-Previous Chapter-
--Encyclopaedia---
-Character Builder-
---Next Chapter----

I made a few minor edits to the previous chapter, mostly just mentioning the Hardmode Orb and the Body of Sloth debuff. I've got so many things happening that keep track of everything is genuinely becoming such an uphill battle ^-^' (I have added more exclamation marks to my notes that I go through to make sure there aren't massive plotholes and so that I don't forget stuff)

Someone also mentioned that they wish there was a discord server for discussing this story, and there is! Just click this link (https://discord.gg/GEBAdYr8fV) if you wanna join, or connect discord with your patreon account in the patreon settings. I've got an automated invite bot, so it should pull you right into the server with the correct roles.

-----------------------------

Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Eighty-Eight

A sound like exploding glass made Adam sit up with a shock. For a moment, he felt grass under himself, but it was only a trick of the mind, because he was still on the deck of the Creaking Madam.

From his chest, a firefly of orange light emerged to circle his body, healing him back to full and restoring his five cores.

As Adam came to, he saw the indents of large hands around the three dead players in front of him, and the faceless corpse of the fourth.

“What happened?” Adam asked as he got to his feet. “That wasn’t my cheat death activating, was it?”

[No. The Heart of Glass gifted to you by Meilo was shattered to bring you back to life.]

“Would I have died without it, because of the stone bracer’s effect?” Adam asked. The realisation only hit him belatedly.

[No. The Stone Bracer would simply have delayed the activation of your Cheat Death Sigil.]

That’s good to know.

I hadn’t even considered how deadly the stone bracer could’ve been, but that should’ve definitely been a concern in stage five…

“Does it void my cheat death?”

[No. It is a unique effect that does not count as cheating Death.]

That means I still have another life, if I get killed again.

“Is it more akin to a spark of creation then?”

[Yes.]

“So, the power comes from the First Light?”

[I do not know.]

Adam pulled the loot from the bodies over to the side of the helm, before quickly disabling the propellers and fins to bring the ship to a halt. “Anyone who invades me spawns here, right?”

[Correct. The arrival destination of any visiting Players is the helm of the Creaking Madam. If the airship is destroyed, the docks of the closest Safe Haven would be utilised instead.]

According to Chaos’ map, that would be Windtop Cove to the south.

[It is important to note that visiting Players are made invulnerable so long as they do not move from where they appeared.]

“Can they activate relics, turn around, or do anything without breaking this invulnerability?”

[No. The moment they move as much as a centimetre, they are made vulnerable again.]

Then it doesn’t matter.

Since his revival had reset all of his cooldowns, Adam summoned three crawler arms in the air and commanded them to target and crush any player who arrived on the helm. He lifted above the deck with his wings and fired his spider ring downward, such that the physical web and its two phantom clones covered the entire helm. Then he threw his four traps and their eight clones down to dot the web as well. Anyone who arrived here would be immediately slowed and set off at least one of the bear traps.

Before he left to hunt down the blood mage who had fled, Adam grabbed the first strike earring from the Defender’s loot.

Then he flew over the edge of the airship and transformed himself into a fire elemental, using its properties to speed himself up. His white moth’s wings and grafted wings flapped as fast as they could, sending him plummeting down towards the bottom of the world.

On Chaos’ map, the closest slug dragon is Mast-Chewer to the west, so if I can’t find the mage below, that’s where I’ll go.

If that doesn’t work, then I’ll seek out the Golden Slug and its compass.

Clouds rushed past Adam, and he used several of them to propel himself even faster, thanks to his boots.

I wonder if gaining a cloud elemental core will allow me to activate my boots on my own body to have access to the tripling speed without needing to summon a cloud.

“Can you tell me which direction the last player went?” Adam asked Parvillo.

[I cannot. Since the Flayed Lady is no longer cheating, I have no justification for allowing you to cheat either.]

“Just because she’s not cheating directly, it doesn’t mean she isn’t still cheating. She literally designed the other players’ builds in a way to directly counter me, and she’ll no doubt have ten more players invading my stage shortly.”

[Even so, I cannot.]

“I know you just want to go to the next loop, but if you help me, Chaos would definitely look upon you more favourably,” Adam said. “Chaos told me that the coup de grace would be in stage eight. I just have to make it there in one piece.”

[I suppose I can point you in the right direction. But that is all I will do. Your target went south, and you are currently heading northwest. I believe Player Samantha Breen is heading for the White Flags Safe Haven.]

Shit, she’s not going directly for the parasites then.

Adam spun around in the air, reorienting himself.

He used another cloud to launch forward, adding more heat to his burning legs to go even faster.

It should be quite a ways away, so I’ll be able to catch up.

Thanks to Adam’s high movement stat, he flew across the stage at a speed even greater than the flying rowboat he’d crafted for himself and Lasse in his last loop.

As soon as I can get my hands on a relic chest, I’ll be able to obtain a conjuring stone to fuse my potion belt and pugilist’s belt, removing the demerits and doubling my speed. Then I’ll truly be flying.

Adam went through how the fight with the other players had gone down.

Given how effectively the players had worked together, despite the Flayed Lady being cut off from directly controlling them, he wasn’t entirely sure what he could’ve done differently. If he had taken to the air to try and flee, they could’ve disabled his relics with their stone bracers and sent him plummeting, and it would have been all but guaranteed that he’d lose sight of one or more of them. Given how enormous stage seven was, a missing player would be able to do a lot of damage, not to mention someone like the blood mage could create a cloud leviathan to prevent him from clearing the stage objective. Or, more annoyingly, a single player could hide somewhere he might never look. He wasn’t sure if it was a strategy the Flayed Lady was attempting to pull off with Samantha Breen, but Adam wouldn’t let her get away.

If I had let them stay on the airship, they would have been able to allow invading players to get in safely.

If I had destroyed the airship, the invading players would end up at a settlement.

I managed to avoid both of those scenarios, and fortunately it didn’t cost me my cheat death.

He realised belatedly that he’d forgotten about the lifeward spell scroll he’d purchased, but he knew that the madness of stage seven had only just begun. It would find a use soon enough.

“What were the evolutions the Defender was using?” Adam asked.

[Player Petra Hallas was using the Shield of Jupiter and Axe of Perun. Shield of Jupiter is evolved from Titan. Axe of Perun is evolved from Infuriated Axeman.]

< < Evolutions > >

< Titan — Every blocked attack empowers your next shield bash, up to a total of 4x damage after 1,000 points of damage have been blocked >

< Shield of Jupiter — Shield can now be thrown with its damage counting as a shield bash >

< Infuriated Axeman — Charge a throwing projectile for 5 seconds to triple its damage >

< Axe of Perun — An empowered throwing projectile deals all its damage as an explosion of fire and lightning >

Perun? That name sounds familiar for some reason.

I think it was one of the Gods that James mentioned in my fourth loop.

Still, this is an insane build combo. Using the blink ring to skip the Infuriated Axeman charge up, and stacking blocked damage on top to boost a thrown shield, results in a twelve-times boost of damage, split between fire and lightning.

The Defender had also worn two first strike earrings, a duellist’s glove, and the pugilist’s belt.

If she used all of those properly, then potentially her attack would’ve done thirty-six times more damage. That might explain how I instantly lost two cores, but clearly the build wasn’t as effective as it could’ve been, or her aim was off, because with that much damage, she should’ve been able to one-shot me.

If I hadn’t been using the slime emperor’s crown, I definitely would’ve been one-shot.

I can’t believe I’ve never heard of this build before though, it seems genuinely insane with its potential.

“Infuriated Axeman is an evolution of Woodsman’s Aggressor, right?”

[Correct.]

“Does a shield bash count as fist-based damage?” Adam asked, after rereading the description of his own belt.

[Yes. Given that the fist and arm are heavily involved in performing a shield bash, it is considered fist-based.]

“That’s nonsense.”

[It is likely a concession to avoid over-complicating Relics with dozens of body-part and weapon-specific forms of damage.]

“Then why not just call it ‘arm-based damage’,” Adam asked?

[I was not the one who designed it, so I cannot answer that question.]

“For the pugilist’s belt’s proximity, is the hand counted or the shield?” Adam asked.

[The hand wearing the shield.]

“Even if it is thrown?”

[It appears that Bash Damage is presumed to originate directly from the hand, so, in this case, the damage buff from Pugilist’s Belt is counting the shield’s proximity on impact.]

“Which will always be as close to a target as physically possible… God, that’s so fucking stupid.”

If I can get my hand on three weapon slots, I could pair the Woodsman and Defender with either Priest’s Zealot evolution or Brawler’s Pit Fighter evolution for extra proximity-based damage, which can clearly be abused with the throwing shield.

Since I’ve saved the Bulwark and Defender weapons, I guess I have a pretty good idea about what I’ll evolve them into in my next loop.

I had thought to go the route of Nimble Prince, since Outrider increases movement speed when closing the gap, but a shield-throwing build is clearly super busted.

While Adam worked through the build idea in his head, and the many additional ways to boost it, such as swapping out Brawler or Priest with Lancer or Backstabber for throwing-specific boosts, he suddenly spotted a red shape in the distance.

Despite the many clouds between them, Adam’s true sight allowed him to pierce through to see the Blood Mage flying above. Based on the veil that seemed to cover her, it was clear she was still supposed to be invisible from her crawler’s eye weapon skill.

There’s no way she knew to activate it just now, so maybe she has some way of extending the duration of the effect or making it permanent somehow.

Either way, that’s going to be an issue, since it makes her immune to physical attacks.

He kept trailing her for a minute to see if it would wear off, but it didn’t, lending credibility to the theory that the effect was made permanent somehow.

The Flayed Lady must’ve given her a way to cheat the duration…

But she definitely didn’t count on me having a way to easily see through the invisibility.

And I also happen to have the perfect way to pierce through her immunity.

Both thanks to Chaos…

Wouldn’t be a mad God if his help didn’t make sense until suddenly being the only reason I’m able to counter the Flayed Lady’s cheating adherents.

Adam transformed into shadow, losing the power of his moth wings. He activated his nightwing cloak at the same time that he teleported into Samantha Breen’s shadow within the cloud she was passing through.

The moment he arrived, he summoned three crawler arms in front of her, commanding them to grab and hold her until she was dead. The arms did as commanded, violently arresting her forwards momentum and triggering the blood barrier from her choker. Although they couldn’t damage her, thanks to the blessing making her invisible and immune, they could hold her without issue. At the same time, Adam used his grafted wings to fly up behind her and swing all four of his arms into her body, killing her before she even had the chance to see him coming.

I’m glad the true damage pierced right through her physical damage immunity.

I guess the alternative would just have been to use my elemental damage on her.

Since Adam didn’t want any funny business later, he removed the player’s head and crushed it between his hands after turning into metal.

Then he looted her body.

< < Loot ­— Samantha Breen > >

< Blood Mage Choker (Epic) >

< Relic Renewal Stone (Epic) >

< Blood Fist Ring (Rare) x2 >

< Overflow Diadem (Uncommon) >

< Stone Talisman (Uncommon) >

< Sacrificial Armour of Blessing (Common) >

Adam put all of the relics except the last one, which was unknown to him, into his spidersilk bag.

< < Relic > >

< Sacrificial Armour of Blessing (Common) — All effects and afflictions on the wearer are permanent | Upon equipping this Relic, you become permanently unable to heal by conventional means | Upon equipping this Relic, all damage you receive is permanently tripled | This Relic may only be worn by a Blood Mage >

“What the hell is this thing??” Adam asked Parvillo.

[It appears to be an Absolute Relic with a Legendary-rarity effect, which has been given extremely disadvantageous weaknesses that apply permanently to the wearer in order to bypass the restrictions on what Relics an Absolute is allowed to gift.]

“Basically, cheating?”

[In a way. It is a permissible trick that Absolutes may use to carefully balance the Relics they gift their adherents.]

“I mean, no sane person would use this. The Flayed Lady literally designed it just to allow Samantha to escape undetected. If not for my true sight, I wouldn’t have found her.”

[Indeed.]

Adam switched his hero’s blade pendant for the hammer pendant.

< < Relic > >

< Hammer Pendant (Epic) — Activate to summon a molten hammer of lava that breaks any Relic of Epic rarity or lower on impact, turning it into scrap. 24-hour cooldown >

Activating it, Adam summoned a molten hammer into his hand and used it to destroy the relic, which turned it into five pieces of common scrap that he quickly grabbed before they could fall into the clouds below.

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Simple Scrap (Common) — Relic scrap of Common rarity. The skilled hands of a Relic Smith may reform this into something useful >

As her final relic vanished, Samantha was turned to ash by Adam’s brooch, and he snatched the soul seed that appeared, while her remains scattered into the wind.

“Good riddance,” he muttered and started lifting himself up through the clouds.

As he reached the floating point above the bottom layer of clouds, he saw the Windtop Cove settlement not too far in the distance.

But it didn’t look quite right, because it was moving.

Holy shit, they turned the settlements back into actual airships. This has to be because of the Void Fallen pattern.

Adam wasn’t given time to investigate what was going on, because an announcement that he’d been expecting hit him just then.

< < Stage Alert > >

< Player Emelia Bell has entered your dimension >

-----------------------------

-Previous Chapter-
--Encyclopaedia---
-Character Builder-
---Next Chapter----