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Smooth sailing from here, surely.

Anyway, just 10 more chapters until we hit 300. That's quite a milestone. The total length of the story is also close to 900k words. Insane to think there's still so much left to write.

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Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Ninety

From the many relic-destroying hammers Adam had thrown with his hammer pendant during the fight, seven pieces of uncommon scrap were left behind. He realised he must’ve struck a lot of the stone bracers Emelia’s clones had worn.

< < Collectible Relic > >

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

Although the bodies of the dead had been reduced into something more akin to chunky soup than corpses, Adam’s ash and fire brooch still cremated the mess after he had looted them completely, leaving him with ten soul seeds and eleven unused stone bracers.

Instead of packing the bracers into one of his two spidersilk bags, Adam placed the uncommon relics in a pile and used Prankster to retrigger his hammer pendant. He swung the molten hammer through the relics and turned them into uncommon scrap as well.

This is a pretty convenient relic to be honest.

Since the scrap was generally much smaller than the relics themselves, it let him cut down a lot on space, and the vendor price ought to be the same regardless, although he hadn’t tested that theory yet, so it was still possible that Lucca would refuse to buy the scrap.

After cleaning up the damaged helm, Adam went down the steps to the four bodies he’d discarded, looting them and turning them to ash as well.

< < Loot ­> >

< Alepheria’s Mandate (Legendary) >

< Aristocrat’s Porcelain Mask (Legendary) >

< Deathguard’s Cold Gaze (Legendary) >

< Mage Aspirant’s Cowl (Epic) >

< True Flame’s Icon (Epic) >

< Pugilist’s Belt (Epic) >

< Reckless Warlord’s Cape (Epic) >

< Relic Renewal Stone (Epic) >

< Boomerang Pendant (Rare) >

< Cruel Summoner’s Gauntlets (Rare) >

< Curse-Giver Necklace (Rare) >

< Duellist’s Glove (Rare) >

< Fetish of Sloth (Rare) >

< First Strike Earring (Rare) >

< Flesh Smith’s Skin-Robe (Rare) >

< Forlorn Cuirass (Rare) x2 >

< Lead Coating (Rare) >

< Mana Shield Ring (Rare) >

< Slavedriver’s Kilt (Rare) >

< Slothling Spring Boots (Rare) >

< Skittish Skaters (Rare) x3 >

< Spirited Defence Nose Ring (Rare) >

< The Summoner’s Thorny Eye (Rare) >

< Vigilant Fighter’s Vambrace (Rare) >

< Blink Ring (Uncommon) >

< Paralysis Venom (Uncommon) [exhausted] >

< Parry Bracer (Uncommon) >

What a haul.

Adam inspected the fused necklace relic that the Summoner had worn, and it did exactly what he thought it would do.

< < Fusion Relic > >

< The Summoner’s Thorny Eye (Rare) — Increase Summon count by 1 | Summons die in one hit | All summons are thorny, reflecting 20% of damage inflicted to them >

It’s basically only useful with the true flame’s icon crown.

Adam pocketed the renewal stone with the one he’d gotten from Samantha Breen and the one he’d purchased several stages ago. He also equipped the parry bracer and vigilant vambrace, even though he didn’t plan on doing a lot of parrying, but he had the slots available. Additionally, he kept the paralysis venom with the renewal stones, since he could imagine it coming in handy, and equipped the duellist’s glove to his right grafted arm.

“Can I equip a second pugilist’s belt? Or another Alepheria’s mandate?”

[No. It is not possible to wear more than one belt, and Alepheria’s Mandate is limited to one per Player. Given that you are using a Fusion Relic made from Alepheria’s Mandate, this counts as using the Relic.]

“What about the potion belt? I can wear that with my own pugilist’s belt.”

[The Potion Belt is a Utility Relic and you may only have one of these equipped at a time. Despite its name, it does not overlap with Belt Relics.]

These rules still make no sense to me, but at least I’m mostly benefitting from the nonsense.

Adam looked down at his two spidersilk bags. They were almost full already.

I think I will find the golden horn before I do anything else, he decided and pulled out the navigator’s telescope and golden map.

After slotting the map onto the lens of the telescope, Adam was able to spy through it to see a golden trail that led on a snaking journey through the clouds.

With the overflowing bags shoved into his slime body precariously, Adam lifted off from the deck of the Creaking Madam and sped off after the trail.

***

Even though Adam was moving incredibly fast, it still took him about an hour and a half to reach the spot where the golden trail suddenly shifted ninety degrees up into the air, pointing up at the tiny island hiding the horn.

Along the way, Adam had once again spotted Windtop Cove. It was moving through the sea using some unknown means of propulsion while the enormous balloon the settlement surrounded kept it aloft. The island it had been tethered to in his previous visits was gone, and it had metal walls surrounding it all the way around, with ballistae mounted in a 360-degree spread as well, giving it flexibility and overwhelming firepower in pretty much all directions, with some of the artillery pointing up and down as well. Along with their massive flagship, many small vessels orbited Windtop, and these too had balloons to keep them afloat, alongside large fins and back-mounted propellers, making them seem pretty nimble.

Adam hadn’t seen any signs of the Void Fallen yet, but according to Chaos’ map, he was also heading towards the edge of the stage by the time he found the golden horn island.

He had a brief flashback to his previous loop, where Juliette had asked him about the afterlife while looking at her reflection in the pond at the centre of the small island.

Letting out a deep breath, he dispelled the memory and picked up the secret relic.

< < Secret Relic Obtained > >

< The Golden Horn (Legendary) — Summon a mount unique to your current location | If the mount is destroyed or slain, this Relic breaks >

“Can I store my things on the ship, even if I desummon it?” Adam asked Parvillo.

[Yes. However, you must retrieve your belongings before the end of the Stage, otherwise they will be lost. Likewise, if the ship is destroyed, you will lose your belongings stored on it.]

Worth the risk I think, since carrying all these relics is slowing me down.

Adam sounded the horn and a heavenly choir filled the air, before the gold-tinged clouds swirled and took on the shape of a large airship.

“The Hippogriff is back,” he declared.

After stowing away the loot and keeping just the things he would need, Adam desummoned the airship. Although he had a good sense for where everything was, thanks to the map that Chaos had shown him, he didn’t know where to find Petunia or Alepheria’s secret lab, so his plan was to first locate the Golden Slug to obtain the compass relic.

I guess I could also just find a chest and use a heavenly wishing stone to obtain it, but it would be a bit of a waste since I’ve already collected the slugwhale key.

According to Chaos’ map, the Whale Eaters’ base is in the northern corner of the world, so I should be able to just travel directly north from here.

Since he wasn’t sure where else to go to find the enormous airship, Adam flew north, hoping to run into it on the way to the faction’s headquarters.

***

Adam still needed the plunderer and extermination achievements from the stage, so he decided to eradicate any enemy he found on the islands to his destination, as well as looting any rewards they might offer him.

However, the first two islands he scoured were completely void of activity, besides a few animals here and there, and had no special treasures hidden anywhere.

Fortunately, the third island he came across turned out to be Fallow’s Glory. It was an island with a lot of man-eaters, as well as a relic chest found in the wreckage of a crashed airship, and another two chests in the cave system below ground. The island’s most notable feature was a volcano, and he remembered how during his last loop, they’d had to find a slug dragon named Volcano’s Heart, which he’d theorised would reside on this island.

I also remember Emelia talking about a quest involving the man-eaters and the volcano.

For now, Adam just focused on taking out all of the man-eaters on the island. He landed atop one while transformed into metal, crushing its body into the earth, before briefly transforming into shadow to activate his nightwing cloak and then returning to metal to swing about with reckless abandon. Each hit of his fists created powerful shockwaves that turned every body into organic projectiles shredding through the seemingly endless horde of enemies.

Adam made full use of his grafted arms and tail to fight enemies coming at him from the sides and from behind, and by the time his cloak’s effect had run out, he’d slain over fifty of the man-eaters, but still they kept coming until none stood standing and Adam was surrounded by a mound of corpses.

[Was that necessary? I hope you do know that these creatures can be reasoned with.]

“I’m trying to get the eradication bonus,” he explained.

[I see.]

Adam waded through the corpses before lifting into the air on his wings and flying towards the shipwreck with the treasure chest. The airship was like he remembered it. It had held up quite well despite colliding directly with the island nose-first. Inside he found the treasure chest with gilded embellishments and aged brown wood.

The latch opened with a slap from his tail and revealed four holograms to him.

< < Relics Available > >

< Captain Fallow’s Treasure (Legendary) — Inflicts Gold-cursed on hit, causing hallucinations and lowered reaction speed | Allows a weapon to fight on your behalf >

< Chaos Stone (Legendary) — One of your equipped Relics of Epic rarity or lower is randomly changed into something one rarity level higher. 1 use >

< Heavenly Wishing Stone (Divine) — Wish for any Relic of Legendary rarity or lower. 1 use >

< Heavenly Conjuring Stone (Divine) — Combine 2 Relics of Legendary rarity or lower to produce a new unique Flawless Fusion Relic. 1 use >

Hmm, there aren’t any new divine relics it seems. And since I’ve already got interloper’s mantle and spark of creation, they won’t appear again.

Adam activated his choice ring and grabbed the legendary weapon relic and the two divine stones, the spider ring allowing him to pick the third relic.

< < Relics Selected > >

< Captain Fallow’s Treasure (Legendary) >

< Heavenly Wishing Stone (Divine) >

< Heavenly Conjuring Stone (Divine) >

As the three relics landed in his hands, the shape-shifting glob of gold that was Fallow’s treasure lifted into the air and turned into a cutlass.

“Is that it?” Adam asked.

[Yes. The Relic has taken on the appearance of Captain Fallow’s sword since you do not possess any weapons.]

“Is it powerful?”

[Possibly.]

Adam waved to the floating golden sword.

The cutlass waved back.

I guess I’ll get more use out of it by putting it on a ship-mounted ballista or cannon.

There weren’t any man-eaters left to test the new relic on, since Adam’s brutal slaughter had made them all come running at once, but in the tunnels below there was a hostile slugwhale. He doubted the sword would be able to do much against a slugwhale, but he was willing to give it a try.

Before finally performing the fusion with his two belts, Adam used the wishing stone to obtain a fourth crawler arm, which he applied to his right grafted arm. It had proven itself to be quite a powerful relic, so having four would be a good boost in power, especially when paired with Tinkerer’s skill allowing him to create several in quick succession.

I’m lucky the players who killed me didn’t target my relics. They could have permanently destroyed my grafted limbs and crawler arms.

He looked down at his mad witch hand.

I should’ve practised with this thing more, but Lev doesn’t use magic, so I’m not sure how exactly I could’ve done it. If I had known how to use it properly, and hadn’t been laser-focused on the Defender, I could’ve potentially saved myself from the Archmage’s attack.

Adam scratched his chin.

I’ll do a proper reassessment of where I went wrong after I’m done with the stage. I feel like I should’ve been able to win without dying if I’d used my relics properly. I didn’t expect the Defender to be that strong though. It kind of threw me off. I assumed they’d be weak because the Flayed Lady wasn’t in control.

It’s just like Yenna said, “The Flayed Lady often allows herself to appear defeated, when in truth she is merely setting up the next trap and allowing her prey to believe it is safe.”

Every defeat is not a true defeat. The Flayed Lady might seek to appear defeated in order to win in the long run.

Lost the battle, but won the war. That kind of thing.

Adam took off his pugilist’s belt and potion belt.

The only thing I can do is continue to stay ahead in terms of power.

Then he activated the conjuring stone and brought the two relics together.

With a snap, the belts fused into one.

Adam breathed a sigh of relief as he saw what they became.

Finally, I will be able to move at my true speed.

< < Fusion Relic > >

< Belt of the Alchemist Brawler (Legendary) — Carries up to five potions and makes them indestructible | Increases Damage with fist-based attacks up to 100% based on your proximity to the target | Fists become indestructible while the wearer is under the effects of a potion >

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