at Pareth, who caught it with one hand and slammed it into the ground in front of Bookie as an improvised barricade. A short creature came out of the steel egg, growling.

Is that… A pirate goblin?

It was unmistakable a goblin, a short and ugly aquatic creature, like a heavily malformed Andarian with a big head, globulous dark eyes and a wide mouth full of misshapen fangs. It was dressed in strangely proper seafarer clothes, with a tricorn, flintlock and saber.

“Graaawr!” it yelled before lunging straight at the closest target, which was Sofia.

Sofia was standing with the steel egg right at the limit of her close aura, the goblin was quite fast, but as soon as it lunged forward, before even crossing a full meter, his head spun around ten times like a spinning top. With its spine completely crushed and its detached head flying towards Sofia’s hand, the goblin’s corpse fell to the ground.

Not dead. Sofia thought, as four more goblins jumped out of the steel egg.

A flying sword pierced through the body of the fallen goblin, piercing straight through his mana core before rising back up, slashing all four remaining goblins in half at the waist.

[Your group has defeated Elite monster ‘Skrggd-dud, Deckhand of the Lootereers - Level 299EX’]