Chương 236: Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Thirty-Six

Despite Kat advising Adam to get more stamina, he had decided to try and fuse Warrior with Gram, in order to obtain his fourth fusion evolution. He had no guarantee it would work, but it seemed a better investment of his points. My needs for stamina are not that great right now, considering the special effect from Solbor's Elphin Agility evolution. From his few tests, it was clear that the intention behind how he moved was the only thing that mattered to the Elphin Agility's effect.

If he charged the dummy with the intent to attack, it would consume stamina, but if he ran towards it without his weapon drawn and no thoughts of violence, the movements didn't consume any stamina at all. He'd also finally gotten around to testing the ' Golden Fortress Crossbow Bracer'.

All of his projectile boosts worked with it, which gave him the ability to produce a barrage of explosive bolts to cover a large area, which he hoped would help against big groups of enemies, though it wasn't possible to test in the player house, since he couldn't copy the dummy. When he powered up the bolt with the Endless Hunt boost from the barrage scattershot attack, the bolt created an explosion large enough to fill half of the interior of the player house.

Adam and Kat only avoided the scalding flames by being at the exact opposite end of the house when Adam fired the powered-up projectile. There's no way I'm swapping to a different build now, he decided, quite happy with how the projectile build had shaped up at this point. After buying the Warrior Class from Nelly, which took three rerolls to appear, Adam went over to Lucca's stall and sold his hobgoblin pendant and mantle of atrophy.

He decided to keep the aspirant's cowl, since it was useful for detecting mana, even if he couldn't use its main function of absorbing it without harming himself. < < Relics Sold > > < Mantle of Atrophy (Legendary) > < Hobgoblin Pendant (Epic) > < 9342 Points Remaining > Adam hadn't known for sure if Lucca would even buy the legendary, since it was ostensibly tied to an Absolute, but she happily paid him 2, 500 points for it, which was more than he'd expected it to be worth.

That alone makes getting a legendary worth it. A shame none of us could grab the legendary armour without using it. I guess if Seo-Yoon unequips her legendary mask, she can always just sell it. Since he now had more than enough to fully evolve the Warrior's sword, he went over to Thea and bought the eighteen upgrades he needed.

< < Select an Evolution > > < Frontliner — Attacking while running increases weapon impact by 50% > < Soldier — Defensive moves are twice as effective > I picked Frontliner during my tenth loop, so I'll pick Soldier this time. Hopefully the evolutions don't matter as to whether or not it can fuse with Gram, if such a fusion is even possible at all. In his next set of options, he was surprised to find that Soldier wasn't actually a strictly defensive path for Warrior.

Though I suppose that makes sense, given that the Colossus evolution of Frontliner is actually defence-oriented.

< < Select an Evolution > > < Centurion — Ripostes and counter-attacks following a successful defensive move deal 50% more damage > < Man-at-Arms — Damage and Attack Speed are increased by 30% while fighting alongside at least two allies > Centurion seemed the one most likely to have good synergy with Gram, so that's what Adam picked, but Man-at-Arms possibly had evolutions that could be similar to the Light's Chosen Class that Ellen had used in Adam's stage seven group.

< < Select an Evolution > > < Blade Savant — Unique Skill (Full Counter) Perfectly neutralise an attack with your blade and respond with a counter-attack that reflects its Damage and Afflictions two-fold > < Tower of Frenzy — Unique Skill (Frenzy) Take double Damage in exchange for doubling Attack Speed for 30 seconds | Obtain a second sword for dual-wielding > Tower of Frenzy gains a second two-handed sword? Adam noted in surprise.

From the two holograms, the Tower of Frenzy showed two large-bladed single-edged swords of dark metal with red leather handles. Blade Savant featured an enlarged gladius, which seemed like it was stretching historical accuracy a fair bit, though the Centurion's sword was quite similar, despite centurions historically using a large shield and one-handed gladius. The blade was bronze-gold and it had a thick circular cross-guard above its long brown leather handle.

Although Adam didn't plan on using the Warrior at all, the Blade Savant sounded the most powerful, and he was curious if it would fuse with Gram to make something truly overpowered. < < Evolution Selected > > Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. < Centurion => Blade Savant > After he was done, Adam had just 1, 242 points left, so he went to the centre of the island with Kat following after him.

"You should spend the last points on upgrading your stats," she told him.

"That's what I'm doing," he replied.

"Then why are you leaving the market?" she asked.

"You'll see." As they reached the glass tower, white scales fell down from the sky above and Kat was frozen in time along with their cubes. Adam paused at the sight while Luvicidix landed behind him.

"Why is she frozen?" Adam asked the moth.

"Player Kateřina Černá has not obtained the Self-Devouring Eye and thus is not eligible to view my upgrades," Luvicidix answered.

"I haven't gotten the Eye either," he pointed out. She smiled at him.

"You are your own little enigma," she replied, "but the All-Seeing System asked me to appear before you, so you are allowed to see me." Adam sighed.

"Well, whatever, I've got a few points I'd like to invest, can you show me your upgrades?"

"Certainly!" she replied and gestured with her black-banded arms. < < Meta Upgrades For Sale > > < Mana — Increase Mana by 50 — 5000 Points > < Stamina — Increase Stamina by 10 — 1000 Points > < Defence — Increase Defence by 50% — 5000 Points > < Saved Weapon — Start every loop with a saved Weapon of Legendary rarity — 10000 Points > < Scale of Remembrance — 2630/25000 Points >"I'll buy the first tier of ' Stamina' and then I'll put my remaining 242 points into ' Scale of Remembrance'."

"Excellent picks!" she responded. < < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > > < Stamina — Increase Stamina by 10 > < < Meta Upgrade Progress > > < Scale of Remembrance — 2872/25000 Points >"I freed your sister Meilo, by the way," Adam said before Luvicidix could fly off now that he had no points left.

"I know! Thank you!"

"How many of you moths are left?" he asked.

"I cannot say," she replied.

"Would you tell me if I found all of you?"

"I would!"

"So, there are still more of you to find then?" he asked. She smiled at him instead of replying with the usual phrase.

"Do I unlock something if I find you all?" Adam pressed.

"I cannot say."

"Can you tell me if I give you a vanity?" he asked. Her smile widened into a grin.

"Right, you can't say…"

"Isn't it frustrating?" she teased.

"Definitely, but I guess at some point I've gotten used to it. Although, Meilo was definitely a lot more forthcoming, as was Yenna."

"I am scrutinised deeper than them, so I must be careful with what I reveal," she explained.

"Now then, since you have no more points, I am afraid I must leave you. Good luck in the Tower of Mirrors!"

"Thanks," he replied lamely as she took to the air and disappeared into the clouds above. Kat blinked as the time-freeze lifted. She looked around in confusion.

"What just happened?" she asked.

"The same as when we visit Alivida and Meilo," Adam explained.

"Was I not allowed to witness what you saw?" she asked. He nodded.

"I did what you wanted though. I've got more stamina now."

"So, it is a hidden merchant?" she asked.

"In a way."

"How many points of stamina did you get?"

"Ten," he replied.

"Although, thanks to my glass tree effect, it is actually more like thirteen points."

"That is basically the same as a single epic upgrade," she remarked.

"Well, this boost last forever," he replied.

"It is a vendor that sells upgrades for time-loopers," she realised.

"Bingo," he replied. When they returned to Adam's player house, the Blade Savant's sword started to glow with a golden light and so did the mythical sword Gram in its weapon rack. It worked! Adam skipped through the cube's announcement to look at the new fusion.

< < Fusion > > < Mythical Hero + Blade Savant > < Mythical Blade Savant — Unique Skill (Wyrm Blade) | Embody the Wyrm for 100 seconds, empowering all defensive moves to reflect a portion of damage back at the attacker and imbuing all your attacks with Life Leech. While the effect is active, you are unable to heal by conventional means and lose 1% Health per second >"Does this use the stats from Mythical Hero?" Adam asked. [Yes.]"And what does Life Leech do?"

[Life Leech pulls the life from those harmed by you, healing you in proportion to how much damage was dealt. If a strike kills your target, you are only healed for the remainder of the life they have left.]"So, it's not possible to kill something for thousands of points of damage and being healed for all of that in return?" Adam asked for clarification. [Not unless the target has as much Health available to Leech.]"It seems quite strong nevertheless," Kat remarked.

"It would pair well with Crusader."

"Crusader?" Adam asked, recalling the Priest evolution.

"Doesn't that just unlock a shield?"

"That is part of it, but it also radiates healing you receive out to heal those around you."

"I didn't know that," Adam replied.

"One of the people in my last group had the Light's Chosen Class, which is an evolution of Crusader," Kat explained.

"He is part of why we only lost one person, but his healing aura was damaging to me, as well as his protective bubble skill." Adam nodded.

"I was grouped with someone with that Class in the Floating Sea, but they never used the healing part of Crusader like that." He looked at the cube and the golden sword hologram floating in front of it. It looked like Gram after the stone was fully chipped away, but the pommel had a dragon's head and the tip of the sword curved slightly as though it was meant to resemble a claw.

"If I use the skill while on Interim Island, will it drain my health until I die?" he asked his cube. [No, you will be prevented from dying the moment you reach 1% Health. The same will happen with any affliction you inflict on yourself. You are not invulnerable on Interim Island, but you are protected from such afflictions.]"That is a relief," Kat remarked with a laugh.

"They still allow you to jump off the edge or harm yourself directly," Adam said, which took some of the mirth out of her expression. After accepting the fusion, Adam now just needed one more to unlock the third weapon slot. Unfortunately, he had spent the last of his points. Still, it was worth it. And I've got sixteen mastery shards to spend. He wasn't sure how much the next weapon slot might cost, so he wanted to hold off until after stage ten.

"Do you think you will beat the Tower of Glass?" Kat asked Adam seriously.

"I'm feeling better about my odds," he replied.

"I still need to talk to Sarah Ayala, just to make sure we're on the same side. I also don't know who the vampire girl will be replaced by."

"Apologies, I should have considered that before I challenged her," Kat replied.

"She had to die, no matter what," Adam said.

"Hopefully her replacement isn't another Flayed Lady or Nwetrou worshipper." Kat nodded.

"I will attempt to talk to the people in my next group as well." Since they didn't want to intrude on each other's conversation, Adam and Kat sat by different tables as they queried the tavern. It was a bit strange, since Adam could see the people that appeared from her queries, but the System had apparently accounted for situations like these, since their individual search results were contained to their sides of the basement restaurant.

While Kat investigated the people she would encounter in her stage ten, Adam finally sought out Sarah Ayala. When she appeared opposite him, none of her weapons or relics were visible, and she looked kind of defeated. Her caramel skin was sallow, the whites of her big brown eyes were red, and her black hair hung down around her face in a dishevelled manner. As he watched her to try and figure out what was wrong, he noticed how she was holding something in her right hand. Then she looked up and met his eyes.

Without a word, an announcement hit him. < < Challenge Stone Activated > > < Player Sarah Ayala has forced you into fighting her >