Adam frowned as he saw that both Finnian and Migraine were sitting inside the Tavern. The slime was gleefully devouring plates of food that the patient ant had brought it. The two denizens were several seats apart and the goblin seemed down about something, but Adam didn’t care enough to ask what it was.

  Charlie came over to the door as he and Belamouranthe entered, and Adam placed their orders right away. He could immediately tell that the tavernkeeper was happy to have a child to serve. He still remembered how she’d covered Belamouranthe with a blanket and watched her sleep, and how sad she’d looked when he’d returned after Stage Four without her.

  Finnian turned as Adam sat down next to it, turning his stool into a comfortable recliner. The slime’s blank face had been warped into a very simplistic smiley with two holes for eyes and a curved slit as its mouth. He shuddered at the uncanniness of it.

  Belamouranthe hopped onto the stool next to him.

  “Squire Adam, you’ve returned. Have you brought me any cores?”

  “Not today. I might get more tomorrow though.”

  “Excellent.”

  “If I give you the cores, will the progress be saved if I… y’know?”

  He ran his thumb along his throat.

  “You would have to ask Luvicidix about that,” it replied.

  Suppose I might as well. Just gotta figure out what to do with the Points I have before I seek her out again.

  The holograms around him flickered and he saw there were still a lot of despair going around, though a few people seemed to be laughing and having fun while talking to others.

  “Show me Willow Martin.”

  [I cannot.]

  Adam sighed.

  At least she’s still alive.

  “How many survivors?” he asked.

  [498 million Players,] answered the Eye.

  That’s 80 million more than last loop if I remember correctly. Maybe that’s thanks to Emelia.

  I wonder if Gladwyn and Beck survived.

  He was pretty sure they were both quite capable, but part of him was slightly worried, since they were a fair bit older than him and the goblins weren’t as easy as the slimes.

  Show me Gladwyn and Beck, he prompted the Tavern.

  [These Players are not currently seated in the Tavern,] announced the Eye.

  Maybe they’re already exploring the cave.

  I’ll go there afterwards.

  But first…

  Show me all the Players with the Summoner Weapon Type who obtained at least one achievement from Stage Two.

  Only one person appeared. It was a guy with sweat-soaked black hair and a pudgy half-Asian appearance. He was talking to someone animatedly, waving his arms about for emphasis. Adam couldn’t read his lips, but he seemed distressed for some reason.

  That’s worrying.

  There was something he wanted to try, since he was pretty sure both Emelia and Mórrígan had been doing it the entire time.

  Maintain this query and show me all the Players with Spellcaster who obtained at least one achievement from the last Stage.

  Seven other Players appeared. Strangely, they were put into focus while the first person with the Summoner weapon was made unfocused.

  Weird.

  But this works… Kind of handy if you wanna keep tabs on a lot of people.

  Also kind of creepy though…

  Maintain both of these queries and show me everyone who knows about the Self-devouring Eye.

  Emelia appeared further down the table, and the eight other Players went out of focus.

  Just then Charlie appeared with their food. Adam was served a shahi paneer in a metal pan with rounded handles and a big spoon. He also got a bowl of rice, a plate of cheese naan, and a mango lassi. Belamouranthe got an enormous porcelain dish with what looked like half a boar’s worth of meat inside the stew within. Even though she was given utensils, she immediately dug into it with her hands like a ravenous beast.

  Charlie returned a moment later with a large cloth that she tied loosely around Bel’s neck to create a massive bib. It did absolutely nothing to save her clothes and the floor from the mess. The ant paused a few steps away and just watched the Elphin girl devouring the food.

  Adam ate a bit of naan and scooped some of the shahi paneer onto his bowl of rice, eating a few spoonfuls. It was much better than he remembered it, but, then again, Charlie was a wizard when it came to food. Then he looked up and across the table, meeting the eyes of Emelia who was staring right back at him.

  A look of surprise crossed her face.

  “Are you watching me?” she asked.

  The other Players didn’t react to her, so it was clear that the three separate queries were creating three separate voice ‘channels’.

  Adam focused on her as he responded. “I could ask the same,” he said.

  She ignored the comment. “How did you search for me? Was it by using the achievements? Or my weapons?”

  He shook his head.

  Although, I suppose querying the Tavern for Players with Second Sheath would be another way to find time-loopers. At least after Stage One. There might be quite a few people with two Mastery Shards who have found the tent at this point.

  “I just searched for anyone who’d know about the Divine Relic. You and I are the only two in this world who know of it after all.”

  “I see.”

  “You could just make it easier for me and give me your full name. You already know mine after all.”

  “Perhaps,” she replied. “How did you fare in Stage Two?”

  “I got all the achievements in one go.”

  She nodded approvingly. “Well done,” she said. He couldn’t tell if she was imitating the Eye or not. “Did you sell all the ears?” Her eyes ran down his torso. “I’m guessing you used your shirt to carry them?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “I did, yeah. Weaver is making me a new shirt. The Curse-Stick reward from Migraine sounded kind of interesting I thought, but I need the Points more.”

  “It’s hard to use,” she said. “At least Arturo told me it was.”

  “What about the slime sword?”

  “It can be okay, but it’s very weak against most types of armour unless you can master its transformation. I tried it for a bit during my last loop, but it’s quite counter-intuitive to use and I’m fairly sure you need the Slime King’s Crown to make full use of it anyway.”

  Adam wasn’t really sure what she meant by transformation, but wondered if it had something to do with swapping between colour variants for different effects.

  “If I give a core to Finnian now, will it count towards the quest for my next loop?”

  “Finnian?” she asked.

  “That’s what I’ve named the white slime.”

  “Does he also insist on being called a Lord in your world?”

  “He does,” Adam answered with a grin.

  She shook her head. “He always calls me ‘milady’…”

  “He calls me squire.”

  She shook her head. “He is very annoying. Anyway, to answer your question, no. The progress doesn’t carry over. Although you could use the Relic Saving upgrade to help unlock it sooner. But if you complete Hardmode on Stage One, then you’ll have enough cores to unlock it right away.”

  “Because it doubles the slimes?”

  “Exactly. With Hardmode there’s a total of 26 cores to get, since it’s not possible to loot the boss’ cores. Without Hardmode you’d have to get the last two cores you need from Stage Three and they’re much harder to obtain.”

  “What’s the Hardmode for Three?”

  She shook her head. “Don’t even think about it. It triples the number of summons.”

  That could be an issue perhaps. I kind of cheesed my way through it last time, so I’ll listen to advice I think, since it’d be stupid to die there.

  “What about the Secret Boss then? I’ve gotten the Flawless and Speedrun for Three already, so I just need the Secret Relic that the mage holds and then the hidden boss.”

  “It’s a tough one to unlock.”

  “Do I need another Relic? I’m already having the crown repaired.”

  She shook her head. “For Stage Three you have to beat the first four Waves within 100 seconds combined. During Wave Five you then have to quickly kill the four waves of summons that Ezral brings forth in order to trigger him to summon the Secret Boss.”

  “Is it difficult?”

  “It can be. It’s like a giant bat that’s weak to light.”

  “What kind of denizen do you get from Three?”

  “A new type of vendor, though she’s similar to the cockroach at the Market in some ways.”

  “I see. Well, I’ll give it a try. I was actually about to ask some Players about which weapon to buy,” he said, “but maybe you can help me decide?”

  “Is it to swap out Gram?”

  “Yeah. I have Spellcaster and Summoner as my options.”

  “Summoner appeared for you? Do you have a lot of luck or something?”

  “I’ve got 10 right now.”

  “Normally you don’t get offered that in the shops at all, but picking Warder this time must’ve completely changed the odds for you, which makes it hard for me to give you a lot of advice on how to use your rerolls.”

  Damn, she even knows about my usual choices in the Market??

  “Is it good? Summoner, I mean.”

  “It’s really difficult to use. The wand is incredibly weak. Most people who pick it for Stage One end up dead.”

  Emelia looked away for a moment, seemingly talking to the tesseract in her dimension. Then she turned back to face him.

  “Only about 300 people survived Stage One with that Weapon Type.”

  “There was only 1 person with it who got an achievement last Stage,” Adam added. “But why is it so hard to use?”

  “So, the wand deals very little damage despite requiring a lot of Mana with every spell cast. It’s also hard to use its spells even though you’ll know the motions. The thing about the Summoner though is that it’s based around the Wraith Lantern that it comes equipped with. It’s similar to how the Priest’s Blessed Rosary works. And before you ask, no, you can’t save Relics tied to weapons between loops. I’ve tried…”

  She cleared her throat.

  “Anyway. The Wraith Lantern needs to be charged up before it can actually summon a wraith. I haven’t tried the Weapon Type out, but I heard that you need to kill a certain amount of enemies to charge up the Relic. You can fuel it with Mana, but that will trigger Overconsumption and leave you exposed. The problem is also that the wraith that’s summoned can’t be controlled and you can only mark a target for it to attack. It might get stronger if you can evolve it, but I think Spellcaster is a safer bet.”

  Think I’ll still ask that one person who got an achievement with it in Stage Two.

  “How is your plan working out so far?” he asked her. “I noticed that there were a lot more people who survived Stage Two than in my last loop.”

  Emelia nodded. “It’s 20 million more than last time.”

  Only 20? Maybe this universe has better odds overall or something? I wonder why there’d be such a discrepancy.

  The time-looper suddenly looked at Adam’s shoulder intently.

  “What?” he asked, realizing she’d noticed the rope Weaver had made.

  “Are you going exploring with that?” she asked, clearly knowing exactly where he was going.

  “Maybe.”

  “Do you even know what’s down there?”

  “I’m about to find out.”

  Emelia stared at him silently for a long time.

  “If I find out you’re using it then I’ll deal with you myself.”

  “What do you—?”

  She disconnected their conversation and vanished before he could finish his question.

  What the hell?

  Well… now I just want to know what’s down there even more.

  Adam stared down over the cliff’s edge to the cave opening below. By his estimation, he still had at least two hours of sunlight left. He hadn’t agreed with Beck and Gladwyn about meeting up before exploring what was down there with Weaver’s rope. Since they hadn’t been in the Tavern, he was sure they’d already rappelled down to the cliff-side cave in their own dimensions.

  He’d tried to talk to the guy with the Summoner weapon about his experience so far, whether he recommended the weapon, and any tricks he might have. All he’d said in return was, “Don’t get it. It’s a death sentence.”

  Apparently he’d almost died in both Stage One and Two because of the Summoner type and he’d been in the Tavern looking for advice on which weapon to swap to. He also had the Spellcaster available in the Market and had said that he’d be switching to it based on what he’d heard from others, since he could afford it now.

  I’d be lying if I wasn’t curious about the Summoner.

  I really doubt it’s that bad.

  After all, the weapons all seemed to have clear benefits and demerits, so it was unthinkable that there’d be one that was only demerits. Since rarity informed how difficult a weapon was to use, at least for the starting selections, Summoner was probably on the same level as Warder, and Adam had been doing really well with that despite its peculiar nature.

  Plus, the potential synergy is hard to deny.

  It’s just a shame I can’t try out the weapon before buying it, and 2000 Points is a lot to spend on something that might turn out to be bad.

  However, if I can utilise the Wraith Lantern while having the Spell-Tome active, then there should be some great synergy, especially as I get more boosts to summons and ‘subservient’ allies.

  Adam pushed the thought from his mind for now as he finished securing the spidersilk rope around the tree next to the cliff. He leaned his whole weight on the rope to test the knots and they held without issue.

  This silk seems incredibly durable. Maybe I should have Weaver make me a spool of some ultra-thin silk and use it as traps against the imps in the next Stage.

  He moved over to the cliff’s edge and made sure the rope didn’t have any slack in it, then he very carefully began to walk down the 90-degree wall. The rope was long enough that it touched the landing in front of the cave. He’d gotten the measurement just right, which was fortunate. It would’ve been awkward if he’d had to return to Weaver.

  The trip down took maybe five minutes, but he was sure that going back up would be way worse. When his feet finally touched the landing, his legs were shaking. He wasn’t afraid of heights, but the knowledge that a single slip-up would lead to a freefall into the clouds below made it quite a tense affair.

  Adam took a deep breath and waited for his legs to stop shaking before he entered the cave. The opening was quite big and led to a spacious tunnel that was dimly lit by orange gems embedded in the rocky ceiling.

  Reminds me of the Forbidden Altar…

  Fortunately, there were no statues to watch out for and the walls appeared like they’d been formed naturally, which was odd, given how straight the tunnel was. At its end he emerged into a dark chamber that seemed really big. It was possibly ten metres to the ceiling, which made him think that there was some dimensional trickery going on, since the cave was only eight metres below the surface. Although, it was possible the darkness was messing with his depth perception, since there weren’t any light gems in the chamber. Instead there were wheel-sized pulsing green circles on the back wall, but they didn’t give off much light.

  I wonder what those are.

  Adam looked around, but it just seemed like a dark cave, aside from the strange lights and a small pond with jet-black water off near the side wall.

  He slowly approached the back wall with its weird pulsing circles.

  The wall slowly turned pale white, distinguishable even in the darkness.

  Then two plate-sized green-glowing eyes opened and stared right at him.

  His mind couldn’t fathom what he was looking at until the giant creature started peeling itself off the wall and put its many arms down onto the cave floor.

  He’d seen the animal that it was based on, but they were much smaller in real life. Small enough to be held within your hand, though touching them was how you won the Darwin award. Plus, their rings were blue.

  Adam started backing away as the green-ringed octopus raised itself on all eight arms, its bloated head narrowly avoiding the ceiling. He barely registered the stone doors recessed into the wall it had been covering as its two enormous glowing eyes transfixed him.

  “Adam… I was wondering when you would pay me a visit,” boomed the voice of the giant octopus, making the entire cave vibrate.

  “As an Envoy of the Dark Abyss, I bid you welcome to this deep place. My name is Sk?ll. Lord Nwetrou, the Dweller in the Deep, bade me embrace all those who came here in search of higher purpose.”