Loopshard Novel Chapter One-Hundred-and-Fifty-Two

Fisher looked down over the edge of the island in despair.

“How am I supposed to fish down there?” she asked Lasse.

“Can’t you just use your fishing rod?” he asked her.

Adam was holding the one he’d bought from his own dinsion before travelling with Beck to Lasse’s world using their Visiting Stones. Now they were just waiting for Lasse to convince Fisher that she could fish over the edge of Interim Island.

Lasse looked back at Beck.

“It’s not working,” he said.

“Just tell her there are definitely fish flying through the clouds,” Beck advised.

“Really? Do you think that’d work?” Lasse asked.

Beck shrugged. “Worked for .”

After a few more minutes, Fisher finally caved and Lasse completed his quest, though the water beetle seed pretty upset about not being able to actually swim through the clouds below, since that was apparently her main way of ‘fishing’. After he’d bought his own fishing rod for 250 Points, the three of them sat down on the edge, while Fisher went off towards the fountain, sulking to herself about wanting to feel water on her shell.

“She’ll co around when we actually catch sothing,” Beck said confidently.

“I feel bad for her,” Adam remarked. “It’s like you broke her spirit with lies and false promises.”

“If we don’t catch anything, I’ll go apologise to her,” Lasse decided.

“Oh, we’ll definitely catch sothing!” Beck said and threw out his line. The hook at the end plumted until hitting a cloud and vanishing. For so reason, the fishing line was incredibly long, way longer than Adam had expected.

They sat there on the edge, their lines dipped into the clouds for what felt like hours, while the sun slowly set. Lasse hadn’t used any of his Points yet, except on the fishing rod, because he was waiting to get the Second Sheath and then the Rifleman weapon type.

Adam and Beck were both pretty excited to see what the fusion would be.

“You know, before I ca here, I was actually training for a kayaking tournant,” Lasse suddenly said. “I was living in California on an athlete’s visa and I’d only been there a few weeks before all of this. My girlfriend had co with

all the way from Denmark, and now she’s just gone.”

Adam patted Lasse on the back.

“I lost a lot of people too,” Adam said. “But it’s important to not give up.”

“I know,” Lasse said. “I’ll be honest, I thought you two were maniacs for wanting to go fishing. But I think I understand it now. We are defying the Trials by not letting them break us. I don’t know about worshipping all these new Gods, but I think I chose a good one at least,” he said and touched his new necklace.

Adam recognised it as the Pendant of the Leading Eye that Maalia had worn in his fourth loop. It made the wearer able to force everyone to look away from them.

“I think ssir is a solid choice,” Beck agreed. “A bit self-righteous, but at least he’s fair.”

Adam sighed.

This ti it was Lasse’s turn to pat him on the back.

Beck scooted over and joined in as well.

“Alright, knock it off,” Adam said with a grin.

“I’m surprised your skin doesn’t sparkle,” Lasse remarked.

“I know, right!?” Beck exclaid.

Then he suddenly made a weird sound.

“What was that?” Adam asked.

“I got one…” he said in a small voice.

Then suddenly he stood up and yanked hard on his fishing line, reeling it in as fast as he could. He started to lurch forward, but Adam got up just in ti to grab him and stop him from falling off the edge.

“Reel you fool, reel!” Adam yelled.

Lasse knelt down on the edge to look at the line. “What if it’s a slug dragon?” he asked.

Adam and Beck were both so wrong-footed by the comnt that they forgot what they were doing for a mont and started to fall forwards.

But then Adam pulled on all of the Mana in his flesh, lifting off from the ground just to be able to keep Beck from going anywhere.

Beck reeled as fast as he could while Lasse kept an eye on the line slicing through the gold-tinged clouds below.

And then suddenly the catch must’ve erged because Lasse made a sound of surprise, before struggling to hide his laughter.

When Beck finally pulled the fish all the way in, it turned out to be no longer than his hand, though it had incredibly-large foldable sail-like fins. Its scales were silvery, though the back ridge had a blue-ish tint. Unlike the fish Adam was used to, its eyes were like three tis the size and glowed golden.

“What the hell…?” Beck muttered, looking at the tiny thing dangling at the end of his line. “This little guy had a lot of power, huh?”

Adam stared at the fish and its information appeared.

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Cloudfin Herring (Rare) — An airborne fish known to swim through the clouds, eating the micro-organisms contained within >

“It’s Rare,” Adam said.

“Hah! I knew it was possible to fish in the clouds!” Beck exclaid triumphantly.

“I have literally no idea why you thought that would work, nor why it actually did work…” Adam said, both confused and a little annoyed.

“I wonder if that ans it’s possible to fish in the Floating Sea as well?” Lasse mused. “I didn’t see any fish though.”

“ neither,” Adam said. “But I also didn’t sense this little guy, so maybe my Relic just doesn’t work on fish.”

Or is there sothing else to it? he wondered to himself.

“Do you think this counts as a trophy though?” Adam asked.

“Since Fisher said she’d buy anything we caught, I think it’s a separate category,” Beck replied.

“Dang, I was hoping it could be used for Migraine’s quest.”

“I an, it might? Worth checking to be sure,” Beck advised.

“So, what do we do with this thing?” Lasse asked.

“We’ll find Fisher and show her!” Beck told him and ran off, the Cloudfin Herring still dangling on the end of his fishing rod.

After finding the water beetle and showing her the cloudfin herring, she cheered up a lot and Lasse was able to convince her to return to the edge of the island. By then the sun had set in Lasse’s universe, and the three of them went to Alivida’s tent. The moth was surprised to see them all together, but quickly recovered her composure and probably-fake mysterious personality.

Lasse had three Mastery Shards from fully evolving his bow, which left him with one after purchasing Second Sheath. Surprisingly, he didn’t have the Hardmode appear as an option, which Adam took to assu was because it only appeared for ti-loopers.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

With the Second Sheath unlocked, they went to the Market where Lasse had to reroll six tis to get the Rifleman to appear. As a result, Adam got to see an Epic weapon from Stage Seven called Grappler, which was literally just a grappling hook with a chain and nothing else, which seed difficult to use.

Once Lasse had the second weapon, he went through and fully upgraded it to level 18, getting the following three evolutions on the way.

< < Evolutions > >

< Steady Hand — Enter a mode of full concentration while aiming, eliminating shaking and jittering >

< Veteran — Unique Skill ( Instant Reload ) | Reload a new projectile instantly. 2-minute cooldown >

< Piercer — Unique Skill ( Piercer Bolt ) | Fire a bolt that penetrates the first thing it hits. 100 Stamina cost >

When he selected the last evolution, Lasse’s cube made an announcent Adam had never heard before.

[You have fully evolved two compatible Weapon Types. Would you like to fuse them together? Fusing weapons will eliminate both from your possession in order to combine them into sothing new. The new weapon will be based on the final Evolutions of the two that are fused together and will function accordingly. Additionally, previous Evolution effects will remain, along with any Unique Skills obtained, and you will gain a new effect according to the fusion.]

“Will the fused weapon take up one or two weapon slots?” Adam asked.

[One.]

I didn’t expect that, but that’s really strong.

“Can I preview the fused weapon?” Lasse asked.

[Understood.]

Instead of dropping to the ground and becoming a pyramid again, the cube simply projected a hologram out in front of itself. The fused weapon was still a bow, but it now looked like a compound bow and had a shiny gun-tal appearance. It seed almost too futuristic to fit into the Trials, though there were so random spikes here and there, giving it a strange almost-dark-fantasy quality. On top of that, the arrows had been swapped out for heavier-looking bolts with shorter tips that seed capable of higher penetration.

< < Fusion > >

< Arrow Rain

Piercer >

< tallic Cascade — Bolts that are fired with a barrage attack and strike a target summon three new projectiles in the air >

Beck laughed while Adam and Lasse both looked stupefied.

“That’s so powerful,” Lasse eventually muttered.

“Especially with your unique combo using the Barrage Master’s Coat and Ranger’s Lucky Charm,” Adam added. “I an, it’ll add almost 900 extra projectiles if all your barrage projectiles hit.”

“Let’s go test it right now!” Beck said.

“Yeah, this I want to see,” Adam agreed.

“I’ll take it,” Lasse told his cube.

His two weapons were absorbed by the cube in the form of golden light, before the compound bow manifested in Lasse’s hands.

“It’s heavy,” he said. “But I can feel its power.”

As they went through the dark streets of Interim Island, illuminated by the moonlight, Adam couldn’t help but wonder just how many more crazy combinations were possible because of this revelation.

Since the Barrage Coat and tallic Cascade effect both just say ‘projectiles’, that ans this would work with so many different weapons.

Going out of my way just to have this as a back-up weapon for the effects would honestly work so well.

“You know, I think you just beca the strongest Player in the entire Trials,” Beck remarked. “The Ranger Charm is kind of broken already, but most people don’t have the fortune to get a setup that has a double barrage potential, on top of the homing it offers, and now also with the ability to pierce anything and summon clone projectiles. If it wasn’t for the fact that each projectile is considered an individual attack, you would’ve been able to kill a Voidspawn Apex.”

Ah, I hadn’t thought about that.

Those things can adapt like crazy. So you need a single powerful attack to kill one, but even if you succeed, the rest will learn from it.

It’s like they’re designed specifically to handle absurd builds.

“Wait, what if he had the Blink Ring?” Adam suggested.

Beck skidded to a halt.

“Holy shit, you’re right!” he said. “Even if Voidspawn are ridiculously fast, they can’t move instantly, so if all 900 or whatever projectiles are delivered instantly—!”

“It would be more like 1300 in total,” Adam corrected.

“Right, well if they’re delivered all at once, then it should work!”

“Is that important?” Lasse asked. “I don’t know what a Voidspawn is.”

“Hell yeah, it’s important!” Beck said. “I’ll need you for Stage Eighteen as the ace up my sleeve!”

That’s the Stage where Nova said it was impossible to get past the Voidspawn without killing them.

“The Alchemist can make a potion called Return to Sender,” Adam told Beck. “It can one-shot a Voidspawn Apex. You have to do his quest first though.”

“Shit,” he muttered.

“Did you forget to grab a plant from the Floating Sea?” Adam asked, reading the answer on his friend’s face without needing to listen to his lody.

“Stop reading my mind with your creepy hand!” he exclaid. “But, yes…”

Adam shook his head with a grin. “So things just really don’t change.”

“Anyway!” Beck said. “We’re going back to the Market until we get him a Blink Ring! How many Points do you have left?”

“4050,” Lasse replied.

“Excellent!” he said and all but dragged the poor Archer to Lucca’s stall.

After thirteen rerolls, Lasse finally got the Blink Ring to complete his insanely-broken build. They then went to Lasse’s Player House and watched him try out his new killer move for a while, but unfortunately there was not a single enemy that could withstand the initial burst long enough to see what kind of damage the summoned projectiles from tallic Cascade would do. Even without the Blink Ring, there were no enemies that could survive the hail of bolts.

But then Beck had the brilliant idea of turning the dummy into a slug dragon.

The interior of Lasse’s house ballooned in size to fit the enormous beast, and even though it was just a facsimile, it was terrifying to be so close. After a few tests, they realised that the secondary projectiles summoned by the barrage hits were slightly delayed behind the initial attack, but these too could be made instant with the Blink Ring.

And once they’d made that revelation, they finally got to see the full effect of his build.

And it was glorious.

The dragon just instantly exploded when Lasse blinked twice in quick succession, covering the entire room in jelly-like viscera.

Beck laughed like an evil genius as the other two wiped themselves off.

They also tried to turn the dummy into the feral cloud leviathan, but received an ominous warning.

[This enemy may not be summoned to Interim Island.]

What the hell does it an by ‘summoned’? I thought the dummy was just shape-shifting…

“I’ve never gotten that warning before, but that raises a lot of uncomfortable questions,” Beck said.

They goofed off for a few more hours before returning to their individual dinsions when the cubes told them that they would be forcefully put to sleep in 30 minutes if they didn’t go to sleep themselves. It was the first ti Adam had heard that warning.

Sounds like sothing the supervising teacher of a school trip would say, he thought.

Beck had taught Lasse quite a few cool tricks with the Lucky Charm, such as the ability to aim at a point floating in the air. They’d also discovered that the Steady Hands evolution of Rifleman paired extrely well with the Blink Ring, since most untrained people tended to flinch very slightly when they blinked, losing the focus on their target, which was especially prevalent with the ring, since it required a full blink to trigger. However, this natural movent was completely eliminated thanks to the evolution’s effect. The Piercer Bolt skill was also just devastating when paired with the instant barrage, and Adam had to agree with Beck that Lasse had beco outrageously powerful, but he also knew the danger that lay in overcommitting to a single type of attack. And though Lasse would probably be able to take out the first Voidspawn he encountered if he went all out, he wouldn’t be able to deal with the second.

After Adam was back in his own house, he looked at the Cloudmaker staff and the Fire Mage’s Glove on the weapon rack. He didn’t have a lot of ti to test them out before he’d be forcefully put to sleep, so he decided to just try out his new Relic and staff for a few minutes. Yenna was already sitting on the edge of his bed, fiddling with her everchanging instrunt.

“Good evening, Adam,” she greeted.

“Sorry I’m late.”

“The sa as usual?” she asked.

He nodded. “I’ve just got to test a few things first,” he said.

The Scoundrel’s Glove turned out to work with his normal types of manipulation while on his left hand, but it only worked with spells cast by the hand wearing it. If he switched it to his right, it stopped working with his manipulation attacks, since it seed the blood sigils were considered as two weapons, with the control being his left tattoo and the trigger being the right, and it was the forr that was used when he turned blood and flesh into attacks.

What constituted a surprise attack was also a bit obscure, since not just any unseen attack would work. Adam’s sneaky injection of blood, like he’d used against Julie and Jun, was not counted for the effect, but the internal explosion of the blood was. If the dummy saw the attack coming, it also didn’t work, even if it was nearly instant, like with the Heart Lance. The most reliable way to trigger the effect was to deal a lot of damage against the dummy’s back, which made the glove even more situational than he had originally assud.

There was one interesting benefit though. The haemorrhage bleed violently expelled the blood from the target, and what ca out was already energised with Adam’s Mana if he triggered the effect with his blood sigils, which allowed him to imdiately turn it back on its source.

He couldn’t tell if the sa happened with the Bleed upgrades he had, since that affliction was a lot harder to trigger because it was based on weapon damage, of which he didn’t have a lot, and therefore required him to do a pretty significant amount of damage with an attack to trigger it.

As for the Cloudmaker staff, it completely stumped him as he tried to make it work. He’d thought he would get so sense of how to utilise it when he picked it up, but it was just like holding a piece of dead wood.

After flooding it with all of his Mana, he managed to get a mist to appear around himself, which made the floor slick with condensation, but he didn’t have the first clue about how to really use it in a fight, and the attempt left him Mana Exhausted.

I should’ve asked Beck about it.

Adam was pretty sure it could be a strong weapon, but it operated off a type of spellcasting system he wasn’t yet familiar with, though he assud it would be similar to the Spellcaster staff.

Maybe I can just buy Spellcaster to obtain the basic knowledge from that. I’ll test it again when I’m back from Moonport, he told himself and re-equipped his Spidersilk Needle.

Adam still had a lot of Points unspent, but when the cube gave him the 5-minute warning for bedti, he abandoned his plans to try and spend them before he returned.

Instead he sat down next to Yenna on the bed.

“Any preferences?” she asked, having watched him kill the dummy dozens of tis while waiting patiently.

“Sothing uplifting that’ll make

believe I’ll survive the next Stage?” he replied jokingly.

“You need only believe in yourself to make that happen,” she told him. “But I know a tune you might fancy.”

He slowly lay down as she started to sing.

I’ll make it through this one too, Adam told himself as wakefulness left him.