Loopshard

Adam woke up with a yell, finding himself back on the soft grass of Stage One.

I never thought I'd be happy to return to this place.

But man…

I was really stupid to try that.

I don't even know why I thought visiting a sacrificed Player's dimension would be a good idea.

I guess I just wanted to be closer to Emelia, even though I knew I wouldn't find her.

He let out a deep breath.

It was a stupid way to waste a loop, and I could've gotten a lot more information out of Alexander Nova if I'd stayed. Not to mention, the Beast setup would've been really good once I got the Pugilist's Belt and Pit Fighter evolution for Brawler.

Whatever.

I can't go back in time, so I've just gotta keep looking forward.

Adam looked at the weapons available to him this time.

< < Weapon Types Available > >

< Brawler (Uncommon) >

< Warrior (Common) >

< Archer (Common) >

< Berserker (Uncommon) >

< Defender (Common) >

"Reroll," he told the Eye.

[Understood.]

Wasn't actually sure that would work for the starting weapons, but that definitely makes the Rerolls meta upgrade a lot more useful.

< < Weapon Types Available > >

< Backstabber (Common) >

< Warder (Rare) >

< Berserker (Uncommon) >

< Woodsman (Common) >

< Archer (Common) >

He heavily considered selecting Warder again, but ultimately decided to pick Archer, since he'd used melee weapons back-to-back and wanted to try his hand at a different kind of ranged weapon. Not to mention, he needed more Mastery Shards.

Unlike the other weapons Adam had used, the bow wasn't quite as straightforward for extracting the cores from the slimes, since he needed to shoot around them to tear away the flesh. But with the proper technique and a sufficiently-powerful draw, he could pierce their jelly flesh and destroy the cores, even against the tougher purple slimes, though they required several hits to pierce. But it meant that he only collected about half of the cores possible.

At the end, he beat the Stage with a time of 105 seconds, getting a total of 2480 Points and 16 intact cores. As usual, he killed the Slime Emperor with Gram's special skill. For the Relic, he got the Slime Ring.

< < Relic Selected > >

< Slime Ring (Rare) — Infuse Player's projectiles with Acid Burst. 60-second cooldown >

The evolutions were not a surprise to him either, since Lenard had gone through it during his third loop. The left hologram was a longbow and the right was a shortbow.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Ranger — Sacrifice draw speed and efficiency for a boost to damage and range >

< Quickshot — Sacrifice damage and range for a boost to draw speed and efficiency >

That's a very binary choice. Slow and powerful or quick and efficient.

The upgrades for the bow were all pretty simple too, but interestingly it offered Projectile upgrades for Damage, Speed, and Range, which meant that they'd apply to other weapons that utilised projectiles, similar to how Summoner broadly upgraded Spells. On top of the three Projectile upgrades, the bow also gave Draw upgrades that reduced stamina cost, increased draw speed, and improved accuracy. Unlike so many other weapons, none of the upgrades felt like they'd be less useful than the rest.

Adam ended up picking Quickshot, since both of the following evolutions were known to him, and Trickster in particular enabled a lot of crazy stuff, since it made arrows able to ricochet.

He continued on to Interim Island, selling his cores and hitting 4080 Points, before buying out the rest of the fourth tier of Relic Saving and putting the remainder into the next rank up.

< < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 4 Saved Relic Slots >

< < Meta Upgrade Progress > >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 5 Saved Relic Slots — 3830/5000 Points >

At the Tavern, he saw that the time-looper in this universe was none other than Anri, aka Mórrígan. She looked just as crazy as during his third loop and a spike of anger flushed through him as he observed her.

The Eye revealed that a little over 500 million had survived Stage One which made Adam hopeful, but out of everyone on his list, the only survivors were James' son Benjamin, and Lenard.

This universe is a bust too…

I'm starting to think my theory about each new loop being a new layer up the stack was quite spot on, since these universes are getting worse and worse.

Adam didn't stick around for long in the Tavern before he headed to the Player House and promptly went to sleep to Yenna's lullabies.

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In the following Stage, the Quickshot shortbow turned out to be quite fantastic, since he was able to kill all the goblins with a single arrow to the eye. He also realised he had quite a knack for the weapon, which hadn't really been that obvious during the fight against the slimes. The Acid Burst effect from the Slime Ring also helped him a lot, since it made the projectiles pop a bit of acid into the wounds they created, which meant it was game over if his arrows hit just the goblins' faces, since even if they didn't pierce all the way to the brain the acid would do the trick.

The main difficulty Adam faced was actually with cutting off the goblin's ears as trophies, since the stone sword wasn't sharp enough and the arrows given to the Quickshot had narrow heads that didn't cut super well. Nevertheless, he managed to get them all, and every Wave was a total breeze.

By the end, he finished off the Hobgoblin with Gram, and cleared the Stage in a record time of 60 seconds, gaining 3850 Points, 20 more than the previous loop.

One of the Relics that showed up was new to him, clearly based on his bow.

< < Relic > >

< Shattering Quiver (Rare) — All arrows are replaced with Shatter Shots, which break armour on hit | Projectile Speed and Damage reduced by 50% >

It would probably be strong in Stage Four against the Forlorn, as well as in Five against the Statue Elementals. And maybe it can combo with Fiendbarb, since that Relic just prevents armour piercing, but doesn't say anything about armour breaking.

Still, the demerits are way too high, even if it's a useful effect in many situations.

Though I wonder if it would break an airship.

He ended up selecting it with the plan to sell it later.

With the six upgrades from the Stage, he got yet another choice between evolutions. The left one was a different kind of shortbow, which had an exaggerated curl of the limbs at the end, looking almost fantasy-like with its pale wood. The other option was the large crossbow that Lenard had shown him. It had dark-brown wood and silvery metal, and its bolts had a very narrow shape, perfect for penetration.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Trickster — Arrows can now ricochet when hitting surfaces >

< Bounty Hunter — Projectiles that hit a target's head deal double damage >

Since I'm not planning on sticking around in this universe, I'll pick the evolution I'm least likely to use in the future.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Quickshot => Bounty Hunter >

With his shirt yet again sacrificed to become an improvised bag, Adam went to the Market with Belamouranthe. He sold all the goblin ears, as well as his new rare quiver, the ring, and the damaged crown he'd gotten after killing the Hobgoblin, getting 2950 Points and putting his total at 6800 Points.

I'll end this loop here.

Still, he saved the Lucky Stone to send back, so he had it for whenever he found a universe he wanted to stay in.

He'd done the math on Stage Three, and while he might be able to get around 4000 Points with Hardmode and all the bonuses, as well as maybe 3000 Points if he could collect all the Blood Elemental cores and the trophies that Slothlings apparently possessed, he also knew it would be much harder to pull off.

Adam was a lot stronger and much wiser, but it felt like it wasn't worth spending the time on Stage Three since he could just continue looping back and grinding the first two Stages easily. After all, he wasn't looking for a challenge, he was just simply looking to become stronger while he searched for a good universe to stay in. And besides, it served him best to stick to the early Stages, since the All-Seeing System did not approve of his way of looping, but would be too weak to really do anything before Stage Five.

Or so I hope.

Luvicidix showed him a worried expression after she'd descended from the clouds and landed in front of him on the street.

"I don't like the look in your eyes," she told him. "What you're planning on doing isn't right."

"I'm here to get upgrades, not to receive a lecture," he said, dismissing her words.

"Alivida told me what happened," Luvicidix said.

"I wish she'd warned me better."

"You know we are not allowed to break the rules," Luvicidix chided him.

Adam sighed. "You're right. It was my fault."

"Will you stop throwing your life away then?" Luvicidix asked, seeming hopeful.

"No. I will keep going until I find a universe where my friends still exist."

"The All-Seeing System will stop you," she warned.

"We'll see," he replied.

It has less strength in the beginning, so I don't think it can stop me, even if it is threatening me in this roundabout way through Luvicidix.

"Now, let me buy the upgrades so I can be on my way," he said.

The moth looked at him disapprovingly but acquiesced nevertheless.

< < Meta Upgrades Unlocked > >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 5 Saved Relic Slots >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 6 Saved Relic Slots >

"You have now maxed out the Relic Saving upgrade," Luvicidix announced.

That means I should be able to send back a Divine Relic.

Or two Rares, or three Uncommons.

Actually, I wonder if I could use the trick Nova told me about to send back one of Weaver's tailor-made items. Bringing a backpack to the start with me would be handy.

"I'll put the remaining Points into Damage."

"Very well."

< < Meta Upgrade Progress > >

< Damage — Increase All Damage by 50% — 630/5000 Points >

He left the island's centre and headed for the Player House where he put the Lucky Stone into the Relic Saving box.

A shame I can't pull the Glass Acorn out of the garden and bring it with me.

With all his errands done, Adam walked north past the lighthouse until he reached the edge of the island. Then he stepped off.

< < ADAM > >

Adam went through three more loops in the same manner, finding every new one to be no better than the last, with basically all of the people on his list eliminated. In those three loops he tried Berserker, Warrior, and Backstabber. All of them were very standard fare, though it was to be expected given their rarities.

Berserker had one evolution path called Dervish that allowed him to change the dual axes for swords, and later to chain whips, according to Emelia. He'd picked Raider instead, which increased offence at the expense of defence, and then in its second set he'd gone with Blood Mongrel which had a unique bleed effect, instead of Wolf Spawn which gave him a 15-second buff like the Player he'd fought in his fourth loop during the Altar Stage.

Warrior had given him a choice between Frontliner, which increased the impact of attacks when he was running, and Soldier, which doubled the effectiveness of defensive moves. He'd gone with Frontliner, since impact wasn't something he'd messed around with a lot, but it basically let him obliterate the goblins with heavy swings of the sword. In Frontliner's evolution set, it had been a choice between One Man Army and Colossus. The first one boosted attack speed and damage when outnumbered at least 3-to-1, while Colossus gave a stacking 10% Defence buff with every kill made, which lasted as long as he killed something within 1 minute of the last. He'd picked One Man Army, though Colossus seemed like a super powerful background buff to combo with another melee weapon.

Adam was quite familiar with the first set of evolutions from the Backstabber. The man who'd killed Willow in his fourth loop had been an Assassin, and the woman who'd betrayed them in Stage Six had been an Opportunist. Assassin lost one of the two daggers in exchange for all afflictions dealt with the remaining dagger becoming 50% stronger. Opportunist had its off-hand weapon turn into a parry dagger, which came with the parry disorient upgrade, which was quite strong. Adam ended up picking the latter, which then evolved into Exploiter and Disarmer. They both had effects tied to parrying, with the first making it so a successful parry made the enemy take double damage from the next attack, while Disarmer just disarmed the enemy on a parry. He picked Disarmer, just because he doubted he would ever use it and thus wanted to get the Shard from it now.

As for the time-loopers he encountered, the ninth loop where he picked Berserker finally revealed Arturo to him, but he looked nothing like what Emelia had said, since she'd described him as a nice man from El Salvador, and instead he looked like someone with a serious mean streak. There'd only been 480 million survivors after the first Stage and Adam didn't feel like risking a conversation with the guy once he saw him pull out the Challenge Stone in the Tavern.

The tenth loop's 'ruler' was Hiroshi Sakurai yet again, and he was much the same as before.

In the eleventh loop he was surprised to find that the time-looper was Willow, but no sooner had he tried talking to her than she'd pulled out the Challenge Stone, forcing him to quickly leave the Tavern to avoid ending his loop early.

None of the universes had yielded anything satisfactory in terms of their populations and he hadn't felt any desire to stick around. He continued passing the Lucky Stones back in time, since he had room for two in his Relic Saving chest now. He wondered if he could use them both at the same time to go up two tiers of rarity rather than one, but it seemed a waste to try it until it mattered.

Across those three loops he'd amassed 37,820 Points, which he'd used to max out the upgrades for Damage, Vendors, Rerolls, and getting the first two tiers of Mana, with the rest going into the Scale of Remembrance.

< < Meta Upgrades Unlocked > >

< Damage — Increase All Damage by 100% >

< Vendors — Increase Vendor Options by 1 >

< Rerolls — Start every loop with 5 Reroll Dice >

< Mana — Increase Mana by 25 >

< < Meta Upgrade Progress > >

< Scale of Remembrance — 2630/25000 Points >

In the twelfth loop, Adam selected Warder since it appeared, and evolved it into Shaper, even though he'd already gotten this evolution once and thus didn't get any Mastery Shards. It just felt nice to return to something he was familiar with after three weapon types that he hadn't been super excited about.

When he arrived to Interim Island and asked his usual question about survivors, he got an answer that surprised him.

[1 Player survived Stage One.]

Adam blinked.

"I'm the only survivor??"

[Correct.]

Well…

Shit.