Chương 186: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Eighty-Six

The sound of wheels rolling over stone echoed through the air and Adam opened his eyes to see that he was travelling across a bridge, with intermittent bumps in his journey jolting him awake. Mist hugged the edges of his vision and obscured the surroundings, but eventually the sound changed from stone to gravel. He blinked and felt a change in temperature, with shade cooling him down and the silhouettes of trees rolling by on either side of him.

The light of the sun above played across the canopies, and there was a sense that he was travelling at dawn, since the sky was tinted pink and orange where Adam could see it through the leaves. Another blink brought him out of the morning fog to just beyond a small stone bridge. Adam climbed down from the back of the carriage, his movements not his own, and five other players dismounted as well, before they all watched the carriage travel back across the bridge and disappear up and over a grass-covered hill.

They were surrounded by hills that rolled like towering waves in an ocean, the green grass flowing back and forth with the wind. The sky above was dotted with small clouds and the sun shone down on them from above. It looked almost idyllic. The cutscene was quick to let go of them, and everyone backed away from each other, except a familiar-looking Korean woman and a tall bulky Asian man. The light of Adam's lighthouse buff flashed across them briefly. His blood sense picked up all of their emotions.

It was a chaotic mess of tension, fear, worry, simmering hostility, anticipation, and excitement. The Asian man was mostly just filled with calm and determination.

"Oh, hello again," said the Korean woman as she spotted Adam. It was Seo-Yoon, the woman who had showed him how to use the Cloudmaker.

"Funny meeting you here," Adam replied, feeling some of his own nervous anticipation die down. Everyone else seemed to calm down as well, and Adam only just now noticed that one of them had taken to the air on a pair of grafted wings. The man landed and met Adam's gaze. He was European based on his features, and was extremely thin, with wispy brown hair on his head, pale-tan skin, and sunken eyes and cheeks.

He wielded the Arrow Rain evolution of Archer, the same as what Lasse had had, and his secondary weapon was a bundle of nine javelins that had tips like lightning bolts. His relics besides the two wings were: boomerang pendant; ranger's lucky charm; captain's cape; the magical quiver, which was fully stocked with arrows; treasure hunter's well-worn boots; cloud skimmer jacket; and the blink ring. His setup seems quite strong.

I wonder if he has the relic renewal stone, given that the magical quiver is from stage six. I find it hard to believe he didn't use any of the special arrows until now.

"We should all introduce ourselves! My name is Seo-Yoon," she said. She still wore the crimson shirt and aspirant's cowl that he'd seen on her earlier. There was a golden pendant around her neck that he hadn't noticed when he spoke to her in the tavern, and he wondered if it was a relic from her patron since it was unfamiliar to him. On her feet were the travel boots of the magus, which turned walking into mana regeneration, and she also had a pair of blue silk gloves.

Besides the Cloudmaker staff she also had the Spellcaster staff, but Adam was unfamiliar with its design.

"Adam," he said, looking at the others.

"I'm Heiner," said the winged archer. His voice was smooth and kind.

"You may call me Hein if you want." As he spoke, Adam recalled what the Flayed Lady had told him, because Heiner's eyes gave off an orange-red glow. He was worshipping the Masked Courtesan. I can't let him touch anyone, especially the women. Would it be better to take him out early? No, he doesn't seem like he is evil, at least not yet, so I'll keep an eye on him first.

"My name is Diwa," said a woman with yellow-tinted brown skin. She was by far the shortest in the group, but the armour she wore made her seem quite dangerous. It took Adam a moment to realise what it was, but then he noticed how it shifted slightly. The helmet was made of flesh and bone plates, and there were small blue eyes buried within various cavities in the material. It kind of looked like a close helm, if it had been thought up by the wicked flesh smiths of stage six.

He could barely see her face, but her black hair hung down through a small opening in the back, and based on her name and accent, he guessed she was South East Asian. She's wearing the sentient amalgam helmet, and it looks like it's fused with the raiment of bone which is a full-body armour. Both the raiment and amalgam are able to defend reactively, but there's no way that amalgam armour isn't dangerous to wear. Adam recalled its information.

< Relic > < Sentient Amalgam Helmet (Uncommon) — Reactively defends against direct physical attacks and repairs itself if organic material is available | Cannot be unequipped while the armour is alive | Fuses itself with other Armour Relics already worn > If she takes too much damage, I bet it will use her own flesh and bones to repair itself.

Besides the fused-together armour, which had the appearance of shifting flesh and bone plates, she also wore the reckless warlord's cape that allowed her to taunt, and on her hands were a duellist's glove and a green slime glove. Diwa's classes were Shield Wall and Gorgon Slayer, meaning she had two different shields, one which brought projectiles towards her, and another that could reflect them back to their source. That probably makes her our tank, Adam thought. Especially since she has the taunting cape too.

"Natalia," said the next person. She wore the chimera helmet and was almost as tall as Adam. Her face was set into a hard expression, and her brown eyes, caramel skin, and slight accent made Adam guess she was South American. She was quite beautiful, but she seemed as dangerous as a blade, especially considering the hostility that simmered beneath her surface. She wielded a one-handed sword and a large katana. I can't tell if she's on edge because she anticipates trouble or because she wants to start it…

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. I think the katana is an evolution of Warrior, but I'm not sure what the one-handed sword is. Either way, she seems dangerous. Besides the helmet, she wore the forlorn cuirass, Whale Eater's snap gauntlet, shapeshifter's claw, White Flags chain-sleeve, scale trousers, mongoose chargers, captain's cape, and the potion belt around her waist, which had two medium healing and one stamina potions slotted inside.

They all looked to the last person, who was the tall and bulky Asian man. He was at least a head taller than Adam, which would put him over two metres, and he had a lot of meat on his bones, reminding Adam of an offensive lineman. He was busy watching the wind flowing across the grass-covered green hills. Adam didn't need to be wearing his aspirant's cowl to tell that holy mana was emanating from him.

"It's your turn," Natalia told him. The big guy blinked and looked around.

"Uh. My parents named me Chien-hung Li." Unlike everyone else, Chien only had one weapon, and it was a large war hammer with a ridiculous barrel-like head at the end of its red-brown leather-wrapped handle. It looked like a true fantasy weapon, since there was no way it would be practical in the real world, given how heavy it had to be.

The imagery of the First Light's angel was engraved on either side of it, and the two striking surfaces were round and flat, making it not that good at delivering piercing damage like what war hammers were supposed to be good at, but it was sure to be able to crush anything with its blunt impact. Holy energy radiated from its silvery metal and Adam had to back quite far away to avoid the feeling of open flames licking his skin, just from the pure intensity of being near it.

Chien had a mesmerising golden glow radiating from his irises, and his armour was quite similar to his weapon, since it was made of shining silver, and there was the engraving of the angel on its front. Its wings were spread out like those of an eagle, and in its arms it held the same orb as the relic that Father Mathias had asked them to find for his church.

I think his weapon may be the final evolution of Priest, since he has the rosary hanging from his belt, but that armour has to be from his patron, which means he's likely worshipping the First Light. The Flayed Lady said I had to take out the two who worship the Guardian and Courtesan, but she didn't mention this guy, only the lead priest in Old Town. I wonder if she's unable to spy on the First Light's adherents? Would make sense since worshippers like me are vulnerable to holy magic.

Chien also wore a strange silvery headband, as well as Father Mathias' keepsake, the chain-sleeve, scale trousers, heavy belt, a single duellist's glove on his right hand and nothing on his left, and then boots that looked similar to his belt, but which Adam had never seen before. Given all of his holy-damage-based attire, he could quite easily kill me, even by accident.

Adam could feel how his lack of broad knowledge was working against him here, because there were quite a lot of relics and weapons that he had never encountered before, and not knowing how to counter them or at the very least how they worked, would be to his detriment. I need to spend more time in the tavern just researching this stuff. [The timer has begun.] < < Stage Objective > > < Find the Godstone's last fragment in the Forlorn Kingdom > Adam was about to spin up a fake story to control where the group went, but then Heiner pre-empted him, "I bought the upgrade that is called ' Orb of Insight' from Alivida, and it has shown me the important parts of this stage. Therefore I believe I should take the lead."

"Works for me!" Seo-Yoon replied.

"I'm fine with whatever," said Diwa. Natalia's hard eyes landed on the winged Archer, then she glanced to Adam and Chien. From her melody, it was clear she thought they were stronger than Heiner. Ultimately, she said nothing and just waited for them to respond.

"I'm okay with that," Adam said, even though he wanted to influence the course their group took, since he highly doubted the orb of insight would have actually shown Heiner enough about the stage to prevent some of the worst things from happening. Worst case scenario, I will use my newfound power to tweak his emotions to allow me to take charge. If I can manipulate a worshipper of the Courtesan, then it should be easy to get the others to follow suit.

It may serve us best if Heiner uses his charm on Natalia, since she's currently the one who worries me most.

"The angel told me that we should help the church," Chien mumbled.

"They have the power to burn the Forlorn Shadow." Heiner walked up to the tall guy, putting his hand on his shoulder. Adam didn't dare get close enough to stop him. Shit!

"We will do all of the patron quests we can," he reassured him. Adam sensed how something in Heiner's melody activated, but Chien's stayed unerringly calm. The Archer clearly didn't notice that his charm failed, because he turned away from the big guy to address the others. Wait, is he immune to charm because of his patron? It's obvious that Heiner knows what his power does, but he can't tell when it activates I think.

I've gotta make sure he doesn't touch anyone else, even if I need to kill him to prevent it from happening. As the guy started to speak, Adam circled around Chien and equipped his hobgoblin pendant, before sending a glob of blood trailing down his leg and into the tall green grass.

"The road from here leads through an encampment of goblins who are barring the way," Heiner explained.

"After we make our way through them, we should not have to travel far to reach Old Town. I think many of us will have patron quests involving that settlement. I need to meet one of its leaders."

"I have to find a Capgras Demon," said Diwa.

"Morrligt wants me to obtain a true flame," Seo-Yoon said.

"It sounds exciting, doesn't it!?" Adam's glob of blood slithered through the grass and reached Heiner's leg.

"What about you?" Heiner asked Natalia. Natalia gave Adam a suspicious glare since he'd moved closer to her, then she shifted her gaze to Heiner.

"I don't trust you," she hissed. The Archer didn't miss a beat.

"That's understandable," he said.

"Hopefully we can work together to overcome this stage." Heiner looked to Adam, just as his glob of blood slipped through his skin and into his bloodstream.

"What about you, Adam?"

"You don't have to worry about me," he said.

"I'm not doing my patron quest." The others seemed surprised by that, except for Chien who wasn't paying attention since he was looking at the grass as it waved back and forth.

"You will be punished," Diwa warned.

"The alternative is worse," Adam replied.

"I chose a bad patron to worship. I mean, look at me." Seo-Yoon nodded, a smile on her lips.

"You are not as evil as you look, but you look very evil." Adam laughed.

"My friends call me Twilight because of this." Natalia cracked up at that, but then she quickly schooled her expression back into something stand-offish. Heiner looked to Seo-Yoon, and as his eyes left Adam, he swapped back to his choker.

"Do you know each other?" he asked her.

"We met in the tavern briefly," Adam explained. He turned back to look at Adam.

"I see," he remarked. In his melody, uncertainty fought with determination and desire. It was clear he wasn't sure what to do about Natalia and Adam just yet, but he clearly wanted to be able to rule their group with an iron fist. The fact that Adam was friendly with Seo-Yoon clearly also worked against him. I think worshippers of the Courtesan thrive on exploiting the fact that everyone in the groups are normally strangers.

It may be harder for them to charm those who have relationships with others in the group, even if it's just a simple friendship. He made to take a step towards Adam, clearly wanting to put a hand on him, but Adam reacted quickly, stopping the blood flow in Heiner's head for a split-second. Heiner paused, a discordant note flowing through his melody.

Adam knew it would give anyone pause, since it felt like sudden dread and a sense of impending doom, even though he was skilled enough with his control to avoid actually damaging anything.

"Don't touch me," Adam told him. Natalia glanced between them.

"What's wrong?" she growled, Adam's words bringing her hostility back to the front.

"He worships the Masked Courtesan," Adam said, not taking his eyes off of Heiner.

"He can charm any of us with a simple touch. I have seen it before." Heiner tried to laugh it off.

"Don't be ridiculous."

"You touched the big oaf," Natalia pointed out. Diwa looked uncomfortable, and even the cheerful Seo-Yoon stopped smiling.

"I'm not an oaf," Chien drawled from where he stood behind the Archer. Then he reached down and picked up Heiner as though he weighed nothing.

"Let go of me!" Heiner protested, trying to pull himself out of the big man's grip.

"The angel told me you were bad," Chien said and Heiner stopped struggling. Then Chien's eyes flicked to Adam.

"She warned me of you as well." Adam met the big guy's stare.

"You can't hurt us if you worship the First Light."

"I know," he replied.

"I don't want to hurt anyone. I will protect you all." He set the Archer down, and the guy immediately took to the sky with angry flaps of his grafted wings. Before any of the others could stop him, he flew off, travelling north towards Old Town. Natalia sighed.

"Just once I'd like a group without psychos in it." You and me both.