< < Now Entering > >

< Stage 3 >

< Forest Escort >

< 5 Waves >

Adam startled awake as his world shook.

He stood up in a brief moment of panic, but then realised where he was.

Orange sunset light flashed through a window nearby. The wooden interior and green bench cushions were a familiar sight. Opposite him sat Belamouranthe, wearing the green dress that Weaver had made and dangling her legs over the edge of the seat. Adam was also wearing his new set of clothes and in the right pocket of his newly-spun pants was the Spidersilk Sack he'd ordered.

Christ, I don't even remember putting these clothes on…

Emelia, Gladwyn, Beck, and Adam had talked until the Tavern closed, although the time-looper repeatedly dipped from their conversation to help out other people. The initial meeting had been slightly tense as they all tried to figure each other's motives out, but they'd left there with mutual respect he thought. Of course, Emelia had impressed upon Beck the danger inherent to the Abyssal Tooth, while he and Gladwyn had grilled her about being a time-traveller.

She'd been a lot more candid with them than Adam had expected, basically explaining how there was a way to go back in time and that she was trying to use her power to save humanity. She'd then taken over as the one providing tips for the Stages, saving Adam from having to keep the pretence that she was feeding him the info.

He'd taken the opportunity to ask more about the Hardmode for Stage Three, as well as its Secret Boss, but she'd insisted that the Hardmode would get him killed and only reiterated the facts about the boss that he'd already heard. Basically, it was a giant bat that was weak to light. It wasn't a whole lot to go off of, and he got the feeling that she'd only fought it once and didn't actually know what moves it had, perhaps because she'd killed it too quickly. Beck had insisted that he'd try to unlock the Secret Boss too, but Emelia had warned him against it and told him the sobering fact that he normally died in Stage Two during her previous loops.

Adam only needed the Secret Relic from Ezral and to kill the Secret Boss in order to unlock his third Special Denizen. He wanted the Points a lot more and really contemplated the Hardmode, but he figured that Emelia might actually be right. During his last loop, he'd breezed through the Stage thanks to the Fiendbarb, so he didn't actually know a lot about the enemies he'd be facing, so tripling their numbers was unlikely to be wise.

In the end, he'd completely forgotten to ask Gladwyn about help with Willow.

Adam was about to sit back down when suddenly the carriage jerked to a halt and the shrieking of scared horses filled the air. Adam flew forward and slammed his forehead into the wall above Belamouranthe. The crown on his head pressed into his skin and a stinging pain filled his head.

"Argh, fuck…" he muttered.

"The road is blocked!" came the driver's voice. "We have to find a way aro—!"

The crackle and snap of a spell struck the carriage and the whole vehicle shook violently for a second.

"Stay here," Adam told Belamouranthe.

"Understood," she replied.

He opened the carriage door and stepped outside, then he went around to where the drivers lay dead against the front of the carriage. The horses stomped nervously but stayed put.

The Eye appeared from between the two dead drivers and floated over to Adam.

[Stage Three will introduce objectives to the Trials. For—]

"Skip."

< < Stage Objectives > >

< Protect the carriage and the Elphin Child >

< Complete all Waves >

[Wave 1 will begin in 60 seconds.]

The stone orb with the eye appeared from thin air and floated in front of him. Unlike the last Stage, the iris was already red.

Shit, the toggle carries over between Stages…

He reached out and touched it. The world shook and the iris turned green.

< < Hardmode > >

< Deactivated >

The Hardmode switch followed him like the tesseract as he climbed up onto the driver's seat and located the silver necklace that one of them was wearing. He pulled it over the dead guy's head.

< < Secret Relic Obtained > >

< All-Mother's Wrath (Rare) — When Player is damaged by an attack, curse attacker with Lethargy for 30 seconds. 1-minute cooldown >

Hmm, the description really doesn't make it seem like Bel should be able to use this.

He was about to hop down to the road again, when he looked closer at the wounds that'd killed them. The first time he'd seen them, it had looked like they'd been shot by something that cauterised the skin, almost like a bolt of fire. But when he actually looked closer, he realised that the darkness around the wounds weren't scorch-marks, but instead some kind of necrosis.

I don't remember the boss using any attacks like that. They were all claw slashes and barriers.

Maybe it's an attack he only uses during Hardmode?

Emelia had just said that the boss got new moves with Hardmode active, but hadn't elaborated. She insisted that the tripled summons was the biggest danger.

She's probably right, but whatever spell caused these wounds is probably no joke either.

Maybe she'll be more forthcoming about specifics if I ask her after beating the Stage.

Adam slipped the necklace over his crown and let it hang over his newly-spun shirt.

Then he climbed down from the driver's seat and searched around for the pouch containing a potion. Willow had been the first one to tell him about it, but Emelia had reminded him again last night. He was actually quite impressed with how much she'd shared with Beck and Gladwyn. She'd also told them what kind of setups they should aim for. Apparently, she really wanted Gladwyn to lean into his Defender role, since he could become very useful to groups later, although this last part she'd only told Adam.

He ended up finding a little leather pouch by the back wheel, and sure enough, there was a small healing potion inside. The pouch didn't disintegrate when he picked it up, so he tied it to the front of his belt and left the potion inside.

With all the hidden loot out of the way, Adam walked down the small slope from the road where the carriage was stopped and towards the treeline in the distance. He summoned a barrier and turned it into a sawblade with thirty angled teeth, then he ran it along the trees, cutting halfway through as many as he could until the Eye announced that the time was up. Somehow, the barrier had survived without a single crack and it seemed that the shape mattered a lot when he was using it like a spinning blade, perhaps because friction normally damaged it.

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Should be easy enough to remove all the shadows caused by the trees when the Secret Boss appears, he thought to himself. This hadn't been one of Emelia's suggestions, but if he didn't remove the canopy shadows from the forest, his only other choice was to fight on the road next to the carriage, which seemed profoundly stupid.

He also figured that the trees might be useful in a pinch if he struggled to deal with the Slothling Ogre.

< < Wave One > >

< 60-Second Timer >

As the rustle of the first enemy came from ahead of him behind the treeline, Adam quickly shaped the barrier into a hollow tube and lifted it in the air in front of himself.

The moment that the Slothling Imp emerged, Adam shot the tube forward. The imp cackled and launched itself at him, but immediately collided with the barrier, which pierced all the way through its round furry body, such that half the length of the tube was poking out on either side of it. Instead of falling to the ground, the imp just floated there, stuck on his barrier.

Then Adam let the tube unfold and the imp simply exploded from within. Left behind was a perfect cylinder of imp flesh and fur that'd been formed by the hollow tube. The rest of the enemy was splattered about the place.

I can't tell if the Cruel Summoner's Gauntlets actually affected it or not. But I don't think so.

Maybe Ezral's summons don't count?

A firefly of soul essence floated from its remains and into his lantern. It was bigger than the ones from the dummies.

Adam grinned. Using the enemy's speed against itself had been an obvious strategy, but he hadn't expected it to work quite this well.

[Excellent! You cleared the Wave within 5 seconds.]

He quickly switched to the wand, just as the announcement appeared.

< < Wave One Complete > >

< Choose your Upgrade >

Maybe I can use the tube shape to safely harvest the cores inside the blood elementals and defeat them in the same way as the imp.

The Eye unfolded itself and Adam looked through the rewards.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Spell Damage (Rare) — Increases spell damage by 15% >

< Casting Effect (Rare) — Increases casting responsiveness by 35% >

< Health (Rare) — Increases health by 5 >

A shame that Rare Health is only a 5-point increase, but Rare or even Uncommon Defence is definitely worth grabbing if it shows up.

Casting Effect would be good, if I was actually planning on using the wand, which I'm not.

Given how broadly Spell Damage from the Summoner applies, I've gotta grab it. It should increase the damage of my barrier after all, since that's a spell.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Spell Damage (Rare) >

Adam folded the barrier back into a tube again and swung it through the air, preparing to quickly deal with the Blood Golem when it appeared. The air through the rapidly-moving tube produced a strange whooom sound.

< < Wave Two > >

< 90-Second Timer >

The treeline trembled and a large hand of liquid blood emerged.

Adam didn't waste a moment and shot the tube forward right as the golem pushed through and its core was visible.

Unlike when he'd had the Fiendbarb, the golem didn't immediately succumb to his attack. Instead its body became hard as the surface facing him turned solid.

It swung its big hand and knocked the barrier aside. Adam managed to retain his shaping effect on it, but the strike had been enough to crack it. His Dented Crown triggered the Last Stand's Fervour and a red glow suffused the spell.

He started shaping it into a sawblade, but then the golem swung its fist forward and the liquid hand detached, becoming solid as it flew towards Adam.

Adam immediately resummoned the barrier in front of himself, catching the fist. It struck with enough force to push the barrier back into Adam and immediately cracked, turning red. Then the fist exploded and sent blood shrapnel everywhere.

Thanks to Last Stand's Fervour, the barrier was invulnerable for 10 seconds and none of the projectiles managed to pierce through and hit him. With a quick gesture he shot the barrier forward, shaping it into a tight cone mid-air.

Even though the golem hardened its body to stop it from piercing, the shape was like an icepick that easily pierced its tough exterior. Adam pushed it all the way into the blood golem's torso, before letting it unfurl like an umbrella.

The elemental's top-half exploded and covered the treeline behind it. Adam quickly changed the shape into a tube and moved it around the partially-exposed stone core. Then he wrenched the barrier back towards himself, yanking the core free of the elemental's body.

Its shape lost coherence and became a puddle of blood on the forest floor. Another large firefly of soul essence flew into Adam's lantern.

He quickly summoned a new barrier, replacing the other one a single second before its Fervour was set to expire and the Cruel Summoner's Gauntlets would've made it explode.

[Excellent! You cleared the Wave within 15 seconds.]

Adam switched to the wand again.

< < Wave Two Complete > >

< Choose your Upgrade >

That almost went sideways… The tube-shape definitely only works if the target is squishy or moving fast enough. Perhaps I should work some more on shaping the edges to make them sharper.

That sort of shape was a lot harder to maintain for him, since he had to mentally keep track of all the edges, along with their positions.

He stooped to pick up his prize, while the Eye unfolded itself into the podium.

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Blood Elemental Core (Common) — The hardened soul of a Blood Elemental >

The coconut-sized core seemed a lot more powerful than the ones from the slimes, but would sell for the same price since it was still Common, which felt like a rip-off.

Maybe they're worth more to Finnian?

I could also try giving it to one of the elementals in Wave Five, although that would just make the challenge harder for no extra gain. Maybe I'm better off cracking it and using it to kill one of them quickly.

Adam pulled out the Spidersilk Sack and put the core inside, before leaving it next to a tree since he couldn't carry it around while fighting. Then he turned his attention to the upgrades.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Spell Speed (Rare) — Increases spell speed by 35% >

< Casting Range (Rare) — Increases casting range by 35% >

< Movement (Rare) — Increases movement speed by 15% >

Spell Speed is the obvious choice here. With that I should have 90% total speed for my barrier, unless they interact multiplicatively, in which case it would be more like 109%.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Spell Speed (Rare) >

He folded the barrier into the narrow cone shape again, but left a small hole at the tip to reduce drag. When he swung it around, it definitely felt a lot faster than just moments prior, but it was impossible to conclude if that meant the two separate speed buffs were multiplicative or additive.

< < Wave Three > >

< 90-Second Timer >

The treeline rustled and Adam backed up slightly while flinging the cone directly at the imp emerging to his left. Fuzzy black fur poked out from the trees, but the imp didn't even have the chance to look around before he drove his barrier right into its body and let it unfurl.

As it exploded in a shower of gore and fleshy bits, Adam resummoned the barrier and flung it at the other imp to his right, which had just locked eyes on him.

[Warning! Mana below 50%.]

The soul essence of the first imp flew into his lantern, as the other one launched itself right at him before he could shape the barrier. Instead he induced a spin in the vertical pane of magical glass, while moving it around so that the imp collided with the edge.

A horrendous tearing sound emerged from the lesser demon as its own momentum and the rapid spin of the barrier caused it to be perfectly split in half. Its blood and guts plopped onto the forest floor, some of it splattering onto Adam's shoes.

Another soul essence entered his lantern.

Hmm, I thought for sure that each of these large souls would count for double. Guess I still need to get at least one more kill to power it. But that would be awkward, since it would trigger on the Ogre and then just go to waste…

[Excellent! You cleared the Wave within 10 seconds.]

Adam switched to the wand again.

I should've activated the Hardmode after all.

My barrier has gotten strong enough that I doubt even the Slothling Ogre will pose a challenge.

< < Wave Three Complete > >

< Choose your Upgrade >

The impact with the barrier's edge had caused the spell to crack, and Adam summoned a new one.

[Warning! Mana below 30%.]

The wooziness hit him, but it was not as bad as before, since practicing and repeatedly exhausting his Mana had help build up a tolerance.

"Shitbox, don't alert me to low Mana unless it is at 25% or less."

[Understood.]

Adam sat down to recoup his Mana. He looked at the three options available to him this time. One had gone up to Epic rarity, which was lucky.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Spell Size (Rare) — Increases spell size by 45% >

< Casting Range (Epic) — Increases casting range by 50% >

< Defence (Rare) — Increases all defence by 15% >

Finally, a Defence buff.

Shame that the Epic was for Casting Range, although a 50% increase is pretty powerful.

"Select Defence when there is 1 second remaining."

[Understood.]

Adam spent the remainder of the time 'meditating' while playing around with the shape of his barrier, trying to figure out what would work best to take down the Ogre.

When his break came to an end, he had settled on a tube-like screw shape. It was difficult to maintain coherence for, especially when he induced a spin in it. Unlike the normal tube shape, this one had the corner of the folded square as the 'tip', which would make it better at piercing.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Defence (Rare) >

< < Wave Four > >

< 150-Second Timer >

Alright, you big bastard, come on out.

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