Before Adam could open the MVP chest, silvery scales fluttered down from above, stopping him in his tracks.
A mont later, Luvicidix alighted on the ground behind him.
“Are you okay?” was the first thing she asked.
“Do you have new upgrades?” Adam responded, ignoring the question.
Luvicidix gave him a worried look.
“I do,” she said, her voice almost sombre. “Are you sure you’re okay, Adam?”
“I’m fine,” he said with a sigh.
“You don’t look fine. You look haunted.”
“The Flayed Lady really tested
this ti around,” he admitted.
Luvicidix frowned.
“I’m fine,” he repeated. “I won’t let her warp .”
The white moth pointedly gave him a look that ran up and down his body.
“More than she already has,” he added with a small smile.
Luvicidix smiled as well. “I will choose to believe you. It is important that you remain you.”
“Why?”
“I cannot say,” she teased, her smile widening. “Now then, have a look at my upgrades.”
>
— Increase Mana by 50 — 5000 Points >
— Increase Stamina by 10 — 1000 Points >
— Increase Health by 10 — 1000 Points >
— Start every loop with a saved Weapon of Uncommon rarity — 10000 Points >
— 2630/25000 Points >
“Will I just keep getting more stat upgrades with every new stage?” Adam asked. “And if so, when do I get to permanently upgrade my luck?”
“I cannot say,” she replied, for real this ti.
“Well, I’ll be back later anyway, I’ve got a lot of things to sell.”
“See you then,” she replied and flew off.
Once she was gone, Adam opened the MVP chest.
>
— Increases sigil damage by 25% >
— Increases invocation effectiveness by 100% >
— Increases luck by 5 >
— Reduces the effects of afflictions suffered by 25% >
A legendary upgrade. It’s a big jump from epic too. I don’t need more luck, and while antivenom would be nice, I think I’ll just aim to upgrade my sigils as fast as possible. It’ll save
a bit of points as well.
>
Invocation Power (Legendary) >
Adam wanted to talk to the To Keeper, but his backpack was overflowing with things, so he decided to visit the market first. Then he rembered all the fish he’d caught and reconsidered, going past his player house first to find the water beetle.
One thing Adam had gained from his ti in Moonport was that his blood sense was so much sharper than before, allowing him to pick up all the individual lodies on Interim Island, even the one belonging to Tisa, despite how faint hers was.
But he couldn’t locate Fisher.
Her power to just vanish is really odd. I think she may be able to leave Interim Island completely sohow.
After Adam stopped in front of the expensive pond and shed he’d had made for the beetle, he started pulling out everything he caught, not even bothering to keep one to show the others, since Kat had clearly beaten him.
It’s up to Lasse to defeat her and Beck, otherwise we’re all dood.
Once all of his fish were on the ground next to the pond, Fisher’s lody suddenly appeared in the water below and she quickly shot up to the surface, jumping out to land in front of him.
“Howdy, Adam, I see you brought so fishies for ,” she said.
“That’s right,” he replied.
“Kind of a poor catch, ey?”
“Bite ,” he said. “How much are they worth?”
“Common is 100, uncommon is 200, rare is 300, epic is 500, legendary, if you can believe it, is 1000.”
“What about divine rarity?” Adam asked.
Fisher scoffed. “I wouldn’t be able to afford that. Divine items are not sothing you put a price tag on.”
“I see,” Adam muttered. “Well, I’ll sell you all of these.”
“Did you have fun?” Fisher asked instead of acknowledging his offer.
“What?”
“Was it fun to go fishing? You know what they say, every day is a nice day for fishing.”
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard that, but yes, it was surprisingly relaxing,” Adam admitted.
“It’s a sha you didn’t bring
two more fishies. I would’ve been able to upgrade your fishing rod.”
“Would a better rod help
fish?”
“Absolutely not, but don’t discount vanity. Though I suppose so of my other fishing rods do have a few handy abilities, such as summoning a dolphin, but you would need to catch a lot more to unlock that rod.”
Adam laughed. “Just what I need.”
Fisher stooped to pick up Adam’s eight fish. “Pleasure doing business,” she remarked and hopped into the pond.
>
Sardine (Common) x5 >
Sea Bass (Uncommon) >
Sea Bream (Uncommon) >
47042 Points Remaining >
I forgot to ask what the point of summoning a dolphin would even be…
I’m sure Beck will already have unlocked the next fishing rod.
Adam checked on the Glass Sapling, which still had one more stage left until it would turn into a tree. Then he flew to the market and landed in front of Lucca’s stall.
“I brought you a lot,” Adam told her.
He had thought about giving so to Migraine to complete his quest, but he would still need one more quest after that to keep it permanently completed, so he figured the points made the most sense.
I forgot to get a flower for Sprite as well.
Lucca looked at the overflowing backpack. “You are bankrupting , Adam.”
He grinned. “I want to sell all of the eyes and fangs in there, along with the mimic tongue, skin-robe, chain-sleeve, yellow trophy, captain’s cape, cloud skimr jacket, and also the true fla’s icon from my player house. And I want 600 for the epic trophies.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
Adam had decided to take Elia and Nova at their words, selling the crown to avoid encountering the secret final boss in stage nine. It ant that he wouldn’t be able to complete the Flayed Lady’s quest, but he had already decided to not do it after realising it involved sacrificing other players to her torture.
Lucca sighed. “Very well.”
>
Mimic Tongue (Epic) >
Superior Bloodfiend Fang (Epic) x2 >
Bloodfiend Fang (Rare) x27 >
Lesser Bloodfiend Fang (Uncommon) x64 >
Ghoul Eye (Common) x65 >
True Fla’s Icon (Epic) >
Captain’s Cape (Rare) >
Cloud Skimr Jacket (Rare) >
Flesh Smith’s Skin-Robe (Rare) >
White Flags Chain-Sleeve (Rare) >
79092 Points Remaining >
Adam ran through the math in his head. He had sold his trophies and relics for a combined 32,050 points, since the common trophies sold for 100, uncommons for 200, rares for 350, and epics for 600.
It checks out.
He couldn’t stop grinning. It was such an absurd amount of points.
I can easily afford the remaining tiers of the saved weapon upgrade, although I don’t actually have any weapons rare enough to justify it, but perhaps I can save multiple weapons, similar to the saved relic upgrade.
“Pleasure doing business with you,” Adam told the spider, before walking over to Thea’s stall.
“Hello again Adam, are you looking to upgrade your weapon?” the beetle asked.
“Definitely,” he said.
Adam went through her options and bought the following fourteen upgrades for his bone sigils:
>
Invocation Power (Rare) x2 >
Invocation Power (Epic) x2 >
Invocation Range (Rare) x3 >
Invocation Speed (Rare) >
Sigil Effect (Rare) x3 >
Sigil Effect (Epic) >
Sigil Efficiency (Rare) x2 >
72792 Points Remaining >
With the upgrades ca three predetermined evolutions, as well as three mastery shards.
>
— Gain control over the density of manipulated bones >
— Bones utilised for defence beco harder to pierce, while bones utilised for offense gain a boost to penetration >
— When your own bones are manipulated they gain a 3x boost to all relevant upgrade effects >
Although none of these evolutions are that flashy, they will all be quite strong, especially the density control and boost to my own bones.
As soon as he obtained the last evolution, his sigils all started to glow golden, and the cube announced, [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.]
“Show
the effect,” Adam said.
[Understood.]
>
Red Prince
Bone-White Master >
— ( Kingly Raint ) | Expend 90% of Health and Mana as well as all collected Blood, Flesh, and Bone to encase yourself in the Kingly Raint >
Adam felt a bit disappointed. He didn’t use the raint that much as it were, and he had hoped to obtain sothing as busted as what Lasse had gotten out of his fusion.
“How does this differ from the Princely Raint?” he asked the cube.
[Similar to the Princely Raint, the Kingly Raint empowers your physical Damage and Speed, while providing you with a full suit that has its own Health separate from yours. Unlike the Princely Raint, this suit will not deteriorate unless it suffers damage. Additionally, it will continue to grow stronger when supplied with more material. Its power varies based on the volu of material supplied, as well as the nature of the material, but there is no longer an upper limit to the volu it can be supplied as the suit does not grow continuously.]
“What is the maximum size it can end up as?”
[The Kingly Raint is only slightly larger than your own body, in order for you to fit within, and it does not grow any larger than this.]
That does seem pretty good then. A downside before was how massive it made
and the fact that most would be terrified to see one of their teammates inside an organic ch.
“I’ll take the fusion,” Adam said.
[Understood.]
Adam’s hands glowed as new sigils were laid onto them in jet-black, bright red, and bone-white, each of the lines like the strings of a complicated knot. In the palm of the control sigil on his left hand appeared the symbol of a closed eye with a crown above. All of the strings fed into the eye in a trippy way that hurt to look at. In the palm of his trigger sigil was a mouth with an eye inside and clawed fingers closing over it, reminding Adam of the eye at the bottom of the island, as well as the body of the Tower Crawler boss.
I wonder if the eye inside a mouth is a symbol of those who are turned away from the All-Seeing System, since it seems to imply that its eye is being eaten.
Likewise, the closed eye in the left palm probably refers to the Flayed Lady, since she called herself eyeless.
If I can learn just a little bit of this symbolism, I feel like I would be much closer to realising a way to defy the System. There is clearly power in this language, enough that trying to comprehend it without being prepared will physically hurt .
Adam wanted to try out his new fused evolution, so he said goodbye to Thea and flew to his player house, catching a brief glimpse of Yenna and the fountain behind her. The fountain had a bunch of bloodfiend beast statues shooting water into the top bowl, which looked pretty silly. The wasp was playing a half-tube zither, and the mysterious lody rang through the air, complinting the lody that only Adam could hear.
He suddenly noticed Sylvia’s lody near the centre of the island and alighted down in front of her.
“Hello Adam,” she greeted. Her eyes ran down his hands where his sigils were still visible since he hadn’t put his gloves back on yet. Then her eyes moved up to his floating crown of crimson glass which had replaced his mage aspirant’s cowl. “The Eyeless One favours you well.”
“Do you serve her?” he asked, even though he’d only intended to inquire about the Patriarch’s to.
“To wield the blood and not serve her is a foolish gamble,” Sylvia remarked, which he took to assu ant yes, but then she added, “I am fortunate to have co here when I did. My master upset her by relying on the power of another Absolute, and she is not soone from whom forgiveness or rcy can be expected.”
“Is that related to why he wanted Belamouranthe?” Adam asked, realising he had never actually asked about Ezral’s motivations despite having his apprentice living on the island.
“The blood blue of the true elphin bloodline is a potent force for any ritual. He of course wished to possess such power himself, but more than that he wished to stop what was coming. The unearthing of the Forbidden Altar has forever reshaped the world. The Absolutes bend it to their will in their effort to obtain the most possible influence, and we are but pawns on their board, easily expendable and powerless to fight back.”
I should have asked her about this a long ti ago, Adam realised.
All this ti, Sylvia has been right here, and having this information would have been invaluable in realising alternate ways of opening the Forbidden Altar, as well as learning more about the Trials as a whole.
It also adds credence to the theory that these people are actually alive and not NPCs, but they are forced to be participants who follow a set script to appease the All-Seeing System and the other Absolutes.
Adam pulled out the crimson glass to.
“Can you help
decipher this?” he asked her.
She looked at it but didn’t reach out to touch it.
“I cannot,” she replied.
Adam sighed. “That’s not actually true, right?”
“I am not allowed to aid you with this, unfortunately.”
Adam nodded. “Well, it was worth a try.”
He was about to head for the player house, but then he turned back to Sylvia and asked, “Do you know about the Covetous Vessel spell?”
“Even if I knew how to perform such a ritual, it would be too dangerous to teach.”
“The Flayed Lady taught it to ,” Adam said.
Sylvia frowned. From her lody it was clear she was upset about not being allowed to say what was on her mind.
After a few monts of struggling to phrase her request, Sylvia simply said, “I would like to see it.”
“Sure,” he replied. “I am slightly worried I might screw it up and doom the island.”
“It is rumoured to be a spell created by the first true adherent of the Eyeless One, the one known as the Covetous Serpent, the Saint of Envy,” Sylvia explained. “She used it to kill all the won in her nation more beautiful than her.”
I wonder why the Flayed Lady gave it to .
“Sounds fun. I guess we should go test it out then,” Adam joked darkly.
They started walking towards the player house, but when they passed the altar, Luvicidix’s scales fluttered down from above and froze Sylvia mid-step, alongside the cube.
“Apologies for the interruption,” the moth said.
“Did I unlock a new upgrade thanks to my weapon fusion?” Adam guessed.
“That’s right!” she said. “It’s a fun one too.”
“What is it?” he asked.
“You will have to visit my sister to find out,” she said with an infuriating smile that puffed out her apple cheeks.
“Did you just show up to tell
that…?”
“I could also tell you wanted to talk to ,” she replied.
“How? Actually, it doesn’t matter. I just wanted to check if I could send back several weapons with the saved weapon upgrade or not.”
“You can send back two at most, but doing so will forego your choice of a starting weapon,” she explained.
“What about fused weapons, can I send those back?” Adam asked.
“No.”
Adam frowned. “Why not?”
“A fused weapon is made from two fully-evolved weapons, and therefore not allowed. Likewise, when a weapon is saved for the following loop, its evolutions and upgrades are not saved.
There goes a lot of overpowered ideas…
“Would I be able to send back one of the weapons used in a weapon fusion at least?”
“No.”
So, if I want to send back weapons, I can’t fuse them.
“And weapons from using the vanity on the island’s denizens?”
“Also no.”
That’s a bit annoying, but I guess there’s nothing to do about it.
“Well, thank you,” Adam said. “I will go visit Alivida later, but can you at least tell
what her new upgrade is?”
“I cannot say,” Luvicidix replied.
“Of course not,” Adam muttered. “Before I go, I’ll buy three more tiers of the saved weapon upgrade.”
“Excellent!”
>
— Start every loop with a saved Weapon of Epic rarity >
That leaves
with the ability to send most weapons back, but I don’t know if any of my weapons are worth sending back, especially since I just made my sigils impossible to send back, and none of my denizen weapons would work.
But at least it makes it so much easier to go with the Fool in my next loop, since I won’t feel like I’m wasting potential by doing that.
The main question is whether or not the All-Seeing System would still need
to get to stage five. I don’t really want to risk finding out the hard way, so I guess I’ll just assu the threat is still in effect.
“Would you like to upgrade anything else?” Luvicidix asked.
“I guess I’ll max out the health upgrade, since it’s not that expensive.”
Adam wanted to get the Scale of Rembrance too, but he wasn’t particularly in a hurry to acquire it, and felt that it was better if he evolved a few more weapons to get more mastery shards.
“You are spoiling , Adam,” Luvicidix teased.
>
— Increase Health by 100 >
With this I’ll have 265 health, which is an impressive amount.
I still have 24,292 points remaining, which is enough to fully evolve three weapons if I sell another relic from my storage.
“That’s it for now,” Adam told her.
“Very well, see you again soon!” Luvicidix said and took to the air on her fluffy wings, quickly disappearing into the clouds.
Sylvia continued walking as if nothing had happened, and Adam followed her to the player house.
Above, the sun was only halfway to its zenith.
Adam still had a lot to do before he headed down into the basent.
He just hoped his friends had survived.
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