“What’s up, Twilight?” Becky greeted him as he appeared opposite Adam. “Did you have fun in the Floating Sea? My visit was certainly entertaining, I’ll tell you what.”
“At least you’re in good spirits,” Adam retorted. “And do I really look that bad now?”
“You dropped the weird hulk act, so it’s better than I feared. But how did it go? Deal with any Nwetrou worshippers?”
“I don’t even know where to start,” Adam replied honestly. “It was a fucking shitshow.”
[Another Player is trying to communicate with you. Do you wish to talk to them?]
Adam paused. “Soone is trying to talk to , one second.”
He turned to his cube. “Who is it?”
[Player Lasse Madsen.]
“Pass him through to this conversation,” Adam said.
[Understood.]
Lasse appeared next to Beck, opposite of where Adam sat. He had a plate with three large r??sti stacked on top of it and so kind of mayo dip on the side, as well as a bowl of salad next to the plate.
He looked between Beck and Adam. “Is he your friend?” he asked.
Adam nodded.
“I’m Lasse,” he introduced himself. “Adam helped
out in the last Stage.”
“I’m Beck,” Becky lied.
“Was I interrupting sothing?” Lasse asked.
“I was just about to tell him how fucked up the Stage went,” Adam said.
Lasse stared at Beck for a mont before asking, “Why are your eyes like that? Is it because of your patron?”
“A sha appraisal doesn’t work in the tavern, right?” Beck replied. “I’ve been wanting to know what it says about .”
“You know about ssir?” Lasse asked.
“I’m worshipping him this ti as well,” Beck replied.
“This ti?”
Adam shook his head.
“I’m a ti-traveller,” Beck said.
Lasse laughed.
But then he realised Adam wasn’t laughing.
“Wait, really?”
“Yep,” Beck said.
“You really didn’t have to tell him,” Adam said.
“That guy is a ti-traveller too,” Beck added, pointing at Adam.
Lasse paused, looking between them both for a mont.
“That actually explains a lot.”
“Seriously, why did you tell him?” Adam asked, talking around Lasse.
“This guy made it far last ti,” Beck replied.
“I did?” Lasse asked.
“Now that you have the Barrage Master’s Coat I bet you’ll go even further,” Beck added. “Have you spent your Points yet?”
Lasse shook his head, looking slightly confused by Beck knowing about his future.
“You should go to the silverfish and look through her weapons until Rifleman shows up. It’s a Rare weapon, but if you can fully evolve it, you can fuse it with your bow to gain a special effect. I’m not entirely sure what it would be since you’ve picked Arrow Rain, but it would definitely boost your damage. Oh wait, do you have Second Sheath?”
“Not yet,” Lasse replied. “But I didn’t know you could fuse weapons.”
“I also just found out recently,” Adam admitted.
Surprised that Stage weapons show up at the vendor though, it may be worth having a look later.
“The bug who sells the sheath thing only shows up at night, right?” Lasse asked, recalling what Adam had told him.
“That’s right,” Beck said.
“Well, thank you for the advice, I will try it out. Despite how crazy the Floating Sea was, Adam and I both got a lot of Points out of it,” Lasse said.
“So, tell
about what you went through,” Beck remarked. “I’ve been dying to find out why it was a shitshow.”
After Adam and Lasse had recounted the events, he had a surprised look on his face. “It sounds like Iffen is worshipping Septen if he has a petrifying power like that.”
“Septen?” Adam asked.
“He’s the primogenitor of Sloth,” Beck said. “I’m not sure how you unlock him, but he’s involved in Stage Sixteen, the Garden of Rot, along with so other Absolute called the Headless One.”
“My patron said the Headless One wasn’t participating in the Trials,” Adam muttered. “Maybe she just ant he can’t be worshipped.”
“From how I understand it, the Headless One has no mind or will, and I think it’s ant to represent atrophy and decay,” Beck said. “Anyway, it sounds like this special quest you stumbled on would be worth completing on my next ti through.”
“You’d have to do all of the slug dragon quests as part of it,” Adam said. “I think the hardest ones would be the one for Atrophy’s Daughter and Sky Terror, but if you can get the cloud ship, then it’s definitely doable.”
“I wonder if the golden horn only shows up if you’ve done the previous steps,” Beck muttered. “There is a similar thing in the later Stages that only appears for those who have done all the steps. It’s completely invisible to everyone else.”
“I’d assu you’d need the map at least,” Adam said.
Beck nodded. “Well, I’m not surprised the Flayed Lady betrayed you all. It’s kind of her thing.”
“Adam is worshipping her too,” Lasse added.
Beck grinned. “And as a reward he now looks like Edward Cullen.”
“So that’s why you seem different,” Lasse remarked.
Adam frowned and turned to Charlie who was sitting next to Weaver and Belamouranthe, watching them as they spoke animatedly about sothing.
“Charlie, would you mind bringing
a mirror?” he asked.
“Of course, Adam. Would you like to order sothing as well?”
“A croissant and a milkshake wouldn’t hurt, I suppose,” he replied.
Charlie grinned, her apple cheeks seeming to glow, then she went into the back of the kitchen to fetch the food and mirror.
When Adam turned back to his friends, Beck had his hands steepled in front of his face and asked, “Are you ready to hear about my trials and tribulations?”
“Sure,” Adam replied.
“Well, to start off with, one of those Nwetrou worshippers that blocked us both, the housewife with the bow, was in my group, alongside another worshipper. The mont the Stage began, I killed them both, which turned the rest of my group against . But through my charming personality and overwhelming strength, I was able to regain their trust. We quickly found out that the faction that possessed the artefact for the Godstone temple was the Drakes, and thanks to my invisibility skill, I was able to steal it without pissing them and their scary dragon off.
“We then goofed off for two days, killing and looting most islands we ca across, and even defeating the secret Pride of Fallow boss and the Golden Slug. But then we ca to Shipwreck Isle and an idiot in my group grabbed the cursed sword, even though I’d told him ten tis that it was a bad idea. So we had to fight and kill him. After that,
and the last two Players took it easy, before finally heading to the temple and obtaining the Godstone. We never managed to find Iffen though, so I couldn’t do the special quest.”
“How many Points did you get?” Adam asked. Beck had the icons for All Havens, Plunderer, Quester, Eradication, Flawless, Defender, Secret Boss, and MVP.
“20,900 Points,” Beck answered.
“Damn,” Lasse remarked, impressed.
“Did you find the compass?” Adam asked.
Beck shook his head. “Sadly, no. The room with the Relic was destroyed during our fight with the Golden Slug. I had planned to use it to find all the secrets, but that’ll have to be next ti.”
“What do you think the maximum amount of Points you can get from the Stage is?” Lasse asked.
“30 to 35 thousand,” Beck said without needing to think about it.
“Really?”
Adam nodded. “That seems about right. If you’re the only survivor in a six-man group and kill all the other Players, plus get all the bonus objectives and achievents, 35,000 Points doesn’t seem unreachable.”
“You’d have to be a psycho to do that though,” Lasse said.
“Or just pragmatic and cold-hearted,” Beck replied. “There are a few people like that who make it far. Although you have to take a lot of risks to get all the achievents, and in that regard those who make it the furthest tend to be adverse to too much risk taking, but killing your group mbers to increase your Points is a common strategy.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“I’m not surprised,” Adam comnted. “It’s how the Trials were designed, after all.”
“Did you see how many survived Stage Seven?” Beck asked.
“I’ve been afraid to check,” Adam replied.
“It’s 636,000,” Beck said.
“Goddamn,” Adam muttered. “278 million survived the first Stage, which ans only like 1 in 450 of those people made it past Stage 7.”
“Last ti it was about 700 thousand,” Beck said.
“How many survive the next?” Lasse asked.
“Eight is a rough one,” Beck told him. “Since the nights are so dangerous and long, it kills a lot of unprepared Players, especially since there isn’t a lot of warning leading up to the first night, and then it just snowballs from there. It was 84,000 who made it past Stage Eight last ti, but I bet it will be at least 20 thousand less now.”
“Christ,” Adam muttered.
“One good thing about it however,” Beck started, “is that the number of Nwetrou worshippers has gone down a lot. It’s at 19 now.”
“How many completed the patron quest?” Adam asked.
“Nobody,” he said.
Then they both paused and looked at Lasse.
“What?” he asked.
“Ask your cube to count how many Players completed the patron quest in Stage 7 and worship Nwetrou,” Beck told him.
A mont passed and Lasse said, “My cube says just one person.”
Since the one who Beck had fought was the bow-wielding ‘housewife’, it ant the last one had to be the Indian guy with the moustache and crazy hair. Adam asked Lasse to describe the person and it was almost exactly the sa description he gave as what the Defender had told Adam before Stage Seven. This ti however, Lasse saw the guy’s weapons. He wielded the Warder spell-to and the Spellcaster staff.
“That’s a troubling combination,” Adam said. “Warder can be quite powerful.”
“That’s fine. I can deal with that,” Beck said. “He’s going to show up in my Stage Eight, there’s no doubt about that.”
“How can you tell?” Adam asked.
“Because the clock is ticking against Nwetrou,” he said. “He has to eliminate
before Stage Ten, otherwise it’ll be that much harder for him.”
“Why?” Adam asked.
“Besides just the fact that less and less Players will survive, and guaranteeing that one out of millions that were sponsored from the start would make it that far, there’s also the issue of Stage Ten basically giving all Players who pass it a full endorsent from their patrons. Right now, going after any one of us is fine, since the Absolutes haven’t really chosen us as their champions. But once you’ve been chosen, an attack against you is an attack against your patron. Of course, that’s no guarantee that Nwetrou doesn’t have the guts to defy ssir and kill
regardless, but I personally don’t think he’s that bold. At least not from what I’ve seen. I an, his whole schtick is just having Players sacrifice to him without his direct involvent.”
“Let’s hope you’re right,” Adam said.
“The only thing I’m worried about is that there may be Players who have been told to block everyone in the tavern to go undetected,” Beck said.
I hadn’t even considered that… Adam thought to himself, a new fear added to the ever-growing list.
“Is that why I can see that guy with the moustache and you can’t?” Lasse asked.
Beck nodded. “Yeah, so Players were told to block Adam and I, since their benefactor knows we’re not cool with human sacrifices.”
Lasse looked at Adam sceptically.
“There’s a difference,” Adam said. “Those who sacrifice to Nwetrou make people disappear from the universe completely. And I’ve only used the NPCs in the Stages.”
“In the grand sche of things, the Flayed Lady is more of an annoyance than an existential threat,” Beck said, coming to Adam’s defence. “I an, is she disturbing? Yes. Are her adherents uncomfortable to look at? Also yes.”
Adam frowned.
Just then Charlie brought him the mirror he’d asked for, along with a milkshake and croissant. Adam took one look at his reflection and instantly understood what Beck was talking about. The face that stared back at him was bone-white and gaunt, with hollow cheeks and sunken eye sockets. His teeth were filed sharp and the canines had grown large enough that they pushed out the corners of his lips when he closed his mouth. And the eyes… They were like hateful red marbles set into a black background, with malevolent pinprick pupils in the centre.
“It’s worse than I thought it would be,” Adam said.
“Do you feel any different?” Lasse asked.
“Do you crave blood?” Beck added with a grin.
“My lody has changed slightly,” Adam said. “But no, I don’t really feel different.”
“That’s good,” Beck replied. “I thought it might make you weaker in sunlight. But you will have to do a lot of explaining to your team in Stage Eight. After all, you look just like the bloodfiends before they transform. The weak ones who don’t have the power to camouflage, anyway.”
“Can you tell
about the next Stage?” Lasse asked. “I don’t really have anything to give in return though.”
Beck nodded. “That’s fine, I’ll tell you for free.”
Adam’s interest was piqued as well, since he’d only gotten Elia’s overview and she always skimd the finer details.
Beck noticed this and grinned smugly. It was possible he’d felt inferior to Adam, but this was finally sowhere he had an upper hand and could feel superior. Since the Mandate of Blood didn’t work on the holograms, sa as the appraisal from ssir, Adam had no way of knowing for sure.
“So, the objective of Moonport is pretty simple: obtain the other half of the Godstone. The difficulty lies in how obscure the path towards it actually is. I’d wager most groups that fail to beat the Stage do so not because they die to the nightly attacks, but rather because they fail to pick up the clues leading to the vampires’ lair.”
“Are vampires and bloodfiends the sa thing?” Lasse asked.
“Pretty much,” Beck replied. “They’re weak during the day, they take increased damage from holy things and silver, a solid attack right through their heart followed by a decapitation kills them for good, and anyone they bite and whose blood they ingest turns into a ghoul, unless they’re exsanguinated fully, in which case they too beco a bloodfiend.”
“Do they have special powers?” Adam asked, though he already knew it to be true based on what Elia had ntioned of the fights with the Patriarch and Matriarch, though he wasn’t sure it applied to the weaker versions.
“You an like in Twilight?” Beck teased him.
“You know, I haven’t actually watched those movies,” Adam replied.
“I have,” Lasse said. He paused for a mont when they both turned to look at him, and then added, “My girlfriend loves them. Or, loved them, I guess. She’s gone now…”
“Don’t worry,” Adam said. “When we beat the Trials, everyone who died will return.”
Beck gave him a look, but said nothing.
“Anyway, yes, they do have special powers,” he continued. “It follows an inheritance system. There’s the Patriarch and Matriarch at the top of the pyramid, and they each have several unique abilities. The vampires they created each gained one of these abilities, and those they created in turn inherited that sa ability but weaker. However, the fiends made by the third generation only gain the power to transform at night, and their transformations aren’t complete. The second and third generation vampires have the ability to fully transform, which includes gaining wings, hence why they’re so dangerous at night.”
“What exactly are their powers?” Adam pressed.
“Illusion and dream magic, bone magic, shapeshifting, shadow manipulation, hypnosis, and of course blood and flesh magic like the Flayed Lady’s adherents,” Beck listed.
Bone magic, that’s the kind of weapon I’d get for defeating the Matriarch according to Elia. It should be possible to fuse it with Red Prince.
“Dream magic?” Lasse asked. “Does that an we can’t go to sleep?”
“It’s definitely not a good idea to go to sleep all at once,” Beck cautioned. “If you take rotating shifts and sleep no more than a couple of hours, then it should be fine.”
“What happens if you sleep too long?” Adam asked.
“You’ll have to fight a boss inside your dream,” Beck said. “I tried it last ti, and trust , it’s not fun. I kind of stopped sleeping altogether after that.”
“That can’t be healthy,” Lasse said.
Beck shrugged. “I’m still here, aren’t I?”
“Adam also didn’t sleep during Stage Seven…” Lasse realised, giving him a worried look.
“It’s kind of just part of the whole ti-travelling package,” Adam said. “Besides, I don’t think we really need to sleep.”
“Really?” Lasse asked.
“You will get an affliction when you stay awake without sleep for three days,” Beck said, “but there are things that work to counter that, like Stamina potions or so of the food options in the Stages.”
“So, to summarise, we have to find the lair of the bloodfiends to find the Godstone fragnt,” Adam said. “What’s the best way to do that?”
Elia had told him a few strategies she recomnded, but none of them sounded like they were foolproof.
“Bloodfiends, like vampires, are proud assholes,” Beck said. “The safest way to find a clue is to investigate one of the local leaders in Moonport. It’s different for every group, as far as I know, so it also involves a bit of luck. I know that last ti in one group they found out one of the quest givers was a second generation vampire, while in another they found the lair by following a swarm of rats in the morning after a nightly attack.”
“But it’s also possible to go after the Matriarch and find out that way, right?” Adam asked. It was sothing Elia had ntioned, though she’d said it was really dangerous. But he didn’t really have a choice in the matter, since the Flayed Lady demanded that he kill all of the bloodfiends.
“That’s probably the fastest way to do it,” Beck said. “But she’s ridiculously strong. My group took her on last ti after managing to fight back during the second night, and she still killed three of the people in my team in just the first 10 seconds. She really doesn’t fight fair.”
“Is she a secret boss?” Lasse asked.
“That’s right. You can beat the Stage without ever encountering her, since she doesn’t leave her island. The Patriarch is pretty difficult, and impossible to get around, since he’ll either show up on the third or fourth day to ambush your group, or he’ll be guarding the lair when you get there. He’s still nothing compared to the Matriarch though, and it’s possible to weaken him by contaminating his food sources.”
“You an the people in the city?” Lasse asked.
“Yep. You can poison the taverns and wells if you want to be evil, or you can do quests that make them carry holy symbols and get blessed by the church. Speaking of the church, don’t ever try to sleep there at night, there’s a necromancer using the place as a hideout and he will try and kill anyone who is there after dark.”
Elia ntioned that boss. Said it was possible to kill him during the day if we found the key to the crypt.
“This Stage sounds like a nightmare…” Lasse said. “Where exactly are we supposed to hide at night?”
“I like the wine cellars below taverns,” Beck said. “The lighthouse is also pretty good the first two days, but after that it’s destroyed and the quest to rebuild it is pretty long-winded. Wherever you end up hiding, just make sure it’s easy to booby-trap and has an escape route. Try to pick sowhere that the NPCs don’t usually go.”
“We should probably find two new targets soon,” Adam reminded Beck before they could get too deep into the conversation about the Stage and all the nitty-gritty details.
“Good point. I already checked if any of the Nwetrou worshippers sacrificed anyone, but I got no results,” Beck said. “What does your cube say if you ask it that, Lasse?”
The Archer turned away for a mont and Adam took a big bite of his croissant while they waited.
“It says one person again, the moustache guy.”
Beck massaged the bridge of his nose. “Nwetrou is being a little bitch. God, my next loop is going to be a nightmare.”
“Since we can’t challenge that guy, how about we just pick so Players who killed everyone else in their groups in Stage Six and Seven?” Adam suggested.
“Good idea,” Beck replied.
“Wait, what are you doing exactly?” Lasse asked.
“Taking out the trash,” Adam said. “Ask Alivida about the Challenge Stone when you go visit her tent later.”
Adam turned to his cube and said, “Show
all of the Players who eliminated their teams before completing Stage Six and Seven.”
[Understood.]
The seats around Beck and Lasse filled with holograms, which quickly flickered and were replaced, over and over.
That’s a lot of people…
“How many is that?” Adam asked.
[7,923 Players.]
Fucking hell…
“Show
the top 10 Players based on their total Point score.”
[Understood.]
The holograms flickered and were replaced. Adam imdiately recognised one of the people. It was the old guy with the scraggly black beard who wore a dark winter coat and had the spell-to as his weapon, though it was currently serving as a coaster for a big glass of beer. There were a bunch of bottles next to him just like the last two tis Adam had seen him. Although most of his figure was obscured by the coat and the way he was lying on the table, his dark eyes staring at sothing on the other side of him, Adam noticed how he had scales on his face and his skin was dark-grey like stone. But most noticeable was the obsidian hand and his many achievents, particularly Flawless.
He's definitely trouble.
The other Players all looked competent, though none of them had magical or rare weapons, with their setups generally seeming to suggest they were using speed-based parrying builds or Afflictionist setups. None of them worshipped Nwetrou either, which made it hard to pick between them. But, for so reason, the old guy struck Adam as a dangerous outlier. Especially because he’d seen the man before and because he’d done well from the start in two separate loops.
“I found my target,” Adam told Beck.
“Is it the Warder guy with the bottles?” he asked.
“How did you know?” Adam replied.
“Because that’s who I wanted to pick. But I guess I’ll go with the Son of Thetis guy. It’s about ti I face my fears and take on soone who can parry my spells. Eh, who am I kidding, since I can start the fight while invisible, they’re dead before they get a chance to fight back.”
Adam paused. “Wait, you can go invisible before you use the Challenge Stone??”
“I an, yeah, you’re allowed to prepare in advance. Didn’t you use your weird flesh hulk thing last ti?”
Adam frowned. “Yeah, but I didn’t go invisible. I don’t know, it feels like cheating.”
“It’s okay to cheat when it benefits humanity,” Beck said with a grin. Then he pulled out his Challenge Stone and vanished.
Adam looked at Lasse who’d just been watching their exchange. “We’ll be right back.”
“See you,” Lasse replied.
Adam got up from his chair and started to prepare.
Reviews
All reviews (0)