They found the carriage they had all used during Stage Three pretty quickly, and one of the Elphin even agreed to take them towards the Tower, so long as they promised to protect him and his horses.

Gladwyn sat on the bench at the front with the driver while Adam and Hahn sat on the roof, since they were ranged attackers and would be able to respond to ambushes the fastest. James was inside the vehicle, since there was no place for him to sit up front and he didn't want to be on the roof.

"I wonder what would've happened if we didn't save the girl," Gladwyn said as they rolled down through the forest of dark-blue trees.

There was no path for the carriage and its horses to follow, but that did not deter the driver in the slightest. He managed to perfectly swerve around the trees, leaving a snaking trail in their wake.

"We would've had to fight our way out of the city," Adam reminded him. "And I'm guessing we wouldn't have been able to hitch a ride. We're probably saving a lot of time."

"I didn't save the girl," Hahn said.

Adam explained how they'd done it, as well as the Stage variant concept that Emelia had told him about.

"It's a good thing we're in your dimension then," the guy replied.

"I suppose that is pretty lucky," Gladwyn agreed.

"It's probably designed to use the dimension of any Player who has triggered a variant, at least for this Stage," Adam guessed.

He suddenly realised that the Hardmode orb hadn't appeared this time. It had made sense why he hadn't seen it during Stage Five, but he was starting to suspect it had a hidden limitation to it that Alivida had not told him about. That being the fact that he probably had to defeat a Stage before he could activate Hardmode. Unless it somehow didn't work for group Stages. Emelia had certainly made no mention of it, but it seemed peculiar that it might only work for the first four Stages.

I suppose it doesn't matter right now, since I wouldn't wanna use it on unfamiliar Stages anyway. But I'll have to ask Emelia or Alivida about it.

Adam turned to Hahn who sat next to him and said, "You've gotta unequip that Fiendbarb Relic."

The archer nodded. "I've been thinking about it, but I wanted to see what kind of enemies we were up against first. Also, I was just…" he started, but then paused.

"You were worried you'd have to fight other Players?" Gladwyn guessed from where he sat below them.

"Yeah."

"I can't blame you," Adam said.

"You know, I don't think it was a good idea to leave those two back there in the city," Hahn said. "I've got a bad feeling about that Maggie girl."

"You felt that too?" Adam asked.

"She changed her tune the moment the kid said he didn't want to go," Gladwyn pointed out.

Adam frowned at the realisation, since he hadn't picked up on that at all. It had been quite the switch-up from her talking about fighting at the front to suddenly not wanting to go.

"We might have to keep a lookout for her," Hahn suggested.

"You think she'd kill the kid?" Adam wondered.

"Maybe she thinks that she'll get a lot of Points if she kills us one by one?" Hahn said, sounding quite paranoid.

"Let's not let our imaginations create enemies out of nothing," Adam replied. "Even if she does try something, she won't be able to beat us."

"It's possible she just didn't want to fight, and seeing that the kid was staying, she might have wanted to hedge her bets staying in the city while we take on the bad guys," Gladwyn theorised.

Hahn let out a deep breath. "Sorry, guys. My Stage Five was rough. I guess it's still weighing heavily on me. I had to fight one of my friends. He had the Backstabber class like her and he almost killed me when we reached the Altar together."

"There's nothing wrong with being cautious," Adam told him. "But we just have to avoid becoming paranoid. And let's say that Maggie really is planning on going serial killer on us, we're already so far away that it'd take her a long time to catch up."

Hahn nodded.

"What Gods did you two end up picking?" he then asked, changing the subject. "I picked Messimer since I liked the sound of the Appraising Eye skill. I'm able to see basic information about other Players, and I'm guessing enemies as well."

"What can you see?" Adam asked.

"Your class, your level, and the names of your Relics. It's quite useful."

"That does sound pretty handy," Adam replied.

"I got the Guardian," Gladwyn said. "His Boon makes afflictions 50% less effective against me."

Hahn looked at Adam. "What did you get?"

"My Patron doesn't allow me to tell others about him," he replied. "Sorry."

"Is he strong?" he asked.

"I'm not sure yet," Adam replied truthfully.

James' head poked up from the side of the roof. "I picked Nharlla," he said. "His power let me switch around my stats. Since evolving into Spellblade from Vanguard gave me 50 Mana, I switched my Health and Mana around, as well as my Damage and Defence."

"That sounds reckless," Gladwyn commented.

"Good thing you're here then," he replied.

"What's Vanguard evolved from?" Adam asked. He assumed Vanguard wasn't the name of a Weapon Type, since he hadn't heard of one like that. And it was unlikely to be related to the special weapon from Stage Four, since Beck had said it was a two-handed sword.

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"It's Defender," Gladwyn answered.

"It's interesting how different our weapons have become, isn't it?" James said. "Shield Wall is based on the Guardian evolution, isn't it?"

"It is," Gladwyn replied.

"How does Spellblade work?" Adam asked.

Before James could answer, Hahn yelled out, "Stop the carriage!"

Adam spun around and saw what the archer had seen.

Thirty metres away and up in the trees was a strange six-legged bone spider. Almost as soon as they'd spotted it and the driver brought the carriage to a halt, the enemy engaged, firing a large bolt from inside its spherical body.

Gladwyn jumped up and pulled out his shield. It was huge, much taller than his short frame. The projectile veered off from its intended target, Adam, and hammered into the greatshield.

The impact was powerful enough to push Gladwyn back against the carriage and shift the vehicle half a metre backwards. He quickly jumped out in front of the horses, and James followed behind him. Hahn stayed atop the carriage and unequipped the Fiendbarb, before letting loose with his rapid-fire arrows.

Adam hopped off the carriage as well, bringing his barrier out in front of him and spinning it up to boost its penetrative power.

Flames licked off the edges of the white lance-shaped barrier and the air hummed the faster it spun.

James spared a glance over his shoulder, while Gladwyn prepared to tank the next shot.

"Shitbox, what is that thing?" Adam asked the Eye.

[This is a construct called a Bone Creeper.]

"Aim for the segments of its legs!" James yelled, holding a telescope in front of his eyes. Adam realised it was the Scope of Insight. If he remembered correctly, the Relic allowed the user to see the enemy's weaknesses.

I didn't realise how useful such a Relic could be in a group situation, he thought to himself.

Even if James had seemingly made the irrational decision to flip his Health and Mana values around, as well as his Damage and Defence, he was possibly quite thoughtful about his setup. Or maybe it just seemed that way because of how confidently he carried himself.

Hahn's arrows did very little to hurt the giant bone spider, but it was also clear that his bow wasn't as effective in this environment, given that the Quickshot's main benefit was its ability to ricochet.

"We have to get closer for me to hit it," Adam told Gladwyn after huddling up behind his shield.

"I'll take down the trees its clinging to," James said. "Cover me."

The three of them surged forward, while Hahn's arrows continued hitting the construct's body ineffectively.

Adam shot his barrier through one of the two trees that the Creeper was clinging to. Its spherical body was about the size of a car and each of its six legs was four metres long. The centre of its body just had a large aperture from which it shot out the big bolts that all struck Gladwyn's shield with loud echoing bangs. It didn't really make sense that it was able to keep producing bolts to shoot at them with, but at the same time Hahn was also firing off way more arrows than he could possibly keep in his quiver.

The tree Adam had struck had a hole going through it, and James leapt forward with ice coating his gem-studded sword, before slashing all the way through the trunk, sending the tree on a collision course with one of its neighbours.

The Creeper didn't seem very intelligent, because the moment one of its anchor points faltered, it started slipping down towards the ground, not even trying to slow its own descent by grabbing something else.

"Watch out!" Adam yelled, and the three of them quickly back-pedalled as the large construct hit the forest floor with a loud crash and crunch of its bony body.

No sooner had it collapsed than they all rushed back in and chopped off its six legs at the joints where they connected to the round body.

Adam hammered his lance barrier into the joint of a leg and then unfurled it to explosively separate the bones. When he did it a second time, his barrier cracked and triggered Last Stand's Fervour, making it momentarily unbreakable and increasing its Damage and Speed by 25%.

But before his barrier could expire, they destroyed the last leg joint, and just like that the central body broke in two. A large soul essence flew out of its body and into Adam's lantern, but no one seemed to notice.

[Elite enemy defeated,] announced their cube companions at the same time.

"That wasn't too bad," Gladwyn said.

Hahn came running over, but he was clearly slowed down by the Forlorn Cuirass he wore.

"Sorry, guys," he said. "I couldn't damage it."

He's probably lacking penetration power even after unequipping the Fiendbarb, Adam guessed.

"Let's leave the carriage behind and continue on foot," James suggested.

Adam nodded. "Good idea."

"I'll stay in the front," Gladwyn said.

"And I'll bring up the rear," Adam decided, "which means James and Hahn stay in the middle."

No one seemed to have a problem with that, so they immediately fell into formation and moved through the forest of dark-blue trees at a brisk pace.

"How were you able to make the enemy projectiles hit your shield?" Hahn asked Gladwyn.

"It's the Shield Wall's ability," he replied. "It pulls hostile projectiles towards the centre of my shield when I'm guarding."

"You saved my ass," Adam said. "I'm pretty sure it was aiming for my head with that first shot."

"You can all thank me by giving me the first loot option," Gladwyn replied with a grin in his voice.

"Actually, if we find any Relic Chests, you should let me open them," Adam said. "I've got 26 Luck which guarantees all Relics and Upgrades are Rare or higher."

"I didn't know that was a thing," Hahn said.

"Me neither," added James. "I'd like to see it before I believe it though."

Although they didn't blindly trust him, they seemed to at least be open to giving his suggestion a shot.

Thank God. I was worried we'd end up having to argue about this stuff…

Adam inspected Gladwyn's outfit as they continued forward.

In the Tavern he always just wore a simple white shirt and khaki shorts, but out here he had a full getup of Relics. He wore the Spirited Defence Nose Ring, which staggered enemies on successful blocks and made them take 10% extra damage from follow-up attacks; some pants made with metallic scales; the Glutton Collar to allow him to consume two potions back-to-back; the Potion Belt around his waist with three small healing potions inside; the Sanctuary Defender's Robes which raised Dodge by 10% and Speed by 25%; and lastly his right eye was completely black, which was probably some Relic Adam had never encountered before.

"What Relic did you replace your eye with?" Adam asked him.

Gladwyn slowed down to answer. "It's called 'Slothling Ogre Eye'," he answered. "It raises Defence by 50% and lowers Movement Speed by the same."

"You don't seem that slow to me," he replied.

"I've gotten quite a few Speed upgrades, and the Robes counteract my Scale Trousers."

"What do they do? The trousers, I mean," Adam asked.

"They raise Defence by 15% and lower Speed by 25%."

"How much Defence do you have?" James asked.

"Like 300%," Gladwyn replied. "My Speed is 120%."

"Goddamn," Adam said.

"I feel good about you being up front," Hahn remarked.

"Me too," Adam added.

Gladwyn grinned. "Just keep my back safe and kill stuff quickly, and I'll defend against anything we encounter."

"Deal," Hahn replied.

They continued through the forest for about 20 minutes until the end of the trees came into view. Past the treeline the ground was barren, all vegetation entirely gone as though burnt away by chemicals that prevented even weeds from sprouting.

All four of them stopped where the trees ended and gaped in awe and horror at what lay before them.

Half a kilometre out from the treeline stood a wall made of metal and wood, hewn together by unskilled hands and looking like a post-apocalyptic fortification. A few hundred metres past that was the outer wall of the tower. And it was enormous.

Its diameter was easily 40 metres and its height was like that of a twenty-floor apartment block. If not for the hilly terrain of the forest and the fact that the ground of the vast clearing around the tower was sunken down, the tower would easily have been visible from the Sanctuary.

Emelia had not been able to do the tower justice with her descriptions, because Adam had wondered how on Earth so many monsters, locations, and encounters could be packed into it, but he understood now.

True to its name, the tower wasn't perfectly straight, since the top of it tilted slightly and the middle part looked warped and misshapen.

Things just like the Creeper they'd killed crawled around near the top of the tower, sure to make any attempts to fly to the top quite harrowing.

But it doesn't look impossible if I wanted to take a shortcut, Adam thought.

They shared a few glances.

"I think I understand why they gave us 24 hours to do this," Hahn commented.

Atop the shoddy fortification walked humanoid creatures and it was clear they were the true first line of defence, with the Bone Creeper being more of an attempt to catch them off-guard.

If Emelia was right, there'd be golems and other large creatures waiting for them beyond that wall, but first they had to get over and in.

"Let's go," Adam said.

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