After completing the Wine District Ball quest and objective, Adam and Kat headed for the Rose Terrace tavern in the western part of the district. Kat had chugged down glass after glass of vodka served to her, and Adam thought the only reason she hadn’t passed out or puked all over the hall was due to the bloodfiend beast transformation.
But regardless of how much resistance to alcohol it gave her, Adam was forced to carry her most of the way, since she was seriously at risk of hurting herself and breaking the illusion created by her mask. Fortunately, Kat wasn’t a bad drunk, in fact she was disturbingly quiet the entire trip.
I’ve never carried as many people before as I have in this one loop, Adam mused to himself.
He kept his senses spread out for any bloodfiend lodies, but it was eerily silent. There were no shrieking screams or swooping fliers. For so reason, the total lack of monsters in the night was sohow more terrifying than knowing they were surrounded by them.
I haven’t received an update for my patron quest, so sothing has to be missing.
He looked to his cube. “How many bloodfiends are left in this stage?”
[I cannot say.]
“How many have I killed?”
[You have personally eliminated 2 First Generation Bloodfiends, 8 Second Generation Bloodfiends, 30 Third Generation Bloodfiends, and 77 Lesser Bloodfiends.]
Maybe that ans there are still so lesser ones hiding sowhere. Since any of the third generation bloodfiends could create more, there’s the potential for quite a lot of them to exist sowhere.
“Do all of them count for my patron quest?”
[I cannot say.]
Adam frowned.
I don’t want the Flayed Lady to punish
on so stupid technicality, like ghouls sohow being bloodfiends.
He broadened his blood sense to encompass the entire lagoon.
Since most people were asleep, a lot of lodies were like white noise. There were still quite a lot of people who weren’t sleeping though, and they radiated tones of anxiety and fear, which overshadowed almost everything else. Despite the fact that the lodies of lesser fiends were often like beacons in the night, he couldn’t sense any of them. There were ghouls all over the place though, their unique lodies breaking through, and he didn’t look forward to having to track all of them down. They weren’t actually much of a threat, because they would stay wherever they’d been left until a bloodfiend actually went and pulled them out of their torpor.
Maybe there are still so bloodfiends who are using illusions and disguises.
But I do think we’ve already killed way more than anyone else would be able to, thanks to my Mandate of Blood pointing us towards them, so maybe it isn’t unreasonable to imagine we’ve dealt with them all?
Although clearly my patron quest doesn’t seem to think so.
Adam paused, looking down at Kat who had fallen asleep in his arms.
Unless…
Maybe she is considered a bloodfiend because of the weapons she equipped.
He looked at her for a while, gauging her lody. It was extrely similar to the ones from the transford fiends who had road the night.
Adam consulted his compass, but it just spun aimlessly, not pointing him anywhere, which he took to assu that all bloodfiends were dead. Despite the reassurance, the thought wouldn’t leave his mind as he continued onwards to the tavern.
Even as he paid a very sleepy tavern proprietor 800 shillings for a room and got Kat into a bed like she’d requested, the idea that she was the final bloodfiend for his quest kept nagging at him.
Eventually Adam had to focus on sothing else to escape the thought, and he got to work to sculpt various organs out of flesh, blood, and bone, starting with an ear. Since bones were required to make the auditory ossicles, he hadn’t attempted to sculpt an ear before, but even with the additional type of magic available to him, it wasn’t exactly easy going. Weirdly, he had the most trouble shaping the external parts of the ear in a way that the sound it caught was spatially coherent, but the eardrum was also quite finnicky due to how thin it needed to be, and the fact that its shape wasn’t just flat, but actually thicker on the sides than in the middle. Still, shaping the eye had been a lot more complicated, and after a couple of hours he managed to get a functioning ear, using a mirror to imitate the design of his own.
I’m glad the whole “vampires don’t have reflections” thing isn’t true here.
Just to be sure, he checked to see if he could pick up Kat’s reflection in the mirror, and, even though she was a bloodfiend beast under the masked disguise, it showed her too.
Adam looked down at where his fingers were touching the mirror.
Hold on.
If this is made from silver, why isn’t it harmful to ?
Perhaps it’s only direct contact that’s dangerous? he wondered as his fingers pressed against the glass front, leaving smudges on the mirror.
It wasn’t radiating a dangerous aura like the holy reliquary they’d found for Father Mathias, so it was perhaps closer to the nails of the serial killer they’d taken down.
Since Adam was curious, he sculpted two hands and carefully disassembled the mirror by chipping it slightly.
Seven years of bad luck is the least of my worries, he thought to himself.
After breaking off the glass to reveal the thin layer of silver behind it, Adam put a single drop of his own blood onto it.
The reaction was imdiate, and his blood bubbled and boiled, turning black within three seconds flat.
I don’t imagine getting stabbed with a silver blade would be very comfortable.
If there was a silver-coating for weapons, similar to the lead coating relic, it would be quite powerful for this stage.
Adam continued on to sculpting a nose once he’d tested that his third ear worked. The sounds it caught were a bit muffled, but it was possible to understand words through it, which he tested by sneaking it into one of the other rooms on the floor where two people were talking about leaving Moonport at dawn.
He hid it away under the skin of his left arm, similar to how he carried the sculpted eye.
The nose was the easiest thing to sculpt out of the three sensory organs he’d made, but it still presented so unique challenges and he couldn’t create mucus, instead having to substitute it with thickened blood, which didn’t work as well. Compared to the ear and eye, the nose was the least effective thing he’d made, since it was difficult to make it as sensitive as his own, and hooking up his nerves to it was extrely uncomfortable. Once he was done experinting with it, he disassembled the nose, knowing it wasn’t worth saving.
Should I try to make a tongue too while I’m at it? Adam thought to himself.
But what would be the application for it? Remote taste-testing?
Yeah… that might be a stretch.
While he thought about what else he could make, sunlight peeked in through the curtains, casting rays across the bed, couch, desk, lounge chair, and dresser. He’d rented one of the third floor rooms, in case they had to make a quick escape if there were still bloodfiends remaining, and it was quite a fancy place.
As the sunlight hit Kat’s sleeping figure, her lody changed and beca human again.
< < Patron Quest Complete > >
< The Flayed Lady >
< Defeated all Bloodfiends in Moonport >
Adam blinked.
She was the last one!
But does that an if we leave during the night, I will fail my quest because she transforms into a bloodfiend again?
Kat stirred and sat up in the bed, pulling the ballroom mask off her face and breaking the illusion, which made her original hair colour return and removed the ballroom dress.
“What are you up to?” she asked, looking at all the material that Adam had spread out on the floor of the room while he’d been sculpting away.
He quickly pulled it back to himself, spreading it across his body and beneath his attire in a thin layer.
“I was just experinting,” he replied. “I’m still trying to improve my shaping abilities.”
“I see.”
“My patron quest completed, by the way.”
“Really?” she asked. “I was worried I might count as a bloodfiend.”
“About that… We’ll have to leave the stage during the day, otherwise you do in fact count towards the quest. It just now completed when you transford back to human.”
“How insidious,” she remarked.
Adam nodded. “The Flayed Lady is quite frustrating in that regard.”
“What should we do now?” she asked. “If all of the vampires are dead, there cannot be much else left for us here.”
“We should go and get the reward money for killing the Golden Nail at the guard outpost, and then we’ll return to Cassius Bello’s house to complete that quest. You still have the nail, right?”
“I do. But what cos after that?”
“There may be other quests remaining,” Adam said. “And there are also ghouls left behind. However, since it’s the fourth day, we should visit the markets and see what they have for sale. I’d like to check out the unique weapons sold in this stage. Afterwards, I want to look for secrets using my compass.”
They left the Rose Terrace and went to the guard outpost, collecting the reward of 8,000 shillings, although they had to show the Golden Nail’s weapon, since the guards were very distrustful. Their total amount of money went up to 11,000, and it was quite heavy in Adam’s backpack.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Next they returned to Cassius Bello’s house and showed the nail again.
< < Quest Complete > >
< Murder and Mystery >
< Tracked down and killed Cassius Bello’s murderer >
As a reward they received an upgrade chest, which Adam opened, selecting an epic invocation speed from the options and putting him 16 upgrades away from being able to obtain his first fused weapon.
Once the chest reward had been dealt with, the golden nail dropped to the ground and turned into an actual weapon they could pick up. Strangely, neither the grieving girlfriend nor three guards reacted to it.
< < Secret Weapon Obtained > >
< Golden Nail (Epic) — A self-replicating nail ford of condensed holy magic >
< Unique Skill ( Miracle Replication ) | Replicate the Golden Nail. 75 Mana cost >
Kat gestured for Adam to take the weapon, and he discretely picked it up with a hand of bone, transferring it back to his player house. He had no idea how it worked, but he was looking forward to trying it out. Holy magic would be extrely powerful in the next stage, after all, but he wasn’t sure he’d be able to wield it.
They continued on to the market with their newfound wealth, and the first vendor they stumbled across sold weapons, giving them a look at two new ones they hadn’t encountered before.
< < Weapon Types For Sale > >
< Woodsman (Common)>
< Nobleborn (Uncommon)>
< Executioner (Rare)>
Executioner offered a two-handed axe like Woodsman, except it had a much bigger blade and was clearly not designed for chopping trees. Nobleborn’s weapon was a silver dagger with rubies embedded into the hilt and sheath.
That would be really effective in this stage. But I don’t think the forlorn in stage nine are weak to silver, though holy damage is supposed to be strong against them.
They looked at so other weapon vendors, but there were no new ones besides the three they’d already seen, which was peculiar, since the Floating Sea had offered a total of six new weapons for sale.
The relic vendors only sold up to rare rarity as well, but since they had a lot of shillings, Adam got himself his own Nightfarer’s Cloak to replace his Captain’s Cape, as well as the Illusionist’s Mask that would allow him to turn his face and voice into soone else’s.
They had looked around for the Duellist’s Hat, but couldn’t find it, so Kat bought Father Mathias’ Keepsake instead. It would make her able to resist charming magic up to three tis before it broke, and also gave a holy aura ability that would be strong against the forlorn. Adam had thought to get it as well, but the mont she pulled it into her hand, he realised he couldn’t touch it directly, since it was radiating a tiny bit of holy magic by default. He wouldn’t be able to wear it while serving the Flayed Lady.
She wanted to get the Mongoose Chargers and Shapeshifter’s Claw as well, but since they were both epic rarity, they’d have to wait until the fifth and final day for them to show up in the vendors’ selections.
That’s fine, Adam thought. We’ve eliminated all threats, and so long as we leave before night falls on the last day, I won’t fail my patron quest.
Unless the Flayed Lady pulls so kind of bullshit…
After their purchases, they were down to 5,000 shillings, and since Adam expected the price to double again, that ant they’d need to co up with 3,000 more to be able to afford the two relics that Kat wanted.
There may still be chests to find too, Adam thought, though since Moonport was much more densely populated than the Floating Sea, and smaller too, he had the feeling that they’d already found the majority of them.
The Forlorn Kingdom is supposed to be very open, so it may have more chests. It seems kind of an-spirited that this stage is miserly with its rewards, while constantly haunting players at night.
Stage nine would be no cakewalk, but it didn’t feature nightly attacks in the sa way, but rather a slowly-building horde of undying enemies. So, while it would be horrifying in its own way, it still seed less traumatising than having to hide every ti it got dark.
I’m very curious to see how many survive Moonport.
We had a much easier go at it than I expect most groups to have.
The fact that we’ve eliminated all bloodfiends is kind of crazy, but being able to move at night is also a huge advantage over most groups, not to ntion my Mandate of Blood and the compass, which help trivialise the hardest part of this stage.
After finishing with their shopping, Adam brought out the compass and they went through the Garrison, Cloth, and Pious districts in search of the nearest secret. On the way they killed eighteen ghouls, using the Daylight Lamp to easily take them out, and collecting their eyes.
Inside the Pious district, they quickly discovered that the compass was trying to lead them underground and into the sewers. Finding a way to get down there took them about an hour of searching, and it turned out that there was a hidden access grate almost directly behind the church graveyard where Adam had buried Sofia’s body.
“This must have been how the necromancer got into the church,” Kat remarked.
Unsurprisingly, the sewers were the least pleasant place to be in the entire city, but neither of them balked at the stench, which Adam thought was kind of sad in a way, as though they’d both lost that natural human repulsion towards effluvia and waste.
But I suppose we’ve built up a lot of tolerance towards such small nuisances already. Anyone who is unable to wade through knee-deep shit would be gone by now.
And this is still way less disgusting than coating myself in the blood and flesh of other people…
The compass led them down a dead end tunnel, and Adam was a bit stumped about where they ought to go, since the nearby branching paths seed to lead away from where the compass pointed. But then Kat suggested they try to open the way similar to how the fake wall in Oiled Ollie’s Eatery worked. Surprisingly, it was the exact sa pattern, hinting at the fact that the Patriarch or soone working for him had designed these entrances.
What they found on the other side was sothing Adam had known about from Elia, but vowed to never use.
A simple alchemy setup stood inside the small chamber, and on its table was a vial filled with a murky-green substance.
The mont they inspected it, they both received an objective announcent.
< < Secret Relic Obtained > >
< Plague Vial (Uncommon) — Contains a carefully-crafted plague serum >
< < Secret Stage Objective > >
< Infect the citizens of Moonport with the Plague >
“We’re not doing that,” Adam said.
Kat nodded, and he was glad she agreed.
Neither of them wanted to even hold the vial, so they left the chamber and closed the fake wall behind it.
So things are best left buried and forgotten…
And since it is a secret objective, it won’t count towards the All Objectives achievent, which is a rcy.
But I’m sure there is at least one Absolute who has a quest surrounding this objective.
Once they left the sewers and Adam asked the compass for the next secret, they were pointed west-southwest, which seed to be in the direction of the breakwater. They returned to the surface first, and then Adam sculpted a boat for them, which he used to send them flying just above the water of the lagoon.
After passing the island they had arrived on through the rift from the Floating Sea, Adam realised that the compass was leading them to the lighthouse which stood upon the natural barrier of sand and soil that hemd in the lagoon. It was near the opening that allowed ships to enter the lagoon from the sea, and beyond that opening was a man-made breakwater of stone.
He wasn’t sure why the lighthouse was placed on the barrier rather than the breakwater, but his guess was that it sustained less of an onslaught of waves here. Though, the top half of the tower was totally gone, with the rubble around the base the only indication it had ever been there.
A man with a straw hat, a sweat-stained white shirt, and dark shorts waved at them from near the lighthouse when they arrived to the thin strip of land with their boat. Adam made sure to push it down into the water before they beached, just so the guy wouldn’t be completely freaked out. He couldn’t really do anything about the boat’s appearance though.
“Strange boat you got there,” the man said as he ca down to greet them on the narrow shore. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to be able to help
rebuild the lighthouse? Soone destroyed it two nights ago.”
< < Quest Unlocked > >
< Rebuild the Lighthouse >
< Help the fisherman repair the lighthouse >
He’s a fisherman?
The guy didn’t have a fishing rod on him, but he did have the deep wrinkly tan of soone who’d spent most of their life outdoors in direct sunlight.
I almost forgot about my bet with Beck and Lasse. I’ve gotta catch sothing good or I’ll lose my na…
“We’re a bit busy,” Adam said. “But if we get the ti, we’ll help you out.”
“Don’t worry if it’s too much trouble,” the fisherman replied.
“By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know of a good place to fish, would you?” Adam asked.
Kat gave him a strange look.
“Depends on what you’re fishing for,” he replied. “I would avoid the area near the breakwater. There’s a shark there who always eats my catches before I can reel them in.”
A shark?
Adam nodded. “Thanks, I will keep that in mind.”
If I can catch a shark, I’ll for sure beat Beck.
“I’ll lend you my fishing gear if you help
with the lighthouse,” the fisherman said.
“That’s okay, I’ve got my own,” Adam replied.
Like the physical items he could obtain from Luvicidix and Alivida, the fishing rod he’d bought from Fisher wasn’t a physical item he had to carry around, but he could simply manifest it as he wished. He doubted he would’ve brought it along if he’d had to fit it in his backpack.
They left the fisherman and went over to the lighthouse where the compass indicated. But what they were seeking wasn’t inside it, but rather underneath, as Adam found a basent hatch. When he opened it, it revealed a few steps down into darkness, and then past that a wall obscured by crimson glass.
Kat and Adam shared a look before they went down.
“It’s another one of the Patriarch’s walls,” Adam remarked.
“Who do you think destroyed the lighthouse?” Kat wondered.
“I have no idea.”
Adam brought out the Crimson Glass Key and inserted it into the wall.
As he spun it, the magical barrier pulled itself into the key, revealing a lone shelf with a few random items. There was a list with curling handwriting on it, a to with a crimson glass cover sleeve, a pocket watch, and a bottle with faintly-glowing red wine inside.
Adam inspected the to while Kat started with the list.
It was part moir and part spell-to, though the text was in a strange curling script he couldn’t read. There were a few pages with spell patterns, but since he couldn’t tell what they did at a glance, he didn’t want to attempt to cast them outside Interim Island, so he put the to in his backpack for later study.
“Anything special about the list?” Adam asked Kat.
“I can’t read most of it, but I’m pretty sure it’s a list of various bloodfiends,” she said.
“How can you tell?”
“The letters are kind of similar to Cyrillic. My grandmother taught it to
when I was little. This word here is repeated next to every na after a different word that occasionally repeats, and I think it ans ‘district’.”
As Adam followed her finger down the list, he could see how she’d co to her conclusion.
He pointed to one at the top. “That might be the Matriarch, right? It doesn’t have the word for ‘district’ next to it, but sothing else.”
“You may be correct,” she replied. “I will look at it so more later. It would be interesting to learn the anings, and who knows, it may benefit us later.”
Adam nodded. Even though she hadn’t said so outright, he could tell she was trying to be helpful to him because he was a ti-looper. There was a tone to her lody that he found a bit hard to interpret though, it was like a mix of gratitude and regret.
I wonder if she feels bad for getting help without giving much in return?
Adam picked up the pocket watch, but it seed to be a keepsake, given how the hands weren’t moving, but it had been polished and clearly been taken care of.
“Maybe we can sell this in the market,” Adam said, putting it in his backpack.
Then he touched the last item on the shelf. He had assud it was just another blood wine bottle, perhaps with a rare blood type, but he quickly realised it was more akin to what Cienna had told them about.
< < Secret Relic Obtained > >
< Potent Blood Wine (Epic) — Once imbibed, ascend to the ranks of the Bloodfiends >
Kat inspected it as well.
“Do you mind if I take this?” she asked.
Adam looked at her. “You can’t use it in this stage. It will prevent
from completing my quest.”
And I don’t want to have to kill you, he added in his mind.
“I understand that. There is no point in
using it now, but if it works like the ‘artefact’ Cienna ntioned, then it would give
access to so form of magic. It may also strengthen my bloodfiend beast transformation.”
“I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” Adam said. “For one, the Flayed Lady would view it as stolen power, so you may run into trouble if one of her worshippers is in your future groups. Then there’s the weaknesses. Right now, I’m not a fully-ford bloodfiend. Sunlight doesn’t weaken , and I don’t need to consu blood, but I also don’t turn into a beast at night. You might gain all of the weaknesses, besides just silver and holy magic.”
“I will try and obtain the Beast weapon from Interim Island,” she said. “If it fuses with my bloodfiend claws in a powerful way, I think I will consu the wine.”
Adam wanted to dissuade her, but the look in her grey-blue eyes and the shape of her lody made it clear she wasn’t taking the derits lightly. She genuinely believed it would suit her fighting style.
She has adapted to the claws quite well, and it’s not exactly an easy weapon to use. Plus, she has no issues moving around and fighting in her beast transformation.
“If you retain the gorget that heals you when you drink blood, it may be quite powerful, plus I really think you should try and get the Beast with its devouring-based evolutions, since it would pair well with the Fiend Tongue. But I do need you to tell
sothing first.”
“What do you want to know?” she asked, clearly worried about what Adam would demand.
“What is it you see when you eat a heart?”
“Are you sure you want to know?” she replied, and the answer made him pause.
“Tell ,” Adam insisted.
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