Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Forty-Six

“So, boss, got trophies for Migraine?” the goblin asked.

< < Quest > >

< Trophy Treasure >

< Migraine would like you to bring him 35 trophies >

< Reward — Shaman Curse-Stick >

Adam had twenty-five trophies, but he wasn’t going to give any of them to Migraine, even if he needed to complete three denizen quests to unlock the upgrade that made quests permanently completed across loops.

Belamouranthe, who had come with him from stage two, was skipping along the stones ahead of him, talking about smelling food.

“Stop following me,” Adam told Migraine, shooing him away with a gesture.

Finnian was also walking next to Adam, saying nothing.

“Wherever boss goes, I goes,” Migraine replied, unperturbed.

“You can leave too, Finnian,” Adam said.

“I am fine here with you, fellow slime,” Finnian remarked.

“Who knew a slime goblin could bring us together, huh, boss?” Migraine asked. “You’re a hope, or something. Much better than Bulge.”

Adam glared at Parvillo. “Make them leave me alone.”

[That will not be possible, though I suggest killing them if you are upset with their presence.]

“I’m not doing that…”

[I see.]

He did his best to ignore them as he headed to the market, but Migraine insisted on asking rhetorical questions non-stop, which was slowly grinding away at Adam’s patience. Before he could decide to follow Parvillo’s advice, Yenna’s piano melody filled the air and calmed him down.

Adam stopped next to the fountain where she sat in front of her everchanging instrument. He suddenly remembered what Nova had told him in his seventh loop. He’d talked about her instrument having the ability to defeat any enemy encountered in a stage using the right melody.

“Yenna, would you mind playing something to make Migraine and Finnian leave me alone?” he asked.

“Migraine don’t like music.”

Yenna cast the goblin a hard stare.

“Of course, Adam,” she replied, before turning her piano into a lute and strumming it deftly to produce a heavenly tune.

Migraine immediately gripped his ears and started grinding his teeth loudly, before running off to escape the melody, making a guttural ape-like sound of distress.

No sooner was he out of sight than Yenna transformed the lute into a small drum, a ‘Kotsuzumi’ Nova had called it. She didn’t get a chance to use it on Finnian though, because he fled at the sight, clearly still remembering the last time she’d turned him into a puddle.

[It is for the best that she did not use it,] Parvillo remarked. [It would also have affected you.]

Adam paused. “I hadn’t thought about that.”

“Would you like to experience the effect the right melody has on your slime body?” Yenna offered, a devious kind of amusement to her voice.

“Is it going to hurt me?” Adam asked.

[You cannot be hurt on Interim Island by its denizens, but this may bypass some restrictions on certain types of harm that can be afflicted, particularly emotional and mental trauma. I do not believe it has been tested extensively, so it may present some interesting findings.]

“On second thought, forget I asked,” Adam told Yenna.

The wasp shrugged and transformed her drum into a piano. “Is there any melody you would like me to play?”

“Can you play the music from Ocarina of Time?”

“Certainly,” she replied and immediately started with the ‘Great Fairy Fountain’ melody, which Adam thought was fitting given that she always sat in front of the fountain herself.

Past where Yenna was playing the piano, the special denizens mingled with the denizens inside the stalls, while Charlie went around with food she was making from a barbecue grill she’d gotten from somewhere. Belamouranthe was already down there amongst them, talking to Weaver while holding a big turkey leg in her hand like she was at a ren faire.

Adam went over to Lucca’s stall and used his stone hand to pull the spidersilk sack out from inside his body, placing it on her counter.

“I’d like to sell all of these,” Adam said. “I want the same deal on trophies as with the cores, since you can sell them to Migraine for a profit. So that’s 100 points for the ears and 200 for the tongue.”

“Fine,” Lucca replied.

Unlike the last loop when Adam had given out more then three vanities, Lucca didn’t mention wanting one.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

I wonder if it’s because we aren’t that far along in terms of stages, or because the other denizens can’t perceive the moths besides Meilo.

< < Relics Sold > >

< Hobgoblin Tongue (Uncommon) >

< Goblin Ear (Common) >

< 6490 Points Remaining >

Damn. I need 29 more general upgrades to evolve again, so I’m 1,340 points short, even with my 10% discount from the golden tooth.

I wanted to repair the damaged crown as well, but I remember that costing 500 points last time, and that’s a bit too much for me right now.

Still, I need to have it upgraded before stage four.

Adam took the mushroom he’d also collected and found Sprite talking to Sylvia about making a potion that could act as blood without actually being blood, in order to supply spells their necessary material in an ethical manner.

“Here,” Adam said, offering the shadow elemental the mushroom.

“A most fascinating find,” Sprite remarked, holding the dark-green black-spotted mushroom in front of his bright pinprick eyes. “The Goblin Mudcap is infamous for its potency when brewed into wine, but when ingested raw, it has the unfortunate side-effect of causing explosive long-lasting diarrhoea, or so I have been told. I have yet to test it on a subject myself.”

“Don’t you dare test it here,” Adam warned him.

< < Quest Progress > >

< Plantastic Alchemy >

< Sprite would like you to bring him plants from 5 different Stages >

< Progress — 2/5 >

“Have you taken an interest in alchemy, Adam?” Sylvia asked him.

“Possibly, if I don’t end up kicking this little menace off the island first,” he replied.

“Alchemy presents an ocean of possibilities,” Sylvia remarked. “The toughest part is learning how to effectively combine plants to obtain a desired effect.”

“The new resident in the garden shall surely be of much aid to us in that regard,” Sprite remarked cheerfully.

So, that’s what she meant by her true worth, Adam realised. He had assumed Sprite would just know all the recipes and that Meilo would help obtaining the plants, but it seemed she also knew a lot about the plants themselves, which would be invaluable.

I should get my hands on a few potion belts so I can carry around potions as soon as I’m able to craft them with Sprite’s help.

Adam returned to Lucca’s stall to see what relics she had to offer, even if he wasn’t planning on buying any right now.

< < Relics For Sale > >

< Hobgoblin Pendant (Epic) — Player becomes immune to pain | Survive a fatal hit. Relic breaks if triggered >

< Blue Trophy (Rare) — Increase Player Damage by 15% for 10 seconds. 2-minute cooldown >

< Chaos Fragment (Epic) — All Player’s equipped Relics are randomly changed to something of equal Rarity. Disappears after use >

< Anti-Toxicity Choker (Epic) — Removes toxicity, poison, and disease from anything Player ingests >

< Fiendbarb (Epic) — Imbues attacks with Blood Burst | Weapon becomes incapable of penetrating armour >

Hmm, I don’t think any of these are even useful to me. Still no idea what the point of the chaos fragment is, other than to just be a huge gamble for someone with a bad suite of relics.

“Are you buying anything?” Lucca asked hopefully.

“Not today,” he replied.

With the now 20% boost from the glass tree, my luck is at ninety, just ten shy of the limit to make legendaries guaranteed and divines possible from rarity-upgraded rewards.

I really need to get my hands on a choice ring so I can grab as many relics as possible, but it doesn’t drop until stage five…

Adam was still wondering if it was worth pushing his luck to one hundred before he went to try and find the Chaotic Convergence in the altar.

I guess I might as well, just to see what divine relic it is that Parvillo mentioned. Hopefully more will unlock with the next stage.

I just wish there was a way to get more points so I could evolve again before taking on someone else in the challenge arena.

Adam paused.

There is a way…

He let out a deep sigh and headed towards the player house.

Once he arrived, he headed around the back and found Fisher already emerging from the pond.

“How do you do, fellow fisher?” Fisher greeted him.

“How much were you willing to pay me for fish again?” he asked.

“Common fish I will buy for 100 points, uncommon for 200, rare for 300, epic for 500, and legendary for 1,000 points,” she answered.

“Do fish I catch from Interim Island count?” he asked.

“Doesn’t matter to me wherefrom they’ve been fished,” she replied. “Fish is fish, far as I’m concerned.”

Adam nodded. “I’ll have some things to sell you soon then.”

He walked past her pond and shed and headed for the edge of the island, the same place where he’d fished the clouds with Beck and Lasse. The memory brought a pang of bittersweet nostalgia.

I wonder if they all got through the Tower of Mirrors together.

He pushed the sombre thoughts from his mind as he reached the spot where he’d met with Fal the day before. As soon as his feet touched the ash she’d left behind, ash and embers started to orbit him and the grey moth appeared out of thin air.

“You have put my gift to use,” she remarked.

“The brooch?” he replied. “It activated on its own when I killed a player I knew from a different universe. I gave the soul seed it created to Meilo, but I’m not sure what the point of it is.”

“You will know when you see it bloom,” Fal replied. “Have you come to make a bargain of the soul?”

“Do you have more bargains for me than before?”

“No.”

“Then I’ll wait,” he replied. He still wanted to get the Lonesome Spire bargain, as it was the only one he thought would be worth it for him this loop.

“I will be here,” she said, before vanishing with the embers and ash, though, once again, the ash that had fallen remained where it lay atop the grass.

Adam sat down on the edge and summoned the basic fishing rod he’d bought from Fisher in the last loop.

I think she said that I was two fish short of being able to upgrade this.

Since Adam didn’t have anything better to do, he threw out his line and tried to catch something. Anything.

Two hours went by while he stared at the clouds and his hook sticking to one of them drifting below. Each time he hooked a cloud, he had to reel back in his line once the cloud drifted too far. Beck had made it seem very easy to catch the cloudfin herring, but Adam had no such luck.

That guy was a natural talent…

He had tried to remember how exactly Beck had moved his line, but in truth, he’d never paid that much attention, finding that the act of fishing required a patience he’d never cultivated, and as such his mind drifted along with the clouds.

But then something snagged on his line and started pulling hard, while the cloud his hook had sunk into was drifting away from where he sat on the edge.

Finally!

Adam jumped to his feet and pulled back against the line with all his might, hoping his basic fishing rod wouldn’t snap in half like a twig.

With a powerful tug, the hook yanked free of the cloud, a strangely-shaped fish attached to the end.

Adam reeled in the line as fast as he could, before it could wriggle lose, though it was kind of just stuck to his hook limply.

When he finally had it pulled all the way to land, he furrowed his non-existent brow in confusion.

“That’s not a fish…” he muttered to himself.

< < Fishing Relic Obtained > >

< Cloudstrider Boots (Rare) — Enables Cloudwalking | Conjure a cloud beneath your feet that lasts 30 seconds. 5-minute cooldown >