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Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Ninety-Two

Somehow, Offal, captain of the Whale Eaters, saw Adam coming as he fell from the sky, though it was hard to believe.

With an explosive kick of his spring-loaded stilts, the large armoured man flew backwards, sailing over the heads of his men.

Adam landed on a pirate, crushing him into the ship’s deck and skidding forward on his corpse with his insane momentum, grinding the body into the wooden planks.

With an activation of his celerity armour, he flew forward in a dash, ramming his fist through a pirate and spinning to slap another two with his tail, before surging forward with his wings again, chasing the fat captain covered in overlapping plate armour, a metal shark-fin-mohawk helmet, and spring-loaded braces and boots.

A bolt from a massive ballistae flew through Adam, triggering his dodge. He used his night bracelet to teleport to it, smashing his fist through the machine and obliterating it along with its crew in a punch so powerful it tossed him into the air and flung four nearby pirates over the side of the ship.

[Do not forget your Patron Quest,] Parvillo reminded Adam, while Offal was making his way down the steps into the hull of the Golden Slug. Unlike Adam’s previous two fights with the captain, this was the first time he’d immediately fled.

“Oh right,” Adam replied, calling the conspiracy whistle to his hand. “Good thing I didn’t kill him yet.”

He flew through six pirates coming up out of the hold, while the floating sword of Fallow’s treasure hacked into them unhelpfully, their remains scattered across the ship.

As he went below deck, Adam turned into shadow, since it would eliminate most of the shockwaves and explosiveness from his punches, which, in a confined space like an airship’s hold, would be likely to bury him alive.

Fortunately, Offal hadn’t run far, and when Adam saw him, he immediately put the whistle to his mouth and blew a tone.

The whistle screeched like a banshee dropped into a vat of acid. With his true sight, he saw how the whistle writhed and spasmed like a black slug with a lamprey mouth, and he quickly removed it from his face.

Up ahead, the Whale Eater captain bucked and writhed like the whistle, his body seeming to stretch and melt at the same time. A nearby pirate tried to help his captain, only for a fleshy-pink arm with four claws to grab him and pull him into the captain’s ballooning stomach with a surprised scream, which was quickly cut off by horrendous crunching and chewing sounds.

“What the fuck is that?”

[That is a Skin-Stealer.]

“It looks nothing like a human mimic…”

[That is because it is not a mimic.]

The captain turned around to face Adam. His plate armour and spring-loaded equipment were now embedded into his playdoughy pink body, and he’d grown tall and wide enough that his mass pressed against the ceiling and walls, making the planks creak. In the middle of his torso was a vertical mouth with large buck teeth and an arm instead of a tongue.

Adam created a cloud with his boots and then leapt off from it, immediately activating a dash as he swung his four fists forward. His shadowy body zipped through the captain, continuing on through three chambers behind him and several of the pirates within. Everyone he passed through died, even though his true damage attack left no marks on their bodies.

He returned to where the skin-stealer had collapsed, but pirates suddenly spilled in from nearby chambers and the deck above.

With his four arms and tail, Adam fought back against the pirates attempting to pin him down from three sides, not letting a single one bring their weapons to bear against him. Every punch, kick, and tail slap passed through the enemies, killing them in an instant. Fallow’s sword spent most of that time hacking into the pirates after they were already dead.

Once Adam was done, the dead pirates clogged the doorways and stairwells.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Defeated the Golden Slug airship >

[That is certainly one way to do it,] Parvillo said.

Adam ignored the remark and transformed himself into metal, before using his arms to push aside the dead so he could reach the malformed body of Offal.

“How exactly am I meant to get his face?” Adam asked. “I don’t even see a face.”

Before he could attempt to skin the pink monstrosity, the captain’s chest appeared on the floor next to his body.

Adam kicked it open.

< < Relic Available > >

< Offal’s Spring-Loaded Stilts (Epic) — Stomp the stilts or kick them into a target to release the mechanism, quadrupling the power of the move. 30-second cooldown | Can survive falling from any height >

After grabbing the stilts, a flap of pink skin popped out of the chest as well.

< < Quest Object > >

< Skin-Stealer Face — The face of the Skin-Stealer that ate Offal, Captain of the Whale Eaters >

The skin had no discernible features, but Adam didn’t question it and simply threw it in his bag along with the stilts.

“Will those quadruple my speed if I use them like the slothling spring boots?”

[No. However, they will quadruple the power of whatever move is used to trigger them.]

“Power as in damage or impact?”

[Impact.]

So, it’s like the power ring then, Adam thought, recalling the relic from stage nine.

< < Relic > >

< Power Ring (Epic) — Activate to empower your next attack, quadrupling the impact damage and creating an aftershock that deals 50% of the damage 5 seconds after. 15-minute cooldown >

“It would still propel me though, right?”

[Correct.]

“But without the literal doubling of my stats, they would be weaker than my current boots?”

[I cannot say.]

Guess that’ll be something to test later.

Adam thought back to the map in Chaos’ messy apartment.

“Do you think I have to kill all pirate factions’ leaders?” he asked Parvillo.

[Possibly. This is not a standard Patron Quest, and thus I do not have access to the answer.]

I guess it would be a way to obtain the eradication achievement at least. Plus, I don’t know what most of the captain’s drop as their unique relics. There might be something useful for me.

Besides Offal’s stilts, Adam only knew of the Cloud Skimmer captain’s relic.

< < Relic > >

< Davies’ Grappling Hook (Epic) — Shoot the hook up to 15 metres and reel it back in to pull yourself towards the hooked target unless it weighs less than you. 30-second cooldown >

A lot of the relics from this stage and others are centred around mobility, but with Luvicidix’s wings, most of them are basically useless to me, Adam realised.

After all, even the grafted wings were nowhere near as fast as the moth wings, and besides the limitation that they only worked during the day, there weren’t any real drawbacks to the relic.

I guess it’s good to know that I can always get such a useful mobility relic every loop.

Meilo’s is another one I ought to get every new loop, since it’ll allow me to survive death.

Although…

“Did the heart of glass only work because I had placed it inside my body?” Adam asked Parvillo.

[No.]

“So, it’s triggered by being near a dead player?”

[I cannot say.]

“Can I use it to revive someone else?”

[I cannot say.]

That probably means yes.

But even if it only works on me, it’s a relic I shouldn’t ignore.

Still, I want to see what all the other denizens give me in return for a vanity, so I probably won’t be using Alivida’s relic again, even though it’s useful.

Unless I can wish for it.

“Can I use the heavenly wishing stone to obtain the relics from the moths?”

[No.]

“Is it because they’re tied to the vanities?”

[Correct.]

Adam figured he’d better get a move on, so he crawled over the corpses in the hull of the Golden Slug and flew up the stairwell, before alighting on the helm in front of the complicated wheel that controlled the enormous vessel.

After pulling on several levers using his four hands and his tail, Adam brought the airship to a complete stop.

Maybe I should do Iffen’s special quest this time. I’d need to bring the airship to him for that.

If the White Flags are fighting the Void Fallen, then maybe they’d want the Golden Slug though.

Although… with Chaos’ skin-stealer quest, I might have to kill all of the pirate captains, including Captain Drew.

Adam decided to figure out his plan after he’d found Petunia. He knew he would be going into Alepheria’s lab to get the paintbrush and the quest objects for Sylvia and Goddard, but as for the rest of the stage, that was still up in the air, especially since the Void Fallen pattern had completely shaken things up.

According to Chaos, the Void Fallen will have the Godstone fragment, so that probably means they’ll be quite the threat, if they’re able to leverage its power.

Since Adam had yet to actually encounter the hardmode faction, he didn’t know how to plan around them yet, but he had a feeling that, since both Windtop Cove and the Golden Slug had been heading southwest, it was possible he’d encounter them in that corner of the stage.

While he mulled over all these things, he went into the captain’s quarters of the enormous airship and located the pillar with the keyhole buried amongst the hoarded treasure. Just like in his last loop, there was less treasure overall than when he’d been with Emelia in his fourth loop, due to the differences in the stage patterns.

After spinning the key in the pillar’s lock, the trap door in the floor opened up and Adam went down the steps to the giant door that hid away Fallow’s compass. Once this was opened as well, he used a crawler arm that was the same size as his own to pick up the wooden box and bring it to his awaiting hand.

< < Secret Relic Obtained > >

< Captain Fallow’s Compass (Epic) — The object of thy desire is always within reach >

Before he took off in search of Petunia the cloud slime, Adam returned to the helm of the airship and steered it towards the nearest island, using the Golden Slug’s many anchors to secure it to the floating landmass.

I should probably get Mast-Chewer’s egg from the front of the ship before I leave, he thought, flying to the giant maw at the front of the enormous vessel. He entered its hidden control chamber through an access tunnel behind the slug-dragon-killing ballista at the bow of the ship.

Once inside, he located the pedestal where they’d found the egg for Emelia’s Eternal Serpent quest in his fourth loop.

I was worried it wouldn’t actually be here, since the Whale Eaters aren’t targeting Mast-Chewer this time around.

< < Quest Object > >

< Slug Dragon Egg — The egg of a Slug Dragon >

Adam put it into a bag and then briefly returned to the wheel at the helm of the Golden Slug, covering it in spiderweb traps, just in case.

Once he was sure the giant airship wouldn’t go anywhere, he pulled out the compass and told it to point him to Petunia.

The compass needle spun until it pointed southeast.

I’ll be able to hit up the Golden Fortress on the way and see if their captain, Hast, is also a skin-stealer.

His course set, Adam leapt from the airship and landed on a cloud drifting by, before launching himself forward and activating his dash to double his speed twice. Air whistled past him as he flew like a bullet and it was difficult to control, but, in the vast openness of the Floating Sea, he had plenty of room.

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