Loopshard

"What part was I supposed to laugh at?" Adam asked, after Beck had finished his story.

"I thought it was funny," he replied, despite the harrowing descriptions he'd provided.

Beck had told Adam how, in the previous timeline, he'd been up against a time-looper who called himself 'Diviner'. The guy had been a menace, killing off many of Beck's friends and acquaintances, though apparently he'd never used the Abyssal Tooth. Most troubling was the fact that he'd apparently possessed some kind of power to travel to other Players' dimensions while they were inside Stages.

It was by this power that he'd come to Beck's dimension, while he and his team were deep into Stage Thirteen. The Stage was called The Valley and required Players to hunt down some kind of dangerous monster, but at the time of the Diviner's arrival they'd been following the tracks for a Secret Boss that Beck had discovered. Everyone except Beck had been slaughtered, but he'd managed to survive and lead the Diviner on a long goose chase full of traps, eventually getting him to fight the Secret Boss, only to swoop in and kill the time-looper the moment the boss had died. Beck had used some kind of Relic from the Tome Keeper to capture the Diviner just as he revived thanks to the Cheat Death, ferrying him off to the Absolute's laboratorium, which sounded insane.

From there, Beck had continued to survive through the Stages thanks to the guidance of the Tome Keeper and his own ingenuity. It was highly likely a lot of it was played up for Adam's benefit during the retelling, since Beck's description put him in a very positive light even though he was objectively just bumbling through the challenges.

When Beck had reached the Singing City, the Absolute taught him how to obtain the Self-devouring Eye, and he'd passed on the message that he would meet Adam when he restarted in a new loop.

"Why did he need you to meet me?" Adam asked suspiciously. He trusted Beck, even though in this universe he was a stranger. It was hard to explain why, but the main reason was probably just that he hadn't immediately reacted to Adam's presence with hostility, like every other time-looper he'd encountered since Alexander Nova.

"He wanted me to explain something I didn't fully understand," Beck replied. "He wanted me to say that he had no idea that his quest would get you killed along with your friend. And that he does not wish to make an enemy of you and hopes you will pick him again in the future."

"Bullshit," Adam replied. "If he's all-knowing, he should've known what I was going into."

"He told me he doesn't know everything," Beck replied. "Which is hard to believe since he predicted that I would meet you. And he knew how to deal with the Diviner. Anyway. He did say that you probably wouldn't believe him, and to that his answer was that there would be no sense in getting you killed, since his library only grows from his adherents surviving his tasks."

Adam frowned.

I guess it doesn't make sense for him to kill me, but it could've easily just been a ploy to get to Emelia, and maybe he has far-reaching plans I don't know of. I don't think it's a good idea to blindly trust the word of a God that transcends time like this, because clearly he is many steps ahead if he's willing to save Beck just to get a message to me.

"There was one more thing," Beck added. "He says you need to worship the Flayed Lady and do all her quests in this loop. He somehow knew you'd become a Blood Mage."

"I'm not doing that," Adam said. "The Flayed Lady is evil…"

"She's pretty crazy," Beck agreed. "Did you know that the first weakness from the Tome Keeper makes it so all of her adherents try to murder you? Took me a few Stages to realise, but man, my Stage Nine was a shitshow because of that. What are the odds that two out of five members of my team worship her… I'm not looking forward to doing that again."

"That explains what happened in my Stage Seven last time," Adam realised.

"It gets real bad in the big Stages where all Players appear together," Beck added.

Emelia told me about those. That's from Stage Fifteen and onward.

She called them Public Stages.

"Is Gladwyn still alive in this universe?" Adam asked.

"William?" Beck responded, clearly surprised. "Yeah, he's here. He shows up to the Tavern around nightfall, at least if he's repeating the pattern from last time. During my previous loop, Diviner killed him in Stage Three with his weird power. With him gone, I'm hoping William can survive to the end with me."

"William?" Adam asked. "That's his name?"

"Yeah, William Gladwyn. It's funny you know us only by the online personas we used to use. Most people call him Will in the real world, but in the MMOs we played together, he was always Gladwyn."

"I met you in my fourth loop," Adam explained. "You both went by those names back then. Also, I fought alongside Gladwyn in Stage Six during that loop. He was a good friend of mine."

"Which loop are you on now?" Beck asked.

"Thirteenth."

"And why is it your eyes are normal?"

Adam grinned and imitated the tone that Beck had used earlier as he repeated, "It's actually a funny story."

"Hah hah," Beck deadpanned.

Charlie arrived with Adam's croissant and milkshake, and he quickly devoured the flaky pastry.

"Do you have the Visiting Stone?" Adam asked.

"Not yet, but I also didn't have anyone I wanted to visit," Beck replied. "Hopefully that's different this go around."

Must've been hard to lose his best friend, Adam thought. Though I doubt he'd ever admit it.

"Well, I've got it," Adam said. "And I've also got the lighthouse. After Stage Four I can give you the flame to unlock it as well."

"Lighthouse? What the hell is that?" Beck asked.

"It's something that provides a buff to you and your team when it's evolved, and you can pass the power on to other Players too."

"Well, I won't say no to something like that," Beck replied. "But seriously, how exactly are you looping back in time alongside me? I never met you in the last loop, and I'm sure the Diviner would've been after you if he knew of your power."

"How do I put it?" Adam considered, before explaining, "I'm sort of skipping across universes as I loop, while you're confined to this one. The downside is that every universe is different. Also, when I loop I erase myself from that universe."

"In how many universes did I get the Self-devouring Eye?" Beck asked.

"Just this one," Adam replied. "This is only my second time meeting you. But it was also impossible to find you two, since you used nicknames the first time."

Beck frowned. "Damn, I thought for sure I would've accomplished that in other universes too."

"If there's an infinite amount, then there's an infinite number of universes where you did," Adam pointed out. "But right now only this one matters. This is actually my second time coming here. But the last time was after you died and no one else found the Divine Relic."

"Don't tell me you were sent back in time to save me," Beck said with a frown.

"Sorry, pal."

"Man, that's so cliché."

Adam laughed.

"But how is it going to work if we're both time-loopers and there's only one Self-devouring Eye?" Beck wondered.

"You don't have to worry about that," Adam assured him. "My looping is non-traditional as you might've guessed. I actually loop when I die."

"That's unfair!" Beck exclaimed. "How can I get a power like that?"

"You can't," Adam said firmly.

The Realm Traveller had to do some trickery to make it happen, after all, he thought but did not say.

Beck cast him a suspicious look. "You're not holding secrets from me, are you?"

Adam laughed again as it reminded him of how Beck hadn't noticed Emelia and Adam in the same dimension during the fourth loop. It was nice to feel something other than the existential dread of being a tiny ant in the game of cosmic Gods for a change.

"If I knew how to replicate it, I'd tell you."

"I see," Beck replied. "Well, I guess I ought to give you my real name so you can find me when you eventually go to your next universe. It's Benjamin Sharpe."

"My full name is Adam Fischer," he replied. "Although, as I said, after I die you won't ever see me in this universe again."

"Bummer."

"Yeah."

Charlie arrived with some food for Beck, and while he took his time eating it, Adam went through his list of names to see who had survived.

Besides William Gladwyn, everyone else was gone, even James and his son Benjamin.

He tried some of the names of people he'd teamed up with during Stage Six and Seven, as well as those he'd fought against in Five. Hahn, Maggie, Maalia, Riccardo, and several others were still alive. But all of his good friends except Beck and Gladwyn were gone, so he figured he was better off just trying to meet new people by looking at who did well.

For Stage One there were two people besides Adam and Beck who'd gotten the Flawless and Speedrun bonuses, and a dozen who'd gotten just the Flawless, with about a hundred getting only the Speedrun. No one besides Adam and Beck had gotten both Secrets, but a few thousand had obtained the Glass Acorn.

One of the two who'd gotten both Flawless and Speedrun was someone Adam recognised from his third loop. He was an old guy with a scraggly black beard who wore a dark winter coat and was sleeping next to a bunch of bottles. He had the spell-tome for Warder and was using it as his pillow. The other was a tall and blonde youth with very little meat and muscle on his bones. He had picked Lancer based on the spear he was hugging.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

I'll keep an eye on those two.

"Do you know the real name of the Diviner by the way?" Adam asked Beck sometime later.

"David something," he replied. "He had a British accent."

"What did he look like?"

Beck shrugged. "No clue, he wore a suit of armour when I encountered him. Like a silvery mask with no face or even eyeholes, a plate-armour suit, and a cape of metal."

"What weapon did he use?"

"The Soul Blade from Stage Six," he replied.

"I met another looper with that weapon," Adam said.

"It's powerful," Beck remarked. "It lets you bypass Defence since it deals true damage."

"Yeah… I had the Slime King's Crown when he killed me with that sword. He did it without even breaking the cores in my body."

"Interesting. I thought you had to destroy the cores if someone wore that, but good to know there's a workaround. I'll keep it in mind for Stage Sixteen."

I think Emelia said that Stage had a lot of elementals, so maybe that's what he's referring to.

"Have you done all the bonuses for the early Stages?" Adam asked, seeing that Beck had every achievement for Stage One.

He shook his head. "I didn't find out about the Hobgoblin Lord until later, and I was too focused on speed to get the Nightwing to appear in Stage Three. This was also my first time getting Gram from the apple tree. And I got everything except Flawless and Eradication in Stage Four."

That's a lot better than when I met him in my fourth loop.

"Do you know how I'm meant to die?" Beck then asked, returning to what Adam had said earlier. "You said you had to save me, right?"

"I have no fucking clue," Adam replied. "Unless you were going to explore something new this time around that was dangerous, like the bottom of Stage Seven."

"I was actually thinking of going there," Beck replied.

Adam frowned. "Don't. That's how the Tome Keeper got me killed."

"What's down there? Alepheria's lab?"

Adam nodded. "And a Voidspawn Apex."

Beck laughed. "Holy shit!"

"If he sends you after Alepheria's body, ignore the quest."

"Last time, he wanted me to complete Iffen's request," Beck said. "I couldn't do it. My team wasn't strong enough to defeat the Golden Slug."

"What punishment did he give you?" Adam asked.

"It was a weird one," Beck answered. "He took away my memory of the thing I knew that allowed me to unlock the Tome Keeper at the Altar in the first place."

I fucking knew it! His punishments are tied to memories!

That's so fucked up.

"Alright, I've gotta hop to the Market really fast before Gladwyn gets here," Beck said.

"I was actually planning to go practice with my new evolution as well," Adam replied. "But I'll be back here later to say hi to Gladwyn."

Beck grinned deviously. "Let's freak him the fuck out by talking about the future and looping," he said.

Adam laughed.

"By the way," Beck quickly added before he stood up. "Is there anything I should know about the Hardmode of Stage Two? Do I need to get something specific to deal with it?"

"All the goblins get bone armour, and the boss has the Fiendbarb Relic on his weapon."

"That's the one that makes your blood explode, right?"

"Yeah."

"No problems then," Beck said.

"Don't forget to collect all their ears for extra Points afterwards," Adam added. "And if you perfect the Stage, then you'll get a special denizen you should speak to first, since that'll make Lucca up the amount she'll pay for trophies."

Beck looked at his staff with a dumb expression on his face.

"I need to get a knife or something," he muttered.

"Don't you have the stone sword?"

"Sure, but it's really dull."

"That's true," Adam muttered, remembering that he'd had the same issue in his eighth loop with the bow.

"I'll figure something out," Beck said. "I was planning on swapping out Gram for a different magical weapon anyway."

"Try and see if you can get Warder," Adam suggested.

Beck nodded. "Alright, let's talk later."

Then he got up and vanished.

Adam let out a deep sigh of relief.

Finally I get to reconnect with my past friends.

But I'm not too excited about the Tome Keeper having a vested interest in me after getting Emelia and I killed.

And why the fuck does he want me to worship the Flayed Lady??

Adam spent the next few hours practising spells in the Player House against the target dummy. He'd realised he could get a head-start on experimenting with Flesh Shaper by changing the dummy into one of the slimes from Stage One, but this avenue quickly turned into a dead-end when it became obvious that the slimes didn't count as having 'flesh', likely because they were made from an element. This also meant that the Statue Elementals in Stage Five would be a hard counter to his magic.

After Stage Two, when he could turn the dummy into a goblin, he was hoping to utilise it a lot to broaden his knowledge of blood and flesh magic.

As for casting spells with the blood sigils, he quickly realised the way to do it, though yet again he ran into a wall, since the manner in which the spells were cast required a lot of finesse with his blood control, eliminating all but the simplest spell forms until he obtained more Effect upgrades.

Like the Summoner's wand, he had to draw out the spell patterns, but instead of using his sigils like a pen or moving the blood through the motions, he had to literally build it as a lattice of blood. The intricate form that the barrier spell required made it impossible for him at this point, since maintaining so many individual floating lines following unique curves was not possible for him.

However, he was able to use the base spell of the wand to fire a bolt of blood, and when it worked, the spell was considered a projectile, which then gained the effect of the Slime Ring, empowering the spell with the corrosive effect. This obviously didn't work against the slime dummies, but against the strawman it was highly effective, destroying it in just one hit. Unfortunately, he couldn't recover the blood used to fire the bolt, so it seemed less effective than just shaping the blood like he'd done in the first Stage.

The pattern for the Bolt spell was much more complex than the one for Push, since it required him to hold very specific curves. It was a spiral shaped into a square, meaning it had sharp corners as it swirled around, and it ended in a half-moon in the middle.

Push required him to just make a pentagram, where the only difficulty was making each line the same length as the rest. Actually activating it stumped him for a bit, since for the wand version he had to stab the wand itself through the middle of the spell pattern. But he eventually figured out that he had to punch his control sigil through the middle, and it worked on the first try.

The effect of the Push spell was much stronger than it'd been with the wand, since it actually fired off the blood used to build the pattern, creating a shotgun blast of small blood shards, though lacking the wind effect that actually did the pushing.

Up close this one is very devastating, he mused, after having blown apart both the straw dummy and the slime one with the spell. Even if the acidic effect of the projectiles from the shotgun blast was harmless against the slimes, the sheer force and many blood shards it released was like a grenade that split apart their acidic flesh, instantly killing them.

The Snare spell had been the hardest to use out of the three spells that the wand had come with, but it wasn't much harder than the Push one, once he figured it out. The pattern required a swirling spiral that got wider as the line went down, creating a dome of sorts. To release the spell, he had to swipe his control sigil through the pattern, which released the blood as a featureless serpent that flew at the target dummy and coiled around it tightly. This too counted as a projectile, so it was devastating against the straw dummy. It had no effect on the slime though.

I wonder if I can perform these spells with flesh magic too, Adam considered as he ate the Bœuf Bourguignon that Charlie had brought to his Player House. It was a stew made with chuck beef, bacon, cremini mushrooms, pearl onions, and herbs in a rich red wine sauce. It was served with creamy mashed potatoes and was the exact thing Adam needed after using his own blood to cast several spells.

He'd tried to summon the blood he needed, but it slowed down his testing speed by an order of magnitude since he didn't have a lot of Mana and even expending all of it in one go barely summoned enough blood for two attempts. Meanwhile using his own blood wasn't as Mana intensive, and he wasn't in any serious danger either, since the island ensured that lost Health was quickly recouped. But it did put him in the bad habit of using his own blood as a resource, which was dangerous.

I should try and get the Beast as my second weapon, Adam considered.

After all, it has much better Mana regeneration, and I think it'd be possible to have both the claws and sigils active simultaneously, since they're applied to my hands directly rather than being something I equip.

Otherwise maybe Summoner would be a good idea.

If he went with Summoner, he definitely wanted to explore the Elementalist route, since it would expand on his spell pattern repertoire and might even enable him to use other elements mixed with his blood affinity.

Just a shame I don't know anything else that uses sigils or invocations. It would've been nice to be able to maximise my upgrades across two weapons.

After he'd finished eating, Adam left the Player House feeling quite confident about his weapon choice.

He went to the garden on the southern part of Interim Island, following the streets by the silvery moonlight until he reached the tent that glowed with a purple light from within.

As Adam entered, the Eye floating behind him paused, its cube body frozen in place by the moth's magic.

The human-sized black moth perched on a high-backed chair behind the round table with the violet-glowing crystal ball on it.

"You were quite… foolish," she said as soon as she saw him.

Adam nodded. "No disagreements there. Of all my deaths, that one was by far the worst," he said.

"Mortals are not meant to stand before the Absolutes."

"I did just fine in the presence of the Tome Keeper," he pointed out.

"The Ascended Ones were humanoid before they became Absolutes. Their presence is not as harmful to reality as those birthed from the abstract concepts inherent to existence."

Adam blinked. "I have no idea what you mean by that."

The black moth watched him silently for a moment before she said, "I do not know of a way to make you… comprehend. I am simply stating a fact."

"Uhuh… And how is it that you know so much about these Absolutes?"

"My sister and I are amongst their endless horde of children. It is a child's wish to know their parents. An undeniable curiosity imbued within us. Within you as well, I imagine."

Trying to follow Alivida's logic was making his brain hurt, so he changed the subject. "I've brought 10 Mastery Shards with me, so I'd like to buy something."

"Please do," she replied, showing him her upgrades with a gesture of a black arm over the glowing crystal ball.

< < Mastery Upgrades For Sale > >

< Scale of Nihility — Make everyone forget you — 1 Shard >

< Skipping Stone — Skip a Stage if eligible — 2 Shards >

< Challenge Stone — Challenge a Player to a battle to the death — 3 Shards >

< Lucky Stone — Flip to increase the rarity for the next reward options — 3 Shards >

< Vanity — Turn an Interim Island Denizen into a humanoid — 10 Shards >

The Challenge Stone is only 3, so I could get it quickly if I needed to.

Think I'll stick with my decision and buy the Vanity.

"I will purchase the Vanity upgrade."

"A mirror to reveal the depths of another's soul is certainly a tool worth possessing," Alivida commented mystically.

< < Mastery Upgrade Unlocked > >

< Vanity — Turn an Interim Island Denizen into a humanoid >

A hand mirror appeared in front of Adam on the round table. The mirror itself was silver, but what it reflected had a violet tint to it. The metal and handle that surrounded it was made of a pale black-veined wood that shifted around like it was alive.

He picked it up and saw his own reflection within. The violet tint made his eyes look a bit like those of a time-looper.

"How do I use this?" Adam asked.

"Aim it at an island denizen and its power will take hold when they see their reflection."

"Can I use it on you and Luvicidix?"

"You cannot. We are ineligible since we are not true denizens of this island."

That's weird.

Maybe she means the fact that both of them only come here for half of a day at a time.

"What about Finnian and Migraine?" he asked. They were both technically humanoid already, but that was no reason to assume it wouldn't work.

"The Vanity only works on those who are not already akin to humans," she replied.

"What does that mean? Is that a yes or a no to my question?"

"That would be a no," she clarified.

"So it works on all the insects, but not things that resemble humans already?"

"Correct."

I guess that means the special denizens are a no-go, since they're all humanoid already. But it would work on Weaver and Builder, as well as other vendors I might find later I guess.

"But wouldn't the insect people already be classified as humanoid since they act like humans?"

"No," she replied without explaining why.

"I guess I'll just experiment with it," Adam muttered, mostly to himself.

"Be forewarned, the Vanity has but one use per loop," Alivida said.

"Fuck… I forgot about that."

That explains why Nova didn't know all the different things you could get from the denizens with the mirror.

Still, it feels kind of like a waste now since it cost so much to get.

"You are welcome to buy more. You may possess a total of five."

"I feel like I just got scammed."

"I did not misrepresent the truth," Alivida replied. "It is not my fault that you have a bad memory."

"Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry."

Adam picked up the Vanity mirror and it disappeared. Just like the Visiting Stone, it went somewhere when he wasn't using it, but was brought back the moment he needed it.

I think I'll hold off on using this, since I want to use Gram to easily defeat the Hobgoblin Lord like usual. It may also be worth holding off until I have the Builder's upgrades so I don't lose Gram if I want to evolve it to get more Shards later. After all, getting another weapon when I already have two means that one will be replaced and lost.

Adam said goodbye to Alivida and went back to the Tavern to meet back up with Beck and reintroduce himself to Gladwyn.