Adam hacked his barrier into the abdomen of the last Statue Element, separating its torso from its legs. He had already removed its head and arms and now just a slab of stone sculpted like a man's chest lay before him.

He formed the barrier into a simple pick and started chipping away to reveal the glass core in the centre little by little.

Since he had to clear the oval chamber with the eyeless statue before he could use the Skyblue Pearl, he wanted to ascertain if it was possible to harvest the Statue Elementals' cores or not, since he had time to be meticulous now.

That being said, he'd already destroyed the last two cores, even though he was extra careful. It also didn't help that they still moved even after all their limbs were chopped off.

His barrier pick struck the torso stone and perfectly split it down the middle. Adam thought he'd screwed up until he saw that the core within was completely intact. A soul essence left its body and went into the Wraith Lantern.

"Finally!" he said excitedly.

He lifted the glass core up to his eye to give it a closer look.

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Statue Elemental Core (Uncommon) — The crystallised soul of a Statue Elemental >

That's the first Uncommon core I've found. I wonder if it'll be worth more than just the normal selling price of an Uncommon Relic.

Adam put the core into the already-full Spidersilk Sack and got up from the floor. Then he went over to the statue missing its left eye and pulled the Skyblue Pearl from his pocket where he'd kept it next to the Lucky Stone. He still couldn't get himself to use that Relic, since it might be really powerful later on.

He read through the description one more time before slotting it into the hollow eye-socket of the spear-wielding statue.

< < Collectible Relic > >

< Skyblue Pearl (Rare) — Thine eyes hold a power oft forlorn, oft forgotten to time, oft lost to conflict. An unclouded gaze is the key to a world of secrets and thine eyes are a gift from on high >

The pearl fit snugly inside the statue's eye-socket. Once fully inserted, it glowed briefly before the statue and the wall it stood up against swung inwards, revealing a small hidden chamber with a stone chest inside. It was just like the Orb of Insight had shown him.

Adam went inside and opened the chest. It didn't look any different from the rest, but what lay within was the first of its kind he'd found in the Trials.

< < Map Obtained > >

< Golden Map — Follow the trail of this map at thine own peril, but at its end awaits a treasure unlike anything known to thee >

He lifted it up into the light of a yellow gem in the ceiling. It was a round piece of tough canvas with flecks of gold on it depicting what looked like islands. It was impossible to tell what exactly was depicted, but one of the golden spots had a black X on it. It was clearly a treasure map.

I wonder what Stage it's for.

Adam left the secret chamber and put the map into the sack.

Before I go take on the Deathguard, I should return to that chest I passed by.

He shaped his barrier into a sled, but before he got on, he unequipped the Affliction Ward and equipped the Fetish of Sloth.

I wonder if I get anything for defeating the Secret Bosses. Unless the stone spear is the reward.

I've got the feeling that there are no normal Relic Chests or Upgrade Rewards for this Stage.

But whatever, I've collected a fortune in Relics already.

He flew through the tunnels and chambers until he returned to the stone chest he'd abandoned earlier. After pushing it open he found what looked like a small stylised sword carved from stone.

< < Relic > >

< Stone Talisman (Uncommon) — Sacrifice the Relic to curse a target with Wither, increasing damage inflicted to target by 50% with the next attack >

This is the exact same as Sylvia's Desiccate Spell Scroll. But it isn't bad. With my two earrings, the way my barriers double their damage when fused together, and now this, I should be able to one-shot one of the Deathguard bosses. My imps will deal with the other two.

Adam put the Talisman in his left pocket and got back on his barrier. Then he took the shortest route to the hallway with the false dead-end.

On the way there he stopped to get enough kills to set his Wraith Lantern at four out of five soul essences, preparing it for the boss fight. The plan was to summon his imps at the start and use the Stone Talisman on the boss they didn't end up targeting, before killing it with the first strike of his barrier. Then its death would trigger the two wraiths to clean up the rest.

In theory it seemed a pretty solid strategy, but he had no idea if he'd be able to pull it off that smoothly.

He reached the false dead-end near the eastern stairwell and scanned the walls for the statue that would open the way. There were several paths like that and this one didn't seem any different at first glance.

Without the Orb of Insight, how would anyone know there was a false wall here? Adam wondered to himself as he dismounted the barrier.

Even with the Orb, he wouldn't have known it was this hallway either, since they all looked the same and the vision had only given him a quick glance.

The Secrets are all seemingly made for the time-loopers. That seems kind of unfair.

Although, Beck managed to find the Secret Weapon in the last Stage.

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I wonder how him and Gladwyn are doing. I can't tell if they are strong enough to win their Altar fights since I don't know what they're up against, but they've both been achieving the special bonuses, so maybe they'll be fine.

But all it takes is one mistake.

At least their fates aren't sealed in stone, thanks to encountering Emelia and me.

It's up to them to make their own fates with the power they've been given.

And knowing them, they'll definitely survive.

Adam reached out and grabbed the right sword of a dual-wielding statue.

I guess this is the one difference in this hallway, he realised. After all, there are no dual-wielding statues elsewhere.

The moment he pulled down the sword, a loud grating sound came from the end of the hallway as the back wall swung open to reveal darkness.

Adam moved the barrier out in front of him and shaped it into the narrow cone, refining its shape until it was like the tip of a spear. He'd noticed from a few tests in the Player House with the fused barrier that it actually slowed down if he put a hole at the tip of the cone shape. He'd also realised that if he really concentrated, then he could make its shape extremely narrow. It was different from folding the barrier, but seemed equally strong. The way the impact worked with the folded barrier probably made it stronger in most situations, since it seemed to involve some odd physics when it was folded, but in terms of explosive force, the unfolding of the cone shape was unrivalled. Interestingly, hammering the cone-tip into a target and letting it unfurl was counted as the same attack. Given that he had two First Strike Earrings, it basically guaranteed that anything he used the cone unfurl trick on would die immediately, unless he missed.

He looked to the Eye floating next to him. "How does the Stone Talisman work? Does it take up a belt slot?"

[Yes.]

So, I'll have to swap to the Talisman after using the Fetish of Sloth.

"If I unequip the Fetish after activating it, do the summons remain?"

[Yes.]

That seems pretty open to exploitation, but that's only a good thing for me. I should keep the other Fetish so I can use both once its 3-Stage cooldown wears off.

Adam rolled his shoulders.

He was ready.

With the green-and-gold spell-tome in his left hand, the flaming white barrier in front of him and spinning, and the Fetish of Sloth in his right hand, he entered the darkness.

The moment Adam's foot crossed the threshold, gems in the ceiling of the hidden chamber lit up with a dull orange hue. It was a lot bigger than he realised, maybe 10 metres wide and 20 deep. In the back was the shrine he'd seen in his vision. It was a rectangular stone engraved with patterns and imagery which reached to about the middle of Adam's chest. Two stone hands reached up from the top of the block at either end, and a dark spear rested atop them.

A few metres in front of the shrine stood the three Elphin he'd seen. The Deathwatch, Emelia had called them. They had dark-grey muscular bodies, completely black eyes, no hair, and just wore simple white cloth skirts. In a way, they reminded him of the Forlorn, since they were clearly not alive in the true sense of the word.

He hadn't noticed their weapons in the vision from the Orb, but they all had two swords each, hanging from their hips and made of the same dark stone as the spear they were protecting.

< < Secret Bosses Discovered > >

< Elphin Deathguard >

Before they could move, Adam squeezed the Fetish of Sloth and summoned the two imps. As the violet light coalesced in front of him and took form, the Committed Attack Ring on his right hand vibrated, begging him to activate it.

I'm not adding two extra Stages to its cooldown just to make this easier…

The moment the two Slothling Imps were fully formed, the Deathguard trio shot forward, clearly considering their summoning a hostile action.

"Swap Fetish with Stone Talisman," he said while switching his eyes to the left-most Deathguard, which the imps weren't targeting.

[Understood.]

The carved stone sword trinket appeared in his right hand, swapping places with the dried black worm. At the same time, the two imps collided with the two other Elphin, claws striking blades with loud metallic echoes.

Adam fired the spear-tip barrier at the remaining Deathguard while also aiming the Talisman at him. The very act of pointing the stone blade at a target was enough to activate it. The Talisman shot a sandy-brown light at the Elphin charging him before crumbling into sand in Adam's hand.

His barrier made a whistling sound as it flew through the air and he just barely noticed that the skin of the Deathguard he'd cursed was rapidly ageing as the narrow cone struck. The sharp tip of the barrier planted itself to the left of the Elphin's nose and caused him to stumble.

Then Adam wrenched his right hand violently through the air and unfurled the shape.

Bang!

The Deathguard's head became a mist of dark blood, and his body dropped to the floor with a thud. A large soul essence, similar in size to the essences of the Forlorn Knights, emerged from the corpse and floated towards his Wraith Lantern.

Adam didn't wait for it to reach his Relic and trigger the wraiths. Instead he quickly reshaped the barrier and flung it towards the other two bosses who were in the midst of trading blows with the imps.

The barrier pierced the side of the nearest Deathguard's head, just as the other one finished off his imp. As Adam unfurled the hastily-shaped cone and popped open the Elphin's cranium, the last one decapitated the remaining imp and surged towards Adam.

Two shrieks filled the air as another headless body thumped to the floor, and Adam resummoned the barriers in front of himself. The wraiths moved through his defence, but the Deathguard was unfazed by them, performing a simple cross-slash through their translucent bodies without stopping.

To Adam's surprise, the wraiths simply fell apart into pieces. Whatever material the swords were made of, it had the ability to not only damage incorporeal beings, but also basically one-shot them without letting his crown's effect save them.

Shit.

Adam shoved his barriers forwards when the Deathguard got close, managing to catch him mid-step and knocking him onto his ass.

Instead of trying to attack with the barriers, Adam ran forward while pressing them down against the sitting Elphin, shaping them around his arms and shoulders to keep him locked in place. He struggled admirably, but he couldn't even lift his swords to strike the barriers.

Adam clenched his left hand and punched the incapacitated Deathguard in the head, releasing a spike of blood from the ring he'd looted off the Crusader.

Schiiing!

A metre-long crimson spike pushed through the Elphin's dark-grey bald head, spattering the ground with dark blood. The Committed Attack Ring vibrated again, wanting him to double-trigger the Blood Fist Ring, but the Deathguard was already dead.

Adam stepped back, pulling the spike free from the boss' head and revealing the massive hole he'd created. The blood forming the spike swirled and moved back to his hand, becoming a ring once more.

This thing is pretty damn strong. No wonder Emelia warned us about it.

Shirong must've had a lot of Health or Defence if Zania needed to strike him twice to kill him, he considered.

I think I'll keep it unless I find a better ring or glove. The Cruel Summoner's Gauntlets are very situational and kind of a liability, so swapping them out won't really change much anyway.

Perhaps I can fuse the blood spike with my barriers as well, that'd probably be powerful.

[10 minutes remaining.]

I wonder what the Speedrun time was for this Stage. Maybe 8 minutes or something?

I've at least got the All Secrets, Flawless, and Secret Boss in the bag. They should give a good amount. But still nothing compared to all the Relics I collected though.

I feel like after this Stage all Players who survived will have a massive spike in power because of all the Points they can get.

At the cost of the survivors being cut down by more than 80%, of course…

Adam walked past the dead Elphin to the shrine and reached out to grab the weapon. Emelia had called it a stone spear, but it was more like one big piece of dark flint rock.

< < Secret Weapon Obtained > >

< Solbor (Rare) — Spear of a forgotten Elphin hero >

< Unique Skill ( Scattershot ) | Launch the tip of the spear forward as a barrage of piercing darts >

That sounds pretty good, especially if all the boosts on the spear affect the attack. And if they count as separate attacks, it could be a way to stack afflictions or something. It might also benefit from projectile boosts.

[You are already carrying two weapons and cannot carry a third. Would you like to swap one of your weapons to wield this weapon?]

"No thanks."

The spear slipped from his hands as though he'd let go of it, clattering back down onto the stone hands it had rested on.

"Can I not bring it with me?"

[You cannot carry a third weapon.]

"Not even if I put it in my Spidersilk Sack?"

[No.]

"But I'm allowed to carry all the Relics I can't equip?"

[Yes.]

Adam sighed.

"That's nonsense."

He tried to grab the spear again.

The Eye repeated itself, [You are already carrying two weapons and cannot carry a third. Would you like to swap one of your weapons to wield this weapon?]

"No…"

Once more the spear slipped from his hands.

That's such a bizarre limitation…

Although to be fair, I would've just stuck it in my Player House with Gram.

"Whatever," he muttered and made to leave the chamber.

He paused mid-step.

"It still counts for the All Secrets bonus even if I don't have it on me, right?"

[Yes.]

Thank God.

Adam left the secret area and returned to the Altar. It was finally time to figure out which deity he would worship.

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