Chương 176: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Seventy-Six

The following morning, as daylight hit Kat's naked body, Adam suddenly awoke to the change in her melody as her transformation was undone. The crimson glass hand was the only thing he couldn't take off and its blood sense was impossible to completely ignore. For once, he had been able to find sleep, even though he'd been lying next to an inhuman beast. It was strange to feel that he could trust someone enough to let his guard down.

He would never have expected it, but the reminder that he was human, that he was alive, it had relieved a lot of the tension he'd felt. The Trials always pushed him to the brink of his humanity, but that single night with Kat had reeled him back in. It wasn't as though they were in love, in fact it was just spur of the moment attraction.

Although it was clear she felt gratitude towards him for his help, and he felt some sympathy towards her for what Aeran had done, neither of them had possessed any ulterior motives. It was refreshingly-simple. Her eyes fell on his and a smile curled her lip. Adam pulled her close to him with his tail and they continued where they had left off the night before. Sometime past noon, they left the Rose Terrace and headed for the Market district.

They browsed the various vendor stalls until finding the two relics that Kat was seeking. Adam didn't find anything that he particularly wanted, so they bought them for her. < < Relics Purchased > > < Mongoose Chargers (Epic) > < Shapeshifter's Claw (Epic) > < 600 Shillings Remaining > They also found a couple of weapon vendors that sold something new.

< < Weapon Types For Sale > > < Nobleborn (Uncommon) > < Executioner (Rare) > < Nightfarer (Epic) > Nightfarer used a truly strange weapon that Adam had never heard of before, called a ' lantern shield'. But it wasn't just a shield with a lantern inside. A gauntlet with knuckle claws was attached to the spiked shield, and below the gauntlet was the blade of a sword, also attached to the shield. I have absolutely no idea how to fight with such a weapon, but it does seem pretty interesting.

I wonder if the lantern has any special effect, such as shining with daylight or something. Once they were done shopping, they did a bit more fishing from a pier in the Market district, but after two hours, Adam had only caught two more sardines, and Kat had caught nothing.

"I think I used up all of my luck yesterday," she remarked with an annoyed expression after reeling in her line. She had gotten quite competitive about the fishing wager, and even though she didn't know Beck and Lasse, she clearly wanted to beat them. I guess I'll have to admit defeat. Hopefully Lasse can clinch the victory so we won't all suffer under the tyranny of Becky or whatever Kat is cooking up. She seemed like she had some absolutely brutal nicknames in mind.

Adam consulted his compass again for any secrets, but there was nothing. When he asked it about quests they had yet to encounter, it just spun nonstop, which he thought was odd, since he remembered Beck mentioning something about an easy quest to find a lost cat. As for chests, they were pointed to two in the Garrison district that they had missed, one in the Moonport Guard's headquarters, and another inside the prison compound.

The one in the prison was easy enough to get to, since most of the guards were gone, and it offered an upgrade, which went to Kat. The other chest was located inside the office where Adam had killed the Guard Captain, and that whole building was under lockdown. Fortunately, he was able to sneak in and grab it by activating his nightfarer's cloak to turn into shadow, which basically made him invisible, so long as he wasn't standing in a direct light source.

The chest offered four rare options he'd already seen, but one of them was the Duellist's Hat that Kat had wanted but they'd been unable to find in the market yesterday. From Garrison they returned to the Blue Pavilion, where they found an upgrade chest that Adam had missed. He ended up getting a rare sigil effect upgrade. They stood inside the large office that'd belonged to the mistress, looking out over the Pleasure district. The compass no longer showed any chests and just spun aimlessly.

I think we're finally fully done with this stage, Adam surmised.

"Do you think we can get into a nice bathhouse for the shillings we have left?" Kat wondered.

"I can still smell the sewer sometimes, even after I made sure to wash my boots in the lagoon."

"Maybe it's the smell of the lagoon?" Adam pointed out.

"I suppose all of the sewer tunnels do lead straight out into it…" Kat deadpanned. Adam laughed.

"We probably shouldn't eat the fish we caught." After looking around near the Blue Pavilion, they found a small but luxurious bathhouse where they had all of the baths to themselves, since all the people normally using them had left the city. Given just how many fewer melodies Adam could sense, it seemed to be a theme across the entirety of Moonport, at least in the districts where people could afford to seek out greener pastures.

The Cloth district was the most densely populated now, followed by Market and then Artisan. Once they were done soaking and cleaning off, the sun was at its zenith in the sky above. They didn't want to risk losing Adam's quest, so they headed for Oiled Ollie's Eatery. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Adam greeted Jasper when they entered, and though the proprietor was clearly still scared of him, he returned the greeting.

Adam showed him the Old Seal ring he'd gotten from Lady Cassandra, and Jasper remarked that it used to be a sacred ritual in the old kingdom, before the Forlorn King rose to power, casting his foul shadow across its lands. Adam also asked about the 'tell right from wrong' part of its description, and the proprietor said that it was believed that those who underwent the ritual and wore such a ring would be guided well through life.

He was fairly sure there was more to the ring than simple faith, but he had never heard about it before, neither from Beck nor Emelia. Hopefully the compass can show me where it's supposed to go. It's clearly tied to stage nine. He almost brought out the Twisted Symbol to get his take on it as well, but he instinctively knew it was cursed by the forlorn's evil power, and he didn't want to upset Jasper more than he already was.

Kat led the way down to the Patriarch's lair and Adam opened the crimson walls to the Godstone fragment where they'd left their things from earlier.

"Since I got three relics today, you should take the skin-robe, chain sleeve, and yellow trophy," Kat said.

"They are only rare, but I hope that is a fair trade."

"If I get to keep both of the Matriarch's fangs and the Mimic Tongue, I'll agree to that deal," Adam replied with a cunning smile.

"Sure. We are splitting the rest 50/50, right?" she asked.

"Yeah." Kat looked down at all of the fangs, eyes, fish, and relics. She had swapped out her well-worn boots for the chargers, and she had both the chimaera helmet and duellist's hat, plus the keepsake necklace and potent blood wine.

"How can I carry all of this?" They looked around for a bag, eventually finding a skin sack in the first room that was filled with bones. Neither of them batted an eye at that and just emptied it to make room. Once all was said and done, they had both come away with a lot of trophies. Adam had gotten 64 lesser fangs, 27 mature, the two superior ones belonging to the Matriarch, and 65 ghoul's eyes. This is an insane amount of points…

On top of those, he also got the mimic tongue, the skin-robe, chain sleeve, yellow trophy, stone hand, and of course, the seven fish he'd caught.

"This barely fits," Kat muttered as she heel-stomped her rare lagoon sturgeon down into the sack.

"If you ruin the fish, it won't count for the wager," Adam told her.

"You made up that rule just now."

"Possibly," he replied with a grin. While she finished packing, Adam turned to his cube and queried it about the status of his patron quest. It was thankfully still marked as complete. Kat lifted up her sack, clearly proud of how well she'd fit everything inside. The tail fin of the sturgeon poked out the top, along with one of her old boots.

"Perfect," Adam remarked with a chuckle.

"Thank you for everything, Adam," Kat said, her expression and melody turning serious.

"We'll meet again in the tavern," he replied. She nodded, and then, without any further ado, she reached out to touch the Godstone fragment, vanishing a moment later. Adam sighed in relief. He was about to touch the stone too, when he remembered something Beck had said about the bridge leading out of Moonport. I should check it out before I go, he decided, even though he knew he was tempting fate to strike him down.

Since his backpack was bursting at the seams, he left it in the chamber with the Godstone, keeping just the crimson glass key and compass on him. He made sure to close all of the walls before leaving, and then flew out through the abandoned sewer tunnel, veering north towards the bridge that extended out from the Garrison district city gate and reached across the lagoon to the mainland.

When Adam landed on the bridge near where he believed the boundary was placed, he immediately saw what Beck had been talking about. It was a guy wearing a black cloth poncho and a flat wide-brimmed hat. Most of his features were obscured and he was standing completely still. Adam walked as close as he could until the boundary stopped him. The guy was about twenty metres further down the bridge, partially obscured by a mist, like what made the distant mainland impossible to glean any details from. He's not moving.

It's like he's frozen in time.

"Do you know who that is?" he asked his cube. It didn't even deign him with its usual " I cannot say" line, which made Adam immediately suspicious. He tried to shove his magic through the boundary to reach the figure, but the spell material simply crumbled when it passed through. Calling out to him likewise did nothing. Adam summoned his fishing rod to try and fish from the bridge, but before he went over to the edge, he thought to try it out on the time-frozen figure.

Unsurprisingly, the hook slapped against the boundary and just fell straight down. For a second I thought it might work. He also pulled out the Old Seal, which he'd kept in his pocket after showing it to Jasper, but it too did nothing. I'm out of ideas. I think he must be tied to one of the Absolute's quests, maybe the one for the Eternal Serpent. Adam spent the next half hour fishing, but it felt kind of lonely, and even when he caught another uncommon sea bream it wasn't as fun.

I can't believe Beck actually got me to take up fishing… It's a nice way to pass the time, but I think I prefer when there are others to do it with. For a moment he considered using his visiting stone on Interim Island to see Kat again, but he reminded himself that it had just been a spur of the moment thing, and to cling on afterwards went against what they had agreed to. Adam returned to the Patriarch's lair through the sewer tunnel and picked up his backpack, stuffing the newly-caught fish in as best he could.

He made sure to not leave anything behind and then he finally placed his hand on the Godstone fragment. See you later, Moonport.

< < Stage Complete > > < Tallying Score > < < Score > > < 4 days 13 Hours 43 Minutes Completion Time > < 3 Players survived 750 Points > < 2 Player slain 1000 Points > < 8 Second Generation Bloodfiends slain 2800 Points > < 30 Third Generation Bloodfiends slain 7500 Points > < 77 Lesser Bloodfiends slain 11550 Points > < — — — > < Main Objective Completion 2500 Points > < Defeated the Matriarch 2500 Points > < Defeated the Patriarch 2000 Points > < Defeated the Lagoon Shark 750 Points > < Defeated the Necromancer 667 Points > < Helped Father Mathias 500 Points > < Solved the Murder Mystery 500 Points > < Defeated the Golden Nail 500 Points > < Found Garden Isle Treasure 375 Points > < Participated in Wine District Ball 375 Points > < — — — > < 2000 Point Most Valuable Player Bonus added > < 1500 Point Secret Boss Bonus added > < 1500 Point Flawless Bonus added > < 1200 Point All Objectives Bonus added > < 1000 Point Eradication Bonus added > < 800 Point All Secrets Bonus added > < 700 Point Quester Bonus added > < 600 Point Plunderer Bonus added > < 400 Point All Havens Bonus added > < — — — > < 0 Damage Received > < 43967 Points Awarded >