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Went to a chiropractor (bad translation, apparently, the Japanese word is 接骨院) orthopedic clinic thing that I've been going to a couple times per week and they helped with my shoulder, so no more pain. Hopefully it doesn't return.

Anyway, part of the reason why I've been going regularly is because, and this will come as a shocker to many of you, my posture is fucking dogshit. I've got that intense I-spent-12-hours-gaming-in-my-chair-every-day-during-the-formative-years-of-my-youth posture. Anyway, they're helping me fix that, so hopefully I won't end up dealing with problems in the future, given how much I sit down every day.

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Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Fifty-Eight

The moth wings allowed Adam to move up through the air with the same speed as when he was running on the ground, but he purposefully slowed down to keep pace with Luvicidix, allowing her to lead him.

When she reached the top of the skybox that Adam and Interim Island were ostensibly confined to, he thought they could go no further, only to be proven wrong as the clouds parted for her.

Adam slipped in behind Luvicidix, continuing up, past the barrier that’d kept him back when he’d used his Warder and Blood Mage spells to fly.

They flew through a tunnel of strangely lit gold-tinged clouds for about a minute, before breaking through the dense cloud layer and emerging into a space above. No clouds floated higher than them here, and Adam marvelled at the freedom of escaping Interim Island, even if he knew he’d have to return.

Luvicidix gestured for him to follow and he easily kept up with her as she flew above the clouds, one arm skimming along the top of the fluffy white, releasing a trail of bubbles that popped and disappeared seconds later.

Then suddenly he saw what she was leading him towards. Floating just a few metres above the dense cloud layer was a tiny island with a house and a large tree leaning over the edge, from which grew a branch that had a swing suspended above the clouds.

The white moth landed in front of the door and Adam arrived on her heels.

“What is this place?” he asked her.

“I’m uncertain,” Luvicidix replied. “I found it when I was brought here and I’ve been using it as my little home.”

Just then, Adam realised Parvillo hadn’t followed them. It was likely that he couldn’t.

“Are we outside the influence of the System?” he asked.

“In a manner of speaking,” she replied. “You are still being observed, but the System cannot interfere with you here.”

“Weird,” Adam remarked.

Luvicidix showed him around the island and inside the house. It was rather small, and the building only had two floors with two rooms each. Adam had thought that maybe there would be some secret hiding within, but he was unable to find anything. There was a small kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, and a library with empty bookcases.

“Does something change about this hidden island later?” he asked. “Like when I’m worshipping an Absolute?”

“Possibly,” Luvicidix remarked.

“Am I able to come and go, without needing you to show the way.”

“You are,” she confirmed, “but you need to be careful. If you fly outside of Interim Island’s reach in the wrong direction, you may perish as a result.”

“You mean if I don’t fly straight up from the island’s centre?”

“Indeed.”

“Why?”

“Beyond Interim Island, you are no longer protected. There are things lurking past the cloud coverage.”

“Even up here?”

“No. This area is safe.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“Thanks for showing me this place,” he said. “But I don’t really understand why I came here.”

“Not all secrets are visible at first glance,” she replied.

Adam sat on the edge and looked down at the fluffy clouds a few metres below. It reminded him of the Floating Sea of Gold, although none of the clouds had been this densely packed.

I wish I could bring someone else up here to see this.

With a simple push off from the edge, he dropped down to the clouds, where his fish boots kept him afloat, thanks to their ‘Cloudwalking’ effect.

He paced around for a moment, revelling in the sensation, before using his wings to go back up to the island.

“What happens if I fly up here after the Tower of Mirrors appears?” he asked. Adam vividly remembered it piercing far into the clouds above Interim Island.

Luvicidix cast him an amused grin. “Who can say?”

Maybe I can ask the Tome Keeper if he knows, Adam thought. I haven’t spoken to him in a while, and I’m pretty sure I’ve collected a few secrets of my own that he’d like to bargain for.

“I’m gonna go back down for now,” Adam said. “Can you show me the way?”

“Certainly,” Luvicidix replied and leapt off the edge with a backflip and a flap of her wings.

Adam looked across the island briefly, pausing his gaze on the swing hanging from the tree, before jumping after the white moth.

She skimmed back across the cloud layer for a few hundred metres before stopping and gesturing for him. When he reached her a moment later, they both dove down together, the tunnel forming ahead of them like before.

I don’t think Luvicidix would lie to me, but I kind of want to know what I’ll find if I fly away from Interim going any of the cardinal directions, rather than up or down.

As they broke through the clouds and landed back in the middle of the island, Parvillo was awaiting them.

[I recommend staying within the sanctuary of Interim Island,] he remarked. [There is no telling what may find you beyond its protections.]

“Don’t get your panties in a twist,” Adam told him. “I’m fine, aren’t I?”

[I find your arrogance quite vexing. I cannot tell if you appreciate the severity of the situation you are in. It would be prudent to take a simple and safe approach, without risking your life to your own curiosities.]

“The Flayed Lady is a more cunning foe than even you could predict. Taking it easy is a recipe for disaster,” Adam countered.

Luvicidix looked between them. “Are you buying any of my upgrades?” she asked.

“Not today,” he replied.

“Then I shall take my leave and attempt to speak to my siblings,” she said. Despite having the freedom to seek them out now, she still prioritised Adam’s needs before her own. He wondered if it was enforced upon her by the System or because she was simply that selfless.

“Let me know if you succeed,” he told her.

As she flew away, her orbiting scales returned to her, making Adam realise that she had paused the flow of time for their entire trip up into the clouds, since Yenna still stood in the same place where they’d left her.

Once time resumed, Yenna stumbled a step, before looking around in mild confusion. “You have wings now,” she noted, once she turned to look at him.

“I’m going back to the market,” Adam told her.

“I will come with you,” she said, walking next to him until they reached the fountain.

Leaning against its edge was Migraine, and behind him, floating atop the water inside, was Finnian. Fisher stood behind the fountain, her head poking around the side of it, watching their arrival.

In a single motion, Yenna had summoned her instrument to hand.

“You get out of there right now, slime!” she demanded.

“That is no way to speak to your liege,” Finnian said.

Within a split second, her instrument transformed into the Kotsuzumi drum and Adam instinctively teleported away to the far end of the market using the night moth’s bracelet, just as she hit it to produce the strange noise.

Finnian made a sound of protest and quickly fled the fountain as a sentient puddle. Fisher jumped into the water after he’d left, but before Yenna could use the harmonica to drive her off, the beetle had used the water to travel elsewhere on the island.

Adam returned to where Yenna stood in front of the fountain, eyeing Migraine.

“Ey boss, your girl is very hostile. Some might even call her unfriendly.”

Adam gestured to Migraine with a nod of his head and Yenna transformed her instrument into a lute.

“As a matter of fact, Migraine forgot something. He’ll go get it, so no need for him to face the music.”

As he fled in the same direction as Finnian, Adam remarked, “You’ve gotta teach me how to play those instruments.”

“Bring me a vanity and I will,” she replied.

“I won’t be able to get enough mastery shards to afford one this loop,” Adam said.

“I can wait.”

Adam went over to Lucca’s stall, hoping he could buy the pugilist’s belt from her without needing to reroll too many times.

After three rerolls, two of which used the reroll dice he’d purchased before stage four, it appeared amongst the options.

< < Relics For Sale > >

< Slime King’s Crown (Epic) — Become the King of Slimes | Player turns into a humanoid Slime with four cores that each hold 25% of total health >

< Pugilist’s Belt (Epic) — Increases Damage with fist-based attacks up to 100% based on your proximity to the target | Movement Speed reduced by 50% >

< Blood Mage Choker (Epic) — Creates a pane of blood to protect the wearer. 120-second cooldown | Increases damage with Blood-based attacks by 25% | Reduces Player Defence by 25% >

< Fiendbarb (Epic) — Imbues attacks with Blood Burst | Weapon becomes incapable of penetrating armour >

< Chaos Fragment (Epic) — All Player’s equipped Relics are randomly changed to something of equal Rarity. Disappears after use >

Adam grabbed the belt and sold the two hearts of darkness he’d collected from the last stage.

< < Relic Purchased > >

< Pugilist’s Belt (Epic) >

< 1,300 Points Remaining >

< < Relics Sold > >

< Hearts of Darkness (Common) x2 >

< 1,500 Points Remaining >

I think the benefit of high luck isn’t just the fact that I can obviously get the strongest items, but also that rerolling the relic shop makes it easy to cycle through legendaries and epics, before reaching the rares, since there are substantially less of them.

As he had observed several times before, the current stage’s relics generally showed up first, but as he ran through the options, older ones would appear. The downside there was that it could take a while to find a specific relic if it hadn’t appeared in that exact stage or if its rarity was far below what his luck rating guaranteed. He’d run into that issue when he’d been scouring for the barrage glove in the previous loop.

Eventually I’ll have so many fated wishing stones that it won’t matter though. After all, some of the future stages have a lot of chests.

Speaking of which.

Adam pulled the wishing stone out.

Time to see if it’s possible to break this somehow.

“Parvillo, explain to me exactly how this works again.”

[You wish for a Relic of Epic rarity or lesser, and it is granted to you. As mentioned previously, you may wish for Secret and Weaponbound Relics. It is not limited to Stages you have visited in this universe so far. The only requirement is that you have seen the Relic before.]

“Do I have to throw it or flip it?” he asked.

[No. Letting go of the Fated Wishing Stone makes the wish fail to activate.]

I won’t be able to duplicate stuff with it then, Adam realised to his dismay. Hopefully I can still retrigger it with my Prankster skill.

Although Adam thought a relic like the rosary and wraith lantern could be useful, he mainly wanted the body of sloth because it worked so insanely well with his high speed.

With 4,200% speed, I’d get 1,400% extra damage.

When he checked his stats though, he realised something unexpected. Before he put on the pugilist’s belt, he’d had 4,200%, but now he only had 2,100%.

Holy shit, equipping the belt halved my speed.

I guess, since the damage boost from the belt is multiplicative, the speed debuff is also multiplicative…

I’ll need to test the damage difference after I get the body of sloth. If Spear Dancer and the armour relic give more damage from 4,200% speed than I’d get from the doubling effect of the belt, then I’ll have to ditch the belt until I find a way to remove its massive debuff.

If I can level up ninety times more, I can reach the second evolution tier which offers Jubilant Crafter, making all relic fusions flawless. Until then, it doesn’t seem like there’s a way to get rid of the debuffs.

 He returned his attention to the wishing stone in his hand. It was a smooth rectangular opaque glass stone that caught the sunlight of the evening sun in a strange way, retaining some of the glow within itself.

“I wish for the ‘Body of Sloth’,” Adam said, squeezing the stone.

With a pop like a soap bubble, the relic appeared in the air in front of him and dropped to the ground.

Thanks to Adam’s relic renewal stone, the wishing stone didn’t go anywhere.

He tried to reactivate it with Prankster’s skill, but nothing happened.

[Leering Prankster cannot reactivate Relics that have run out of uses,] Parvillo remarked.

Damn.

“Can I still sell it at least?”

[Yes.]

That’s something then. Being able to sell useless legendary relics is pretty nice at least. That alone makes the relic renewal stone worth getting in every loop.

Adam stooped to pick up the armour.

< < Relic > >

< Body of Sloth (Epic) — Increases Player Defence by 25% | Increases Movement Speed by 25% | Increases Damage by 1% for every 3% Movement Speed | Taking damage reduces all Movement Speed bonuses to 0% for 1 minute >

The armour looked like a slimmer version of the slothling fur coat, with a form-fitting black torso piece covered in bristly fur, and hardened bone-white sleeves covering the arms and leg sections. It seemed to count as full-body armour, meaning he wouldn’t be able to wear any leg relics.

Adam’s damage jumped up to 7,196%, meaning he’d gained 1,960% from just equipping the armour. When he took off the pugilist’s belt, that boost went up to 3,920%, putting him at 9,156% damage, nearly double what he’d had before equipping the body of sloth.

Since there’s only a 2,000% difference between the damage boosts, using the belt is stronger, damage-wise. Even if Spear Dancer grants one point of damage for every point of speed I’m moving at, the belt still wins, at least when I’m fighting up close. But the Spear Dancer and body of sloth combo is stronger at range without the belt.

“How much of a boost to damage does Spear Dancer give for every point of speed?” Adam asked Parvillo.

[You receive 1% of Damage from every 2% of Speed your body is travelling at.]

“Surprised you actually answered that.”

So, without the belt, Spear Dancer gives me a maximum of 2,135% damage from 4,270% speed. With it equipped, I get a max of 1,068%.

If I could get the slothling spring boots, that would allow me to triple my speed, and without the pugilist’s belt, I could therefore reach nearly 13,000% speed.

Adam paused, a revelation hitting him.

“If I have the slothling spring boots, is it possible to stack the speed boost multiple times if I activate them repeatedly?”

[The Slothling Spring Boots will always triple the Player’s Speed stat. It is not able to apply to itself recursively, since that would enable speeds that far exceed what the Trials allow for and would most likely kill any Player moving that fast in an instant.]

Damn, thought I was onto some truly Trials-breaking stuff for a moment.

Still, with Euphoric Tinkerer, I could get five activations of the boots, six if I also add the Leering Prankster’s retrigger, allowing me to keep that triple boost active for quite a while.

And without the belt, that amount of speed would add almost 11,000% extra damage thanks to body of sloth and Spear Dancer.

I think that, since the fifth stage is narrow and close-quarters, I’m better off wearing the belt for now. The bear traps always deal my actual damage, so it shouldn’t matter if I’m far away from the target triggering it, so long as I’m close enough to a different target to gain the boost from the belt.

If I get to stage six, I’ll probably leave the belt in my storage, since more speed makes sense for big open stages.

I wanna go test this in the player house so I know what to expect from my new insane amount of damage.

Adam placed the fated wishing stone on Lucca’s counter.

“I’d like to sell this.”

The spider chittered in annoyance. “This has no uses.”

“I’m aware,” he said.

She let out a sigh and waved one of her many arms. “Fine, I’ll buy it.”

< < Relics Sold > >

< Fated Wishing Stone (Legendary) >

< 4,000 Points Remaining >

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