Lukas' Grave was a strange island. Unlike the previous one, which Emelia had found out was called Galtea Minor, it had no sand to speak of, and the ground was paved with grey tiles. Pillars and walls made from grey bricks sprouted here-and-there, and Adam got the impression that the island might once have been bigger or had broken away from somewhere else, given that the walls and paved stones kind of just curved down off the edge where erosion slowly broke away the earth supporting it from below. On top of that, thin curling roots surrounded everything, growing out from the corner of the island where a normal-sized version of the tree in the centre of the Elphin's Sanctuary was planted. As for the grave, it was embedded into the tree, showing a small shelf upon which was a vase. There was also a plaque next to it, but its engraved text had been eroded by time.

However, the really bizarre thing was the enormous snail that watched them from where it sat next to the large tree and grave.

Its body was a gradient of neon-orange, brightest at the top near its head and darker near the bottom. The shell on its back was made from the grey bricks of the island, and Adam wondered if it was responsible for the damage to the pavement and walls.

As he landed, he kept the fused barrier floating in the shape of a drill head, while the other hovered in front of him like a shield.

"Stay here," Emelia told him and walked up to stand before the Slugwhale.

Seen from the air, it had appeared quite large, but seeing it up close he could fully appreciate just how massive it truly was. The name definitely did it justice, as it was only slightly smaller than a bus. It was also possible to see all the weird scale-like bumps on its body from this close, and Adam wondered if it was part of a natural defence. Still, he was fairly confident he could kill it with his barrier if he had to.

"This is one of the younger ones," Emelia had told him.

I'm starting to understand how a bigger flying version of one of these things could be a dangerous opponent…

The large snail extended its eyestalks and shifted the feelers near the mouth through the air in Emelia's direction. The folds below its head, where the mouth was located, undulated slightly as it appraised her.

Then Emelia raised her arms into the air in a Y-pose, bending her wrists and straightening her hands so the tips of her fingers pointed at the snail.

The eyestalks on the Slugwhale went rigid and it shifted its whole body so that it was looking right at her.

Emelia slowly moved her arms and hands in some strange dance and the Slugwhale imitated her, which was extremely bizarre.

Adam had to suppress his laughter as Emelia went through some truly abstract dance moves, all of which the Slugwhale copied.

Although she had talked about the various types of Slugwhales back during her briefing in the Tavern, she hadn't mentioned dancing with them. The ones that looked like snails and had a shell were always friendly, unless they had 'calves' they were protecting. The ones without a shell and ridges like soft spikes on their back were often aggressively territorial, meaning their islands were dangerous to stay on. And the ones with ringed spots or pulsating fluorescent colours were toxic to touch. These same traits seemed to extend to Slug Dragons, but Emelia had told them to just straight up avoid them if they could, unless they had a large enough ship that they could barrage it with ballista bolts before it could get too close.

After their pair dance was over, the giant snail moved closer to Emelia, reaching out with a feeler to touch the hand she was extending towards it. The moment its slimy tentacle grazed her hand, its two eyestalks immediately pulled into its body, as though it was shocked. A second later they extended back out again.

The mouth flaps started moving inward towards its mouth and Emelia suddenly retrieved a coconut from the silk bag she wore like a backpack. Adam hadn't noticed her grab one of the coconuts from the previous island, but he wasn't sure where else she could've gotten it. She offered the fruit to the Slugwhale, and it touched it with its feelers before lowering its head to grab it with its slimy mouth flaps.

It must've been used to eating coconuts, because it quickly peeled the husk and fibres off the hard shell and then broke that apart too, producing loud munching sounds as it ate the white flesh. The shell and fibrous husk dropped onto the ground, along with some of the coconut water that dripped out.

Within half a minute, the coconut was devoured and the Slugwhale swished its eyestalks and feelers around.

"We're searching for an airship known as the Creaking Madam," Emelia told the snail. "Can you tell us which direction it went?"

The eyestalks made a strange synchronised rotation and Emelia looked back to Adam.

"Come stand next to me," she told him.

He commanded the barrier drill and shield to stay a few metres away and approached.

Then the snail moved close enough that it could touch both of their heads with its feelers, which were no more than a metre long.

Adam was surprised by how the snail bore a fragrance like tree sap and bark.

Then a jolt went through him as its feeler touched his forehead.

He saw a strange black-and-white vision of the surroundings, with the outline of their stolen ship lit up by this strange light. Standing on the deck was Maalia, her bow pulled back and aiming at the Slugwhale. Weirdest of all was the fact that her heart was like a blue dot in her chest, making him realise the Slugwhale could see the beat of their hearts along with this alien bubble of perception around its island.

The airship passed the island of Lucas' Grave and Maalia never fired the arrow she'd knocked, perhaps because the Slugwhale had just been watching them. He got to see as the vessel left the snail's perception, heading off in what he assumed was a northwestern direction.

As the feeler released him, his vision returned to his eyes with another jolt.

I have no idea what to make of what I just saw…

"I know where they're going," Emelia said before he could even ask.

"How?"

"There were only two islands on the map northwest of Lucas' Grave that would match the treasure symbol you mentioned," she replied. "Regardless of which one they picked, we should be able to catch up to them since those islands can take a while to explore."

"Good work, Sherlock," he joked.

"It was elementary, my dear Watson," she replied with a grin.

As they left, Emelia did a few arm motions to the Slugwhale, which it copied.

Then they got back on Adam's fused barrier and went northwest.

"A compass would be nice," Adam remarked after they'd been flying for 20 minutes or so. "I have no idea if I'm even flying in the right direction."

"You are," she replied.

"How the hell did you discover that you can communicate with the Slugwhales like that?" he asked.

"Ruimin was the one to figure it out during my first time through this Stage," she said. "She's pretty clever with things like that, even if her inclination is to often run from fights."

Emelia frowned. "I guess it's little wonder she found Skǫll on Interim Island…"

"How does the dancing work?" he asked.

"You kind of just have to keep its attention and make sure to match any movement the Slugwhale makes. Keep in mind it won't work with the ones that don't have a shell."

"So, I can just do the YMCA, and it would work?" he asked.

Emelia laughed. "Yeah, I guess so."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Can they do other tricks than show us the past?"

"They're able to do a little bit of healing, actually," she explained. "Only up to 20 Health points, but it can come in handy. They can also give hints and clues for nearby islands, especially the mature ones."

Adam considered that. "How big are the mature ones…?"

"Big," she replied with a grin. "Way bigger than you're likely considering."

"What do we do when we catch up to the others?" Adam wondered. "I doubt they'll want to come back to face punishment for what they did."

"I don't know, to be honest," she said with a sigh. "The Stage just started, and it's already gone so wrong… If I didn't know any better, I'd think one of the Absolutes were trying to trip us up on purpose. They normally don't start doing that until after Stage Ten, and even then, it's nothing so insidious. It's usually more like them sending their minions and spawn after us. Occasionally, they try to turn Players, but it wasn't a huge issue before. I think Arturo dealt with a lot of the most disruptive Players in his past loops, paving the way for me to do much better."

"We could tell the White Flags that we dealt with the three of them when we return the captain's map," Adam suggested. "They'll have to stay out of settlements, I guess, but we can bring them provisions and such."

"We definitely need them if we want to get all the Secret Bosses," Emelia said. "It would be hard with just the two of us."

Adam turned to look back at her. "When we catch them, let me try to do the talking."

Emelia nodded. "Hopefully they won't try to fight us," she said.

They continued flying for a bit longer, until suddenly the silhouette of a large island was visible through one of the gold-tinged clouds. Adam kept their barrier high enough to allow them to look down on the landmass as they approached, making it easier to spot if the trio had left their ship there or not.

Sure enough, the Creaking Madam was parked on the south-eastern corner of the diamond-shaped island, two of the metal wire hooks dug into the island like claws. The place was almost entirely barren of trees and plants, and massive derelicts and ancient wrecks covered its pale sandy ground, rising like the bones of old monsters.

"No…" Emelia whispered, quiet enough that he barely heard it.

< < Optional Stage Objective > >

< Find the treasure of Shipwreck Isle >

"Is that bad?" Adam asked.

By the way her voice sounded, he could tell she was clenching her jaw as she replied, "Remember the cursed sword I told you about?"

"Fuck," he replied. "That's here?"

"Yeah…"

Instead of landing, Adam circled the large island from above, trying to spot the other Players.

"If we hurry, we might be able to stop them before they face the Mad Captain," she said.

He panned around, looking at the shadows cast by the skeletons of ruined airships, but saw nothing.

"Look for the ship with a unicorn figurehead. It's rising out of the sand at a forty-five-degree angle."

"Wouldn't we know if they were fighting the Mad Captain?" he asked. "The objective should update, right?"

"No. Since we're separated from them, we're basically not considered part of their group. We won't get any of the announcements they've got, and our objectives and quest won't update based on what they found."

"Shit."

Adam urged the barrier to fly faster, and they swooped the graveyard of ships twice before spotting the airship rising out of the sand with its bow and unicorn figurehead pointed into the air. Its hull had the green colour of oxidised copper, and the frayed sails had once been yellow, judging by the slight bit of pigment clinging to their remains.

He lowered the barrier towards the ground in front of it and Emelia dropped the last few metres, before surging in through an opening in the back where the captain's quarters lay.

< < Optional Stage Objective Updated > >

< Defeat the wielder of Golden Prince >

Almost the exact moment that Adam got off the barrier and shaped it into a drill, something burst out through the tilted main deck. It looked like a golden statue of a man holding an equally-golden sabre. The wandering eye was completely locked onto him, which was a worrying sign.

The figure spun over Adam's head and landed 20 metres or so behind him in the sand, skipping once before coming to a stop. Almost immediately he started getting back up, albeit slowly.

Then Emelia sprang out through the way she'd entered, sprinting right past Adam with a terrifying look in her eyes. She triggered her Spring Boots and shot herself right at the golden man with absurd speed. Her fist struck his right shoulder instead of his torso or head, but the result was no less devastating. His entire right arm was detached from his body as the shoulder joint simply vanished.

The golden man tried to swing his sabre to catch Emelia, but she was too fast for him. With every missed swing, she rammed her oversized gauntlets into his torso and head, distorting and warping his golden flesh.

Adam didn't ask any questions and immediately fused his free barrier with the one already fused three times. Then he spun it up and refined the drill shape to be as lethal as possible.

Lastly, he invoked his new skill.

"Mana Infusion," he said.

He gasped as almost half of his Mana was sucked out of him and injected into the barrier. The midnight-blue glass-like spell turned pitch-black like obsidian, and the shape became literally perfect, its tapered edge even more deadly than before. Unlike the normal hum and whine a triple-fused barrier produced, the infused barrier didn't make a sound that was audible to his ears. But he could feel the thrum of its power in his chest, and it was like standing in front of a concert speaker blasting a silent bass that shook his organs and interfered with his breathing.

Emelia dodged another slash and then smashed her fist into the golden figure's leg with enough oomph to stagger him. She must've seen what Adam was cooking up, because she suddenly disengaged, backing quite far away.

Adam didn't waste a second and fired the projectile.

Everything went black for a second, as though he'd blinked and forgotten to open his eyes again.

< < Optional Stage Objective Complete > >

< Defeated the wielder of Golden Prince >

Adam came to, finding himself sitting on the sand and seeing stars and ghostly outlines of his surroundings. He also felt incredibly light-headed, and it was as though he'd taken a punch to the gut hard enough to knock him out cold.

The golden figure was gone.

As was the quarter of the island right behind him.

It was just simply no longer there. It was as if the painter who'd designed this world had erased it from her drawing.

Then his ears popped, and he could hear again.

The sounds of crashing and breaking came from the new edge of the island as more and more of the landmass fell away, taking the big wrecks with it.

Emelia came over and he was glad she'd backed far enough away to avoid being hit.

"How did you do that??" she asked.

"I used my Mana Infusion," he replied dumbfounded at the result.

"On a triple-fused barrier?" she asked.

"Technically quadruple-fused, actually."

"I think the math for its speed and damage must be wrong," she remarked. "It didn't do anywhere near that much damage in the Player House."

"You can say that twice," he replied. "I just deleted a large portion of the island. But maybe it's the fact that it's quadruple-fused that made such a big difference. It could definitely be screwing with the math."

He looked up and met her eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

Emelia helped him to his feet. "Come on," she said.

Adam stumbled a step, still discombobulated.

Without so much as a 'May I?', Emelia grabbed his shoulder and put his left arm over hers. Then she basically dragged him towards the unicorn wreck.

They passed through the opening in the back wall of the captain's quarters and the helm, moving through a hole in the floor of said quarters and coming out into the hold of the airship. It was a medium-sized vessel, so there was a lot more space inside it than their starter ship, although since it was poking out of the sand at a forty-five-degree angle, they really couldn't use most of the space that just rose out above them. Light spilled in from the hole that had been created by Emelia punching the golden figure with her insane strength, sending him out through the side of the ship. The sunlight glittered on the hoarded gold, Doubloons, and treasure that was strewn about the sand-covered 'floor'.

There were also three bodies.

Two of them were Players. Ruimin and Maalia.

From the looks in their eyes, it seemed they had been surprised when they died.

The last body was an old skeletal man filled with holes, cuts, and stab-wounds.

Adam pulled himself out of Emelia's grip and collapsed to his knees in the sand in front of Maalia.

He placed his obsidian hand on her leg.

Flashes of memories shot through Adam's mind, going all the way back to the first Stage. He saw as Maalia fought her way through the first four Stages with the bow, barely getting injured, not even in the tight confines of the goblin cave. She also dealt with the other Players in the Forbidden Altar quite handedly, and even her Stage Six went well, aside from one Player dying to the Tower Crawler's unseen attack. He then got to see himself through Maalia's eyes at the start of Seven, before following the journey they'd already taken, until their paths diverged at Windtop Cove when they'd gone off to find the collector.

Maalia was the instigator for the theft, which didn't surprise Adam that much, since she seemed the one most eager to take charge. Leon had been easily convinced by her, but Ruimin had worried about Adam and Emelia, even though Maalia told her that they didn't care about her because of the Cloud Leviathan issue. Maalia alone had returned to the White Flags' captain's quarters while the other two prepared the airship to leave the dock. She'd created a distraction by using the necklace she wore to cause everyone to look away. Adam guessed it was the Relic she'd received from Messimer.

After stealing the map, she returned to the airship, which had a metallic coating thanks to the upgrade from Herrman. Her and the others were halfway out of the port before the guards were alerted. Two of the chain harpoon ballistae were fired at them, but one failed to pierce due to the hull upgrade, while the other was insufficient to stop them, although it tore a large hole in the side of the ship.

From there, he rewatched some of the events he'd seen from inspecting Maalia's arrows and the Slugwhale's memory, before getting to Shipwreck Isle and searching for the treasure. They ended up searching the unicorn ship, only because Ruimin said that unicorns were considered lucky. Inside they found an emaciated and mad man whose bones were turning to gold. The three of them actually fought quite well together and was able to kill the Mad Captain by having Leon repeatedly parry his attacks, while the other two shot and slashed him with their weapons.

But then, once the boss was dead, Leon stooped down to grab the weapon the mad captain had dropped. The cursed sword, Golden Prince.

There followed a rapid few moments of frantic screaming and fighting, and then the vision was suddenly over.

Adam swallowed down the urge to throw up.

"That golden man we fought… That was Leon."

"Yeah…" Emelia said.

Adam sat back up, wanting to suddenly be very far from the bodies.

"What the fuck do we do now?" he asked.

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.