"How much damage did that ring attack do?" Adam asked as they moved back down to the study.

"60," Gladwyn replied and James nodded.

"Wait, you both took 60 damage?" Adam asked, confused.

"Yeah, it was true damage," Gladwyn said. "It bypasses Defence…"

"Fucking hell," Adam replied. "If I hadn't had my Stone Mask, I would've died."

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

"Exactly 60," Adam replied.

"You both need more Health," Gladwyn told them.

Adam frowned. "I've been stacking Defence, but that seems like a bad idea now."

"You've got a debuff now, right?" Gladwyn asked.

"Yeah, I'm Withered, so damage against me is increased by 50%."

"How long does it last?" James asked.

[The Wither affliction lasts until the end of the Stage.]

Adam frowned. "Of fucking course…"

"I do think we could have avoided the attack though," Gladwyn said.

"Like by jumping?" Adam replied.

"You'd have to jump really high then," James remarked.

"I might have been able to do it with my boots," Gladwyn said.

They reached the study landing and the Summoner's Wandering Eye necklace immediately snapped on to the door with the upside-down anchor engraving.

"I think we should go back down and do the ritual first," Adam said.

"Do you think the Stage ends if we find the Godstone clue?" James asked.

"It's a possibility," Gladwyn replied.

"Let's go to the ritual chamber then," Adam said.

"Are you sure?" Gladwyn asked. "One bad hit and you're dead, right?"

"Well, considering that the study isn't likely to be undefended either, I'd rather focus on just getting as many Points as possible," he argued.

"Shouldn't we start with the library?" James asked. "I can set it on fire."

"I think we should do the ritual objective, then the three landings we skipped, and then we destroy the library and return to here," Adam said.

"What about that scream we heard earlier?" Gladwyn asked.

Can't believe I already forgot about that…

"Do you think it was Maggie?" James replied.

Adam frowned. "That actually makes a fair bit of sense. Alright, let's do it like this: before we destroy the library, we'll fly down the tower and see if we can find the source of the scream."

Gladwyn looked poised to argue back, but then James said, "We'll split her loot if she's dead."

"She only had Rare Relics," Adam said.

"If she really came here, she must've killed that teen who didn't want to go," Gladwyn said.

"Unless he's here too," Adam replied.

Gladwyn shook his head. "Let's focus on one thing at a time. Regardless of whether they came here or not, we should prioritise the objectives before we go off exploring."

"Alright," Adam and James both agreed.

They continued down from the study, using Adam's barriers to fly down through the middle of the tower between the ramps to reach the landing for the ritual chamber.

After walking through the metal door, they were met with the strange heptagon-shaped chamber again. Emelia had given them the 'recipe' for a simple enemy they could summon, which in turn had been given to her by Arturo, but Adam was sure that the ritual could also summon a Secret Boss.

After all, why would there only be one Secret Boss in this Stage?

Emelia also said that the Nightwing's Heart was used for a ritual, and she probably meant this one. Not sure what the other two ingredients would be, though.

She hadn't said anything about it, which frustrated Adam, but given that the chamber was much smaller than the one they'd fought the Avatar in and that he didn't have one of the required ingredients, he figured it didn't matter.

Still, if the Avatar dropped a powerful sword, then I can only imagine what the summoned Secret Boss would give.

Aside from the Chimaera Stone, we also haven't found any Secret Relics, which seems odd.

Gladwyn was already gathering the three items they needed, while James went around the room, looking for secrets.

The requirements for the 'easy' ritual summon that Emelia had given them was: a bouquet of honeysuckle flowers, the hollow husk of an enlarged bee, and one of the bowls which was full of translucent golden honey.

"What are we summoning?" James asked.

"It's supposed to be a large humanoid bee," Adam answered.

"Bumblebee," Gladwyn corrected him.

"Like Yenna?" James asked.

"More or less," Adam replied. "He's supposed to be quite sturdy and has an attack to create a cloud of pollen, as well as a stinger that can be dangerous."

"Don't only female bumblebees sting?" James asked.

Adam shrugged. "No idea."

"Ready?" Gladwyn asked, having already placed the flowers and insect husk. He was holding the final ritual ingredient, the bowl of honey, next to the last of the three obsidian pedestals.

"I don't think there are any secrets in this room," James said.

Adam had looked around a little bit and more or less concluded the same. The ritual could only be performed once, according to Emelia, but Adam felt confident that it could probably summon a lot of secret stuff if you knew the 'recipes'.

James came over to where Adam stood near the entrance to the chamber.

"We're ready," Adam said.

"Don't forget the plan," Gladwyn told them. "We can retreat out of the door if necessary."

"We won't have to," Adam replied.

Emelia had said the summoned mini boss couldn't be attacked until it was fully coherent, so they needed to time their attacks well. But, if they nailed the timing, they could effectively kill the boss immediately. Especially Adam, who had insane damage potential on his first hit, thanks to his two First Strike Earrings.

Adam had already fused two of his barriers together, and was waiting to fuse the remaining one.

"Alright, here we go," Gladwyn said and placed the bowl onto the last pedestal. Then he moved back to where they stood, holding his shield in front of them.

The air thrummed with power and a golden light came down through the hole in the ceiling.

Okay, not a chimney, Adam realised.

As he had expected, the wandering eye immediately locked onto the beam as it consumed the circle in the middle of the ritual chamber. Gladwyn tensed up, preparing for a fight, and James held the Scope of Insight in his hand.

Adam grinned while concentrating and triple-fused his barrier. Once all three barriers were combined, he shaped the result into a spike.

He induced a spin in his projectile and the air around it began to hum, competing with the noise the summoning produced.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Then the golden light cut off and left behind a patch of grass with flowers upon which stood a two-metre-tall humanoid bumblebee. Two of its six legs held it upright and supported its weight, and the other four were splayed out and ready, large pods of pollen sticking to the top two. Its head was nestled into its armoured and fuzzy neck, and its whole body was covered in 'fur', making it almost look like an alien bear.

The golden glow completely left its body.

Fire.

The loud whine and hum of Adam's barrier turned into a strange zipping sound that would've been comical if not for the massive hole it left in the centre of the large bumblebee's torso. The sloped floor behind it suddenly had an opening that just led into pitch black nothingness.

[Elite enemy defeated.]

"I will never get used to that," Gladwyn muttered. "It's like a goddamn gauss cannon."

"It's effective," James said.

"Very effective," Adam agreed.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Completed the Ritual >

Something strange suddenly happened. As the bumblebee fell, it turned into golden light that morphed into the shape of a chest. A fuzzy black and yellow chest.

"Emelia didn't say anything about this…" Adam muttered.

"It looks like it might be a thematic reward," Gladwyn said.

Adam went over and opened the chest.

A single hologram appeared from within.

< < Relic Available > >

< Bumblebee Coat (Epic) — Reduces damage from slashing attacks by 20% | Reduces damage from afflictions by 25% | Reduces Dodge chance by 25% | When hit, release a cloud of pollen causing momentary blindness to anyone within 5 metres. 90-second cooldown >

Four effects. Damn. Although one is bad and the last one might also affect the wearer.

"Only one?" James remarked.

"I want it," Gladwyn immediately said.

Adam and James shared a glance, and the Spellhand nodded.

"All yours," Adam told him.

Gladwyn grabbed and immediately equipped the fuzzy black and yellow coat. It covered his entire torso and bulked out his frame quite a bit, much more than the fuzzy black slothling coat that Adam wore.

"You two match," James remarked. "Adorable."

Adam sniffed the air. "You smell like beeswax and lavender," he told Gladwyn.

Gladwyn completely ignored their comments and just left the room, but Adam could tell by the way his Grafted Tail swished around behind him that he was happy with the acquisition.

James is right though, he looks pretty huggable. Like a human-sized teddy bear. Not really something that'll strike fear in the hearts of our enemies. But maybe it's a good thing if the enemies want to hug him?

As they followed after their tank, pollen trailed behind him and James suddenly started sneezing.

Then Adam's eyes began to itch. All three of them.

The pair immediately started coughing, sneezing, and making complaints.

Gladwyn stopped outside on the landing and looked back.

"I think I love this thing," he said.

After working their way down to the library, clearing the three separate landings between the ritual floor and there, they experienced the unique pollen cloud effect from Gladwyn's armour four separate times. It turned out that when the enemies hit his shield, they triggered the effect, since the 'when hit' trigger statement was very ambiguous.

Despite their best attempts to persuade him, Gladwyn would not take it off.

The effect was quite debilitating to everyone except the wearer, because it induced blindness in friends as well as foes. Gladwyn, with his now 75% resistance to afflictions, only got red eyes, while James and Adam coughed, sneezed, and scratched their eyes, which for Adam almost completely negated his ability to control his summons.

Fortunately, the winter dancers and his barriers could operate on simple commands, thanks to his obsidian hand's power.

Adam had thought that the last floor before the ritual site would have been trouble, but he was able to snipe the chimaera guarding its entrance, and there were only two more of them inside the strange vivarium chamber they guarded. The creatures were smaller versions of the panther serpent mini boss, and their experience with that boss helped them a lot against its smaller cousins. Cutting them open sadly didn't give them more of the Epic rarity stones.

The upgrade reward went to James, and though they searched for almost ten minutes, the only thing they got from the vivarium floor were more of the sun crystals that had no other worth than to power James' Mana thanks to the Mage Aspirant's Cowl he wore.

The following floor was only guarded by four creatures, and these were disturbing monstrosities of amalgamated humans, which looked like messed-up sea urchins with arms instead of spikes. Their chamber was made entirely out of flesh, as was the Upgrade Chest, which went to Adam.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Health (Epic) >

He had to use one of his Reroll Dice to get the upgrade, but it gave him a definite sense of relief to have his Health raised above the instant death range of the Avatar's true damage attack, even if they had already defeated it.

They easily worked their way through the last landing before the library, thanks to Adam's barriers shooting the skeletal bird men out of the air. The chamber itself was like a strange cylindrical aviary that showed clouds and floating islands beyond its metal cage, even though it was clearly fake, which Adam's barriers revealed when they damaged the walls of the tall room and produced large black holes in the backdrop.

Although they searched through the aviary from top to bottom, spending almost 20 minutes since it was much taller than the other floor chambers and full of nooks and roosts, they ultimately failed to find any secrets.

It was Gladwyn's turn to grab an upgrade, and he chose to use his new soul blade.

Adam had a flashback when he saw the choices available.

< < Upgrades Available > >

< Soul Bond — Bond with the soul blade >

< Soul Bond — Bond with the soul blade >

< Soul Bond — Bond with the soul blade >

Gladwyn was pretty upset with the result, doubly so when Adam explained to him how the sword Gram had the same type of upgrades and that he needed to fully evolve it to make it strong. It was likely that, once the soul blade had fully evolved, it would turn into the same kind of greatsword that the Avatar of Alepheria had possessed, but it was a big investment, since it would cost 8100 Points.

They left the aviary and returned to the library floor. From there they continued downwards. It was clear that, if Maggie or the teen had come here, they were dead, because the trio had taken their time going down. Not to mention, they flew through the middle of the tower, making them easy to spot, and all three of them were on the lookout for whoever had screamed loud enough for them to hear all the way at the top of the tower.

I hope they're both just waiting for us to complete the Stage back at the start, but I highly doubt they would wait around for us that long.

While they'd been in the aviary, the cubes had announced that they'd reached the halfway point of the timer for the Stage, meaning they'd been at this for 12 hours. None of them felt particularly tired, but Adam had a feeling he'd crash hard when he returned to Interim Island.

The three guarded floors between the library and laboratorium were quite simple. Even the menacing brutes guarding a treasure room were defeated quite handedly. Gladwyn made good use of his soul blade's special skill to just cleave through the groups of enemies, and any survivors were cut down by James, while Adam took out the biggest threats and his winter dancers slowed them all down.

Although they had lost Hahn and been at basically half strength thanks to the two quitters early on, the trio had grown quite comfortable fighting together. It was just a shame that they would not meet again in the following Stages.

Besides the treasure room with the brutes, which was full of gold, jewels, and finery that they physically could not loot, there was also a room full of water and octopus-like creatures similar to the Cell Warden but much smaller. The last room was entirely made of wood and had a creepy workshop atmosphere to its interior. Puppets of various sizes sat on shelves and in displays, and their glass bead eyes seemed to track them as they moved through the room, which was deeply unnerving. Once they reached the back, all the puppets came to life, but Gladwyn's new special attack cut most of them down with ease.

They found a gold lever inside a large wooden brute after Adam's barrier projectiles tore it open, and it was clear that it would fit somewhere in the treasure chamber. However, they agreed to continue down before they went back up to investigate what secrets it would reveal.

Adam grabbed the Upgrade Chest in the puppet room, since James had accidentally triggered and opened the chest in the water chamber when it spawned right next to him, breaking the order they'd agreed on.

Maybe it's a good thing there's only the three of us.

I can't imagine sharing loot would be easy with more people than this.

The tower would be awkward with five or six Players, since rewards would be very unevenly distributed. And not everyone was as agreeable as James and Gladwyn.

< < Upgrade Selected > >

< Manipulation Effect (Rare) >

Adam brought up his status after getting the upgrade for his weapon and putting it at level 15.

< < Player Status > >

< Adam >

< Fusionist >

< Level 38 >

< Stats >

< Health — 70 >

< Stamina — 75 >

< Mana — 200 >

< Damage — 100% >

< Defence — 165% >

< Dodge — 10% >

< Speed — 85% >

< Luck — 26 >

< Attack Speed — 125% >

< Meta Upgrades >

< Damage +10% >

< Relics >

< Attack Speed +25% >

< Speed +10% >

< Upgrades >

< Crush +15% >

< Damage +40% >

< Defence +40% >

< Dodge +10% >

< Health +20 >

< Luck +21 >

Only three levels gained from this Stage so far…

Still, we are racking up Points, and I haven't taken any damage so the Flawless bonus should be mine.

There weren't anymore floors left for them to go through after this, so it was really just the study they needed to worry about now.

As they walked out onto the landing near the last floor before the laboratorium, Gladwyn looked at them and asked, "Do you really want to go down and check? It could be a trap."

"I want to make sure that scream we heard wasn't some new freaky monster sneaking up on us," Adam said.

Gladwyn shook his head, but then said, "Fine."

"If it was Maggie, then we should get her loot," James added.

With that it was decided. They would venture down to investigate.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.