Adam spent 4500 Points to fully evolve his Summoner weapon from Invoker, getting the following upgrades:

< < Weapon Upgrades Purchased > >

< Casting Effect (Rare) >

< Casting Effect (Epic) x3 >

< Casting Efficiency (Rare) x2 >

< Spell Damage (Rare) >

< Spell Damage (Epic) >

< Spell Speed (Epic) x2 >

< 9100 Points Remaining >

The second choice of evolutions after his fourth upgrade were both quite powerful in the right situation.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Soul Harvester — Kills made by summons extend their duration and increase their attack speed >

< Corruptor — Killed enemy summons are resurrected as your summons >

Although Adam immediately leaned towards Soul Harvester, Emelia mentioned that there were several bosses and enemies coming up in future Stages, including Stage Seven, which utilised summoning to some extent.

"If my buffs to summons affect Corruptor, then I could easily overwhelm any boss with clones of their own units," Adam theorised. "The only thing is just how duration and such work. Since it doesn't specifically make a mention of it, I'm thinking it's probably on a per summon basis. But it could potentially even allow me to gain summons that last an entire Stage."

"I doubt it would be that powerful," Emelia said. "But it does still seem very useful in a lot of cases. For example, one of the optional bosses has an army of skeletons that Corruptor might work on."

"I think that while Corruptor has a lot of potential, Soul Harvester is just way more useful in most situations. Even if we go up against an army of skeletons like that, if I get my Winter Dancers out and they start killing, they'd tear through all of them and get increasingly faster with every kill, while never timing out."

"That's true," she replied.

"Yeah, I'm picking Soul Harvester," he decided after a moment.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Invoker => Soul Harvester >

< < Mastery Shard Obtained > >

After getting the next six upgrades, the last set of evolutions for the wand was another choice between skills.

< < Select an Evolution > >

< Necromancer — Unique Skill ( Necromancy ) | Resurrect a corpse as a summon. 100 Mana cost >

< Evolutionist — Unique Skill ( Evolve ) | Evolve a summon. 100 Mana cost >

Holy shit! Necromancy!

Evolutionist also looks really good and could combo well with Infusionist's skill.

"Wow, I had no idea this was even a thing…" Emelia muttered. "Summoner might be one of the most powerful early weapons if you can master it quickly."

"You can also learn Sylvia's spells if you pay her a lot of Points," Adam said. "With how I understand spells, you don't need to actually unlock them if you know the pattern. So, if I buy a spell from her and memorise it, I should be able to use it with the wand immediately at the start of the Trials."

"I didn't realise you could learn her spells," Emelia admitted. "I kind of didn't consider her to be super useful, aside from the Shade Barrier scroll."

"You're not using her Desiccate spell?" he asked, surprised.

"I tried using it a bit in my last run, but most enemies die quickly without it and it's kind of slow to set up, which runs the risk of someone else getting hurt. Especially when the bosses jump on you immediately. More often than not the spell will just be consumed by someone else's attack, so it's hard to use without a very coordinated team."

"If I can get more Mana, then Evolutionist would work really well with Infusionist, allowing me to create a devastating attack, but it would cost me 200 Mana to do so. Unless my spell cost reductions affect skills."

"They don't," she immediately answered. "And while specialising in a single powerful attack can work, I think versatility is much better, and Necromancer will probably use your buffs to empower whatever you resurrect, since they're considered your summons."

"You're right, I hadn't thought about that," Adam replied.

I guess that Infusionist already allows me to go all out on a single attack. And while it would be insane to try and really buff the shit out of a summon, using corpses as summons opens up a lot of new stuff I hadn't even thought about.

Like, what if I can resurrect one of those Slugwhales? Or the flying Slug Dragons? That might be insanely strong.

"Wait," Adam started, "do you think I can resurrect dead Players?"

Emelia frowned.

"I'm just speculating," he added. "I'm not going to try it unless the opportunity presents itself."

Emelia shook her head. "That still sounds bad."

He laughed. "You're right. But seriously, do you think it would work?"

She sighed, before adopting a serious expression. "There are a few Stages that use Player corpses against us. In Stage Nine for example. The Forlorn Shadow makes it so any Player who dies in the Stage is resurrected as a Forlorn Knight, with all their Relics and weapon upgrades."

"That sounds bad."

"It is. And the Stage lasts a full week, so it has a really devastating impact on the groups where people form friendships along the way. The only way to avoid it is to burn the corpses of anything that dies. It's one of the Stages where you're better off just beelining it for the final boss immediately, since everything you kill will return later, unless you have easy access to fire."

That sounds like a difficult Stage. But I guess all of them are hard, otherwise how can the number of Players be reduced down to just a few thousand before Stage Ten?

The fact that the 22 million Players currently alive would be reduced by an order of thousand across the next three Stages was insane to him. Even if only one Player in every team survived across each of the next three Stages, that would still leave over 100 thousand survivors by the start of Ten. Emelia said she was hoping for 10,000 survivors.

"I'm starting to realise just how horrible the next three Stages will be," Adam muttered.

Emelia nodded. "And quite a lot of people die in Stage Ten as well. By Fifteen we're usually down to a few hundred Players."

So that's why she said just one or two extra people surviving past Stage Twenty would make a huge difference.

"Alright, I'm picking Necromancer," he decided.

< < Evolution Selected > >

< Soul Harvester => Necromancer >

< < Mastery Shard Obtained > >

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

After grabbing his third Shard, they went over to Karie's stall. Adam had decided to buy 15 general upgrades, which would cost him 4500 Points, the same cost as getting 10 weapon upgrades.

"Hi Adam!" greeted the cricket vendor. "Are you here to browse my wares?"

He grinned. "You bet."

After ten minutes, this was how he had spent his Points:

< < General Upgrades Purchased > >

< Damage (Epic) >

< Defence (Rare) x2 >

< Defence (Epic) >

< Health (Rare) x2 >

< Health (Epic) x2 >

< Mana (Epic) x2 >

< Movement (Rare) x4 >

< Venom (Epic) >

< 4600 Points Remaining >

After he was done, Emelia bought a bunch of upgrades too, focusing mainly on Speed and Damage.

"Hypocrite," he told her.

She laughed. "You always say that every time."

As she continued going through the upgrades and spending her Points, Adam consulted his status screens.

< < Player Status > >

< Adam >

< Infusionist >

< Level 67 >

< Stats >

< Health — 110 (+40) >

< Stamina — 75 >

< Mana — 220 (+20) >

< Damage — 125% (+25%) >

< Defence — 220% (+25%) >

< Dodge — 10% >

< Speed — 145% (+60%) >

< Luck — 26 >

< Attack Speed — 125% >

< Meta Upgrades >

< Damage +10% >

< Relics >

< Attack Speed +25% >

< Speed +10% >

< Upgrades >

< Crush +15% >

< Damage +65% >

< Defence +95% >

< Dodge +10% >

< Health +60 >

< Luck +21 >

< Mana +20 >

< Movement +60% >

< Venom +25% >

< < Weapon Status > >

< 1 >

< Spell-Tome >

< Rare Quality >

< Level 18 >

< Stat Upgrades >

< Barrier Durability +90% >

< Barrier Efficiency +75% >

< Manipulation Effect +215% >

< Manipulation Range +20% >

< Manipulation Speed +55% >

< 2 >

< Wand & Wraith Lantern >

< Rare Quality >

< Level 18 >

< Stat Upgrades >

< Casting Effect +220% >

< Casting Efficiency +65% >

< Spell Damage +75% >

< Spell Speed +210% >

Since she still wasn't done, Adam practised a bit more with the barrier spell using the wand. He stood a bit away from the stalls, just in case something went wrong. The wand had changed from its bleached and coiled unicorn-horn-like appearance into a smooth slate-grey piece with red-gold veins here-and-there. Its new design definitely matched the Necromancer name.

The Soul Harvester evolution had also been slate-grey, but it had felt more rugged, like stone, while this one was like marble. It also hadn't had gold veins, instead keeping the blue ribbon and bell that the Invoker had.

After a couple attempts, Adam was able to summon a barrier in just under 15 seconds and make it big enough to hide his whole body behind. The benefit of the Casting Effect upgrade seemed to not only be in guiding his hand through the motions better and allowing him to deviate and still get it right, but it also let him skip steps somehow. Surprisingly, his boost in Speed also helped him move through the precise motions faster.

I'm not quite sure how this works exactly, but I feel like Casting Effect might just be letting me perform an abbreviated version. If I can memorise that version of a spell, I wonder if it would let me cast it without any upgrades to help me.

If memorisation benefits the Summoner's wand spells as much as I think, then it would be the ultimate time-looper weapon, since I would then be able to go back to the start and have a whole arsenal of spells at the ready.

Just being able to cast Shade Barrier on myself would be really powerful. Think I might pay Sylvia to teach me a spell after Stage Eight.

Although, even if he knew the spells, casting them required Mana, which was a pretty hard limiter for potential, unless he invested heavily into the meta upgrade to boost it. Even just casting the barrier spell twice in quick succession had eaten at least half of his reserves, meaning it was an expensive spell, even with the 65% cost reduction he now had.

Since Emelia was still busy at Karie's stall, Adam went over to Belin's shop.

"Hello Adam," said the cockroach.

I haven't checked her stuff in a while, he realised as he saw that there were three new roots available for sale. One was dark-grey, another was yellow, and the last was white.

"What do those three boost?" he asked.

She went through them in order, gesturing to each in turn. "Damage, Speed, Defence."

"And it's a 10% boost for all of them?"

"That's right."

"For 10 minutes, right?"

"No. They last 24 hours."

Adam blinked. "What? I thought it was only 10 minutes."

"You are mistaken."

"I could've sworn you told me they last 10 minutes."

The cockroach looked at him exasperatedly. "Perhaps you are confusing it with the duration of toxicity, which takes 10 minutes to dissipate after consumption of either a potion or a root, though they are separate toxicities that can overlap."

You know, I actually don't know if I ever asked how long they last…

He grinned awkwardly, realising he might've just confused himself.

"What about your potions? You don't have ones that boost Damage?"

"Potions are only for refilling your resources," she explained. "I am not an alchemist, so I cannot brew you concoctions. What you see here in my stall is what you get."

An alchemist would actually be a great vendor to have, he realised.

Maybe that's a hidden vendor I can find or one of the special denizens from fully completing a Stage.

"Anyway, I'd like to buy two medium healing potions," he said.

"Of course."

< < Potions Purchased > >

< Medium Healing Potion x2 >

< 3600 Points Remaining >

The two potions appeared in the empty slots of his Potion Belt.

Alright, now just for the meta upgrade.

Adam went over to where Emelia was still shopping.

"I'm going to see Luvicidix," he told her.

"Alright, I'm almost done," she replied, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek.

They both paused.

"Erm," Adam muttered.

"Sorry, force of habit," she said and immediately turned back to the four holograms hovering over Karie's cauldron.

Adam stared at her. "Are you trying to give me heart palpitations??"

"Maybe," she replied coyly without meeting his gaze.

He quickly got on his barrier and took off for the centre of the island before she could see the look on his face.

After he reached the Altar, scales fluttered down from the sky and Luvicidix descended from above.

He got off his barrier when she landed.

"Did you run here, Adam?" she asked, tilting her head slightly, her comb antennae swishing from the motion. She had clearly seen how he arrived, but he knew why she was asking.

"No…" he replied. "Please, just show me your upgrades."

"You don't have a fever?" she asked, stepping closer. "You are very red."

"I'm not having this conversation with you," he replied.

She looked off towards the Market. "Oh. I see. You are not alone."

"Luvicidix, just show me your damn upgrades!"

"You hide your embarrassment with anger. That's not very healthy, Adam."

Adam sighed. "Are you enjoying yourself? I thought you said time itself didn't like when we took too long."

"You're right, I did say that."

She gestured with a black-banded arm.

< < Meta Upgrades For Sale > >

< Damage — Increase All Damage by 25% — 2500 Points >

< Mana — Increase Mana by 10 — 1000 Points >

< Rewards — Increase Reward Options by 1 — 626/4000 Points >

< Vendors — Increase Vendor Options by 1 — 4000 Points >

< Rerolls — Start every loop with 1 Reroll Dice — 2500 Points >

< Relic Saving — Start every loop with 2 Saved Relic Slots — 5000 Points >

< Scale of Remembrance — 25000 Points >

Okay, I have enough Points.

"I'm buying the rest of the Rewards upgrade," he said, hurrying the interaction along before she could tease him more.

"Good pick," she commented.

< < Meta Upgrade Unlocked > >

< Rewards — Increase Reward Options by 1 >

He brought up his currencies.

< < Player Currencies > >

< Points — 226 >

< Mastery Shards — 3 >

Guess I'll just hold on to these Points until after next Stage.

"That's it for now," he said.

Luvicidix didn't go anywhere.

He frowned. "What?"

"Given your particular circumstances, getting involved with another Player is inadvisable."

"We're not involved," he replied.

She walked towards him until they were only a hand's breadth apart.

"You do not have to lie to me, Adam," she whispered conspiratorially.

"I'm not fucking lying," he retorted. "And what do you care what I do with my life?"

"Aha! So, you are involved!"

"Are you trying to start a fight?" he asked.

"When my sister mentioned that you brought a friend, I was quite surprised. Two time-loopers finding one another. It must be fate, don't you think?"

He sighed.

"Well, I think it's romantic," she went on.

"If you think it's so romantic, then why are you keeping me here? She's frozen in time until you get on with your business."

"Good point!" she exclaimed, flapping her fluffy wings and taking to the sky.

"Have fun!" she yelled as she disappeared into the clouds, taking her scales with her.

As time resumed, Adam massaged the bridge of his nose.

There's no way she won't be bringing this up every time we meet from here on out…

At least Alivida didn't seem to care.

Adam hopped back on his barrier to return to the Market.

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