Kristoffer Pauly

Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Nine

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With this chapter, Loopshard has hit 300k words!

Also, chapter 90 is coming right after this one.

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Chapter Eighty-Nine

While Emelia controlled the Golden Slug, Adam opened the Relic and Upgrade Chests. The upgrade was his, while the Relic was for Emelia. She was specifically looking for something called Drake’s Wing.

The clouds were tinged blue from nightfall, and it gave their surroundings an eerie yet beautiful appearance as they flew with quite some speed towards the White Flags’ main settlement. The Golden Slug was absurdly fast for its size, but they had to be vigilant of other ships, since they were a big target with none of its ballistae manned and ready. Emelia had loaded the six mounted on the deck, just in case, and though they had discussed arming the giant ballista at the bow, they’d decided against it, since it required at least four people to accurately control.

Adam pushed the lid back on the upgrade chest and four holograms appeared.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Barrier Size (Epic) — Increases maximum barrier dimensions by 25% >

< Manipulation Range (Rare) — Increases manipulation range by 35% >

< Crush (Rare) — Increases the impact of attacks by 15% >

< Luck (Rare) — Increases luck by 3 >

More Luck is always nice, but I honestly think I should start increasing my range. Besides, I don’t know when the next breakpoint is for Luck to go up another level of guaranteed rarity.

Adam had also thought that getting no Rare Relics to appear might be a disadvantage, seeing as the pool of Epic Relics was definitely smaller, considering how many times he’d seen the same Epics appear. And while Epic Relics were definitely stronger, their drawbacks were often proportionally bad.

Though if I can get guaranteed Legendaries, it might be really powerful.

If there are actually enough Relics that’d show up. It may be that the main benefit of Luck is for upgrades.

I’ve only ever seen Alepheria’s Mandate and the unique Abyssal Tooth, but I wonder if there’d even be enough to show me four different Legendaries at this point.

It’s possible that if there aren’t enough, then I’ll just get served Epic Relics anyway.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Manipulation Range (Rare) >

He went over to the Relic Chest and pushed it open. The four things that showed up were a crossbow on a bracer, a mask of gold, an arrowhead made of silver with a blue string, and the goggles he’d already seen once before.

< < Relics Available > >

< Golden Fortress Crossbow Bracer (Rare) — Launch a small crossbow projectile that explodes on impact. 2-minute cooldown >

< Golden Mask of the Fallen (Epic) — Gain 1% Attack Speed & Damage for every 10 pieces of currency in your possession | The potency of the Gold-cursed affliction is twice as potent and can be triggered by all currencies >

< Ranger’s Lucky Charm (Rare) — Activate to cause your next fired projectile to always strike true. 2-minute cooldown >

< Portsmith’s Goggles (Rare) — Identify weaknesses in armour after looking at it for 3 seconds | Lowers Player Relic cooldowns by 5% >

“Have a look,” Adam told Emelia.

She let go of the wheel to check out the options. She didn’t really need to steer the ship that much at the moment, since there were no islands in their path back to Windtop Cove for as far as the eye could see.

“The Lucky Charm is quite good,” she said. “It can really bend the rules of physics if you use it well. It even works on the ballistae. But I don’t need it. The goggles’ passive effect is also nice. But…”

“Don’t need it,” Adam replied, finishing her sentence. “I can reroll and see if there’s something better.”

“Thank you,” she said.

“Reroll the options,” he told his cube.

[Understood.]

The four holograms were replaced and now two of them were Epic. He recognised the two Rares from before, since they were the jacket that he was already wearing and the surprise attack glove. The Epics were new however, and they were a small book with a purple leather-bound sleeve and black pages, and a wide crimson cape with an odd shape.

< < Relics Available > >

< Cloud Skimmer Jacket (Rare) — Increases Player Defence by 25% | Increases Movement Speed by 10% | Enables the wearer to rapidly dash forward while moving, consuming 20% Stamina >

< Tome of the Acolyte (Epic) — Activate to split a spell in two, halving all of its stats. 30 Mana cost | Enemies you kill have a 1% chance to reanimate as a Mana Fiend >

< Drake’s Wing (Epic) — Deploy mid-air to gain the ability to control your flight | Take 25% less damage from Slug Dragons >

< Scoundrel’s Glove (Rare) — Surprise attacks against humanoids made by a weapon wielded in this glove inflict Haemorrhage, dealing 2% Health in damage per second for 30 seconds >

I need that tome!

The thing Emelia wanted is there too.

“I’ve never seen the acolyte’s tome before,” Emelia said, surprised. “The other Epic is the thing I was telling you about.”

“I want the tome,” Adam said, raising his hand with the Choice Ring.

Emelia nodded. “It’s worth trying out, but be careful. Mana Fiends are really dangerous.”

“What do they do?”

“They’re similar to many of the enemies from Stage Six in that they prioritise targeting magic-wielders. But they’re also highly resistant to magical attacks.”

“Even my barriers?” he asked.

“I’m not entirely sure, since they seem to mostly deal physical damage. However, if a Mana Fiend is able to consume enough Mana, like from a Player it kills, then it’ll evolve and become something way worse called a Mana Tyrant. They’re able to use spells similar to the Mana they consumed to evolve. It’s actually possible to summon a Mana Fiend with the ritual in Alepheria’s Tower, but otherwise they don’t show up until after Stage Ten. They’re basically a hard counter to magic-wielders.”

“Given how devastating quadruple-fusing my barriers and then infusing them can be, I’m thinking that if I split a barrier and then fuse it back together, then I can get a quintuple-fusion, which might be insanely powerful. Actually, I could split all my barriers and get a septuple-fusion.”

“It might not change anything,” Emelia said. “It may be that the infusion’s strange math isn’t because of the number of fusions but some other type of element you’re not considering. Have you tried using your hand on a barrier to understand it better?”

“Not yet,” Adam admitted. “I haven’t really been using it all that much, despite how useful it is.”

“Speaking of useful,” she said. “Grab the cape for me and I’ll show you something.”

Adam’s Choice Ring glowed as he grabbed the cape and then the tome for himself.

< < Relics Selected > >

< Drake’s Wing (Epic) >

< Tome of the Acolyte (Epic) >

Adam handed Emelia the cape and she put it on right away. Unlike the Captain’s Cape that he wore, the Drake’s Wing attached to the elbows of her arms, as well as the back of her calves.

“It’s a wingsuit,” he muttered.

“Check this out,” she told him.

Her stilts clicked and she suddenly shot straight into the air, flying like a rocket for 20 or 30 metres before spinning around and spreading her arms and legs out. It was clear she’d used the Relic before, because she spun and flipped around above the airship’s helm, dropping down only to swoop back up. She was somehow able to manoeuvre around through the air like a bird.

That looks like a lot of fun.

After a couple of minutes, she gracefully circled around and came in fast, sliding across the deck on her stilts.

“I’ve been waiting for this,” she said with a grin on her face. “Now I can fly too.”

“That was really impressive,” he told her.

Emelia did a small bow. “I take my donations in the form of Doubloons, please.”

“Guess it’s my time to show off then,” Adam said.

He equipped the new tome trinket to his belt and used its power to split his three barriers, creating six. Since he needed 100 Mana to use Mana Infusion, he just had enough for all of the steps. Then he summoned a seventh barrier using his wand and quickly fused one of the six others with it, since the wand barrier was static and would be quickly left behind by their fast airship. With that, he just had to chain-fuse the rest.

Emelia had returned to the helm and was steering them away from a small island coming up.

“You should try and hit that,” she told him. “It’s one of the islands inhabited by man-eaters according to Captain Drew’s map.”

Adam grinned and brought his septuple-fused barrier with him to the bow of the ship, stopping once he was next to the giant ballista.

Here we go.

He used Mana Infusion on the fused barrier, turning it black. Then he started spinning it up, though he felt rather woozy from dipping low in Mana.

[Warning! Mana below 15%.]

“I know, I know,” he muttered to the cube, steadying himself against the ballista.

Like when he’d destroyed the golden boss that Leon had turned into, he couldn’t hear any whine from the barrier, but he felt its power.

Once the island was clearly in his sights, he stepped forward and launched the barrier.

This time he made sure to prepare himself for the insane backlash, taking up a posture that’d hopefully prevent him from getting knocked back.

He couldn’t do anything about the temporary flicker in his vision as he fired though.

A crack like thunder rolled across the Floating Sea as the projectile zipped through the air and struck the island. A plume of exploded earth, trees, and dust shot away from the impact site, and half the small island was completely destroyed. Just like that.

That didn’t feel any stronger than the quadruple-fused barrier…

Adam frowned. There was still more to figure out.

I should’ve touched it with Alepheria’s Mandate to figure out more.

He returned to Emelia’s side to report his conclusion.

“It’s like I figured,” she replied. “The way that your fusions work is that you just add the strengths of your barriers together, right? So, if you turn one whole into two halves and fused them back together, you still only get one whole. Basically, splitting them achieves nothing, other than spending your Mana. You’re better off splitting your barriers to use them to target more enemies simultaneously.”

Adam nodded. “A shame, really. I was hoping to have easily achieved a mini nuke with this…”

Emelia laughed. “Seriously, you’re calling me scary?”

“Now that you can fly? Absolutely.”

“It’s technically just controlled falling,” she clarified.

“You were in the air for two full minutes,” he argued. “Definitely didn’t look like falling to me.”

“I just had a thought,” Emelia said. “What if the strength of your barriers’ impacts are tied to their Durability? Perhaps it makes your spells tougher, which in turn means they hit harder?”

“Wouldn’t that be what Crush and Damage are for?” he asked.

“Sure, but we can’t rule out something like that. Have you tested if upgrading the durability of your barriers made them hit harder?”

“I haven’t, but I guess it would explain why fusing the spell-tome barriers with a static one from my wand made the projectile stronger. I honestly just thought it was because the wand barrier technically still had a damage potential, even if it’s impossible to move.”

“That could also explain it,” Emelia conceded. “But can’t you just make more of the barriers with your wand and then fuse those?” she asked.

“It doesn’t work like that,” he replied. “Only the barriers from my spell-tome can be fused with spells, so I wouldn’t be able to fuse them all together if I used more than one wand barrier.”

“I guess you’ve gotta stay on the lookout for things that increases your number of barriers then. Without splitting them, anyway. From here on, I unfortunately don’t know all the potential Relics that can appear.”

“I would be impressed if you knew all the Relics,” he replied. “I mean, this Stage alone must have over two dozen new ones, especially if we consider the unique ones from killing the captains. If the rest of the Stages coming up also have that many, it’d be easy to lose track. Even more so when you count the general ones that are tied to specific weapon types.”

“Stage Eight actually doesn’t have that many Stage-specific ones,” she said. “But yes, it’s quite a lot. I am making an effort to memorise all of them though. The more I know and the broader my knowledge, the better I can help out other Players.”

She frowned. “Although I say that, and then manage to scare off our teammates to the point that they literally ditched us and got themselves killed…”

Adam put his hand on her shoulder. “I think we both need to get some rest after we reach Windtop.”

“We do have a large bed here,” she replied. “Oh, but first I need to find that damn egg.”

Adam laughed. “I forgot about that already.”

“Let’s look for it once we reach the settlement.”

They continued swimming through the air aboard the Golden Slug for two hours more until finally the White Flags’ safe haven came into view. Before they had even parked their enormous ship outside of Windtop Cove, six small and two medium airships lined up in front of the settlement like a defensive wall. Surprisingly, it seemed the White Flags favoured small vessels, perhaps because they were nimbler. Given that their cities were like aircraft carriers, it made some manner of sense though.

Before the pirates could get it in their heads to take on the super-large airship, Emelia and Adam went down to the main deck and waved their arms in the air until one of the small ships came up to the side of theirs, carrying Captain Drew and eight guards aboard it.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Drew muttered.

Emelia handed him the map. “I think this belongs to you.”

Drew let out a belly laugh. “Just the two of you did all this!? I can’t say I’m impressed, because that would be an understatement of epic proportions.”

< < Quest Complete > >

< Stolen Map >

< Brought Captain Drew’s map back to Windtop Cove >

Since it was our teammates who stole it, I doubt we actually get a reward for returning the map.

But at least we get to stay in the good graces of the White Flags.

“We have an awful lot of treasure we’d like your help distributing,” Emelia told the captain.

“You got an idea in mind for what you’d like in return?” he asked.

“Ten of your crew to aid us with our ballistae and a couple of your portsmiths,” she said.

Drew grinned, revealing his teeth. “Show me the treasure first.”

Emelia matched his energy and gestured widely. “Come on board then. And bring your men. It’s a lot to carry and we’re not risking the gold curse by keeping it all to ourselves.”

“I would be more than delighted to aid in your charitable work,” he replied sarcastically.

Adam shook his head with a smile.

I think I understand why Emelia loves this world so much.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Eight

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Chapters 89 and 90 should be out this weekend, though I might have 89 out tomorrow already.

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Chapter Eighty-Eight

[You are bleeding out. You are losing 1% Health every 5 seconds.]

[Warning! Health below 5%. You are close to dying.]

Adam’s eyes snapped open.

Then pain flooded his mind like a carpet of fire.

Adam screamed, but an integral part of his brain still retained its function, making him dig his remaining hand into the left pocket of his pants, grabbing the thing Belamouranthe had gifted him. It had been in his pocket all this time, waiting for a moment like this.

Adam yanked the blue apple-sized strawberry out of his pocket and shoved it into his mouth. More and more of his blood evacuated his body with every passing second and beating pulse of his heart.

< < Relic > >

< All-Mother’s Fruit (Rare) — Consume to restore Health, Stamina, and Mana to 100%. Once consumed, the Relic disappears >

[All-Mother’s Fruit consumed! Recovering Health, Stamina, and Mana back to 100%.]

The pain vanished immediately.

And with its disappearance his situational awareness returned.

“Adam!!” Emelia screamed, running towards where he lay sprawled on the deck.

“I’m fine! Focus on the ballistae!” he shouted.

Fwoosh!

Somehow, even with just the split-second warning, Emelia was able to pivot her entire body out of the way of the ballista bolt coming right at her.

Then she launched from the ground with the Spring Boots, flying over his head.

A loud crash came from behind him, but he was unable to turn to look, since the healing effects of the fruit immobilized his body while it repaired it.

I didn’t see what happened to the boss, he thought while he struggled to focus on what was ahead of him.

The rise of the helm and captain’s quarters were just blurry shapes, but he was certain that Emelia had already dealt with the Whale Eaters Captain.

I must’ve been out longer than I thought. All my wraith summons are gone.

Even without him consciously commanding it, his two barriers had been shaped into shields to protect him.

As sounds of destruction came from behind him, no doubt thanks to Emelia disabling the remaining ballista teams, Adam stared in morbid fascination at the right side of his body as the shoulder joint, upper arm, forearm, and hand regrew from nothing.

The healing went layer-by-layer, building up the bones first, then spinning the sinew and muscles like threads, before adding on the flesh and fat, finishing it off with the skin.

When it was finally complete and he could push himself up off the airship’s deck, Emelia had returned, breathing quickly.

She opened her mouth and was about to say something, but was cut off.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Defeated the Golden Slug airship >

“We did it,” Adam said.

Then Emelia grabbed him in a tight hug, pressing herself into him and squeezing as hard as she could without actually injuring him. She eased off and looked up at him, their eyes meeting.

To Adam, those purple spirals were no longer an ominous sign.

Emelia moved her lips to his and kissed him.

Adam didn’t try to pull away, but instead he leaned into it more, wrapping his arms around her.

She’s so small up close like this. She always seems much larger than everyone else because of her presence.

He felt her tense briefly, before relaxing into his arms, allowing him to take charge.

When they finally pulled away from each other, both of them were flushed and breathing quickly.

“We did it,” Emelia repeated with a grin.

“Probably too late to ask this, but how are we meant to fly this thing with just the two of us?” Adam asked, realising that the fins on the side of the airship had stopped moving.

Emelia laughed. “I’ll show you.”

As they walked towards the helm, where the captain’s control podium was, Adam realised that all the bodies were gone.

Probably a good thing, since otherwise this thing would smell like a corpse pit within just a couple of hours. But it is weird for all the people we killed to just vanish.

“I’ve heard the dead also disappear like this if you take over a settlement,” Emelia said, noticing the same thing as him. “It’s normal for a faction to be wiped out if you kill its captain though. But we should still see some small groups of Whale Eaters here and there.”

“What about the Fallen?”

“They don’t have a captain or a real headquarters. They’re kind of just the default bad guys of this Stage.”

“But couldn’t they end up being one of the factions that we’d have to get the main objective item from? The puzzle mechanism or whatever it was?” he asked.

“I haven’t encountered it myself, but if that happens, then you can find it at a nearby outpost.”

They reached the helm and climbed the steps to the top. The podium with the six throttles and control wheel was at the front near the edge, raised up to give the captain the best overview of his vessel. Behind the podium, towards the back of the helm and the edge of the ship itself were three chests. A Relic Chest, an Upgrade Chest, and one that was dark-blue with metal teeth below the lid, making it appear like it might eat the hand of whoever tried to open it.

“That’s a Captain Chest,” Emelia said. “They always have the same Relic inside them, tied to the captain you killed. I’ve never seen this one in person, but I know what it is.”

“There’s no point in me opening it then,” he replied and gestured for her to do it. “You did all the work, after all.”

“Not true,” she replied. “Your wraiths cut him up and slowed him down a lot. I’ve heard he’s an extremely mobile boss, but your summons let me kill him quickly.”

“Regardless, I think you should at least open one chest with a Relic in it in this Stage, since I’m opening all the rest.”

She smiled. “Very thoughtful.”

“I’m also slightly worried the chest might be a spring-loaded trap,” Adam admitted.

Emelia laughed. “That somehow wouldn’t surprise me. They don’t do Mimic Chests until later though.”

“Seriously…?”

“They’re easily revealed by tickling them,” she replied. “It’s kind of funny to see everyone tickling their chests before opening them, but the alternative is pretty bad.”

“That sounds absurd. I can just imagine it: high stakes fighting concluding with everyone tickling their treasure.”

Emelia laughed. “You kind of nailed it.”

Instead of touching the Captain Chest, she kicked the bottom part of it, avoiding the metal embellishments and plates that covered it, as well as the intimidating teeth.

It popped open, showing a single item, similar to when Adam had defeated the Bumblebee in the previous Stage.

< < Relic Available > >

< Offal’s Spring-Loaded Stilts (Epic) — Stomp the stilts or kick them into a target to release the mechanism, quadrupling the power of the move. 30-second cooldown | Can survive falling from any height >

His name was ‘Offal’?

“Isn’t that just a straight upgrade to your boots?” he asked.

“It’s really good,” she said. “The strength of your punches and kicks and other physical attacks without weapons are based on your general Damage stat, which means I can probably kill a lot of things by just kicking them now. I’ve never tried it though.”

“As if you weren’t frighteningly-powerful enough already,” he remarked.

“I seem to recall you destroying half of an island when you went all out last time,” she replied.

“There is one small danger with these stilts though,” she added. “If you land on them from high enough up, it’ll trigger the spring and launch you with a lot of power.”

“I can see how that might be an issue,” he said.

Emelia put on the stilts and handed Adam her Slothling Spring Boots, which he immediately equipped.

Adam had to look up slightly to meet her eyes now. “You’re taller than me now…”

“Intimidated?” she teased.

“I mean, it was kind of the only thing I had going for me, since you’re physically way stronger than me.”

Emelia laughed.

Then she put her hands on his face and leaned in to kiss him.

“I’ve never been with a woman taller than me before,” Adam muttered while their lips were still touching.

“You’re such an idiot,” she said with a smile in her voice.

“So, how do we control the ship?” he asked, looking over to the wheel and the six throttles.

“It’s supposed to all be controlled from there,” she replied.

Adam went over to stand on the podium. He pushed all the throttles forward at the same time, making sure they were evenly engaged.

The enormous airship shifted and moved forward with sudden speed. Since they were on a collision course with the island of Fallow’s Glory, Adam pulled the wheel to the left and the fins on the left side of the ship drew together, while the ones on the right spread out more, causing the Golden Slug to turn rather gracefully.

“This is amazing,” he said.

It also didn’t hurt that from his vantage at the front of the helm he could literally see the entirety of the main deck, even though it dipped down in the middle and at the front.

“No wonder this airship is so powerful,” he added.

Emelia came up next to him. “If only there was a way for us to handle all the ballistae from here, but we need a crew for that.”

“Where can we get one?” he asked.

“The White Flags might want to give us a few people perhaps,” she said. “It’s possible to use them as guards, although they’re quite expensive.”

“Pretty sure we can afford it now,” he replied.

“They keep all the treasures and such in the captain’s quarters,” Emelia said. “He’s supposed to have quite the hoard, but I’m not sure how he avoided becoming Gold-cursed.”

“Perhaps eating Slugwhales prevents it?” Adam guessed.

Emelia paused. “That actually makes a lot of sense. Slugwhales, and especially Slug Dragons, often hoard wealth, but they don’t get cursed. I thought it might only affect humans, but it’s possible that they possess something that inoculates them, and that eating their flesh passes that on.”

Adam pulled all the throttles back, causing the fins to stop swimming through the air and slowly coasting the airship to a stop.

“I want to see what the key is for,” Adam said.

“What about the other two chests?” she asked.

“Later,” he said, hopping over the edge of the helm and landing on the deck in front of the steps that led down into the captain’s quarters.

Emelia landed behind him a second later, her stilts producing a metallic sound as they cancelled out her fall.

Adam pushed open the door and they came into an enormous stately room filled to the brim with stuff. Statues, artefacts, gold coins and jewels in piles, weapons, casks of wine and rum, cured and smoked meats of countless varieties, and so much more filled up the interior, burying the furniture.

“Wow,” Emelia said.

“We’re rich,” Adam deadpanned.

Emelia laughed. “It’s like having a fortune in radioactive materials, right?”

“Do you think some of that meat is made from Slugwhales?” he asked. “I’d like to avoid getting cursed.”

“Let’s hope so,” she said with a grin. “Though Iffen might be upset if he finds out.”

They waded through the treasure to get to the back of the enormous captain’s quarters where a giant bed was placed, the only thing not buried.

“Big enough for two,” Emelia noted.

“Big enough for six, actually,” Adam replied.

He panned around.

“I don’t see the door from my vision,” he remarked.

He pulled out the Slugwhale Key and touched it with his obsidian hand, seeing the origin of the pockmarked door the key led to.

“It has to be around here somewhere,” he said confidently.

“It could also be at the front of the ship,” Emelia said. They hadn’t been able to get to whatever compartment the ship-eating maw at the bow led to when they came up through the lower floors.

“It makes more sense for it to be here,” he replied, and she nodded.

“Perhaps there’s a secret room?” she guessed.

Adam frowned. “Or a trap door buried by ten tonnes of treasure.”

They rummaged around for a bit until Emelia pointed at something that seemed out of place. It was a rounded pillar made from the same material as the airship itself, bone and gold. It rose out of the treasure hoard like a lighthouse.

It didn’t take long for them to notice there was a hole in one side of the pillar.

“It’s a keyhole,” she said.

Adam pushed the Slugwhale Key inside, and it fit perfectly.

He spun the key four times until a loud click came from the floor in the middle of the captain’s quarters.

Then the floor opened as a trap door was released, dropping down on one end to create a ramp leading deeper into the ship. A lot of the treasure fell down the new opening, clinking and clanking as it all bounced down into the bowels of the ship’s stern.

“Told you,” Adam said.

They followed the trap door ramp down, and it led right to the foot of the large door that Adam had seen in his vision from the Slugwhale Key.

“I wonder where my quest object is,” Emelia said.

“It would make sense if they kept that at the front of the ship,” Adam replied. “I’m guessing the Slug Dragon they’re hunting would be attracted to it, so getting it to focus on the front of the ship would make it easier for them to shoot it with that giant ballista they have there.”

“Good point.”

“Alright, here we go,” Adam said and slid the key into the door.

The four distinct heads of the key slid into the lock, and he once again had to twist it four times like with the pillar before a click emanated from the door. The sound was followed by a tremor as some mechanism inside slowly pulled aside the two halves and revealed a dark chamber with a single pedestal in the middle.

There were some dusty skeletons on the floor, and the room seemed to have been left untouched for decades.

“This looks like a trap,” Emelia said.

On the pedestal was a single item. It was a black box that was wider than it was tall, and it looked like it was made from wood.

Since Adam agreed with Emelia that it did indeed look like a trap, he sent a barrier out to grab the prize, shaping it into a hand and grabbing it with the fingers.

“You’ve gotten really good at that,” she commented.

Adam grinned at the compliment as he recalled his barrier and the thing it’d picked up.

Then the floor started to tremble.

Oh shit!

He pulled the barrier hand back as fast as possible, just before the door snapped shut.

“Phew,” Adam muttered.

“Not the first ‘secret reward’ I’ve seen where they did something like this,” Emelia remarked unimpressed.

Adam dropped the item into his awaiting palm.

The wooden box turned out to be a compass. Its middle disc was clearly made from bone, and all the embellishments and cardinal directions were inlaid gold. The direction for north was a golden triangle.

< < Secret Relic Obtained > >

< Captain Fallow’s Compass (Epic) — The object of thy desire is always within reach >

What a vague description.

“Is that what I think it is?” Emelia wondered.

Adam gingerly pressed his right index finger against the Relic, and a jolt went through him as his special hand’s power activated.

Instead of a vision of its creation and history, Adam instead saw a single snapshot of the past.

A large meaty hand gripped the compass.

“Show me what I seek,” said a deep voice.

The compass obeyed the command and the dial spun around in a new direction, the golden arrow for north pointing to where the man wanted to go.

Adam gasped as the vision passed.

“It shows us the direction to what we want to find,” he said, amazed.

“This explains a lot,” Emelia said. “There’s no way Arturo could’ve found all those secrets by himself, even if he looped dozens of times. I mean, they’re super obscure later on. Like, you need to follow several bizarre steps to find the trident in Stage Eleven.”

“Maybe completing my Patron Quest isn’t going to be completely impossible now,” he said, staring down at the compass. “Show me what I seek.”

The golden arrow spun around and pointed south-south-east.

“Let’s get the Golden Slug to Windtop Cove, rest for the night, and then tomorrow we can chase down our quests,” Emelia said.

Adam nodded, stuffing the compass in his left pocket and following Emelia out of the secret chamber.

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Madman Book 2 is out on Amazon!

I just released Book 2 of Madman Apocalypse on Amazon today!

It is available as an eBook and on Kindle Unlimited.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F6F48FHG

The audiobook is unfortunately delayed until November 25th, but it will still be narrated by the amazing Eric Michael Summerer.

Link: https://www.audible.com/pd/Madman-Apocalypse-Book-2-Audiobook/B0F7TDTZS1

It'd mean a lot to me if you'd check it out, especially since I'm self-pubbing this series and don't have as much name recognition on Amazon yet. Every little helps!

MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 34

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Chapter 34

Tyler, Bee, and I landed on a sandy beach close to where Greg was parked.

“That’s nice,” Panda remarked. “They could’ve put you back into the water in front of the world boss, but instead they returned you to the surface.”

All three of us had a plastic box with sushi inside it in our hands. It was specifically a single piece of nigiri for each of us, with what looked like a slice of rotten flounder on top.

Bee sat down and pulled out another item, which was a light-brown cupcake with pink frosting.

“What’s that?” I asked, sitting down next to her.

“The Trickster’s Surprise thing we got for figuring out the dungeon’s trick.”

In the chaos I had forgotten that we’d received the reward and pulled it out as well.

[‘Trickster’s Surprise’ x ]

Consumable

It is apparently customary to give a cake like this to any Player who finds the trick in a Trick Dungeon.

If you ask me, the trick was obvious.

Also, if you’re not going to eat your sushi, can I have it?

It smells divine.

Enjoy the flavor of victory.

Weight: Approximately eight

“That’s a heavy cupcake,” Panda said suspiciously.

I bit into it, and, despite Brock’s curse, my mouth was filled with the strong taste of minty toothpaste.

I immediately gagged and spat it out.

“That’s foul,” I complained, picking small pieces off my tongue and flicking them away.

“It didn’t do anything…” Bee muttered in confusion and disappointment, crumbs falling out of her mouth.

“I kind of like it,” Tyler commented, licking the wrapper it had come in.

“I guess that’s why it’s called a trickster’s surprise,” Panda stated to no one’s benefit.

I frowned and inspected the unsettling piece of sushi.

“If this is another joke item, then I’m going on another corporate genocide,” I vowed.

[‘Fishmonger’s Tasty Treat’ x ]

Item

Surströmming Sushi! What could possibly go wrong!?

Are you really going to eat this?

It smells so good.

Actually, you know what, I’m going to that Dungeon right now and trying out those fish-spiders!

Those wet socks from the Voidspawn Defense Force can’t stop me!

Weight: Approximately one

“Uh oh,” Panda muttered.

A loud buzzing filled the air from the direction of Madeville, rapidly coming closer. Then I saw the dark silhouette of the same giant insect that had appeared after Billee showed up following the fight with the Swan.

WARNING!

A Dragonfly Defender from the Voidspawn Defense Force is coming to investigate signs of Voidspawn activity!

All Players in the area, please do not approach the Dragonfly Defender while he is working!

Interference will be punished!

“She keeps breaking containment,” I muttered, impressed.

Tyler looked around. “What’s happening?”

“Don’t worry about it and eat your sushi,” Bee told him.

He obeyed without question, although he looked up at the enormous dragonfly as it flew over our heads and hovered above the lake.

I pulled the lid off the plastic container, and the powerful scent of rotten fish flooded my nostrils, singing my nose hairs and making my head spin. I had a sudden flashback to the time when Tina had somehow smuggled Surströmming into the asylum. The common room had smelled like shit for weeks, no matter how vigorously the orderlies scrubbed every surface and vented the place.

I bit into the nigiri and was glad that I couldn’t taste anything except eggplant thanks to Brock’s curse.

Out over the lake, the enormous dragonfly underwent a transformation and became human-sized. Then it shot down into the water, disappearing from sight.

The pop-up for consuming the boss item took half a minute to appear, and we’d already started walking back to the Humanbus when it finally showed up for Bee and I. Tyler hadn’t had any delay, and he’d picked his skill immediately, getting something called ‘Wave On’, since his Class was a ‘Wavemaker’. I had no idea what it did.

[Choose your reward! x ]

Hah!

I managed to get a good haul of fish-spiders before Adannus showed up.

That guy is so slow, but they keep sending him after me.

Anyway, how did the sushi taste?

The fish-spiders are alright on their own.

I think I will try deep-frying the ones I have left.

Pick one of the options:

‘.fish’ | ‘Fishmonger’s Lure’ | ‘Animate Fish’

[‘.fish’ x ]

Ability

There’s no information about this Skill, other than the activation description below.

System Ore is a pretty interesting substance though.

I wonder how it tastes.

Manifest a fishing rod of unbreakable System Ore and toss a line to hook a target.

If you complete the following Mini GAME that appears, you will catch the target.

Cooldown: 3 hours

[‘Fishmonger’s Lure’ x ]

Ability

Camouflage yourself as an old man with a fish stall.

Players can buy fish from you, and if they eat one, they will be paralyzed.

I have a cousin who plays pranks like this before eating his victims.

Paralysis is fun and all, but I prefer when my prey is able to move and scream.

It’s just kind of creepy if all they can do is look at you with their pleading eyes.

Cooldown: 6 hours

[‘Animate Fish’ x ]

Ability

Now this is what I’m talking about!

If I had a power like this, I’d use it on all the fish-spiders I just picked up.

While they taste nice, and deep-frying works, the fact that they’re all dead is really killing my enjoyment.

I wonder if I can give you a Quest to reanimate some dead fish for me.

Also, it seems the limitations on what counts as a fish are really vague.

Reanimate all dead fish within an area 10-metres in diameter, bringing them back to life under your direct control.

Cooldown: 30 minutes

Duration: 10 minutes

“Animate Fish seems good,” Panda said.

“I’ll pick .fish,” I told him. “It has an indestructible fishing rod.”

“Hmm, good point,” he conceded.

“I got something that lets me summon a fish-spider that inflicts neurotoxin, paralyzing anything it bites,” Bee said cheerfully.

Panda frowned.

“How did you actually kill the boss that easily?” I finally asked her. Normally I dealt with high level enemies by dealing absurd amounts of damage, but she’d made it look easy.

“I figured that fall and collision damage are based on health percentages, just like my rot damage,” she replied. “So, the Bounceshroom in a confined room is a really easy way to exploit that.”

I nodded proudly. “I’ve taught you well.”

“Wait a second! Your rot affliction deals percentage-based damage!?” Panda asked, incensed.

“Yep,” she replied cheerfully.

“That’s so broken!” he argued.

“And?” I asked.

“Is that thing yours?” Tyler asked, pointed to the Humanbus as he started crawling towards us, whining like an abandoned dog.

[CAPTAIN! VICE-CAPTAIN! WHY DID YOU LEAVE YOUR SHIP!]

“This is our Safe Zone, Greg,” Bee introduced him.

“Are you coming with us?” I asked Tyler. With his level 7 following the dungeon clear, he was one of the strongest Players in our region.

“Only if Tanner comes,” he said.

Isabella popped her head out of a window in the side of the bus.

“There you are!” she yelled. “I finally rounded up all the others and then the weird announcement came. I thought you were goners!”

“We’re fine,” I shouted back. “Is Tanner with you?”

“He is,” she replied.

I looked to Tyler. “Then you’re coming with us.”

“Okidoki,” he responded.

“Where are we going next?” Isabella asked as we walked up to the side of the bus. “Do you know where my brother is?”

I looked to Panda. “You said you knew where to go, right?”

He nodded. “Tell Greg to take us to the nearest bottomless hole.”

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 33

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Chapter 33

“Woah, that’s gnarly!” Tyler exclaimed and scrambled back.

Bee came forward while I backed away from the Fishmonger.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 30 — ‘Fishmonger Spider’ — Boss

“You youngins look tasty!”

Ahah, so that’s what the Fishmonger was! You know, I’m just as surprised as you. Information on Trick Dungeons is pretty tightly kept within the Dungeon Architect’s department.

Believe it or not, this is an actual type of arachnid that exists somewhere out in the great universe. As with most creatures the GREAT GAME encounters, the interesting ones are saved and cloned for future use in Dungeons and the overworld as enemies and bosses. In its natural habitat, the Fishmonger Spider uses fish to catch its prey, usually animals drawn to the stink of its rotting hoard.

Apparently, if you buy and eat one of its fish, you’ll be injected by a potent neurotoxin that makes your muscles incapable of receiving signals from your brain, paralyzing you.

At the end of the day, this is just a big spider, so I’m sure you can figure out how to beat it.

“The appraisal guy is being weirdly supportive,” Panda remarked. “I guess he doesn’t want to die.”

A brown beam shot out from Bee’s eyes, striking the giant Fishmonger and strafing across many of the fish-spiders as they charged us.

I stomped on a fish as it skittered towards me. The ones struck by Bee’s beam started to leak foul-smelling fluids, and the Fishmonger Spider vomited grey chunky bile from between its mandibles.

Then the fish-spiders and boss started to ‘chuckle’ as Bee turned on her Delightful Aura. It was a cacophony that surely belonged only in the depths of hell. And comedy clubs catering to helium addicts.

Next, her Fungal Fortress sprouted up around us, and I just watched in horrified fascination as she skipped through the horde of enemies, all of which were puking and chuckling around her. Then she reached the boss and her hand glowed briefly before she touched its head. Lastly, she threw down a Bounceshroom right where she was standing and hopped back a step. As though they’d rehearsed it, the huge spider lunged for her, triggering the bounce effect and smashing itself up into the ceiling with a loud crunch.

“Holy fuck,” Panda muttered.

The Fishmonger Spider landed back down on the Bounceshroom and shot back up into the ceiling.

And again.

And again.

Each impact crushed and broke more of its large body and many legs, and the rapidly-spreading rot from her Rotting Touch meant that its flesh lost its structure and coherence, in turn leaving larger and larger chunks and splatters of foul blood and liquified flesh on the ceiling and floor.

When the Bounceshroom timed out, the boss was already a dead pile of mush, and Tyler and I had mostly cleaned up the small fish-spiders.

“You’re a scary little lady,” Tyler said, kicking aside a fish that was a heaving mess after having purged its insides repeatedly thanks to Bee’s Diarrhea Beam.

“I feel like I have lost my role as the one who kills shit,” I muttered disappointedly.

“It’s okay to lose to a woman, Gamby,” Brock told me.

We finished up the remainders of the fish-spiders, which apparently counted as kills for leveling up, since Tyler went up to level 6 in the process.

“What now?” Bee asked, after all the enemies were dead and her Fungal Fortress had expired.

“Maybe there’s an exit in the stall,” Panda guessed.

We went over to look, stomping the dead fish-spiders under our boots to get there, and sure enough, a trapdoor was in the floor behind where the Fishmonger had been sitting.

“Look what I found,” Tyler suddenly announced, presenting a limp and clearly rotten green-spotted grey flounder. I thought for a second he’d gone all the way over to fully insane and was about to tell him to put it back where he’d found it, but then the tooltip appeared.

[‘Stinky Fish’ x ]

Weapon

A rotten and foul-smelling flounder that somehow turned into a weapon upon death.

How exactly you’re meant to fight with this in any sensible way is a mystery, but have at it, I guess.

At least it’ll look funny.

Increases all rot-based damage by 25%.

Targets struck with this ‘weapon’ become afflicted with ‘What’s that smell?’ reducing their Charisma by 10 and losing the ability to use invisibility and camouflage effects.

By squeezing the middle of the Stinky Fish, a glob of concentrated nastiness can be launched up to 10 meters, afflicting anyone hit with Putrefaction, dealing rot-based damage until cured and lowering their resistances to afflictions by 50%.

Cooldown: 20 minutes

Weight: Approximately four and two quarters

“What the hell? That’s really good,” I said.

Rather than keep it for himself, Tyler handed Bee the ‘weapon’.

“Thank you!” she said excitedly. Then she gave him a large orange cherry that she pulled out of nowhere.

“Can I eat this?” he asked. “I’m starving.”

“Of course,” she told him.

As Tyler dug into the mystery fruit, I went over and pulled the trap door open.

I had expected an actual trap, but instead it was just an exit.

“This whole Dungeon was dumb,” Panda said.

“Yeah, what a waste of time,” I agreed.

“Hey, where did your panda go?” Tyler asked.

“What do you mean?” I replied.

Panda looked between him and Bee. “Did you lower his insanity gauge?”

“Yep.”

“You can do that?” I asked.

“Do what?” Tyler responded.

“Restore sanity with fruits,” I told him.

“Wait, I’m insane?” he asked.

“Not anymore,” Bee told him. “Come on.”

Then she hopped down through the trap door. I quickly followed, knowing what awaited us outside.

WARNING!

Now exiting level 30 Dungeon ‘The Fishmonger’s Shop’!

[Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x ]

‘The Fishmonger’s Shop First Clear’

Cleared and escaped The Fishmonger’s Shop for the first time.

Remember that guy who got a promotion for designing this Dungeon?

They just sent him to my office, and I ate him.

Apparently that’s part of my duties now.

I don’t mind it so much.

Termite is actually quite tasty, especially with the magic of Deep-Frying.

Termites unfortunately die a bit too quickly for me to enjoy the meal fully, so they get a 7/10.

Oh right, you beat your first Trick Dungeon.

Congratulations.

They’re supposed to be really difficult.

Unfortunately, they don’t give achievements for beating one of those.

Don’t ask me why.

I think you should tell your Adjudicator friend to sue them into compliance though.

The System after all mandates proportional rewards for the challenges you overcome.

Reward: ‘Fishmonger’s Tasty Treat’

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 32

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Chapter 32

After a couple of minutes holding my breath while I sank down into Madeville Lake, following the trail made from Bee’s purple soul wing, I had to concede and put Brock’s questionable tube appendage into my mouth. The moment I closed my lips over it, he made a disturbing sound, and then my mouth was suddenly flush with oxygen that had a grape-soda aftertaste to it.

“Stop wriggling it so much!” I complained, since the tube kept pushing against the inside of my cheek. But my voice was muffled and made incomprehensible by the water.

“This is deeply questionable,” Panda remarked, hanging on to my shoulder as I swam down. “Although that looner guy would love this.”

The lake water became darker and darker the deeper we went. Bee was surprisingly fast and pulling away from me, so I used my Blink ability to catch up.

Bubbles and muffled sounds came out of her mouth as she saw me.

“She’s asking if you’ve seen Tyler,” Panda translated.

“I haven’t,” I replied. “But I think there’s supposed to be a temple down here somewhere.”

Bee gave me a confused look.

Panda sighed. “He said no,” he translated.

“I said a whole lot more than that!” I complained.

Bee suddenly looked back behind me and exclaimed a string of nonsense.

Panda turned around.

“Oh shit,” he muttered. “Gambit, go faster!”

I craned my neck back and saw an enormous fish with a wide silhouette and two large bulbous eyes on top of its flat body, along with a sideways mouth that was opening as it swam towards us.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 40 — ‘The Lord of Madeville Lake’ — World Boss

“Hungry fish noises”

Madeville Lake is one of the overworld areas of your Region that was altered with the GREAT GAME’s initialization. It’s not really meant to be explorable until after the Second GAME Event, and to ensure those who try to freedive to the bottom won’t make it far, this giant flounder was made the ruler of this lake. The beat of his tailfin alone is enough to stir the waters and create the waves that lead those on the surface towards the central island.

While he isn’t much to look at, he is hungry and fast, and you’re looking like food to him right now.

You probably shouldn’t have come down here.

Bee grabbed me and used her Moth Dash just as the flounder surged forward. We moved straight down with an explosion of bubbles, narrowly escaping death, but the boss was insistent, and I had to use Blink to get out from it a second time.

Instead of trying to devour us with another lunge, the flounder swam around us and went deeper, clearly planning to grab us when we reached the bottom.

“Watch out! It just camouflaged itself!” Panda exclaimed.

Muttered nonsense came out of Bee’s mouth.

“What!?” I asked.

Bee pointed down where a strange wooden hut came into view, along with the sandy silt of the lake’s floor. Near to the hut was a big hill with two bulbous bumps at the front. It was clearly the flounder boss.

“It sucks at hiding,” I said.

“Use your teleport to get both of you inside before it can grab you,” Panda told me.

Brock wriggled the oxygen tube in my mouth excitedly.

“Stop that,” I told him.

“Punch the fish, Gamby!” he exclaimed.

“I’m not gonna punch it,” I told him. “We’re underwater. If I punch it as hard as I can, it’ll create a water bubble that’ll implode and kill us…”

He kept wriggling the tube, so I bit down on it with my teeth, causing him to yelp.

Then I grabbed onto Bee’s arm firmly and used Blink to deposit us right in front of the hut.

The hill that the flounder formed with its body immediately shifted towards us, but just as it was about to snap its maw down over us, we were pulled in through the opening of the wooden hut.

Darkness overcame me and I felt the sensation of falling for a second.

WARNING!

Now entering level 30 Dungeon ‘The Fishmonger’s Shop’!

Bee and I landed on a wet wooden floor inside a large room that stank of fish.

I immediately pulled Brock’s tube out of my mouth.

“Brock is conflicted,” he squeaked. “When you bit me, it was both painful and pleasant.”

“I’m never using your breathing tube again…” I told him, spitting on the floor to get the taste of grape-soda out of my mouth.

Lordie popped back out of his transport cage, appearing atop my head.

“Meow?”

I looked across the room and saw what the hand-spider had immediately noticed. It was a stall set into the back wall, displaying flounders in front of a wooden counter, as well as hanging from racks and the ceiling of the shop. A bald ancient-looking grandpa sat on a chair inside. Lordie clearly wanted one of the fish, since they stank like shit.

A guy stood in front of the stall, his dirty-blonde dreadlocks and posture marking him as one of Tanner’s friends. His skin was a deep-red tan, and he had tan lines around his neck, wrists, and, confusingly, in a line around his torso like from a bikini top. He was currently only wearing baby-blue trunks with light-green palms on them, and old dirty flipflops.

He turned around with a casual wave and said, “Yo.”

“Yo,” Bee replied.

“Nice outfit,” he told her, but she ignored his comment.

“You’re Tyler, right?” I asked. He perfectly matched my mental image of a guy with that name.

“In the flesh, brother,” he replied.

“I need to know where Otto went,” I said.

“That’s easy, brother. He went to Castleburg. Said he was seeking a place even deeper than Madeville Lake. Dunno why tho.”

“I know where he’s going,” Panda immediately said.

“So, uh, do you, like, know how I get out of here?” Tyler asked.

I shrugged. “It’s a dungeon, so there’s gotta be a boss.”

Tyler looked around and I took a moment to do the same.

The dungeon was just this one large room with a wet wooden floor, plank walls, and a ceiling that looked like it was rotting from the saltwater dripping down between the cracks in the wooden boards it was made of. The only thing of note was the stall in the back wall.

I appraised the guy sitting behind the stand full of fish.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 30 — ‘The Fishmonger’ — Vendor

“You youngins want fish?”

I’ll be honest, I don’t know what this guy is doing here. For some reason, The Fishmonger’s Shop isn’t anywhere in my notes. I’m pretty sure this place is either one of those Trick Dungeons a few of the more insidious members of the Dungeon Architects’ department made, or it’s simply unfinished since it was assumed no one would be able to get here. It’s hard to tell since I can’t find the notes on this place.

Anyway, this guy sells fish. I’m not sure what the fish do. Maybe they do nothing. They smell pretty bad, so I wouldn’t risk it.

But yeah, good luck getting out of here, I guess.

Panda frowned. “It’s a trick dungeon?”

“What’s the trick?” I asked.

“Woah, you’ve got a talking panda?” Tyler asked.

“You can see him?” Bee replied.

“Yeah. I just thought it was part of the outfit.”

Panda turned to look at Tyler. “How long have you been down here?”

“Like 3 hours?” he replied. “I think.”

“Y’all buyin’ my fish?” the old guy in the stall asked.

“I ain’t got no money with me, man,” Tyler told him, sounding exasperated. Then he turned back to us. “He keeps repeating that question every 5 minutes… And a fish costs like 100 dollars, he said.”

“Coins, young man, not dollars,” the Fishmonger corrected him.

I looked at Bee. “Any clue what the fuck is going on here?”

She shrugged.

“Have you tried stealing a fish?” Panda asked Tyler.

“Nah, he got real pissed when I touched one earlier. He’s kind of scary.”

I shared a glance with Bee. She gave me a nod, so I strode across the soggy floor to the stall and picked up a fish.

That turned out to be a really bad idea.

There were maybe 200 fish in total, and every last one of them started to scream as they sprouted spider legs and mandibles.

Then the old man’s body unraveled, revealing him to be a massive many-legged spider as well.

Lordie yelped and disappeared into the transport cage.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x ]

‘Trick or Death’

Uncovered the trick in a Trick Dungeon.

The person who designed this dungeon just got a promotion for trapping you.

It’s like they don’t understand that you don’t die to traps like this.

Anyway, so, I bet a lot of money on you surviving this, because the odds were good.

Don’t die.

It would be very inconvenient for me, since I need that money to buy more food.

Reward: ‘Trickster’s Surprise’

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Seven

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--Encyclopaedia---
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The internship I started this week has been kicking my ass a bit, hence why you're just getting a chapter now. I'll be pivoting to Madman chapters until Sunday to get back on track with that story, but I'll be returning to Loopshard again from next Monday.

Hopefully I can find a good groove at work so I'm not so exhausted, but being an introvert by nature, most of the exhaustion comes from just constantly being around other people. The programming itself is not that mentally challenging that it'd wear me out.

Anyway, it's looking like I can still dish out 3 chapters per week on Loopshard, which is not that bad I think, given how big they are. I can maybe get 4-5 Madman chapters done per week since those are shorter, but we'll see.

By the way, did you notice patreon has centre-alignment now? It only took them 7 years or something to figure out that super complicated bit of formatting. Of course, they broke like 3 or 4 things I always use, like the scrollbar for the post body, lol. Pretty cool. I'm glad patreon as a monopoly on this kind of thing takes their obligation to users so seriously...

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Chapter Eighty-Seven

“Should I dump the treasure?” Adam asked as they flew towards the cave where they’d parked their airship.

“No, we need those as the distraction,” Emelia said. “The Whale Eaters teamed up with Fallow’s Fallen, so we can use the treasure to get their attention.”

“How much do you think we’ve got?”

“Altogether? At least 1500 Doubloons’ worth.”

“Is that a lot?” Adam asked, having no clue what value the currency had.

“We could buy two normal ship upgrades with that, or one really powerful one. It’s also enough to buy an Epic Relic from a vendor.”

As they reached their airship, Adam dropped the chests onto the main deck, before shaping the barriers into claws to grab them with and turning them upside-down. The Doubloons and jewels spilled out onto the deck, making it quite clear just how much had been inside the chests.

Carrying this without barriers would’ve been quite a challenge, he mused. There’s gotta be like 80 kilos or more between the two chests.

While he’d prepared the bait, Emelia had started manoeuvring Thunder Rider out of the cliff-side cave, barely speeding up the propellers so as to not make their movement obvious. The Golden Slug was still on the horizon, but it was coming towards them with quite a lot of speed.

Those fins are a lot stronger than I realised.

He’d thought a vessel that enormous with only ‘swimming’ fins on the sides and no propellers and masts wouldn’t be able to gain a lot of speed. That assumption was clearly wrong.

“Alright, I’m ready to send it off,” Emelia said.

“Give me a moment,” Adam told her, bringing out his wand and summoning a barrier with the spell he’d learnt thanks to Alepheria’s Mandate. It took a fair bit of Mana out of him, but once the spell was formed, he sat down to recoup it quickly while fusing the wand barrier with one of his three spell-tome barriers. Then he fused the other two as well, leaving him with two double-fused spells. The one fused with the wand spell he shaped into their ‘vehicle’, while the other he boosted with Mana Infusion, doubling its stats. Taking a trick out of Arturo’s book, he then shaped the infused barrier into as thin of a construct as possible, ending up with something that looked like a narrow rope made of midnight-blue glass.

Adam moved himself onto the sled-like barrier they’d be flying on. “Once my Mana has recovered completely, then we can go.”

Emelia remained at the helm, since she’d have to activate the throttle for the propellers and fins to get it going.

The next half minute passed by very slowly, and it seemed as though the Golden Slug was speeding up, barrelling right for them. Since there weren’t any shadows to speak of, he felt they were quite exposed outside of the cave, but the colour-scheme of Thunder Rider at least made them slightly less obvious against the backdrop of the island’s cliff-side. The blue tint of nightfall was also somewhat working in their favour.

We should still be fine if they spot us, but we’re screwed if they see us fly off on the barrier.

“Alright. Let’s go!” Adam said, and Emelia pushed the throttle all the way down, making Thunder Rider immediately pick up speed.

The dumped fortune on the deck of the ship clinged and clanged as the airship surged towards the Golden Slug. Emelia quickly hopped onto Adam’s barrier, sitting down behind him and latching her arms around his waist.

Without wasting any more time, Adam sent them flying down over the edge of the main deck, aiming them into a large fluffy cloud below that coasted lazily towards the northeast.

He pulled out the Navigator’s Telescope to observe the giant airship as their bait flew towards it at max speed.

They didn’t have to wait long for a response, as the loud snap of ballistae filled the air. A few seconds later, two strange projectiles struck Thunder Rider with uncanny precision. One exploded against the stern, leaving a massive glob of some kind of weaponised gelatinous slime that completely disabled the propellers and rudder, but the fins still paddled away. The other punctured the hull, penetrating far enough that its tip pierced to the other side. Then it unfolded like an umbrella before pulling back against the hull as the thin chain connecting it to the Golden Slug went taut.

Two more loud snaps proceeded slime bolts which struck the hull where the fins connected, incapacitating them.

Their precision is frighteningly good.

Just like that, their airship had been captured. Even as they watched, gold-skinned pirates used hooks to slide along the taut chain rope towards Thunder Rider, whooping and yelling like madmen.

“Those are Fallow’s Fallen,” Emelia remarked after Adam passed her the telescope. “They love boarding airships, since they’re all about plundering. They’ll even take care when they kill others, since many of the denizens of this world have expensive prosthetics and things like golden teeth.”

“Lovely,” he muttered and pushed their barrier down at a steep angle, hoping to avoid detection.

Emelia handed the telescope back and he returned it to the Spidersilk Sack, then switched his full attention to flying, though the wandering eye was firmly locked onto the giant airship, which made it a bit difficult.

“Be careful of the underside of the ship,” Emelia whispered.

Adam found another cloud that was drifting towards the Golden Slug far below where it swam. Then he craned his neck back and looked up at the underbelly of the beast. To his dismay, there were a total of six ballista pods poking out from where the airship’s hull dipped down in the M-like shape it had when viewed from the side. Each pod had two ballistae inside angled downward, and it looked like they could spin around to fire in any direction. With a total of twelve ballistae on the underside, there was almost perfect coverage against anything that’d attack them from below.

“Will they be able to spot us?” he asked.

“Not if we’re fast enough,” she said. “The pirates of this world, especially those who’d operate such a massive airship, are not thinking about looking out for a small shape like our barrier. But they are prepared to defend against attacks from high above and far below, since those are usually the weak-points of other large airships, since they cannot utilise the upgrades to move up or down from the floating point. Except for Golden Fortress’ flagship, but they’re an outlier in that regard.”

“So, we go in fast?”

“Exactly. Do you want me to punch open a hole for us?” she asked with a grin.

Adam eyed the infused double barrier in the shape of a rope next to him. “I’ve got something safer,” he replied.

They stuck to the cloud until the Golden Slug passed over them. The Thunder Rider airship had almost been pulled all the way up to the giant vessel, and Adam just now realised that the front of it was opening up like a mouth to grab it.

I had no idea it could do that… It really is like a giant Slug Dragon.

“They’ll want to disassemble the airship for parts,” Emelia guessed, her voice barely audible over the massive swoosh of the Golden Slug’s fins flapping like wings. “Especially since it’s made by the Cloud Skimmers.”

I guess they can’t really roll up to a White Flags outpost and get Herrman’s crew to give them upgrades, particularly since they’ve become persona non grata. Scavenging other factions’ ships makes a lot of sense in that regard. And it probably means they have quite a lot of non-combatants for the purpose of repairs and maintenance.

Adam squared his jaw. “Here we go,” he whispered and sent their barrier almost completely straight up into the air, pushing it to go as fast as possible. He was aiming for the central dip in the strangely-shaped hull.

< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Defeat the Golden Slug airship >

The offensive barrier that he’d Mana Infused was sent ahead to carve out a hole for them to enter through, and he intentionally shot it right behind one of the ballistae pods. Although the Slugwhale bone was tough, the thin rope-like barrier sliced through it quickly, dropping away a round segment of the underside just in time for them to fly up through the hole and drop into the bottom of the hull.

Since they’d entered right behind a ballistae pod, there were six crew members almost directly in front of where they entered, but Adam’s Mana Infused barrier zipped through them in one continuous motion, like a deadly midnight-black serpent, piercing their simple attire and flesh with disturbing ease.

By the time Emelia had both feet on the floor, all six of them lay dead with holes through the middle of their torsos, their hearts pierced with precision and speed. Then three Winter Dancers appeared as their essences were absorbed into Adam’s Wraith Lantern.

She cast him a surprised glance, but then quickly took off down the chamber they found themselves in, looking for a way to get around the wall that separated them from the other ballistae pod. The walls and floor inside the vessel were the same gold-veined off-white Slugwhale bone as the exterior. Instead of open floors, it seemed that the interior was filled with smaller chambers, and some of the ones on his right were quarters for the ballistae crew.

Adam followed behind her, but she was much faster than him. He shaped the transport barrier into a narrow lance as he ran, and sent the wraiths after her, since they could keep up. Emelia quickly found a doorway on the left that led through the partitioning wall, and no sooner had she gone through than Adam heard the sound of her punching someone. Then shouting came from deeper inside the other chamber as the crew were alerted to their presence.

Adam managed to catch up to her as she finished off the last crew member with the help of his Winter Dancers. Then she bolted for a nearby set of ladders leading up to the floors above. Given how many enemies were onboard the Golden Slug, they had to blitz them before they had a chance to mount a response and overwhelm them with sheer numbers.

At the top of the ladders was a common room with five off-duty crew playing some kind of game involving dice made from bones. With Adam and Emelia’s terrifying strength and quick attacks, none of them were able to get up from their seats before they were dead. And with their deaths came three more wraiths.

While Emelia continued through to another room, Adam pulled out his wand and cast his Necromancy spell on the biggest of the five men they’d just killed. Although his head was gone from Emelia’s devastating punch, his body pulled itself upright as the red-gold magic suffused him.

Don’t attack me.

Don’t attack me…

Adam’s barriers and wraiths were poised to eliminate the pirate if he jumped at him like the Mad Captain had, but the headless man just stood there, his arms rigid by his side and his shoulders pulled back strangely.

With a gesture of his obsidian hand, Adam sent his new undead servant and dancers through the doorway and into the chamber in the opposite direction of where Emelia had gone.

Although they hadn’t agreed on it, she’d floated the idea of them splitting up to kill as many of the crew members as possible before the alarms sounded, and given how big the ship was, it was clearly the best approach since there was just the two of them.

Yelps of surprise and then disturbing laughter came from the room he’d sent the summons into, and Adam quickly followed, commanding his undead servant to attack the largest of the pirates while he sent his barriers and dancers out to deal with the other seven.

Everyone except the guy he’d sicced his undead on were basic crew members, but the large pirate was clearly part of the Whale Eaters, since he had a metal brace around his jaw that extended up over his lips to give him serrated shark teeth. His right arm was also covered in a thick metallic sleeve and gauntlet, carrying the same bear-trap-like mechanism as the Snap Gauntlet Relic Adam had seen earlier. He was also laughing.

With a punch, the Whale Eater’s crazy gauntlet took a huge chunk out of the undead, immediately triggering Last Stand’s Fervour. Adam’s headless pirate, who was unarmed, simply returned the punch, hitting the Eater hard enough in the face with his meaty fist to snap his head back violently and sending him staggering to the floor.

Adam seized on the opening and shot his thin barrier through the downed pirate’s torso, piercing his armour and killing him. Then he switched to his wand and cast Necromancy a second time.

[Warning! Mana below 15%.]

A sudden wooziness made Adam stagger, but the revived Whale Eater slowly got to his feet, while the headless undead expired and collapsed back down onto the floor, dead yet again.

Okay, I overdid it a bit…

Adam sat down to recoup, while his now six lantern summons and one undead regarded him with blank stares, three of the dancers glowing red from Fervour. With a wave of his obsidian hand, Adam sent them further down through the chamber to whatever rooms lay in that direction. He was fairly sure he was heading towards the stern of the ship, but it was impossible to tell from inside the ship.

While Necromancy is cool, I think I have to consider when I use it a lot more prudently. It would maybe be a good idea to unequip the Wandering Eye necklace, since it’s a waste to spend 100 Mana on resurrecting a strong enemy, only for them to die to one hit.

When Adam’s Mana was back to full, he went the same way he’d sent his summons, finding a chamber with bunkbeds that was full of torn-apart pirates and crew members. The Soul Harvester effect that increased the speed and duration of summons with every kill was clearly paying off, since it seemed to increase the duration of Last Stand’s Fervour, given that more than half a minute after they should’ve expired, one of the Winter Dancers was still going crazy two rooms down, moving like a spinning top and sending cascades of blood and flesh in all directions.

“That looks like a sentient blender,” Emelia commented.

Adam jumped at the suddenness of her voice behind him.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “Come on.”

Emelia ran towards where Adam’s remaining summon was fighting its way through a room with a stairwell leading up to the floor above, which Adam suspected was where most of the broadside ballistae would be. He did his best to keep up as his boosted summon tore through the pirates streaming down the steps towards them, their arrival no longer a secret.

Emelia had little trouble matching the speed of Adam’s Soul-Harvester-boosted Winter Dancer, and to add to the mayhem, he commanded his two barriers to fly through the enemies trying to overwhelm them. As the first trio of new wraiths were summoned from the many kills he was racking up, Fallow’s Fallen pirates joined the fray. They were much faster than the Whale Eaters, who relied more on physical strength and size, as well as terrifying mechanisms and tools. The Fallen were actually quick enough to be able to avoid some of his barriers.

But Emelia was someone they couldn’t contend with, and although they were able to avoid Adam’s spells if they saw them coming head-on, they were powerless against her.

In short, it was an absolute bloodbath, and with the many deaths came more of the summons from Adam’s Wraith Lantern.

Soon enough they had pushed up to the top floor of the hull where most of the broadside ballistae were mounted. They made quick work of the few crew members and pirates there, before taking the next set of stairs up and emerging out onto the main deck near the stern of the massive airship.

Towards the stern of the Golden Slug, the helm was raised, even though the back of the ship dipped down like the middle and front, and there was something like a podium onto which a large wheel and six throttles were mounted. Upon it stood an enormous man covered in overlapping plate armour and crazy spring-loaded weapons on the braces of his arms, as well as something like mechanical spring boots on his legs. His face was covered by a metal helmet that had a shark-fin on top like a mohawk and metal jaws with a protruding underbite showing serrated shark teeth.

It was the Whale Eaters’ captain, of that there could be no doubts.

Adam had a horde of wraiths with him, and he sent them all towards the boss. Emelia ran at the front of them, looking like a vengeful queen and her army of ghosts.

Just as he had the thought that they would easily defeat the captain, the man lifted his right fist into the air and a loud snap came from behind Adam, further down the deck.

He whirled around, just as a ballista bolt smashed into him.

His right shoulder was obliterated by the massive projectile, tearing off his arm and flinging it towards the back of the airship. Since his Potion Belt was strapped around the severed limb, it failed to activate.

[Warning! Health below 10%. You are close to dying.]

[The attack dealt 225 points of damage, which was reduced to 102 thanks to your Defence rating. That means you now have 8 Health or 7% remaining.]

Adam blacked out.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Six

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This chapter hasn't been edited yet, but I really wanted to get this out to you, since I don't have time to edit it tomorrow until after I get back from my internship.

Also, tomorrow I'm starting my internship. Lol.

Sorry for the delay in getting any chapters to y'all. This last week has been so busy and I've been super low on energy to write much. But, I did manage to bake cookies today ^-^

I will edit this chapter tomorrow, so if you'd like to wait for an edited version, please check back in ~24 hours.

This chapter has now been edited.

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Chapter Eighty-Six

Emelia made Adam park their airship in a cave on the northern side of Fallow’s Glory when they arrived. There were a few other caves around the sheer cliffside of the floating island, and she wanted them to explore those since they had time. The landmass it floated on went down really far unlike other islands they’d seen, and she had said there was an elaborate cave system.

“How long do we have exactly?” Adam wondered.

“About 3 hours or so,” she said. “It’s hard to say when exactly it’ll get here, just that it’ll be sometime after nightfall.”

“Hopefully Captain Drew won’t mind us being a little bit late with his map,” Adam said.

“Night lasts at least 6 hours, so, if we’re lucky, we should be able to get back to Windtop tonight.”

Adam looked to his cube. “Let me know when there are 10 minutes to nightfall.”

[Understood.]

The cave they parked inside was hardly any bigger than the airship, but it went quite far down, allowing the fins to hang without pressing against the rock.

With his barriers, Adam ferried them out from the cave and up onto the fertile soil of the island. Large trees covered most of the surface and a glowing mountain in the background showed the volcano they’d both seen in the images that Iffen had shared with them.

“Should we go to the caves first or check up here?” Adam asked.

“If you can fly us over the treetops, then we should be able to find the shipwreck that’s on the island,” Emelia said. “It has a Relic Chest but is swarming with man-eaters.”

“Man-eaters? Do you mean cannibals?”

“Yeah. They’re pretty disturbing, but they’ve only got primitive tools and what they can scavenge. Their strength comes from their numbers.”

“Should be easy enough to deal with,” he replied.

“If I remember correctly, it’s actually possible to become friendly with them and help with some kind of ritual involving the volcano, which they worship.”

“Really? How do you befriend them?” he asked.

“No idea. I just remember someone talking about it once. Anyway, I don’t think we should bother with that. Most of the quests inside Stages are just to get currency and upgrades.”

“What about the one from Iffen?” he asked.

“That one should be different,” she said. “After all, boarding and overtaking the Golden Slug is meant to be something that a party does on the last day of the Stage.”

“And you’re sure we can do it?”

“I know what I’m doing,” Emelia replied confidently. “You just need to keep yourself alive and provide a bit of backup.”

“Wait… Am I just the chauffeur??”

Emelia laughed. “Now you’re getting it.”

“I’ll show you I’m way more than that,” he replied.

They got back on the barriers and Adam flew them over the treetops, almost circling the entire forest island before they spotted a clearing made by a medium-sized airship that’d crashed. Its masts were still intact, but the fins, propellers, and hull were damaged beyond repair, clearly the result of aerial combat. The ship resembled those of the Treasure Hunters faction they’d shot down earlier.

Like Emelia had said, strange figures crowded the wreckage, running up and down the tilted deck and coming out from within the punctured hull, carrying treasure, provisions, and pieces from disassembled ballistae along with their large bolts.

The unfortunate survivors of the crash were long dead, their bodies flayed and torn to bits. Bones, flaps of skin, and splotches of blood were the only real remains.

The man-eaters were lanky humans covered in decorative paint clearly made with blood and mud, as well as white and grey ash, and black soot. Aside from loincloths, they were completely naked. Their faces were angular with tufts of hair at the very peak of their scalps, their teeth were sharp like those of a predator, and their fingers had evolved into claw-like weapons.

How could anyone try to befriend these creatures…?

They hovered in the air unseen by the man-eaters below until Emelia dropped from her barrier, aiming herself feet-first down to the main deck.

Not to be outdone, Adam shaped his two free barriers into spikes and commanded them to aim for the man-eaters’ necks while staying within his reach as he floated above out of danger.

The quick projectiles zipped back and forth, whistling as they flew and rapidly changed target after gouging out the enemies’ necks one by one. At the same time, Emelia surged around on the deck, pulverising all the man-eaters that challenged her.  As Adam’s shrieking Winter Dancers appeared, the last few made a break for it, disappearing into the trees before Adam could catch them.

Within just a few short seconds, dozens of dead cannibals lay on the downed airship and around it on the grassy soil of the clearing made by the crash.

“We should hurry and loot it,” Emelia said. “They’ll be back with more.”

Adam brought his barrier down to the torn-open hull, but then Emelia called him back up to the main deck.

“It’s inside the captain’s quarters,” she said, pointing to the back of the airship, the part of it raised into the air.

Unlike the unicorn ship, the wreck was not so steep that they couldn’t simply walk up to where stairs led to the door of the captain’s quarters. Somehow the door hinges had survived the crash, but it was clear to see that the back of the airship had been reinforced, given the fact that its damage was mostly surface-level.

Inside the tilted quarters were furniture piled against the wall next to the door, as well as foodstuffs spilled on the floor, along with the shards and stains from a broken wine bottle. Somehow, a Relic Chest was just planted right in the middle of the floor, ignoring gravity’s pull. It looked just like what a pirate’s treasure chest ought to look like: gilded embellishments and latch mechanism, aged brown wood, and a rounded lid.

Emelia gestured for Adam to open it.

The Choice Ring he’d taken from Maalia’s body glowed as he pushed up the lid. Golden light spilled out from within, and four holograms appeared.

“I forgot I got that upgrade,” Adam muttered.

“It would probably have been better to pick something like a permanent Damage boost,” Emelia said. “In the long run this really only saves you a little bit on Reroll Dice. Of course, it works very well with the Lucky Stone and Choice Ring,” she noted.

Even though I know she’s probably right, I do like having more choices. It should hopefully allow me to get a second general upgrade choice from Upgrade Chests.

< < Relics Available > >

< White Flags Chain-Sleeve (Rare) — Increases Player Defence by 10% | Increases Player Damage by 10% | Reduces Movement Speed by 10% >

< Scoundrel’s Glove (Rare) — Surprise attacks against humanoids made by a weapon wielded in this glove inflict Haemorrhage, dealing 2% Health in damage per second for 30 seconds >

< Choice Ring (Epic) — Allows you to pick two options from a Stage reward. 1-Stage cooldown >

< Portsmith’s Goggles (Rare) — Identify weaknesses in armour after looking at it for 3 seconds | Lowers Player Relic cooldowns by 5% >

“A second Choice Ring,” Adam remarked.

“That’s really lucky,” Emelia noted.

The goggles could be alright, but I don’t know if I wanna use the Choice Ring I have right now to grab them…

“Can you use any of the other things?”

“No, I’m good,” she replied. “But the Scoundrel’s Glove is really powerful, since it obviously deals an insane amount of potential damage. It just only works on humanoids.”

“What was the item you wanted me to get?” he asked.

“It’s called Cloud Skimmer Jacket,” she replied. “It’s similar to the Slothling Fur Coat, but has no durability that destroys it, plus the dash ability it gives is useful.”

< < Relic Selected > >

< Choice Ring (Rare) >

Adam put the Relic in the Spidersilk Sack with the rest of the stuff he’d gotten from the other Players, and then they left the shipwreck.

As soon as they were outside, they heard the whooping and yelling of the man-eaters preparing to charge them from the trees.

“Time to go,” Emelia said, and they both got onto Adam’s barriers. The spells had survived the fight without any of them breaking, which was quite surprising.

Once they were in the air, the man-eaters broke from the trees and stormed the shipwreck, only to look up and see them fly away. Their outraged shouts and yells were followed by thrown rocks and wooden spears.

“Exploring is generally such a hassle in this Stage,” Emelia said. “Having your barriers speeds things up a lot.”

“I know, I know, I’m the chauffeur.”

“I was only joking,” she replied with a grin. “You killed half of the cannibals after all. My last time through this Stage, I killed 90% of all the enemies, if not more. The fact that you can keep up is impressive.”

“Well, the Legendary Relic is doing a lot of the heavy lifting. I wouldn’t be able to control two barriers simultaneously like that without it.”

“Regardless, we should be able to make quick work of the Whale Eaters and Fallen onboard the Golden Slug.”

They spent the next two hours scouring the cave system inside the island, which they’d accessed through one of the cliff-side cave openings. However, they had very little luck finding anything worth their time, aside from the scattered remains of three pirates, who had about a hundred Doubloons, as well as some notes about searching for a treasure under Fallow’s Glory.

When they were close to nightfall, they finally found something worthwhile, but immediately ran into trouble. A large slate-grey Slugwhale with soft neon-pink-tipped spikes all down its back was guarding the ruins of a temple that seemed to be situated almost directly below the island’s volcano.

The Slugwhale was large enough to physically block the entire entrance to the temple, and Emelia said it was one of the toxic ones, so touching it was not going to end well.

“I can take it out,” Adam said as they stood out of sight of the large creature.

Emelia nodded and watched as he spun together three barriers, turning them into one. He wasn’t trying to obliterate the treasure that might await them, so he refrained from fusing the barriers with a fourth one created by his wand.

Given the design of the ship they were hunting, it was clear that Slugwhales had quite large skeletons, but they weren’t visible in the slightest through their squishy exterior.

“Where am I meant to aim my shot?” Adam asked as he shaped the tripled-fused barrier into a spike with a wide end and hooks protruding from it for maximum carnage.

“They have their organs, brain, and such all cluttered inside their skeleton. It’s like a pod in the front of their body, near to the head. For a Slugwhale that big, it might be a metre-and-a-half long.”

“So, if I can shoot down the length of its body, that’ll work best, right?”

“Yeah.”

Adam nodded. “Alright, let’s do it.”

Emelia jumped out around the corner and immediately the Slugwhale moved towards her, pressing its slate-grey body through the entrance pillars to the temple. She quickly back-pedalled as it charged her.

“Now!” she yelled, and Adam jumped out from the branching tunnel he’d been hiding in.

With a mental nudge, Adam fired the triple-fused barrier at the Slugwhale’s head, commanding it through Alepheria’s Mandate to stay in the centre of its body for maximum damage.

The spinning projectile whooshed down the tunnel and burrowed through the slug, the spinning motion and flensing hooks tearing its jelly-like flesh free and sending it cascading around it as a large hole was formed.

The reverberating thrum of the projectile shook the walls and floor of the cave system, making small debris and rocks bounce off the ground.

His projectile had failed to fully core the Slugwhale down the centre of its body, instead getting stuck somewhere in the middle of it. Regardless, it had clearly penetrated the skeleton and destroyed the organs within.

“Wow, its body actually held up quite well,” Emelia muttered. “I thought for sure it’d explode.”

“I’m guessing the flesh of a Slugwhale is quite impact resistant and can absorb a lot of shock,” Adam said, staring at the dead creature.

“Real question now is: how do we get around it?” Emelia said.

Adam commanded the barrier to pull itself out of the corpse, but no sooner did it emerge than it disappeared, the initial impact apparently breaking it and triggering Last Stand’s Fervour.

He resummoned his barriers, but then had a genius idea and switched to his wand.

“What are you doing?” Emelia asked suspiciously.

“Just watch,” he replied.

Adam cast Necromancy on the dead Slugwhale, and it immediately stirred, pulling itself upright. Its mouth feelers and eyestalks shifted around in confusion, which led to an uncomfortable revelation.

Those I resurrect retain their sentience… That explains why mad enemies remain insane.

With a gesture of his wand and obsidian hand, the reanimated slug pulled its body back through the temple opening, making it possible for them to pass through and find what secrets awaited within.

This skill is really strong, but using it on a Player seems like it would have some really fucked up consequences if they’re able to retain their memories, feelings, and personality…

Inside the temple, which was really just a set of pillars carved into a pocket of the cave system, they found spirals engraved into the floor, along with the bones and skeletons of several humanoids. There were a couple of normal treasure chests, which were full of treasure and coins, and Emelia had Adam lift them with his barriers to bring to their airship, even though she’d said they’d get the Gold-curse if they collected too many riches.

They also found a Relic Chest and an Upgrade Chest inside the temple. Emelia told him he could grab the Relic one and she grabbed the upgrade.

He watched as she was given four options just like him, showing she’d gone with the Rewards upgrade too at some point. Unsurprisingly, she ended up picking a Damage upgrade.

Adam opened his chest.

< < Relics Available > >

< Whale Eater’s Snap Gauntlet (Epic) — Punch the gauntlet against a target to trigger the spring-loaded mechanism to snap and latch on to their flesh, inflicting 100% weapon damage. 30-second cooldown | Afflictions delivered with this Relic are twice as potent >

< Cloud Skimmer Jacket (Rare) — Increases Player Defence by 25% | Increases Movement Speed by 10% | Enables the wearer to rapidly dash forward while moving, consuming 20% Stamina >

< Treasure Hunter’s Well-Worn Boots (Rare) — Allows for the wearer to traverse any terrain, mostly ignoring gravity >

< Heavy Belt (Rare) — Increases Player Defence by 50% | Reduces Movement Speed by 50% >

“I got the Relic you mentioned,” Adam said with a grin.

“That was fast,” Emelia replied, coming over to him.

The jacket was a sleek black leather thing with a lot of pockets and belt-straps around the arms. It didn’t look like the sleeves were long enough to prevent him from using bracers. And he’d still be able to keep the Potion Belt around his right arm as well.

“That Snap Gauntlet is pretty nasty with an affliction build,” Emelia said. “If you used that with Huntsman and a lot of afflictions, you’d be able to kill enemies so fast.”

“Says the person punch-decapitating enemies,” Adam joked.

“Stacking damage only gets you so far,” she replied. “After Stage Ten you need something more than that to stay alive. It’ll get to a point where most enemies you encounter pose a significant challenge, especially when the Absolutes start letting their spawn participate…”

“Sounds fun,” he deadpanned.

“Anyway, you should get the jacket. The dash is much better than the description makes it seem. You can double-chain it to basically send yourself flying. Pretty powerful when you have a build centred around turning Speed into Damage.”

[There are now 10 minutes remaining to nightfall,] Adam’s cube suddenly announced.

“Oh shit, we’d better hurry,” he said.

< < Relic Selected > >

< Cloud Skimmer Jacket (Rare) >

The jacket landed in his arms, and he quickly swapped it out with the Slothling Fur Coat, which he put in his Spidersilk Sack.

“Alright, let’s go,” he said, and they got on a barrier together, with the other two carrying the treasure chests stacked with Doubloons.

Adam flew their barriers through the cave system, taking directions from Emelia about where to turn, eventually seeing them out through the same cliff-side cave they’d entered through, but the world outside was now cast in a blue-ish light instead of gold.

On the northern horizon was a ship that was immediately recognisable to him.

It was the Golden Slug.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Five

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I have finally added an encyclopaedia to Patreon (sorry it took so long). It will be kept up to date with relics and such as they appear. The link will be listed on at the top of all chapters of Loopshard going forward, sandwiched between the Previous and Next chapter buttons

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Chapter Eighty-Five

“You weren’t kidding…” Adam muttered in disbelief as their stolen airship coasted to a stop just outside the boundary of what could be considered Iffenguard.

Twenty metres below where the airship, which they’d discovered was named Thunder Rider, was floating, rose the edge of a dark-grey wall that surrounded an elliptical island covered in stone fortifications. The fortress island itself was impressive enough, but the only thing Adam could focus on was the enormous shape that took up half its area. Its skin was like moss, and cracks in its surface pulsed a neon-green light. Its shape was just like a slug, which surprised him, since he’d expected something more. But it had neither arms nor wings, although tentacles rose from its body at random intervals, swishing through the air.

So, this is Iffen.

Adam wondered how exactly the giant was a threat to anyone, given that his enormous bulk was hemmed in by the stone wall of the fortress island. Somehow his weight, which was distributed across several buildings, like a garrison, tavern, armoury, and houses, was not enough to crush the structures or even damage the stones. It was quite a peculiar sight.

“He should already know we’re here,” Emelia said ominously.

Then there came a loud rumble as two large salamander-like arms sprouted from near the front of the slug’s body, pushing down against the buildings and ground to lift up his massive head. It didn’t have any eyestalks, but there were plenty of large feeler-like tentacles on its head, all of them more or less ringed around a mouth consisting of three large tooth plates positioned diagonally to each other. The plates scraped loudly as though Iffen was chomping at the bits for a snack.

He can shapeshift… That changes things.

It probably wouldn’t be hard for him to make wings and take to the air, I’m guessing.

“He can smell the corpses,” Emelia said, casting a glance to the pile of dead Cloud Skimmers in the middle of their airship’s deck.

“Delightful,” Adam deadpanned.

“We should feed the bodies to him first,” Emelia decided.

Adam frowned. “I’ll do it. You stay back here. If it looks like he’ll attack, just take off. I’ll catch up to you.”

Emelia smiled. “Thanks.”

He brought his barriers out from the back of Thunder Rider, shaping one into a sled he could sit on and turning the other two into scoops that he slid under the corpses, risking three on each barrier so he didn’t have to make more than two trips.

Even though there were more than 70 metres from the deck of their ship to Iffen’s open maw, the wandering eye was locked firmly onto the gigantic slug. As always, its attention was a troublesome sign, though he didn’t need it to tell him that the Slug Dragon was a threat. He could see it with his own eyes easily enough…

“Alright, here I go,” Adam said and floated his barriers down towards the monster’s open mouth below.

His barriers passed over the fortress island, keeping well out of range of the slug since he had no idea what Iffen was capable of, especially considering his ability to grow limbs at will. The closer he got to where the Slug Dragon’s head lifted up into the air, the louder the scraping of his tooth plates became. The sound was like screeching metal and deeply disturbed his faculties just by sheer volume alone.

But then Iffen seized his gnashing when Adam halted directly above his head.

Although he had thought to simply dump his cargo right into the giant maw below, Adam understood that the slug did not operate by sight and thus such an act might surprise it or upset it, either of which was unlikely to go well for him.

So, as Iffen’s feeler tentacles reached up towards his barriers, Adam lowered them down within his reach. In contrast to the Slug Dragon’s gigantic size, Iffen’s slimy tentacles were quite gentle as they each grabbed a corpse from Adam’s barriers and moved them down to his open mouth, placing each one deliberately against one of the tooth plates before rapidly chomping the corpse to bits.

When all six corpses had been grabbed by the tentacles and awaited consumption, Adam hurried back to the airship to retrieve the rest.

Once he’d made the trip a second time and Iffen had devoured all of the Cloud Skimmers, the Slug Dragon lowered its head back down onto the buildings he’d been resting on when they arrived. The two large arms also retracted back into his mass, reabsorbed with no sign of them ever existing in the first place.

I wonder if all Slug Dragons are capable of that kind of transformation.

Emelia didn’t mention anything about it, so I have a feeling it might only be the really powerful ones that can do it.

Adam returned to the main deck of Thunder Rider.

“It should be safe to go down there now,” Emelia said.

“And there’s no other way to find the Golden Slug?” he asked apprehensively.

“There are other ways, sure, but this one is the fastest,” she told him.

He sighed. “If it eats me, I’ll come back and haunt you.”

“Please do,” she replied, nudging him playfully.

“That’s… not the response I expected.”

“What can I say? I wouldn’t mind getting haunted by you,” Emelia said, laughing at the look of confusion on his face.

“Let’s go,” she then said, and Adam brought them down to Iffenguard on a barrier, keeping the other two as shields, though he very much doubted they’d protect them if the Slug Dragon decided to attack.

As they passed some invisible boundary line, an announcement appeared.

< < Secret Optional Stage Objective > >

< Speak to Iffen, Ruler of Iffenguard >

Not surprised this is a secret objective.

They stepped off onto smooth cobblestones that lay in a perfect grid across the island. Most of the light from the Floating Sea was blocked by the walls ringed around the fortress, but Iffen’s body had its own internal glow, each slow pulse of it lighting up their surroundings in a neon-green.

The way the Slug Dragon’s enormous body just lay there, covering half of the island, was so indescribable and awe-striking to behold. It was like the body of a lazy God who’d allowed them a moment of his time in exchange for their offering.

“Iffen!” Emelia exclaimed. “We’ve come to seek your aid in locating the vessel known as the Golden Slug!”

The ground rumbled and a large tentacle grew from the Slug Dragon’s mass, reaching down onto the ground in front of them. Then a body emerged from it, tethered with a smaller tentacle like a power cord. It was humanoid in appearance but had no distinguishing features. A mouth similar to Iffen’s appeared in the middle of its head, which was deeply unsettling, and then two eyestalks sprouted from its ‘hair’, regarding them with black beads.

“Why do you seek the Whale Eaters’ flagship?” the slug humanoid asked. The voice that came out was deep and guttural, like spoken by someone with a lot of phlegm in their throat.

It was peculiar that Iffen spoke to them through a facsimile of a person, but perhaps he had no real voice, or, more troubling, perhaps its real voice would be so powerful it might hurt them.

It’s kind of like an adult using a sock puppet to talk to a child though…

“We are going to defeat their faction and its captain,” Emelia replied. “Then we will steal their ship for ourselves.”

“Their vessel was made from the bones of my kindred. It should be laid to rest. If you could bring it to me, I would assimilate it with myself and honour those that perished in its making.”

< < Quest Unlocked > >

< Song of the Slugwhales >

< Bring the Golden Slug airship to Iffenguard >

Huh, that’s not exactly what I expected.

I wonder what we’d get for that.

“We will bring it to you,” Emelia promised. “But first we need to know where to find it. Time is of the essence, as the Whale Eaters are at this very moment flying towards the nest of Mast-Eater, the Slug Dragon familiar to the faction known as the Drakes.”

Instead of moving closer or raising its arms, small tentacles emerged from the slug humanoid’s head, rapidly crossing the few metres between them and touching both of them on the forehead.

Images and knowledge flashed through Adam’s mind from Iffen’s touch, showing him many different angles of the Golden Slug airship as it coasted through the air, passing various islands that he was certain he’d recognise if he saw them a second time. The clouds were tinged blue around it, meaning it had been observed around nightfall.

The airship itself was massive, well-deserving of the ‘super large’ classification that Emelia had attributed to it. Its shape was unlike any other airship he’d seen. First off, it was at least 20 metres wide, 30 metres tall, and maybe 100 metres long. Secondly, it wasn’t just a simple straight deck, instead it had two humps since the deck traced almost a flattened M-shape when viewed from the side, like a worm mid-motion. Where each of the three parts of its deck dipped down were a set of five fins sprouting from either side, giving it a total of thirty. It didn’t have any masts, rudders, nor propellers, relying entirely on the fins. Banks of nasty-looking ballista dotted the two humps, as well as on the bow, stern, and broadsides, giving it a ridiculous amount of firepower. At the bow of the ship, where normally a bowsprit would jut out, the deck was shaped into something like a triangle, which looked like a horn when seen from the side, and one enormous over-engineered ballista rose from this spot, great lengths of chain coiled besides it and attached to a monstrous barbed bolt already loaded onto it.

What made its appearance the most striking however, was that it was entirely made from gold-veined off-white bone, and if it had all been sourced from Slugwhales and Slug Dragons, the Whale Eaters had surely killed dozens of them, if not close to a hundred.

Once the visions of the airship’s flight passed, Iffen’s slug puppet said, “These are visions of what is to come. Take over the vessel and bring it to me.”

Wait, those images were of the future??

Emelia bowed deeply.

With another rumble, the puppet was sucked back into the tentacle it had spawned from, which in turn was pulled back into Iffen’s great body as well.

Emelia got back onto the barrier and Adam followed her, taking off from Iffenguard and returning to their airship.

Once they were back on its deck, she said, “I recognised several of those islands. Only one of them are visible on our map, but if we head towards the White Flags’ settlement in the southwest corner of our map, then we should be able to get to see another map of the area nearby, allowing us to plot out the course that the Golden Slug will take, making it possible for us to find a way to get on board.”

“Should we bring the airship?” Adam asked. “Seems like it’d get shot down before we could even get close enough.”

“We can maybe use it as a distraction,” she replied. “At any rate, the Golden Slug won’t reach those islands until nightfall, so we should at least use the airship to get there.”

“Got it,” he said, sending his barriers around the back of Thunder Rider and turning them south-westward before engaging the propellers and pushing the barriers.

Before they could make it to the settlement, they picked up a tail of a medium-sized airship and a small one after passing a tropical island shaped like a horseshoe. Although their ship was faster than their pursuers, who were from the Treasure Hunters faction, Emelia told Adam to try his trick with the quadruple fusion again while she manoeuvred around a series of small islands to escape the barrage of enemy ballista bolts.

“Are you sure it’s a good idea?” he asked. “What if I accidentally blow up our airship?”

“Then you’ll just catch us with your barriers like last time,” she replied cheerfully.

“When I did this last time, I passed out for a second and my legs turned to jelly.”

“It’ll be fine!” she told him.

Wouldn’t it be stupid if this is how I die in this loop?

Adam quickly ran into an annoying complication with the setup for his attack.

The barriers created with his wand through crafting the spherical spell construct was rigidly-defiant towards their momentum.

No sooner had he summoned the barrier in front of himself than it shoved his shoulder with enough force to spin him around, scraping along the side of the hull and remaining in the exact spot where he’d summoned it.

It ended up working out in their favour though, as the medium-sized ship smashed its foremast right into the immovable barrier. As expected, the spell cracked and broke, but not before destroying most of the wooden beam, sending it toppling over the side of the airship, hooking onto one of the trees of an island they were narrowly skimming past. A loud crack came as the mast wedged between the island’s trees was pulled free of the airship as it continued forward, tearing up a large portion of the bow and hull in the process.

Since it clearly wouldn’t be possible to do his quadruple-fusion trick while they were moving, Adam stuck with the triple-fusion, which he used the Mana Infusion skill on, before firing it at the injured airship. His barrier projectile shot right through the ship’s hull, exploding out the back and striking the small airship trailing the bigger one, shearing off two of its three fins.

[Medium airship defeated,] announced their cubes as the Treasure Hunters’ ship dipped below the floating point and quickly went into freefall.

The smaller ship quickly took evasive manoeuvres, but Adam already had a second triple-fused barrier ready, firing it through their broadside in the shape of a cannonball. It flew slower than the usual spike-shapes he relied on, but the damage was much broader since its flight pattern wobbled slightly and it pinged around inside the enemy hull after entering, meaning its exit hole was actually up through the deck next to the main mast.

Before he could spin up another projectile, Emelia had gone down below deck and fired both of their broadside ballistae at the enemy, dealing the final blow to sink it.

[Small airship defeated.]

Emelia quickly went back to the helm to save them from a head-on collision with an island that had a small pond and a wooden hut on it. A couple of spiky red-and-blue slugs frolicked in its grass.

An hour or two later, they reached the White Flags’ settlement. It was a balloon tethered in the middle of a horseshoe-shaped island, with five long metal cables dug into the sand-covered ground. Like Windtop Cove, the settlement sprouted out beneath the balloon. The port was smaller, but the place was quite popular it seemed, since the ships that couldn’t fit inside had anchored into the island’s edge.

Emelia brought Thunder Rider over to an available space of the island, and Adam hooked two of their anchor tethers to a few palm trees placed conveniently close to the edge. They hopped over the side of their ship and onto the sand.

< < Settlement Discovered > >

< Lenny’s Landing >

Instead of trudging through the sand to the nearest walkway leading from the island and onto the settlement proper, Adam brought his barriers out and they got one each before he sent them skating a few centimetres above the ground.

“It is going to be tough to go without this in the next Stage,” Emelia said wistfully as she got off the barrier.

“Better enjoy it as much as you can then,” Adam told her with a grin.

Much like Windtop, Lenny’s Landing had a house at the top of the settlement for its leader. The interior was almost styled exactly like Captain Drew’s quarters, except the trophies were less impressive.

The guy in charge of the settlement was, confusingly, not called Lenny. His name was Shiff, and Emelia told Adam that he was the old quartermaster of the White Flags. He was a big ogre of a man, his thick arms wrapped with chains like sleeves, and his head covered in a thick black beard, bushy eyebrows, and a wild mane of hair.

There’s no way those chains are comfortable…

After Emelia told him their objective, Shiff heartily agreed to lend them his map to look over, although they obviously couldn’t leave the building with it. Adam understood why the settlement leaders’ maps were so highly valued, since they were chockful of useful information, handwritten notes, and hints about potential treasure and hideouts.

Emelia placed her finger on a place called Fallow’s Glory, which was a large island. In the visions that Iffen had shown them, it had been an island with a volcano and heavy vegetation on it. Another one she recognised was shaped like a thick S on the map and called the Depth-Scouter’s Folly. Like Iffenguard, it lay a fair bit below the floating point, but that was besides the point, since they weren’t actually planning on going there. They were only trying to figure out the route that the Golden Slug was taking, after all. Although, given that Shiff’s map showed the Drakes’ suspected headquarters and a placed labelled as Mast-Chewer’s Nest, it was pretty clear once they had those points on the map to find the likely path that the enormous airship would take.

Quartermaster Shiff tried to rope them into some kind of quest, but Emelia was able to deflect him with a promise that they’d return tomorrow.

With that, the pair left Lenny’s Landing and returned to their stolen airship, before taking off towards Fallow’s Glory to prepare their ambush of the Golden Slug.

-----------------------------

-Previous Chapter-
--Encyclopaedia---
---Next Chapter----

Loopshard - Relic Encyclopaedia

Encyclopaedia of Relics

These are mainly only Relics that Adam has encountered (there may be a few he hasn't seen from the Stages and General pool).

Everything is loosely ordered according to various sub-categories and rarity, but it's a bit of a mess to be honest.

You can easily search through this with Ctrl+F if you are looking for something specifically.

---STAGE SPECIFIC RELICS---

Healing Apple

(stage 1)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: If the Player’s health falls below 25%, this apple is consumed, healing them back to full. Once consumed, the Relic disappears.

---

Slime Coating

(stage 1)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: The Player’s weapons are coated with the essence of a Blue Slime, imbuing them with 10% additional Corrosive Damage. The coating lasts for 3 Stages, after which the Relic disappears.

---

Bark Armour

(stage 1)

(armour)

Uncommon

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 25%. Breaks after 5 hits.

---

Purple Slime Glove

(stage 1)

(glove)

Rare

Effect: Player can touch corrosive materials.

Effect: Turns Player’s hand into a spike for one attack. 60-second cooldown.

---

Green Slime Glove

(stage 1)

(glove)

Rare

Effect: Player can touch corrosive materials.

Effect: Fire a glob of highly-corrosive green slime. 60-second cooldown.

---

Slime Ring

(stage 1)

(ring)

Rare

Effect: Infuse Player’s projectiles with Acid Burst. 60-second cooldown.

---

Slime King’s Crown

(stage 1)

(crown)

Epic

Effect: Become the King of Slimes.

Effect: Player turns into a humanoid Slime with four cores that each hold 25% of total health.

---

Fat Grub

(stage 2)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: Eat to restore health back to full over 60 seconds. Once consumed, the Relic disappears.

---

Bone Armour

(stage 2)

(armour)

Uncommon

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 30%. Breaks after 6 hits.

---

Blue Trophy

(stage 2)

(belt trophy)

Rare

Effect: Increase Player Damage by 15% for 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Yellow Trophy

(stage 2)

(belt trophy)

Rare

Effect: Increase Player Speed by 15% for 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Hobgoblin Pendant

(stage 2)

(necklace)

Epic

Effect: Player becomes immune to pain.

Effect: Survive a fatal hit. Relic breaks if triggered.

---

Slothling Claw Bracer

(stage 3)

(bracer)

Uncommon

Effect: Can be used to perform an armour-rending slash. Breaks after 2 uses.

---

Slothling Spring Boots

(stage 3)

(boots)

Rare

Effect: Charge a powerful and quick leap, accelerating Player to 3x Movement Speed. 60-second cooldown.

---

Blood Fist Ring

(stage 3)

(ring)

Rare

Effect: Charge a powerful punch that shoots a blood spike through the target on impact. 45-second cooldown.

---

Blood Bolt Ring

(stage 3)

(ring)

Rare

Effect: Charge a powerful blood bolt that explodes on impact. 90-second cooldown.

---

Slothling Fur Coat

(stage 3)

(armour)

Rare

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 25%. Breaks after 5 hits.

Effect: Increases Movement Speed by 10%.

---

Slothling Ogre Eye

(stage 3)

(eye)

Epic

Effect: Reduces Movement Speed by 50%.

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 50%.

---

Blood Mage Choker

(stage 3)

(necklace)

Epic

Effect: Creates a pane of blood to protect the wearer. 120-second cooldown.

Effect: Increases damage with Blood-based attacks by 25%.

Effect: Reduces Player Defence by 25%.

---

Tainted Bracer

(stage 4)

(bracer)

Uncommon

Effect: Fire off a shadowy slash that penetrates armour and inflicts Taint, lowering target’s Stamina regeneration by 40% for 30 seconds. Breaks after use.

---

Tainted Oil

(stage 4)

(consumable)

Uncommon

Effect: The Player’s weapons are coated with the darkness of the Forlorn, imbuing their attacks with Taint, lowering target’s Stamina regeneration by 40% for 30 seconds. The coating lasts for 2 Stages, after which the Relic disappears.

---

Forlorn Cuirass

(stage 4)

(armour)

Rare

Effect: Reduces damage received against anywhere below the neck by 75%. Increases damage received against head by 200%. Breaks after 6 hits.

Effect: Reduces Movement Speed by 30%.

---

Sanctuary Defender’s Robes

(stage 4)

(armour)

Rare

Effect: Increases Movement Speed by 25%.

Effect: Increases Dodge chance by 10%. Breaks after 2 hits.

---

Captain’s Cape

(stage 4)

(cape)

Rare

Effect: Increases Movement Speed of allies by 10%.

Effect: Increases Attack Speed by 25%.

---

Tainted Helmet

(stage 4)

(helm)

Epic

Effect: Attacks inflict Taint, lowering target’s Stamina regeneration by 40% for 30 seconds.

Effect: When an afflicted target dies, its Afflictions are spread to nearby targets.

Effect: Healing effects are 75% less effective.

---

Queen’s Pendant

(stage 4)

(necklace)

Epic

Effect: Sacrifice the nearest subordinate ally to negate the damage from an attack. 1-minute cooldown.

Effect: Wearer is afflicted by Curse, increasing damage taken by 10%.

Effect: Wearer is afflicted by Scorn, removing all beneficial effects of Worship.

---

Stone Mask

(stage 5)

(mask)

Uncommon

Effect: Sacrifice the Relic to negate the damage of the next attack.

Effect: When the Relic breaks, the wearer is cursed with Wither, taking 50% increased damage from the next attack.

---

Stone Bracer

(stage 5)

(bracer)

Uncommon

Effect: Sacrifice the Relic to prevent a target from activating Relics for 30 seconds.

Effect: When the Relic breaks, all of wearer’s Relics are put on a 2-minute cooldown.

---

Stone Talisman

(stage 5)

(necklace)

Uncommon

Effect: Sacrifice the Relic to curse a target with Wither, increasing damage inflicted to target by 50% with the next attack.

---

Grafted Skin

(stage 6)

(consumable)

Uncommon

Effect: Cover a wound to heal it completely. 1 use.

---

The Summoner’s Wandering Eye

(stage 6)

(necklace)

Rare

Effect: Increase Summon count by 1.

Effect: Summons die in one hit.

---

Flesh Smith’s Skin-Robe

(stage 6)

(armour)

Rare

Effect: Reduces damage from elemental effects by 40%.

Effect: Reduces Dodge chance by 15%.

---

Mana Hoarder’s Torso

(stage 6)

(armour)

Rare

Effect: Increase Mana by 10 and restore 5 Mana with every kill.

Effect: Increase Defence by 25%.

Effect: Drains 5 Mana every minute and prevents passive Mana regeneration.

---

Chimaera Helmet

(stage 6)

(helm)

Rare

Effect: Increases Movement Speed by 25% and imbues wearer with Bestial Agility.

Effect: Reduces Health by 30%.

---

Grafted Wing

(stage 6)

(grafted limb)

Epic

Effect: Grows a wing on your body.

---

Grafted Tail

(stage 6)

(grafted limb)

Epic

Effect: Grows a tail on your body.

---

Grafted Arm

(stage 6)

(grafted limb)

Epic

Effect: Grows an arm on your body.

---

Bumblebee Coat

(stage 6)

(armour)

(Summon and kill the Bumblebee)

Epic

Effect: Reduces damage from slashing attacks by 20%.

Effect: Reduces damage from afflictions by 25%.

Effect: Reduces Dodge chance by 25%.

Effect: When hit, release a cloud of pollen causing momentary blindness to anyone within 5 metres. 90-second cooldown.

---

Body of Sloth

(stage 6)

(armour)

(Summon and kill the Sloth Demon)

Epic

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 25%.

Effect: Increases Movement Speed by 25%.

Effect: Increases Damage by 1% for every 3% Movement Speed.

Effect: Taking damage reduces all Movement Speed bonuses to 0% for 1 minute.

---

Alepheria’s Mandate

(stage 6)

(hand)

Legendary

Effect: Evolves all Summons.

Effect: Allows for all Summons to be commanded.

---

Rum

(consumable)

(Stage 7)

Uncommon

Effect: Reduces damage taken by 25% for 10 minutes.

---

White Flags Chain-Sleeve

(arm)

(Stage 7)

Rare

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 10%.

Effect: Increases Player Damage by 10%.

Effect: Reduces Movement Speed by 10%.

---

Cloud Skimmer Jacket

(armour)

(Stage 7)

Rare

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 25%.

Effect: Increases Movement Speed by 10%.

Effect: Enables the wearer to rapidly dash forward while moving, consuming 20% Stamina.

---

Portsmith’s Goggles

(head)

(Stage 7)

Rare

Effect: Identify weaknesses in armour after looking at it for 3 seconds.

Effect: Lowers Player Relic cooldowns by 5%.

---

Treasure Hunter’s Well-Worn Boots

(head)

(Stage 7)

Rare

Effect: Allows for the wearer to traverse any terrain, mostly ignoring gravity.

---

Golden Fortress Crossbow Bracer

(bracer)

(Stage 7)

Rare

Effect: Launch a small crossbow projectile that explodes on impact. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Golden Mask of the Fallen

(bracer)

(Stage 7)

Epic

Effect: Gain 1% Attack Speed & Damage for every 10 pieces of currency in your possession.

Effect: The potency of the Gold-cursed affliction is twice as potent and can be triggered by all currencies.

---

Drake’s Wing

(cape)

(Stage 7)

Epic

Effect: Deploy mid-air to gain the ability to control your flight.

Effect: Take 25% less damage from Slug Dragons.

---

Whale Eater’s Snap Gauntlet

(glove)

(Stage 7)

Epic

Effect: Punch the gauntlet against a target to trigger the spring-loaded mechanism to snap and latch on to their flesh, inflicting 100% weapon damage. 30-second cooldown.

Effect: Afflictions delivered with this Relic are twice as potent.

---

Offal’s Spring-Loaded Stilts

(boots)

(Stage 7)

(Defeat the Captain of the Whale Eaters)

Epic

Effect: Punch the gauntlet against a target to trigger the spring-loaded mechanism to snap and latch on to their flesh, inflicting 100% weapon damage. 30-second cooldown.

Effect: Afflictions delivered with this Relic are twice as potent.

---

Captain Fallow’s Treasure

(weapon)

(Stage 7)

Legendary

Effect: Inflicts Gold-cursed on hit, causing hallucinations and lowered reaction speed.

Effect: Allows a weapon to fight on your behalf.

---GENERAL RELICS---

Small Potion

(Stage 3+)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: Drink to restore 40% Health/Stamina/Mana. Once consumed, the Relic disappears.

---

Medium Potion

(Stage 6+)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: Drink to restore 60% Health/Stamina/Mana. Once consumed, the Relic disappears.

---

Reroll Die

(Stage 1+)

(consumable)

Uncommon

Effect: Allows the Player to reroll reward or vendor options. Relic disappears after use.

---

Blink Ring

(Stage 1+)

(ring)

Uncommon

Effect: Charged attacks are performed instantaneously when you blink.

---

Committed Attack Ring

(Stage 1+)

(ring)

Uncommon

Effect: All Cooldown-based Relics gain a second use that can be triggered within 10 seconds of the first activation, but the cooldown is tripled.

---

Fragile Impact Glove

(Stage 1+)

(glove)

Uncommon

Effect: Thrown objects shatter armour. Breaks after 3 uses.

---

Spellburn Glove

(Stage 1+)

(glove)

Uncommon

Effect: Spells are infused with fire. Breaks after 4 uses.

---

Parry Bracer

(Stage 2+)

(bracer)

Uncommon

Effect: Can be used to parry physical attacks. Breaks after 3 uses.

---

Potion Belt

(Stage 2+)

(belt)

Uncommon

Effect: Carries up to three potions and makes them indestructible. (can be exploited)

Effect: Uses the right-most potion when its associated resource is exhausted.

---

Echo Earing

(Stage 2+)

(earring)

Uncommon

Effect: All trigger effects activate twice.

---

Barrage Glove

(Stage 3+)

(glove)

Uncommon

Effect: All projectiles are split into 3, each dealing a 3rd of total damage.

---

Glutton Collar

(Stage 3+)

(necklace)

Uncommon

Effect: Consume two potions within 10 seconds of each other without incurring toxic backlash, but toxicity build-up is tripled.

---

Paralysis Venom

(Stage 3+)

(consumable)

Uncommon

Effect: Paralyses target on attack. Relic disappears after attack.

---

Scroll-Preservation Talisman

(Stage 3+)

(necklace)

Uncommon

Effect: When a Spell Scroll is activated this Relic is consumed instead.

---

Affliction Ward

(Stage 4+)

(trinket)

Uncommon

Effect: Negate any Affliction. Breaks after use.

---

Overflow Diadem

(Stage 4+)

(crown)

Uncommon

Effect: Activate to immediately deliver all remaining damage of Afflictions, dealing 10% increased damage for every Affliction affected. Breaks after use.

---

Heartflame Robe

(Stage 4+)

(armour)

Uncommon

Effect: All summons release a Heartflame on death which will seek out the nearest target and inflict Soulburn, doubling all Mana consumption for 10 seconds.

Effect: Increases Mana by 50.

---

Duellist’s Glove

(Stage 1+)

(glove)

Rare

Effect: Charge an attack for 2 seconds to enable it to pierce armour. 60-second cooldown.

---

Boomerang Pendant

(Stage 1+)

(necklace)

Rare

Effect: Returns thrown objects. 15-second cooldown.

---

Necklace of Thorns

(Stage 1+)

(necklace)

Rare

Effect: All summons are thorny, reflecting 20% of damage inflicted to them.

---

Scope of Insight

(Stage 1+)

(trinket)

Rare

Effect: Any target viewed through this Relic has their weaknesses laid bare.

---

Avalanche Boots

(Stage 2+)

(boots)

Rare

Effect: All kicks inflict disorientation on normal targets for 2 seconds.

---

Cruel Summoner’s Gauntlets

(Stage 2+)

(gloves)

Rare

Effect: All summons explode on death.

---

Curse-Giver Necklace

(Stage 2+)

(necklace)

Rare

Effect: Magical attacks inflict Curse, increasing damage taken by 10%.

---

Skittish Skaters

(Stage 2+)

(boots)

Rare

Effect: Dodge the next attack aimed at you. 90-second cooldown.

---

Shattering Quiver

(Stage 2+)

(quiver)

Rare

Effect: All arrows are replaced with Shatter Shots, which break armour on hit.

Effect: Projectile Speed and Damage reduced by 50%.

---

Scale Trousers

(Stage 3+)

(pants)

Rare

Effect: Reduces Movement Speed by 25%.

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 15%.

---

Spirited Defence Nose Ring

(Stage 3+)

(nose ring)

Rare

Effect: Successfully blocked attacks stagger the attacker and increases the following attack’s damage by 10%.

---

Slavedriver’s Kilt

(Stage 3+)

(pants)

Rare

Effect: Sacrifice nearest summon to negate an Affliction. 1-minute cooldown.

---

First Strike Earring

(Stage 4+)

(earring)

Rare

Effect: The first hit against a target deals 25% additional damage, subsequent hits deal 10% less damage.

---

Vigilant Fighter’s Vambrace

(Stage 4+)

(vambrace)

Rare

Effect: Successfully parried attacks create a glowing weak point on the attacker.

---

Plague-Spreader Mask

(Stage 4+)

(mask)

Rare

Effect: Afflictions jump to nearest available target within 10 metres when afflicted opponent dies.

---

Rapid-Fire Bracer

(Stage 4+)

(bracer)

Rare

Effect: Doubles your draw speed for the next 5 seconds. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Mana Shield Ring

(Stage 6+)

(ring)

Rare

Effect: Consumes 75% of wearer’s Mana to deflect an attack. 10-minute cooldown.

---

Magical Quiver

(Stage 6+)

(quiver)

Rare

Effect: Contains 3 arrows each of ice, fire, and lightning magic. Once all 9 arrows have been used the Relic is destroyed.

---

Scoundrel’s Glove

(Stage 7+)

(glove)

Rare

Effect: Surprise attacks against humanoids made by a weapon wielded in this glove inflict Haemorrhage, dealing 2% Health in damage per second for 30 seconds.

---

Ranger’s Lucky Charm

(Stage 7+)

(trinket)

Rare

Effect: Activate to cause your next fired projectile to always strike true. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Heavy Belt

(Stage 7+)

(belt)

Rare

Effect: Increases Player Defence by 50%.

Effect: Reduces Movement Speed by 50%.

---

Chaos Fragment

(Stage 2+)

(consumable)

Epic

Effect: All Player’s equipped Relics are randomly changed to something of equal Rarity. Disappears after use.

---

Anti-Toxicity Choker

(Stage 2+)

(necklace)

Epic

Effect: Removes toxicity, poison, and disease from anything Player ingests.

---

Fiendbarb

(Stage 2+)

(weapon buff)

Epic

Effect: Imbues attacks with Blood Burst.

Effect: Weapon becomes incapable of penetrating armour.

---

Relic Renewal Stone

(Stage 3+)

(consumable)

Epic

Effect: Relics no longer disappear or break when all uses are exhausted.

Effect: Restores the use of 1 Relic of Rare or lower quality. 1-Stage cooldown.

---

Cracked Conjuring Stone

(Stage 4+)

(consumable)

Epic

Effect: Combine 2 Relics of Rare rarity or lower to produce a new unique Cracked Fusion Relic. Relic disappears after use.

---

Choice Ring

(Stage 5+)

(ring)

Epic

Effect: Allows you to pick two options from a Stage reward. 1-Stage cooldown.

---

Mage Aspirant’s Cowl

(Stage 6+)

(hood)

Epic

Effect: Allows you to see Mana and absorb it.

---

Reckless Warlord’s Cape

(Stage 6+)

(cape)

Epic

Effect: Reduces Defence by 25%.

Effect: Verbally taunting foes makes them inclined to attack you.

---

Tome of the Acolyte

(trinket)

(Stage 7+)

Epic

Effect: Activate to split a spell in two, halving all of its stats. 30 Mana cost.

Effect: Enemies you kill have a 1% chance to reanimate as a Mana Fiend.

---WEAPONBOUND RELICS---

Bear Trap

(Woodsman => Forester => Huntsman)

(trinket)

Common

Effect: Inflicts 100% Player damage to anyone who triggers the trap, along with the Trapped affliction, marking the target until their health is restored to full. 2-minute cooldown.

---

Wraith Lantern

(Summoner)

(trinket)

Rare

Effect: When an enemy is slain nearby, their Soul Essence is absorbed.

Effect: When the Relic is charged with sufficient Soul Essence, a Winter Wraith is summoned.

---

Rosary

(Priest)

(trinket)

Rare

Effect: Store a mote of holy energy within this Relic with every kill you perform.

Effect: When the Relic is touched against yourself or someone else, discharge the holy energy within, healing 1 point of Health for every mote of holy energy.

---

Lucky Bracelet

(Fool)

(armband)

Epic

Effect: All rewards are Rare quality or higher.

---COLLECTIBLE RELICS---

Slime Core

(Stage 1)

(core)

Common

Effect: The brain and heart of a Slime.

---

Rusted Crown

(stage 1)

(acquired by killing the Secret Boss – Slime Emperor)

(crown)

Common

Effect: A crown does not a king make, but for some the symbolism alone is sufficient.

---

Goblin Ear

(stage 2)

(trophy)

Common

Effect: The trophy of a dead Goblin.

---

Damaged Crown

(stage 2)

(acquired by killing the Secret Boss – Hobgoblin Lord)

(crown)

Uncommon

Effect: With the proper care, even a tarnished symbol may rekindle its former glory.

Effect: Subordinate allies gain 10% more Health.

---

Blood Elemental Core

(Stage 3)

(core)

Common

Effect: The hardened soul of a Blood Elemental.

---

Heart of Darkness

(stage 4)

(trophy)

Common

Effect: A heart borne by those who gorge on darkness.

---

Seed of the Great Tree

(stage 4)

(acquired by using the Rotmaker Idol on the great tree and defeating the giant Rotmaker that appears)

(consumable)

Uncommon

Effect: The seed of the Elphin’s mother tree.

---

Skyblue Pearl

(stage 4)

(acquired by killing the Secret Boss – Forlorn Aristocrat)

(key)

Rare

Effect: Thine eyes hold a power oft forlorn, oft forgotten to time, oft lost to conflict. An unclouded gaze is the key to a world of secrets and thine eyes are a gift from on high.

---

Statue Elemental Core

(stage 5)

(core)

Uncommon

Effect: The crystallised soul of a Statue Elemental.

---

Crystallised Mana Core

(stage 6)

(core)

Uncommon

Effect: Mana condensed into a crystal that can power contraptions and sustain simple lifeforms.

---META RELICS---

Cheat Death Sigil

(sigil)

Legendary

Effect: Survive death and recover Health back to 100%.

Effect: Overrules all other death-defying effects.

Effect: Can only be used once in the Trials of Defiance.

---ABSOLUTE RELICS---

Sigil of the Open Ear

(Tome Keeper)

(armband)

Common

Effect: Attuned to Alepheria’s Mandate, organising the transference of knowledge it imbues its wearer with.

---

Benevolence of Blood Sigil

(Flayed Lady)

(tattoo)

Common

Effect: Drains 40% of Riccardo D’Alia’s Health to cover him in a layer of reactive armour that is highly resistant to magic.

---

Pendant of the Leading Eye

(Messimer)

(necklace)

Common

Effect: Once invoked, all non-adherents will avert their eyes from the bearer, so long as they worship Messimer. 2-hour cooldown.

---

Abyssal Tooth

(Nwetrou)

(soulbound)

Legendary

Effect: Stab into the lifeless body of a suitable sacrifice to obtain a Soul Drop and curry favour with the Dweller in the Deep. Sacrifices are permanently removed from the Trials of Defiance.

---SECRET RELICS / WEAPONS---

First Light’s Brazier

(interim island)

(acquired by digging up the loose dirt behind the Player House)

(consumable)

Common

Effect: At the beginning there was a single spark of creation. From it burst the first light and with it came the life of the universe. Without a spark there can be no life. Without a kindling flame there can be no fire.

---

First Light’s Brazier

(interim island)

(acquired by having another player feed a Kindling Flame into the Brazier)

(soulbound)

Uncommon

Effect: Grows for 4 Stages.

---

First Light’s Brazier

(interim island)

(acquired by letting the flame mature)

(soulbound)

Rare

Effect: Gains unique effect based on Player.

---

Dented Crown

(interim island)

(acquired by giving the Damaged Crown to Thea the beetle smith and paying 500 Points)

(crown)

Rare

Effect: A regent must repel all invaders tainted with the lust for power, lest his kingdom fall to ruin.

Effect: Subordinate allies gain 10% more Health.

Effect: Subordinate allies gain Last Stand’s Fervour upon death, extending their life by 10 seconds and increasing Damage & Speed by 25%.

---

Glass Acorn

(stage 1)

(found in Magical Forest Stage atop central tree)

(consumable)

Rare

Effect: Grows for 3 Stages.

---

Glass Sapling

(interim island)

(evolved from Glass Acorn)

(soulbound)

Rare

Effect: All Stats grow by 5% for every Stage completed. (not retroactive)

Effect: Grows for 5 Stages.

---

Gram

(stage 1)

(found inside the central tree)

(weapon)

Rare

Effect: An ancient sword that starts with the Anvil-Splitter attack.

---

Weaver’s Egg

(stage 2)

(found in the Goblin Village inside the spiderwebbed hole in the 6th hut on the left)

(vendor)

Rare

Effect: Wriggles with inner life.

---

Lucky Stone

(stage 2)

(found in the Goblin Village inside the Hobgoblin’s chamber)

(consumable)

Rare

Effect: Flip to increase the rarity for the next reward options. 1 use.

---

All-Mother’s Wrath

(stage 3)

(found on the corpse of a dead Elphin driver)

(necklace)

Rare

Effect: When Player is damaged by an attack, curse attacker with Lethargy for 30 seconds. 1-minute cooldown.

---

Fetish of Sloth

(stage 3)

(can be looted from Ezral the Blood Mage after cutting off the arm/hand holding the Relic)

(trinket)

Rare

Effect: Summons a Slothling Imp to perform a single attack on designated target. 1-Stage cooldown.

---

Rotmaker Idol

(stage 4)

(can be found at the top of the great tree)

(consumable)

Rare

Effect: Turns a tree into a living monster for 30 seconds. Relic disappears after use.

---

Builder’s Egg

(stage 4)

(found in a termite nest outside southern city wall)

(vendor)

Rare

Effect: Wriggles with inner life.

---

Tainted Blade

(stage 4)

(rewarded for killing the first knight before he enters the city)

(weapon)

Rare

Effect: A two-handed sword with a special shadowy strike.

---

True Flame’s Icon

(stage 4)

(acquired by killing all Forlorn in Stage 4)

(crown)

Epic

Effect: Only by the light of a True Flame may the Forlorn Shadow be truly banished.

Effect: Subordinate allies gain 10% more Health.

Effect: Subordinate allies gain Last Stand’s Fervour upon death, extending their life by 10 seconds and increasing Damage & Speed by 25%.

Effect: Subordinate allies are blessed with the True Flame, imbuing all attacks with 10% bonus fire damage. (deals 50% bonus damage to all Forlorn Enemies)

Effect: Become immune to Taint.

---

Solbor

(stage 5)

(rewarded for defeating the Elphin Deathwatch)

(weapon)

Rare

Effect: A spear of stone that starts with the Scattershot attack.

---

Golden Map

(stage 5)

(found inside the hidden chamber activated with the Skyblue Pearl)

(map)

Effect: Follow the trail of this map at thine own peril, but at its end awaits a treasure unlike anything known to thee.

---

Chimaeral Stone

(stage 6)

(found inside the body of Alepheria’s First Chimaera)

(consumable)

Epic

Effect: Once consumed, the transformation quickly takes hold.

---

Blue Shard

(stage 6)

(found inside the metal tree of the metal slime floor)

(weapon)

Rare

Effect: Crystallised sword of Mana.

---

The Avatar’s Shattered Blade

(stage 6)

(rewarded for defeating the Tower Crawler)

(weapon)

Epic

Effect: Soul blade formed from the dying essence of a mad witch.

---

The Slugwhale Key

(stage 6)

(found hidden inside the golden chamber, accessible only by finding a golden lever in the puppet chamber)

(key)

Rare

Effect: A large key made from the temporal bone of a Slugwhale.

---

Navigator’s Telescope

(stage 6)

(found as the leg of a table next to Alepheria’s painting)

(trinket)

Uncommon

Effect: Allows you to view far into the distance.

---

Crawler’s Eye

(stage 6)

(rewarded for defeating the Tower Crawler after fully empowering it)

(weapon)

Epic

Effect: A magical focus.

---

Captain Fallow’s Compass

(stage 7)

(found inside the Golden Slug by using the Slugwhale Key)

(trinket)

Epic

Effect: The object of thy desire is always within reach.

---

Alepheria’s Paintbrush

(stage 7)

(found in Alepheria’s hideout study)

(weapon)

Epic

Effect: A magical staff that uses paint magic.

Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Four

-Previous chapter-
---Next chapter----

Had hoped to get this out yesterday, but the time I was supposed to have spent writing in the airport was lost to the fact that it had literally 0 tables and cafes with outlets to use... Just finding a place to sit took me 30 fucking minutes. Anyway, fuck Pisa airport, lol.

But! You're getting the chapter now and that's all that matters. It's a bit of a chonker too, coming in at almost 4k words.

-----------------------------

Chapter Eighty-Four

“Fuuuuck!” Emelia screamed into the air outside, her voice partially muffled by the walls of the ship’s hold.

While she let her frustrations be known to the outside world, Adam was going through the loot on the dead Player’s bodies. As he was inspecting the necklace Maalia had worn, Emelia suddenly burst back into the bowels of the derelict unicorn.

“Change of plans!” she exclaimed. “We’re getting that fucking ship today.”

Adam turned to face her. She had a manic look in her eyes.

“What ship?” he asked, worried she might’ve snapped.

“The Golden Slug,” she told him. “If we get that today, then there’ll be no issues doing all the other objectives and killing the Secret Bosses with just the two of us!”

Adam frowned.

I can’t tell if this is a good idea or if she’s just desperate to not lose her grip on this Stage…

“Don’t we need a much stronger ship to take it on?”

“Not with your barriers to fly us around.”

“I’m not very confident we’d survive a direct hit from a ballista,” he replied.

Emelia had a contemplative look on her face for a moment as she considered the best way for them to get at the Golden Slug.

“Can you use your barriers to push an airship?” she asked.

Adam realised what she was planning.

“It might work,” he replied. “I mean, it’ll be crazy, but it might work.”

“We really need that airship,” she said. “You’ve got the key to its special door, and I’ve got the quest to return the egg. Plus, I want to see Captain Drew’s face when we pull up to Windtop with it.”

“Is it a good idea?” he asked. “You said yourself soloing these Stages might be impossible.”

And I don’t want to die…

I really feel like if I can overcome the challenge awaiting in Stage Eight, then I could make it all the way to the end with Emelia. Gladwyn and Beck also seem like they’d be able to keep up all the way towards the end, no matter what comes.

“Not when both of us are here,” she replied. “I didn’t want to say this, but…”

“The others were only going to slow us down?” he replied, understanding what she couldn’t get herself to say.

Emelia sighed. “Fucking idiots!” she then exclaimed. “When I find out which of the Absolutes is behind everything going so wrong, I’ll destroy them.”

“Killing a God?” he asked. “You sure are setting your ambitions high.”

“But…” she then said remorsefully. “I also bear the blame for everything going this wrong. I just assumed they would listen to me like last time. I forgot that Riccardo was the one who persuaded everyone to believe me. I should have realised how different it would be with him dead. I mean, no matter what I do in Stage Nine, only two people ever trust me enough to call the shots, and the other two always end up fighting over the Legendary Relic that appears…”

Emelia sighed deeply.

“I really fucked up,” she said.

“I bear the blame too,” Adam replied.

“I told you I could handle this,” Emelia said. “It’s not your fault for trusting me.”

“We both have a lot to learn,” Adam said with a wistful smile.

Emelia nodded. “There’s still so much I don’t know.”

“Speaking of,” he started, lifting Maalia’s necklace up towards her. “Check this out.”

< < Unique Relic > >

< Pendant of the Leading Eye (Common) — Once invoked, all non-adherents will avert their eyes from the bearer, so long as they worship Messimer. 2-hour cooldown >

“Strange,” Emelia remarked. “The one I always get from Messimer makes it so people hallucinate when they look at me.”

“I guess this one is made for ranged Players,” he commented.

Adam looted their Relics and equipped the Choice Ring that Ruimin had carried. Since Leon’s body was literally just gone, they wouldn’t be getting the stuff he’d had, but at least he hadn’t been the one holding the map.

< < Quest Updated > >

< Stolen Map >

< Bring Captain Drew’s map back to Windtop Cove >

“Should we do the quest first?” Adam asked.

“No,” Emelia told him. “We need to use it to find out where exactly the Golden Slug is. Besides, he said he wanted it back by tonight.”

“How much time do we have before nightfall?” Adam asked his cube.

[8 hours and 13 minutes.]

“The Floating Sea doesn’t have nights per say,” Emelia added. “The light just becomes sort of blueish instead of gold for 6 or 8 hours, but it’s still fairly bright out.”

“Regardless, do we have enough time for this?”

“More than enough,” she replied.

Adam glanced back at the bodies of the dead Players and the emaciated captain they’d slain to get the Golden Prince sword.

“I was thinking about trying my Necromancy skill,” he said.

“Do not use it on them,” Emelia told him sternly.

“I meant the NPC, obviously,” he added, but it was a bit too late since she was already giving him a disapproving glare.

When he didn’t move to try it out immediately, she gestured at the dead captain. “Go on.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

“So long as you don’t use it on Players, I don’t care. And I’m curious about how it works too.”

Phew. Would be difficult if she didn’t want me to use it at all.

Adam switched to the wand and aimed it at the skeletal corpse. Just like with the spell-tome, the skill activation didn’t require any kind of invocation or complex spell construction, it just simply worked once activated. It was a shame though, since it meant he wouldn’t be able to ‘learn’ to cast the skill like a spell, barring all attempts to use it without the proper evolution.

A red-gold light flashed from the tip of the wand and struck the corpse after snaking through the air in rapid jerky motions like a living thing. He felt the same sudden hollow feeling from when he’d activated Mana Infusion. Using 100 Mana all at once was something he’d have to get used to. Fortunately, he’d spent the last few minutes recovering, so his tank was still half-full.

The red-gold energy suffused the Mad Captain’s corpse and he spasmed once, before quickly getting to his feet and letting out a horrifying scream.

“What the fuck!?” Adam exclaimed.

Then he lunged for them, but Emelia was suddenly there, her right fist glowing with the effect of the Duellist’s Glove she wore, smashing the reanimated boss so hard that his upper body disappeared in a blast of red mist and dust.

The rest of his body then turned red, and Adam realised that the Last Stand’s Fervour had been activated.

Oh fuck!

The Mad Captain tried to kick at Emelia, but she punched the remaining bit of his body with enough force to slam it back against the inside of the hull. Then she sprang forward and pummelled him through the wooden wall, sending the headless and armless body out onto the sand.

“Why is he attacking us!?” Adam shouted as he tried to bring Alepheria’s Mandate to bear on the captain to force him into submission.

“It must be because of the Gold-cursed affliction,” she told him, standing in front of the hole she’d made and punching the captain as the remnants of his body tried to get back in.

Once the 10-second duration of the Fervour effect expired, the headless body collapsed in a heap.

“That was a waste of Mana,” Adam said with a frown.

“You’ll have more chances to try it,” Emelia told him. “Just don’t use it on enemies afflicted with madness, I guess.”

“We’re lucky the summon count didn’t affect him,” Adam remarked. “Although I guess the one-hit effect from the Wandering Eye necklace should, as well as my various boosts, since the True Flame’s Icon effects worked on him.”

“Do you think the spell boosts from the wand upgrades affect it?” Emelia asked.

“I’m not sure, but I’d assume so, given that they work on my barriers. Not to mention, it would be weird if they didn’t work on the skill since I got it through the wand’s evolutions.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she said. “It’s already quite powerful on its own, so it might be excluded from being boosted further.”

“Suppose I’ll just have to keep testing it,” he replied.

They returned to the Creaking Madam and inspected the damage to its hull, but Emelia was confident it wouldn’t be an issue. Actually getting his three barriers around the ship took some precise shaping and finicking though, but once they were in place Adam could simply link them through Alepheria’s Mandate to how he steered the ship, and it effectively doubled their speed.

Emelia wanted him to fuse the barriers for more power, but he was reluctant, since they might easily damage the hull if they pushed too hard. Or they might cause the ship to flip or any other number of uncontrollable events that would surely destroy the vessel.

With Captain Drew’s map, they had a good idea of where everything was around them, although Emelia had already been quite adept at guiding them before, since she’d remembered most of the points of interest. Still, it helped that Adam could see it all himself as he steered the ship.

Emelia wanted them to fly to a large fortress island call Iffenguard. It had been one of the big outposts of Fallow’s Fallen before they’d all gone insane, and now an ancient Slug Dragon ruled over it. Like the snail Slugwhale they’d sought out at Lucas’ Grave, it could help them locate the airship they were hunting.

“I thought you said to avoid Slug Dragons,” Adam remarked as he looked on the map and adjusted their heading. He trusted her plan implicitly, but it was hard for him not to point out the contradiction.

“Do what I say, not what I do,” she replied. Adam was sure his own mother had used a phrase like that during his childhood whenever he’d caught on to one of her contradictory parental rules. “Iffen, the Slug Dragon, evolved from one of the snail-like Slugwhales, so his disposition is much better than most of the other dragons in the Floating Sea. But if it wasn’t for the fact that we’re pursuing the Golden Slug, then it’d be unlikely he would aid us. The Whale Eaters have the means to kill Slug Dragons, and are even a threat to him, so he should help us.”

“Should?” Adam replied sceptically.

“Nothing is certain,” she said. “We should bring him an offering just in case.”

Adam frowned. “What kind of offering?”

“If we can find Whale Eaters, bringing them to him would be preferrable, but if we can’t, any pirate’s corpse will probably do.”

“Human sacrifice, great…”

“Says the necromancer,” she replied with a grin.

“Not much of a necromancer if what I resurrect tries to kill me,” he replied.

“It’s good to know it has limitations,” she remarked.

She’s not wrong. If I’d tried that in the middle of a fight, then it could’ve been much worse.

“Is there anywhere near Iffenguard where we can pick off some pirates?” he asked.

“There should be a few roaming between here and there,” Emelia said. “But if not, then there’s a small outpost for the Cloud Skimmers north of Iffenguard. Their outposts are usually worth hitting regardless, since they’re all about modifying airships, especially when it comes to speed. Although it’s not like we really need those, since we have your barriers.”

Adam looked down at the map again, spotting the outpost she was talking about. It was marked with a cogwheel symbol. There was an island all the way in the top left corner of the map that was marked with a saw-toothed smiley, which was apparently the symbol of the Whale Eaters. It was clear that the map only represented the area around Windtop Cove, since most of the big strongholds of the various factions weren’t on it, except for the Golden Fortress, whose rook symbol was in the bottom of the map almost directly below Windtop in the centre, meaning it was actually not too far south of where they’d arrived in the Stage.

Besides the outposts, there was also another settlement for the White Flags, whose symbol was of course just a flag, and it was southwest and near the edge of what the map showed. Iffenguard was northeast of their current position, putting it almost directly north of Windtop.

That seems like a clue. Maybe if we continue in a cardinal direction from any of the big islands or strongholds or settlements, then we’ll find another big point of interest.

He mentioned his theory to Emelia.

“That’s just a coincidence,” she said. “As far as I know, only the settlements are like that. If you go in a cardinal direction or something like straight northwest, then you might hit one. But it’s not certain, and the layout of islands is designed to force you to explore and gather clues about what’s around you.”

“Damn,” he muttered. “I thought I’d figured it out for a second.”

“Also, some places, like Iffenguard, are placed above or below the normal floating point for airships, so they’re technically inaccessible without certain upgrades. So even when you do find a place that’s worth checking out, you might be unable to because your airship is lacking something, like a Lift Balloon or an Anchor Shot.”

“But my barriers can help with that?” he asked.

“Hopefully. Although you might not be able to lift or lower the ship, in which case we’ll have to use the barriers to fly to one of those places. Iffenguard is always lower than the floating point. The Slug Dragon is quite heavy after all.”

Adam’s imagination wasn’t doing him any favours with that bit of information.

“The island is weighed down by the dragon??”

Emelia grinned. “It’ll blow your mind when you see him.”

Since they were taking an almost straight line towards Iffenguard, Adam let the fins and barriers just keep them going without his help. They didn’t particularly need the sails thanks to the barriers pushing them, but Emelia still kept adjusting the control lines to catch the wind, since she wanted them to go as fast as possible.

With his hands free, Adam finally checked the Navigator’s Telescope with the Golden Map slotted in front of the lens. He panned around, looking for the golden thread he’d seen. After a bit of searching, he was able to spot it, but only barely, and it was pointed to somewhere off the right side of the ship.

He pulled out Captain Drew’s map to try and figure out what direction it was leading. It turned out to be aiming for somewhere in the bottom right, though there was no telling whether it was inside or outside the confines of the map.

Based on the way the direction isn’t really changing as we move, I’ve got the feeling the source is pretty far away.

One thing he noticed as well was that one of the flecks on the canvas map slotted onto the telescope was glowing slightly. He saw right through the rest of the canvas, but the flecks were still there, and he realised belatedly that they were islands.

Wait a minute…

He consulted the map again, looking for something in the southeast quadrant of it that matched the shape that was lit up on the map he was looking through.

Sure enough, there was an island exactly like that, and it wasn’t nearly as far south as he’d feared, though it was still quite far to go.

After showing Emelia, they made a note to visit that island, but she had a theory that would lead them on a bit of a journey if true. Her guess was that, since there were several golden flecks on the map, it was possible they’d have to visit each one in turn, in order to find where the ultimate destination was.

It’ll probably take us quite a while if we do that then…

As such, they decided to wait until tomorrow to investigate further.

They reached a region of the Floating Sea with dark clouds here-and-there, which was an ominous sight within the otherwise tranquil and beautiful fluffy golden cloudscape. Emelia told him to steer around them, because they’d damage their ship due to the thunderstorms and frigid winds inside. Normally, passing through the golden clouds was just like moving through a warm fog. The evasive manoeuvring required Adam to take an active role at the helm again, as the dark clouds were placed rather sporadically across the path they were taking.

As they swerved around one of the dark fluffy shapes, a shadow broke off from it, shooting right towards them.

“Enemy ship!” Emelia called from the crow’s nest.

Adam immediately recalled his barriers to his side while Emelia went down into their hold to fire their ballistae. She’d had the foresight to load them when they left Shipwreck Isle, so all she needed to do was aim and fire.

“It looks like they’ll try and ram us!” Adam yelled down to her.

“It’s the Cloud Skimmers then!” she shouted back up the stairwell into the ship’s hold.

Adam set the airship on a curving trajectory to hopefully avoid the hit, but the enemy vessel was coming in way too hot. It was a small dark twin-mast thing shaped like a spearhead and with only two fins on either side, but it clearly had some kind of improved propeller setup on the back, given how it cut through the air.

He contemplated fusing his barriers and using them to give their ship a powerful burst of speed, but instead he decided to try and destabilise them. Adam double-fused a barrier and shot it at the enemy’s foremast in the shape of a spinning sawblade. Then he triggered his Blood Fist Ring and fused his remaining barrier with it, firing it at the ship as well, but not before giving it the unique command to spread out and take on needle shapes the moment it left his range. Since the spell literally became liquid, it was possible to achieve a type of pseudo splitting effect, due to the fact that spreading a liquid spell too thin made it break into smaller globs that could be individually shaped thanks to his high Manipulation Effect.

The double-fused barrier struck first, since it was a lot faster than the blood-fused one, and though it wasn’t the strongest he could make it, it was more than fast enough when combined with the enemy’s forward momentum to shear straight through the foremast. What he hadn’t anticipated however, was that the impact with the mast triggered Fervour, making the sawblade even deadlier, and it continued into and through the main mast as well, before tearing through the captain’s quarters and out through the back of the hull.

As the masts toppled over the side of the Cloud Skimmers’ sleek vessel, the blood-fused barrier, which had already split into dozens of needle shapes, rained down over the crew on the deck. But aside from blinding one or two of them and confusing the rest, there was no actual damage inflicted since it was really just shaped globs of blood flying at speed.

If I could find a way to harden liquids with my shaping powers, that trick could be super useful.

A loud snap tore through the air from the direction of the incoming ship and Adam flung out his resummoned barriers to try and intercept whatever was coming. But his barrier placement wasn’t good enough and their combined area was too small, so the enemy projectile passed right by them, lancing into the back of the hull.

“Get it out of the ship!” Emelia exclaimed as she thundered up the steps from below.

Adam didn’t even have time to parse the words before a boom rocked their airship and spun it off-course.

Then the injured enemy ship was suddenly just there, the front of their spearhead-shaped vessel striking their hull in the side.

Adam and Emelia were flung overboard by the ship as it pitched sideways.

Shit!!

With every ounce of control he could muster, Adam commanded his barriers to fly down to catch them.

A couple seconds of freefall later, he smacked into a hard pane of magical glass, damaging it enough to trigger Fervour.

[You have taken 5 points of damage from falling. Fall damage is not negated by your Defence rating.]

Fuck!

He called a second barrier to him and quickly switched to it, before steering himself down to chase after Emelia, who he’d been unable to catch.

Adam sent the cracked red-glowing barrier after her since it was faster, managing to shape it into a claw that he grabbed her fur coat with. He flew his own barrier down under Emelia just in time to catch her in his arms as the claw-shaped one expired.

“That was wild,” she said with a lot of nervous energy as she stared into his eyes.

“Let’s go get us some offerings for the dragon,” Adam told her, bringing the other barrier over to where they floated ten or fifteen metres below the Creaking Madam.

Emelia shifted onto the other barrier and then he drove them up towards the two airships. The sounds of jubilation came from above where their attackers had clearly boarded their ship.

“Our airship should’ve sunk already,” Emelia said. “They must’ve tethered their own to ours to keep it afloat while they loot everything.”

Adam grinned as his barriers lifted them up past the hulls of the connected ships. He got to see the surprised looks on the pirates’ faces for only a moment before Emelia jumped the nearest one and broke his body with a single punch.

Although Adam wasn’t slow to follow, the six who’d boarded them were already dead before he’d landed on the deck and shaped his barriers into lances. But there were still enemies on the other ship, so he hopped across to the front of their airship and flung his barriers forward, immediately killing two by driving his lances through their necks.

The Cloud Skimmers wore grey and black utilitarian outfits of leather and cloth, looking like boilersuits and aprons with bits of hardened leather strapped to them haphazardly. They all had toolbelts full of things like wrenches, hammers, crowbars, and such, as well as large goggles that reminded Adam of Herrman and the other kids who worked in Windtop Cove’s dock.

They weren’t geared for defence, and he was able to tear through them quickly, although the last three fired handheld crossbows at him, forcing him to duck behind the remnants of the main mast.

Then Emelia joined him and the three of them were dead in seconds.

“Phew,” she said as she wiped the blood off her gauntlets with the suit of one of the dead pirates.

“Remind me to never piss you off,” Adam joked, looking down at the remains of the ones she’d killed. They were all bent and twisted and broken from the single punch she’d delivered to each of them. It was such an absurd amount of damage that he felt like his barriers were inefficient by comparison, though she at least couldn’t match them in terms of range.

“We’ll have to take their ship,” she said. “Ours is totalled. Most of the back is destroyed from the explosive bolt they hit us with, with our rudder and propellers just gone. The hull took a lot of damage from them ramming us, which coupled with the large tear it already had means it won’t stay afloat. If we hadn’t gotten the hull upgrade, they probably would’ve cut our ship in half though.”

“I fucked up the masts on their ship,” Adam said.

Emelia nodded. “I saw. I almost fired our ballistae down their throats, but I figured this might happen, so it was a good idea I didn’t damage their hull. Since we’ve got your barriers, we don’t really need the masts anyway, and the fins, rudder, and propellers are all good, so we should be fine.”

Adam looked across to the deck of the Creaking Madam. Three hooks on metal wires extended out from the bow of the Cloud Skimmers’ ship and there was a large ballista between them, the one they’d fired the crazy bolt with.

“I guess we have all the offerings we could want,” he remarked dryly.

“Iffen is going to be quite pleased,” Emelia replied.

Let’s hope so…

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Three

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Going back home tomorrow. Will be nice to get out of the 35-40 degree sweltering heat, not to mention having stable internet again. The place in the mountains we've got has really spotty wifi coverage.

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Chapter Eighty-Three

Lukas’ Grave was a strange island. Unlike the previous one, which Emelia had found out was called Galtea Minor, it had no sand to speak of, and the ground was paved with grey tiles. Pillars and walls made from grey bricks sprouted here-and-there, and Adam got the impression that the island might once have been bigger or had broken away from somewhere else, given that the walls and paved stones kind of just curved down off the edge where erosion slowly broke away the earth supporting it from below. On top of that, thin curling roots surrounded everything, growing out from the corner of the island where a normal-sized version of the tree in the centre of the Elphin’s Sanctuary was planted. As for the grave, it was embedded into the tree, showing a small shelf upon which was a vase. There was also a plaque next to it, but its engraved text had been eroded by time.

However, the really bizarre thing was the enormous snail that watched them from where it sat next to the large tree and grave.

Its body was a gradient of neon-orange, brightest at the top near its head and darker near the bottom. The shell on its back was made from the grey bricks of the island, and Adam wondered if it was responsible for the damage to the pavement and walls.

As he landed, he kept the fused barrier floating in the shape of a drill head, while the other hovered in front of him like a shield.

“Stay here,” Emelia told him and walked up to stand before the Slugwhale.

Seen from the air, it had appeared quite large, but seeing it up close he could fully appreciate just how massive it truly was. The name definitely did it justice, as it was only slightly smaller than a bus. It was also possible to see all the weird scale-like bumps on its body from this close, and Adam wondered if it was part of a natural defence. Still, he was fairly confident he could kill it with his barrier if he had to.

“This is one of the younger ones,” Emelia had told him.

I’m starting to understand how a bigger flying version of one of these things could be a dangerous opponent…

The large snail extended its eyestalks and shifted the feelers near the mouth through the air in Emelia’s direction. The folds below its head, where the mouth was located, undulated slightly as it appraised her.

Then Emelia raised her arms into the air in a Y-pose, bending her wrists and straightening her hands so the tips of her fingers pointed at the snail.

The eyestalks on the Slugwhale went rigid and it shifted its whole body so that it was looking right at her.

Emelia slowly moved her arms and hands in some strange dance and the Slugwhale imitated her, which was extremely bizarre.

Adam had to suppress his laughter as Emelia went through some truly abstract dance moves, all of which the Slugwhale copied.

Although she had talked about the various types of Slugwhales back during her briefing in the Tavern, she hadn’t mentioned dancing with them. The ones that looked like snails and had a shell were always friendly, unless they had ‘calves’ they were protecting. The ones without a shell and ridges like soft spikes on their back were often aggressively territorial, meaning their islands were dangerous to stay on. And the ones with ringed spots or pulsating fluorescent colours were toxic to touch. These same traits seemed to extend to Slug Dragons, but Emelia had told them to just straight up avoid them if they could, unless they had a large enough ship that they could barrage it with ballista bolts before it could get too close.

After their pair dance was over, the giant snail moved closer to Emelia, reaching out with a feeler to touch the hand she was extending towards it. The moment its slimy tentacle grazed her hand, its two eyestalks immediately pulled into its body, as though it was shocked. A second later they extended back out again.

The mouth flaps started moving inward towards its mouth and Emelia suddenly retrieved a coconut from the silk bag she wore like a backpack. Adam hadn’t noticed her grab one of the coconuts from the previous island, but he wasn’t sure where else she could’ve gotten it. She offered the fruit to the Slugwhale, and it touched it with its feelers before lowering its head to grab it with its slimy mouth flaps.

It must’ve been used to eating coconuts, because it quickly peeled the husk and fibres off the hard shell and then broke that apart too, producing loud munching sounds as it ate the white flesh. The shell and fibrous husk dropped onto the ground, along with some of the coconut water that dripped out.

Within half a minute, the coconut was devoured and the Slugwhale swished its eyestalks and feelers around.

“We’re searching for an airship known as the Creaking Madam,” Emelia told the snail. “Can you tell us which direction it went?”

The eyestalks made a strange synchronised rotation and Emelia looked back to Adam.

“Come stand next to me,” she told him.

He commanded the barrier drill and shield to stay a few metres away and approached.

Then the snail moved close enough that it could touch both of their heads with its feelers, which were no more than a metre long.

Adam was surprised by how the snail bore a fragrance like tree sap and bark.

Then a jolt went through him as its feeler touched his forehead.

He saw a strange black-and-white vision of the surroundings, with the outline of their stolen ship lit up by this strange light. Standing on the deck was Maalia, her bow pulled back and aiming at the Slugwhale. Weirdest of all was the fact that her heart was like a blue dot in her chest, making him realise the Slugwhale could see the beat of their hearts along with this alien bubble of perception around its island.

The airship passed the island of Lucas’ Grave and Maalia never fired the arrow she’d knocked, perhaps because the Slugwhale had just been watching them. He got to see as the vessel left the snail’s perception, heading off in what he assumed was a northwestern direction.

As the feeler released him, his vision returned to his eyes with another jolt.

I have no idea what to make of what I just saw…

“I know where they’re going,” Emelia said before he could even ask.

“How?”

“There were only two islands on the map northwest of Lucas’ Grave that would match the treasure symbol you mentioned,” she replied. “Regardless of which one they picked, we should be able to catch up to them since those islands can take a while to explore.”

“Good work, Sherlock,” he joked.

“It was elementary, my dear Watson,” she replied with a grin.

As they left, Emelia did a few arm motions to the Slugwhale, which it copied.

Then they got back on Adam’s fused barrier and went northwest.

“A compass would be nice,” Adam remarked after they’d been flying for 20 minutes or so. “I have no idea if I’m even flying in the right direction.”

“You are,” she replied.

“How the hell did you discover that you can communicate with the Slugwhales like that?” he asked.

“Ruimin was the one to figure it out during my first time through this Stage,” she said. “She’s pretty clever with things like that, even if her inclination is to often run from fights.”

Emelia frowned. “I guess it’s little wonder she found Skǫll on Interim Island…”

“How does the dancing work?” he asked.

“You kind of just have to keep its attention and make sure to match any movement the Slugwhale makes. Keep in mind it won’t work with the ones that don’t have a shell.”

“So, I can just do the YMCA, and it would work?” he asked.

Emelia laughed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Can they do other tricks than show us the past?”

“They’re able to do a little bit of healing, actually,” she explained. “Only up to 20 Health points, but it can come in handy. They can also give hints and clues for nearby islands, especially the mature ones.”

Adam considered that. “How big are the mature ones…?”

“Big,” she replied with a grin. “Way bigger than you’re likely considering.”

“What do we do when we catch up to the others?” Adam wondered. “I doubt they’ll want to come back to face punishment for what they did.”

“I don’t know, to be honest,” she said with a sigh. “The Stage just started, and it’s already gone so wrong… If I didn’t know any better, I’d think one of the Absolutes were trying to trip us up on purpose. They normally don’t start doing that until after Stage Ten, and even then, it’s nothing so insidious. It’s usually more like them sending their minions and spawn after us. Occasionally, they try to turn Players, but it wasn’t a huge issue before. I think Arturo dealt with a lot of the most disruptive Players in his past loops, paving the way for me to do much better.”

“We could tell the White Flags that we dealt with the three of them when we return the captain’s map,” Adam suggested. “They’ll have to stay out of settlements, I guess, but we can bring them provisions and such.”

“We definitely need them if we want to get all the Secret Bosses,” Emelia said. “It would be hard with just the two of us.”

Adam turned to look back at her. “When we catch them, let me try to do the talking.”

Emelia nodded. “Hopefully they won’t try to fight us,” she said.

They continued flying for a bit longer, until suddenly the silhouette of a large island was visible through one of the gold-tinged clouds. Adam kept their barrier high enough to allow them to look down on the landmass as they approached, making it easier to spot if the trio had left their ship there or not.

Sure enough, the Creaking Madam was parked on the southeastern corner of the diamond-shaped island, two of the metal wire hooks dug into the island like claws. The place was almost entirely barren of trees and plants, and massive derelicts and ancient wrecks covered its pale sandy ground, rising like the bones of old monsters.

“No…” Emelia whispered, quiet enough that he barely heard it.

< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Find the treasure of Shipwreck Isle >

“Is that bad?” Adam asked.

By the way her voice sounded, he could tell she was clenching her jaw as she replied, “Remember the cursed sword I told you about?”

“Fuck,” he replied. “That’s here?”

“Yeah…”

Instead of landing, Adam circled the large island from above, trying to spot the other Players.

“If we hurry, we might be able to stop them before they face the Mad Captain,” she said.

He panned around, looking at the shadows cast by the skeletons of ruined airships, but saw nothing.

“Look for the ship with a unicorn figurehead. It’s rising out of the sand at a forty-five-degree angle.”

“Wouldn’t we know if they were fighting the Mad Captain?” he asked. “The objective should update, right?”

“No. Since we’re separated from them, we’re basically not considered part of their group. We won’t get any of the announcements they’ve got, and our objectives and quest won’t update based on what they found.”

“Shit.”

Adam urged the barrier to fly faster, and they swooped the graveyard of ships twice before spotting the airship rising out of the sand with its bow and unicorn figurehead pointed into the air. Its hull had the green colour of oxidised copper, and the frayed sails had once been yellow, judging by the slight bit of pigment clinging to their remains.

He lowered the barrier towards the ground in front of it and Emelia dropped the last few metres, before surging in through an opening in the back where the captain’s quarters lay.

< < Optional Stage Objective Updated > >

< Defeat the wielder of Golden Prince >

Almost the exact moment that Adam got off the barrier and shaped it into a drill, something burst out through the tilted main deck. It looked like a golden statue of a man holding an equally-golden sabre. The wandering eye was completely locked onto him, which was a worrying sign.

The figure spun over Adam’s head and landed 20 metres or so behind him in the sand, skipping once before coming to a stop. Almost immediately he started getting back up, albeit slowly.

Then Emelia sprang out through the way she’d entered, sprinting right past Adam with a terrifying look in her eyes. She triggered her Spring Boots and shot herself right at the golden man with absurd speed. Her fist struck his right shoulder instead of his torso or head, but the result was no less devastating. His entire right arm was detached from his body as the shoulder joint simply vanished.

The golden man tried to swing his sabre to catch Emelia, but she was too fast for him. With every missed swing, she rammed her oversized gauntlets into his torso and head, distorting and warping his golden flesh.

Adam didn’t ask any questions and immediately fused his free barrier with the one already fused three times. Then he spun it up and refined the drill shape to be as lethal as possible.

Lastly, he invoked his new skill.

“Mana Infusion,” he said.

He gasped as almost half of his Mana was sucked out of him and injected into the barrier. The midnight-blue glass-like spell turned pitch-black like obsidian, and the shape became literally perfect, its tapered edge even more deadly than before. Unlike the normal hum and whine a triple-fused barrier produced, the infused barrier didn’t make a sound that was audible to his ears. But he could feel the thrum of its power in his chest, and it was like standing in front of a concert speaker blasting a silent bass that shook his organs and interfered with his breathing.

Emelia dodged another slash and then smashed her fist into the golden figure’s leg with enough oomph to stagger him. She must’ve seen what Adam was cooking up, because she suddenly disengaged, backing quite far away.

Adam didn’t waste a second and fired the projectile.

Everything went black for a second, as though he’d blinked and forgotten to open his eyes again.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Defeated the wielder of Golden Prince >

Adam came to, finding himself sitting on the sand and seeing stars and ghostly outlines of his surroundings. He also felt incredibly light-headed, and it was as though he’d taken a punch to the gut hard enough to knock him out cold.

The golden figure was gone.

As was the quarter of the island right behind him.

It was just simply no longer there. It was as if the painter who’d designed this world had erased it from her drawing.

Then his ears popped, and he could hear again.

The sounds of crashing and breaking came from the new edge of the island as more and more of the landmass fell away, taking the big wrecks with it.

Emelia came over and he was glad she’d backed far enough away to avoid being hit.

“How did you do that??” she asked.

“I used my Mana Infusion,” he replied dumbfounded at the result.

“On a triple-fused barrier?” she asked.

“Technically quadruple-fused, actually.”

“I think the math for its speed and damage must be wrong,” she remarked.

“You can say that twice,” he replied. “I just deleted a large portion of the island.”

He looked up and met her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Emelia helped him to his feet. “Come on,” she said.

Adam stumbled a step, still discombobulated.

Without so much as a ‘May I?’, Emelia grabbed his shoulder and put his left arm over hers. Then she basically dragged him towards the unicorn wreck.

They passed through the opening in the back wall of the captain’s quarters and the helm, moving through a hole in the floor of said quarters and coming out into the hold of the airship. It was a medium-sized vessel, so there was a lot more space inside it than their starter ship, although since it was poking out of the sand at a forty-five-degree angle, they really couldn’t use most of the space that just rose out above them. Light spilled in from the hole that had been created by Emelia punching the golden figure with her insane strength, sending him out through the side of the ship. The sunlight glittered on the hoarded gold, Doubloons, and treasure that was strewn about the sand-covered ‘floor’.

There were also three bodies.

Two of them were Players. Ruimin and Maalia.

From the looks in their eyes, it seemed they had been surprised when they died.

The last body was an old skeletal man filled with holes, cuts, and stab-wounds.

Adam pulled himself out of Emelia’s grip and collapsed to his knees in the sand in front of Maalia.

He placed his obsidian hand on her leg.

Flashes of memories shot through Adam’s mind, going all the way back to the first Stage. He saw as Maalia fought her way through the first four Stages with the bow, barely getting injured, not even in the tight confines of the goblin cave. She also dealt with the other Players in the Forbidden Altar quite handedly, and even her Stage Six went well, aside from one Player dying to the Tower Crawler’s unseen attack. He then got to see himself through Maalia’s eyes at the start of Seven, before following the journey they’d already taken, until their paths diverged at Windtop Cove when they’d gone off to find the collector.

Maalia was the instigator for the theft, which didn’t surprise Adam that much, since she seemed the one most eager to take charge. Leon had been easily convinced by her, but Ruimin had worried about Adam and Emelia, even though Maalia told her that they didn’t care about her because of the Cloud Leviathan issue. Maalia alone had returned to the White Flags’ captain’s quarters while the other two prepared the airship to leave the dock. She’d created a distraction by using the necklace she wore to cause everyone to look away. Adam guessed it was the Relic she’d received from Messimer.

After stealing the map, she returned to the airship, which had a metallic coating thanks to the upgrade from Herrman. Her and the others were halfway out of the port before the guards were alerted. Two of the chain harpoon ballistae were fired at them, but one failed to pierce due to the hull upgrade, while the other was insufficient to stop them, although it tore a large hole in the side of the ship.

From there, he rewatched some of the events he’d seen from inspecting Maalia’s arrows and the Slugwhale’s memory, before getting to Shipwreck Isle and searching for the treasure. They ended up searching the unicorn ship, only because Ruimin said that unicorns were considered lucky. Inside they found an emaciated and mad man whose bones were turning to gold. The three of them actually fought quite well together and was able to kill the Mad Captain by having Leon repeatedly parry his attacks, while the other two shot and slashed him with their weapons.

But then, once the boss was dead, Leon stooped down to grab the weapon the mad captain had dropped. The cursed sword, Golden Prince.

From there, it was a rapid few moments of frantic screaming and fighting, and then the vision was suddenly over.

Adam swallowed down the urge to throw up.

“That golden man we fought… That was Leon.”

“Yeah…” Emelia said.

Adam sat back up, wanting to suddenly be very far from the bodies.

“What the fuck do we do now?” he asked.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-Two

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I've got 83 done and 84 underway, but I haven't edited 83 yet, so it'll be up tomorrow since it's 1 AM here and I'm crashing hard.

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Chapter Eighty-Two

“Good job convincing the captain to not skin us,” Adam joked as they soared through the air on a barrier, the other two stretched to be longer and curved around them in half-circle screens. They were constantly moving to not block their view of the surroundings, but Adam had given them the command to fly out to intercept any projectile if it came within 10 metres. He wasn’t entirely sure the complex command would work, but if it did it would basically be like reactive armour, which was pretty cool.

“The trick with the Stages from here on is to play within their rules and lore,” Emelia said. She was sitting in front of him on the flat barrier, between his legs, which made it a bit hard for him to concentrate. Especially since she kept shifting and pressing herself against him.

“How do you mean?” he asked, trying to distract himself.

“So, since those idiots stole the map, it was easy to claim they did it out of greed. Especially since it has treasures marked on it. As you know, within this Stage, greed is often a side-effect of someone succumbing to the Gold-cursed affliction. Using that bit of Stage lore, we could give a plausible explanation for why we aren’t associated with their actions. Of course, it might have worked without that, but we’d have needed to spend more time pleading our case.”

“Still, despite how fast we are able to get out of Windtop, I don’t see them anywhere,” Adam remarked.

There were the distant silhouettes of islands around them, but he couldn’t see the shadows of any airships. The gold-tinged clouds covered everywhere the eye could see, and the unseen sun’s light warmed him while the wind played with his hair. Emelia’s platinum-blonde hair kept blowing back into his face, tickling his skin.

“It sounded like the White Flags got one of their airships after them, so it should be easy enough to spot. And I doubt they’d have gone in any other direction than straight away from the settlement, so it’s only a matter of time before we spot them,” Emelia said.

“If we land somewhere, I can double-fuse my barriers and give us more speed.”

“That might be a good idea. If you can control it.”

“I might even be able to control a triple-fused barrier here,” Adam said. “There’s certainly enough space for it.”

“Have you ever flown on a triple-fused barrier?” Emelia asked.

“No. I kept blowing holes in the tower every time I tried making one of those go fast,” he replied.

Emelia turned around so she could look right at him. They were incredibly close, but neither of them pulled away. Her pale golden-tinged skin glittered with perspiration and her purple spiralling eyes bored into his. They’d flown together on his barriers on Interim Island, but it hadn’t been this close or intimate. Despite the situation they were in, Adam could only look at her, and his heart pounded in his chest.

“I forgot what I was about to say,” she then admitted with a grin.

Adam was about to reply when his wandering eye swirled around and spotted the shadow of a ship. It was limping towards an island slightly to the left of the way they were heading.

“I see it,” he said.

Emelia turned around to look as he steered them down towards the airship. He’d been keeping them above the point where most ships floated, since he doubted Maalia, Leon, and Ruimin would look up. Although they’d seen him use his barriers to transport himself and Emelia, they were unlikely to know that they could also be used to fly across the Floating Sea.

As the airship came within sight, Emelia tensed up and scooted forward on the barrier. With her Spring Boots, she could technically survive a fall from any height, and given how she was positioning herself, she was probably considering dropping straight down onto the ship when they got close enough.

But then the tension left her.

“It’s not our ship,” she said. “It’s the White Flags’ pursuer vessel.”

Adam had thought it was theirs as well, until the clouds parted and he realised that it was a different colour and slightly different shape, although the same weight class as the Creaking Madam.

“We should still see what clues we can find,” Adam said. “Maybe they think they’re in the clear if they outpaced their pursuer. They might believe that we’re stuck at Windtop.”

Emelia nodded. “Let me do the talking here. The White Flags pirates might believe we’re up to no good if we’re coming in hot on their crash landing.”

“I’ll bring us down a bit away from where they made landfall,” Adam said.

The closer they got, the more obvious it was why the pursuer ship had picked an island to land on. If Adam understood it correctly, airships didn’t need to touch down on islands to ‘anchor’ but could just use their tethers to keep their vessel from floating away. But the airship had planted itself on top of the island because massive holes from ballista bolts had torn open its hull, not to mention arrows had destroyed the sails and killed at least three of the crew.

Looks like Maalia realised that her arrows could in fact reach far enough…

But to use her power to kill members of a peacekeeping faction is not something I think I can forgive. It’s just like how Maggie killed all the Elphin.

The island was rather small, maybe a kilometre wide and just as long, with tropical palm trees, yellow-beige sand, and a few skittish animals that fled into the shrubbery of a small forest that took up a third of its surface.

Adam landed them a hundred metres from the downed airship. The surviving crew of five were inspecting the damage, with only one of them keeping an eye out. He quickly spotted Emelia who hopped off the barrier and walked towards them, waving her arms above her head. Adam moved off the barrier as well and added it to his orbiting curved shields. The first one spun clockwise, the second spun counter to that, and the third mimicked the first but offset slightly. There was no way anything would hit him, but he was worried about Emelia.

Then he remembered how quickly she’d dealt with Riccardo.

She’ll be fine, he had to remind himself. She’s done this twice before.

Four of the five White Flags pirates stayed by the ship as the lookout was assigned the role of meeting with Emelia. Adam was a few paces behind her and saw the slight worry on the lookout’s face as he stopped in front of her. Although they’d fortunately gone with the assumption that the two of them were friendly, he saw how the four that remained by the ship looked on the verge of attacking, their hands awfully close to their swords and spears. Strangely, none of them had ranged weapons.

“We’re pursuing the ones who shot you down,” Emelia told the man before he could ask. “Can you tell us which way they went?”

“They continued heading west,” the man replied. He wasn’t very old by the looks of him, and clearly the crash had him worried. “But I can’t say where they headed. Our navigator got shot by one of them.”

“Do you mind if I inspect the damage?” Adam asked, an idea coming to mind.

The lookout cast him a dubious expression in response.

“He’s a mage,” Emelia explained, catching on to Adam’s intentions. “He has a way to track them.”

The guy glanced back over his shoulder at the four waiting by the airship.

“If you need wood to repair your hull, then I can chop down a few trees for you,” Adam offered.

The lookout nodded. “Alright, deal.”

Emelia went with Adam as he quickly moved towards the nearest palm tree and prepared to chop it down with a barrier. Before he even had the chance to shape something resembling an axe, Emelia punched the trunk, blasting a huge chunk out of it and toppling it down towards them.

Adam quickly moved his barriers to catch the tree and lower it down gently, but the sudden arrest of motion caused a pair of coconuts to drop from the canopy, both striking the ground with a dull thud. Emelia surged towards the next tree, punching it hard enough to topple it as well, then she went to a third, repeating the motions and leaving him to scramble to keep the trees from smashing into the sand and breaking. She moved so effortlessly fast that he doubted he’d be able to defend himself against her attacks if she seriously tried to hurt him.

And her punches are terrifying…

Adam shaped his three barriers into claws and dragged the trees back to the downed airship. The crew had their own saws and tools ready to reduce the logs to more manageable planks to patch up the holes. It wouldn’t be pretty once they were done, but it might be enough to just keep them afloat until they returned to Windtop.

True to their deal, Adam and Emelia were allowed to inspect the damage as much as they wanted.

“You wanted to find one of their projectiles, right?” Emelia asked as they walked around the hull that was partially buried in the island’s sandy ground.

“Yeah, I was thinking I could use my hand to figure out something,” he replied.

In theory it might work, but he hadn’t tried using Alepheria’s Mandate in that way before, though he was hoping the Tome Keeper’s Relic would help with that.

After walking all the way around the ship, Adam came to the realisation that the bolts had passed right through the hull the two times it’d been struck, leaving nothing for him to inspect other than a few fragments. The first metal scrap he found and touched turned out to belong to the White Flags’ ship as part of a metal rivet, giving him a glimpse of its construction and its time floating along the sea of golden clouds, before the sudden impact of a ballista bolt tore it free from the hull, depositing it inside the ship.

The next piece he found was a hit though and it showed him the creation of the bolt, followed quickly by it being equipped onto the Creaking Madam by unseen people and then loaded into a rack to await being used. He saw glimpses of Leon running about during their initial fight with the first airship they’d encountered. Then there was a long beat of silence as nothing happened around it, before Leon reappeared to grab the bolt and place it on a ballista before firing it with a yell up to the others on the ship. A brief vision of the bolt soaring through the air and piercing a cloud was followed by abrupt destruction as it tore through the White Flags’ ship, most of its mass emerging out the other side and leaving just the fragment and a few other bits behind.

“It’s a bust,” Adam told Emelia. “It only shows me Leon loading it, nothing else.”

She considered the issue for a moment. “What if you try one of the arrows that Maalia used?”

There were quite a few of them stuck to the main deck and masts. None of them had been powerful enough to destroy the ship by themselves, but she’d managed to kill quite a few people and damage the sails, which along with the hull damage from the bolts Leon had fired were enough to sink the ship.

With the help from a barrier, Adam lifted himself up onto the deck of the downed airship and found an arrow embedded in the foremast. The moment he touched it, he felt a weird experience. Arrows in an archer’s quiver were not permanent things. They appeared when they were needed, like magically refilling ammunition. The memory that washed over him started as the arrow he’d touched manifested into reality. Everything else he’d touched had given him brief glimpses of their initial origin or construction, but not the arrows. However, since the arrows appeared when needed and not just in the archer’s hand, it gave Adam enough time to listen to the trio arguing about where they’d go as Maalia took shots at the pursuing vessel. One of the places they decided on was called ‘Lucas’ Grave’. Then the perspective shifted as the arrow was knocked and fired across the cloud sea, striking the foremast of the White Flags’ airship.

Adam went around touching the other arrows to try and piece together more information, hoping to catch a glimpse of the map that they had stolen from the White Flags, but there was no luck. All of the arrows he could find had only appeared around the time that trio had been fighting the pursuing vessel.

One thing had been obvious though.

Their airship had a massive gouge along the side, no doubt inflicted on them during their escape from Windtop Cove.

“How far would they be able to go with a damaged hull?” Adam asked. “I think one of the harpoon launchers from Windtop was able to tear open the left side.”

“With the upgrade from Herrman, they should be able to go quite far,” Emelia said. “At least far enough for it to be an issue for us…”

“You think they’d summon the Cloud Leviathan?” Adam asked.

“They might. If not because of wanting to save Ruimin, then just purely out of spite, given what they’ve done already.”

“They mentioned going to a place called Lucas’ Grave,” he said. “They also mentioned an unmarked island with a treasure icon, but they didn’t say where it was, and I couldn’t see the map.”

Emelia nodded. “Good thing I remember most of the map from when the captain showed us. I just need to find out which island we’re on.”

She hopped down from the deck and landed on the sand next to one of the pirates, startling him.

While she figured out which way they had to go, Adam brought out his wand and went through the motions to summon a barrier using the spell he’d learnt from touching the spell-tome with his obsidian hand.

I should have tried to touch James’ Spellblade to understand how its spells work, he realised belatedly.

If I could visit his dimension, then maybe it’d be possible.

Actually, I should probably try and touch a lot of things to understand them better.

Adam eyed the Spidersilk Sack hanging from his belt. He had the Rotmaker Idol inside.

“Are you ready to go?” Emelia asked, making him jump. He hadn’t heard her get back onto the deck.

“One moment,” he said, switching back to the spell-tome and fusing one of his barriers with the static one created by the wand.

Once combined, the barrier didn’t move any faster, but he felt that it was sturdier at least.

So much for trying to chain together a bunch of barriers to get ridiculous speed, he mused.

He fused another barrier with it, and it was definitely a lot faster than before, thanks to his new upgrades.

I guess that the health of my barriers doesn’t matter, since the Wandering Eye necklace ensures that they always break in one hit…

But having that extra barrier was worth the weakness it caused, since his crown made sure that they’d still last for 10 seconds after breaking because of the Last Stand’s Fervour.

While it was tempting to fuse the last barrier with the triple-fused one, he refrained. Not only would it probably be too fast to control, but he also wanted to use it as a reactive armour to protect their flying barrier from getting hit. After all, he wasn’t entirely certain he’d be able to resummon his barriers in time to catch them if the one they were riding broke mid-air.

“Alright, I’m ready,” Adam told Emelia.

“Excellent,” she replied. “Lucas’ Grave isn’t far from here. We’ll also get to meet a proper Slugwhale, which means I can show you a trick with them.”

Adam frowned, uncertain what exactly she meant by that.

Unlike their flight here, Adam decided to sit in the front, but Emelia just took this as an invitation to scoot up right behind him and coil her arms around his waist, like they were riding a motorcycle.

Adam started shaping their orbiting barrier protection as they flew in order to distract himself from the sudden flurry of feelings and sensations flooding his mind.

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 31

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Chapter 31

“Your brother is the chosen one!?” I asked excitedly.

“What?” Isabella replied. “You do know he does the mascot thing for free right? He was fired from his real job because­­—”

“I’ve always wanted to be friends with a mascot,” I said, interrupting her. “It was a good thing we saved you in this dimension.”

Isabella paused and gave me a funny look. “What do you mean?”

“Gambit, stop,” Panda warned.

“I’m just saying, I had to kill you last time because you were protecting Liam Johnson.”

“Is that a fucking threat?” Isabella asked me, squaring up her shoulders.

“He’s insane,” Waldo explained, coming up to us. “Don’t trust anything he says.”

She glanced back at him and then to me. Her expression looked dangerous. “What exactly are you planning on doing with Otto? If you’re planning on harming him, I’ll bash your fucking skull in. He may be a loser, but he’s still my brother.”

“I told you,” I replied exasperatedly. “Otto has all the answers I’m searching for.”

Panda sighed. “Can’t you just drop this idiocy? It’s clearly not worth pursuing him.”

“The fact that Billee’s dad wants us to save him seems like a clue,” Bee said.

“Save him?” Isabella asked.

“We already killed Noah Sullivan. He was supposed to be the one that kills him,” I said.

Isabella looked surprised by that news. “You killed the Mayor?”

“And the Chief of Police,” Bee added.

“Maybe the changing of the timeline has put Otto in a different kind of danger,” Panda guessed.

“Me-ow,” Lordie suggested.

Waldo and Isabella looked to the top of my head and the hand-spider sitting there.

“Why is there a hand on your head?” Isabella asked, having only noticed him now.

I ignored her question and relayed what he’d said. “Lordie thinks that maybe Nwetrou’s enemies are after Otto.”

“The hand speaks?” Waldo asked with a shudder.

A chime rolled through the Humanbus. [BING BONG! WE WILL ARRIVE AT OUR DESTINATION SHORTLY.]

Isabella put aside her questions for now and yelled down through the bus. “Guards! Prepare yourselves! I want the turrets ready in case there are monsters living near the lake! Everyone else, get ready to disembark!”

With that she went down past the rows of seats, rousing those who hadn’t heeded her words, even the MLP Society members and those in the bathhouse and sleeping quarters.

I stayed up front with Bee and Panda, who was sitting on the dashboard.

“I just realized that we might meet the surfer dudes here,” I said.

“What were their names again?” Panda asked.

“Hunter and Tanner and something else,” I replied.

“Should we use our Humanbus Brains before we arrive?” Bee asked.

“We might as well,” I said as Greg tore through trees and small hills, going in a straight line to the lake.

I hadn’t been there in many years, but as I recalled there was a small island in the middle with a hut, as well as a kayaking club on the eastern side. It was usually full of people partying during the summer. From what Tanner, the Surfer Mage, had told us, there was a level 40 World Boss stirring up the waters and creating waves. It was apparently guarding a temple, which piqued my interest, although I had to find Otto first.

Bee and I both pulled out the Humanbus Brains we’d received.

[‘Humanbus Brain’ x ]

Item

The brain of a Humanbus that you defeated by completing its Puzzle Game. An ember of sentience still swims around within this pink ball of flesh.

In order to access the power trapped within, you have to give it a name and kiss it on its forehead.

Weight: Approximately one

“I’ll call you ‘Dave’,” I said and kissed the pumpkin-sized ball of flesh.

[Choose your reward! x ]

I had a steed once.

His name was Lord Eophim, the Devourer of Hope.

Unfortunately, Papa said I had to let it go after it kept killing his adherents by devouring their will to live.

Pick one of the options:

‘Initiate Transport’ | ‘Vehicle Whistle’ | ‘Horse Girl’

[‘Initiate Transport’ x ]

Ability

What a weird Skill.

I’m looking through the possible transformations, and I can’t imagine most of them would be comfortable for you.

One of them turns your ears into propellers and spins your head around on your neck to generate lift.

Another snaps your spine and elbow joints to turn you into a bicycle.

I think some Pride Demons have their slaves act as vehicles. Lust Demons too.

Also, although it doesn’t mention it in the description, anyone who witnesses your transformation will look down on you forever.

Turn your body into a transport vessel capable of seating up to six Players.

For every Player using you as a vehicle, your speed is increased by 50%.

Cooldown: 15 minutes

Duration: 10 minutes

[‘Vehicle Whistle’ x ]

Passive

Did you know that whistling at Sloth Demons makes them go berserk?

Anyway.

This Skill seems like it has a lot of weird applications, since whoever designed it didn’t really understand what exactly defined a vehicle.

I wouldn’t use it around those fat guys who fantasize about ponies, that’s all I’ll say.

Whistling will animate the nearest vehicle and call it to you. Speed, durability, and duration varies based on the exact vehicle.

Cooldown: 30 minutes

[‘Horse Girl’’ x ]

Ability

Become a sin against God and embrace the #horselyfe. Disregard your own personal hygiene and adopt a 100% hay-based personal body odor.

Summon a sentient and beautiful steed named ‘Dave’ who only understands Cockney English and curses like a construction worker. The steed goes faster after being fed Fish and Chips, although he is allergic to anything not deep-fried and will permanently die if you feed it to him. His back can stretch to seat up to five people.

Cooldown: 30 minutes

Duration: 20 minutes

“Ugh, these are all terrible,” I muttered.

“The first one would be funny,” Panda remarked.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” I told him.

“Show me!” Bee said. “I picked something called Bounceshroom that creates a large mushroom to launch me in a direction. I’m not really sure how I’m supposed to land though.”

“Might be better as a trap,” Panda mused.

I shared the options with her, and she quickly said, “Pick the whistle.”

Although I doubted I’d use it, I followed her advice.

Cooper and some of the MLP guys, as well as a few of Waldo’s group, came up near the front of the bus, looking out the windows while Greg tore through the trees.

Then from one moment to the next our view opened up as we emerged onto the shore of Madeville Lake. Unlike in the past, it now had an actual beach running around it, which was kind of nonsense, and there were huge waves rolling through the water, with people surfing along them. The waves were also bizarre, since they kind of just went in random directions, the most popular ones leading surfers and people in inner tubes towards the central island. It had grown a lot larger than before, and it looked like there was some kind of Greek temple where there’d once been a hut.

The more I looked at the waters, as Greg pulled us all the way down to where it lapped against the sandy beach, the more I realized that most of the waves led towards the central island.

“That’s a shrine on that island,” Panda said. “This whole place is a trap meant to empower the boss living in the waters below.”

I sighed. “Of course…”

Despite everyone out on the lake having fun, and the passengers of the bus storming out to join them, it was clear that there was no such thing as safe recreational fun in this world anymore. Unless you counted the Humanbus.

“We don’t have recreational activities in here,” Panda remarked on my inner dialogue, an annoying habit that he was reluctant to drop.

Bee and I walked out of the bus with the rest of the Players.

“I think my new Bounceshroom is safe to use here,” she said.

“I don’t like this place,” Isabella said as she came over to stand next to me. She was surprisingly clingy.

“Tell people to stay out of the water,” I told her.

“Already did,” she replied. “The way those waves are funneling everyone towards that weird island in the middle has to be intentional.”

“It’s a trap,” Bee told her. “There’s a big fish boss in the waters below.”

A guy on a surfboard made his way over to us, defying the pull of the waves and doing crazy tricks.

“Oh look, it’s Tanner Tylerson,” Panda remarked as the guy drew closer.

Sure enough, it was the Surfer Mage who’d told me about this place in the last dimension before his untimely death to a Voidspawn the size of a bus and shaped like a volleyball.

Tanner slowly glided up onto the beach on his surfboard, stepping off and walking over to us.

“Hey Isabella,” he greeted.

“Where’s Otto?” she asked him.

Tanner shrugged. “I don’t know, but these waves are gnarly.”

“Is Hunter and Tyler with you?” she continued.

“Ah, you know what, Tyler was talking to Otto recently. But he decided to dive down. He said the lake is much deeper now,” Tanner replied.

“Tyler is going to get eaten by the World Boss,” Panda said.

I frowned.

Bee suddenly had a purple banana with white spirals on it in her hand.

“What’s that?” I asked her.

“A Calming Banana,” she said and peeled it by squeezing the end instead of pulling the convenient tab all bananas had.

“Who peels a banana like that?” I remarked.

“Apes and chimpanzees,” she retorted, mouth already full.

“What does it do?” Panda asked.

“It lets me breathe under water,” she replied.

“I guess we’re going in after him,” I said.

“You don’t have a choice if you want to find Otto, I guess,” Panda remarked.

“Don’t worry, darling! Brock’ll fix it!”

Suddenly the purple balloon sleeve and gauntlet that took up my entire right arm grew a small tube that stretched towards my mouth, wriggling with a mind of its own.

“Eww, get that thing away from me!” I protested.

“It’s not what you think!!” Brock exclaimed. “I’m not that kind of balloon!!”

Bee put down a Bounceshroom from her new ability and launched herself up into the air and far out over the water.

“I’m not putting your weird appendage in my mouth,” I told Brock firmly and hopped on the mushroom as well.

Neither Isabella nor Tanner made any move to follow as we flew through the air, before striking the lake with a hard splash and sinking down into its cold murky water.

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 30

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That's it for today. Maybe I'll have one more tomorrow, not entirely sure.

I'm currently in Venice. Today I walked 20k steps to see a lot of the 2025 Biennale. It's a pretty cool art event, worth checking out if you're into that sort of stuff.

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Chapter 30

[Choose your reward! x ]

I think I understand why the apocalypse had to happen to your species.

That was absolutely vile to watch.

Pick one of the options:

‘System.hiccup( )’ | ‘Shocking Touch’ | ‘Clone’

[‘System.hiccup( )’ x ]

Ability

Everyone is telling me to discourage you from picking this Ability.

That seems counterintuitive if they don’t want you to have it, since telling you not to do something probably makes you wanna do it more.

Anyway.

I don’t know what it does.

Nobody knows.

I guess that’s why they’re scared.

I’d pick it if I were you.

Make the System hiccup.

Cooldown: 12 hours

[‘Shocking Touch’ x ]

Passive

I knew a guy like this once.

The charred and burnt smell of his body after he touched something metallic was very delicious.

Your physical touch causes minor shocks to anything you touch.

[‘Clone’ x ]

Ability

If I could clone myself, I’d try to eat them.

Haven’t you ever wondered how you taste?

Create a clone of yourself or anything you target.

Clones last for 20 seconds and die in one hit.

Cooldown: 3 hours

“Pick Clone,” Panda said.

“Hiccup sounds fun,” I mused.

“I got something called a Diarrhea Beam,” Bee said.

I frowned. She was turning into a walking talking war crime.

“I guess my Fall Guy is already like a clone,” I mused.

After contemplating it for a second, I ended up picking System Hiccup.

Once Bee and I, as well as all the MLP Society members, had used the screws without dying or getting injured, Isabella and most of the guards used the screws by drilling them into their heads, though it didn’t look like it actually hurt. One guy used his belly button, which was weird. Most of the workers, like Waldo, copied Isabella, although one guy snuck into the bathhouse with his screw, which was deeply suspicious.

“Tell the creepy Roomba to scrub the baths,” I told Bee.

[WHERE ARE WE HEADING, CAPTAIN?] Greg asked.

Bee looked at me. “Are we still going to the lake?”

“Otto has to be there,” I replied.

She nodded. “To Madeville Lake!” she commanded the Humanbus.

[AYE AYE!]

As we bumbled along the highway, I realized all the prisoner zombies were gone, reduced to piles of ash and scraps of orange fabric. It seemed that with the death of the Warden, all of his summoned creatures had perished.

Since we had plenty of downtime, I pulled out the Reaper’s Lunchbox we’d gotten for killing the Delightful Reaper.

[‘Reaper’s Lunchbox’ x ]

Item

Everyone’s gotta eat, even the Reapers.

Of course, their tastes are a bit special.

You wouldn’t see me eating at the same restaurant as them, if you catch my drift.

Anyway, all you’ve gotta do is open it up.

How bad can it be?

Weight: Approximately one

I opened it up and a mist of despair, sadness, and pain wafted over me, making me cough violently. My head started to buzz, and lights swam before my eyes.

As expected, it was quite a nice experience.

[Choose your reward! x ]

Soul sandwiches, despair cakes, suffering rolls, pain profiteroles, and existential cookies, all packed into this box. And yet none of it actually tastes like anything. Told you these guys have weird tastes.

As you know, I much prefer when my food is alive and screaming, or at the very least bleeding a bit.

Human food is generally a bit too tame for me, though I did enjoy the magic known as ‘deep-frying’. The crunch was almost like snapping bones.

Pick one of the options:

‘Deathly-Good Looks’ | ‘Reap This!’ | ‘Delightful’

[‘Deathly-Good Looks’ x ]

Passive

Supposedly, Reapers are able to kill with just a glance.

This flips that on its head, making everyone who looks at you immediately regret it.

Sets your Charisma to -100.

Any Player whose total stats are below 100 will instantly die if they look at you.

[‘Reap This!’ x ]

Passive

Ooooh, this is a fun one!

One of my brothers plays a game like this with his victims.

On death, flip a coin.

If it’s heads, you’re still dead.

If it’s tails, your attacker dies instead.

Also, they won’t tell you this, because they’re cowards, but this Passive does not have any conflicts with Respawn Once from Rules of Anarchy.

Cooldown: 24 hours

[‘Delightful’ x ]

Ability

This is actually a natural power possessed by Lust Demons.

Not all of them are about mixing fluids and turning nuns into succubi.

But they’re generally quite bad comedians, so they rely on their powers a bit too much to make people laugh. That kind of coercion damages the mind, or so I hear.

Tell a joke to induce a laughing fit in whoever hears it.

For each minute of sustained laughter, the targets’ insanity meters go up.

The strength of the effect depends on how well the joke lands, but the laughing fit will last until a target passes out from lack of oxygen.

Cooldown: 2 hours

“Do not pick the first one!” Panda exclaimed.

“I’m not gonna,” I told him. “Billee is clearly steering me towards Reap This, so I’ll grab that.”

Panda nodded. “Thank you. I was worried you pick something that’d immediately kill all our passengers.”

“I wonder if that would violate the Safe Zone rules, since it’s not actually an attack, just a passive.”

Panda frowned.

I picked the skill and a tattoo of a coin showing tails appeared on the back of my left hand.

“They branded me…” I complained.

“Could be worse,” Panda remarked.

Next to me, Bee pulled out her own lunchbox. One of the MLP guys stood next to her when she opened it. She just sneezed as the mist wafted over her, but the guy took off running down the bus, screaming and frothing at the mouth, until Cooper stepped in and clotheslined him, knocking him unconscious.

After a few moments, Bee said, “I picked an ability called Delightful Aura. I can switch it on and off, and it allows me to induce Tummy-Rumbles in anyone within 10 meters.”

“What the fuck is Tummy-Rumbles?” I asked.

“It’s an insanity-based attack,” Panda answered knowingly. “It’s similar to the Giggles, but doesn’t turn people into your hallucinating slaves. It just makes them chuckle uncontrollable and makes their stomachs spasm.”

“It doesn’t do any damage,” Bee said, “but it counts as an affliction, so it benefits Affliction Master, adding 10% effectiveness to all my other afflictions.”

“What about Diarrhea Beam?” I asked. “Does it do what the name advertises?”

“Sort of,” she said with an evil grin that absolutely terrified me. “On humans it causes uncontrollable diarrhea. On non-humans it makes effluvia spill out of all their orifices. It doesn’t do any damage by makes those afflicted more susceptible to other attacks.”

“Jesus Christ,” I muttered. “Your whole setup is just to cascade effects into absurdity, isn’t it?”

Bee flexed her right hand. “I can probably double my Rotting Touch effectiveness if I stack everything just right. But I need more afflictions.”

“Did you just say Diarrhea Beam?” Isabella asked.

The whole bus jumped as Greg went off-road again, leaving behind the highway and its abandoned cars.

“We’re close now,” I said.

“Are we still searching for Otto?” Isabella asked. I wondered what ability she’d gotten from the Warden.

“He’s the key to everything,” I told her.

Panda sighed, and Isabella looked to Bee for an explanation.

“Apparently he’s important,” Bee said. “One of the Absolutes is looking for him.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Like a weird God,” she replied.

Panda frowned. “That’s too narrow a definition.”

“He likes octopuses and sea creatures,” Bee added.

“So, he’s like Poseidon?” Isabella asked.

“No!” Panda shouted.

Bee and I both turned to look at where he sat on the dashboard of the bus, surprised by his sudden outburst.

Isabella followed our gazes, but she clearly couldn’t see him.

“No,” I said, slowly turning back to face her.

“He’s the Lord of Black Holes and Deep Places,” Panda explained.

I relayed that to Isabella.

“Weird. What does he want with Otto? He’s not a deep-diver, and I don’t see what otters have to do with black holes.”

I shrugged. “No idea.”

“How do you know Otto?” Bee asked.

“I didn’t tell you?” Isabella replied. “Otto is my brother.”

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 29

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Chapter 29

“Greg! Take us towards the Warden! He should be around here somewhere!” I yelled.

[AYE AYE, VICE CAPTAIN!] the Humanbus obeyed.

Bee tugged me on my left sleeve, “Gambit! We’ve got a bunch of new upgrades available to us now, because of all the passengers.”

“Anything useful to us right this moment?” I asked.

“If you give me 300 Coins, then I can afford an upgrade that makes Greg capable of eating unintelligent non-boss monsters to gain coins. It’s only 1 per monster, but it should be good.”

That would leave me with just 178.01 coins left, but since it was fairly clear that merchants weren’t going to show up until after the first Event, then it didn’t matter. I was sure I’d find a way to make a lot more, especially if Panda were willing to give me a bunch of easy Benefactor quests.

I looked out through the front window at the many purple prisoners that the guards and Isabella were tearing apart with ballista bolts. A lot of them were still making it to the front of the bus, only for Greg to chomp on them and spit them back out. The bus was bouncing up and down as his many feet trampled the corpses on the highway.

“Let’s do it,” I said and gave her the coins.

A sound like snapping metal came from the front of the Humanbus.

[YUMMY-YUMMY, AT LAST I CAN FEAST AGAIN!]

The next zombie to get close was immediately crunched and chewed under what I imagined from the sounds of it were a new set of razor-sharp dentures.

“It’s working!” Bee exclaimed. “We just got a coin from that.”

“Can we cash them out later?” I asked.

“No,” Panda answered. “Safe Zones are meant to have ways to passively earn coins, but Players can’t take them out, only use them to pay for stuff directly connected to the Safe Zone.”

“I’m sure Gambit will find a way to break that rule,” Bee said.

I grinned at her faith in me.

Greg did an exaggerated sniff as we continued down the road, zombies charging for us. [I SMELL THE WARDEN!]

“Take us there,” Isabella said, suddenly standing next to us. “We can’t have these zombies roaming the place. They’ll swarm Madeville if left unchecked.”

Greg didn’t even acknowledge her order until Bee repeated it.

[AYE AYE, CAPTAIN!]

Everyone on the bus had to brace themselves as the Humanbus suddenly veered off the side of the highway, blasting through the guardrails and out into the shrubbery and trees lining the sides of the road. Thanks to the fact that Greg ran on feet instead of wheels, he was extremely adept at traversing the rough terrain.

The zombies stormed after us, but Greg quickly outpaced them, leaving just a few scattered around the fields and small forests we surged through. Isabella’s guards shot down every last one of them, but the Humanbus was still able to munch on their corpses to get coins.

Then, suddenly, the Warden was there, standing next to a small pond with a wooden hut, his arms raised into the air and electricity shooting out around him.

Greg didn’t even slow down and opened his mouth to swallow the boss.

The Warden appeared inside the bus, right behind where the three of us were standing.

Bee, Isabella, and I whirled around to look at him. Everyone else scrambled out of the way and the guards in the turrets looked like they wanted to crawl out onto the roof of the bus.

“Uh,” I muttered, confused.

Greg immediately skidded to a halt, his feet tearing up the ground and grass.

[OH NO, I HAVE A STOMACHACHE!]

Isabella had her weapons in hand immediately and charged the boss.

The Warden had purple skin like the prisoners, but he wore a normal white suit with a dark-blue tie and dark-blue dress pants, which looked odd, given that his head had grown larger and had two massive screws sticking out on either side from his temples. His scalp was completely gone, leaving an open hole and flappy skin, with light shining out from where his brain should’ve been. It was quite similar to how the Police Fiends had looked.

Electricity surged out from the boss as he prepared an attack, but it quickly died down as though it had misfired.

Then the Warden was suddenly just a mist of blood and clumps of flesh as Bee used her Moth Dash to move right through him.

Isabella stopped mid-charge and just gaped at the remains of the boss.

“That ability is pretty scary too,” Panda muttered.

“I didn’t even get to do anything,” I said with a frown.

The creepy Dust-and-Grime Destroyer 8k came over and started licking up all the remains of the boss, and then an achievement hit us.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x ]

‘The Warden’s Funhouse First Clear?’

Cleared The Warden’s Funhouse for the first time.

It’s funny how angry everyone gets when you don’t follow their rules and Dungeon designs.

It’s almost like they didn’t plan for someone having the ability to eject monsters from a Dungeon and use a mobile Safe Zone to glitch the Boss so that he couldn’t use his powers.

The real reason they’re upset, I think, is that they have to have a very basic criteria for what counts as clearing a Dungeon: defeating its Boss.

This doesn’t apply to all Dungeons, though most are set up this way.

But because of this criteria, you are quite well-suited to breaking their carefully-laid traps.

I don’t think the audience really cares though. They just like blood and carnage, which you fulfilled.

Reward: ‘Warden’s Screw’

Everyone inside the bus, not just Isabella, Bee, and me, received the dungeon reward, which was definitely some kind of exploit.

[‘Warden’s Screw’ x ]

Item

Apply directly to the forehead!

Actually, you can insert this wherever you want, to unlock its power.

Humans have a very convenient socket on their belly I’ve recently discovered.

That’s where I’d insert it, personally.

Weight: Approximately one

Isabella frowned. “What am I meant to do with this?”

Bee had Greg return us to the road as the other passengers came up to us, wondering the same thing.

I briefly explained how to use such items to get more skills, mentioning that Billee recommended we insert it into our bellybuttons.

“What if I have an outie instead of an innie?” Cooper asked.

A few people nodded, having the same question.

I shrugged. “You could just screw it into your ear.”

“Screw it up yer arse!” Brock shouted belligerently. He was probably upset about not getting to punch anything.

“The person narrating the item description told me that he hopes that screwing it into my head will kill me,” Isabella said.

“Mine too,” said a guard.

“I think they’re just upset that we defeated the Dungeon in an unconventional way,” Bee explained.

Nobody was jumping on the chance to use the item, so I decided to lead by example and screwed it into my left ear canal.

It turned out that the screw was actually a soft rubbery material, and it was uncomfortably pleasant the way it cleaned out my ear gunk.

“Why are you making that face?” Isabella asked with a look of disgust.

One of the big MLP Society members immediately copied me, groaning loudly from the sensation.

Within seconds, all the big pony-lovers were inserting the screws into their ears and groaning.

“I’ve never hated having the ability to hear, until now,” Panda muttered in a mix of disgust and horror.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty-One

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Posted while on the highway to Germany (blessed be smartphone wifi-tethering, lol)

Check the Discord for updates. As per what I wrote on last chapter, I'll try and get 3 chapters per week out even though I'm abroad, but I can't promise any consistency in when they're posted here.

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Chapter Eighty-One

Herrman’s shop was a large eight-metre-wide barrel with an opening cut into one side. Ship fins, propellers, ballistae, harpoon-launchers, and all manner of airship parts and upgrades hung about on the walls. Although his name had brought to mind a wizened old tinkerer or mechanic, Adam was surprised to see a soot-and-oil-stained skinny teen standing in the opening, waiting for them. He wore a beige boilersuit that was two sizes too big, and his curly tangle of untamed brown hair was held down by the rubber strap of a pair of old rusted goggles.

“Herrman, this crew has been given a free upgrade by the captain,” the guard said.

The kid singled out Emelia as their team’s leader, staring intently at her for a moment before glancing at the guard. “Wossit for?”

“They’re taking on the Golden Slug,” she replied with a grin.

He looked back to Emelia. “Wot cannon you want?”

“I was thinking a hull upgrade would be better,” she said. “Something that can take a beating without breaking too easily.”

Herrman frowned. “Boring. Cannons are better.”

Adam looked up at the stuff around them. None of those are cannons… Unless he’s keeping the good stuff somewhere else.

The guard smacked Herrman in the back of the head. “The captain said they could pick.”

“Ow! Fine! My boys’ll install it,” he said obediently.

“Thank you,” Emelia replied.

“You want anything else?” he asked.

“We don’t have any Doubloons to spend,” she admitted.

Herrman’s frown grew. “Why’s Drew wasting time on bums?”

Emelia laughed and the guard smacked the kid again. He likely couldn’t even feel it since she was hitting the back of his head where the hair acted like a cushion.

Herrman climbed up some ratlines that ran up the inside of the barrel-shaped shop, before reaching the top and going up a rope ladder that fell down from the ceiling of the settlement. Large and round glinting eyes stared down at them as Adam followed the kid’s journey.

Maybe those aren’t eyes, he realised. Maybe they’re goggles, just like what Herrman wears.

That would explain why they’re so big and round… Thought it was a bunch of weird homunculi or something up there, but instead it’s just good old child labour…

“Do we go back to the ship now?” Maalia asked as the guard left them without word.

“Not yet,” Emelia replied. “Adam and I have to go find a collector who has a special egg.”

“Is that for your Patron Quest?” Ruimin asked her.

Emelia nodded. “That’s right. I don’t know if it’s safe to do mine or not, but getting the egg is supposed to be easy at least.”

None of the three said anything, but Maalia and Ruimin glanced at each other.

I don’t like the tension over this whole Patron Quest thing…

“Are there other shops here?” Maalia asked. “Can we go look at what’s for sale while you do your thing?”

“Sure,” Emelia replied. “There’s a Relic and a Weapon vendor, they’re both below us if you follow the spiralling stairwell near the central pillar. There’s also a vendor on this floor who sells ammunition for our ballistae.”

“I want to see what weapons they have for sale,” Leon said.

“I’m curious about the Relics,” Ruimin added.

“We’ll come find you,” Adam told them.

“If we’re not by the shops, then we’ll be at the boat,” Maalia replied.

With that, their team split up.

Adam and Emelia had to ask a dozen different denizens of Windtop Cove before they could even find someone who knew about the collector they were seeking. Most people had either not known or told them that the captain lived in the donut-shaped building. Apparently, he was the only collector that most people knew, but Adam got the sense that the one they were seeking was after a different sort of trophies than the pirates.

They ended up having to fly on Adam’s barrier to the island that the settlement was tethered to, finding a large red-bricked lighthouse placed atop the grassy white crescent of chalk and rock. Before they even got to the island they spotted cat-sized slugs meandering around the tower in the grass. A heavy-set man with dark skin, white hair, and wearing a brown robe-coat full of pockets bursting with trinkets, tools, and snacks roamed amongst the creatures, like a shepherd with his flock.

Adam landed his barrier in front of the man, who didn’t look very surprised to see them.

“You’re here about the egg, aren’t you?” he asked Emelia.

They both paused at his words. Then they saw his eyes. They were grey spirals with small pupils in the centre staring back at them.

“That’s right,” Emelia answered. “I am supposed to bring it home.”

The collector stooped down and picked up a jet-black slug with a fluorescent neon-yellow on its underside and on the tips of two squishy horns growing from the top of its head. He stroked it gently as it covered his left sleeve in mucus and something that looked like liquid silk.

“The Whale Eaters took it,” he said. “They plan to use it to lure out Mast-Chewer from her nest.”

“The egg belongs to Mast-Chewer?” Emelia asked. “The Drakes’ pet?”

“It’s not a pet,” the man corrected her. “Slug Dragons are not beholden to anyone. The Drakes’ captain is on friendly terms with her though, hence why she often aids them.”

“Is the egg aboard the Whale Eaters’ ship?” Adam asked. “The Golden Slug?”

The collector nodded. “I would imagine so.”

“So much for the egg being easy to retrieve,” Adam commented.

They left the shepherd to his flock and started walking towards a wooden bridge that joined the island to the settlement.

“I guess we have no choice but to board their ship,” Emelia said. “Not that I was planning for us to avoid it, but I had thought that maybe we could sink it to cut our losses, but that’ll be an issue if we can’t find the egg quickly.”

“Do you think we got the pattern you were talking about because you have this specific quest?” Adam asked.

“I think you might be right,” she replied.

“Are you going to be alright if we don’t finish your quest?”

Emelia sighed. “I don’t want to risk it if I don’t have to, but the punishments aren’t as bad as Ruimin said. They only last a single Stage.”

“You should’ve told her that,” Adam said.

“Yeah… I was just thinking. Ruimin died in this Stage the first time I came through. Back when you saved me. Past you. In my last loop she died in Stage Eight. I guess I gave up trying to convince her that it would be okay, because I assumed she wouldn’t survive…”

“That’s kind of fucked up,” Adam commented. “But I get how you can fall into a mindset like that.”

“I think at some point you just stop seeing people as people once you’ve looped enough,” Emelia said. “They just become like numbers. Arturo chose me to succeed him because he said that out of 20 loops, I made it to the end 18 times, no matter what he changed. If I hadn’t, then he wouldn’t have picked me. Even as he chose me and explained the burden, he never truly looked at me as a person. To him I was just that number. The most promising successor…”

Adam sighed. “I don’t know if I would’ve done it differently were I in his shoes.”

“Exactly,” she replied. “That’s what’s so scary about it.”

“Let’s go back to the others,” he said.

They flew back into the settlement atop Adam’s barrier, aiming low to reach the part near the bottom where the Relic and Weapon vendors were located.

The guy who sold weapons was a proper pirate through and through, with a pegleg made of carved bone, a metal claw on his left forearm where the hand had been cut off, and a nasty scar running from the left corner of his mouth and up through his left eye, which was milky-white. He had racks of harpoon spears, displays with swords made from chains, stands with bucklers, and a box within which lay an actual grappling hook.

Next to him was a golden skeleton in human clothes with a stall that showed Relics. Adam thought the skeleton was a prop until it turned and looked directly at him.

Holy fuck.

“That’s a Gold-cursed,” Emelia explained. “Although he hasn’t lost his mind, which is exceptionally rare, so they allow him to sell his stuff in this settlement under close scrutiny.”

Sure enough, there were three guards nearby watching the lower part of Windtop Cove.

“What is that curse about?” he asked. “I get that it makes you mad and violent, but is that it?”

“It’s like extreme greed,” Emelia said. “Hoarding too much wealth in this world taints you, making your skin start to rot on your bones, while golden veins move through them like a disease slowly replacing your skeleton with actual gold. If we end up getting about 1.000 Doubloons, then we will become afflicted with the Gold-cursed status. It slowly builds up over time, taking about 12 hours to reach full potency. Spending the money will make it go away. Or we can jettison it into the sea.”

“So, is Fallow’s Fallen named that because they had too much wealth and all got cursed?” Adam asked.

“That’s right,” she replied, sounding impressed. “Fallow was a famous pirate captain who stumbled upon a treasure trove unlike any other. Using his wealth, he established a stronghold on an island and drew many pirates to his crew, eventually forming his own faction. But then the Gold-curse took hold, and everyone turned into violent monsters. According to the stories that the people of this Stage tell, the White Flags rallied the other factions to them, all just to take down Fallow. They succeeded in killing him, but his prized sword, Golden Prince, was lost in the battle. That same sword is the one that’ll drive any Player mad if they wield it. It’s like instant Gold-cursed status, but at the maximum level, plus the special skill lets you turn your entire body to gold, making you able to shrug off basically all physical attacks.”

“Damn… I can see why you said we should avoid it.”

“We should probably still defeat the current owner of the sword, since it’s an optional objective, but no one can pick it up, otherwise we’ll have to fight them,” she cautioned.

“How is it that the Fallen are still a faction if their captain is dead?” Adam wondered.

“They’re all drawn to the same thing, so that’s probably why they roam around together, looking for a fight. It doesn’t have anything to do with them being ordered. It goes without saying, but allying with them is basically insanity, hence Captain Drew’s reaction.”

“Should we take a look at the Relics?” Adam asked.

Emelia shrugged. “You can, but they only sell Common and Uncommon ones today. Tomorrow they’ll sell some Rares, and on the third day they’ll sell Rares and Epics.”

“What about the weapons? Are they any good?” he asked.

“The harpoon spear is really strong if you pick the throwing-based evolution. It’s similar to Lancer but has a unique evolution that applies a special affliction if it hits an enemy and penetrates the skin. Using it alongside the Javelineer evolution of Lancer and Relics like the Boomerang Necklace makes it incredibly powerful.”

Adam frowned, remembering how that exact Relic had been the end of his last run.

“Anyway, you ca­—,” she started to say before shouting interrupted her. It came from above, accompanied by the stomping of running feet.

After a moment, something that he couldn’t quite hear was yelled down from above, and the sound of a hammer hitting a metal pan rang out around them at the various levels of the settlement.

The three nearby guards locked onto Adam and Emelia, striding towards them with angry glares in their eyes.

“Are you fucking kidding me…” Emelia muttered in disbelief.

“What?” Adam asked. “Are we fighting?”

“Don’t bring your weapons out,” she told him. “And dismiss your barrier.”

He quickly did as she said.

“Just play it cool and let me do the talking.”

The guards came up to them, two more surrounding them from the back.

“What’s happening?” Emelia asked them.

None of the guards said anything, but they were all holding their harpoon spear like they were ready to stab them full of holes if they moved in any way that could be considered hostile.

Concussive booms sounded from above, but because of how the layers of the intertwining bridges and walkways were positioned, it was impossible for Adam to tell what was happening up there. Something like screaming and tearing metal joined the cacophony of sounds.

“They’re making a goddamn run from it! In my ship!” Emelia exclaimed.

The guards shifted in response to her outburst.

Adam glanced at her.

“Let me guess,” Emelia said. “Our lunatic crewmembers just did something illegal and then ran off in our airship, right?”

None of the guards responded.

Shit! Why would they do that!?

Fuck, fuck, fuck! I knew we should have tried to defuse the tension!

Adam had no doubts that Maalia was the one who’d decided on whatever it was that they’d done, but Ruimin’s situation clearly played a big role in the trio splitting away from them.

They don’t understand what they’re doing.

But they’re scared and want to survive, and they probably see Emelia as a dangerous psycho because she killed that Player before he could attack me.

No doubt they also think I’m a mimic…

What a fucking mess.

A minute passed with the sounds above continuing, but then they quickly died down. The thrum of propellers then could be heard, only to quickly disappear as well.

Adam and Emelia waited for what felt like ages, while the silent guards were ringed around them.

Then Captain Drew and the female guard who’d taken them to Herrman came down to the bottom of the settlement.

“You lousy curs!” the captain shouted at them. “How dare you steal from me! I thought we had a deal! Give me one good reason why I don’t skin you two and hang you out for the Slug Dragons to feast on!”

“We didn’t steal anything!” Emelia protested.

“Ask the vendors!” Adam added. “We’ve only been here, Herrman’s shop, and the lighthouse outside Windtop Cove.”

“It’s true,” said the golden skeleton vendor. “They was here. I seen’t it.”

The guards backed away as the captain approached.

“Then why did your friends steal my map?” he leaned in and asked in a dangerous tone. He was holding a large sword made from chains in his right hand, hefting it against his shoulder.

“Our friends must have been Gold-cursed,” Emelia said. “Their greed is the proof of their sickness.”

Captain Drew paused but then nodded. “I see.”

The female guard came over. “What’s to say you lot aren’t cursed too?”

“You heard her earlier, didn’t you?” Adam retorted. “We don’t have a penny to our name.”

“We’ll find our cursed crew and get your map back,” Emelia told the captain.

“By tonight,” he replied, his voice sharp like the edge of his sword. “If I don’t see you with my map before tonight, then I will make sure you’ll never find safe haven anywhere across this sea.”

< < Quest Unlocked > >

< Stolen Map >

< Return Captain Drew’s map >

Emelia nodded. “We’re leaving right away.”

“How?” he asked. “They stole your vessel too, those spineless turds.”

“We have our ways,” she told her and put her hand on Adam’s shoulder.

He took it as his cue to summon his barriers.

The guards took a step back.

“A barrier mage,” Captain Drew acknowledged. “Those are rare around here.”

“Correction, a flying barrier mage,” she said with a grin.

Then they got on the magical midnight-blue glass and flew out from under the settlement, skirting below the iron wall and island, searching through the cloudscape of gold-tinged fluffy white for the Creaking Madam.

Those three will get a proper punishment when we catch them.

Bunch of fucking idiots.

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Ruh roh.

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Loopshard - Chapter Eighty

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Spent all day moving to a new apartment. My whole body is sore (. _. ) Also cut up my hand with a butterknife while trying to remove something from a bathroom wall (it's a whole story, lol), so writing is kind of painful while it's healing.

Anyway.

Eight-One will probably be up tomorrow Monday or Tuesday, although Tuesday I'm going on a vacation to Italy. I'll do my best to write when time permits, but I think I'll be able to at most get out 3 new chapters per week.

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Chapter Eighty

“Whatever you do, don’t piss off the people with chains and white cloth,” Emelia told them as they went up the pier to the walkways of Windtop Cove. “They’re from the faction called the White Flags. They run all of the Safe Havens in this Stage.”

“Are they peaceful?” Maalia asked. If Emelia hadn’t been here, Adam was fairly sure the woman would’ve been the one in charge. She seemed way more sure of herself than Leon and Ruimin.

“They are,” Emelia replied. “But they won’t abide by stealing or violence. So don’t piss them off. It’s difficult to get back into their good graces if they kick us out. Not to mention, we might lose our airship.”

Shit.

Unlike previous Stages, it seemed like the NPCs played a much bigger role here, and it was important to understand the dynamic between them, as well as what boundaries they had in place. They might be fine not being able to find shelter for the 3 days they were here, but once the Stages got longer, getting banned from safe zones would be devastating.

If the Tome Keeper is right, then these people aren’t actually NPCs. They’re real living beings.

Given how they often act in predictable ways or how their first phrase to me in a new loop is the same, it is hard to believe. They feel more like thinking and evolving robots than sapient creatures.

But each of them has a backstory, beliefs, personalities, and all the things that make humans what they are. Besides, why would the Tome Keeper mislead me about the reality of the Trials?

It’s just difficult to reconcile, and it means what Maggie did, killing all those Elphin, was mass murder…

Emelia tapped Adam on the shoulder.

“You okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” he replied.

They were following a zigzagging series of metal and wood bridges that led up to the donut-shaped building at the top of the settlement. Apparently this was where they’d get their first clue for the Godstone, as well as a map of their surroundings.

Emelia gave him a sceptical look.

“I was just thinking about something my Patron said,” he admitted, unable to lie to her when he met her eyes.

“Like what?”

“He said everyone is real. All the NPCs and such.”

Emelia frowned.

“What?” Adam asked.

“Arturo said that same thing before we split up the last time. It was part of the reason why he didn’t want to keep going,” she explained. “We have to do some pretty bad things to beat future Stages. So, even if he’s right, it helps to believe that all the denizens of the Trials are no more than very convincing facsimiles.”

Adam sighed. “It’s hard to just switch that part of my brain off.”

“I know,” she replied.

The trio was already two bridges above them, speeding towards the captain’s quarters in the donut building. They hadn’t yet told them that completing Ruimin’s quest was out of the question, and he was worried about how they’d take it, since the three had bonded quickly.

“Why is that building called the captain’s quarters?” Adam asked.

“Because the White Flag’s Captain lives there,” Emelia answered simply. “Although, Windtop Cove used to be an airship, so that might be the main reason.”

He paused and looked around. “I can’t imagine fighting against a ship this size.”

“That’s why they’re the peacekeepers,” Emelia said. “And why pissing them off is a very bad idea. None of the other factions mess with them because they still bear the scars from last time someone drew their ire. You can’t maintain the peace without overwhelming power.”

That’s one way to look at it, Adam mused.

Although, I suppose she’s right. The only reason why a Third World War didn’t manifest in my lifetime is because of the overwhelming power of nuclear weapons and the promise of mutually-assured destruction.

And as time-loopers, maybe that’s what we represent. Overwhelming power, capable of ensuring the peace.

Maybe there’s a way to leverage that power to save everyone in Stage Five?

When the Tome Keeper answered my question about how to save people from that Stage, I got the sense that he was only giving me one answer amongst many.

I probably need to be more specific with my questions, like asking what the easiest way to accomplish something is.

The way he answered my question about how to beat the Trials sounded like it would be quite difficult too, and there may be other ways. Not to mention that, even though he is very knowledgeable, he is not omniscient.

Emelia poked Adam in the cheek.

“You’re doing it again,” she said.

“Sorry,” he replied.

“Come on, let’s catch up to the others before they fuck up our introductions to the captain.”

Adam grinned and brought out his barriers, hopping aboard one and offering his hand to Emelia to get on another. “M’lady.”

Emelia made a face. “Don’t ever say that again,” she scolded him, though she still took his hand.

They flew up past the zigzagging bridges, passing by Leon, Maalia, and Ruimin, all three of whom started sprinting to catch up to them.

“Do we even need an airship?” Emelia joked as Adam deposited them on the landing right outside the captain’s quarters’ rounded walls and door. Two guards in chains and white cloth stood out in front, holding harpoon spears.

“I was thinking the same thing,” Adam replied. “I can probably shape my barriers into a ship, if you wanna keep the aesthetic.”

She laughed.

They waited about a minute for the others to catch up, then Emelia went through the door. Adam followed right behind her.

The interior of the donut-shaped building was quite peculiar. The curving walls were covered in trophies of various beasts’ heads and bones, as well as weapons and scraps of armour plating from the hulls of airships. There were also small stands for treasure, such as large gems, vases, golden tankards, and other such things. Many were ordinary items, which might only be considered treasure because they were covered in gold and studded with gems. The decoration made the place seem like a museum, but then the part of the building closer to the central pillar of the settlement was filled with various plants, couches, beds, and open barrels brimming with foodstuff. The theme seemed to be ‘affluent pirate with no taste’.

They walked around the interior, which had pirates lounging about and chatting loudly, as well as a dozen more guards. Many of the pirates wore different attire than the White Flags, and Adam wondered if they were from other factions.

They reached a large desk made of bone with golden veins running through it. Behind it sat a large musclebound man. He was bald and smooth-shaven, wearing a suit of armour made from chains welded together, and a white cape fell down the back of the chair he was leaning in, his legs up on the table.

Doesn’t really look like a pirate. More like a warlord.

The fact that he looked to be around fifty years old and had barely any scars or visible injuries, might be indicative of his strength, unless he’d inherited his role.

“Captain Drew,” Emelia greeted the man. “My crew and I have come to the Floating Sea in search of a treasure known as the Godstone.”

“Aye,” he replied, his voice gravelly. “I know it.”

“Can you tell us where it is?” Maalia asked.

Emelia glared at her.

Captain Drew glanced between them before looking at Adam.

“Which of these ladies helms your ship?” he asked him.

Would it be incorrect to say we all gave it a go?

“Emelia,” he replied, gesturing to her.

“Then I will speak to her and the rest of you sharpen your ears and stay your tongues.”

Maalia looked poised to say something, but Leon put his hand on her shoulder, stopping her.

“We are of course willing to trade information in exchange,” Emelia went on, as if the interruption hadn’t occurred.

What information?

This was something Emelia hadn’t really told them much about. She had said that it was normal to have to do something in exchange for learning where the Godstone might be, which would start the whole goose chase to find it.

But apparently, she uses a different strategy.

Maybe it’s something that can only be known after coming here?

“Let us hear it then,” Captain Drew said, folding his arms over his chest, still leaning back in his chair. It was made from chains like his armour and had a white cushion.

“The Whale Eaters’ Captain has set sail with his prized ship, heading for the Drakes’ territory, aiming to make a trophy of Mast-Chewer. They have allied themselves with Fallow’s Fallen to gain the firepower needed for the attack.”

The captain sneered. “I knew those poachers were up to something damned! Attacking the Drakes will bring the Golden Fortress into this as well… It’ll be another war that the White Flags have to quell.”

He took his feet off the table and got up from his chair which toppled over backwards hitting the wooden floor with a loud clunk. Then he yanked open a drawer in his bone desk, pulling out a crinkled map that he unfurled in front of them.

Adam peered down at it as the captain spoke and tapped a spot, “This island here is where they say a clue of the Godstone was found. It is some kind of mechanism. I don’t know which of the factions found it, but there was a small fight over it. That’s where I’d check first if I was a treasure-hunting sort.”

The map was like an old hand-drawn one. It showed Windtop Cove and the small islands they’d passed by on the way here, each rendered in colour and good detail. Some islands had names, but most were untitled. There were two additional settlements on it, one to the west called Morgan’s Rest and the other to the southeast called Flotsam. Some islands were shaded in grey or gold, and Adam wondered if it was because of their different elevation from where most things floated, since one matched an island that he’d seen floating above them on the way here. A couple of named places had skulls on them, and a fair few had treasure chests with question marks.

No sooner had he unfurled the map than he rolled it up again and tossed it back into the desk drawer.

We need that map!

“I will pass your news around to my boys,” the captain then said.

“We are actually planning on taking on the Golden Slug,” Emelia told him.

Captain Drew paused before laughing. “With that little thing you brought into my port!?”

“Yes,” Emelia said, the conviction clear in her voice.

He scoffed. “You’ve got guts, little lady,” he said. “Go visit Herrman’s shop, he can upgrade your vessel. Tell you what, I’ll have one of my boys show you the way there. The first upgrade is on me.”

“We’ll take you up on that offer,” Emelia said. “Once we capture the Golden Slug, maybe we’ll swing it by here to show you.”

Captain Drew laughed. “I really hope you’re not just talk, because that I’d want to see!”

He shouted to one of the guards and a harpoon-wielding chain-covered woman came over.

“Take them to Herrman,” he told her. “This madwoman says they’ll take on the Golden Slug. I say we give her ship a little upgrade before we send them off.”

The guard grinned.

I have no idea what is happening other than the fact that Emelia promised him we’d take on the ship that I have the key for…

As the guard led them out of the building and down the walkways, Captain Drew went around to his guards and alerted them to what Emelia had told him. Within moments the whole settlement was buzzing with activity.

“What the hell was all that?” Maalia asked Emelia before Adam could.

“We got lucky,” she replied. “There are a few ways things can shake out in this Stage. One of those ways is what I warned the captain of. I didn’t expect him to gift us a free ship upgrade though. Those are usually hard to come by if you aren’t paying.”

“I still don’t get how you knew all that,” Maalia said.

“It’s because of the ships that were in the port,” Emelia explained. “There are three patterns, as far as I know, for how the factions end up fighting. The one we have here is the Whale Eaters allying with Fallow’s Fallen to attack the faction called the Drakes. The Eaters hunt Slugwhales and Slug Dragons for their trophies, and the Fallen are basically insane pirates who just want to fight no matter the cause, so they joined up with the Eaters just because it gives them a good excuse. The Drakes basically idolise Slug Dragons, hence their faction’s name, and their captain has one of those creatures as his companion. That companion is what the Whale Eaters want to slay. There’s a lot more stuff underneath all that, like the alliance between the Drakes and the Golden Fortress, but the end result is just that a big war will break out in 2 days if nobody stops them. We can take down the Golden Slug airship, which will be super difficult, or we can kill the Drakes’ Slug Dragon ourselves which is also quite tough, or we can do a myriad of other things to sway the outcome, etc. etc.”

“And how is this connected to the ships in the port?” Maalia asked.

“Windtop Cove is the biggest settlement in the Floating Sea, and normally they have representatives from all factions here, aside from Fallow’s Fallen, since those guys are insane. However, there wasn’t any ship flying the flag of the Whale Eaters, because they already got kicked out by the White Flags. That’s the sign that this is the pattern in play. We were very lucky that we found Windtop Cove and got this pattern. Another one would’ve been if we encountered two airships in the beginning belonging to the Fallen. And the third involves the Drakes’ pet Slug Dragon destroying one of the settlements.”

She knows a lot about this Stage, Adam mused.

“Are we going to take on that airship then? The Slug?” Leon asked.

“Not yet,” Emelia told them. “First, we’ll go to the island that Captain Drew told us about and once there we’ll search for clues about the Godstone. I know an easy way to figure out which faction has the thing we need to go from there. After we pick up the trail, we’ll do some exploration to get some Doubloons and upgrades and Relics, and maybe even do some small quests for the people of Windtop since we’re already here. While we could upgrade the Creaking Madam a lot to make it capable of taking on the Golden Slug, we’re better off following the trail of the Godstone to whichever faction took it and then stealing one of their medium-sized airships. That size ship will have the firepower we need, as well as the hull strength to survive taking a few hits head on. Then tomorrow we’ll ram and board the Golden Slug with our stolen ship and take out its crew, stealing it for ourselves. It’s of a classification called super large, so it’s about twice as big as the large airship that was docked at the pier next to ours.”

She really has it all planned out.

We don’t really need to engage with the whole side-story thing to beat the Stage, but she’s no doubt got the best plan for how to complete as much as possible to get ourselves a fat load of Points.

“But we don’t need to do all that, right?” Ruimin replied. “We just have to find the Godstone and do our Patron Quests, that’s it. Right?”

Emelia frowned. “My plan will get everyone at least 15.000 Points.”

They all paused, and Adam grinned as he saw the looks on their faces.

“How’s that possible?” Leon asked. “I barely got half that in the last Stage.”

“If you let me take the lead, I’ll show you,” Emelia said. “We should all be able to get a lot of the bonuses. The Secret Boss and All Objectives rewards are 3.000 Points combined, and that’s on top of all the kill bonuses we’ll get, and the objective rewards.”

“What about our Patron Quests?” Ruimin insisted. “Leon said you didn’t want to do mine.”

Emelia nodded. “We can’t do yours. Summoning the Cloud Leviathan will make it impossible for us to do anything else.”

“What if we wait until the last day to do it?” Maalia suggested.

“No,” Emelia replied firmly.

“I didn’t do the previous quest,” Ruimin said. “The octopus told me to kill someone and sacrifice them. I couldn’t do it… But I don’t have to kill any other Players for this quest. If I don’t do it, he said I will be punished by Nwetrou. Someone in the Tavern said he was punished for outright refusing to do something his Patron asked of him. It reduced his Health by 90%… I don’t want to get that kind of weakness. I won’t survive if I get it.”

Emelia looked Ruimin directly in the eyes. “I’m sorry, but we just can’t do it. We won’t be able to clear the Stage if it’s summoned.”

Adam wanted to mediate the tension in the air between them, especially when he saw the looks on Leon and Maalia’s faces. But he knew Emelia was doing it to protect them. If it was something even Arturo warned about, then it had to be dangerous. And Nwetrou was a kind of Absolute who definitely seemed like he didn’t care about his adherents dying to fulfil his quest.

What a difficult situation…

Their guard came to a stop, having ignored their entire conversation up until now.

“Are you lot coming?” she asked, her voice surprisingly feminine despite her tough appearance and shaved head.

No one said anything else as they followed after the guard, continuing towards Herrman’s shop.

I just hope they won’t hold it against us.

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---Next chapter----

Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Nine

-Previous chapter-
---Next chapter----

Rewrote the ending of the chapter a little bit after discussing the mechanism with one of the readers on discord.

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Chapter Seventy-Nine

“Nice work, you two,” Emelia praised Adam and Leon.

“Maybe I should try to use my bow against the next ship,” Maalia contemplated.

Leon gave Adam a nod. “I didn’t realise there was magic like this in the Trials,” he said.

“Adam is a bit of an outlier,” Emelia commented. “It’s a very specific setup he has. But if you’d gone with one of the throwing-based evolutions for Lancer, you could probably have a similar setup capable of taking out airships.”

“Do you think I could reflect one of their bolts with my shield?” he asked.

To Adam’s surprise, Emelia nodded. “It’s possible,” she replied.

“That seems pretty reckless,” Adam commented.

“What if you don’t time it right?” Ruimin agreed.

“I was able to reflect the Tower Crawler’s hand in the last Stage,” Leon boasted. “We were able to kill it thanks to that.”

I didn’t realise that was possible. But it does sound like you’re always one mistake away from certain death if you try to parry devastating projectiles or magic like that…

They were coasting through the clouds at a leisurely pace now that there were no enemy ships in sight. Maalia had spotted an island, but Emelia insisted they try to locate a settlement first. They could usually find a map of the surrounding area at a settlement, and if they sold a Relic or two, then they’d be able to afford some special ballista bolts among other cool things for their ship.

This Stage and future ones each operated on a unique currency, which meant they couldn’t just use Points to buy stuff. In the Sea of Floating Gold, that currency was Doubloons. Selling a Relic inside the Stage would give them some of this currency, though Adam thought it was kind of a waste. It was also possible to buy Stage-specific Relics with Doubloons, but Emelia had said that there weren’t a lot of Relics here that would be super useful to him, apart from an Armour Relic to replace his Slothling Fur Coat.

I guess that last Stage was the magic-based one, and then this is the… Actually what theme is this??

Emelia hadn’t clarified what the other loot was besides the Legendary Relic, which was a Weapon Relic, similar to the Fiendbarb, except it didn’t have any major drawback.

She’s probably hoping to get that one for herself, since it didn’t sound like I could use it.

The Legendary Relic was called Captain Fallow’s Treasure, and on top of imbuing a weapon with a special affliction that they could encounter in Stage Seven called Gold-cursed, it also allowed the wielder to make the weapon fight for them on its own. In a way it was similar to what Alepheria’s Mandate allowed Adam to do with his summons, but Emelia said that it had synergy with Second Sheath and basically let the user fight with two weapons at the same time. She apparently had some kind of insane build in mind if she could get it.

While the others talked amongst themselves, Emelia showed Adam her new armour.

< < Relic > >

< Body of Sloth (Epic) — Increases Player Defence by 25% | Increases Movement Speed by 25% | Increases Damage by 1% for every 3% Movement Speed | Taking damage reduces all Movement Speed bonuses to 0% for 1 minute >

That’s really strong. But taking a hit with this is pretty devastating.

“And that’s from the Secret Boss?” he asked.

Emelia nodded. “I already have quite a lot of Speed, and the interaction between this damage boost and the ones from my weapons are multiplicative, so just putting this on gives me almost 100% extra Damage when I’m up close to a target.”

“Holy shit,” he muttered.

No wonder Riccardo’s head turned into a fine mist… That’s actually terrifying.

It’s like all of her punches have the same impact as a hit from my triple-fused barrier.

“Does your Damage translate into anything you hit?” he asked. “Like, can you spike a ball to deliver insane damage at long distance?”

Emelia laughed. “I wish. Although there is a weapon like that in Stage Eleven. It’s a ball on a chain that can be evolved to deal damage based on how fast it’s moving. With the right setup, it should be able to vaporise bosses.”

“Didn’t you say there was a secret weapon in this Stage that you know about?” Adam recalled.

“It’s cursed,” Emelia replied. “Wielding it makes you go insane, although it comes with a special skill that is very powerful. I ran into someone who had the sword in my last loop. It took four of us to kill him…”

“And you know how to get it?” Adam asked.

“We’re not going there,” she replied. “But yes. It’s very easy to find and obtain, actually. Which is how you know it’s a trap.”

Leon came over to where Adam and Emelia stood near the bow as Maalia climbed back up to the crow’s nest and Ruimin went to the helm to take the wheel.

Emelia kept an eye on the axe-wielder. She probably didn’t trust them implicitly now that things had gone off the rails from the get-go.

“Emelia,” Leon started, “is it true you’re really from the future?”

She turned to face him. “That’s right.”

“So you know how we can all complete our Patron Quests?” he asked. There was a hint of desperation in his voice.

Maybe he failed in the last Stage and is worried of failing again? Adam wondered.

“You chose Nharlla, right?” she replied.

Leon looked surprised that she knew, but then nodded.

“That means you have to kill the Half Mimic. I know which ship he navigates, so don’t worry about completing the quest,” she replied.

He looked quite relieved by the answer. “I couldn’t understand the quest at all,” he admitted.

Emelia nodded as if that was normal, which it probably was, given the nature of his Patron.

“Who does Ruimin worship?” Adam asked, looking towards the Berserker.

Emelia opened her mouth to reply, but then Leon answered, “She said it’s someone called Nwetrou.”

Adam frowned and Emelia froze, mouth half-agape.

“Shit,” she muttered.

A cluster of three islands were coming up on their right and Adam stood in the crow’s nest with Emelia, using his telescope to look for a settlement. They’d passed six islands so far, but they were going until they found somewhere hospitable to anchor and get their bearings, much to the rest of the team’s dismay. They clearly wanted to make landfall and explore, but Emelia warned that it was a waste of time and energy until they had a broader picture of their surroundings, something they could only get from finding a settlement.

They were about 2 hours into their 3-day timer so far and making good speed according to Emelia. Although the configuration of the Floating Sea varied every time she’d come here, a settlement could always be found by taking a straight line from the start of the Stage and following it for a few hours.

The others had found the rations in the hold of the ship, down by the broadside ballistae, and they were currently chatting and snacking while each of them took turns on the wheel. Adam kind of wanted to control the ship too, but right now wasn’t the time to play around.

“How the hell did I miss that!?” Emelia hissed for the tenth time in the last few minutes, clearly angry with herself. “Riccardo always worships the Flayed Lady, that much is normal, although him switching to the Blood Mage weapon was unusual. But that’s my fault, because I wasn’t looking for Blood Mages after Stage Five. But Nwetrou… I’ve been searching for his adherents nonstop. I thought for sure I’d caught them all!”

The way she phrased that makes it sound like she hunted them down, one by one…

Adam peeled his eye from the telescope to look down at Ruimin.

“She doesn’t look evil,” he said.

“No one looks evil just because of who they worship,” Emelia replied. “And I don’t think she has used the Abyssal Tooth, but I’m not sure. If she used it in Stage Five, then it wouldn’t yet make a difference. I guess I won’t find out until my next loop…”

“Leon was pretty upset that you told him we wouldn’t do her quest,” Adam added. “They seem to have bonded quickly.”

Emelia sighed. “Normally this is such a great team. Fuck! I must’ve messed something up! She’s supposed to get the Masked Courtesan and have a quest to find a lost airship… Now she’s got the fucking Cloud Leviathan quest!”

Cloud Leviathan? That sounds ominous.

“What’s that?” Adam asked.

“Like a Slug Dragon on steroids. It’s an enormous monster that can’t be defeated as far as I know, and it’ll fly around the Stage, devouring all the islands and airships. If it appears, we won’t survive.”

“How do you know about it?”

“Arturo told me,” Emelia said. “He was only able to survive because he’d already cleared the main objective and was able to get back to the Godstone before the Leviathan devoured the temple island.”

“Did he worship Nwetrou?” Adam asked.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. We just can’t let her do that quest, no matter what.”

“We can just explain how bad it is to her,” Adam suggested. “They’ll understand.”

“She might not,” Emelia replied. “If she didn’t complete the first quest, failing the second will give her a punishment.”

Adam frowned. “I didn’t know that was a thing,” he said.

“Not all of the Absolutes rebuke their adherents for failing repeatedly, but Nharlla and Nwetrou both do. I’m guessing the Flayed Lady too, now that I truly understand what her deal is.”

I wonder if the Tome Keeper would also punish me for failing to find Alepheria.

“What is the Flayed Lady’s quest for this Stage?” Adam asked.

“I don’t know,” Emelia replied. “Normally Riccardo refuses to tell me. But I don’t think he ever did it. As I recall, he was very upset with picking her. This time was different though…”

“It’s probably another Player-killing quest,” Adam said.

“I wonder if your Patron is the reason Riccardo changed,” Emelia contemplated. “It’s a rare one, right?”

Adam nodded. “Yeah. And he and the Flayed Lady clearly don’t get along.”

“So, maybe she mind-controlled him or something, since she knew you would be in this Stage with Riccardo.”

“You think the Absolutes are that petty?” Adam asked sceptically.

“Definitely,” she replied.

They continued sailing for maybe 20 more minutes until Adam spotted a strangely-shaped island. It was like a crescent of white rock and chalk deposits with tufts of vibrant green grass running along its top and a huge wood-and-metal monstrosity clinging to it like a barnacle.

“I see what might be a settlement!” Adam yelled down from the crow’s nest to Emelia who was back at the helm.

They had been lucky to not run into any pirates other than the first airship, and apparently this was another stroke of luck.

“It’s Windtop Cove!” Emelia exclaimed excitedly as she ran to the bow and looked out.

That’s the one she said was the biggest of the settlements in this Stage.

Adam used a barrier to float down from the crow’s nest to the front where she stood.

“Are we cool to just sail in?” he asked.

She cast him a grin, their earlier misfortune momentarily forgotten. “Do you know how to parallel park?” she asked.

“What?”

“Come on,” she said, grabbing his arm and pulling him to the helm.

She then proceeded to instruct him on how to control the ship while shouting orders at the other three Players to rein in the sails. With the boost from the sails gone, the propellers and side fins were the only means of propulsion they had, significantly lowering their speed.

Emelia showed him a lever on the side of the block the wheel was attached to, which if pulled all the way down would turn off the fins and propellers. It could also be pulled up and down incrementally to allow for fine control, something that was necessary when ‘parking’.

I feel like I’m back in driver’s ed…

After Leon, Maalia, and Ruimin were done trussing the sails, they went over to the edge of the Creaking Madam and watched the large settlement they were approaching. Meanwhile Adam did his best not to crash the ship, since it was completely under his control now. Emelia stood next to him, occasionally touching the wheel or throttling the speed lever when an adjustment was necessary.

The crescent island looked like a large chunk had been bitten out of it centuries before, and in the hollow inside it a large structure had been built, fastened to the curving walls of the island. Additional metal walls extended out from either side of the island where the rock and sediment couldn’t reach, creating a funnel that all ships had to pass through. These metal walls were fastened to the central structure of the settlement with massive chains running up to its peak, where a large balloon kept the place from collapsing under its own weight.

With every second that passed, the bigger the settlement became. Adam hadn’t realised just how enormous the place was until he was slowly floating in through its entrance funnel and had enough clearance on either side of him for two more ships to pass by.

At the top of the entrance funnel was a large white banner, which seemed to indicate that the place was peaceful, and just above it was a mechanism for dropping three large chains down in front of the entrance, barring ships from coming and going.

It’s weird, even though we’re basically flying, I don’t think it’s possible for our ship to go under the walls. At least I don’t see any way to adjust the elevation of the airship.

In effect, the Floating Sea was really just like a normal sea, with an invisible waterline that most ships and islands floated along. Although, Adam had seen some islands higher up and further down than them, but he wasn’t sure how they’d get to those without making some modification to their ship or using his barriers as vehicles.

I don’t know if I can carry all five of us, but it should work.

Once they were past the entrance, the actual settlement came into view, with the nearest thing being a pier that housed a total of twelve airships, with six slots currently occupied by vessels the same size as theirs, and one holding a ship twice as large.

< < Settlement Discovered > >

< Windtop Cove >

[Across the Floating Sea of Gold there are Safe Havens to be discovered. These places offer opportunities to trade using Stage-specific currencies, places for you to sleep and eat, as well as means by which you may resupply and scout out the surrounding area.]

The three Players at the front of the ship looked back at Emelia.

Adam knew what they were thinking: “This is exactly like she said.”

It’s one thing to have someone know your name, but knowing about unseen features of the Trials is hard to explain as a lucky guess. Especially when coupled with the certainty and confidence Emelia has.

“Take us over to that spot,” Emelia said, pointing them over to the open space next to the large airship.

The vessel had three masts and four large fins on either side of it, though they currently hung down below it as they were switched off. A bank of six round propellers covered the back of the ship, connected to a large rudder, and five holes in its broadside showed it had some serious firepower.

“That’s classified as a large airship,” Emelia explained. “What we sunk was a small one, which rewards 100 Points. A large gives 300.”

“Can we steal it?” Adam immediately asked.

Emelia grinned. “Of course. It would be difficult to control with just five of us, but it’s possible.”

Adam pulled the throttle all the way down and their wings drooped and ended up hanging below the ship as they slowly coasted into place. He wasn’t quite sure how they were going to back out though, since he didn’t see a way for them to reverse.

No sooner had they come to a stop next to the pier than three large metal chains with rings attached descended towards the middle of their ship. Emelia hopped down from the helm and ran over to the front where the others stood. Her body moved effortlessly fast, thanks to her tremendous speed.

She reached down next to the floor between the turrets and grabbed a handle, opening up a hatch and pulling out a hook on a thick metal wire. With a casual toss, she threw the hook through one of the rings hanging near the centre of the main deck, catching it in the first try.

“Adam! Get the one on the right side of the stern!” Emelia shouted to him, while running back up to the helm as well.

He found a hatch at the back of the helm’s deck and opened it to reveal another hook on a wire. Emelia pulled a third hook out from the left side of the helm and threw it through a ring with ease. She gestured for Adam to try it as well, but he just presented the hook to her.

“Don’t you wanna go for the hat-trick?” he asked.

She grinned and took the hook, then threw it through the last ring.

Adam clapped politely.

As soon as the last hook was attached the metal chains slowly started pulling up into the ceiling of the settlement, where large triangular panels sprouted out from the central structure below the enormous balloon like an umbrella. It shaded the place from most of the light coming in from above, but golden sunlight still spilled in from below, giving everything a strange appearance thanks to the shadows pointing up instead of down. Hoists and chains covered the ceiling directly above the port, and this was what all of the airships were tethered to. He saw that the chains connected their ship to a crane-like mechanism on a double-jointed arm that allowed for their ship to be manoeuvred a lot within the pier. It also seemed that it was capable of spinning, truly giving the operators a lot of control over their vessel.

As Adam looked up, he saw eyes glinting in the light and staring down at them.

What the hell are those? he wondered, slightly creeped out.

Adam continued looking around. The cove was almost entirely filled with the settlement, the only clear space being the area in front of the entrance where ships were secured. The wooden piers were tied together with chains and bounced up and down gently with the bobbing ships. Metal pylons here-and-there secured everything to the central pillar, above which the balloon kept the place afloat. Bridges and walkways crisscrossed the space, and it was like a strange 3D spiderweb, with buildings seemingly placed at random. At the very top of the settlement was a donut-shaped building below the umbrella roof and balloon, and his immediate guess was that whoever ruled this place lived there.

Around on the metal walls of the entrance funnel were large ballistae with nasty-looking harpoons attached to chains, and he had no doubt they would pin and tear apart any airship that tried to enter or leave without permission.

Emelia had gone back down onto the main deck and was telling the others to stay put until it was done.

Until what is done?

Suddenly a tug pulled on the entire ship and he stumbled a step. The crane that the three chains were attached to pulled them further down the pier before taking them on a gentle turn, spinning them around and dragging them back up the pier, so that they were facing the other way. All the while, the creatures in the ceiling kept barking orders at each other. It had taken only half a minute at most, but solved the issue of backing out from their parking spot.

Since Adam didn’t have to steer the ship anymore, he went down to the others as two men covered in large grey chains and white cloth came down the end of their pier. Each of them had harpoon-shaped lances and were bulked out in muscle, making them look pretty intimidating. One of them grabbed something at the end of the pier that Adam hadn’t noticed, tossing it across to the side of their ship after attaching it to hooks on the edge of the pier itself. It was a gangplank.

Emelia was the first to go down the plank to where the men awaited them, but the rest of their team quickly followed with Adam bringing up the rear.

“Welcome to Windtop Cove,” said one of the guards.

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---Next chapter----

Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Eight

-Previous chapter-
---Next chapter----

Chapter 79 will go up Friday August 1st. Sorry for the delay.

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Chapter Seventy-Eight

< < Now Entering > >

< Stage 7 >

< The Sea of Floating Gold >

< 3-day Timer >

Adam awoke to find himself in the grips of a cutscene. Golden light filled his eyes as he ran along a grey-brown wooden deck, adjusting the control lines to change the angle of the mainsail. Around him worked four other people, though he couldn’t really tell what they looked like, although one of them was definitely Emelia. A sixth person remained at the helm, apparently controlling the ship’s heading in concert with what Adam and the rest were doing.

I don’t even know how to control a ship, but this cutscene is making me quite proficient, he mused as he continued rapidly adjusting the jib sail at the bow of the ship.

He wasn’t knowledgeable about ships in the slightest, but he could tell that this wasn’t an ordinary sailboat, though it had a lot in common with the bulky vessels that pirates were known to have used in ages past. However, it only had two masts and they were shorter than they ought to be, each just consisting of one large sail and topsail. There was also only one jib sail and it was tied to the bowsprit jutting out from the front. Underneath it was a figurehead of a voluptuous woman in a dress and shawl carved from wood, though it was split and cracked from age and wear. At the front were also two small ballistae.

As Adam ran back up the deck towards the helm, he saw two large fins, like those on a whale, stretching out from the side of the ship and flapping lazily through the clouds as their vessel moved forward. Although he couldn’t see them, he also heard the buzz of propellers from the back of the ship, down somewhere near the rudder.

We really are sailing through the air, he realised.

It was such a peculiar notion and he hadn’t understood it fully until he was actually here, despite seeing the ships in the painting and hearing Emelia’s explanation.

He ran up the six steps from the main deck to the raised helm. There were steps on either side of the deck leading up to it, and between them was a small stairwell leading down to a door that was likely the captain’s quarters. There was a bigger staircase in the centre of the ship that probably led to the rest of the sleeping areas, as well as the broadside ballistae that Emelia had mentioned.

The Player in front of the wheel let go to look at him and the others as they arrived. Then they all positioned themselves in a circle, just like at the start of Stage Six.

As Adam looked across the other five Players, he had a flashback to the memories he’d seen in the Scale of Remembrance. He knew that two of them were not those who should originally have been here.

Emelia stood almost directly opposite Adam and looked incredibly powerful thanks to the two massive metal gauntlets covering her hands. They were bulky things made of rusted metal and seemed like they’d pack quite the punch. A rosary and flanged mace hung from her right hip belt, and though it was hard to see because of her gauntlets, he noticed that she still had the Duellist’s Glove on her right hand. She also had two First Strike Earrings and the Slothling Spring Boots, but most interestingly was the new armour she wore. She had the Chimaera Helmet and something that looked similar to Adam’s Slothling Fur Coat, except slimmer and with a layer of bone-white armour covering her arms and legs, similar to the appearance of the Slothling Dervishes he had summoned in the last Stage. This was clearly the reward from killing the Secret Boss summoned in the ritual chamber of Alepheria’s Tower. She didn’t have a necklace as far as he could tell, but she still had the Blue Trophy on her belt, alongside the Yellow Trophy, which let her boost both Damage and Speed for 10 seconds respectively. Emelia also had a stone orb floating in front of her, next to her cube.

That’s the Hardmode orb!

Its eye was currently green, meaning it was switched off.

I must be right that it only shows up after you’ve already beaten a Stage, since I don’t have one here.

Next to her was a woman with tan-brown skin, holding a large bow, and wearing the Magical Quiver, the Sanctuary Defender’s Robes, the Barrage and Duellist’s Gloves, and a necklace he’d never seen before. Her black hair was tied behind her head in a ponytail and she had thick eyebrows that curved up in the corners, making her look quite serious. Adam couldn’t figure out if she was Middle Eastern or Asian from her appearance.

Between her and Adam stood a muscular and tall European man with red skin and chemical-blonde hair. A large black tattoo of a Viking knot took up the skin on the back of his neck, and he wore the Forlorn Cuirass and had the unmistakeable black eye from the Slothling Ogre Eye Relic. In his hands were a spear and a mirror shield, making it clear he had the Gorgon Slayer evolution of Spear Dancer. This meant he could reflect projectiles and magic, which could be quite strong, but it was strange he had picked the Forlorn Cuirass and Ogre Eye as his Relics, since they both made him slower, counteracting the damage boost that the Spear Dancer gave based on Movement Speed.

He's probably more of a tank, I would guess, since he focused on defensive Relics.

To Adam’s left was another woman, making their group an even split of genders. She had purple-dyed hair and looked Asian, possibly Chinese. In her hands were two axes that had saw-toothed edges. Adam didn’t recognise the weapons, but thought it was similar to the ones that the Berserker had used in Stage Five, though his weapons had engravings and decorations of wolves, while these just looked like they were meant to inflict as much bleeding as possible. She wore the Flesh Smith’s Skin-Robe, Captain’s Cape, and the Green Slime Glove, as well as the Choice Ring.

Hopefully I can convince her to let me use that ring.

Emelia mentioned that there’s a powerful Legendary Relic in this Stage, he recalled from her briefing in the Tavern. Would be nice to get that.

The last person was maybe Italian or Spanish based on his features, but his skin had a sickly pallor to it, like he was anaemic. He had armour that looked like it was made of hardened blood and wore the Blood Mage Choker, as well as the Blood Fist and Blood Bolt Rings. His weapons were the Blood Mage tattoos, which surprised Adam, since Emelia hadn’t mentioned anything about such a Player being in their group.

Quite a grisly theme going on with him…

To make things worse, the guy was staring directly at Adam, his pupils like pinpricks of black and the whites of his eyes stained with large red veins.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

The cutscene let go of them all and Emelia immediately started to speak, only for the anaemic guy to cut her off by pointing at Adam and shouting, “He’s a mimic!”

Ah, shit.

“I’m not a mimic,” Adam replied calmly, trying to deescalate the situation, but realising it was the exact thing the Hahn mimic had said in the last Stage.

“Liar!” the man screamed, raising his hand at Adam.

Before anyone could react, Emelia smashed her gauntlet through his head, literally turning it into a mist of blood. The girl to Adam’s left screamed and hopped over the railing of the helm and down to the main deck.

“Everybody, relax!” Emelia yelled.

The blonde lancer and girl with the bow backed towards the stern, glancing between Adam and Emelia. Although they hadn’t raised their weapons, it looked like they were only seconds from attacking them.

“What the fuck is going on??” exclaimed the European guy in a slightly German accent.

The woman next to the guy looked at Adam. “Why are there six people in this group? It’s supposed to only be five, right? What if that guy was speaking the truth?? How do you prove you’re not a mimic!?”

Fucking hell… This has devolved quickly.

Emelia moved to Adam’s side.

“That guy isn’t supposed to have the Blood Mage weapon,” Emelia whispered. “Normally he has the rapier. I think something changed with him between the sixth and seventh Stage…”

“Are we fighting!?” yelled the woman who’d been the first to run.

“Nobody is fighting!” Adam yelled. Then he summoned his barriers and commanded them to spin around him. “Look! Do you think a mimic could do this? I don’t know if you’ve actually fought a human mimic, but I have! They don’t use their weapons, they transform their bodies to fight.”

The blonde spear-wielder looked uncertain, as did the archer.

Once the seed of doubt is planted, uprooting it becomes an exercise in futility…

[The timer has begun,] the five remaining cubes announced.

< < Stage Objective > >

< Find the Godstone in the Sea of Floating Gold >

“Come back up here, Ruimin Jiang,” Emelia told the girl with the axes.

Her head popped up at the bottom of the steps to the helm. “How do you know my name?”

“I’m a time-traveller,” Emelia explained. She turned and pointed at the blonde guy. “You’re Leon Schmid.” Then she pointed at the archer. “And you’re Maalia Lynge.”

“And what about him?” Leon asked, aiming his spear at Adam.

“We already know each other,” I replied. “But I’m Adam Fischer.”

“Did you really have to kill that guy?” Maalia asked, looking at the headless body.

“If I didn’t, he would have killed Adam and maybe the rest of us as well,” Emelia explained. “Blood Mages are very dangerous. They can use your own blood against you.”

Adam had a pretty good idea of why the guy had singled him out.

“He worshipped the Flayed Lady,” Adam announced, walking over to the corpse to check the loot.

< < Loot ­— Riccardo D’Alia > >

< Blood Mage Choker (Epic) >

< Blood Fist Ring (Rare) >

< Blood Bolt Ring (Rare) >

< Benevolence of Blood Sigil (Common) >

< Shard of Blood >

Adam immediately pulled out the Sigil and Shard, dropping both on the floor next to Riccardo’s body. The Sigil landed with a wet splat since it was still attached to a flap of pale skin.

< < Quest Object > >

< Shard of Blood — The crystallised lifeblood of Fiona Jefferson >

< < Unique Relic > >

< Benevolence of Blood Sigil (Common) — Drains 40% of Riccardo D’Alia’s Health to cover him in a layer of reactive armour that is highly resistant to magic >

Shit. It’s almost like that Blood Sigil was meant to counteract me.

And it’s attuned specifically to Riccardo…

The Tome Keeper did say that his adherents, which would include me, are often ‘under siege’ by her ‘fiends’. Would Riccardo be one of those fiends?

Adam stepped away from the Relics.

“Look,” he told them.

Leon and Maalia slowly came over to look, but Ruimin remained at the foot of the stairs, clearly not taking any chances.

“That Sigil is a gift from his Patron,” Adam told them. “And the Shard of Blood is something he got from killing another Player.”

“How do you know all this?” Maalia asked suspiciously.

“Because my Patron told me. He deals with knowledge and is directly opposed to the Flayed Lady, who has a theme of blood going on,” Adam said. “Plus, in my last group, someone worshipping her killed another Player and got a similar Quest Object with his name on it.”

Emelia gave him a curious look. He hadn’t told her about the stuff with the Flayed Lady and his Patron, but he also hadn’t assumed it would end up being so immediately relevant.

I’m doing the same as her, keeping information to myself because I didn’t believe it was necessary for her to know…

Still, I’m not sure what I could’ve done differently here.

No doubt the Flayed Lady whispers into the ears of her adherents, similar to how Nharlla kept telling James that Gladwyn and I were lying.

Emelia pulled the rest of Riccardo’s loot out of his body, and then she threw his headless corpse over the side of the airship.

“Alright, we need to get ready,” she said. “Split the loot from his body between yourselves, then we need to get to our stations.”

Adam took the Sigil, Maalia grabbed the Choker, and Ruimin and Leon both grabbed a ring each.

“Maalia, you are worshipping Messimer, right?” Emelia asked.

The woman nodded.

“Then I need you in the crow’s nest as our lookout. Adam, you’ll help with the sails alongside Ruimin, and Leon, I need you to man the ballistae.”

Everyone, including Adam, looked at her in surprise. She’d taken command so effortlessly.

“Chop, chop!” she then exclaimed, and they all got to their posts.

Maalia hopped down onto the main deck and ran to the foremast, and then she climbed up the ratlines to the crow’s nest up past the foresail. The ship didn’t have any gaff sails, which was kind of odd, but Adam guessed that the fins on the sides had replaced their purpose.

Wait, how do I know all of this?

It was like the Stage had gifted him the knowledge for how to operate the ship, similar to how picking up weapons made him understand how to use them.

Adam went over to one of the control lines for the mainsail attached to the mast rising from in front of the stairs to the captain’s quarters, and Ruimin ran down to the lines for the foresail. As Emelia turned the wheel, she yelled out their heading and they adjusted the sails accordingly, trying to catch the wind as best they could.

Emelia yelled back and forth with Maalia, who was the only one that could really see what lay before them with any clarity.

“There’s a ship coming up on our right!” the archer suddenly exclaimed.

Emelia turned to Adam. “There are two smaller anti-personnel ballistae at the bow, but I think you might be able to sink their ship with your barrier attack.”

“Are we losing any loot from not boarding it?” he asked.

In her briefing she had told them that most ships could have a chest or two on board, but they only needed to obtain 60% of all available chests to get the Plunderer bonus, and boarding ships was dangerous and inefficient.

“This first ship should only have an Upgrade Chest,” she replied. “Just take it out of the air as quickly as you can.”

Leon was down below, waiting for orders to fire the ballistae. He should already have loaded bolts onto all four of them, and as Adam ran to the front, switching positions with Ruimin, he saw the head of one of the projectiles poking out through a square hole in the side of the hull, a few metres above where the fins were.

At the bow of the ship were the ballistae Emelia had mentioned, and they looked like machine gun turrets, although they were single-shot mechanisms that needed to be hand-cranked back after every shot. Replacement bolts sprouted from a barrel next to each of them.

The airship, the Creaking Madam as it was called, had limited supplies, though it could in theory sail forever. Adam counted twenty replacement bolts for each of the two front turrets, and if they ran out, they’d have to go to a settlement to buy more or find them on enemy ships or one of the countless islands floating in the sea of clouds.

He stepped up onto the small step at the bow, staring past the bowsprit jutting out from the ‘nose’ of the ship. Gold-tinged clouds floated above and below them, as well as out in the horizon, making it hard to see much of anything, though he noticed a dark smudge in the distance, as well as the silhouette of faraway islands.

Adam brought out the Navigator’s Telescope he’d looted from the end of Stage Six, and once he brought it up to his eye he was able to get a clear look at the airship moving towards them.

It looked somewhat similar to the Creaking Madam in design, although instead of grey-brown wood, it was covered in white-painted planks with black spots wherever the paint had flaked away. Its shape was also sharper than their ship and its sails were smaller, though it had three fins on either side to compensate. The figurehead at the front was an actual skeleton with lanterns in its eyes, and at the back flew a white flag with a golden skull on it. Unlike the two front turrets that their ship had, the enemy had a large ballista placed at the bow instead, and they were aiming it while heading right for them as fast as possible.

At least ten figures filled up the main deck of the enemy ship, and through his telescope he got an uncomfortably-good look at their features. They were humans for sure, but their skin slouched on their bones and their leather and cloth attire was stained and devastated by age. A few of them had their actual bones exposed, and these had golden veins worming through them like some kind of disease.

Gold-cursed Pirates Emelia called them. Checks out.

The airship was more than 300 metres away and he doubted he’d be able to hit it yet.

Emelia yelled out the order for them to adjust the sails, and no sooner had he fixed the control lines for the foresail than they banked left. He didn’t understand why she’d given the order, until a huge bolt suddenly passed between their masts, narrowly missing both of their sails.

Holy shit! Those ballistae have an insane range!

Could I actually hit them from here with my barrier?

Their broadside lined up with the enemy ship that was rapidly closing the distance, and before Emelia even yelled the order, Leon fired his first shot.

The bolt soared through the air, skimming the top of a gold-tinged cloud but undershot the ship. A moment later, Leon fired a second bolt, and this one tore a hole through the foresail of the enemy vessel.

“Nice shot!” Adam yelled down to him, though he wondered if the spear-wielder could hear him.

Guess I should give it a try.

It only cost him about 18 Mana to summon a barrier now, which meant that he could summon and fire twelve times before exhausting himself.

Thanks to the increased Manipulation Effect, he was able to triple-fuse his barrier with very little hassle, despite the wandering eye panning around randomly.

Almost the exact moment he’d finished his fusions, an enemy bolt passed right in front of their ship, close enough for it to ruffle his hair with the wind it produced.

I’m mega dead if one of those hits me…

Alright, here goes nothing.

Adam spun up the barrier while shaping it into a spike. Emelia had tried to talk him into doing a cannonball shape, but after a bit of testing in the Player House, he’d realised it was much more difficult to induce the right kind of spin to make a ball fly where he wanted it as opposed to the spike shape he was familiar with.

If this one misses, then I’ll try the cannonball though.

With a mental command through Alepheria’s Mandate and his own best guess at the angle he needed, Adam shot the barrier at the enemy vessel. The ship was flying almost straight for them, as though aiming to ram their ship and board it.

A loud zipping whine rang out from the barrier as it soared through the air, blowing open a hole in a cloud as it passed through.

Maalia tracked the projectile as it flew at the enemy vessel, her bow ready in her hands, but the distance was still too far for her to meaningfully contribute. Ruimin also stopped what she was doing to watch.

A grin spread across Adam’s face as the barrier projectile tore straight through the skeleton figurehead and gutted the inside of the airship, exploding out next to the rudder and probably destroying one of the propellers at the back, though it was impossible to see.

“Hit!” Maalia shouted.

The enemy ship immediately started to tilt and change its heading. Then a bolt from Leon’s ballista struck the foremast, collapsing it onto a bunch of the pirates.

Adam shot another spike barrier a few moments later, skimming it along the hull and destroying the entire right side, dislodging the three fins.

The airship completely lost its ability to stay afloat, even though the mainsail and left-side fins were undamaged.

It looks like there’s some integrity limit or something required to keep a ship airborne. That’s something to keep in mind.

[Small airship defeated,] announced their cubes, while the vessel sank below the clouds, the pirates aboard it falling alongside it.

I wonder what the landing is like.

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 28

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That's unfortunately it for Madman this week. Only managed 3 chapters since I was studying quite a bit and next week I'm switching back to Loopshard.

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Chapter 28

I used my Blink ability to figure out if the teleport trap was still in effect, but since it was pitch black in the death box, I had to use it a few times to figure out of it was really returning me to the center every time or not.

“Bee, come over here,” I said.

I heard her footsteps in the darkness as she wandered over.

“Grab my sleeve,” I told her.

“Oy!” Brock exclaimed as she yanked on his body.

“Sorry,” Bee replied.

The transport cage in my front pocket glowed briefly as Lordie emerged from within and landed on my head.

“Meow?”

“Yeah, he’s gone,” I told him.

“Me-ow?”

“No, we’re stuck in here. But I know a way out,” I said.

“Are you gonna use Dungeon-Break?” Bee asked.

“That’s right.”

“Teleporting directly to where the dungeon boss is might work,” Panda said.

“It might also just return us to here. There’s no sense risking it, so I’ll just eject us all,” I replied and activated the ability.

“That might be a bad idea,” Panda warned.

ACTIVATING DUNGEON MAP

Total Player number: 19

Nearest Player: 8702 meters

Total Enemy number: 215

Nearest Enemy: 8642 meters

Nearest Boss: 8897 meters

Nearest Exit: 8897 meters

The map that appeared just showed the box we were inside and nothing else. The main part of the dungeon was clearly super far away inside the space that appeared on the map. It kind of reminded me of how the amphitheater and Riii’s production facility had been way outside the main part of the Weaponlution Event map.

“Was the map always in meters?” Bee asked.

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter,” I replied.

Then I clicked ‘Eject All Players & Enemies’.

[Ability Confirmation Required]

WARNING!

You are about to utilize your Dungeon-Break Ability to eject all Players and Enemies from the Dungeon, yourself included. All Players, Enemies, and Bosses will be ejected out through the entrance to the Dungeon.

The moment you accept you will be ejected.

Are you certain you wish to proceed?

YES — NO

I clicked ‘Yes’ and then we fell through the floor.

***

Bee and I landed outside the entrance to Castleburg Prison alongside the people we’d met in the first chamber, minus one janitor, as well as Isabella and seven other guards in riot gear. She looked more or less like I remembered her, although she didn’t have the two-handed sword or spark tube and her level was much lower.

She had an angular and imposing face, and her black hair was tied in a long ponytail. Like the other guards, she wore a full suit of riot gear, though she didn’t have a helmet like the others had. A shield was strapped to her back and a baton hung from her waist on a loop. All other weapons she might’ve had in the past, like guns, were gone.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 6 — ‘Isabella’ — Player

“I don’t get paid enough to deal with this shit.”

Class: Guard

Main Attribute(s): Vitality

This woman used to work at Castleburg Prison, and for some reason, when the weapons disappeared in the week before the initialization, she made sure all the prisoners remained in their cells and that the prison’s employees didn’t shirk their duties. She’s responsible for so many of the workers and guards still being here.

When the GREAT GAME began, the prison transformed into a Hybrid Dungeon, where only the inmates became monsters. The guards and other workers remained human, but they were stuck and had to fight their way out. She would have been the person to save them, but then you came along and ejected the entire population of the Dungeon.

Fun fact, since there were too many entities to eject into the spot right outside the Dungeon entrance, we have scattered them around the area.

Isabella loves money. You could say it’s her raison d'être, which makes her decision to become a low-paid prison guard quite bizarre, until you factor her bad temper, proclivity towards abuse of power, and desire for violence into the equation.

The other guards of Castleburg Prison both fear and admire her.

She is neutral towards you.

All the level requirements from 1 to 10 were to kill a set amount of enemies, so the fact that she was level 6 meant she had killed quite a lot already, since she hadn’t left the dungeon until now. The other guards with her were all either level 4 and 5, perhaps because of partial credit for many of her kills.

Isabella immediately singled me out, pushing Waldo aside before he could get in my face about the stuff I’d done in the past. Unlike him, she didn’t seem to recognize me, which was lucky.

“Did you do that?” she asked me. Her voice was completely calm, and I noticed that her armor was almost spotless. I wondered how exactly she killed things without getting covered in blood like her friends.

“Bee, call Greg over here,” Panda said. “Before this gets ugly.”

She nodded and stepped a bit away from the group of people, most of whom absolutely hated my guts and were on the verge of doing something about it.

“I did,” I answered, eyeing the prison workers as I spoke. “I need you and your men to help me find Otto.”

“Otto?” she asked, clearly recognizing the name. “Why are you looking for him?”

Before I could reply, several of the workers and guards let out shouts of panic.

“Our ride is here,” I said as Isabella turned to look at Greg who came barreling towards us.

“What the f—?”

The Humanbus’ huge mouth immediately swallowed us.

Being consumed by the transport monster was a bizarre experience. It was kind of like going through a car wash, but where your body was the car and the brushes were all replaced with warm slimy tongues.

I landed on a seat inside the bus right next to Isabella and Bee.

“What just happened!?” the prison guard exclaimed, standing up and pulling out her riot shield and baton.

She blinked.

“Why did I just get a warning that we’re in a Safe Zone?” she asked, confusion on her face.

“Bee, tell Greg to take us to the lake,” I said. She got up from her seat and ran to the front of the bus.

“What is happening?” Isabella asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” I told her. “But if you want to make a lot of money, you might wanna stick around.”

That caught her attention, and she panned her gaze across the interior, noticing the MLP Society members, as well as Chris and James, who sat in the back. The bus had stretched even further to accommodate the eighteen new occupants. I knew that on the outside the bus looked the same as before, which raised some weird questions about what would happen if someone were to puncture a hole in the side of Greg.

“Could lead to pocket realm collapse,” Panda mused in reply to my thoughts.

Waldo came up to us, but Isabella stopped him with her shield.

“What is it, Waldo?” she asked, although she had clearly picked up on his disposition towards me.

“That man right there is Gambit!” he exclaimed, pointing at me. “He’s the reason Carol left me!”

Isabella looked at me. “I’ve heard a lot of stories about you. I thought they had you locked up in the asylum after you stabbed Noah Sullivan. Waldo aside, a lot of my men want to beat the shit out of you for getting the paintball tournament canceled.”

“Your men?? Who said you’re in charge!?” Waldo challenged her.

Isabella gave him a look that made him take a full step back.

“No violence in the bus,” said one of the MLP members who’d come over to mediate the situation. It was the guy named Cooper, who seemed to be the leader of their group.

“Stay out of it, fatso,” Waldo hissed at him.

Cooper ignored the jab. “If you commit violence inside the Safe Zone or piss off Miss Bee, then you will be ejected from the bus, and I don’t think you want to be outside right now.”

We all looked out of the windows to see the highway absolutely clogged with purple zombies in orange jumpsuits. There were way more than the 200 that’d been listed in the dungeon map when I used my ability.

Isabella looked at me. “When you pulled us all out of the prison, did you bring the prisoners too?”

“I didn’t really have a choice,” I replied. “It’s just how my ability works.”

“We need to find the Warden,” she said. “He’s creating more of those freaks every second. The prison never had more than fifty inmates, but there were hundreds once it turned into a dungeon.”

[UH OH, THE RIDE IS ABOUT TO GET BUMPY!] Greg exclaimed.

I wondered what he was talking about, but then I glanced out through the front window where Bee stood next to his brain. The road wasn’t just clogged, it was overflowing. Zombies swarmed towards our bus.

[MAN THE BATTLE STATIONS, YOU SCALLYWAGS! WE ARE ABOUT TO GET BOARDED!]

Holes opened up in the walls and flesh pods with bone ballistae formed on the outside of the bus.

Without waiting for me to ask, Isabella yelled to her men, “Everyone! Pick a turret and get to work! We’ve got a road to clear!”

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 27

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Two chapters coming back to back.

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Chapter 27

I hurried to intercept the boss. Bee was deftly avoiding every slash of Delightful’s pink scythe, but I knew that just one hit would be enough to kill her, and she didn’t have the comfort of a respawn skill.

Triggering SPRING_HEEL, I flew at the reaper with Brock cocked back. The boss whirled around just before I could hit, putting the sharp blade of his scythe in the way. I swung early, aiming for the blade with my balloon gauntlet and hoping that both Brock and I would survive what came next.

“1-armed_Bandit.exe!” I exclaimed.

The tip of my middle knuckle touched the edge of the scythe and time immediately froze. The golden slot machine fell down next to me with a loud clunk, lacking any of the dramatic flair that the fortune wheel had had. Like the first time that I’d used it, the four options were: “My arm is an orbital laser!”; “Messimer staring contest”; “moneySucker( )”; and “Demon Incursion”.

Panda sighed. “Do I really have to do this again?”

Delightful stared between me and the slot machine. I suddenly realized that Bee was right behind him, her right hand inches from touching his back. Given that we were inside her Fungal Fortress, any affliction she caused would be twice as effective, whatever that meant.

“I can only move my eyes and mouth,” I replied. “You’re the only one who can pull the lever.”

Panda frowned. “Why did they design the skill like this??”

“Stop whining and just do it,” I told him.

He sighed again but then took a running start from my shoulder and hopped, barely catching his fingerless arms around the lever and pulling it down with his weight.

The three wheels spun inside the slot machine, going through the icons for the four options, showing a blue fist, a green rain cloud, a yellow treasure chest, and a black skull. For the next 10 seconds, the machine played a jingle as the options were cycled through. Now that I knew that getting three colors would give me a random effect, I was desperately hoping to avoid it, since randomness seemed to have it out for me.

As it finally slowed down, the four of us, Delightful included, eagerly watched the wheels. The first one stopped on a black skull.

“Shit,” Panda muttered, still hanging from the lever.

The second stopped on a yellow treasure chest.

Then the third wheel slowly came to a halt as well, barely avoiding the green rain cloud to end on the chest.

Result: Yellow Pair!

moneySucker( ) effect triggered.

“Inherit all of target’s assets upon death.”

A golden light enveloped the Delightful Reaper’s body, casting a slight bit of light around him, which I hoped would stick around, since we only had a few minutes before Bee’s Fungal Fortress would expire and remove the fluorescent mushrooms serving as the main source of light.

“I need that money to buy Funko Pops!” the boss exclaimed. “You can’t have them, nyan!”

“Ugh, he’s a collector,” I muttered in disgust.

The slot machine exploded into golden particles and then time resumed, bouncing me back and away from the scythe unscathed. I flipped once in the air before landing on my feet.

Bee gently touched the boss just as he prepared to charge me, and a sickly purple taint grew from the spot and quickly spread to stain the color of his bathrobe and skin.

He spun around in reaction, but I shot myself at him again, slamming my fist into his head and knocking him forward, allowing Bee to move out of the way.

I landed in a slide and summoned my Cooldown Claymore, then prepared to trigger SPRING_HEEL for a third time, but before I could release my bent knees, pale hands came out of the dark floor and grabbed me.

Delightful recovered and flew towards me with speed. I triggered Blink to teleport behind him but instead found myself back where I’d entered the chamber, several meters from him and Bee.

“Gambit! There’s a teleport trap in here!” Panda exclaimed.

“I know!”

I crouched and shot myself towards the boss again, activating another skill mid-air.

“Rules of Anarchy(Fall Guy)!”

Rules of Anarchy Activated!

Passive Selected: Fall Guy

Description:

A perfect copy of you will take all the blame and seek out the foes hunting you. Anyone who kills the Fall Guy will believe they have killed you.

My ‘perfect’ copy appeared in the air next to me, holding a foam board sword spraypainted orange and with a small koala plushie on his shoulder. Like the last time I’d used this ability, he had mostly the same appearance as me, except his eyes were entirely black and there was a pencil-thin mustache on his upper lip. He also had a poor imitation of Brock covering his entire right arm, and it was a mix of colors, looking like it had been made by a circus clown who had struggled a lot with the concept.

“¡Ni siquiera la Muerte puede separarnos, compadre!”

Delightful flew up to meet us, swinging his sword directly at my Fall Guy. My copy somehow spun in the air and deflected the scythe with his foam sword, landing in a cool slide and immediately surging towards the boss.

With the boss’ attention completely locked on the copy, I used Blink to return back to the entrance of the dark chamber, ending up almost directly behind the reaper and not wasting a second to slash my Cooldown Claymore through his body.

The smell of burning flesh, hair, and fabric came from Delightful, who screamed in pain as my energy blade carved through him. His right arm came off, but he was able to tilt his body in a way that my blade veered down and only moved through his hip and right leg, instead of his torso, sparing him.

But then my Fall Guy swung his foam sword through Delightful’s neck, decapitating him.

“Holy shit!” Panda exclaimed as the boss’ head fell to the floor with a thunk. “I had no idea the Fall Guy could kill people!”

“Me neither,” I replied.

Bee quickly came over.

“That sword is really strong,” she commented just as it fizzled out.

“I got it from killing the Red Pawn, remember?”

She nodded.

“Uhh, I think there might be a problem,” Panda remarked.

I immediately turned to the corpse, fearing that the reaper wouldn’t stay dead. But his body was rapidly decaying into mulch, thanks to Bee’s terrifying ability. Then I realized what he’d meant when I saw the golden light leave the boss’ body and flow towards my copy.

“¡Ay caramba! ¡Soy rico!”

“Please tell me he didn’t just get all of the boss’ assets…” I muttered.

“Felicidades,” Bee told him.

“Wait, you speak Spanish?” I asked her.

“Of course,” she replied.

“So, what happens if I kill him? Can I loot all the stuff he just got?” I asked.

“I don’t think that will work,” Panda replied.

“Ask him what he got,” I told Bee.

Bee translated the question, and the Fall Guy gestured widely and spoke quickly.

“He says he got nearly 2 million Game Coins and about 800 unopened boxes of rare Funko Pops,” she replied.

I immediately punch-decapitated my clone.

“What the fuck, Gambit!” Panda exclaimed.

My Fall Guy just vanished, leaving no leftovers wisp behind.

Rules of Anarchy Deactivated!

Passive Deselected: Fall Guy

Description:

A perfect copy of you will take all the blame and seek out the foes hunting you.

Cause:

Your innocent Fall Guy was brutally murdered.

“Goddamn it!” I complained. “That money was meant to be ours!”

[Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x ]

‘Death-defier’

Killed a Death Boss.

I’m being told that you’re not supposed to be able to win against a Boss like this.

Also, his brothers are very upset.

Fortunately for you, one of the System’s rules is that challenges must be rewarded proportionally, and the blame for you being able to survive a Death door from the colored paths is placed solely on the person who designed this encounter.

Reward: ‘Reaper’s Lunchbox’

[Congratulations! You have unlocked an achievement! x ]

‘Soft-Lock 2: Return of the QA’s Nightmare’

The guys upstairs really don’t like when this happens.

Since you weren’t supposed to win this fight, there was no plan for what to do if you actually beat the Death Boss, which means you are stuck.

In case you’re wondering, the room you are in is a hermetically-sealed box and it’s located far away from the actual dungeon, so even if you could break through its walls, you would not be able to get back into the dungeon.

By the way, tell Bee that those mushrooms look tasty. If she can bring me a few, then I’ll give her something in return.

Reward: ‘Vial of a QA’s tears’

A rumbling metal lunchbox producing muffled screams landed in my hands alongside a glass vial full of liquid silver.

Just then Bee’s Fungal Fortress expired, and all the towering mushrooms vanished, plunging us into darkness.

“Well, shit.”

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 26

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Chapter 26

“How was I supposed to know that they still remembered me!?” I yelled as Waldo and his friends chased us out of the starting chamber and through the next room full of Xs on the tiled floor.

One of the janitors didn’t look where he was going as he swung his mop to try and hit us. When he stepped on a tile with a spray-painted X, a dozen zombie hands surged up out of the floor and pulled him down into the ground, his scream immediately cut short.

The rest of our pursuers froze after seeing their friend devoured by a trap, allowing Bee and I to get away safely.

“I’ll get you back for what you did!” Waldo yelled as we went through a door at the other end of the chamber.

Once through, we found ourselves in a cafeteria with metal benches secured to the smooth floor with big screws. Dead purple zombies lay everywhere, but there were also dead Players in guard outfits among them.

“Why were they so upset with you?” Bee asked as we walked across the room, both on the lookout for traps.

“I have no idea,” I replied vaguely.

“Gambit was briefly in this prison in the past, and though he claims to not remember what happened, that’s a lie,” Panda said.

“I’m serious,” I replied. “I really don’t remember.”

“Well, then let me regale you. One of the first things he did was start a riot by somehow uniting the two gangs inside who hated each other and riling them up. Eighteen people went to the hospital because of the fight that ensued. He was sent to solitary confinement because they deemed it a danger to keep him amongst the ‘normal’ prisoners, but when two of the guards saw the symbols he had carved into the wall using his toothbrush, they quit on the spot and went to Fiji where they still live to this day. Oh, and the resident psychologist had a mental breakdown after just three sessions with Gambit, ending up in jail herself after stealing a cop car and going on a wild chase that ended with her driving into Madeville Lake.”

“Wow,” Bee muttered.

“I don’t remember any of that,” I said.

“Well, that’s just the start of it,” Panda replied. “You also somehow made a phone call to Waldo’s wife, causing her to divorce him a day later. And, though I’m not sure how, you were able to convince the state’s legislators to introduce a law blocking taxpayer money from funding the snacks delivered to the prison guards, as well as funding fun recreational activities like Sunday BBQ and the quarterly paintball tournament the guards had held for over four years.”

“That sounds more like something Tina would do,” I remarked, still not recalling any of this. Although the more I thought about it, the more the name ‘Waldo’ sounded familiar.

“Why do you think she wanted to be your friend at the asylum?” Panda replied.

Bee patted me on the back. “I’m proud of you for standing up to authorities like that.”

Although I still couldn’t recall any of what Panda had mentioned, I let her praise wash over me.

There were three separate doors leading out of the cafeteria, but it was impossible to tell which one Isabella and her team had gone through. I just pick the door opposite from the one we’d entered, since there were several dead Players in front of it.

“That’s a bad measurement for which door to pick,” Panda commented. “It could be a trap.”

I ignored him and went through, entering into what was clearly a shower room. At the back of the room, set between the tiled stalls, were four colored doors. They were Yellow, Blue, Red, and Green.

“Ah shit, not these again,” I muttered.

Bee gasped excitedly. “I wanna pick this time!”

“Meow,” Lordie said.

“I’m not trusting you again,” I told him, remembering how he had led us right into the Shit Worm in the sewers last time we encountered the colored paths.

“Alright, so, our options are: Death, Treasure, Setback, and Boss,” Panda recounted.

“We know,” I replied.

“Which will take us to Isabella?” Bee asked.

“Shouldn’t we just go straight to the boss and end the dungeon?” I argued.

“In the last dimension, Isabella gained a lot of levels by completing this dungeon. We’d probably be hamstringing her by beating the boss before she can get more levels,” Panda said.

“And? If she’s competent, she’ll find another way to level,” I said. “We’re in a hurry here, you know. Everything will have been for nothing if we don’t find Otto before it’s too late!”

Panda sighed. “Fine. I was kind of hoping that she could be another person to add to our team, but I suppose we might as well just get it over with. It’s the blue door.”

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously. “You’re not bullshitting us, right?”

Bee frowned. “Hey! I was gonna pick.”

“Me-ow!” Lordie said, clearly contradicting Panda.

“Brock says blue as well,” my balloon sleeve commented. “B for Brock, B for Boss, B for Balloon. Blue is the door yiz want.”

Bee went over to the yellow door. “Gambit, we’re picking this one!”

“Don’t! That’s the death door!” Panda exclaimed.

Bee pointed her tongue at him. “Well, I’m going through it. You can come along if you want, or you can pick a different door.”

“Do you think it’ll actually take us to the boss?” I asked her.

She shrugged. “I have no idea. But I know that Panda is lying. He’s trying to get you to pick the setback door.”

“Slander!” Panda exclaimed, but now that the seed of doubt had been planted in my head, all I heard was him admitting his guilt.

“Alright, let’s go,” I told her, glaring at the plushie.

Bee pulled open the yellow door, revealing a dark hallway.

“I’m telling the truth, Gambit! If you go down this hallway, then—” Panda started to say, but I tuned him out and entered.

The door shut behind us and became a wall as soon as we stepped through. From floor to ceiling, everything was covered in a long-haired fuzzy carpet inexplicably in a tiger print pattern. The long strands from the walls and ceiling tickled my face as we passed through to wherever our colored path was leading us.

Then suddenly the floor gave out and we plummeted into darkness. Bee let out an excited squeal like she was on a rollercoaster.

After a couple of seconds, I felt solid ground under my feet, but the darkness persisted.

“Bee?” I called.

“I think I picked the wrong door,” she said from a few meters away.

“Really good call getting rid of the Transition Lenses passive,” I told Panda sarcastically.

“Gambit, you two need to get out of here! Fast!” he replied, ignoring my jab.

A swoosh sound flew through the air around me, but I couldn’t tell what was causing it.

“This might’ve been the death door,” Bee said.

“Me-ow!” Lordie exclaimed, hopping into the transport cage in my suit’s front pocket.

“What’s making that sound?” I wondered and stepped forward.

Then I saw it.

Just for a split second.

A pink curved blade on a long handle and a smiling man holding it.

Then my head left my body like the cork of a champagne bottle.

GAME OVER!

You have died.

***

SKILL TRIGGER!

Rules of Anarchy(Respawn Once) respawned you back at the beginning!

I reappeared inside my cell in the asylum. The heavy door to the room was wide open and the hole I’d made to escape out the window was still there, although it just showed the screaming tapestry of hair that was the dungeon barrier.

“Fuck!” I shouted, which immediately elicited warbling screeches from nearby cells. “Decapitation again!”

“Use your Traceback ability!” Panda exclaimed. “Quick! You only have a minute!”

I reached up and felt the System Mod horn sprouting from my head. It was the only thing aside from Brock that I hadn’t dropped on death.

“Did you see what killed me?” I asked Panda.

“Yeah… We need to hurry back and save Bee. She used her Moth Dash to avoid the attack that killed you, but she’s probably screwed.”

I gritted my teeth. “Brock, no more bullshit. We need to save Bee, so I need your help here.”

“But, but…”

I yanked on the balloon sleeve, forcefully pulling it down over my hand. Brock squeaked loudly in protest, but then he suddenly just covered my right fist again, although he still stretched all up my right arm.

“Thanks… I actually couldn’t do that on my own. I wasn’t sure how to tell yiz.”

“And let me guess, you were too proud to say anything?” Panda remarked.

“I was… Shameful, I know.”

I gritted my teeth. “Alright, here we go! Traceback(damage)!”

Traceback initiating!

…

…Locating damage origin point…

…

…Triangulating…

…

…Playing ‘taken_quote.mp4’ through nearest monitor…

…

Success!

Traceback source discovered.

…

…Teleporting…

My entire body was pulled inside itself, which was a strangely-pleasant experience, like visiting an eldritch chiropractor. Then I was overcome with the sensation of falling, before my body was pulled out of itself and placed back where I’d died in the dark chamber, my joints all spry and limber.

The darkness had retreated, since all around me were towering and glowing mushrooms, illuminating quite a large area, though the effect was slight.

Bee was dodging around behind the thick stalks of the mushrooms, gliding through the grass-like moss covering the stone floor of the dark chamber with expert agility.

The thing that chased her was a grinning man with pale-pink skin wearing a fluffy panda bathrobe onesie with a hood and wielding a scythe with a pink blade, its long white handle covered in cutesy anime stickers. For some reason, my Traceback ability hadn’t placed me behind him but instead right where I’d appeared when first entering the chamber. I had a bad feeling that it meant we couldn’t teleport out of here, since the entrance acted like a teleport magnet.

“What the fuck is that?” I asked while quickly picking up my loot from where my headless corpse lay. The Greedlings that repossessed my Silver Skeleton hadn’t shown up yet since my old bones were still inside.

I used my Appraising Eye on the pink scythe wielder.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 50 — ‘The Delightful Reaper’ — Boss

“Off with your head, nyan!”

You have no doubt heard of the Grim Reaper, but did you know that he has two brothers? I don’t blame you for not knowing, after all, the stardom of Grim really overshadowed the accomplishments of his siblings.

As you can imagine based on the name, Delightful is the polar opposite to Grim. But just because he’s more pleasant than his famous brother, it doesn’t mean he isn’t going to lop your head off with his scythe and harvest your soul. And between you and me, I think this guy is way scarier.

Anyway, Delightful is one of those rare specimens in the GREAT GAME who only show up in really special circumstances, such as when a foolish Player picks the colored path that leads to Death. That’s right, we were being literal with the potential destinations. Bet you didn’t see that one coming!

“Kind of embarrassing you died to this guy,” Panda remarked.

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Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Seven

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---Next chapter----

-----------------------------

Chapter Seventy-Seven

Adam and Emelia took the slow scenic route around the island from the Market to the Tavern, riding on the same barrier. She was in the middle of telling him about what to expect in the next Stage.

“Like Stage Six, the layout is always a bit different, so I don’t know where our objective will be. But the steps of the journey to find it is always the same. First we have to find a settlement. There are a few across the Sea, but the biggest is Windtop Cove.”

“That sounds like a pirate hideout,” Adam commented.

“Oh, it’s definitely a pirate theme. We’ll even be fighting a lot of pirates on our hunt for the Godstone. Anyway, no matter which settlement we go to, we’ll be able to pick up the trail. It always leads to a bit of a goose chase of scouring rumoured locations. Normally, we’re meant to pick up clues from four different places, but if we just get two of them then I know a way to skip the rest, regardless of the clues.”

“How?”

Emelia tapped the side of her head. “Because I know a lot about the Stage. The four clues are meant to come together and implicate one specific pirate fleet, of which there are seven, and if you know about each of them, you’ll be able to guess which one the clues hint at, so long as you have at least two clues.”

“What then? Are we gonna take on the entire fleet who has the Godstone?” he asked. It sounded a bit absurd, given that they would only have a single airship for their team.

“There are a lot of ways to go from there, but the easiest is to capture an airship from the fleet and use disguises to infiltrate their base of operations. From there, we can pick up the final trail of the Godstone after killing the fleet’s captain.”

“That actually sounds like a lot of fun.”

“It is,” she said with a wistful smile.

“What happens when we find the Godstone?”

“The trail leads to an ancient temple and after fighting our way through its defences, we’ll eventually discover half of the Godstone. When we pick it up, a tear in the fabric of the painting will led us out.”

“Did someone steal the other half and escape the painting?”

Emelia nodded.

“Why only steal half though?” he wondered.

“Because removing the entire Godstone would collapse the painted world, which many seem to use as a ‘bridge’ between places.”

“And the tear leads to Moonport in Stage Eight?”

“That’s right. The Patriarch obtained half of the Godstone, and the entirety of Stage Eight is built around trying to figure out who he is and eliminating him. But when you do kill him, you find out that the Godstone was split again and that the remaining fragment resides with the King who rules the Forlorn Kingdom in Stage Nine.”

“So, the next three Stages are all one big treasure hunt…” Adam muttered.

“Basically. To be honest though, the main objective is just the thing that guides you through the Stages. In Seven and Eight you can’t really skip over it, but in Nine you can just go straight to the castle from the beginning, though you’ll have to fight an empowered version of the final boss.”

“How fast could we beat Stage Seven if we only did the main objective?”

“Maybe 10 or 12 hours. The Speedrun is 24 hours, which probably wouldn’t be that hard to get, even for a group that didn’t know what they were doing. But going for a quick completion is a mistake. It’s not worth skipping all the rewards you can find to do it. Stage Eight on the other hand… I wish I knew how to skip through that one. The Speedrun for Moonport is 36 hours, but I have no idea how to even do that without getting lucky.”

Emelia sighed. “Anyway, let’s talk about that after we finish Seven.”

“What quest did your Patron give you for the Sea of Floating Gold?” Adam asked.

“I’m supposed to bring an egg to the nest of a Slug Dragon. I think it was meant to be the time-frozen egg from the Crooked Tower, but since I couldn’t find it, I now have to get a similar egg from a collector somewhere in the Floating Sea.”

“I didn’t find any egg in the Tower,” Adam said. “Could it maybe have been outside it?”

“Possibly,” she replied. “What’s your quest?”

“Well, I had to find some notes in the Tower. They were hidden in the library with the book puzzle,” he said, reminding her of the conversation they’d had earlier. “After returning the notes to my Patron, I told him about the painting and how I thought Alepheria might’ve gone inside, so he asked me to hunt her down and kill her.”

“Wait, what? You spoke directly to your Patron?” she asked, surprised.

“You didn’t?”

“No. I thought only the All-Mother spoke directly to her adherents. I just had a visit from an Envoy. The Eternal Serpent sent a weird lizard man, and Messimer always sends a humanoid with an upside-down pyramid head who wears a toga.”

“I went to his realm after Stage Five,” Adam said. “And then again after the Tower.”

“People who worship the All-Mother always go to her garden to speak to her directly,” Emelia explained. “But I thought she was a weird outlier. Everyone else communicates with Envoys like Skǫll. You normally don’t visit an Absolute’s realm until after Stage Ten, and for good reason.”

Adam gave her a confused look, so she explained, “Most people aren’t mentally prepared to stand before a God.”

“Oh, right. I guess I had some training before meeting my Patron. But he seems very human, if you can look past his body and strange fascinations.”

“From what I’ve been told, the All-Mother is quite human in behaviour and appearance too, although she looks like the Elphin Queen a little bit. But maybe that’s the reason you get to meet them face-to-face?” she wondered.

“Because they won’t immediately dissolve all your beliefs in a higher power nor trigger an existential crisis?” he replied.

“Exactly. Standing before Messimer was really hard for me to reconcile at first. A lot of people were fundamentally changed after Stage Ten because of meeting their Patrons. Apparently Nharlla’s realm is an ever-changing world that completely erodes one’s sense of self. The Players who came out on the other end were seriously messed up by it. But I always thought that the ones who didn’t change at all were somehow scarier.”

Adam thought back to his meeting with the All-Seeing System. It had taken the shape of his mirror image, no doubt to spare him exactly what Emelia was describing. It was only now he realised how seeing its true form might’ve obliterated his mind and understanding of the world. Mortals were never meant to stand at the foot of a God, and for good reason.

“I’m surprised Alepheria might be alive,” Emelia then said, returning to the topic of quests. “I didn’t even give any thought to the possibility.”

“Apparently she made a deal with my Patron before disappearing. He thought she had died, but was upset to learn about the painting and the fact that she might’ve escaped inside it. Apparently, some other Absolute might be responsible for the magic that created it.”

“The magic involved is similar to the one utilised by the Tower,” Emelia said. “You know, the whole bigger on the inside thing. So maybe it’s from the God that supplied that Dimensional Splinter?”

Adam frowned. “I think it’s one of the missing Absolutes we haven’t been able to discover.”

“It would have to be a seriously powerful one,” she said.

“According to the All-Seeing System, the power that allows its cubes to manipulate dimensions was borrowed. That borrowed power is also inside me and allows me to traverse dimensions when I die.”

“So, it’s all connected?” she replied. “I think this missing Absolute must be one of the great ones besides the Void, the Eternal Serpent, and the First Light.”

“Dimensional power definitely fits in with that group,” Adam agreed.

He landed their barrier in front of the Tavern and they went in together.

Unlike when they’d first arrived, Belamouranthe was now inside and she greeted them cheerfully from behind a mountain of food plated high in front of her seat. Charlie got up from a stool next to her and came over to them.

Sylvia, Migraine, and Finnian sat on the upper floor, deep in some kind of conspiratorial conversation, but they immediately went their separate ways when they saw Adam staring at them.

What the hell are they up to?

“Adam! Thou must try Charlie’s brisket! It is divine!” Belamouranthe exclaimed.

“Barbecue could be good,” he agreed. “Can I have a platter of various barbecued meats?”

“Of course,” Charlie replied.

“I’ll have the octopus salad again,” Emelia said. “That dish was amazing. Oh, and some white wine.”

“I’ll have a Long Island iced tea,” Adam said.

Emelia gave him a look.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“It’s delicious.”

“Mhmm.”

No sooner had Adam sat down than he was pinged.

[Another Player is trying to communicate with you. Do you wish to talk to them?]

“Who is it?”

[Player Mana Hog.]

Bet they forced him to be the one to call me.

Emelia sat down next to him as he accepted the invitation. James appeared opposite them, along with Gladwyn and Beck. The invite must have been automatic, because all of them jumped when Adam and Emelia showed up.

James dropped the chicken spear he’d been balancing on his nose and Beck nearly choked on his drink.

“How the hell did you get here!?” Beck asked, pointing at them while coughing violently.

“Mana Hog invited me,” Adam replied.

“I told you the automatic invite works,” James said.

“Hey guys,” Gladwyn greeted, a stone crab claw in his hand. This was the second or third time Adam had seen him eating crab.

He must really like those. Maybe I should try them next time.

“Wait, I just had a weird thought,” Adam said. “What do we do about food and sleep now that the Stages last more than a day?”

“Good question,” Beck commented.

“The settlements in the Floating Sea have places to eat and sleep,” Emelia said. “There are also rations and bunk beds on the Creaking Madam.”

“The creaking what?” Gladwyn asked.

“It’s the name of the airship we all start on,” she said.

“Are they safe, these sleeping areas?” Adam asked.

“No,” Emelia replied. “So we all have to be vigilant when we stop somewhere to take a rest.”

“Did you know it’s possible to query the Tavern by using levels?” Beck suddenly asked, switching the topic.

Emelia shook her head.

“I didn’t even think of that,” Adam replied.

“James is the one who taught us about it,” he said.

“He also knew about the auto invite,” Gladwyn added. “Apparently, you can just tell the Tavern to invite someone when they show up.”

I did something similar in the past… Adam remembered. He’d asked the cube to send a connection request to Willow at even intervals. The command had probably been running right up until Stage Five where she perished.

“How do you know so much about the Tavern?” Emelia asked James. She was still wary of him, but Adam had a good feeling about the guy, although there had been a strange desperation and recklessness to his actions at first.

“Benjamin, my son, is the one who figured it out. He is clever like his mother,” James replied.

“Where is he—?” Beck started to ask, but stopped himself when James shook his head.

Christ…

“He died in the Forbidden Altar,” James explained after a moment. “I thought that he would be the one to win these Trials, but now I must do it myself.” He looked directly at Emelia. “I hope that you will help me in this.”

“Of course,” she promised. “It doesn’t matter who completes the Trials, just so long as someone does.”

They continued chatting for a few more hours while eating dinner. The topic eventually shifted to Absolutes when Adam asked them about meeting their Patrons. As Emelia had said, he was the only one who had gone to a different realm, while the rest had been visited by an Envoy on Interim Island.

Beck, who worshipped Morrligt, had been visited by a man with obsidian skin and an exploding planet instead of a head, which sounded bizarre. Gladwyn had been visited by something called a Stagnation Demon, which served the Guardian and which had two black large straight horns and its body covered by armour made of living stone. James tried to describe Nharlla’s Envoy, but Adam had a hard time picturing it, though it was apparently similar to the human mimic, except it constantly changed forms while speaking.

All of them were surprised to discover that Adam had left the island to talk directly to his Patron, but both Gladwyn and James knew not to pry too deeply, though James shared his theory about the missing Absolutes with Beck and Emelia who hadn’t heard it yet.

“How does a dimensional God fit into your theory?” Emelia asked after he was done, bringing up what she and Adam had already discussed.

“Good question. The immediate answer is: it doesn’t. There aren’t really any Gods of dimensions that I know of,” James said. “There are definitely Gods that are powerful enough to create them, and there are also a lot of beliefs about different dimensions, such as the Nine Worlds in Norse Mythology, although these were made by several Gods using the body of a primordial giant. If we’re talking about a God tied specifically to the power of dimensions and realm creation, I can only really think of something like liminal Gods, whose powers are tied to boundaries and metaphysical transitions and seasons.”

“We’re pretty sure that the last of the four greater Absolutes missing is one tied to the power of creating realms and manipulating dimensions,” Adam said, going on to explain their reasoning.

“I will give it some more thought and let you know if I have any solid ideas after Stage Seven,” James promised. “Perhaps going inside this painted realm might invoke some inspiration.”

***

After the Tavern closed and they went their separate ways, wishing each other good luck for the next three days, Emelia followed Adam to his Player House so he could show off how powerful his barrier had become. He also wanted to test out his new Unique Skills. He had thought about visiting Alivida, but he didn’t need anything from her right now and was instead saving up for something more useful.

“You know, I think James was on to us at the end,” Emelia commented as they flew towards the lighthouse shining in the darkness behind the Player House.

“That’s only because you kept stealing my food,” Adam replied. “Not everyone is as clueless as Beck about such things.”

“Hey, you stole some of my octopus too.”

He grinned and lowered the barrier down towards the house.

“It was nice of him to not say anything though,” Adam added.

“I feel like you have the ability to gather good people to you,” Emelia remarked.

“Aren’t you just saying that because you’re one of them?”

“I’m serious,” she replied.

“Well, in my last loop, one of those people I gathered ended up killing me.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t your fault,” she replied.

They went inside the house and Adam spent the next hour showing off his barrier attack, while Emelia gave pointers on the best shape for his projectiles. Fortunately, triple-fusing his barriers had become a lot easier thanks to his increased Manipulation Effect, though it also helped that the wandering eye was locked onto the target dummy which he’d shaped into one of the Bone Creeper constructs.

“You weren’t kidding about shooting down airships,” Emelia commented after his last Mana-infused triple-strength barrier shot had demolished the dummy and left a massive impact crater in the indestructible wall of the house. It moved so fast that it hardly made a sound before it struck, after which it released a shockwave and explosive boom so loud it shook the floor and nearly made them both trip.

“Was this how Arturo used it?” Adam asked as he went over to his storage and pulled out the Cruel Summoner’s Gauntlets and Rotmaker Idol, putting both in his Spidersilk Sack to bring to the next Stage. He could use the Gauntlets with his obsidian hand, since they didn’t occupy the same Relic slots, and thus he had some ideas for stuff he wanted to try out.

“No, he was more surgical with his barrier. It looked like a fine thread that he just sliced through everything with.”

That actually sounds really cool.

“Anyway, it’s late, so I should probably go,” Emelia said, but she didn’t immediately pull out the Visiting Stone to leave.

“You can stay… If you want,” Adam said. “I’ll just have the Eye add another bed.”

[Understood,] said the cube, not wasting a second to comply, even though he hadn’t explicitly given the order.

Adam’s large bed split down the middle, separating the duvet into two and growing a second pillow.

“You don’t mind?” she asked, looking towards the beds.

“We’ll probably end up sleeping close together in the next Stage, since you said there weren’t any safe zones, so we might as well get used to it,” Adam replied, totally pulling the explanation out of his ass while trying not to let it show how he really felt about her staying with him.

Her eyes flicked to him and he grinned awkwardly.

“Did you finish all your preparations?” he asked her.

“I did.”

“Cool.”

“Yep.”

They went over to the beds. They weren’t even separated in the slightest, making it basically no different than them sharing the large bed it had been before.

Emelia unequipped all her Relics, placing them on the floor next to the bed. Then she took off her red sweater and jeans.

Adam looked away as he took off his Relics as well, before removing his clothes too. He saw the black tattoo from the Cheat Death Sigil in the middle of his torso right above the solar plexus. It was shaped as an ouroboros of sorts, although it was slowly spinning as it ate its own tail but never got smaller.

“It’s strange right?” Emelia started.

“What is?” he asked, almost turning back to look at her but stopping himself midway through the motion.

I wonder if Emelia’s tattoo looks the same, he wondered absentmindedly.

“That we go to the next Stage with our clothes and Relics on, even when we take them off before sleeping.”

“Uh, yeah, that is actually weird,” he replied. “I didn’t really think about it.”

“Do you think the cubes are the ones dressing us up?” she wondered.

[I am not responsible for your clothing. The All-Seeing System facilitates this convenience.]

Adam laughed. “What a peculiar consideration.”

He heard the sound of Emelia lying down and pulling the duvet over herself, then turned back to find her head poking out from the burrito shape she’d packed herself into.

“What?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he replied, before realising he was just standing there in his underwear.

He went under his own duvet and was just about to ask the cube to turn off the light when a knock came from the door of the house.

“Ah, shit,” he muttered.

“Who is it?” Emelia asked suspiciously.

“It’s nothing!” he replied and hopped out of the bed, shedding the duvet and running to the door.

He opened it only a little bit to look out at Yenna the wasp waiting there.

Her large bug eyes ran up and down his body before looking past him and into the house.

“Am I interrupting something, Adam?”

“Uhh…” he muttered. He turned back to look at Emelia. “Do you prefer to sleep with or without music?”

“What? Wait, who’s out there?”

“Fuck it,” Adam said. “I guess you can just come in.”

He opened the door for her and Yenna stepped inside, carrying her shapeshifting instrument, which was currently a golden horn.

Emelia sat up, clutching the duvet to her body. She looked at Adam suspiciously.

“What the fuck, Adam!?” she exclaimed.

“It’s not what it looks like!” he protested, though it was a hard argument to make, since he was just wearing his underwear.

“I’m here to sing a lullaby,” Yenna announced.

Is there such a thing as dying of embarrassment? Adam wondered.

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---Next chapter----

Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Six

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---Next chapter----

Chapter 77 is almost done, but if I don't finish it before midnight, then I'll have it for you guys early tomorrow.

I changed the design of the Status screens in this chapter a little bit. I'll go back and retroactively update these for the rest of the story at some later point. Anyway, it should be easier to tell how things changed, as well as previously hidden buffs from Meta Upgrades and worn Relics.

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Chapter Seventy-Six

Adam spent 4500 Points to fully evolve his Summoner weapon from Invoker, getting the following upgrades:

< < Weapon Upgrades Purchased > >

< Casting Effect (Rare) >

< Casting Effect (Epic) x3 >

< Casting Efficiency (Rare) x2 >

< Spell Damage (Rare) >

< Spell Damage (Epic) >

< Spell Speed (Epic) x2 >

< 9100 Points Remaining >

The second choice of evolutions after his fourth upgrade were both quite powerful in the right situation.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Soul Harvester — Kills made by summons extend their duration and increase their attack speed >

< Corruptor — Killed enemy summons are resurrected as your summons >

Although Adam immediately leaned towards Soul Harvester, Emelia mentioned that there were several bosses and enemies coming up in future Stages, including Stage Seven, which utilised summoning to some extent.

“If my buffs to summons affect Corruptor, then I could easily overwhelm any boss with clones of their own units,” Adam theorised. “The only thing is just how duration and such work. Since it doesn’t specifically make a mention of it, I’m thinking it’s probably on a per summon basis. But it could potentially even allow me to gain summons that last an entire Stage.”

“I doubt it would be that powerful,” Emelia said. “But it does still seem very useful in a lot of cases. For example, one of the optional bosses has an army of skeletons that Corruptor might work on.”

“I think that while Corruptor has a lot of potential, Soul Harvester is just way more useful in most situations. Even if we go up against an army of skeletons like that, if I get my Winter Dancers out and they start killing, they’d tear through all of them and get increasingly faster with every kill, while never timing out.”

“That’s true,” she replied.

“Yeah, I’m picking Soul Harvester,” he decided after a moment.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Invoker => Soul Harvester >

< < Mastery Shard Obtained > >

After getting the next six upgrades, the last set of evolutions for the wand was another choice between skills.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Necromancer — Unique Skill ( Necromancy ) | Resurrect a corpse as a summon. 100 Mana cost >

< Evolutionist — Unique Skill ( Evolve ) | Evolve a summon. 100 Mana cost >

Holy shit! Necromancy!

Evolutionist also looks really good and could combo well with Infusionist’s skill.

“Wow, I had no idea this was even a thing…” Emelia said. “Summoner might be one of the most powerful early weapons if you can master it quickly.

“You can also learn Sylvia’s spells if you pay her a lot of Points,” Adam said. “With how I understand spells, you don’t need to actually unlock them if you know the pattern. So if I buy a spell from her and memorise it, I should be able to use it with the wand immediately at the start of the Trials.”

“I didn’t realise you could learn her spells,” Emelia admitted. “I kind of didn’t consider her to be super useful, aside from the Shade Barrier scroll.”

“You’re not using her Desiccate spell?” he asked, surprised.

“I tried using it a bit in my last run, but most enemies die quickly without it and it’s kind of slow to set up, which runs the risk of someone else getting hurt. Especially when the bosses jump on you immediately. More often than not the spell will just be consumed by someone else’s attack, so it’s hard to use without a very coordinated team.”

“If I can get more Mana, then Evolutionist would work really well with Infusionist, allowing me to create a devastating attack, but it would cost me 200 Mana to do so. Unless my spell cost reductions affect skills.”

“They don’t,” she immediately answered. “And while specialising in a single powerful attack can work, I think versatility is much better, and Necromancer will probably use your buffs to empower whatever you resurrect, since they’re considered your summons.”

“You’re right, I hadn’t thought about that,” Adam replied.

I guess that Infusionist already allows me to go all out on a single attack. And while it would be insane to try and really buff the shit out of a summon, using corpses as summons opens up a lot of new stuff I hadn’t even thought about.

Like, what if I can resurrect one of those Slugwhales? Or the flying Slug Dragons? That might be insanely strong.

“Wait,” Adam started, “do you think I can resurrect dead Players?”

Emelia frowned.

“I’m just speculating,” he added. “I’m not going to try it unless the opportunity presents itself.”

Emelia shook her head. “That still sounds bad.”

He laughed. “You’re right. But seriously, do you think it would work?”

She sighed, before adopting a serious expression. “There are a few Stages that use Player corpses against us. In Stage Nine for example. The Forlorn Shadow makes it so any Player who dies in the Stage is resurrected as a Forlorn Knight, with all their Relics and weapon upgrades.”

“That sounds bad.”

“It is. And the Stage lasts a full week, so it has a really devastating impact on the groups where people form friendships along the way. The only way to avoid it is to burn the corpses of anything that dies. It’s one of the Stages where you’re better off just beelining it for the final boss immediately, since everything you kill will return later, unless you have easy access to fire.”

That sounds like a difficult Stage. But I guess all of them are hard, otherwise how can the number of Players be reduced down to just a few thousand before Stage Ten?

The fact that the 22 million Players currently alive would be reduced by an order of thousand across the next three Stages was insane to him. Even if only 1 Player in every team survived across each of the next three Stages, that would still leave over 100 thousand survivors by the start of Ten. Emelia said she was hoping for 10,000 survivors.

“I’m starting to realise just how horrible the next three Stages will be,” Adam muttered.

Emelia nodded. “And quite a lot of people die in Stage Ten as well. By Fifteen we’re usually down to a few hundred Players.”

So that’s why she said just one or two extra people surviving past Stage Twenty would make a huge difference.

“Alright, I’m picking Necromancer,” he decided.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Soul Harvester => Necromancer >

< < Mastery Shard Obtained > >

After grabbing his third Shard, they went over to Karie’s stall. Adam had decided to buy 15 general upgrades, which would cost him 4500 Points, the same cost as getting 10 weapon upgrades.

“Hi Adam!” greeted the cricket vendor. “Are you here to browse my wares?”

He grinned. “You bet.”

After ten minutes, this was how he had spent his Points:

< < General Upgrades Purchased > >

< Damage (Epic) >

< Defence (Rare) x2 >

< Defence (Epic) >

< Health (Rare) x2 >

< Health (Epic) x2 >

< Mana (Epic) x2 >

< Movement (Rare) x4 >

< Venom (Epic) >

< 4600 Points Remaining >

After he was done, Emelia bought a bunch of upgrades too, focusing mainly on Speed and Damage.

“Hypocrite,” he told her.

She laughed. “You always say that every time.”

As she continued going through the upgrades and spending her Points, Adam consulted his status screens.

< < Player Status > >

< Adam >

< Infusionist >

< Level 67 >

< Stats >

< Health — 110 (+40) >

< Stamina — 75 >

< Mana — 220 (+20) >

< Damage — 125% (+25%) >

< Defence — 220% (+25%) >

< Dodge — 10% >

< Speed — 145% (+60%) >

< Luck — 26 >

< Attack Speed — 125% >

< Meta Upgrades >

< Damage +10% >

< Relics >

< Attack Speed +25% >

< Speed +10% >

< Upgrades >

< Crush +15% >

< Damage +65% >

< Defence +95% >

< Dodge +10% >

< Health +60 >

< Luck +21 >

< Mana +20 >

< Movement +60% >

< Venom +25% >

< < Weapon Status > >

< 1 >

< Spell-Tome >

< Rare Quality >

< Level 18 >

< Stat Upgrades >

< Barrier Durability +90% >

< Barrier Efficiency +65% >

< Manipulation Effect +215% >

< Manipulation Range +20% >

< Manipulation Speed +55% >

< 2 >

< Wand & Wraith Lantern >

< Rare Quality >

< Level 18 >

< Stat Upgrades >

< Casting Effect +220% >

< Casting Efficiency +65% >

< Spell Damage +75% >

< Spell Speed +210% >

Since she still wasn’t done, Adam practised a bit more with the barrier spell using the wand. He stood a bit away from the stalls, just in case something went wrong. The wand had changed from its bleached and coiled unicorn-like appearance into a smooth slate-grey piece with red-gold veins here-and-there. Its new design definitely matched the Necromancer name.

The Soul Harvester evolution had also been slate-grey, but it had felt more rugged, like stone, while this one was like marble. It also hadn’t had gold veins, instead keeping the blue ribbon and bell that the Invoker had.

After a couple attempts, Adam was able to summon a barrier in just under 15 seconds and make it big enough to hide his whole body behind. The benefit of the Casting Effect upgrade seemed to not only be in guiding his hand through the motions better and allowing him to deviate and still get it right, but it also let him skip steps somehow. Surprisingly, his boost in Speed also helped him move through the precise motions faster.

I’m not quite sure how this works exactly, but I feel like Casting Effect might just be letting me perform an abbreviated version. If I can memorise that version of a spell, I wonder if it would let me cast it without any upgrades to help me.

If memorisation benefits the Summoner’s wand spells as much as I think, then it would be the ultimate time-looper weapon, since I would then be able to go back to the start and have a whole arsenal of spells at the ready.

Just being able to cast Shade Barrier on myself would be really powerful. Think I might pay Sylvia to teach me a spell after Stage Eight.

Although, even if he knew the spells, casting them required Mana, which was a pretty hard limiter for potential, unless he invested heavily into the meta upgrade to boost it. Even just casting the barrier spell twice in quick succession had eaten at least half of his reserves, meaning it was an expensive spell, even with the 65% cost reduction he now had.

Since Emelia was still busy at Karie’s stall, Adam went over to Belin’s shop.

“Hello Adam,” said the cockroach.

I haven’t checked her stuff in a while, he realised as he saw that there were three new roots available for sale. One was dark-grey, another was yellow, and the last was white.

“What do those three boost?” he asked.

She went through them in order, gesturing to each in turn. “Damage, Speed, Defence.”

“And it’s a 10% boost for all of them?”

“That’s right.”

“For 10 minutes, right?”

“No. They last 24 hours.”

Adam blinked. “What? I thought it was only 10 minutes.”

“You are mistaken.”

“I could’ve sworn you told me they last 10 minutes.”

The cockroach looked at him exasperatedly. “Perhaps you are confusing it with the duration of toxicity, which takes 10 minutes to dissipate after consumption of either a potion or a root, though they are separate toxicities that can overlap.”

You know, I actually don’t know if I ever asked how long they last…

He grinned awkwardly, realising he might’ve just confused himself.

“What about your potions? You don’t have ones that boost Damage?”

“Potions are only for refilling your resources,” she explained. “I am not an alchemist, so I cannot brew you concoctions. What you see here in my stall is what you get.”

An alchemist would actually be a great vendor to have, he realised.

Maybe that’s a hidden vendor I can find or one of the special denizens from fully completing a Stage.

“Anyway, I’d like to buy two medium healing potions,” he said.

“Of course.”

< < Potions Purchased > >

< Medium Healing Potion x2 >

< 3600 Points Remaining >

The two potions appeared in the empty slots of his Potion Belt.

Alright, now just for the meta upgrade.

Adam went over to where Emelia was still shopping.

“I’m going to see Luvicidix,” he told her.

“Alright, I’m almost done,” she replied, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

They both paused.

“Erm,” Adam muttered.

“Sorry, force of habit,” she said and immediately turned back to the four holograms hovering over Karie’s cauldron.

Adam stared at her. “Are you trying to give me heart palpitations??”

“Maybe,” she replied coyly without meeting his gaze.

He quickly got on his barrier and took off for the centre of the island before she could see the look on his face.

After he reached the Altar, scales fluttered down from the sky and Luvicidix descended from above.

He got off his barrier when she landed.

“Did you run here, Adam?” she asked, tilting her head slightly, her comb antennae swishing from the motion. She had clearly seen how he arrived, but he knew why she was asking.

“No…” he replied. “Please, just show me your upgrades.”

“You don’t have a fever?” she asked, stepping closer. “You are very red.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you,” he replied.

She looked off towards the Market. “Oh. I see. You are not alone.”

“Luvicidix, just show me your damn upgrades!”

“You hide your embarrassment with anger. That’s not very healthy, Adam.”

Adam sighed. “Are you enjoying yourself? I thought you said time didn’t like when we took too long.”

“You’re right, I did say that.”

She gestured with a black-banded arm.

< < Meta Upgrades For Sale > >

< Damage — Increase All Damage by 25% — 2500 Points >

< Mana — Increase Mana by 10 — 1000 Points >

< Rewards — Increase Reward Options by 1 — 626/4000 Points >

< Vendors — Increase Vendor Options by 1 — 4000 Points >

< Rerolls — Start every loop with 1 Reroll Dice — 2500 Points >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 2 Saved Relic Slots — 5000 Points >

< Scale of Remembrance — 25000 Points >

Okay, I have enough Points.

“I’m buying the rest of the Rewards upgrade,” he said, hurrying the interaction along before she could tease him more.

“Good pick,” she commented.

< < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > >

< Rewards — Increase Reward Options by 1 >

He brought up his currencies.

< < Player Currencies > >

< Points — 226 >

< Mastery Shards — 3 >

Guess I’ll just hold on to these Points until after next Stage.

“That’s it for now,” he said.

Luvicidix didn’t go anywhere.

He frowned. “What?”

“Given your particular circumstances, getting involved with another Player is inadvisable.”

“We’re not involved,” he replied.

She walked towards him until they were only a hand’s breadth apart.

“You do not have to lie to me, Adam,” she whispered conspiratorially.

“I’m not fucking lying,” he retorted. “And what do you care what I do with my life?”

“Aha! So you are involved!”

“Are you trying to start a fight?” he asked.

“When my sister mentioned that you brought a friend, I was quite surprised. Two time-loopers finding one another. It must be fate, don’t you think?”

He sighed.

“Well, I think it’s romantic,” she went on.

“If you think it’s so romantic, then why are you keeping me here? She’s frozen in time until you get on with your business.”

“Good point!” she exclaimed, flapping her fluffy wings and taking to the sky.

“Have fun!” she yelled as she disappeared into the clouds, taking her scales with her.

As time resumed, Adam massaged the bridge of his nose.

There’s no way she won’t be bringing this up every time we meet from here on out…

At least Alivida didn’t seem to care.

Adam hopped back on his barrier to return to the Market.

-----------------------------

-Previous chapter-
---Next chapter----

Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Five

-Previous chapter-
---Next chapter----

I should have more chapters in the weekend.

-----------------------------

Chapter Seventy-Five

For some reason, the statues around the fountain were all panther serpent chimaeras. The implication was that Alepheria was most known for chimaeral transmutation, even though Adam associated her tower more with the creepy bone constructs and the Tome Keeper had said she was more about summoning.

Yenna switched to playing a trumpet as they entered the Market, but she still managed to make it sound sombre and longing like the violin.

“I was wondering,” Adam started, “if someone gets two Grafted Wings, can they fly?”

“They can,” Emelia confirmed. “You can also get a Grafted Arm to hold more Relics.”

“Can you hold extra weapons too?”

“No, but you can have three arms holding the same weapon. It can be good for leverage on spears or for swinging heavy weapons faster.”

“Gladwyn’s tail seems to work quite well. I have been wondering if I should get a tail too, since I’m kind of lacking in ways to defend myself if enemies get too close.”

Emelia laughed. “I can’t imagine you with a tail, that seems so weird.”

“Have you tried any of those Relics?”

“Last loop I had a Grafted Wing. When you have just one, it can help you jump higher and run faster, if you use it well. It’s not a bad Relic, but I think you’re still better off with more upgrades, so it’s not worth hunting through Lucca’s options to get it.”

“Not even if you’re guaranteed Rare at minimum?” Adam asked.

Emelia seemed to think about it. “You don’t really need wings because of your barriers, and while a tail could be good to avoid falling off the islands or ships, I think you’re better off spending the points on upgrades, especially since they’re guaranteed Rare.”

She does make a good point.

“What about the Damage boost from Luvicidix?” he asked.

“You already have the first step, right? So it’s just 15% extra. It’s not a bad thing to get, if you’re looking ahead, but for that amount of Points you can afford a lot of upgrades that’ll help you right now. The main benefit of Meta Upgrades is that they give you a much stronger start and allow you to snowball Points to get more optimised and powerful loops. I normally focus on getting strong enough in my current loop before I invest into Meta Upgrades. Stage Seven should give you as many Points as you already got from Six, if not even more, depending on how much bonus stuff we do, so I think you should wait until after.”

Her strategy makes sense, but only when viewed from the perspective of how she has to make it to the Stage where she gets the Divine Relic in order to go back in time. It’s not a bad idea for me to invest Points early, because if I die I go back regardless.

But… I don’t want to die when everything is going so well. So, I think I’ll take her advice.

Plus, I already got the Cheat Death Relic, so I should be able to make it far.

Investing my Points after Stage Seven is probably a good idea though, just in case whatever happens in Eight is impossible for me to survive.

“What are we focusing on first?” Emelia asked. “Weapon upgrades or general ones?”

“Actually, I have some Relics to sell,” he replied, beelining it for Lucca’s stall.

I should send the Choice Ring back to my storage first, since I won’t be able to use it.

“Shitbox, send the Choice Ring to my Player House.”

[Understood.]

The ring vanished from Adam’s right hand and he suddenly realised that he’d actually been wearing it alongside Alepheria’s Mandate, even though it normally wasn’t possible to have both a glove and a ring on the same hand.

“Wait, why was it possible for me to have a ring and Alepheria’s Mandate?” he asked.

“That’s because the Legendary Relic replaces your real hand,” Emelia answered before the cube could.

“What happens if I take it off?” he asked

“Don’t,” she replied.

Adam frowned. “Emelia… what the fuck happens if I take it off?”

She grinned. “You really shouldn’t.”

“Oh my God… It literally replaced my real hand!”

Emelia laughed. “Well, what did you expect?”

“I thought it was like the Slime Glove and that unequipping it would suck, but ultimately you’d heal your skin and flesh back.”

“Just be glad you didn’t pick a grafted limb and try unequipping it. I’ve heard it’s like losing an actual limb and that people feel phantom pains for weeks afterwards. Also, if they’re severed or injured, you can’t heal them until after finishing a Stage, like with Relics and weapons.”

“Fucking hell… You’d better warn Gladwyn about that.”

Since Adam didn’t want to sell the Chimaera Core, he stowed it in his house as well. Then he went up to the stall.

“Hello Adam,” Lucca greeted, her eight eyes split between him and Emelia. “Are you here to browse my wares?”

He pulled out all the items in his bag and placed them on the counter one by one. “Yes, but first I wanna sell these.”

“Excellent,” the spider chittered.

“That’s quite a haul,” Emelia commented.

“Most of it is from the Players who died,” he replied.

< < Relics Sold > >

< Tainted Helmet (Epic) >

< Curse-Giver Necklace (Rare) >

< Duellist’s Glove (Rare) >

< Forlorn Cuirass (Rare) x2 >

< Purple Slime Glove (Rare) >

< Rapid-Fire Bracer (Rare) >

< Vigilant Fighter’s Vambrace (Rare) >

< Crystallised Mana Core (Uncommon) x13 >

< 14950 Points Remaining >

That’s funny, it brought me back to the exact amount I got from Stage Six.

“I do feel kind of bad. Gladwyn, James, and I were supposed to split this. But because I was carrying it all and they accidentally finished the Stage, I just got to keep it. The Eye said I can’t even give it back.”

“No point dwelling on it,” Emelia said. “Alright, now that you have a bunch of Points, let’s get you some upgrades, starting with your weapon I think.”

“Don’t you want to see my wares before you go?” Lucca asked.

“Sure, let’s see them,” Adam said.

“I don’t think there’s anything useful you could get since you already got Alepheria’s Mandate and the Wandering Eye.”

“I’m just window shopping,” he replied.

Lucca gestured to the black chest and it popped open to show four holograms. Two were Rare and two were Epic.

< < Relics For Sale > >

< Mana Shield Ring (Rare) — Consumes 75% of wearer’s Mana to deflect an attack. 10-minute cooldown >

< Grafted Arm (Epic) — Grows an arm on your body >

< Chimaera Helmet (Rare) — Increases Movement Speed by 25% and imbues wearer with Bestial Agility | Reduces Health by 30% >

< Mage Aspirant’s Cowl (Epic) — Allows you to see Mana and absorb it >

“The ring seems good,” Adam commented.

“It really isn’t,” Emelia said. “I’ve seen quite a lot of Players die because of it. Also, deflection doesn’t mean the attack goes away. If you deflect something explosive, it might just hit the ground next to you, or one of your teammates. Also, if you don’t have enough Mana, it will consume Health.”

“Even if someone has 0 Mana?”

She nodded. “Yeah. It just takes 75% of their Health instead.”

“Damn, that’s crazy. Why wouldn’t it list that?”

She gave him a “You know why” look and he frowned.

“Because it’s a trap,” he realised.

“Bingo.”

Adam laughed. “I didn’t think you were the type of person who’d use the word bingo.”

She ignored him. “The helmet is probably the best Relic out of these four. Bestial Agility turns your jumps into leaps that can go really far, depending on how fast you are, and it makes you able to manually dodge better. But losing 30% Health is a pretty big issue.”

“What about the Cowl?” he asked.

“It’s very good against incorporeal enemies and magic wielders, but only if you know what you’re absorbing. I’ve seen a few people blow themselves up because of it. If you have a magical catalyst, like your wand or spell-tome, the Mana you absorb goes into those. If you don’t, the Mana goes into you. I don’t need to tell you why imbuing fire into your own body is a bad idea.”

“Christ, are any of these Relics not some form of trap!?” he exclaimed in dismay.

Lucca glared at Emelia. “You are scaring my customer,” she hissed.

“You’re the one selling things with missing descriptions!” Emelia shot back.

Adam pulled her over to Thea’s stall.

“Good day, Adam,” she greeted him.

Adam pulled out his spell-tome. “Can you sell me upgrades for this?”

“Certainly.”

“How many do you need for the next evolution?” Emelia asked.

“Three more,” he replied.

The anvil next to Thea glowed and four holograms appeared.

< < Weapon Upgrades For Sale > >

< Barrier Size (Epic) — Increases maximum barrier dimensions by 25% >

< Barrier Efficiency (Rare) — Reduces barrier summoning cost by 15% >

< Manipulation Speed (Rare) — Increases manipulation speed by 35% >

< Manipulation Effect (Epic) — Increases manipulation responsiveness by 50% >

“Effect,” Adam decided immediately.

< < Weapon Upgrade Purchased > >

< Manipulation Effect (Epic) >

< 14500 Points Remaining >

The options scrambled and were replaced.

< < Weapon Upgrades For Sale > >

< Barrier Size (Rare) — Increases maximum barrier dimensions by 15% >

< Barrier Efficiency (Rare) — Reduces barrier summoning cost by 15% >

< Manipulation Range (Rare) — Increases manipulation range by 35% >

< Manipulation Effect (Rare) — Increases manipulation responsiveness by 35% >

He selected Efficiency since lower Mana cost was gonna come in handy if his idea of how to use his barriers as fire-and-forget projectiles in the next Stage was doable, since he could imagine quickly burning through Mana that way.

< < Weapon Upgrade Purchased > >

< Barrier Efficiency (Rare)  >

< 14050 Points Remaining >

“I think range would be good,” Emelia commented.

The next set appeared.

< < Weapon Upgrades For Sale > >

< Barrier Size (Rare) — Increases maximum barrier dimensions by 15% >

< Barrier Efficiency (Epic) — Reduces barrier summoning cost by 25% >

< Manipulation Range (Rare) — Increases manipulation range by 35% >

< Manipulation Effect (Rare) — Increases manipulation responsiveness by 35% >

“Hmm, I still think Efficiency is better.”

Emelia looked sceptical, but didn’t say anything.

< < Weapon Upgrade Purchased > >

< Barrier Efficiency (Rare)  >

< 13600 Points Remaining >

No sooner had he selected the upgrade than the spell-tome in his hand started to glow with golden energy.

[Your Fusionist Weapon Type has reached Level 18.]

[At Level 18, your Weapon Type can be evolved in one of two possible directions based on your previous evolutions.]

The Eye inhaled his spell-tome as it turned into golden particles and then dropped to the ground, changing into the pyramid shape.

The left hologram of the spell-tome still had green-dyed leather, but the gold embellishments were now like ruby gem stones, and the signet with curled fingers had a diamond shape around them. The right one also had green leather, but the embellishments were blue gem stones, and the signet was surrounded by a circle. The clasps that sealed the books closed now had twist-turn locks, the left with a ruby and the right with a Mana crystal.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Mana Manipulator — Unique Skill ( Spell Extraction ) | Violently expel the fused spell from the barrier, destroying the barrier in the process. 50 Mana cost >

< Infusionist — Unique Skill ( Mana Infusion ) | Infuse a fused barrier with Mana, doubling its effects. 100 Mana cost >

Double effects probably means both positives and negatives, but so far the negative effects from fusions haven’t been an issue.

I wonder if I physically have to open the tomes to use the skill. That would be interesting.

“Think I’ll go with Infusionist,” he said.

“The other one seems a lot more versatile,” Emelia commented.

“It might be, but I have no idea how it would work if I used it to expel a barrier from another barrier. It might not have any effect. And if that’s the case, then I can basically only use it if I’m fighting enemies using magic I can absorb, or if I use my Blood Fist Ring or something similar to infuse it with a specific spell.”

“What would the other one be able to do?” she asked.

“Well, given that triple-fusing a barrier was able to kill both the human mimic and bumblebee in one hit, adding Mana Infusion to the mix might make me able to one-shot airships in the next Stage.”

“You got a human mimic?” she asked. “Even though you picked a different Patron?”

“Yeah, we got it because of James. Apparently he could hear whispers when it was close.”

She nodded. “You told me about those whispers in the past. Well, the past you. There hasn’t ever been a human mimic when we’re together in Seven, so maybe that’s the reason why you died in Stage Eight in the past? Because you got a mimic in that Stage?”

“Could be,” he replied. “But it won’t be a problem this time at least.”

She smiled. “You’re right.”

“Anyway, I’m picking Infusionist.”

“I’ll look forward to seeing you shoot down airships,” she joked.

“Just wait until you realise I was being serious.”

Adam selected Infusionist.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Fusionist => Infusionist >

The spell-tome appeared in his hands, and the first thing he did was twist the lock, popping the clasp and opening the tome to a random page. It was full of strange drawings and text he didn’t understand. A pyramid gem appeared in the air and he grabbed it with his right hand.

< < Mastery Shard Obtained > >

A strange sensation flowed through him as he touched the gem in the split-second before it disappeared. It gave him a sense of where the gem had come from. For the briefest of moments, he saw a gigantic eye condensing the life force of hundreds of souls into the gem.

Adam shuddered.

But then he got an idea.

“What are you doing?” Emelia asked as Adam placed his obsidian hand flat against the page full of nonsense writing and drawings.

Adam blinked.

“Woah,” he muttered.

“What?” Emelia asked, sounding worried.

“I think I understand what the pages say,” he replied.

He flipped through the tome, but it was the same two pages repeated again and again the entire way through.

“And?”

“And I think I know how to summon a barrier without using the spell-tome.”

“Really?” she asked sceptically.

“Yeah.”

Adam switched to his wand and started moving it through the air in a three-dimensional pattern that was like a maze shaped into an orb, with its meandering halls starting from the centre and leading out.

Even just holding the wand in his magical hand was making him understand how it worked a lot better than before. He had struggled a lot with casting spells using it, but he realised now that it wasn’t because he had screwed up the patterns, or at least not entirely because of that. A large part of it was because he hadn’t fully envisioned the spell in his mind, and fed that image the Mana it desired.

After half a minute, a circular barrier floated in the air in front of Adam. It was the size of a dinner plate and midnight-blue.

“Holy shit,” Emelia muttered in awe.

Adam wasn’t entirely sure how he’d done it, but he understood that Alepheria’s Mandate and the Tome Keeper’s Relic had helped a lot.

“Can you shape it?” she asked.

Adam tried to imagine it shaping into something different, but unlike with the spell-tome, it was completely ineffective while he held the wand.

He switched to the spell-tome and the barrier remained. However, he could not command it like any barrier summoned by the tome.

“Damn,” he muttered.

“What about Alepheria’s Mandate? Can’t you control it with that?” she asked.

Oh, I didn’t even think of that.

Adam gestured at the barrier, but nothing happened.

“Spin,” he said.

Still nothing happened.

That’s a shame. I was hoping I could give it a command to shape itself…

But maybe there’s a different spell I can cast with the wand to let me shape it somehow.

“I don’t think it counts as a summon, but still, this opens up so many possibilities,” Adam said. “I’ll need to practice a lot though.”

“I had no idea this was even possible,” Emelia admitted. “I guess I underestimated the wand quite a lot.”

Adam summoned three new barriers with his spell-tome and they were all still midnight-blue even after the evolution. What surprised him most, however, was that they could exist simultaneously with the wand-created barrier.

“I think this will come in handy,” he said. “If I can figure out how to cast the spell a lot faster.”

“You could buy more upgrades for the wand,” Emelia suggested, no doubt realising its potential. “How many Points do you have left?”

“13600,” he replied.

“And what level is it?”

“It’s level 8. If I wanted to max it out, it would cost me 4500 Points. I also want to get the Rewards upgrade from Luvicidix, and I need about 3400 for that, which leaves me with 5700 for general upgrades, enough for 19 in total.”

“I think you should get at least two medium healing potions, which would cost you 1000 Points.”

Adam still had one weak potion in the Potion Belt strapped to his right arm, but after the many close calls in Stage Six, he agreed that he definitely needed more. Not to mention, Seven was supposed to last 3 whole days.

“So, that means I’d have 4700 to spend on general upgrades, which is enough for 15. Do you think that’s a good way to spread my Points out?” he asked.

“You could also buy housing upgrades from the Builder,” she said. “I think investing into the wand is worth it though. If nothing else, you’ll get two more Mastery Shards out of it.”

“Speaking of, what’s the new upgrade from Alivida after Stage Six?”

“There isn’t one,” she replied.

“Luvicidix told me her sister had a new upgrade for me.”

Emelia looked confused for a moment, but then she said, “It must be because you used the Lucky Stone. You can buy more from Alivida after you use it, but they cost 3 Shards each.”

“That’s super expensive.”

“Yeah, but I guess if you eventually buy everything else it’s a good way to spend any Shards you’ve got left over. I haven’t gotten any new ones in this loop yet though, so seems like it might take forever to get to that point.”

“What do you mean? Didn’t you evolve both Brawler and Priest?” he asked, confused.

“You only get the Mastery Shards once per weapon evolution. You can evolve them in a different direction and get new ones, but I’m pretty reliant on the specific evolutions from those two weapons, so I won’t get any new Shards until I swap them out. There’s a weapon in Stage Eight I might try this time around though. It’s similar to the Beast weapon, but apparently one of the evolutions lets you go incorporeal, which makes it possible to avoid almost all forms of damage.”

“I had no idea it worked like that,” he replied. “I’ve started with different weapons every time, so it didn’t come up.”

“I wish my time-looping powers worked like yours,” she commented.

“Trust me, you’ve got it much better,” Adam replied seriously.

Emelia looked away for a moment, not saying anything. He wanted to reach out with his obsidian hand and feel what she felt, but then she turned back to face him with a smile.

“Let’s start with the wand upgrades since we’re already here, shall we?”

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Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Four

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Chapter Seventy-Four

“You thief!” Gladwyn exclaimed, though it was mostly in good humour. Mostly.

Beck was busy eating a plate of pancakes covered in butter and syrup, while Emelia and James just watched the exchange, sipping from their drinks and snacking on stuff Charlie had brought them.

Emelia pointed a carrot stick at Gladwyn. “It’s not Adam’s fault you two touched the painting.”

“How were we supposed to know!?” he replied, but then paused. “Oh right, you told us…”

Beck sighed. “At least three of you survived. My group at the end was just me and this girl who absolutely hates my guts.”

“I told you not to fight the Tower Crawler,” Emelia scolded them.

“It wasn’t the Crawler that screwed my team,” Beck replied. “The Cell Warden took care of that. Lost three people to its first trick. Our fourth death was from the Crawler, but that’s just because the idiot had like 30% Speed or something…”

“We lost a guy to the Warden too,” James added.

Adam frowned. “Yeah. We didn’t even have a chance to save him.”

Emelia lowered her head. “I didn’t realise it was that big of a challenge. I’ve been able to kill it quickly every time.”

“Let me guess, you target the arms first,” Beck replied.

“You guys didn’t?” she asked.

“No,” all four of them replied.

“I only avoided getting death-slapped because I wasn’t right up in its business,” Beck added.

“But it’s like an octopus,” Emelia said, as though her point was obvious. “They have brains in their arms.”

“I didn’t think of that,” he replied.

“Me neither,” James said.

Gladwyn changed the subject and asked, “How did you get so many extra Points, Adam?”

He grinned. “Well, I found this extra thing after you two left.”

“We didn’t leave…” Gladwyn grumbled.

“It turned out to be a Secret Relic,” Adam continued, producing the telescope.

“Wait, was that thing one of the legs for the table next to the painting?” he asked. Gladwyn was quite observant, so he must’ve noticed it just before James touched the painting and he got pulled in alongside him.

“I found it too,” Beck announced.

“Shame you don’t have the Golden Map,” Adam said. “They work together to show a special trail.”

Emelia’s attention piqued at the mention of the map. “You figured it out??”

He nodded. “I guess I’ll show you in the next Stage.”

“Can’t you just show me now?” she asked, looking him right in the eyes.

Adam suddenly felt flustered, an awkward expression on his face. “Erm…”

Gladwyn laughed, but neither Beck nor James understood why.

“I was told by Gladwyn that we were doing a bet,” James then said, changing the topic again.

“We are,” Beck said. “I don’t want to brag, but I’m pretty sure I won it.”

Adam shook his head. “Always so confident.”

“Once again, I believe I am the loser,” Emelia started. Like Adam, she could see what bonuses people had gotten thanks to the constant query she was running in the Tavern.

Gladwyn hadn’t gotten Flawless, All Secrets, and MVP like Adam, but he had a pink sphere over his head, which was probably the Defender bonus. It gave 1500 Points for the Stage according to Emelia. James had the same minus Defender, and Beck was missing the All Objectives, Flawless, Defender, and Secret Boss bonuses. Emelia was missing just All Secrets and Eradication, but she had both MVP and Defender, so it was hard to tell if she had actually lost or not.

“How much did you get?” Beck asked.

“12200 Points,” she replied.

“I got 12250,” he said.

“Then I lost,” James admitted. “Mine was 12000 exactly.”

“I got 13500 and Adam got 14950,” Gladwyn said. “But! If we had gotten the telescope, then Emelia would have lost instead of James.”

“What happens to me now?” James asked, sounding slightly worried.

Beck gleefully explained the concept of nicknames to him and he eyed Adam warily.

“Since I won,” Adam said, basking in Beck’s disapproving glare, “I declare that James’ new name will henceforth be ‘Mana Hog’!”

James laughed. “I suppose I earnt that title.”

“I don’t get it,” Beck said.

“He’s using Spellblade, so he’s probably always out of Mana,” Emelia explained. “It’s quite difficult to use, since you’re always at risk of Mana Exhaustion. Not a lot of Players have survived with that weapon evolution to this point.”

“I swapped some stats around thanks to Nharlla’s power, so Mana is not as big of an issue for me,” Mana Hog replied.

“I would like to disagree,” Gladwyn said.

“Me too,” Adam added.

“Alright, fair, it’s still an issue. But it could be worse,” James admitted.

The conversation naturally switched to talking about how exactly each group had fared. Emelia had been able to protect every member of her team, hence why she had gotten less Points, since the objective rewards were split amongst the survivors. This mechanic continued into future Stages and was a large contributor to Player-killing, further incentivised by each kill rewarding 500 Points until Stage Ten.

At least I know that Stage Seven doesn’t have that stuff going on, thanks to the Scale of Remembrance. It’s more than likely the reason why I never survive Eight though.

They also talked about their Quest Objectives. However, both Emelia and Beck had failed theirs. Emelia was supposed to have found a time-frozen egg, and Beck had to create a certain kind of flame to obtain a special ember.

“But,” she said, “none of us are locked out of future Quests, and you should all have received the next one for Seven. If you haven’t, go interact with the Altar on the island.”

Beck then brought up the hidden chamber in the library, talking about the Chimaera and the stone it dropped. Beck’s team of three had found the chamber and killed the mini boss, thanks to his proficient use of traps. The reason why the only other survivor hated his guts was because he had forced her to cut open the panther serpent to get the Chimaera Stone. She had taken the Secret Relic for herself, but it seemed Beck had let her since he was just interested in marking the Secret for the bonus Points.

Adam was surprised that Emelia hadn’t known about the library chamber nor the hidden lever for the treasure room that gave them the Slugwhale Key. Her explanation was that it was hard to get information about the secrets, but Adam guessed that she just hadn’t invested enough time in talking to other Players about it. He figured that she was usually preoccupied with other things, such as helping as many as possible for Stage Seven and trying to figure out how to save him.

However, she knew about a different Secret Boss in the tower, which surprised them all. It was a Sloth Demon that was summoned by using the Nightwing Heart from Stage Three, part of the crystallised body from the tower basement, and the skinned face. She said it was really fast, like a mix of the Slothling Ogre and Imp enemies they’d fought.

“Why did we get the bonus for defeating just one of them if there were two?” Adam wondered.

“I think it’s a way of encouraging Players to take risks, since Secret Bosses are so much more dangerous,” she replied.

“The one we were up against was pretty bad,” Gladwyn commented.

Adam nodded. “If not for my Stone Mask, it would have killed me.”

“I knew there was a hidden chamber at the very top of the tower, but I had no idea it was used to trigger a special encounter,” Emelia commented.

If you knew, why didn’t you tell us? Why didn’t you tell me?

But Adam could guess the answer. If she’d told them, they might have tried to take the Dimensional Splinter, which in turn might’ve collapsed the tower on them.

“How are you normally supposed to fight the Crawler?” James asked. “I thought I might be able to use the Aspirant’s Cowl to absorb the Mana keeping it ethereal, but we never got to try it.”

“There are a few ways,” Emelia said, only now giving them the strategy, after initially telling them to avoid the boss altogether. “There’s special ash in the ritual chamber that can be used, otherwise the easiest way is to take the Mana crystals from the various enemies and throw them at it. You can use the Cowl too, I think, but it’s dangerous.”

“What about Blue Shard?” James asked, producing the crystal sword.

“You got that from the Stage?” she asked, surprised.

“I thought you were a time-looper?” Beck commented.

“I haven’t gone through that many times,” she defended herself. “And I’m not fucking omniscient! I have a lot of other stuff to think about too.”

Adam wanted to put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down, but they were still in separate dimensions.

“Stage Six is behind us anyway,” he said, dismissing the matter, even though he and Emelia would get to see the Stage again and again. “How about we focus on what’s next?”

Emelia sighed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to get heated, but I feel like I let you all down.”

Beck shrugged. “Nothing we couldn’t overcome, clearly.”

Gladwyn swung his hand through his friend’s hologram. “Learn some humility you arrogant bastard.”

“Am I wrong though?” he retorted.

Adam grinned. Maybe it’s true you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Or manners, I suppose.

Although, the fact that Beck had survived the Stage with just one other person at the end and gotten several bonuses along the way, proved that he wasn’t just all talk.

I should try out the Spellcaster, Adam thought. Laying traps sounds pretty good.

“So,” Emelia started, regaining her composure and aura of confidence, “Stage Seven is called the Floating Sea of Gold. As you’ll know from the end of Six, the Stage takes place within a painting. This actually doesn’t really make much of a difference to how it works, aside from a couple secrets, and it’s best if you treat it like just another Stage. Since it takes place in the clouds, each team is traversing its floating islands and areas with an airship.”

“Like the ones you could see in the painting?” Adam asked, having wondered about it already.

“Exactly. They are literally ships that travel through the air using propellers, fins, and sails,” she replied.

“And we’ve gotta operate those?” James asked.

“Shouldn’t be an issue,” Gladwyn commented.

“You can operate them on your own, if necessary,” Emelia told them, “but it’s most effective with at least three people, since you need a navigator, captain, and at least one person handling the sails and fins. Doing it on your own, especially in the starting ship, makes you pretty vulnerable to other ships.”

“We’re fighting other airships!?” Beck interrupted.

“That sounds pretty fun actually,” Gladwyn said.

“It is a much different pace, since there’s a lot more exploration than fighting,” Emelia added. “However! The fights you will encounter are much more difficult. I will tell you everything I know about the elites, objectives, and secrets, but please do not underestimate the enemies you will go up against. And while there are ways to get different airships, as well as a glider to save you if you fall overboard, most of the time you are completely screwed if your ship goes down. I have heard a lot of stories about teams that got stranded and only had one Player survive because of some Relic they had.”

“Please go into as much detail as you can about the enemies,” Adam urged her.

She nodded. “I’ve learn from my mistakes in keeping information from you, and I’m sorry about that. Clearly you can all handle more responsibility than I realised. Just be careful, okay?”

***

Adam flew towards the centre of the island after their morning meeting had concluded. Emelia had urged them all to upgrade their weapons and defences in preparation for Stage Seven, and to not focus too much on spending money on Relics. She had also told them to get medium healing potions and to have Weaver craft them bags and clothing to carry stuff, similar to what Adam already had, although she insisted that backpacks were better than a sack like his.

< < Visiting Stone Activated > >

< Player Hello, my name is Emelia and I’m a time-looper has entered your Dimension >

Adam laughed at the stupid name that Gladwyn had cursed her with, then drove his barrier down towards the Altar where she appeared, waiting for him.

No sooner had he gotten off his barrier than she jumped forward and hugged him tightly.

Adam was caught off guard for a second, but then hugged her back. The moment his obsidian hand touched her body, a zap rolled through him and a tsunami of emotions overtook him. Fear, happiness, anxiety, excitement, despair, and hope.

He gasped and she quickly let go of him.

“Are you okay?” she asked, looking him right in the eyes.

Somehow, those purple spirals were no longer off-putting to him, but perhaps that was because she had shown him that not all time-loopers were evil like Mórrígan.

“I got the Legendary Relic,” he said. “But it has a weird side-effect.”

Emelia grabbed him by the forearm and lifted his hand to look at it. “I’ve only ever seen Arturo wear this, but he never mentioned anything about side-effects.”

“It lets me understand whatever I touch. Sort of.”

“Understand?” she asked before noticing the black band just below the wrist. “What’s this?”

“My Patron gave it to me. It helps me with the side-effect.”

“Does that mean that when you touch me, you can tell what I’m thinking?” she asked, sounding slightly disgusted.

“I could feel your emotions,” he replied. “But I don’t think it lets me read minds. I tried it on the Blue Shard sword that James got and it just gave me a sense of how long the sword had been waiting for someone to find it. I also used it on Gladwyn’s Grafted Tail and I got a flashback sequence of the tail being cut off from its original owner.”

“Have you tried using it on that key you found in the tower?” she asked. Even though she didn’t say it, she was clearly relieved that he could not hear her thoughts.

“I haven’t,” he replied.

“You should try it. I think that hidden effect might be meant to help with finding secrets. Would explain how Arturo knew so much.”

Adam pulled out the Slugwhale Key and squeezed it with his obsidian hand. Emelia watched him expectantly.

A zap flowed through him and he saw a painter adding colour to a canvas, creating a figure. The perspective shifted to the figure, who was a skeleton made of gold and obsidian. He used special tools to create the key from the bone of a dead giant behind him. The key was fitted into the lock of a large grey door pockmarked with green spots. The perspective pulled away, revealing a massive airborne ship made entirely from bone with veins of gold running through it.

Adam gasped.

“It’s for a door on a ship made for bone and gold,” he said.

“I know that ship!” Emelia exclaimed. “It’s called the Golden Slug. It’s supposedly made from the skeletons of dead Slugwhales, just like the key you’re holding. It’s one of the many optional objectives in the Stage, but normally you’re just supposed to sink it. Boarding it to get to that door is going to be very difficult.”

“What’s a Slugwhale?”

“Do you know what a nudibranch is?” she replied.

“No.”

“Well, it’s the name for a group of sea slugs that have a ton of variations and are very colourful. They’re also often venomous. Anyway, a Slugwhale is a giant version of a nudibranch and they have a skeleton inside them. If you kill one you can harvest ambergris from them, like the thing they harvest from real whales to use in perfumes.”

“Are they dangerous?” Adam asked.

“Usually they’re not, but there are a few of them that are very territorial. There is also a flying evolution of them called Slug Dragons and those are always hostile.”

“A flying slug? Really? That sounds kind of absurd,” he replied.

“When you see one, you won’t be laughing,” she said. “They’re very dangerous.”

Adam started walking towards the Market and Yenna’s violin melody. “Do you mind helping me pick the best upgrades?”

“Of course. I think you should also get the third evolution of your weapon if you haven’t.”

“I was thinking of buying the 25% Damage increase from Luvicidix,” he said. “I already got the Cheat Death Relic.”

“You spent all your Points on that!?” she asked, mortified.

“Just 5000,” he replied. “I’d gotten the other half already.”

“You had me worried there for a second.”

“Was it not a good upgrade to get?”

“The Cheat Death Relic is really good,” she said.

“But?”

“But if you trigger it now, you can’t use any effects like it later on where it might be worth more. It’s basically a one-time use across the entirety of the Trials. It only resets after you loop back. And, knowing you have that to fall back on might make you take unnecessary risks, leading to you using it much sooner.”

It sounded like she spoke from experience.

“I’ll be careful,” he promised.

“What you should be focusing on right now is Health, Defence, and Movement Speed, I think.”

“Speed?”

“It makes you move faster, not just when you run, which in turn makes operating the airships much more efficient.”

Oh, that’s right. I did notice that in my last loop. Didn’t think it would apply to operating a ship though.

“So I shouldn’t focus on Damage?” he asked.

She glared at him. “Having a lot of damage won’t matter if you can die in a single hit or let your ship sink because you were too slow to act.”

He grinned. “Good point.”

Emelia shook her head.

“Alright, let’s go shopping.”

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Loopshard - Chapter Seventy-Three

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Three chapters coming back-to-back.

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Chapter Seventy-Three

< < Player Leaderboard > >

< Adam (MVP) — 14950 Points >

< Gladwyn — 13500 Points >

< James Kvarnström — 12000 Points >

< Maggie Brown Adams — Deceased >

< Seung-Hwan Hahn — Deceased >

< Marcus Ferguson — Deceased >

Adam looked at the way their names and Point totals were listed. He could understand why Emelia had said it led to Players changing their ways after Stage Six, since having your inadequacies rubbed in your face was sure to make people jealous and bitter. Right about now, Gladwyn and James must’ve been feeling some conflicted emotions about Adam scoring so much higher than them.

Still, makes it fairly easy to settle who is the winner of our ongoing bet at least, Adam thought to himself, trying to find an upside to this.

Gladwyn and I are both listed with our nicknames, which is interesting. Those in Emelia’s group are sure to get a laugh out of hers when they see the leaderboard.

The melody of a sombre violin floated through the air and Adam looked around at his surroundings. The buildings hadn’t changed much since before, but they had changed slightly, meaning enough people had died for it to be noticeable. And every death now was a person who had survived the first five Stages, meaning they were each survivors who had overcome much, only to fall short now.

“How many people survived Stage Six?” Adam asked his cube.

[22 million Players completed Alepheria’s Crooked Tower.]

Wasn’t sure asking that question outside of the Tavern would actually work.

Still, that’s 7 million people dead, just like that.

He suddenly noticed that the light on Interim Island was different, but it took him a moment to realise why.

“Did I arrive at morning time?” he asked the cube.

[Due to the duration of the previous Stage, you are given extra time on Interim Island before the start of Stage Seven.]

Interesting.

Normally he always arrived around noon, but now it was just after the sun had risen, and the shadows stretched far across the ground.

Next to the Altar in the middle of the island was a treasure chest made of black wood with gold embellishments.

“Is that the MVP Upgrade Chest?”

[Correct. This is part of your reward for achieving the most Points out of anyone in your team. This Upgrade Chest has four potential upgrades and their rarities are increased by one tier, but you cannot use Reroll Dice on it.]

A rarity increase? Awesome!

Adam went over and lifted the lid, making sure his spell-tome was his active weapon.

Four upgrade holograms appeared, two for his weapon and two general ones. Unfortunately, none of them were Legendary rarity.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Barrier Durability (Epic) — Increases barrier health by 50% >

< Manipulation Range (Epic) — Increases manipulation range by 50% >

< Health (Epic) — Increases health by 10 >

< Stamina (Epic) — Increases stamina by 10 >

Hmm, none of these make me immediately go “I need it!”, but Health is a pretty good option, since that’d put me at 80 total. My current range with the barriers is 12 metres, but with another 50% boost that should raise it to 17. Barrier durability is a bit hard to track, but I feel like it hasn’t really been a problem since I got Alepheria’s Mandate.

Adam looked at his obsidian hand with the sharp white nails.

I’ll just pick the safe choice, can’t really go wrong with more Health since my overall damage is really good.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Health (Epic) >

After picking the upgrade, the chest vanished in a puff of golden smoke.

Once it gets out that MVPs also get special upgrade rewards, then people will really get jealous I think.

He looked at the Altar in front of him.

I suppose I should get this over with sooner rather than later. Even though 1000 Points is tempting, I feel like I might be better off getting the Relic, whatever it is.

Adam reached down into the Spidersilk Sack and pulled out Alepheria’s notes on chimaera. He still had the Chimaera Stone in his bag, along with the other Relics they’d all agreed to share.

I hope they’re not mad at me.

But it was kind of their fault.

Yeah… I probably shouldn’t tell them that.

Better if I just play innocent.

Actually, maybe there’s a way to make it right?

“Can I give Relics to the members of my team? We didn’t get to split them before the Stage ended.”

[No. Trade between Players is prohibited on Interim Island.]

Well, I tried.

Adam stepped up to the Altar.

Wonder how I turn in the Quest Object…

He touched the white-glowing orb atop the plinth.

Then a tome dropped out of the air next to him, landing on the cobblestones and flipping open.

“What the—?”

A big muscular arm reached out from between its pages, grabbing Adam by the leg before pulling him in.

< < Now Entering > >

< The Fleshcrafter’s Abode >

Adam landed on his feet within an arboretum, the same one he’d travelled through on his last visit to the Tome Keeper’s home. Thousands of trees grew from the ground around him, and above was a ceiling of glass that showed the cosmos beyond. The tree nearest to him had a warped coiling trunk from which sprouted wing-like branches covered in golden leaves. Its bark was crimson and it bled black sap from a few taps hammered into it. Tending to the tree and collecting the dark sap was the Tome Keeper himself. This time he did not wear a hooded robe of skin like his manservant, showing his strange liquid porcelain body in full.

The tall brute, Heskel, stood between Adam and the Absolute.

“Good work finding Alepheria’s notes,” the Tome Keeper said, already holding the pages in his right hand, while his other worked independently to collect the black sap into a glass jar.

His body seemed to have grown taller since their last meeting, and Adam got the sense that it was made from a shapeshifting material that allowed him to change his form to undertake any task imaginable. Still, it was odd that a God such as him, who commanded an army of constructs and servants, would want to do the manual labour himself. The strange stilt-legged creatures made of silver wandered about the arboretum around them, but gave the Absolute plenty of space, clearly not wanting to disturb his work.

“Why did you bring me here?” Adam asked.

The masked brute grunted, the noise sounding like a warning.

“No, no, Heskel, it is a good question,” the Tome Keeper said. “I brought you here, Adam, because you possess new knowledge that I would like to trade you for. And it is also more expedient if you select your reward from me at the same time, would you not say so?”

“Can I pick the reward first?” Adam asked.

“That would be most expedient would it not?” the Absolute agreed, before continuing, “Alepheria was quite fascinated with my history, going so far as to imitate the hand I once possessed. The same hand that you now wield.”

Adam looked at the black obsidian hand that had replaced his own.

“This used to be yours?”

“Mine was more powerful, though it was never meant to affect summoning magic. While I have always excelled at craftsmanship, Alepheria was more a student of summoning and mana manipulation. Most of those creatures in her tower were made by the servants I gifted her,” the Tome Keeper replied.

“Are you talking about the Flesh Smiths?” Adam asked.

“Indeed. Now, I can tell that you would prefer a Relic instead of mere Points. Given that you cannot control what the hand shows you, I have conjured up this for you.”

An arm emerged from the Tome Keeper’s back, holding a simple black band in its palm.

Adam reached out and grabbed it. It immediately wrapped itself around his right wrist, just below his obsidian hand.

< < Unique Relic Obtained > >

< Sigil of the Open Ear (Common) — Attuned to Alepheria’s Mandate, organising the transference of knowledge it imbues its wearer with >

He wondered how exactly it would work but was too terrified by what he’d learn if he touched anything in the Tome Keeper’s abode, so experimentation would have to wait.

Still, it seems kind of underwhelming.

“Knowledge is more important than you realise,” the Tome Keeper said, his tone almost scolding. The third arm retreated back into his body, getting reabsorbed.

He can read my thoughts!?

“I perceive all that transpires within my domain.”

“Then what is the point of trading information with me?” Adam asked. “Can you not just peer into my thoughts and take them without giving me anything in return?”

“Is that an invitation?” the Tome Keeper asked.

Heskel took a step towards Adam and he backed away, putting his hand on his spell-tome.

“Your weapons will not work here,” the Absolute told him.

Then he rose to his full height, pulling the jar of black sap away from the tap in the tree. A tail emerged from his back and snaked around to grab the jar, freeing up his left hand to hold the pages Adam had brought.

“Now that you have received my reward, let us talk about the knowledge I wish to barter for,” the Tome Keeper said.

Adam followed after him as he walked through the arboretum to a chamber full of alchemical reagents and tools. Heskel walked behind them, always seeming just a moment from grabbing Adam if so commanded.

“What is the knowledge you’re seeking?” Adam asked. “I can think of two separate things that you may not know about.”

“Let us hear the first,” the Absolute replied, stopping by a workstation and gesturing for Adam to take a chair next to him.

A humanoid barn owl made of bone wreathed in shadow alighted next to them, accepting the Chimaeral Transmutation notes from its master and stuffing them inside its shadowy clothes. Then it retrieved a pen and a book, fixating its human eyes on Adam.

“I found something at the top of Alepheria’s Tower that was similar to the dimensional fragment in my chest,” he started.

“The Dimensional Splinter,” the Tome Keeper said. “Yes, I know of it.”

The owl scribe tore the page it had just written on from its book and stuffed it inside its beak, swallowing it. It looked irritated that Adam had made it waste a page on something its master already knew.

“What is it for?” Adam asked.

The Absolute looked like he weighed the merit of telling him or not, before saying, “Dimensionality is a tricky thing. I do not possess the power to control it. Not even the Watcher of Worlds possesses this gift.”

“It is a borrowed power, isn’t it?” Adam replied, remembering the System’s explanation of the dimensional fragment within his heart.

“Indeed. The Realm Traveller is easy enough to barter with for his power, if you can endure his challenging company and oftentimes absurd requests.”

Heskel grunted. “Brings much trouble.”

“That would certainly be an understatement,” the Absolute replied.

Realm Traveller? That must be one of the missing Absolutes in the Altar. I wonder how you’d unlock someone like that for worship?

“Only a fool would seek him out,” the Absolute cautioned. “And they would be lucky to even survive the encounter.”

That almost sounds like a clue.

The owl scribe adjusted its pen and placed it against a fresh page in its book.

Adam took it as a sign to get on with it and he explained how he believed Alepheria was still alive, since he had fought her avatar and seen the painting that she might’ve vanished into. As Adam talked, the Tome Keeper started mixing the black tree sap into separate vials, adding different solvents and ingredients to the mixtures.

“The avatar was my idea,” the Absolute replied. “Such a creation requires a fragment of one’s soul and Alepheria tied her jealousy and longing to it. The painting I was not aware of, however, and it seems to me that she must have gone behind my back to create it. I can only guess at which entity she borrowed power from to produce it.”

“I’m going inside the painting in the next Stage,” Adam explained.

“Then your task is clear.”

< The Tome Keeper >

< Search the painted world for signs of Alepheria. >

< Reward: 1500 Points or Relic >

“What should I do if I find her?” he asked.

“Kill her and bring her brain and heart to me.”

Adam tensed. “What will you do with them?”

“I will resurrect Alepheria and remind her of all that she owes me. I can forgive a mortal for dying, since that is their way, but for her to cheat me of what I am due… Such a thing must be punished lest others follow her example.”

“There was something else I wanted to ask you about,” Adam said, pulling out the Shard of Blood he’d looted from Maggie’s corpse.

Heskel immediately grabbed it from Adam’s hand, lifting it up to his eyes to stare at it.

“What a foul thing,” the Tome Keeper commented.

“A mark of the Flayed Lady,” Heskel said.

“I found it on the corpse of another Player and it bears the name of someone she killed,” Adam explained.

“The Flayed Lady tests her servants like this,” Heskel said, becoming surprisingly verbose, which was unsettling in a way, since Adam had assumed he was just a dumb bodyguard.

“Her and I have long been at war,” the Tome Keeper said. “Often my adherents find themselves under siege by her fiends.”

Adam swallowed. That didn’t bode well for him.

An ape-like bone construct hopped onto the workbench, carrying a basket woven from human hair within which were several reagents that the Absolute started putting into his vials. One was a dried husk of some beetle, another was a spool of silver, there were also green clay pebbles, fragrant saw-toothed leaves, wriggling slugs, and other strange things. After inserting each new ingredient into a vial of sap, solvents, and other materials, the concoctions rapidly underwent transformation, leaving him with eight different liquids in his vials in the end.

No sooner had he finished than a flesh spider consisting of nothing but arms sprouting from a ball took the concoctions and headed somewhere else, perhaps to apply them in tests or something.

His work done, the Tome Keeper left the alchemical workstation and chamber, and Adam quickly followed after him.

“You have traded me new knowledge, so now it is my time to answer a question of yours,” the Tome Keeper said.

Adam didn’t need to think hard about what he’d ask. “How do I beat the Trials?”

They came into a new part of the Tome Keeper’s abode that Adam had not seen before, and it was best described as an observatory, though it was also like a massive orrery at the same time. Enormous moving models of solar systems and galaxies, as well as celestial phenomena he could not fully comprehend, filled up the interior around a gigantic telescope.

“Is that truly the question you want to ask?” the Absolute replied. “Do you not have more pressing concerns?”

Adam shook his head. “I do not know how many chances I will get with this Erudition Barter, so it would be a waste to use them on simple questions.”

“Sometimes the simplest questions have the most profound answers,” the Absolute replied knowingly.

Adam paused, but then doubled down. “This is the question I want to ask.”

“Very well. The answer is rather straight forward. To beat the Trials of Defiance, you must defy the Trials themselves. You have already defied the All-Seeing System, which is not a feat many can claim. But in order to defy the Trials, you have to subvert their design. Though the worlds you visit may seem like a game to you, they are as real as you and me, and the answer to your question lies in this fact. But it is impossible for you to do it now, since you are following the rules to the letter, even if your way of returning to the beginning is unorthodox. To find the way out, you may need a change of perspective. Fortunately, you have all the time in the world to find it. I envy you in that.”

Adam didn’t think the answer was straight forward in the slightest, but before he could ask for clarification, he blinked and found himself back on Interim Island, the Altar right in front of him.

While he was processing what he’d been told, silvery scales fluttered down around him. He looked up to see Luvicidix descending from the clouds. It was so strange to see her in the figure of a human since he was used to the giant moth version from before.

If I die, will she go back to looking like that? he wondered.

“Hello again, Adam,” Luvicidix greeted after alighting on the ground in front of him.

“Thought maybe I wouldn’t see you until after noon,” he replied. “You didn’t show up right away.”

“I try not to upset any Absolutes and their Envoys by interrupting the tasks issued to their adherents,” she explained.

That makes sense.

“I’ve got a lot of Points this time around,” he said. “Thinking I’ll buy at least one of your upgrades.”

“Excellent, have a look. A new option has been added as well.”

< < Meta Upgrades For Sale > >

< Damage — Increase All Damage by 25% — 2500 Points >

< Mana — Increase Mana by 10 — 1000 Points >

< Rewards — Increase Reward Options by 1 — 626/4000 Points >

< Vendors — Increase Vendor Options by 1 — 4000 Points >

< Rerolls — Start every loop with 1 Reroll Dice — 2500 Points >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 2 Saved Relic Slots — 5000 Points >

< Cheat Death — Start every loop with the Cheat Death Relic — 5000/10000 Points >

< Scale of Remembrance — 0/25000 Points >

A permanent Mana boost is nice, but I don’t really need that right now.

“I’ll buy out the last of Cheat Death,” he decided.

“Good pick!” the moth girl remarked.

< < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > >

< Cheat Death — Start every loop with the Cheat Death Relic >

He looked around after nothing immediately happened. “Where is it?”

“You’ll get it once we’re done trading. Are you buying anything else?”

“Not right now,” he replied after looking through the options again. He did want to get the Rewards upgrade and more Damage was also a good investment, but he wanted to hear what Emelia thought first.

“I will see you later then,” Luvicidix said. “Make sure to visit my sister, she has a new upgrade as well.”

He brought up his currencies as the white moth girl flew back into the sky, taking her scales with her.

< < Player Currencies > >

< Points — 10100 >

Oh right, I had 150 Points left over from before.

As time resumed, Adam got the new Relic he had bought. He felt it more than saw it as it was ‘equipped’. It was like a brand applied with scalding heat to the skin on his chest.

< < Unique Relic Obtained > >

< Cheat Death Sigil (Legendary) — Survive death and recover Health back to 100% | Overrules all other death defying effects | Can only be used once in the Trials of Defiance >

Huh, it can only be used once? In the entirety of the Trials?

He guessed it was like a tattoo or something similar, and he wanted to check what exactly it looked like since it was now branded on him, but he first needed to find out how his friends had fared.

Hopefully Beck and Emelia didn’t run into any problems.

Adam hopped onto his barrier and flew towards the Tavern.

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 25

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Chapter 25

Getting Chris, James, and the MLP Society inside Greg the Humanbus was easier said than done. Bee had predicted than none of them would get inside the bus on their own, so we somehow convinced them all to wait with us in the middle of the road while Bee summoned it to our location.

Within 10 seconds, the Humanbus flew around the corner, coming from the nearby street where we’d parked it. Its mouth was wide open, and its crazy eyes looked positively demonic. Unsurprisingly, everyone tried to run away from it, but nobody could avoid its maw swallowing them up, especially since I held on to Cooper and Chris who seemed to be the fastest of the bunch.

Getting devoured by the Safe Zone bus was a strange experience, not too unlike being teleported, except with a lot more screaming and crying. However, when everyone landed on their own seat inside, they quickly calmed down.

Before they could start blaming me too much, Bee stood up and accepted responsibility for the trickery.

“But!” she added. “Now that you are all inside the Humanbus, you will be safe from monsters and will have access to the various features we’ve installed, like the bathhouse and bunk beds.”

Within seconds, the nine members of the MLP Society were running down through the bus to the bathhouse, all of them complaining about not having taken a shower in over a week.

Even though James was not a Player, he was apparently counted as a ‘Player Occupant’, which put our total at thirteen, which in turn stretched our sleeping quarters and bathhouse to make more room, thanks to the dimensional expansion that Bee had purchased.

“Greg!” I exclaimed. “Set our destination for Madeville Lake!”

[AYE AYE, VICE CAPTAIN!]

As the Humanbus took off, running down the street towards our destination on its many feet, I moved towards the bunk bed room. It had expanded and now had a total of fifteen beds, more than enough for us all to get one for ourselves.

I just took the one nearest to the door and plopped myself down.

“Panda, wake me up when we get there.”

He stood next to the pillow and scowled at me. “Do I look like your—!?”

Before he could finish the sentence, I’d passed out.

***

Something squishy bapped me on the head again and again.

“Wake up!” Panda told me.

“That was fast,” I replied with a yawn, getting up from the bed.

“You’ve been asleep for over an hour,” he said. “Also, Bee took us on a detour.”

“What? Why?”

“Just come see for yourself,” he said and hopped off the bed, waddling towards the door.

I stretched and followed him out.

At some point the MLP Society had finished their bath and now they sat around near the back of the bus, talking about something very serious. Even though the marketplace was supposed to be back there, none of the NPCs had shown up yet and possibly wouldn’t until we either physically picked them up or finished the first Game Event.

I tried to look out through the windows, but the thin skin-like membranes pretending to be glass were all fogged up by either condensation or on purpose.

James stood up near the front next to the large brain, chatting away merrily with the Humanbus. I remembered I still had its brain in my inventory, but since it would give me a movement- or transport-based skill, I felt like I didn’t really need it right now.

Chris was standing in the doorway next to James, looking outside.

I went up to him to look and saw something I hadn’t been expecting.

It was the Castleburg Prison, although the name was misleading, since it was placed off the highway between Madeville and Castleburg, technically putting it closer to Madeville. South of us, past the highway, was the forested mountain that separated the two cities. If I remembered correctly, the raincoat demon that Matthew Twine had killed and gotten his wings from would be somewhere on that mountain.

Bee stood outside the Humanbus, staring at the prison.

“What are we stopping here for?” I asked her.

“Panda said that someone powerful is in there,” she replied, turning to face me.

“Who?” I asked him.

Panda, who was sitting on Bee’s shoulder, gave me a disappointed look. “You don’t remember her? Isabella?”

I shrugged. “I’ve known a lot of people by that name.”

“First off, no you haven’t,” he replied, “and secondly, you fought her just the other day. Killing her pushed Liam over the edge and turned him into the Lord of Sinners.”

“Oh, her.”

He sighed. “Anyway, I was thinking, since Liam isn’t here and she is motivated by money, we should get her on our team,” he explained.

“I think we should look for Otto instead,” I replied.

“I’m not a fan of institutional authorities,” Bee started, “but Panda told me that all the guards and such inside the prison are still human, so I think saving them would be a good idea.”

I paused at her words. Bee normally didn’t really care this deeply about saving strangers.

Then I figured it out. “You just want to add them to the bus, so it levels up.”

She looked away. “That’s not true.”

“You’re lying!” I said. “Look at me and tell me you’re not lying!”

She spun back to meet my eyes. “Fine! I want to add them to Greg, so he becomes stronger, and we get coins from them using his services!”

“Coins? We can get coins from them??” I replied.

“Yes. And the more money we generate, the more upgrades we can get, and the stronger Greg will become. Once he reaches level 2, even better upgrades will be made available.”

“Leveling unlocks new upgrades!?” I asked excitedly.

“Exactly!” she replied. “So, you can see why—”

I stormed past her, cutting her off mid-sentence and tearing through the barbed wire fence. “Come on! What are you waiting for?”

The prison was just three white square concrete blocks surrounded by barbed wire fences and nothing else. I’d been inside it in the past, but my memory of that time was hazy at best.

A tunnel of fences led to the main entrance and there were several checkpoint fence gates that I easily pushed through. Bee followed behind me, skipping along excitedly.

“What do you think we’ll find inside?” she asked.

“It’s supposed to be a hybrid dungeon,” Panda said. “The inmates are monsters, and the guards and normal workers are human.”

“That sounds fun,” she replied.

We reached the front doors, and I pushed them open.

Then darkness enveloped me.

WARNING!

Now entering level 10 Dungeon ‘The Warden’s Funhouse’!

The darkness faded and I found myself in a room full of people on high alert. It looked like solitary confinement, except the room was quite large, as though eight cells had been joined together. There wasn’t any furniture though and the people around me just had their basic work clothes and tools. Two guys were clearly just janitors, but fortunately they’d been carrying mops when this whole thing started and now they were clenching them as though their lives depended on it. Which they probably did.

Bee appeared next to me and only then did the people notice us.

“Who are you!?” yelled a spray-tanned blonde guy in a disheveled white suit with his tie wrapped around his right hand like an improvised knuckleduster.

The two janitors aimed their mops at us, and the eleven other people all looked ready to throw down as well.

“We’re looking for Isabella,” Bee told them.

“Why the fuck do you have horns?” someone asked.

“She’s gotta be a monster! Just like the thing that ate Ted!” another person exclaimed.

Knuckleduster guy glanced between us, ignoring the panicked voices of the people around him.

“Why are you looking for Isabella?” he asked.

“We’re here to help you guys out,” I lied. We really just wanted them to survive so we could farm them for Game Coins.

For some reason he didn’t question that at all and said, “Isabella and the other guards are trying to find a way out. They’re mapping the way to the exit bit by bit, but there are a lot of monsters and traps out there, so those of us who didn’t get useful Classes are staying here to not get in their way.”

I eyed the walls of the room, realizing there were eight different metal doors leading out. I also just now noticed the monster corpses on the floor around them. They were like zombies in orange jumpsuits, although their skin was purple-gray and they had large metal screws sticking out from the sides of their heads, just like Frankenstein’s Monster.

“Which door do we pick?” Bee asked.

“It’s that one,” the guy said, pointing off to our right. “Avoid the floor panels spray-painted with an X.”

“Thanks,” I replied.

“I’m Waldo, by the way,” the guy said, reaching out to shake my hand. The others around him seemed to have calmed down a bit, though they still gave us funny looks.

Still, to play nice I returned the gesture, giving his hand a firm squeeze.

“I’m Gambit,” I replied.

Waldo’s expression soured and he clenched my hand much harder than before.

Around us, everyone suddenly looked very mad.

“Uh oh,” Panda muttered.

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Since it'll be about a week before chapter 25, here's the snippet of what comes right after this end, so you don't feel super cliffhangered :p

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“How was I supposed to know that they still remembered me!?” I yelled as Waldo and his friends chased us out of the starting chamber and through the next room full of Xs on the tiled floor.

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Anyway, next week I will focus on Loopshard and try to bang out as many chapters as possible for that. I do have to do a fair bit of studying for my internship in August, but I'm sure I can just dedicate 1 or 2 days to that without it destroying my productivity.

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MADMAN APOCALYPSE - Book 3 - Chapter 24

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Chapter 24

Greg came to a stop in front of ‘Sweet Dreams’ and we got off, leaving him in the middle of the street. No one would be foolish enough to get close, and Bee had made it clear that the bus could still defend itself if necessary. Although, if it ate any Players, they would just get sucked into the Safe Zone, which was kind of awkward and not super effective as a defense mechanism, given that violence was banned inside the bus.

“Do you think they’re in the dungeon?” I asked Bee.

Before we could even get close enough to investigate the entrance to the furniture store turned dream dungeon, a large man walked out of the alleyway next to it. He froze when he saw the giant bus staring right at him with its buck-toothed smile and crazy foglight eyes.

Like the other huge guys who’d guarded the store when we came here last time, he was wearing a t-shirt with a unicorn on it. However, this one was black and the unicorn on it was dark-grey with blue hair and had a twisted horn sprouting from its head. He had black-dyed hair, and it looked like he was wearing mascara, although it was smudged. His neck was buried under folds of flesh, and his belly was like a big meat balloon, though he carried his weight well, suggesting he had a decent amount of Strength.

My Appraising Eye brought up his info.

[Appraisal x ]

Level 1 — ‘Clinton’ — Player

“After he stole my waifu, I learned to embrace the darkness.”

Class: Edgelord

Main Attribute(s): Strength

If a red flag grew a personality, four limbs, a head, and subsisted on a diet of twelve cheeseburger combo meals daily, then Clinton would be the final result. He’s what happens when a generation of chronically-online adults get way too invested in children’s shows and develop feelings for 2D characters.

Prior to the GREAT GAME’s initialization, Clinton was on house arrest on a swatting sentence after the Madeville prison realized they didn’t have a cell big enough to fit him. The people at the MLP Society, once his sworn enemies, decided to take in their outcast brother and steer him back on the path of goodness. Apparently, the talking horses they worship have a mantra about friendship or something. I was told not to dig too deep into this, since the last guy before me killed himself after what he found drove him mad.

Even though the MLP Society took it upon themselves to guide Clinton back to the light, he is in his self-professed ‘dark era’, whatever that means. People try to make friends with him, but he would rather pretend to be a lone wolf, even though he often cries alone when no one is looking.

He’s scared of you and your bus, but he was told to wait for you to get here, and he doesn’t want anyone to think he’s a bitch.

“Finally,” Clinton said, trying to make his voice sound deep and brooding. “I’ve been waiting for hours, dude.”

“Take us to Chris and James,” I told him.

Bee scowled at his t-shirt and the dark unicorn on it. I knew better than to ask what the fuck was going on there, since she’d made it pretty clear that this topic was off-limits. Fortunately, I really didn’t care. We had more important things to tend to than some weird horse-obsessed fan club.

Clinton led us into the alleyway while constantly glancing back over his shoulder at the bus watching us from the street.

“What is that thing?” he asked, the fake bass to his voice suddenly forgotten.

“It’s a Safe Zone,” I told him.

Before he could respond, Bee asked, in a terrifying voice, “Why are you wearing a t-shirt of Queen Chrysalis?”

Clinton stopped and looked at her as though this was the first time he’d noticed her. When he saw the dangerous look in her eyes, he took a couple steps back, pressing himself against the wall of the alley.

“She’s uh…” he sputtered, before finding a bit of confidence and continuing, “she’s the only one who understands me and what I’m going through!”

Bee aimed her right hand at him and stepped closer, but I quickly pulled her back.

“Fucking hell, Bee! Don’t kill him over some dumb horse show!” I exclaimed.

Clinton, realizing what danger he was in, suddenly took off running down the alleyway. He was a lot faster than he had any right to be.

“Look what you did!” Bee hissed. “Now the changeling-lover is getting away!”

“I have no idea what’s going on here,” Panda said, “but you need to calm down.”

Bee shoved me back and then used her Moth Dash to shoot herself down the alley. Ghostly moth wings flapped behind her back as she skated along the ground, moving right through Clinton before he could even react.

A Bee-shaped hole was carved through the big guy, and he immediately collapsed to the ground, instantly dead.

“Ah shit…”

I ran over to where Bee had come to a halt, stepping around Clinton’s gored body. Somehow, there wasn’t so much as a speck of blood on her.

“What the fuck, Bee!” Panda exclaimed in a disappointed and scolding tone.

“You guys don’t get it!” she retorted angrily. “He was a changeling! He feeds on love and turns it against you! Like a Skinstealer!”

“Pretty sure he was just pretending to like an evil character to look cool,” I commented. “Didn’t you see his appraisal?”

She paused. “No…”

“You didn’t share it with her,” Panda told me.

I looked down at Clinton’s body. “Woops.”

Bee put a finger on the corpse and a wave of rot quickly spread from where she’d touched. “His body should be gone in a few minutes.”

“What are we going to tell the others at the MLP Society?” Panda asked seriously.

“We’ll just say he ran off,” I replied.

Panda frowned but didn’t argue.

“Where do you think he was taking us?” Bee asked.

“No idea,” I replied, “but let me check from the rooftops and see if I can spot them.”

I used my Blink ability to get up onto the three-story building next to us.

[‘Blink’ x ]

Ability

This Ability used to be triggered by literally blinking, but people kept teleporting inside objects and killing themselves, so it was hotfixed.

Not the teleporting inside objects part, the trigger on blinking part. You can still kill yourself with this Ability, but don’t worry, it’s by design now.

Teleport to anywhere that you can see within 100 meters.

Cooldown: 20 seconds

I instantly skipped from the ground to the roof, seeing the layout of the streets and buildings ahead of me way more clearly now.

Between the street behind me and the one we’d hit if we continued through the alleys were the backs of abandoned shops and apartment blocks. One of those back entrances led to a grassy courtyard where tents had been pitched, and I saw Chris and James there, surrounded by a lot of the big guys with unicorn shirts.

I hopped down from the roof, landing on the ground next to Bee with a loud thud, cracking the asphalt with my heavy weight.

“Found them,” I told her.

She followed after me as I navigated through the branching alleyways to reach the courtyard. It was fenced in with metal and stone, but someone had just barged right through a part of it, leaving an open hole for anyone to walk through.

Chris came over as soon as he spotted us, doing a double-take at how differently Bee now looked.

“Are you two okay?” he asked. “We had to fight off some pretty big rats earlier.”

“We’re fine,” I told him.

One of the big unicorn guys came over. “Where’s Clinton?” he asked.

“He ran away when he saw us,” Bee said.

The big guy sighed. “I knew I couldn’t trust him with even a simple task…”

“Guys, don’t you feel bad about this?” Panda asked.

Bee and I both ignored him.

“How did you know about the Great Game and all that?” Chris asked me.

I tapped my head. “I’m from the future, remember?”

“I really didn’t believe you until it happened,” he admitted. “It gave me a pretty awful Class though.”

“Backstabber, right?” I asked.

“That’s right,” he replied. “Anyway, where are you going next? Were you just stopping by to say hi?”

“I’m not sure exactly,” I told him. “I’m looking for a guy called Otto.”

“The Otter Mascot?” the big guy next to him asked. The unicorn on his white t-shirt had blue skin and rainbow-colored hair.

“You know him, Cooper?” Chris asked him.

“He said he was going to the lake to catch some big waves,” the big guy replied.

“Then that’s where we’ll go next!” I exclaimed.

“Good luck,” Chris told me and started to turn around.

I put my hand on his shoulder, stopping him.

“You’re all coming with us,” I said.

“It’ll be dangerous for James, and I don’t want to leave him here,” Chris replied, looking like he might fight back if I tried to force him.

“Don’t worry,” Bee told him. “We have a Safe Zone now.”

“You’re Gambit?” Cooper asked me. “We saw the announcement but didn’t understand what it was for.”

“I’ll show you,” I said with a grin.

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