Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Fifteen

After dropping off Chien and Natalia in Gothershall, where they would recover from their journey until Adam returned, he and Seo-Yoon flew to Old Town. They quickly located the wife and daughter of the man whose necklace they’d found in the shadow bird’s lair.

< < Quest Complete > >

< Left in Mourning >

< Returned the victim’s belongings to his grieving family >

The woman had already suspected that her husband was dead, and she was grateful for receiving the necklace, since it had been a family heirloom. As thanks, she gave them a familiar coin.

< < Relic > >

< Wishing Coin (Epic) — Throw into a body of water to obtain a Relic of Rare quality or lower >

Adam and Seo-Yoon shared a glance. He took it without her saying anything.

Next they checked out the market, where the weapon vendors had a new Class for sale.

< Librarian (Uncommon)>

< Prodigal Duellist (Uncommon)>

< Tournament Champion (Rare)>

It was a bronze shield and xiphos, like what the champion would’ve used, had he not been impaled by the forlorn intruder.

Amongst the relic vendors there was only one new option, and it was of an unusual type that Adam hadn’t seen or heard about before.

< < Relic > >

< Worshipper’s Commitment (Rare) — Increases Health, Stamina, and Mana by 25 for each successfully completed Patron Quest | Decreases Health, Stamina, and Mana by 50 for each failed Patron Quest >

The relic itself was a pair of earrings, which had gem that looked like miniature Godstones, but its effect was tied directly to their worship, which was definitely new.

“I want it,” Seo-Yoon said. She still wore the two earrings that she’d traded with Adam in exchange for him receiving the corset.

“We’ll buy it if you show me what your necklace does,” Adam replied.

She cast him a suspicious look. “Why?”

“Because I’m curious.”

“You can’t tell the others,” she replied. “If you do, I will reveal your secret to them.”

Adam paused. “What secret?” he asked.

“That Natalia is responsible for Diwa’s death. I saw the mask. I know she would’ve returned to normal.”

“You’re a lot more observant than I gave you credit for,” he replied. “Did you also realise Diwa took the coin?”

“Of course. You and Chien were the only ones who didn’t notice. She grabbed it while you were hiding the helmet below Silt village.”

“You should have told me,” Adam replied.

“I wanted to see what would happen.”

“Why? You must’ve known it would go bad.”

“Because I wanted to be certain.”

“Show me the necklace,” he said, failing to hide the frustration from his voice.

< < Unique Relic > >

< The Golden Pyre of Sacrifice (Uncommon) — Raises Seo-Yoon Hwan’s Damage and Mana by 20% for every dead Player in her team>

That is very powerful.

Is Morrligt yet another Absolute that encourages player killing? Adam wondered.

“I understand why you don’t want anyone to see this,” Adam said.

“I’m not a player-killer,” she replied. “Not intentionally.”

“But most people won’t believe that,” Adam realised.

She nodded.

“You should try to keep people from killing themselves then,” he scolded her. “You’re observant enough to notice when people are about to do something stupid, and you’re capable enough to stop them.”

“Diwa would’ve tried to get the demon helmet from Silt if she had survived using the coin a second time,” Seo-Yoon argued.

Adam frowned. “No matter how many times her or any of you try to get yourself killed, I would still try to save you every time.”

“Sounds like you should worship the same thing as Chien,” she replied with a grin. “Actually, why didn’t you? You said you saved everyone in the altar.”

“The time-looper I met told me I would be rewarded if I worshipped the Flayed Lady,” Adam replied, picking something fairly close to the truth, while leaving out the most important pieces of information.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“That seems like a bad idea. Your patron is clearly quite angry with you.”

“That would be an understatement,” Adam replied.

They spent the 3,000 Silvers it cost to get the earrings, and after equipping them Seo-Yoon gave Adam the first strike earrings back.

They left the market and went to the church where Father Adam gave them another true flame in a box, before telling them, “The Forlorn King is weakening, now is the chance to strike at his castle.”

“Not yet,” Adam replied. “We are taking out all of his knights first.”

“Be careful of the darkness that lurks in his heart,” the priest replied. “When cornered, it may collect its strength and attempt to strike a decisive blow the moment you least expect it.”

Is he suggesting that taking out all of the knights might lead to a direct fight with the Forlorn Shadow? Adam wondered.

It was quite an undertaking, so Adam wouldn’t be surprised if it was yet another way of triggering the secret final boss.

Something to keep in mind for future revisits.

With the flame in their possession, Adam flew them back to Gothershall. Seo-Yoon still insisted on keeping the centipede-like construct wrapped around her.

“Are you planning on using the horsemen mask?” Adam asked her as they neared the giant wall to the city.

“At some point,” she replied vaguely.

He felt much less certain about letting her keep it, now that he realised her necklace might incentivise her to get more of them killed. After all, with the mask equipped, she could force Chien to attack her, and Natalia and Adam would have to do something to intervene.

At least I can quickly put her out of commission if she tries anything, given how closely she’s keeping my construct.

Seo-Yoon must’ve realised that carrying Adam’s magic on her person made her susceptible to attack, but either she didn’t think he would try something or she wasn’t planning on doing anything that would force him to react.

I hope it’s the latter, although there’s also the third option, which is that she’s planning something, but doesn’t care if I can immediately use the construct to stop her.

Juliette was definitely like that.

She was daring me to kill her the entire time, and because I didn’t, she knew she could fool me when the opportunity arose.

Adam hated having to be so paranoid of his team, but he’d yet to find a reason not to. Clearly it wasn’t just worshippers of the Flayed Lady and Nwetrou who were troublesome.

Perhaps it’s human nature working against me, and not some divine influence.

He landed them near Natalia and Chien, who were in the market looking at the vendors.

“There you are,” Natalia said. “There’s something I want to buy.”

Adam floated his gauntlet carrying the true flame box over to Chien, who took it and attached it to his belt like a trinket.

“Did you receive an announcement for the quest completion?” Adam asked.

“We did,” Chien replied.

“What was the reward?” Natalia asked.

Adam showed them the wishing coin. Both of them frowned.

“If I understand it correctly, we can throw this in a wishing well to increase its power,” Adam said. “It may allow us to wish for more things or for a higher rarity, like epic.”

“I don’t like the idea of experimenting with it,” Natalia remarked.

“Me neither,” Chien said.

“That’s understandable,” Adam conceded.

“Do you think we can wish for another coin?” Seo-Yoon wondered.

“That sounds like something that’s likely to get us cursed,” Natalia replied.

Adam nodded.

“What was it you wanted to buy?” he asked Natalia. “We already bought something for Seo-Yoon for 3,000 Silvers.”

“The barnacle shark tooth,” she replied, pointing over at a relic vendor nearby.

Adam didn’t question it and bought it with their money.

“If you would like to test your hypothesis about the coin, I will volunteer to try it,” Chien said. “I would like to get back my headband relic.”

“Are you okay with that?” Adam asked the others. The original coin they’d found had been his, but then he’d given it to Heiner after he lost his mask.

“I’m excited to see what happens,” Seo-Yoon remarked.

Natalia nodded slowly, clearly uncertain.

They left the market and went to the wishing well where they’d lost Diwa.

The black lines of the ritual still stained the ground in front of it.

Seo-Yoon was curious about the spell, but Adam quickly erased it with his boots before she could try to memorise it.

Chien walked up to the lip of the well, holding the golden coin in his hand.

I don’t know if the Flayed Lady anticipated us getting another coin, and whether this is a trap, but while she is prone to betrayal and lies, I feel as if she was speaking the truth. There’s a simple logic in the fact that using a wishing coin on a wishing well would have a stronger effect, both positive and negative. And this coin hasn’t been used before, unless the woman we received it from is some kind of evil genius, which I highly doubt.

“I wish for the ‘Crusader’s Headband’,” Chien said as he tossed in the coin.

As the coin struck the water below, there was a wet pop and then the epic relic appeared in his hands.

All of them looked at Chien, a mix of excitement and worry.

“Any curses come with that?” Natalia asked.

“None,” he replied. “It appears that Adam was correct.”

“How exciting,” Seo-Yoon remarked.

Adam nodded. “That makes the wishing coin one of the best relics in the Trials,” he said. “The question now is whether it will allow us to wish for secret relics or ones with special conditions.”

After all, if it’s possible to wish for things like the body of sloth or fallow’s compass, then it truly has unparalleled utility.

The real concern though, is whether or not it allows someone to wish for a relic belonging to a later stage. If it doesn’t, then it loses a lot of its early-loop potential.

“What do you think happens if we wish for something that isn’t a relic?” Seo-Yoon asked.

“It’s possible it curses anyone who asks for things it cannot grant or which don’t exist,” Adam theorised. “It is after all a very powerful relic, so it’s demerits are likely to be equally powerful.”

I need to ask Beck about it. Hopefully he knows more.

“We should get going,” Adam told them. “We’re taking on the forlorn marksman in the hamlet first, and then checking out an abandoned fishing village. If we have enough time, we can even go to the castle to take out the judge and jailer knights. We’ll need to be careful though, since we only have one true flame. There may be enough enemies in the hamlet to charge up Chien’s rosary, but if not, we’ll have to make sure he deals the killing blow.”

Natalia and Chien both sighed in anticipation of how they’d be travelling there.

“We have a lot of time still left before it gets dark,” Adam told them, “so I will make sure our transport stays on the ground this time.”

“Aww,” Seo-Yoon complained.

Adam brought them from Gothershall to the Blue Vein river atop two sculpted horses, while he and Seo-Yoon flew through the air above them. It was a decent compromise, since Chien and Natalia preferred to be close to the ground, while Seo-Yoon loved to fly.

Once they reached the blue water of the rapidly-flowing river, they were fully within the Forlorn Shadow’s expanding territory, so Adam made sure to keep tight control over his creations.

They paused by the water to allow Natalia to test her necklace.

To all of their surprise, it allowed her to walk across the flow of the water, though it was in a way that none of them had expected, because it allowed her to walk on the bottom of the river, rather than atop the water itself. As she came out unharmed on the other side, she explained that she’d been surrounded in a pocket of air.

As I thought, the Blue Vein necklace will be quite useful for stage eleven.

Miredeep was Nwetrou’s stage and would require traversing lots of water-filled areas. The stage had a bubble mechanic to make it possible for players to actually move within the water, but it sounded quite precarious.

Maybe I should buy as many wishing coins as possible after we get out of this stage.

Adam took a deep breath.

One thing at a time.

I still don’t know how easy it’ll be to defeat the Forlorn King and escape the stage before the Shadow manifests.

Adam lifted the two sculpted horses, himself, and Seo-Yoon across to the opposite shore of the river where Natalia awaited, and then they continued east towards the hamlet and the knight that guarded the place.

Up ahead were dozens of animalistic melodies, belonging to creatures that’d been taken over by the Shadow’s tainted power following their deaths, and they would likely be a huge nuisance as they attempted to get close to the ranged boss. Beck had warned him about the marksman’s uncanny ability to strike from afar, and from the descriptions of the fight, Adam thought it was similar to the island in the Floating Sea where a slugwhale had been shooting spikes at his team from a ruined tower.

As they neared the collection of abandoned houses and untended vegetable gardens, Adam realised he couldn’t actually sense the boss anywhere, only the animals that squatted inside the buildings.

Fwoosh!

Something flew right for Adam’s head, penetrating the barrier from his blood choker and triggering his Shade Barrier construct. He was teleported five metres to the side in the air as his blood copy burst apart.

Adam immediately sent Seo-Yoon and himself down to the ground where he’d brought Chien and Natalia’s mounts to a stop behind a two-storey house on the edge of the hamlet.

< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Defeat the Forlorn Marksman >