Adam and Elia took the slow scenic route around the island from the Market to the Tavern, riding on the sa barrier. She was in the middle of telling him about what to expect in the next Stage.
“Like Stage Six, the layout is always a bit different, so I don’t know where our objective will be. But the steps of the journey to find it are always the sa. First, we have to find a settlent. There are a few across the Sea, but the biggest is Windtop Cove.”
“That sounds like a pirate hideout,” Adam comnted.
“Oh, there’s definitely a pirate the all around. We’ll even be fighting a lot of pirates on our hunt for the Godstone. Anyway, no matter which settlent we go to, we’ll be able to pick up the trail. It always leads to a bit of a goose chase of scouring rumoured locations. Normally, we’re ant to pick up clues from four different places, but if we just get two of them then I know a way to skip the rest, regardless of the clues.”
“How?”
Elia tapped the side of her head. “Because I know a lot about the Stage. The four clues are ant to co together and implicate one specific pirate faction, of which there are seven, and if you know about each of them, you’ll be able to guess which one the clues hint at, so long as you have at least two clues.”
“What then? Are we gonna take on the entire fleet who has the Godstone?” he asked. It sounded a bit absurd, given that they would only have a single airship for their team.
“There are a lot of ways to go from there, but the easiest is to capture an airship from the fleet and use disguises to infiltrate their base of operations. From there, we can pick up the final trail of the Godstone after killing the fleet’s captain.”
“That actually sounds like a lot of fun.”
“It is,” she said with a wistful smile.
“What happens when we find the Godstone?”
“The trail leads to an ancient temple and after fighting our way through its defences, we’ll eventually discover half of the Godstone. When we pick it up, a tear in the fabric of the painting will lead us out.”
“Did soone steal the other half and escape the painting?”
Elia nodded.
“Why only steal half though?” he wondered.
“Because removing the entire Godstone would collapse the painted world, which many seem to use as a ‘bridge’ between places.”
“And the tear leads to Moonport in Stage Eight?”
“That’s right. The Patriarch obtained half of the Godstone, and the entirety of Stage Eight is built around trying to figure out who he is and eliminating him. But when you do kill him, you find out that the Godstone was split again and that the remaining fragnt resides with the King who rules the Forlorn Kingdom in Stage Nine.”
“So, the next three Stages are all one big treasure hunt…” Adam muttered.
“Basically. To be honest though, the main objective is just the thing that guides you through the Stages. In Seven and Eight you can’t really skip over it, but in Nine you can just go straight to the castle from the beginning, though you’ll have to fight an empowered version of the final boss.”
“How fast could we beat Stage Seven if we only did the main objective?”
“Maybe 10 or 12 hours. The Speedrun is 24 hours, which probably wouldn’t be that hard to get, even for a group that didn’t know what they were doing. But going for a quick completion is a mistake. It’s not worth skipping all the rewards to do it. Stage Eight on the other hand… I wish I knew how to skip through that one. The Speedrun for Moonport is 36 hours, but I have no idea how to even do that without getting lucky.”
Elia sighed. “Anyway, let’s talk about that after we finish Seven.”
“What quest did your Patron give you for the Floating Sea of Gold?” Adam asked.
“I’m supposed to bring an egg to the nest of a Slug Dragon. I think it was ant to be the ti-frozen egg from the Crooked Tower, but since I couldn’t find it, I now have to get a similar egg from a collector sowhere in the Floating Sea.”
“I didn’t find any egg in the Tower,” Adam said. “Could it maybe have been outside it?”
“Possibly,” she replied. “What’s your quest?”
“Well, I had to find so notes in the Tower. They were hidden in the library with the book puzzle,” he said, reminding her of the conversation they’d had earlier. “After returning the notes to my Patron, I told him about the painting and how I thought Alepheria might’ve gone inside, so he asked
to hunt her down and kill her.”
“Wait, what? You spoke directly to your Patron?” she asked, surprised.
“You didn’t?”
“No. I thought only the All-Mother spoke directly to her adherents. I just had a visit from an Envoy. The Eternal Serpent sent a weird lizard man, and ssir always sends a humanoid with an upside-down pyramid head who wears a toga.”
“I went to his realm after Stage Five,” Adam said. “And then again after the Tower.”
“People who worship the All-Mother always go to her garden to speak to her directly,” Elia explained. “But I thought she was a weird outlier. Everyone else communicates with Envoys like Sk??ll. You normally don’t visit an Absolute’s realm until after Stage Ten, and for good reason.”
Adam gave her a confused look, so she explained, “Most people aren’t ntally prepared to stand before a God.”
“Oh, right. I guess I had so training before eting my Patron. But he seems very human, if you can look past his body and strange fascinations.”
“From what I’ve been told, the All-Mother is quite human in behaviour and appearance too, although she looks like the Elphin Queen a little bit. But maybe that’s the reason you get to et them face-to-face?” she wondered.
“Because they won’t imdiately dissolve all your beliefs in a higher power nor trigger an existential crisis?” he replied.
“Exactly. Standing before ssir was really hard for
to reconcile at first. A lot of people were fundantally changed after Stage Ten because of eting their Patrons. Apparently Nharlla’s realm is an ever-changing world that completely erodes one’s sense of self. The Players who ca out on the other end were seriously ssed up by it. But I always thought that the ones who didn’t change at all were sohow scarier.”
Adam thought back to his eting with the All-Seeing System. It had taken the shape of his mirror image, no doubt to spare him exactly what Elia was describing. It was only now he realised how seeing its true form might’ve obliterated his mind and understanding of the world. Mortals were never ant to stand at the foot of a God, and for good reason.
“I’m surprised Alepheria might be alive,” Elia then said, returning to the topic of quests. “I didn’t even give any thought to the possibility.”
“Apparently, she made a deal with my Patron before disappearing. He thought she had died but was upset to learn about the painting and the fact that she might’ve escaped inside it. Apparently, so other Absolute might be responsible for the magic that created it.”
“The magic involved is similar to the one utilised by the Tower,” Elia said. “You know, the whole bigger on the inside thing. So maybe it’s from the God that supplied that Dinsional Splinter?”
Adam frowned. “I think it’s one of the missing Absolutes we haven’t been able to discover.”
“It would have to be a seriously powerful one,” she said.
“According to the All-Seeing System, the power that allows its cubes to manipulate dinsions was borrowed. That borrowed power is also inside
and allows
to traverse dinsions when I die.”
“So, it’s all connected?” she replied. “I think this missing Absolute must be one of the great ones besides the Void, the Eternal Serpent, and the First Light.”
“Dinsional power definitely fits in with that group,” Adam agreed.
Stolen novel; please report.
He landed their barrier in front of the Tavern, and they went in together.
Unlike when they’d first arrived, Belamouranthe was now inside, and she greeted them cheerfully from behind a mountain of food plated high in front of her seat. Charlie got up from a stool next to her and ca over to them.
Sylvia, Migraine, and Finnian sat on the upper floor, deep in so kind of conspiratorial conversation, but they imdiately went their separate ways when they saw Adam staring at them.
What the hell are they up to?
“Adam! Thou must try Charlie’s brisket! It is divine!” Belamouranthe exclaid.
“Barbecue could be good,” he agreed. “Can I have a platter of various barbecued ats?”
“Of course,” Charlie replied.
“I’ll have the octopus salad again,” Elia said. “That dish was amazing. Oh, and so white wine.”
“I’ll have a Long Island iced tea,” Adam said.
Elia gave him a look.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“It’s delicious,” he defended himself.
“Mhmm.”
No sooner had Adam sat down than he was pinged.
[Another Player is trying to communicate with you. Do you wish to talk to them?]
“Who is it?”
[Player Mana Hog.]
Bet they forced him to be the one to call .
Elia sat down next to him as he accepted the invitation. Jas appeared opposite them, along with Gladwyn and Beck. The invite must have been automatic, because all of them jumped when Adam and Elia showed up.
Jas dropped the chicken spear he’d been balancing on his nose and Beck nearly choked on his drink.
“How the hell did you get here!?” Beck asked, pointing at them while coughing violently.
“Mana Hog invited ,” Adam replied.
“I told you the automatic invite works,” Jas said.
“Hey guys,” Gladwyn greeted, a stone crab claw in his hand. This was the second or third ti Adam had seen him eating crab.
He must really like those. Maybe I should try them next ti.
“Wait, I just had a weird thought,” Adam said. “What do we do about food and sleep now that the Stages last more than a day?”
“Good question,” Beck comnted.
“The settlents in the Floating Sea have places to eat and sleep,” Elia said. “There are also rations and bunk beds on the Creaking Madam.”
“The creaking what?” Gladwyn asked.
“It’s the na of the airship we all start on,” she said.
“Are they safe, these sleeping areas?” Adam asked.
“No,” Elia replied. “So, we all have to be vigilant when we stop sowhere to take a rest.”
“Did you know it’s possible to query the Tavern by using levels?” Beck suddenly asked, switching the topic.
Elia shook her head.
“I didn’t even think of that,” Adam replied.
“Jas is the one who taught us about it,” he said.
“He also knew about the auto invite,” Gladwyn added. “Apparently, you can just tell the Tavern to invite soone when they show up.”
I did sothing similar in the past… Adam rembered. He’d asked the cube to send a connection request to Willow at even intervals. The command had probably been running right up until Stage Five where she died.
“How do you know so much about the Tavern?” Elia asked Jas. She was still wary of him, but Adam had a good feeling about the guy, although there had been a strange desperation and recklessness to his actions at first.
“Benjamin, my son, is the one who figured it out. He is clever like his mother,” Jas replied.
“Where is he—?” Beck started to ask but stopped himself when Jas shook his head.
Christ…
“He died in the Forbidden Altar,” Jas explained after a mont. “I thought that he would be the one to win these Trials, but now I must do it myself.” He looked directly at Elia. “I hope that you will help
in this.”
“Of course,” she promised. “It doesn’t matter who completes the Trials, just so long as soone does.”
They continued chatting for a few more hours while eating dinner. The topic eventually shifted to Absolutes when Adam asked them about eting their Patrons. As Elia had said, he was the only one who had gone to a different realm, while the rest had been visited by an Envoy on Interim Island.
Beck, who worshipped Morrligt, had been visited by a man with obsidian skin and an exploding planet instead of a head, which sounded bizarre. Gladwyn had been visited by sothing called a Stagnation Demon, which served the Guardian and which had two black large straight horns and its body covered by armour made of living stone. Jas tried to describe Nharlla’s Envoy, but Adam had a hard ti picturing it, though it was apparently similar to the human mimic, except it constantly changed forms while speaking.
All of them were surprised to discover that Adam had left the island to talk directly to his Patron, but both Gladwyn and Jas knew not to pry too deeply, though Jas shared his theory about the missing Absolutes with Beck and Elia who hadn’t heard it yet.
“How does a dinsional God fit into your theory?” Elia asked after he was done, bringing up what she and Adam had already discussed.
“Good question. The imdiate answer is: it doesn’t. There aren’t really any Gods of dinsions that I know of,” Jas said. “There are definitely Gods that are powerful enough to create them, and there are also a lot of beliefs about different dinsions, such as the Nine Worlds in Norse Mythology, although these were made by several Gods using the body of a primordial giant. If we’re talking about a God tied specifically to the power of dinsions and realm creation, I can only really think of sothing like liminal Gods, whose powers are tied to boundaries and taphysical transitions and seasons.”
“We’re pretty sure that the last of the four greater Absolutes missing is one tied to the power of creating realms and manipulating dinsions,” Adam said, going on to explain their reasoning.
“I will give it so more thought and let you know if I have any solid ideas after Stage Seven,” Jas promised. “Perhaps going inside this painted realm might invoke so inspiration.”
After the Tavern closed and they went their separate ways, wishing each other good luck for the next three days, Elia followed Adam to his Player House so he could show off how powerful his barrier had beco. He also wanted to test out his new Unique Skills. He had thought about visiting Alivida, but he didn’t need anything from her right now and was instead saving up for sothing more useful.
“You know, I think Jas was on to us at the end,” Elia comnted as they flew towards the lighthouse shining in the darkness behind the Player House.
“That’s only because you kept stealing my food,” Adam replied. “Not everyone is as clueless as Beck about such things.”
“Hey, you stole so of my octopus too.”
He grinned and lowered the barrier down towards the house.
“It was nice of him to not say anything though,” Adam added.
“I feel like you have the ability to gather good people to you,” Elia remarked.
“Aren’t you just saying that because you’re one of them?”
“I’m serious,” she replied.
“Well, in my last loop, one of those people I gathered ended up killing .”
“Yeah, but that wasn’t your fault,” she replied.
They went inside the house and Adam spent the next hour showing off his barrier attack, while Elia gave pointers on the best shape for his projectiles. Fortunately, triple-fusing his barriers had beco a lot easier thanks to his increased Manipulation Effect, though it also helped that the wandering eye was locked onto the target dummy which he’d shaped into one of the Bone Creeper constructs.
“You weren’t kidding about shooting down airships,” Elia comnted after his last Mana-infused triple-strength barrier shot had demolished the dummy and left a massive impact crater in the indestructible wall of the house. It moved so fast that it hardly made a sound before it struck, after which it released a shockwave and explosive boom so loud it shook the floor and nearly made them both trip.
“Was this how Arturo used it?” Adam asked as he went over to his storage and pulled out the Cruel Summoner’s Gauntlets and Rotmaker Idol, putting both in his Spidersilk Sack to bring to the next Stage. He could use the Gauntlets with his obsidian hand, since they didn’t occupy the sa Relic slots, and thus he had so ideas for stuff he wanted to try out.
“No, he was more surgical with his barrier. It looked like a fine thread that he just sliced through everything with.”
That actually sounds really cool.
“Anyway, it’s late, so I should probably go,” Elia said, but she didn’t imdiately pull out the Visiting Stone to leave.
“You can stay… If you want,” Adam said. “I’ll just have the Eye add another bed.”
[Understood,] said the cube, not wasting a second to comply, even though he hadn’t explicitly given the order.
Adam’s large bed split down the middle, separating the duvet into two and growing a second pillow.
“You don’t mind?” she asked, looking towards the beds.
“We’ll probably end up sleeping close together in the next Stage, since you said there weren’t any safe zones, so we might as well get used to it,” Adam replied, totally pulling the explanation out of his ass while trying not to let it show how he really felt about her staying with him.
Her eyes flicked to him and he grinned awkwardly.
“Did you finish all your preparations?” he asked her.
“I did.”
“Cool.”
“Yep.”
They went over to the beds. They weren’t even separated in the slightest, making it basically no different than them sharing the large bed it had been before.
Elia unequipped all her Relics, placing them on the floor next to the bed. Then she took off her red sweater and jeans.
Adam looked away as he took off his Relics as well, before removing his clothes too. He saw the black tattoo from the Cheat Death Sigil in the middle of his torso right above the solar plexus. It was shaped as an ouroboros of sorts, although it was slowly spinning as it ate its own tail but never got smaller.
“It’s strange right?” Elia started.
“What is?” he asked, almost turning back to look at her but stopping himself midway through the motion.
I wonder if Elia’s tattoo looks the sa, he wondered absentmindedly.
“That we go to the next Stage with our clothes and Relics on, even when we take them off before sleeping.”
“Uh, yeah, that is actually weird,” he replied. “I didn’t really think about it.”
“Do you think the cubes are the ones dressing us up?” she wondered.
[I am not responsible for your clothing. The All-Seeing System facilitates this convenience.]
Adam laughed. “What a peculiar consideration.”
He heard the sound of Elia lying down and pulling the duvet over herself, then turned back to find her head poking out from the burrito shape she’d packed herself into.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” he replied, before realising he was just standing there in his underwear.
He went under his own duvet and was just about to ask the cube to turn off the light when a knock ca from the door of the house.
“Ah, shit,” he muttered.
“Who is it?” Elia asked suspiciously.
“It’s nothing!” he replied and hopped out of the bed, shedding the duvet and running to the door.
He opened it only a little bit to look out at Yenna the wasp waiting there.
Her large bug eyes ran up and down his body before looking past him and into the house.
“Am I interrupting sothing, Adam?”
“Uhh…” he muttered. He turned back to look at Elia. “Do you prefer to sleep with or without music?”
“What? Wait, who’s out there?”
“Fuck it,” Adam said. “I guess you can just co in.”
He opened the door for her and Yenna stepped inside, carrying her shapeshifting instrunt, which was currently a golden horn.
Elia sat up, clutching the duvet to her body. She looked at Adam suspiciously.
“What the fuck, Adam!?” she exclaid.
“It’s not what it looks like!” he protested, though it was a hard argunt to make, since he was just wearing his underwear.
“I’m here to sing a lullaby,” Yenna announced.
Is there such a thing as dying of embarrassnt? Adam wondered.
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