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Wifi has been down all day, but luckily my phone still works as a tether in a pinch. Was worried I wouldn't be able to get this chapter out today.

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Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Sixty-Eight

Instead of heading for the garden like he’d planned, Adam stopped by the basement restaurant first to see who ‘Phoebe Woods’ was and figure out why Chaos had passed on a message to kill her. He left Yenna and Lev outside, since he still didn’t trust the tavern’s dimensional connection.

As Adam queried the tavern to show players with the name, dozens of matches appeared.

“That’s a lot of Phoebes,” Adam muttered, scanning the holograms to see if any of them stood out. “How many survived the altar?”

[402 million Players.]

Adam looked away from the holograms to stare at the icosahedron. “You mean to tell me that only ten million players died in the altar?”

[Correct.]

“Did she make all of them work together to survive?” he asked, since that was how he’d been able to save everyone in his group last time.

[That appears to be the most likely cause.]

If she wasn’t evil incarnate, then she’d be able to ensure everyone could make it past stage ten, he mused darkly. All of the Absolutes had that power, but for them the objective was not humanity’s survival.

“Let me guess, everyone I know just happened to be in groups where they were the only survivors?”

[Correct.]

Adam turned back to look at the holograms of everyone named ‘Phoebe Woods’.

I wish he would’ve given me something more to go off of.

And why couldn’t he just tell me himself?

Adam thought back to the weird costume that the imp goblin had worn. It had been black and white, just like the strange man he and Emelia had found in the Floating Sea.

What was his name again?

Just then, he noticed that one of the holograms was different from the rest, as the person it showed was a slime humanoid, just like him.

He mentally focused on her, making the other holograms disappear.

“This must be the person that Chaos wanted me to kill.”

[I had not thought to check for Players with alternate appearances, as such cannot be hidden even when Relics and Class weapons are made invisible to spectators. It does appear that this is the only ‘Phoebe Woods’ who possesses a slime crown.]

It was impossible to tell if she had the emperor’s or king’s version, with the former only being accessible to those who picked the Fool as their starting Class, due to the luck requirement.

Still, regardless of which it was, Adam was sure there had to be a reason behind Chaos directing him towards her.

She had the achievements for flawless, all secrets, secret boss, and eradication in the altar, and she had also gotten all of the achievements in stage one and four.

Wait… I remember the strange man’s name now. The one who we found in the floating sea, thanks to the compass.

“Do you know who the Gift-Giving Stranger is?” Adam asked Parvillo.

[I do. He is the spawn of an Absolute.]

“The spawn of Chaos?”

[I am uncertain. His actions appear to go against the wishes of most of the Absolutes, even the Chaotic Convergence, though perhaps that is the nature of Chaos itself?]

“He seems to possess the power to stop time, just like the moths and Chaos.”

[I see.]

“And after I purchased the upgrade from Luvicidix, a goblin imp thing in a black-and-white jester’s outfit gave me the letter to find Phoebe Woods.”

[Given that I was unable to perceive this interaction, an Absolute as powerful as the Chaotic Convergence must have been responsible. This would lend some credence to your theory, if indeed this messenger was sent on behalf of the Gift-Giving Stranger.]

“He could be unrelated, but the colour scheme was too similar for it to not be a connection,” Adam said. “Keep the query locked until I return.”

[Understood.]

This time Parvillo didn’t warn Adam about the dangers of challenging one of the Flayed Lady’s puppets, likely because he wanted Adam to perish so that he would be released from his task as his guide.

Adam went to the garden south of his player house, though he had briefly considered going down into the well and contacting the Tome Keeper. However, Chaos’ words about how he and Emelia had been misled by the Absolute were weighing on his mind. He had naturally assumed the Tome Keeper worked in his interest, and had taken his apology for their untimely deaths at face value, but the more he thought about it, the more he realised that it was incredibly naïve to trust an unknowable being such as him. Even more, his current hardships were all thanks to following the Tome Keeper’s whims, which, although he had obtained a modicum of control over his looping ability, had come at a great personal loss. After all, it was hard to claim that it had been a net positive, when he was being hounded by a crazed Absolute, who was able to bend all of Adam’s friends and family against him with ease, just to force him into submission. He would’ve been nothing but a tiny blip on the Flayed Lady’s radar if he hadn’t gone along with the Tome Keeper’s request.

Unless it became absolutely necessary, he decided to avoid using the Erudition Barter for the foreseeable future, since he had a sneaking suspicion that the Tome Keeper knew much more than he led on, but had allowed Adam to use his ritual to obtain simple knowledge that was painless to give away, in exchange for earning his trust and obtaining the real treasure trove of knowledge that the Flayed Lady had shared with Adam.

And if I don’t have knowledge he doesn’t possess, then he could take away my memories, selectively picking the ones from my conversation with Chaos that would make me doubt him…

When he met Meilo in the garden and handed her the six soul seeds from Sköll, Willow, Gladwyn, Lenard, Sven, and Ilya, she remarked, “What a wealth of seeds you have brought. But one of them is unlike the rest.”

“I would hope so. It came from a squid.”

[You slew the Envoy of Nwetrou?] Parvillo asked, clearly surprised by the revelation.

“He had it coming.”

“Fascinating,” Meilo remarked. “This may bloom quite the unusual flower.”

“I’m sure Sprite will have fun with that.”

Adam went over to the flower that had sprouted from Alexander Nova’s soul seed. It was a white lily.

When he placed his hand on it, images from a funeral rushed through him. He saw through the tear-blurry vision of a teenager gripping a white lily tightly, while staring at the pictures of his parents displayed in front of him.

Adam gasped as he came out of the brief glimpse of Nova’s past.

Why is this his favourite flower if it’s tied to such a traumatic memory?

< < Soul Drop Obtained > >

Adam did his best to shake off the vicarious emotions as he moved past Alivida’s tent and Meilo’s flowerbeds, finding a construction site near the edge behind the garden where Builder was frantically moving around, building a structure out of some kind of sandy pulp, similar to a termite nest.

“Can you wait here until it is finished?” Adam asked Yenna and Lev. “I’m going back to the player house for a moment.”

Lev nodded and immediately found a spot to perform a slow and methodical dance, like tai chi, which flexed and stretched all of his muscles.

“I will come with you,” Yenna said. “Even if I have to wait outside again.”

Adam cast her a grin and she took a step back, knowing what was coming.

But Adam was much faster than her, and before she could even protest, he had picked her up and lifted from the ground with a flap of his white moth wings, sending them soaring over the buildings, before landing in front of the door to his house.

Yenna let out a small sigh of relief when her feet were back on solid ground again.

“It should only take a moment,” Adam told her and went inside.

As soon as he sat down, Phoebe Woods appeared in front of him again.

“I wonder if she’ll be expecting this,” Adam wondered out loud.

[Given that the corruption has been expelled from within you, it is unlikely that the Flayed Lady can predict your actions to the same extent as before.]

“I guess we’ll find out.”

He pulled out the challenge stone.

< < Challenge Stone Activated > >

< You have forced Player Phoebe Woods into fighting you >

Adam landed not on sand, but instead on grass.

I forgot that the arena changes after we start worshipping Absolutes.

His half of the arena was like a floating island, and where the spectators sat were fluffy tiered clouds. Weirdly, all of the audience on his side were dragonfly humanoids, every last one of them wearing red foam hands on their four arms. On the giant fake hands were black letters reading ‘Adam #1’.

Directly behind Adam, seated on a folded-up white swan instead of a cloud, was the Gift-Giving Stranger. He looked exactly the same as the first time Adam had encountered him. He wore a very wide-brimmed hat with a small dome in the centre, and the whole thing was fused to his actual head. His body was lanky and thin, with all of it, including the hat, being pure white. The only exception were his face and hands, where black Rorschach-like inkblot patterns swirled around randomly, without symmetry or sense.

He gave Adam a small wave.

Is that also Chaos, or just his spawn like Parvillo said? Although maybe he’s both? That would be a very chaotic thing to do, after all.

On Phoebe’s half of the arena was the familiar design of the Flayed Lady, with crimson glass flooring and audience seats, as well as her bloodfiends, flayed humans, and other sinister adherents watching their champion.

Phoebe clearly possessed the slime king’s crown, given that she had four cores inside her and was holding a strange sword. It was one that Adam hadn’t seen before, but it looked to be made of a kind of shadow. Inside it three stone cores were visible.

Is that the slime sword from Finnian’s quest?

But how would it be made of shadow? Where would she get…?

Then Adam realised why he had been sent after her.

She got all the achievements in stage one and four, in order to unlock Finnian and Sprite, all for this combination. Using the shadow elemental core that must be inside Sprite’s body, she inserted it into her slime sword, changing it to the element, which, if my guess is correct, probably deals true damage, in order to bypass my high defence and the way my cores divide my health.

It had already been something he was worried about, given that stage six was coming up, where the Avatar of Alepheria would drop the soul blade that had cut Adam’s last Fool run short.

If I’m right, then this represents a pretty big problem for me, since it’s relatively easy access to a true damage weapon that is extremely useful against my build.

But given that she didn’t arm any of the others in the altar with it against me, maybe it’s not that powerful of a weapon?

It doesn’t matter though.

“You surprised me, Adam,” Phoebe said, though the words were clearly not hers. “To think that you would take out one of my little experiments.”

Phoebe swung the shadowy slime sword around, its shape elongating and branching unpredictably.

“Do you think you have what it takes?” she asked.

Adam grinned behind his mask.

She has no idea what’s coming.

As he considered how he would take her down, he realised he had forgotten something in his previous damage calculation.

It hadn’t taken into account that he could triple his speed with his new boots.

That meant his max achievable damage wasn’t just 97,000%.

It was 183.000%.

If I could get rid of the pugilist’s belt’s speed-halving weakness, then I’d be able to reach over 300,000%.

The arena lifted its hold on them, and Phoebe immediately swung her shadowy sword, preparing to do something.

Adam sprinted towards her, activating his boots the moment he felt himself reach top speed. As a cloud materialised under him, he leapt off, shooting ahead like a bullet, his balloon glove already swinging forward to connect with her body.

A blood barrier formed between them, but Adam’s fist went straight through it, striking Phoebe’s chest.

He never got to see what her sword could do, because the moment his fist connected, a blinding flash washed over the entire arena.

From where Phoebe stood and outwards in a triangular pattern behind her, all of the crimson colour was obliterated from the arena and a million hair-thin cracks spiderwebbed outwards across the bleached-white glass. Unfortunately, the audience was protected from this.

< < Challenge Stone Deactivated > >

< You have defeated Player Phoebe Woods in the arena >

< < Victory Pearl Obtained > >

There were no remains left of her, as far as Adam could see, and yet his brooch activated and a soul seed appeared where she had stood.

“Blessed madness! What a show!” the Gift-Giving Stranger exclaimed, standing atop his strange swan seat and clapping vigorously.

Adam turned to face him and did a mock bow as he was whisked away.

When he returned to his chair in the basement restaurant, he immediately got to his feet and headed for the stairs.

[You are back,] Parvillo remarked as he floated after him.

“Don’t look so sad,” he replied.

[It is fascinating the lengths the Flayed Lady will go.]

“She’s no doubt pissed about me discovering this,” Adam said. “If I can insert a shadow elemental core into my body, then I might have a lot more options for defence and offence. Not to mention, it might make me able to deal with other slime elementals more easily, if indeed it imbues true damage.”

[While I do not truly care whichever path you choose, it seems foolish to sacrifice your alchemist, which you have just invested so heavily into, all for a question of ‘maybe’.]

“I’m not sacrificing Sprite,” Adam replied. “But he’s an alchemist and elementals are magical creatures, so doesn’t it seem like their cores should then be possible to replicate with alchemy? I would think so at least.”

[I am uncertain, as I do not delve the magical arts.]

“If there’s anyone who can make something like this, it has to be Sprite, otherwise, why go through all the lengths to unlock his services?”

[I must admit, the answer to this theory of yours does intrigue me.]

A grin formed on Adam’s slime face. “Are you willing to make a bet on the outcome?”

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