Chương 223: Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Twenty-Three

Adam stared up at the giant glass tower for a long moment, until a fluttering white shape descended out of the clouds and down towards him. Luvicidix landed between Adam and the Tower of Mirrors, giving him a friendly smile as he met her eyes.

"Hi Adam! You finally look like yourself again," she remarked. Adam hadn't yet seen his reflection since breaking free of the Flayed Lady, but he hoped that the white moth was right.

"I managed to change patrons," he told her.

"She may be angry with you," Luvicidix replied.

"Undoubtedly."

"Are you okay?" she asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

"I'm pretty sure I will die in the next stage," he told her.

"Why's that?"

"My old patron's parting gift made using magical weapons dangerous for me," he explained.

"So?" she replied.

"When first I met you, you were using a spear. You could just do that again. There are a lot of weapons to choose from. Why, your house is brimming with options!" Adam sighed.

"I doubt it will be that easy."

"Cheer up! I have a new upgrade for you, maybe that will work!" she told him excitedly. Adam nodded with a small smile.

"Sure, let's have a look." He knew Luvicidix was right, but Adam was severely nerfed by the fact that the Red King sigils took up one of his two weapon slots. Hopefully I can still fuse weapons together, even if I can't hold both at the same time. I should've gotten the tainted dagger that the assassin dropped. It would've been useful. At least I have a lot of points to experiment with. Luvicidix swept out her black-banded white arms, revealing her meta upgrades.

< < Meta Upgrades For Sale > > < Mana — Increase Mana by 50 — 5000 Points > < Stamina — Increase Stamina by 10 — 1000 Points > < Defence — Increase Defence by 10% — 1000 Points > < Saved Weapon — Start every loop with a saved Weapon of Legendary rarity — 10000 Points > < Scale of Remembrance — 2630/25000 Points > Defence? That would be a useful one to max out. He assumed it would follow the pattern of the other stat upgrades Luvicidix sold, meaning the upgrade would have four tiers.

All combined they would cost him 18, 500 points. It was a bit too much for him to want to get them all right now, but he decided to buy the first two tiers for 3, 500 points. < < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > > < Defence — Increase Defence by 25% >"Come back when you wish to buy something else!" Luvicidix told Adam after he was done. He watched her fly off, and then went over to the MVP chest that was still waiting next to the glass tower. It had been pushed forward after the altar had transformed into stage ten.

< < Upgrades Available > > < Sigil Efficiency (Legendary) — Reduces sigil activation cost by 50% > < Invocation Power (Epic) — Increases invocation effectiveness by 70% > < Stamina (Epic) — Increases stamina by 10 > < Affliction (Epic) — Increases the effects of afflictions inflicted by 25% > What a waste to receive a legendary upgrade for a weapon I can't even use. I guess I don't need more affliction either, so stamina makes the most sense, since I'm locked into a physical weapon, plus it's my weakest stat.

< < Upgrade Selected > > < Stamina (Epic) > Due to the glass sapling, which was now adding a 25% boost to all of Adam's stats, his stamina was now at 75, up from 60 during stage nine. He pulled up his stat overview to see what it all looked like now.

< < Player Status > > < Twilight > < Red King > < Level 195 > < Stats > < Health — 366 (+35) [+73] > < Stamina — 75 (+10) [+15] > < Mana — 175 (+55) [+35] > < Damage — 250% (+75%) [+50%] > < Affliction — 231% (+85%) [+46%] > < Defence — 231% (+160%) [+46%] > < Antivenom — 81% (+65%) [16%] > < Speed — 88% (+20%) [+18%] > < Luck — 31 (+15) [+6] > [Modifiers] < Glass Sapling +25% > Good thing the debuff to my antivenom from the mantle of atrophy resets after I'm done with a stage.

My stats, aside from stamina and speed, are not actually that bad. I should probably try to go for a versatile build for stage ten, so I guess I'll pick Lancer, since it can be both ranged and melee, but I'll go through the options before I decide. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Although Adam wanted to check on his friends, he chose to head to the market first, since he was carrying a lot of stuff on him.

He had already forgotten about his ban on magic, and when he tried to just inject a tiny bit of mana into his own body, he collapsed to his knees, heaving for air as pain flooded his mind. Once he ejected the mana, the feeling quickly subsided. No more flying for me… I didn't realise how much I've been relying on the manipulation of my own body to get around this loop. Yeah… This is going to be hard to get used to.

After recovering, he started walking, but he was quickly interrupted by an announcement from the cube. [You have now completed the Trials of Defiance's first nine Stages. As a reward for this accomplishment, you are given a second day to spend on Interim Island in preparation for what is to come.] Well, that's a pleasant surprise. Emelia didn't mention anything about it though, nor Beck for that matter.

I'm sure the System knows that many of the survivors will be eliminated in the Tower of Mirrors, so the extra day feels a lot like a consolation prize. After the few minutes it took to walk to the market, Adam found Yenna sitting on the edge of the fountain, lost in thought and her instrument folded away.

"Hello Yenna."

"Morning, Adam. If it is not too much to ask, I would like to take a break from playing music today." Adam paused.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"I cannot put it into words, but I feel… strange." Adam wished he could use his mandate of blood to gauge her melody, but it didn't respond to him anymore. Instead of trying to read her mind, Adam sat down next to the wasp, briefly looking into the fountain water and the coins at the bottom. They were golden coins, and as he looked closely, he realised they were identical to the wishing coin. Yenna sighed, pulling him away from the revelation he'd been teetering on the edge of.

"Why don't you spend some time with me instead?" he suggested. She gave him a sidelong and sceptical glance.

"You know that's not what I meant," he said.

"But maybe the change of pace will help you feel better."

"Very well, I will humour you." Adam stood up and offered her a hand, which she took. When he pulled her to her feet, he found that she weighed very little, as though she was just a hollow shell with nothing on the inside. I wonder if her weight would change if I gave her a vanity mirror? Adam took exactly two steps past the fountain, and then the brown bottle-shaped egg lifted itself out of his backpack.

< < Secret Relic Activated > > The egg flew down to Builder's stall and planted itself next to it, appearing as a shiny black and brown structure, with a freaky-looking bug creature inside. It had a small face with a long needle-shaped proboscis, large bulbous compound eyes, a black body, brown hairy limbs, and antennae that alternated between black and brown. [You have unlocked the Assassin. This vendor allows you to break down Relics into scrap that can be used to craft Relics of your choosing.]"I do not think the tavern keeper will be happy when she sees the newcomer's stall," Yenna remarked. It took Adam a second to understand what she meant, but then he realised that she'd been referring to the fact that the assassin bug's stall was made out of ant carcasses. Builder leaned out of her own stall to look at her new neighbour in professional disgust. Before Adam went over to check out how the Assassin worked, he first approached Lucca's stall and dumped all of his trophies and cores on her table.

"I'd like to sell all of these," he told her.

"You keep bringing interesting people here," Lucca remarked, eyeing the assassin bug in something that seemed to be a mix of dread and excitement. Like an apex predator starting at a rival, unsure who would come out on top if they were to fight. Maybe she feels threatened because of how the Assassin's shop works. It would, as Adam understood it from Beck, involve literally shredding relics to make new ones. Lucca pulled her eyes away from Assassin and took in everything Adam had dumped in front of her.

"You have been busy."

"I want the same price as before for the relics and cores," Adam said.

"Certainly," she purred at him.

"Say, when is it my time to receive one of the gifts you have been handing out." Adam paused.

"You mean the vanity?"

"What else?"

"I want one first," Yenna insisted. Lucca scoffed.

"You already have your freedom." Yenna stared at her with murderous intent, until Adam held up a hand to placate them both.

"My plan is to eventually have enough for all of the denizens on the island."

"I don't wish to wait overlong," Lucca remarked. Then she waved a hand and all of the items vanished. < < Relics Sold > > < Goblin Ear (Common) x12 > < Red Scarf (Common) x16 > < Glass Core (Uncommon) > < Heart of Darkness (Uncommon) x8 > < Hobgoblin Tongue (Uncommon) > < Ambergris (Rare) > < Core of Darkness (Rare) > < Mimic Tongue (Epic) > < 47942 Points Remaining > Adam ran through the math in his head, and it added up. He had sold his quarter of the trophies and cores for 6, 100 points.

If he hadn't had a special agreement with Lucca, he would only have made 4, 600 points, so it was about a 30% increase, which was nice. It was worth carrying all of the trophies with us. I wasn't so sure to be honest, especially not after we split them. They'd lost out on two cores of darkness since they hadn't harvested the twins before the Forlorn Shadow showed up, which was a shame, since those were worth 350 points if Adam sold them to Lucca.

Because he got more points for selling the collectibles, the others had let him have a lot of them as part of his share of their overall loot, especially after he'd explained what the Assassin vendor did. Although, given that I now have to reinvent my build, I should clearly have held on to more of the relics. Since I have the mantle of atrophy, maybe I should go for a proper affliction build. I really wish I'd grabbed the tainted dagger, it would've likely fused with the Backstabber Class.

Plus, Beck made invisibility sound like so much fun. He didn't want to destroy his relics at the Assassin's stall until he knew what kind of build he was going for, so he first went over to Nelly to see what Classes she had for sale.

"Hi Nelly."

"Hi Adam! You look human again! That's nice! You looked very sick before!" Yenna nodded. Clearly, they weren't fans of bloodfiends.

"I'd like to see your weapons," he said. < < Classes For Sale > > < Lancer (Common) > < Tournament Champion (Rare) > < Duellist (Uncommon) > < Summoner (Rare) > < Brawler (Uncommon) > Not exactly what I was looking for, but I'll get Summoner so I can hopefully fuse it with the bone wand.

"I'll buy Summoner." < < Class Purchased > > < Summoner (Rare) > < 45942 Points Remaining > As soon as the cube asked if he wanted to swap out his Fire Mage Class, Adam told it to send the Summoner back to his player house. [Understood.] Adam considered the difference between the first time he'd bought the Summoner Class and now. It was like night and day. Back then, it had felt like an incredibly expensive purchase, but now it wasn't even a tenth of the points he'd earnt from the last stage.

Just like when he bought relics, the Class options didn't refresh, and Adam needed to buy a reroll for 100 points to get a fresh selection of weapons. < < Classes For Sale > > < Archer (Common) > < Tournament Champion (Rare) > < Priest (Rare) > < Defender (Common) > < Berserker (Uncommon) > I can fuse Defender with the Tainted Bulwark, so that may be worth doing.

Or I could send both of them back with my weapon saving upgrade, that way it would be possible to quickly upgrade both and fuse them when I have the required amount of points. Priest might be worth doing, since holy magic won't instantly charbroil my skin anymore, and the power of the rosary relic is obviously quite versatile, but I just don't know how to make good use of it.

"I'll buy Defender."

"Understood!" Nelly responded. < < Class Purchased > > < Defender (Common) > < 45342 Points Remaining > If I see Warder, I might get that too, since it ought to fuse with the Librarian's spell-tome.

"I'll reroll again," he said. < < Classes For Sale > > < Priest (Rare) > < Prodigal Duellist (Uncommon) > < Highwayman (Common) > < Backstabber (Common) > < Beast (Epic) > I don't think Beast is worth getting, and Backstabber is likely the weapon that'll suit me best right now. Finding a completely new build seems pretty difficult, and I already have afflictionist's corset and mantle of atrophy to boost afflictions, so it makes sense to make full use of both.

Adam knew that the Class had evolutions specifically geared towards boosting afflictions, since he'd used it in his eleventh loop.

"I'll buy Backstabber," he told Nelly.

"Understood! You sure are buying a lot of weapons today, Adam!"

"What can I say? I'm a collector."

"Well, I haven't had this much profit in a long time!" Nelly replied excitedly.

"I would have bought the rapier," Yenna remarked. Adam paused, wondering if it was a hint, since the wasp had at times dropped hints about what was to come.

"It is an elegant weapon, like the bow of a violin," she said. Oh…

"I'm happy with my choice," Adam stated. < < Class Purchased > > < Backstabber (Common) > < 44842 Points Remaining > He sent the flame glove back to his house and hefted the two new daggers. They were quite similar in weight to the spidersilk needle, though the balance of the weapons was different, since they weren't designed for throwing, but rather stabbing. With a single touch of the weapons, Adam was filled with the complete knowledge of how to effectively wield them, either alone or as one.

It's been a long time since I used a common weapon, he mused. He spun the right dagger around in his hand with a simple flick of his wrist. Time to go see what kind of interesting evolutions they might be hiding.