Adam walked around behind the Altar without actually stepping onto it, using his barrier to pull Shirong's body towards him.

"Loot," he said.

< < Loot ­— Shirong Zhang > >

< Bone Armour (Uncommon) >

< Fragile Impact Glove (Uncommon) >

< Stone Bracer (Uncommon) >

Stone Bracer? That one's new.

< < Relic > >

< Stone Bracer (Uncommon) — Sacrifice the Relic to prevent a target from activating Relics for 30 seconds | When the Relic breaks, all of wearer's Relics are put on a 2-minute cooldown >

Yikes, that's a nasty backlash effect on the user, but it's got a lot of potential if you're focused on just using your weapon to fight other Players.

Adam looted the three Relics and brought them over to the pile next to Zania's body, before pushing it all onto the Altar platform. He then used his barrier to move the heavy Spidersilk Sack onto the stone disc as well, taking a moment to lift the other Relics on top of the sack, stacking them precariously. Lastly, he carefully pushed the barrier underneath the sack and lifted it and all the contents up off the floor.

He took a deep breath and walked onto the Altar platform, quickly putting his left hand on the floating Spidersilk Sack, hoping that simply having contact with the thing would count as him holding it.

[You have reached the Altar,] the Eye announced. [Place your hand on the Worshipping Stone to lay your claim.]

Adam reached down to touch the round stone in the centre of the fifteen plinths.

< < Stage Alert > >

< Player Adam has claimed the Altar >

[Congratulations! You have defeated all your opponents and successfully claimed the Altar.]

< < Stage Complete > >

< Tallying Score >

I just realised that the Hardmode eyeball thing didn't show up this time around. I guess that makes sense.

Alright, let's see what I got. I'm guessing the actual deity selection thing comes after this.

< < Score > >

< 24 Minutes 03 Seconds Completion Time >

< 3 Players slain >

< 1000 Point Secret Boss Bonus added >

< 800 Point Flawless Bonus added >

< 150 Point All Secrets Bonus added >

< 0 Damage Received >

< 3200 Points Awarded >

It counts how many Players I kill, so there's gotta be some bonus for killing everyone…

"What was the Speedrun time for this Stage?" he asked the Eye.

[10 minutes.]

"Besides Speedrun, what other bonuses did I miss? Is there one for killing all the statues?"

[I cannot say.]

Figures.

Adam sighed.

Then the whole world blinked.

Adam reappeared exactly where he'd just been standing, except all his Relics were gone, as well as the Spidersilk Sack, the Eye, and his weapons. He wore the clothes he'd arrived to the Trials with, not the Spidersilk variants made by Weaver.

I feel naked without all my stuff…

Around him, eight of the fifteen plinths were lit up with potential energy. The Altar was made of solid stone, but the platform under his feet was full of channels like the one in the Elphin city, and the drip water from the stalactites filled them.

Adam stooped down and picked up the stone orb at the centre of the platform. The moment he touched it, all the water under his feet stopped moving, becoming perfectly reflective.

Am I in a cutscene again? he wondered, since the movement had not been his own.

His eyes ran along the plinths from left to right. The first three were lit up with a white haze, almost like the way heat waves were visible in the horizon during a hot day. The fourth was unlit, but the next two were. Then his eyes reached the big four, where the first two were active and the last two weren't. Of the last five plinths, only the second one was lit up.

Suddenly the stone in Adam's arms felt heavy and painful to carry. He recognised the sensation of the cutscene letting go of him.

< < Worship > >

< Select the Absolute you wish to serve >

The voice was that of the System, the same one he'd heard in the darkness. It was his voice, but it was spoken through an alien mouth that gave it extra bass and authority.

Adam looked to the lone one on his right.

< < Nwetrou > >

< Lord of Black Holes and Deep Places >

< Primogenitor of Gluttony >

< Boon: Breathe underwater | Black Ponds traversal >

So that's how it shows up. I thought for a second I'd just have to guess what each one did. It doesn't show the negative effect though, but I'm guessing it's connected to the Abyssal Tooth or something.

Being able to breathe underwater is pretty useless right now, but it might turn out useful later on. The 'Black Ponds traversal' must have something to do with the pond I saw in Skǫll's chamber.

Still, serving Nwetrou is bound to force me into permanently sacrificing other Players. I don't think I'd ever pick this option, it's clearly meant to just fuck up the Trials.

Adam moved his gaze to the two big plinths that were lit up. The normal plinths went up to his hip, while the big four were only slightly shorter than him. He'd really have to lift the orb high to get it into the cavity at the top of either of them.

< < The Void > >

< Lord of Nothingness >

< The dark of the cosmos, the null and the empty >

< Boon: The End to the Suffering >

< < The Eternal Serpent > >

< Lord of Eternity >

< Icon of immortality and time >

< Boon: Pause Time for 10 seconds (1-Stage Cooldown) >

The Void… What a creepy option to give Players in the Stage where they are forced to kill other people to survive…

He thought of Zania and Ajani Lewis. They wouldn't have been able to both claim the Altar, and if Adam had died, one of them would've had to kill the other. Right after that, they'd then get faced with the option to end their own suffering. It was messed up, he thought. Like the whole point was to antagonise the Players.

The System's voice filled his head. "The suffering fuels me," it had said.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Perhaps the Void isn't actually an evil choice. It is perhaps the greatest defiance one could show the System. Instead of playing along with its game, we are allowed to decide that we won't go any further.

Of course, we've always had that option. They put the safe zone on a floating island for a reason…

Adam already knew what the demerit for the Eternal Serpent was, since Emelia had told him. It doubled the duration of all effects on the Player, good and bad, which could actually be quite powerful if you knew how to manage it.

The next plinth showed him the Absolute that Emelia normally picked.

< < Messimer > >

< Lord of Adjudication >

< Envoy of the Watcher of Worlds >

< Boon: Appraising Eye >

Lord of Adjudication? Makes him sound like someone who enforces the rules almost. I wonder if the Appraising Eye is part of his character perhaps. But he's also clearly here on behalf of the All-Seeing System aka the Watcher. I guess the downside to running the Trials is that the Watcher can't participate himself…

Adam looked at the next plinth, adjusting his grip on the heavy orb in his arms. He was fairly sure dropping the stone would not be a good idea.

< < Morrligt > >

< Lord of Solar Flares and Flensing Wind >

< Primogenitor of Wrath >

< Boon: Sun Flare spell >

This is the one Emelia recommended I pick. One thing that makes these choices a bit difficult is that I don't know the demerits of most of them, and I have no idea what powers they unlock later. It's conceivable that something that starts off weak could end up very strong later on as a form of balance.

I wonder what the Primogenitor part of the description means, but Wrath is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, so maybe there's an Absolute for each of the Sins?

The next plinth was unlit, but the last three weren't and he scanned them all in a row.

< < Nharlla > >

< Lord of Transformation and Hallucinations >

< Sire of Mimics >

< Boon: Rearrange Player Stats >

< < The All-Mother > >

< Lord of Sustenance and Fertility >

< Mother of all Elphin >

< Boon: All-Mother's Fruit (1-Stage Cooldown) >

< < The Tome Keeper > >

< Lord of Knowledge and Curiosity >

< Primogenitor of Greed >

< Boon: Erudition Barter >

The Tome Keeper is an unfamiliar name. I don't think Emelia knows about this one. But Greed is such an insidious vice, though I suppose it makes sense for a deity whose name implies they hoard knowledge.

I know the weaknesses of the All-Mother and Nharlla, but not Morrligt, Messimer, or the Tome Keeper. Although Emelia told me about Messimer's second weakness, which seemed problematic.

As for the Boon unlocked by the Tome Keeper, it sounds like it might be a trade of knowledge. At least if I'm understanding 'erudition' correctly. If it really works how I believe it does, it could help me find out how to defy this Stage.

If I ever end up with Willow or one of my other friends pitted against me, I need to know of a way to save them.

Adam tried to ask a question, but he was physically unable to open his mouth. Besides, the Eye was nowhere in sight, so he doubted he'd even get an answer. It was just him and this momentous decision.

I have no idea what triggered the Tome Keeper to appear, so I think I should pick it now. I know how Morrligt appears, so I can always try him out in my next loop. Unlike Emelia, it doesn't matter if I make a bad decision here, since my death will help me learn more and guide me in the future.

Of course, I'd rather not pick something that clearly kills me… But I would be lying if the idea of a God of Knowledge didn't entice me.

Adam had decided on his pick and slowly laboured his way towards the plinth while the stone orb weighed him down. His arms were full of staticky numbness and his lower back was killing him. He hadn't felt any sensations like these since entering the Trials, and he had the uncanny sense that this current version of himself was the 'mortal' one. The version of him without the System's power heaped on top.

With a groan, he lifted the stone orb up over his waist and deposited it in the recess at the top of the plinths.

All of the other plinths were snuffed out, their potential energy running through the reflective water in the disc below his feet and up into the chosen one with the orb on top.

< < Worship Chosen > >

< The Tome Keeper >

Darkness surrounded Adam, pulling him away from the Stage and its stone tunnels and chambers.

< < Now Entering > >

< The Fleshcrafter's Abode >

Adam opened his eyes and realised he was walking through a vast quivering hallways made of organic material. It was yet another cutscene, for which he was grateful, because the sight of the living and breathing walls terrified him, making him want to turn around and find the nearest exit.

In front of him walked a tall and muscular man. His hair was shock-white and it seemed like he had a mask on his face. Disturbingly, he wore a patchwork coat of skin, as though taken from many unwilling donors and stitched together to form a robe.

Is this the point where I realise I made a mistake? Adam wondered.

Emelia hadn't mentioned anything about being transported somewhere after selecting who to worship, but he got the uncanny sense that this was the domain of the Tome Keeper, because as he advanced through the living hallways, he saw signs of living experiments and monstrosities best described as creatures born of curiosity.

His guide led him through an arboretum that seemed to house thousands of unique trees, a few of which he recognised, but no two the same. The ceiling here was made of glass and showed an inky black with the glowing dots of stars. Strange silvery stilt-legged creations meandered about, pruning, trimming, and tending to the trees.

From the arboretum he came through a lab of sorts. Within were simian creatures performing vivisections on screaming and frothing monsters, as well as constructs of bone and muscle assembling their own companions from pulsing vats of flesh and shelves of organised and labelled bones.

Then they entered into a library ten stories tall, each floor simply a balcony ring around the walls upon which were countless creatures. These too were like monsters and moved up-and-down ladders or climbed on the shelves to organise and sort the impossibly-vast collection of books. Several of them took to the air on improvised wings after finding what they were looking for, only to go higher up or further down to place their book somewhere else.

Adam's attention snapped back down to what was right in front of him, when his guide stopped by a round wooden table upon which rested an enormous tome with pages a metre wide. His tall muscular and masked guide stepped around the table and stood behind the chair upon which sat a youth.

But it was no mere child before him. He had skin like liquid porcelain in perpetual motion and his eyes were like windows into the cosmos, showing tiny galaxies and their light. Like the tall man behind him, the youth wore a hooded robe made from skin, except it was the skin of demonic creatures from the looks of it, as there were horns and bristly hairs poking up here-and-there, and a moving tail flicked about as though responding to the youth's enjoyment of the tome he was reading.

The tome itself was seemingly alive, since the words on its pages hopped and danced around, fighting to avoid comprehension.

The Tome Keeper looked up at Adam, his very gaze pulling him out of the cutscene controlling his body.

"I'm glad you chose me, Adam," said the youth. His voice didn't betray the insane power visible in his eyes nor the authority with which he surely ruled this absurd domain of monsters and scientific perversion.

Although Adam had a million questions, many of them existential and horrifying to know the answer to, he knew to not interrupt the Absolute seated before him.

"You possess knowledge that I do not have," the Tome Keeper explained. "I wanted it for my collection."

Something skittered past Adam and the breath died in his lungs as he saw it was a giant spider made of bones, with its legs all tipped with fingers. A large bird made of shadow and bone alighted next to the Tome Keeper's seat. Its face was like a barn owl's but carved from bone, though the eyes were very real. Two skeletal arms emerged from its coat of shadowy feathers, holding a pen and an open book, ready to transcribe what was said between them.

What the fuck is happening??

Adam opened his mouth and it terrified him to realise that the entire library full of creatures fell silent such that his voice was not overshadowed.

"What is the knowledge I have that you wish to know?" he asked.

"That is the trouble, of course," said the porcelain youth with the cosmic eyes. "I know that you possess it, but I do not know what it is."

"Difficult. Every time."

Adam nearly jumped out of his skin at the utterance of the tall man standing behind the Absolute.

"I think I know what it is," Adam said.

"Excellent," the Tome Keeper replied, seeming almost gleeful.

The shadow bird scribe fixed its eyes on him expectantly.

"Do I receive knowledge in return?" Adam asked.

The tall muscular man grunted humourlessly, his dark eyes staring daggers at him.

"Blame not the beast, Heskel," said the Tome Keeper. "It is fair to want compensation, after all."

Adam swallowed. The tall man with the mask and skin robe somehow terrified him more than the shadowy barn owl or the literal God in front of him.

Deciding it was best not to test his patience, Adam quickly explained the knowledge he was absolutely certain only one other entity possessed: how he was able to loop back in time across universes.

It wasn't a long story, but it felt like it took forever due to the fact that the library, which thronged with creatures and constructs, was so quiet that nothing but Adam's voice was heard.

When he was done, the shadowy barn owl snapped its book closed and withdrew its skeletal arms into its dark coat before taking off into the air to presumably store the new knowledge somewhere far above.

"Thank you, Adam. What a fascinating new bit of knowledge I have gleaned from you," said the Tome Keeper.

The masked man, Heskel, grunted and the youth quickly added, "I almost forgot, you may ask your question now. If I know the answer, it is yours to have."

Adam had several questions he wanted to ask, such as, "How do I win the Trials of Defiance?", "How can I survive Stage Eight?", and "What happens if I die and loop enough times to run out of universes to replace myself in?"

He also wanted to ask more philosophical questions like, "What's the meaning of life?"

In the end, he asked, "How do I defy Stage Five and save other Players without dying myself?"

Heskel made a surprised sound.

"Excellent question," the Tome Keeper responded. "I am glad you did not waste your question on something pointless and irrelevant. Even Heskel seems impressed."

Despite the praise, Adam feared that the answer wouldn't be useful to him.

Instead of answering like normal, the Tome Keeper put a liquid porcelain hand on the large tome in front of him on the table. Adam noticed that the hand had two too many fingers and shuddered. Then the Absolute made a simple flicking gesture and text lifted from the large page and flew right into Adam's forehead like a spell.

The answer to his question planted itself in his mind and spread its contents across his memory as though he'd always known.

The answer isn't simple, but it's also not impossibly complex.

Emelia could already pull it off.

To save another Player in Stage Five, there were three requirements: the First Light's Brazier with a mature flame to spawn a Kindling Flame at the start of a loop; a Visiting Stone to travel to another Player's Dimension to give them the Kindling Flame after Stage One so it had time to mature before Stage Five; and both Players had to meet in the same instance of Stage Five and avoid killing any Players before claiming the Altar together, as well as any Players or Interim Denizens up until that point.

If it was possible to have several Players start off with the mature First Light's Flame, then it was technically possible to save a lot more people from having to die to the Stage.

Fortunately, even though it seemed the First Light was the Absolute responsible for making the act of saving another Player possible, the Players saved this way and the Player saving them were not required to Worship the Absolute.

However, it wouldn't be feasible for me to attempt, unless I can immediately figure out who I'm up against in Stage Five when I go to a new dimension. My only real hope for pulling it off would be to get the Self-devouring Eye.

But I'd also need the Scale of Remembrance to make someone else believe that I am worth trusting enough to attempt the trick with me in Stage Five.

Maybe I could pull it off in this universe. I'm so much stronger this time and might actually be able to get to the Divine Relic, though I'm sure Emelia would fight me for it.

Adam blinked, realising he was getting lost in his thoughts while standing in front of the Tome Keeper. To his credit, the Absolute didn't seem bothered by it, though the body language of Heskel suggested he'd overstayed his welcome.

"Thank you," Adam said sincerely.

The God looked up at him again and said, "I will call upon you if you find knowledge that I would like to barter with you for."

"I don't have any other knowledge you'd like to know?" Adam asked, jumping on the opportunity to get as much out of this bizarre but enlightening meeting as possible.

"No, Adam," said the Tome Keeper. "There is nothing else that you know which I am not already in possession of."

That's creepy…

Heskel grunted.

"I do not care if it sounds creepy, it is simply the truth," the Absolute said, making it clear the masked man had made a comment similar to Adam.

The Tome Keeper turned his gaze back to him and said, "The Watcher rewards us for guiding Players like yourself through its Trials, so I must ask you to seek the Godstone on my behalf. If you survive and obtain it, I shall reward you a second Boon as a sign of my favour."

Adam was about to ask what he meant, but the Absolute continued and said, "Do not tell Emelia about me and our meeting, nor anyone else for that matter. I am allowed to intervene though I would prefer not to, so do not violate this simple rule of mine."

Heskel's stare intensified and Adam had a new fear added to his list, since the thought of an Absolute's 'intervention' sounded positively horrifying.

"Understood," Adam said.

Then he blinked involuntarily and was suddenly standing in the centre of Interim Island without even an announcement from the System.

He had the feeling that his meeting with the Tome Keeper was something beyond the control of the All-Seeing Watcher.

That was crazy…

But I think I chose a good Absolute to worship.

At his feet was the Spidersilk Sack stacked high with Relics and he was once again wearing his gear and weapons. The Eye had also reappeared next to him.

Oh, thank God. I was worried my trick with the Sack wouldn't work this time around.

Suddenly, silvery scales fluttered down around him and time froze. He knew it was time to meet the white moth and see what new things she had for sale.

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