Trail to the Toughest

"Trail to the Toughest" was an event story in Echoes of Mana. Opened two days after the game's official release, this event was the first of its kind. Players can battle through a series of action segments to collect trade coins and earn other rare loot as they read an original story created for the event.

Synopsis
Not long after joining the hero twins, Honeycomb and Duffle are looking for a little extra excitement as they journey through the Echoes. Baashear, however, wants to keep them to the task of finding the Mana Sword even though he has found a strange new Echo that could be explored; he deems it irrelevant and therefore unwise to do so. However, the party decides to enter the Echo nonetheless after some debate, and so find themselves flying—and falling—straight into Castle Valsena's courtyard arena, where Duran and the Secret of Mana trio have entered the All-Valsena Tournament of Champions to test and hone their skill.

All train hard, despite some misgivings along the way; but little do they know that the Scorpion Army is setting up one of their not-so-well-thought-out plots to disable the contestants and claim the prize money for themselves. They only get as far as breaking Duran's sword. Our heroes press on after a pep talk, but the Scorpions are frustrated by their adversaries' grit, sending Kilroy to deal with them once and for all. They fail in spectacular fashion.