Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Two |
Diwa looked at the hologram of the black helmet with blatant desire in her melody.
“Don’t,” Adam warned her.
“I know,” she replied, although he could tell that she desperately wanted another sentient helmet.
I get that she’s lonely and likes having a ‘companion’, but getting attached to a thing that uses your body for spare parts is fucked up.
He closed the lid and pushed the chest away from the corpses.
“Loot,” Chien said next to Heiner’s body. Adam registered a note of annoyance from his melody when it didn’t work. “It is not possible to take his things.”
“That’s because his body is filled with the Forlorn Shadow’s power,” Adam explained. “It isn’t controlling him yet, but it’s keeping us from taking his things. I guess the System wants to make sure that when a player is resurrected, they are a danger to their former team, rather than naked and harmless.”
Adam briefly thought that sacrificing Heiner’s body to the Flayed Lady might work to release his loot, but despite how horrific being paralysed had been, he wouldn’t condemn anyone to what fate awaited within the Rotten Core.
“How do we get his loot?” Diwa asked.
The others backed away as she approached the dead bodies of Heiner and the ritualist.
Since they had no idea what size the ability would be, and because they didn’t want to destroy the rest of the village in the process, Adam stacked the two bodies together and Natalia stood opposite the part of Silt that the Hunger Demon and Seo-Yoon’s acid attack had destroyed.
Adam was the only one who could be damaged by the true flame since Diwa had lost her amalgam, but she still backed away alongside him, clearly unable to rationalise where her weakness to holy magic had originated from.
The ring on Natalia’s hand let out a bright golden glow and her long katana erupted into flames of the same light, filling the area in a sphere around her with holy energy.
With a horizontal slash followed by an overhead swing, she sent out two cutting lines of true flame that came together to carve a massive cross through the two bodies she’d been aiming at, while leaving just simple black scars on the ruined part of Silt it touched. It was as if the fire was almost harmless towards anything that wasn’t a dead body or wrapped in the Forlorn Shadow.
[Forlorn Knight defeated.]
< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >
< Defeated the Forlorn Ritualist >
Seo-Yoon was the first to approach the ashy remains that were left behind, and she scooped up a bit of it into a small jar she’d been keeping hidden under her clothes.
“I completed my patron quest,” she remarked. “Also, the ritualist left behind a weapon.”
Adam and the others went over to look.
< < Secret Weapon Obtained > >
< Bone Wand (Rare) — The wand of a Ritualist, formed from the finger bone of a Convergence Demon >
< Mask of Convergence (Rare) — Combine a spell or summon with another spell or summon in exchange for 15% of your Health, cannot be performed with spells or summons that have already been combined >
“It’s a wand and relic set,” Adam remarked. “Just like the Summoner class. Unfortunately, we can’t take the relic and leave the weapon. It won’t allow us.”
“Are you going to use it?” Natalia asked.
“I’m tempted,” Adam replied. “But I wouldn’t be able to find enough upgrades to evolve it here, and wands are quite difficult to use.”
Seo-Yoon seemed tempted as well. “I’ve never used a wand before,” she said. “How do the spells work?”
“You have to draw out each spell pattern and they use a lot of mana,” Adam explained, shaping a similar wand out of bone and trailing blood behind it as he moved it through the air. “I can recreate many of the spells with blood magic, but to pull it off with a wand is a lot harder, especially without ‘Casting Effect’ upgrades.”
As he finished drawing out the spell with his pretend wand, a blood barrier appeared in front of him. He quickly pulled it back into his raiment.
“You know a lot about magic,” Chien remarked.
“I’ve done a lot of practising,” Adam replied. “But I still needed Seo-Yoon to explain how the Cloudmaker staff works to be able to understand it, and there are many other forms of magic I have no clue about.”
“Is either of you taking the weapon?” Natalia asked.
“I’d like to return it to my player house so I can mess around with it later,” Adam said.
“You can do that?” Seo-Yoon asked.
“If you have the secret Builder vendor and the weapon rack addition to the house,” he replied.
From their melodies, it was clear none of them had that.
“How do I get the Builder?” she asked.
“It was found in stage four.”
“Aw…”
If Chien had obtained Second Sheath, he would’ve been able to take the wand and accompanying relic, since he only had his war hammer, but despite how far specialised and thought-out his build was, he was woefully behind everyone else in that one regard.
Adam sent the wand back to his player house, and promised himself that he’d try and get the Summoner so he could, hopefully, fuse them together.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Or, I could save it and use it in a future loop.
He wanted to get the bulwark weapon to send back, but since it was rare, just like the Ritualist wand, he could potentially send back both weapons with the meta upgrade fully unlocked.
If I obtain enough points from this stage, I might do it.
But there’s no telling how the final encounter will go, and whether we’ll even survive…
I’ll make sure we weaken the Forlorn King as much as possible. It should also weaken the Shadow.
It would require them to take out all of the forlorn knights, but that was already something Adam was planning to do.
“Loot,” Natalia said next to the ashes.
Her melody filled with desire.
The others repeated the phrase, and they were likewise shown the loot that Heiner had been carrying.
Adam had no idea how it was possible to loot his ashes, since none of the relics were visible, but he was glad it was possible, since otherwise they’d have lost access to many of the powerful things Heiner had possessed.
< < Loot — Heiner Krause > >
< Relic Renewal Stone (Epic) x2 >
< Boomerang Pendant (Rare) >
< Captain’s Cape (Rare) >
< Cloud Skimmer Jacket (Rare) >
< Illusionist’s Mask (Rare) >
< Magical Quiver (Rare) >
< Ranger’s Lucky Charm (Rare) >
< Treasure Hunter’s Well-Worn Boots (Rare) >
< Blink Ring (Uncommon) >
< Paralysis Venom (Uncommon) [exhausted] >
The exhausted tag must be because of the renewal stone.
“His wings aren’t here,” Natalia noticed. “I was hoping to take those.”
“I don’t think grafted limbs can be looted,” Adam said. He understood why she wanted them, even though he didn’t need them himself. The tail he’d gotten from Alepheria’s Tower hadn’t been of much use to him, and for the most part he just reabsorbed it into himself, making it seem as though he didn’t even have it in the first place. For most people, the grafted limbs were generally quite useful, but Adam possessed the one specific build where extra limbs hardly mattered.
“I want the boots,” Diwa said.
“I’ll take his jacket,” Natalia added. She was still wearing the forlorn cuirass, so it would greatly increase her speed when she swapped, plus her head would be way less of a weak-point.
“I will take the cape,” Chien decided.
“Lucky charm for me!” Seo-Yoon said excitedly.
“No one can use the quiver or boomerang pendant, so I’ll put those in the bag,” Adam said.
“Did anyone pick up my captain’s cape I dropped in the church?” Natalia asked.
“I have it,” Chien said, pulling it out of the sack he carried.
“Seo-Yoon should take it, she doesn’t have a cape,” she said.
“It’s like Christmas!” Seo-Yoon exclaimed as Chien handed it to her.
Natalia and Diwa laughed.
Adam was glad they were able to laugh despite what they’d all gone through. He hoped they’d be able to continue working together, despite Chien’s foolish decision threatening to tear a rift in the team.
“I’ll take a renewal stone,” Adam said. Both of them were on cooldown, which seemed to be the main reason nobody had chosen them.
No one else wanted the other right now, so they let Adam take it along with the mask and exhausted venom, with the understanding that they would divvy up the loot before the end of the stage.
With the separation of all the loot complete, Adam went back over to the demon chest.
“Is it possible to send an unknown demon relic back to my player house?” he asked his cube.
[No.]
Figures. It’s the same thing with cursed weapons.
They really want us to use the items to receive the curse.
Messimer worshippers are going to be incredibly handy to have around to avoid accepting horrible curses.
Adam wasn’t completely against Diwa taking the helmet, but the fact that its effect would be permanent, unknown, and that it might actively conspire against them like Heiner’s ring undoubtedly had, made it a truly foolish idea. He wasn’t yet so jaded that he would gamble with other people’s lives.
Besides, I’ve gotta win the bet and change my name back.
Adam already had quite a few ideas about how to punish Beck once he won.
Since throwing the demon chest into Silt Lake seemed likely to only cause more demon fish monstrosities to appear, Adam lifted the chest with his floating gauntlets and flew down below the settlement where he used his magic to dig a deep hole. He placed the chest at the bottom and filled the hole back in, before returning to his team.
On the horizon, the sun was slowly rising.
“Are we still going to Gothershall?” Chien asked.
“We are,” Adam replied, “but I will go get another true flame first, so I need you to wait for me here. Given the riders that are going to appear today, it’s for the best that we bring you inside the city’s walls until we have a surefire plan to deal with them.”
“Is it really necessary to bring a flame to the city?” Natalia asked.
“If we don’t do it, then Gothershall will be overrun by the forlorn army by tomorrow night,” he explained. “Granted, we also need to complete the tournament and defeat its secret last boss.”
Adam ran his eyes across them and scrutinised their melodies.
“You’re going to be okay without me for the thirty minutes or so it takes to fly to Old Town and back, right?” he asked.
Diwa looked at Chien, while he was busy studying the clouds.
“Seo-Yoon and I will keep these two from killing each other,” Natalia said.
“I have no intentions of killing anyone,” Chien remarked.
Diwa said nothing, but her melody was filled with troubling emotions.
Adam went up to Natalia and whispered, “Keep an eye on Diwa, she’s thinking about harming Chien.”
She nodded and he hoped he could trust her.
Seo-Yoon gave him a reassuring thumbs-up before he flew off to Old Town.
While Adam soared across the rolling hills with the sunlight warming up its grass and dispelling the shadows, he kept his attention locked onto the four melodies of his teammates.
I really hope we don’t have a repeat of what happened with Heiner.
It was clear that the demon ring had to have been pulling his strings for a while, and Adam regretted not properly interrogating him about what the ring had been saying. After all, he’d revealed that it spoke about being fed, but Adam had gotten complacent. He had relied on the mandate of blood, despite the countless times it had misled him already.
The image of Juliette came to mind.
Someone who actively conspired against him and knew of his ability to sense the melody of their heart would be able to formulate a plan or control their emotions in ways that would lead him astray.
The blood sense isn’t a perfect tool, because humans are by nature flawed and unpredictable.
Maybe if I could read someone’s thoughts it would be different, but emotions can be misleading or wrong.
Beck had mentioned Messimer granting him a relic with such a power, and Adam wished he’d obtained something similar.
But the Flayed Lady didn’t give me the mandate because she wanted me to understand people better. She gave it to me because it makes killing easier, it makes it possible to track prey from afar, and it makes me blind to what I see with my own eyes, allowing others to betray me if they are cunning enough.
Despite understanding what a significant weakness it was, Adam was slave-bound to its power. Without it, he would become drastically weaker and lose his ability to scout effectively.
Although, if the Flayed Lady is to be believed, the power to sense blood should be inherent to the power of a blood mage.
It was likely just one of many things that the All-Seeing System had made sure wasn’t included in the Trials, since it would make Blood Mage players far too powerful.
Once Adam landed in Old Town near the church, he met the priest outside again. The old man seemed slightly invigorated, as though bathing in the light of the true flame was de-aging him.
“You return for another flame,” he said, more a statement than a question.
“That’s right,” Adam replied. “We’ve defeated a forlorn knight and now we need another to bring to Gothershall.”
Father Adam nodded. “Yes, I sensed that the Shadow’s power is waning. I would take care to safeguard the First Light’s Chosen, however. The Shadow knows of his existence and has sent forth its dark riders.”
Damn, I should’ve brought Chien with me. This old guy has a lot of information left to share, it seems.
“Do you know about the ‘True Flame’s Oath’?” Adam asked.
“I am aware of the legends, of course, but the Woodlocke family lost the means to recreate it. Did you succeed where they failed?”
“We did,” Adam replied.
“That is excellent news, though you must take care when you face the Forlorn King. After all, the brighter the flame, the darker the shadow.”
With that, he handed Adam another box pre-prepared for his arrival.
“We will return again tomorrow,” Adam told him.
“May the First Light guide you well,” the priest said.
Adam lifted the box with one of his gauntlets and flew back to Silt.