Chương 181: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Eighty-One

< < Collectible Relic > > < Blood-Imbibed Oarfish (Epic) — A rare fish that lurks in the depths of the Moonport Lagoon and which has been fed the transformative power of a Bloodfiend >"How the hell did you get this?" Adam asked.

"Did you find the Patriarch's flask from the hidden cache? The blood wine thing," Beck said. Adam sighed.

"You fed that to this fish?"

"Not quite," Beck replied.

"I fed it to a fish that I used to catch the oarfish with."

"That's so stupid," Adam said, shaking his head. Beck looked at him, his face deeply serious.

"I do what I must to win."

"Speaking of the bet," Adam said.

"I invited another person to join it."

"Did they catch something better than epic rarity?" Beck immediately asked.

"No."

"Then I'm fine with it." Adam laughed.

"Who is this new mystery person?"

"She originally went by the name Závislost, but she may have changed it by now."

"Since when are you befriending player-killers?" Beck asked.

"You know her?"

"Oh yeah. Her and her boyfriend were a real pain in my ass in stage fifteen last time. I had thought to take them out with the challenge stone, but we were focusing on the Nwetrou worshippers, so it kind of slipped my mind."

"I already killed Aeran," Adam said.

"And I'd like to believe she has changed for the better." Beck gave him a scrutinising stare.

"Adam… you dirty dog." Adam looked away, not wanting to meet his knowing eyes. Clearly Messimer gave him a pretty deep insight at just a glance, even though they were just holograms to each other.

"It's not like that," Adam replied defensively.

"She helped me kill all of the bloodfiends. Plus, she had plenty of chances to kill me for extra points, but she didn't even think about it."

"Didn't it occur to you that she might have just traded up from Aaron? Or that she's playing the long game."

"I think his real name was actually Peter or something," Adam replied.

"And yes, it did occur to me, but her main drive is to survive so she should be amenable to change."

"Did you tell her that you're a time-looper?" Beck asked.

"I did."

"That was unwise."

"We'll just keep an eye on her," Adam replied. Beck looked away for a moment and then suddenly Lasse popped into the seat next to him.

"Hey guys. I'm glad you're both alive," Lasse said.

"I was kind of worried, truth be told." Adam nodded.

"It's good to see you survived."

"Listen to this," Beck started, his tone turning gossipy, "Adam hooked up with this player-killer I fought in my last run."

"I'm surprised you could find the time for it," Lasse remarked honestly.

"My team and I were just running the entire time, trying to find the Patriarch's lair."

"We eradicated most bloodfiends by the third night," Adam said. Beck gaped.

"What? How?"

"That's crazy," Lasse agreed. Adam lifted his Mandate of Blood.

"This helped a lot. Plus, I look like a bloodfiend, which made it easy for me to set up surprise attacks."

"Hmm," Beck muttered. [Another Player is trying to communicate with you. Do you wish to talk to them?] He turned to the cube.

"Who is it?" [Player Kateřina Černá.] She changed her name.

"Pull her into this conversation." [Understood.] Kat appeared next to Adam, opposite the other two.

"Oh, hello," Lasse said, before pausing as he took in her appearance. Adam stopped for a moment as well.

"You got the Beast, I see," he then said. Kat's features had warped and become animalistic, but it was different than when Adam had used the weapon, since her pale skin and new features were closer to that of a bloodfiend beast, even though it wasn't dark yet.

"Are you worshipping the Flayed Lady too?" Beck asked her, clearly on guard.

"No, but I drank the potent blood wine," she said.

"It turned me into a vampire and gave me a simple skill to hypnotise a humanoid into thinking I'm their friend."

"Be careful of Flayed Lady worshippers," Adam told her.

"She doesn't like when people turn into bloodfiends without her permission. Apparently she considers it a gift."

"She would," Beck muttered.

"I will be vigilant," she replied, before saying, "The All-Mother told me you killed the young thief."

"Did you clear your quest?" Adam asked.

"Yes."

"Then it doesn't matter." This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. Lasse frowned.

"You killed Cienna? She was super nice."

"I had to kill all bloodfiends," Adam told them both.

"Mercy would have only gotten me punished." Before anyone could dwell on what Adam had said, Beck slapped his oarfish down on the table in front of himself, making Lasse jump. He seemed a bit twitchier after Moonport. Clearly his group had not fared well.

"Read 'em and weep, boys," Beck said, proud of himself. Come on, Lasse! Adam prayed internally. You're our only hope!

"I didn't have time to fish," Lasse said. Damn it. Kat inspected Beck's fish.

"I only caught a rare one," she said, placing her sturgeon on the table.

"My best was an uncommon. I already sold it," Adam said.

"I feel like you weren't even trying," Beck muttered, looking at Lasse in particular.

"I think my team might have killed me if I had suggested we stop to fish," Lasse replied. He didn't have a lot of bonuses, but he did have defender, flawless, MVP, and secret boss, which were the four most valuable ones. Adam was sure that Lasse had carried his team, but he had honestly expected more, given how powerful his build was.

"Did you kill the Matriarch?" he asked. Lasse sighed.

"She was fucking scary. But it was all a mess. After we completed the church quest day one, the Patriarch showed up in the morning and killed the priest, plus our tank. We searched for his lair for two days, while the city became more and more overrun with bloodfiends, ghouls, and plague-bearers… Then on the third night, during the ball, the Matriarch arrived to Moonport from her island.

She killed two more players in my group, and the last three of us only defeated her second phase by staying in a boat out on the lagoon where I could easily shoot her out of the air, since she was slow in the water."

"The Patriarch also showed up on the second day for us," Adam said, and Kat nodded.

"Mine too," Beck added.

"It seems that completing the church quest quickly is a good way to force the Patriarch to appear. I had a lot of trouble finding him the first time." Kat looked at Adam in confusion.

"He's also a time-looper," Adam explained.

"How does that work?" she asked.

"It's complicated," Adam replied.

"Not that complicated," Beck remarked.

"Speaking of complicated though, have you tried out the golden nail weapon?"

"What's it like?" Lasse asked.

"I got the plague pattern for the stage, and we couldn't find him since everything was so screwed up."

"I haven't tried it yet," Adam said.

"But I'm pretty sure it'll harm me, since it's made of holy mana."

"It uses a strange kind of magic," Beck explained.

"I genuinely have no idea how it works."

"Maybe it is boundary based? Or a melee weapon?" Adam guessed.

"It would be a poor melee weapon," Kat remarked.

"I agree," Beck said.

"I think it must have some binding or affliction-based thing going on, but I'm still struggling to get it to do anything. Every time I stab it into a dummy, the wound just heals closed around it and I can't pull it out easily."

"Maybe you need to insert several and inject them with a spike of mana to get a result," Adam suggested.

"I'll try," Beck replied, before he looked at Kat.

"Are your player-killing days over?" he asked her bluntly.

"Did Adam tell you?" she replied.

"No. I fought you in my last run. You were with that Aaron guy."

"I see," she replied and went quiet for a moment, not bothering to correct him on the name. Eventually, she said, "I will not rule out killing other players if necessary, but I will not do so without reason." Beck narrowed his eyes.

"I'll let you prove that with your actions. I'll be watching you, lady."

"Did you kill me last time?" she asked.

"I did. I yanked out your wing," Beck said, his voice cold as ice.

"I have been worried about that weakness," she remarked. The conversation died down for a few moments, but then Lasse spoke up while looking at Adam.

"What are you wearing?"

"I had been meaning to ask the same," Beck added.

"I've never seen that relic before."

"It's the skill I got from fusing blood mage and bone mage together. It's an armour that increases my damage and speed based on how much blood, flesh, and bone it has absorbed. The original version I got from the Red Prince evolution would steadily decay, but this one only loses mass if it takes damage."

"That's pretty strong," Beck said. He looked back at Kat.

"You've got a fused evolution too, right?" She nodded.

"I fully evolved Beast down the Monster route based on Adam's recommendation, because I have the Fiend Tongue from Moonport. It took me nineteen rerolls to get the weapon to appear in the shop, but I feel much stronger now." She briefly explained the three evolutions that she'd picked, as well as the legendary relic, since Beck and Lasse didn't know about its power. Monster was the first Beast evolution, and Adam had seen it already. It gave her a fraction of a corpse's power for one minute after devouring it.

The second evolution, Monstrosity, made that effect permanent and stronger until she devoured something else. Her last evolution, Abomination, made it so that every corpse she devoured increased her Beast powers by 5% for the rest of the stage.

"I tested the devouring power for a while before I came here and discovered that I need to eat close to 60% of a corpse's flesh before it is considered 'devoured'. It is faster if I eat the heart and brain, requiring only about 40%," she said.

"Eating the hearts of the target dummies sadly do not work with my Fiend Tongue. I was hoping to cheat the Trials that way." She's definitely a lot more cunning than I realised. I hadn't even thought to try and exploit the System by eating the dummy hearts.

"Imagine if you could eat something like a slug dragon," Lasse remarked.

"Even a fraction of their power would be absurd."

"It would normally take a long time," she replied.

"However, the other final evolution of Monstrosity gave a skill that would let me instantly devour a corpse."

"Being able to eat enormous corpses in an instant to gain their power is something that would really help in some of the group stages later," Beck said.

"If you could eat a Voidspawn and gain some of its power… It genuinely terrifies me to consider that."

"I did consider the possibility of that power being strong later, but I think I chose well by picking Abomination. The fusion evolution I received from Bloodfiend Beast is very powerful and allows me to eat things like humanoids quickly. With the boost from Abomination, my transformation becomes much stronger."

The fused evolution had changed the nature of the Bloodfiend Claws' inherent transformation skill, making her able to change at will, with the caveat that she still had all the weaknesses from before, so she wouldn't be as powerful in daylight. But instead of turning into a Bloodfiend Beast, it made her a Bloodfiend Matriarch, which was twice as big and a lot more powerful. It really makes me want to try out Beast again, Adam thought. I wonder if men become Bloodfiend Patriarchs with that fusion. Beck sighed.

"I'm the only one here without a fused evolution." Everyone looked at him, and a sinister grin spread on his face.

"But I won the bet, so here are your new names." He pointed at Adam.

"Twilight." Then at Lasse.

"Legolas." And lastly at Kat.

"Sourpuss." Kat laughed.

"I just changed my name back to normal, but I think I will come to like this new one."

"You could've done a lot worse," Adam said, remembering some of the names he'd threatened them with in his fourth loop with Emelia. Once everyone had changed their names, Legolas said, "Since I technically lost because I didn't catch anything, I think I should decide the bet for the next stage."

"That seems fair," Adam agreed.

"It better involve fishing," Beck warned.

"We will bet on whose team has the most people remaining at the end," Lasse said. That's a good thing to bet on, Adam thought.

"What will we do if some of us only have five-man teams instead of six?" Kat asked, immediately noticing the flaw in the bet.

"We could make it percentage based," Beck suggested.

"That would still make it easier for someone with six initial players to win," Adam pointed out.

"The remaining percentage for losing one player is higher in a six-man group, making it harder to win the bet with a five-man."

"What if only the first four deaths are what we compare?" Lasse said.

"That should work," Beck decided.

"The Forlorn Kingdom is really difficult, so I don't think any of us will be able to keep all of our teammates alive."

"Adam and I will likely have a harder time with this challenge," Kat remarked.

"We are both very monstrous. It will not be easy to engender the kind of trust needed for this challenge."

"Speak for yourself," Adam retorted.

"I'm not turning into any monster with my skill."

"I'll take a shapeshifting vampire over whatever the fuck you call your magic," Beck remarked. Lasse nodded.

"Agreed."

"You have not even seen my transformation," Kat said and morphed into her Bloodfiend Matriarch form on the spot. Before the stool under her broke from the weight of her transformation and her hologram vanished, they got to see a truly monstrous thing.

There was no semblance of humanity left and it was the true evolution of the Bloodfiend Beast's form, akin to the Patriarch's appearance during their fight, but somehow more wicked in the way the hip and shoulder bones jutted outward from her frame to stretch her skin, and how her wings were shaped behind her like pointed sails, and how the claws and teeth curled like sickles.

"I changed my mind," Lasse said.

"I don't think Adam is that bad. I doubt I could handle fighting alongside the Matriarch's mirror image." I guess that's what she would've looked like if we hadn't ambushed her.

"I wonder if you could sit on her back and use her to fly around," Beck muttered.

"Don't repeat that to her," Adam told him.

"I don't know, she seems like she might be okay with that?" Lasse said.

"I thought so too," Beck agreed. Adam shook his head. Kat rejoined them a few moments later, clearly sitting on the floor, since just the top half of her enormous body was visible. It was truly an absurd sight.

"I broke four of the chairs," she said. Adam laughed.