Chương 48: Low Master

He did not know if he made the right choice. Dealing with any of the three Scourge Paths was rarely worth the risk. Agony could lay ruin to his body, and Dominion his soul, but Rapture? Rapture attacked the mind. As far as Alcyr could see, the time loops would not restore his mental state in the event it was damaged, given that it allowed him to carry his memories between iterations while resetting his body. He had taken an enormous gamble there.

The Laughing Saint could have just as easily left a man broken as she could have blessed him with her Artes. Alcyr couldn't even say it was worth it, because the primary reason he even confronted Ural in the first place was because he thought the parasite might have been the one who had stolen his dagger — a weapon that would greatly aid him in slaying the frost wyrm. Yet again, the location of his mentor's parting gift eluded him. It's not a complete waste.

At least I got the pest to agree to find me the sword skill's aria and leave me alone after I finish my business with the 4th Regulars. But he wouldn't get the aria before the battle at the fortress. Ural claimed it would take him at least several days to search for the information. And that meant Alcyr had just risked everything and gained nothing that could help him in the current Well. And he did mean nothing, because the Arte the Laughing Saint gave him turned out to be worthless.

[Ability Description] Last Laugh: A deadly party trick gifted by the Laughing Saint — ironically more dangerous to the user than the enemy. When activated, the Arte causes the user's body to violently self-detonate. The damage dealt to nearby enemies scales with the level and how close the user is to death before activating the Arte. Reading the description left Alcyr baffled. What even is the point of this? This Arte is a joke. After a second, he realised that was probably the point.

On a whim, he tried testing it on that same loop. Whilst surrounded by enemies, he activated the Arte, then… Nothing. There was the briefest burst of light, followed by a sudden blackness. The next thing he knew, he was awake in bed with Lenore at Lafmere once more. There were three things he noticed, however. First, the skill had levelled up. [Last Laugh has improved to 2] It was curious that the notification came after the loop ended. He only saw it on the morning of the next loop.

The second thing he noticed was that his blood echo counts went up. That meant that although he died immediately upon using the Arte, the foes he killed with that last attack still transferred their blood echo to the next loop. By extension, that meant that any experience, kills, or feats reaped from using Last Laugh would still carry over to the next loop as well, not just the skill experience for the Arte. There's probably a way I can exploit this somehow…

The third — and arguably the most curious — thing he noticed about using the Arte was that there was completely no pain at all when he woke up in the next loop if he used it to kill himself. Even though he had incurred wounds up to that point before he activated Last Laugh, he awoke without a hint of phantom pain. It was utterly bizarre, though not unwelcome. Well, at least I can make my after-deaths more comfortable now.

Combat application-wise, the Arte was useless, since if Alcyr died, he couldn't exactly advance the loops. He could level up the Arte and possibly exploit it as a method to force a reset in harrowing situations or gain a bit more skill experience and blood echoes at the end of the loop, but otherwise, Last Laugh wasn't going to help him climb out of the Well. More loops passed. He had to repeat the confrontation with Ural each time so that the parasite would remember the pact in the event the loop advanced.

He refined his approach such that he did not have to wound or threaten the creature so thoroughly, though why he did that, he wasn't sure. In each loop, he always made the same deal regarding the aria, as well as the promise to remember the parasite's original name. Alcyr did not know how to feel about Ural, or the abomination hiding inside. On one hand, it has likely killed — and will continue to kill — a great many people, innocent or otherwise.

On the other hand, the creature had already helped him out of the loops twice: once with warlord Bjorn and once more with the assassin when he had been crippled. He remembered its true form as well: a beggar girl who could no longer even remember her name. Alcyr had no moral high ground to claim. He had engineered Ishmael's death and led a great many people to their doom during the Battle of the Red Rime, all to secure his own selfish pursuits.

There was an argument to be made that those people were dead anyway, and he was simply making better use of their deaths. But the nature of the time loops meant that, somewhere, there was a better path he could have taken — a 'perfect' path where everyone was saved. It might require thousands of loops, but the path did exist. Alcyr didn't take that path, not because he thought it was impossible, but simply because he did not deem the effort worthwhile. Were their lives his responsibility to save?

Maybe, since he was the only one capable of saving them. Did he feel guilty for not doing so, irrational as it was? Perhaps. He did feel a silver of remorse for Ishmael, but ultimately, he didn't think he could have saved her unless he was willing to take a more unorthodox and risky approach to the loops — one that might have wasted a great deal of time or exposed the nature of the time loop to others.

Likewise, he might have led many soldiers to their deaths at the Battle of the Red Rime, but he had also saved many more that would have died as well. The capacity to save others or serve only himself… For the decision to be his, it made him a person of consequence in the eyes of fate. Maybe that's why I drew in Rapture's parasite. My actions carry more weight than anyone else's, and so my skeins are heavier too.

Those who sold their souls to walk the Path of Rapture were always drawn to people of great destiny — catalysts of change; soon-to-be legendary heroes and villains. The skeins of these figures of fate were too heavy for the parasites to devour whole, and so, they instead took over the bodies of nearby onlookers and observed from afar as their chosen 'protagonist' created their legacy.

They ate upon the champions' inexhaustible skein, sometimes even choosing to help by spreading stories and further strengthening the threads of their importance, often disguised as bards or storytellers that herald from the Path of Revelation, just as 'Roland' had done. In that sense, to those few individuals of cosmic consequence, the relationship they had with the disciples of Rapture was less parasitic and more symbiotic.

The twisted abominations empower them through the spreading of stories and ballads, which boosts their fame and thus increases the potency of their Titles. It was tempting. Alcyr had a few loops to consider the option of keeping the parasite around to not only increase the potency of his current titles, but also help him gather more. There would be other benefits to having a 'bard' of Rapture as well. Their skills would be uniquely tailored for bolstering the fame of others.

He might never find a better promoter of his feats across the Hundred Worlds, nor a more proficient spymaster and gatherer of secrets. And all he would have to risk in exchange was his literal existence. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Deals with the devil, indeed… What the parasite had always so conveniently left unsaid in each loop was the 'debts' Alcyr would accumulate.

Most people who signed a deal with a 'bard' of Rapture usually found out about the true threat too late. His mentor had spoken on the subject a few times. She had seldom been so direct with her warnings.

"Lend your name to another's tongue too many times, and you may soon wake one day to find the name no longer yours. Do not deal with the creatures of Rapture cavalierly, Alcyr. The Pale Grinner learned her best tricks from the Fey before eating their moons and damning their entire race to eternal madness."

"I hate trickster deities," he sighed. One day, the girl named Dinah might steal enough of his skein to sell it to the Saint of Rapture in exchange for her freedom. But Alcyr would take care to make sure that day was long, long in the future.

On the two hundred and eighty-fourth loop — knee-deep in corpses and drenched in gore — Alcyr received a long-awaited, sanguine-hued notification. [Mystery: False Life Adorns You] Awakening condition: Cumulative Blood Echoes (10000/10000) Mystery Stage: Awakened → Aspiring Alcyr did not know how many people or creatures he had murdered to achieve that many echoes. The thought that his kill count was now easily in the thousands did not give him a sense of pride or guilt. In a way, none of it mattered.

The lives he reaped were meaningless since the loop reset each day. There was comfort in that thought, though Alcyr did not indulge too deeply in it. He could tell the Saint of Agony was pleased, however. On some days whilst in battle, he could smell the stench of old blood, mixing with the fresh carnage around him. The Red March added its steps to his, following him where he went, for blood was surely split no matter where the Butcher threaded.

Alcyr detested its company — though to be fair, he detested all three Scourges of the Hundred Worlds, as any sane man did. On the next loop, he consulted the oracle once more and studied the final stage of his Mystery. [Mystery: False Life Adorns You] Effect (Dormant): Gain the ability to amass Blood Echoes from bloodletting. When at least 20 Blood Echoes are gathered, the Sanguine Shroud manifests itself, regardless of the user's consent.

When activated, the shroud grants a major boost to Blood affinity, as well as a moderate boost to all elemental damage negation and a minor boost to all ailment resistance. The potency of all healing increases, with the effects doubled for any healing received from abilities associated with the Red March. The shroud deactivates when all Blood Echoes are spent. All effects scale with the current stage.

Effect (Awakened) — Blood Echoes can now be stored and will no longer automatically activate the Sanguine Shroud when 20 Blood Echoes are gathered. Sanguine Shroud is instead activated at the user's command, and stored Blood Echoes will expire at a much slower rate. When Sanguine Shroud is active, the user can consume Blood Echoes to instantly heal whoever is wearing the shroud.

Effect (Aspiring) — In addition to its previous effects, the wearer's strength, speed, and endurance are now enhanced when the shroud is active. Once per day, if the Blood Echo count reaches zero while the shroud is in use, the shroud will still remain active for an additional minute before it deactivates. The shroud can also now be temporarily transferred to another user.

Starting from the Low Grandmaster tier, the shroud will begin developing partial sentience and possess its own set of Artes that improves along with the user's tier. At a high enough tier, it can be separated from the user to act as an autonomous ally capable of obeying limited instructions. Awakening condition: Completed It was a rather lengthy description. Alcyr read it carefully. More physical attribute bonuses are good.

The fact that I can transfer the shroud to an ally means I can use it to boost their stats rather than mine if necessary, or even heal them in a pinch. The additional minute of uptime if the echoes depleted could be useful, but the part about developing sentience was… worrying? Alcyr wasn't sure how to feel about that. The overall theme of the stage was slightly similar to Blessed Blood's Aspiring stage, in that the ability's rewards seemed to scale well with higher tiers.

But where Blessed Blood directly gave him new and powerful skills with each tier, False Life seemed to be developing the shroud into a stronger version of itself instead. I'll only get a sense of how good it really is once I reach Grandmaster, but for now… For now, the immediate boons were disappointingly middling, especially given the extensive effort he made to get them: a mere boost to his already impressive physical prowess and a slight increase in the shroud's utility.

None of it was the game-changing effect he had hoped would help him win against the frost wyrm. The latter bonus wasn't even that useful as well, since he had few allies he would bother sharing the shroud with, and fewer still who would not immediately react poorly upon seeing the gore-soaked magic cloak. At least my blood echo stockpiles are good now.

[Blood Echoes: 8969] During the loops, he had made sure to spend his blood echoes as sparingly as possible, amassing them for his upcoming gamble with the frost wyrm. This should be enough for me to execute my plan, but if I fail, it's going to be an absolute pain to gather that many echoes again. With that in mind, Alcyr made sure he was as fully prepared as possible. Loop after loop, monsters fell to his blade, and experienced poured in.

But even this Well, with its wealth of challenges and foes, strained to sustain him as he kept levelling up. Relentless, he kept going. Only once he was certain he had exhausted every method he could think of did he finally cease. On the morning of the three hundred and fiftieth loop, nearly one full year since he started the Well, Alcyr checked his Status Screen.

[Status Screen] Alcyr Rivers — Age 18 Titles: Godless Low Master Sword Fanatic Butcher of the Red Rime Combat Skills: Unarmed Discipline 53 (Common) Dagger Discipline 48 (Common) Shield Discipline 51 (Common) Armour Discipline 56 (Common) Throwing Weapon Discipline 49 (Common) Sneak Attack 42 (Common) Combat Sense 55 (Uncommon) Missile Deflection 43 (Uncommon) Improvised Weapons 26 (Uncommon) Grappling 31 (Uncommon) Dodge Counter 39 (Uncommon) Plunging Attack 35 (Uncommon) Paired Blade Mastery 49 (Rare) Pyrotechnics 40 (Rare) Fated Hand 31 (Rare) Apotheosis of Battle 28 (Rare) Tempestuous Sword Dance 68 (Epic) Life Skills: Physical Conditioning 61 (Common) Pain Tolerance 58 (Common) Movement 60 (Common) Natural Resistance 52 (Common) Leadership 38 (Common) Field Triage 29 (Common) Persuasion 40 (Common) Barter 41 (Common) Sneaking 44 (Common) Riding 23 (Common) Crafting 41 (Common) Presence 47 (Uncommon) Tempered Flesh 49 (Uncommon) Bleed Resistance 38 (Uncommon) Restorative Slumber 19 (Uncommon) Fall Control 39 (Uncommon) Acrobatics 41 (Uncommon) Tempered Bone 40 (Uncommon) Mortal Defiance 54 (Rare) Slash Resistance 48 (Rare) Blunt Resistance 49 (Rare) Pierce Resistance 42 (Rare) Illusion Discernment 15 (Rare) Acid Resistance 28 (Rare) Wildheart 21 (Rare) Frost Resistance 50 (Rare) Apex Constitution 35 (Rare) Fire Resistance 39 (Rare) Artes: Cleave 59 (Common) Red March Swordplay 62 (Uncommon) Perfect Parry 45 (Uncommon) Power Strike 50 (Uncommon) Deathbound Dirge 47 (Rare) Grand Hunt's End 44 (Rare) Last Laugh 14 (Rare) Mysteries: Blessed Blood of Violence False Life Adorns You [End Screen] The list was ridiculously long now.

He felt a rather childish sort of pride in seeing it. He was no longer the powerless peasant he had once been. Now, Alcyr was a force of nature that the kingdom itself had to take seriously. This Well had given him enough. It was time to claw his way out. Ten more loops passed. Slowly, he refined the plan he had been attempting for nearly a hundred resets. On the three hundred and sixty-first loop, Alcyr endeavoured to finally kill the frost wyrm. With a copious amount of explosions and another insane plan.