Adam felt he’d gotten quite proficient with casting Heart Lance and Beckoning Crimson after practising with both spells for about two hours until it got dark. Beckoning consud all of his Mana every ti he cast it though, which was not ideal, but he’d stumbled onto sothing ga-changing after weaving a construct based on the spell patterns with his Spidersilk Needle.
On his right arm was sothing that looked like a vambrace made out of red-tinged golden thread. If he nudged his Mana-infused blood trapped inside, it would summon a ball of silk and blood in his palm, which would fire off a pressurised beam of blood when he closed his hand over it. Preparing the spell like this was similar to Sylvia’s scrolls, but didn’t require him to hold anything and invoke the spell verbally.
The woven construct for Beckoning Crimson was quite different though, because it would trigger as soon as enough Mana-infused blood was inside it, so he kept it at 90% capacity where it wrapped around his torso like a belt.
The normal spell pattern was similar to Blink, since it required him to hold a double-helix ring that orbited his torso, centred on his heart. But its main spell component required him to weave a ball of blood around him that he then had to fling outwards, expanding it as it moved. Any blood the expanding ball touched was pulled back to him, healing his missing Health before turning into a flexible armour on top of his body. Expanding the ball consud as much Mana as he let it, but because of his Mana being halved due to the Prince’s Gambit Sigil, its reach was only about 8 tres, unless he used the woven spidersilk construct.
However, the doubled capacity created by the sigil was more than enough to compensate for this, since it allowed him to wield 40 litres in each of his separate spells, though the diaters of the floating balls was only slightly bigger than before, despite the volu doubling.
He’d also gotten a new idea about how to utilise his flesh magic to store excess blood, inspired by seeing Sarah carrying loot in a repurposed vat sack. After creating a few such vats around him in the Player house and harvesting dozens of dummies for their blood and flesh, he was able to store an insane amount of material on him. It wasn’t exactly sothing that would be feasible to set up inside a Stage, but he was hoping the Challenge Stone would allow him to bring his spells with him into the arena where he’d fight the Nwetrou worshipper. There was no sense in approaching such a person with honour, and a sudden attack of overwhelming strength was guaranteed to make his success a foregone conclusion.
The biggest change caused by his increased capacity, aside from letting him create so seriously powerful flesh-shaped constructs, was that it made Princely Raint absolutely absurd. Instead of growing half a tre in height, Adam grew two, forcing the Player House to expand upwards to accommodate him. Aside from making him bigger, it also completely encased him, even his head, where a brutal helt with a crown on top appeared. In terms of size, he was not far off from the Slothling Ogre, but compared to that creature, Adam was several tis faster and stronger, because the way the power of his transformation scaled wasn’t linear with the volu of material that covered him.
With a single step in his monstrous form, Adam could move across the length of the house, and his punches broke the floorboards under him with the sheer pressure they generated.
Having Brawler would be so absurd for this transformation, but being able to weave spells and wear them is genuinely so much more powerful.
Adam had decided that he wouldn’t lean into sothing so situational as a Brawler and Red Prince combo, because it wouldn’t be feasible to have it active at all tis. It served him much better if he had many different tricks he could rely on, rather than focusing entirely on his Princely transformation, and the Spidersilk Needle definitely offered that.
Sothing he had also started experinting with, following the Flayed Lady’s advice, was applying his flesh constructs to his own body. It was a lot more difficult to do, since he needed to be mindful of how the limbs mixed into his own blood circulation. Adding several more limbs also tired him out quickly, until he realised that increasing the volu of blood inside himself prevented his limited supply from getting stretched too thin to try and service every new limb.
At the end of his first test, he looked almost like one of the sea urchin monstrosities from the tower. In order to not imdiately get attacked by any Players he t, he focused on sculpting his increased mass of flesh into sothing more aesthetic, managing to turn his arms, legs, torso, and tail into sothing much bulkier and stronger. And when he coupled his own shaped body with the Princely Raint, he discovered that the increased mass he’d given himself was not pulled into the skill’s activation. On top of that, it didn’t take up any of his three spell slots for what he could manipulate, since it was his own body.
As he looked himself in the mirror, he couldn’t help but feel like he’d lost a part of his humanity chasing this route of magical self-enhancent, but those concerns were allayed by how much stronger and faster it made him. Adam couldn’t break his own stats and give himself more Speed, Health, or Defence by shaping his body in this way, but adding more muscle to himself and turning his skin into sothing denser did have a tangible impact on his base speed and natural defence. After all, the stats only accounted for any damage he suffered, but armour could clearly reduce or negate damage by simply not allowing it to penetrate deep into his body, and what he was doing to himself was basically just adding more armour.
The only drawback that he couldn’t do anything about was the fact that bulking out his body, increasing his mass and making his muscles stronger, tripled his natural Stamina consumption. Just running or punching for a minute was enough to fully drain his Stamina and knock him onto his back.
In the end, he flooded his entire body with Mana and used his control sigil to compensate for the physical strain that moving around in a large body caused.
On top of adding more muscle and turning his skin into a pseudo exoskeleton, Adam also created flesh pouches on his back where he stored blood, allowing him to quickly inject Mana into them if he needed spell material.
He also attempted to change his skin colour to combat the paleness of the Flayed Lady’s gift, but though he could change the texture of the surface, he couldn’t alter the colour of his skin, eyes, or hair.
Perhaps sothing like that is more in Nharlla’s domain, he thought to himself.
With his body bulked out by borrowed dummy flesh, Adam left the Player House and went towards the Garden on the western side of Interim Island.
The silvery light of the moon guided him towards Alivida’s tent, and he passed by the flowerbeds of black Dahlias and opened the flap into her abode.
The black humanoid wasp gave Adam a sour look.
“What?” he asked, knowing exactly what the issue was.
“I do not know where to begin…” Alivida said, looking at him in distaste. “You must not forget your… self.”
Adam nodded. “I still rember who I am.”
“It is easy to forget. The mind quickly grows accustod to a new shell.”
“I won’t forget,” he repeated.
“I will choose to believe you,” she replied after a mont. Then she waved her hand out in front of the crystal ball that filled the room with a violet glow. “You have brought many shards, do spend them all with .”
< < Mastery Upgrades For Sale > >
< Scale of Nihility — Make everyone forget you — 1 Shard >
< Skipping Stone — Skip a Stage if eligible — 2 Shards >
< Challenge Stone — Challenge a Player to a battle to the death — 3 Shards >
< Lucky Stone — Flip to increase the rarity for the next reward options — 3 Shards >
< Vanity — Turn an Interim Island Denizen into a humanoid — 10 Shards >
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Adam paused for a mont as a thought occurred to him.
“Are there other vendors who accept Mastery Shards?” he asked. “It seems peculiar that you would be the only one. Luvicidix just wants Points like the rest.”
“I cannot… say,” Alivida replied.
Her black eyes and blank facial expression made it impossible for him to tell what she was thinking, but the lody of her blood was a different story. He clearly heard the discordant note that emanated from her.
Adam interpreted it as fear.
There might be another vendor who accepts the shards, but maybe she’s scared of that vendor, or perhaps she is worried I will not spend my shards with her in the future.
His eyes went back to the options.
“For the Challenge Stone, can I prepare before I use it?” he asked.
“You can,” she replied.
That makes it a very unfair item to use then, he thought. But at least it’s working in my favour. For now…
“Is there anything I should be wary of when I use it? Like, are there any Relics that don’t work inside it?”
“The Challenge Arena is akin to the Stages you visit, but the arena’s shape depends upon those who enter,” she replied.
“What does that an?”
“I cannot say.”
Adam thought back to when Hiroshi had used it on him. It had been a pretty simple arena back then, but he guessed that there were different arenas and that they perhaps depended on which Stage had just been completed.
I also have my Cheat Death in case I make a mistake. I’m not going to rob Beck of his chance to get the Self-devouring Eye, so I don’t particularly need that ace up my sleeve. And besides, getting rid of Nwetrou worshippers is worth losing my Cheat Death over, should it happen.
Of course, since I’m allowed to prepare ahead of ti, I can’t imagine that I’ll face any problems.
“I will buy the Challenge Stone and another Vanity.”
“Thank you, Adam,” Alivida said.
< < Mastery Upgrade Unlocked > >
< Challenge Stone — Challenge a Player to a battle to the death >
< Vanity — Turn an Interim Island Denizen into a humanoid >
“The Absolutes enjoy when their champions do battle,” the moth muttered.
“I’m sure they do,” he replied as he left the tent and headed back towards his house.
He sprinted the entire way, using the Mana in his flesh to compensate for the strain that his enhanced muscles and heavy body were putting on his Stamina.
As he neared the Player House, he thought about how the Envoy of Nwetrou had been feeding information to Jun and one of the worshippers that Beck had encountered.
If they told those two about us, then isn’t it possible that they’ve also told others?
And if that’s the case, couldn’t those Players simply have blocked us in the Tavern to prevent us from using the Challenge Stone on them?
I really hope they haven’t gone that far, because that would make it impossible for us to do anything about them, and they would be free to wreak as much havoc as possible.
Adam entered his house with these thoughts in mind and went down into the basent restaurant.
“Show
a random Player that doesn’t worship Nwetrou, and who started with the Defender as their initial choice and received the Defender bonus from Stage Six,” Adam told the Eye.
[Understood.]
If his fears were correct, he needed so unknown third party to help him out, and he figured that a Player who picked the sword and shield at the start and got the Defender bonus in Stage Six would be soone agreeable.
Hopefully.
Alongside Beck and their two targets, a fourth person appeared opposite Adam. A European-looking woman. Her hair was dark-blonde and she had blueish eyes, as well as prominent cheeks and full lips. None of her Relics were visible, which surprised him, but he could tell that the white dress she wore had been spun from Weaver’s spidersilk, so it was possible she’d hid her Relics simply so they wouldn’t cover up her clothes. Aside from the Defender bonus, she had also received the ones for All Objectives and Plunderer, which ant her group had probably fared quite well in the Tower.
“Hello,” Adam said to get her attention.
The woman startled, no doubt surprised by Adam’s brutish appearance. She was in the middle of drinking a glass of wine and there was a plate of small crescent-shaped rolls in front of her, as well as a pristine bar of chocolate that she’d yet to touch.
“You got the Defender bonus, right?” Adam asked.
She nodded slowly.
“I got it too, from protecting another Player when a different person in our group tried to kill her,” Adam lied.
“And?” the woman asked, clearly not impressed. Adam realised that him just hitting up a random person to talk about himself probably seed like so la attempt at flirting.
“There are quite a lot of people who worship this very dangerous God called Nwetrou, but I’m worried so of them blocked
in the Tavern, because they know I’m hunting them,” he went on.
She nodded slightly, following along but saying nothing.
“They’re looking to kill Players and sacrifice them to their God,” Adam said.
Since he couldn’t hear the blood song of the holograms, because they weren’t really there, it was hard for him to fully gauge her reaction, but he thought that she would at least help him a little.
“What do you want
to do?” she asked.
“Can you ask your cube to count how many Players worship Nwetrou?”
“Is that all?” she asked.
Adam nodded.
The woman turned away to repeat the query to the Eye companion that Adam couldn’t see.
He waited with bated breath until she looked back in his direction.
“43, it says.”
Adam’s breath caught in his throat.
Fuck.
“How many Players worship Nwetrou,” he asked his cube, just to make sure the numbers hadn’t sohow changed since last ti.
[41 Players.]
Adam frowned.
“Is that bad?” she asked.
“It is,” he replied. “Can you filter them to show only those who completed their patron quest in the last Stage?”
She turned away again for a mont.
“It’s down to 4 now,” she said.
Shit… They’re definitely the more troubling kind of worshippers then.
“Would you mind describing them to ?” Adam asked.
She apparently didn’t seem to find the request absurd, because she imdiately went into detail about each of them. Two were predictably the targets Adam and Beck had already decided they would eliminate, but the other two were unknown to him.
One was a white woman with brown braided hair that was described as having a housewife sort of look to her, which Adam didn’t know how to fully interpret. She used a bow.
The other was an Indian guy with a thick moustache and what the woman described as ‘crazy’ hair. She couldn’t tell what weapon he had, but she said he wore the Mana Hoarder armour from the Tower.
“Do you need my help with anything else?” she asked once she was done describing them the Players.
“No, that was all, thank you so much,” he replied.
“It was nothing,” she said.
Adam smiled, before warning, “If you encounter soone who worships Nwetrou in future Stages, you should be wary of them. They may not all be bad, but their God is definitely evil. You’ll know them by their blueish skin and the gills on the side of their neck.”
“I will be vigilant,” she replied seriously.
“Have you been to the tent in the western part of the island yet?” Adam asked.
“I haven’t been there, no.”
“You should go. There is a vendor there who you can use your Mastery Shards with in exchange for special powers, like being able to carry a second weapon.”
“I wasn’t aware such a thing existed,” she said gratefully. “Thank you. My na is Eszter by the way.”
“I’m Adam,” he replied.
“I will go and find the tent,” she said and stood up, vanishing from his sight.
Adam turned to look at Beck.
“I’m back,” he said to his friend.
“Who were you talking to?” Beck asked.
“We have a problem,” Adam said. “There are two Players who are blocking both of us and who worship Nwetrou.”
Beck frowned. “I hadn’t considered such a thing. But I wonder why it’s only two of them who blocked us.”
“I don’t know, but they both completed their quests in Stage Six.”
“And there’s no way for us to do anything about them…” Beck muttered in frustration.
“I’m worried they may be fanatical zealots, left to sow as much chaos as possible beyond our reach,” Adam said.
“Squid Daddy really wants humanity to disappear, huh?” Beck remarked.
“I’m surprised that there are so many Players that’d willingly do his bidding,” Adam replied.
“Even with all the deaths, there are still millions of people left. For a handful of them to willingly do the bidding of the God of seafood or whatever is not so surprising.”
“I suppose not,” Adam conceded, chuckling at Beck’s random jabs.
“Well, let’s fuck up his day just a bit,” he went on, grinning at Adam.
“You sure you don’t want the parry guy?” Adam asked as Beck pulled out his Challenge Stone.
His friend paused, holding the marble in-between his fingers.
“I forgot to say,” he began, his tone serious as he looked Adam deep in his eyes with his violet spirals. “You look like a goddamn clown all bloated like that. Like you snort creatine recreationally and pump your muscles full of synthol using a turkey baster.”
Adam grinned.
“See you on the other side,” Beck said and vanished.
The Scandinavian Afflictionist vanished as well.
I’d better not leave him waiting too long, Adam thought as he ran upstairs and imdiately prepared everything he needed for his Princely Raint.
It was surprisingly fast to harvest twenty dummies and get enough material.
Before he activated his Beckoning Crimson spell and evolution skill, Adam made a second spell pattern vambrace for the Heart Lance with the spidersilk, putting it onto his left forearm to mirror the one on his right.
Then he manually activated Beckoning Crimson, leaving the spidersilk construct wrapped around his torso for later use, and drew in all the stored blood in the flesh-shaped vats around him.
A thick and dense red layer of armour surrounded him, but it was imdiately pulled in to form his Princely Raint, along with the copious amounts of flesh he’d stacked up.
The result was that his brutish form beca that of a towering and monstrous hulk. And since he had used the Slothling Ogre as his dummy target, his raint reflected its appearance quite well, giving him black fur around his torso and bone-white limbs. The helt that appeared around his head was a round thing with a crown on top, making him seem even more like one of the ogres.
Hopefully this will scare the shit out of the guy, and then he’ll be dead before he knows what hit him.
Adam hurried downstairs, startling all of the denizens seated within.
“It’s still ,” he told them, but the helt on his head made his voice sound like that of an ogre as well, and it hardly did anything to assuage their fears. “I’ll be back in a mont.”
He sat down on a chair, but it imdiately broke under his trendous weight. Instead of finding a different chair, he sat down on the table which held his weight, but only barely.
Then he pulled out the Challenge Stone and pointed it at the hologram of the Lebanese parry master.
< < Challenge Stone Activated > >
< You have forcedPlayer Adnan Nasr into fighting you >
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