Loopshard - Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twelve

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Oh my God, I'm actually done with my internship tomorrow. They're getting no more free labour out of me!

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Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twelve

Adam had initially assumed that the Spidersilk Needle was a melee weapon, but it wasn’t really possible to hold and stab with. Or well, it was possible, but it wasn’t easy or functional. Although Legendary weapons didn’t imbue much in the way of intrinsic knowledge, unlike with most other weapons he acquired below Epic rarity, it was offset by Weaver being able to tutor Adam in ways to use it.

Her immediate response to his attempts to grip the needle around the wide base like a dagger was to slap it out of his hands and grip it with two of the spidery legs sprouting from her back. With the silken string wrapped around the tip of the right leg, she used the left to fling it like a small javelin.

Upon seeing the very basic way it was used, Adam thought it was just a finnicky version of the Lancer’s throwing evolutions, but then she started using the string and he realised why the weapon was Legendary.

Weaver loped forward and threw the needle straight ahead only for it to violently yank back when it reached the end, due to the spidersilk thread’s insane elasticity. As it flew back towards her, the tip was still pointed straight ahead. She twirled around as it passed right through where she’d been standing, then she threw out loops of the silk wrapped around her spider leg. It hung in the air for longer than seemed possible, and at first Adam thought it was because the string was so light, but, as the needle bounced back a second time, it passed through the loops and triggered a special effect, revealing there was more to it than that.

The needle exploded forward with absurd speed, stretching the thread way beyond what seemed possible and tying knots on the loops it shot through. The resultant buffet of wind it produced ruffled Adam’s brown hair aggressively. Predictably, the needle was yanked back as the elastic spidersilk contracted, but Weaver easily caught it in her hand where it slowed down unnaturally.

“That was impressive,” Adam said honestly as she handed back the weapon.

“My mother is said to be able to produce feats of real magic with her needle and string,” Weaver replied. “I am still a novice.”

“Didn’t look like a novice to me,” he told her. “You were using Mana to manipulate it, right?”

Weaver nodded. “Spidersilk is woven with magical energy. That is why it is so strong.”

Adam tied a few loops of silk around his right forearm but kept a fair bit loosely draped around his fingers, then he threw the needle in front of him.

It didn’t go very far and it didn’t fly straight either. Predictably, it hit the ground and he had to reel it back in himself.

Hmm, I think I have to use Mana for all of the steps.

Like keeping a volleyball in the air, but every hit against the ball has to involve Mana.

Maybe…

Though he had his theory, actually putting it into practice was pretty tough.

After a couple more attempts, he managed to spike the needle and make it fly straight ahead. It didn’t drain a lot of Mana, but it was noticeable regardless.

As the needle reached the end of its forward momentum, it yanked back with sudden speed. Adam didn’t know how to stop it and was too late to dodge, so it flew right back at his face, triggering the Blood Mage Choker in the last second, forming a shield in front of him that the needle bounded off of and clattered to the ground.

“Man, this is difficult…” Adam muttered.

“It is normally designed for someone with eight legs,” Weaver pointed out.

“That doesn’t explain how you were making it look so effortless.”

“It must be in my blood,” she said.

“That’s cheating,” Adam replied.

Weaver looked astonished by the response for a moment. Then she giggled.

“Alright, I’ll play around with this later. Let’s go get some food,” Adam said, pulling the blood out of the shield his necklace had made and transforming it into a floating ball.

He paused.

Wait a second.

He looked down at his hands where the needle rested along with the string, and then up to the ball of blood he was manipulating at the same time.

With a thought, he moved the ball around.

I’m able to use both of my weapons simultaneously?

“Actually, give me a second,” Adam told Weaver. “You can run ahead if you’d like.”

“Understood,” Weaver replied and suddenly switched to using her four back limbs to lift her feet half a metre up from the ground before she skittered off towards the Player House.

I think I can hack the Mana manipulation problem with the spidersilk if I use my Mana-infused blood.

With a few deliberate motions of his control sigil, Adam coated the needle and spidersilk coil in blood, making it quite a fine layer that was hard to really see atop the string, but which gave the needle gruesome look.

He tried the basic throw move again, but using his energised blood to spike the needle, like a little intentional zap. It consumed some of the blood coating the needle, but he had enough to do a reverse spike when it yanked back, making it stop mid-air for a second before it dropped.

I wonder if this is an intentional combo.

I’m pretty sure the Spidersilk Needle is meant to be ridiculously difficult to master, since you need the hand-eye coordination to throw it and control the thread, as well as the dexterity to toss the thread to make quick loops in the air, while also injecting Mana at every step.

By comparison, shaping and manipulating the Warder barrier or Blood Mage spells was much easier, since it was tied into one ‘skill’, whereas the needle required three.

I haven’t used a lot of dexterity-based weapons and my hand-eye coordination frankly sucks, so that part I’ll have to practice a lot. But I’m already familiar with manipulating blood without needing to focus too hard, so I can at least do that part without too much worry, eliminating one of the three requirements to master this weapon.

Actually, if I can use my blood to manipulate the string as well, I won’t have to worry about learning how to toss the spidersilk in the air, since I can just shape the thread into what I want.

To test it out, Adam lifted the silk from his hand and moved it a few metres out in front of himself, making two loops with it like what Weaver had done.

Then he spiked the needle through them.

Woosh!

The projectile shot forward with a lot of speed, consuming all the blood coating the looped string. As it reached the end of its momentum, it fired off a large spike of blood, which seemed to just appear out of thin air.

The spike tore through the side of a building, adding to his already bad track record of property damage this loop.

“Woah,” Adam muttered.

Then the line yanked back and the needle flew at him like a missile.

Oh shit!

He spiked it sideways and the needle suddenly pointed left, flying back towards him while spiralling in the direction it was pointing.

Within a second it had spun around him three times, wrapping the string about him before he remembered how to stop the needle from moving by using another zap of his energised blood.

I’m glad Weaver didn’t see that…

“Nice trick,” a voice said sarcastically and Adam froze, still bound within his own weapon.

He slowly turned to look at Sylvia who’d snuck up on him.

“Can we pretend you didn’t see that?” Adam asked.

“Depends on how much you’re paying for my silence,” she replied.

***

“Why are you surrounded by girls?” Gladwyn asked as Adam connected to him via the basement restaurant.

As advertised, the basement worked the same way as the Interdimensional Tavern, so it was possible for him to talk to his friends without going to the Tavern.

Charlie had clearly been quite happy to have another kid she could spoil, but unlike Belamouranthe, Weaver was quite well-behaved and almost had to be encouraged to even order food to begin with.

In order to get Sylvia not to share the embarrassing thing she’d seen, Adam had reluctantly agreed to show her everything he’d learnt about blood and flesh magic.

But first they were having dinner.

“You’re just jealous,” Adam joked.

“Isn’t that a child on your right?” he replied.

Beck appeared next to Gladwyn as he sat down, apparently returning from somewhere else.

“Who’s the kid?” he asked, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

“It’s Weaver,” Adam told them. “I used the Vanity on her.”

“Huh,” Beck muttered.

“I thought she was just a small spider,” Gladwyn said. “Not an actual child.”

“I had the same thought,” Adam told them.

“So, what did you get?” Beck asked.

Adam lifted the Spidersilk Needle and showed it to them. “It’s Legendary and uses magic to throw the weapon and manipulate the string.”

“I’m having a hard time picturing that,” Gladwyn remarked.

“Same,” Beck said.

“I’ll show you after Stage Five,” Adam responded.

“I don’t know how I feel about killing other people,” Gladwyn said.

“Hesitation will get you killed,” Beck told him pragmatically.

“I know, I know.”

“There is a way to have multiple Players survive,” Adam said. “If Gladwyn and I were to go to the same dimension for Stage Five, it would actually be possible to pull off.”

“Because of the lighthouse?” Beck asked, quick on the uptake.

“That’s right,” Adam said. “You need that, and then you have to claim the Altar together without killing any other Players or island denizens.”

“Does the squid count?” Gladwyn asked.

Adam paused before bursting out into laughter.

“Seriously!? In two separate loops of mine you kill Skǫll!?” Adam exclaimed.

“Three times,” Beck said. “He killed the squid in my last loop too.”

Adam doubled over in his chair with laughter.

Some things don’t change.

That’s comforting to know.

When he was done and had wiped the tears out of his eyes, he straightened back up and said, “No. He doesn’t count. He’s not part of the island since the Deep Place he resides in is beyond its influence.”

“I think the squid is a she, actually,” Beck corrected Adam. “I’m pretty sure she was hitting on me when I went there in this loop.”

Gladwyn and Adam shared a glance.

“Could still hit on you if it was a guy,” Gladwyn pointed out.

Adam nodded. “Maybe you’re just what an octopus fancies.”

Beck frowned. “Ah… you’ve got me there. I actually don’t know how to respond to that.”

Adam laughed again.

“Anyway,” Beck said. “Killing the squid might cause problems in Stage Eleven.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Adam said.

“What kind of problems?” Gladwyn asked.

“Basically, a lot of monsters will want to kill you. Even ones that should be friendly,” Beck explained.

From Emelia’s explanation of Stage Eleven, Miredeep, Adam had gotten the impression that it was connected to Nwetrou, given the symbolism, objectives, and creatures they’d apparently encounter in the Stage. This was further backed up by Beck’s statement that the Stages were tied to the various Absolutes.

“That’s okay, I don’t mind grilling some seafood,” Gladwyn said.

Beck shook his head. “So lame.”

“Yeah, that was kind of a terrible one-liner,” Adam agreed.

“It also doesn’t make any sense. You don’t have any fire magic,” Beck said.

Like in Adam’s fourth loop, Gladwyn had initially chosen Defender. Adam wasn’t sure if he’d gotten the Second Sheath yet, but he assumed so.

“I’ll find a way,” Gladwyn insisted.

“We should figure out who actually won our bet,” Adam said.

“I found out we can actually ask the cube to count how many of the Elphin died,” Gladwyn replied.

Beck frowned. It was quite clear he hadn’t been able to keep a lot of his people alive.

“How can we trust what Adam says if we can’t hear his cube?” Beck asked.

“Don’t try to deflect from the fact that you’ve clearly lost,” Adam shot back.

“Don’t worry,” Gladwyn assured him. “I’ll tell you what Beck’s cube says.”

They all turned to the Eyes following them and asked the same question.

“How many of the Elphin died in Stage Four?”

The Eye piped up, awoken from its mindless stare into a wall by Adam addressing it directly.

[No Elphin died during your Stage Four.]

“Hell yeah,” Adam said.

[54 million Players survived Stage Four. Currently, 44 million Players are utilising the Dimensional Tavern.]

That’s really damn low…

“Thanks for that unsolicited dose of sobering reality…” Adam deadpanned.

[Apologies. I assumed you would like to know several statistics about Stage Four and the survival rates.]

It actually apologised.

“Unless I ask, don’t tell me. It’s a fucking bummer.”

[Understood.]

“I lost 10,” Gladwyn said.

“Me too,” Beck added.

“Liar!” Gladwyn immediately exclaimed. “I heard it say 22. You can’t fool me!”

“I lost 0,” Adam boasted.

Beck narrowed his eyes and looked at him suspiciously.

“How?” Gladwyn asked.

“I made all of them immediately go back to the centre of the Sanctuary and tell all their friends to do the same,” Adam explained.

“I told mine to do hit-and-run tactics,” Gladwyn said. “It worked pretty well.”

Given that he had the Flawless, Secret Boss, and Eradication bonuses, that was definitely an understatement.

“I… uh… I forgot about the bet until after the first breach,” Beck said. “I was a bit too focused on getting the secret weapon that Adam mentioned.”

Adam shook his head.

“Since he’s the loser and you’re the winner, what’s your punishment for him?” Gladwyn asked Adam.

He thought about it for a bit and the long wait clearly bothered Beck, who fidgeted a lot with the fork that’d come with his food.

“Alright, I’ve got it,” Adam said. “Beck has to go to the Deep Place and ask Skǫll if they’re male or female. If they’re male, then Beck has to also change his name to Becky.”

Gladwyn grinned. “That’s a good one.”

“Just you wait, Adam Fischer,” Beck said threateningly, pointing his finger at Adam.

20 minutes later, Beck returned, a complicated expression on his face.

“What happens if the answer is ‘both’?” he asked.

Gladwyn and Adam shared a look.

“You have to change your name,” Gladwyn then said.

Adam nodded.

“Fuck…” Becky replied.

***

Adam left his Player House basement to go visit Alivida a couple hours after it got dark, since he wanted to use the Orb of Insight to see what Players he’d be up against in the Altar. Sylvia had stayed back at the house but would join him for his practice later.

< < Orb of Insight Activated > >

< Viewing Stage Five — The Forbidden Altar >

Adam’s mind was pulled into Alivida’s crystal ball and he saw more or less the same things about Stage Five as when he’d first used the Orb of Insight in his fourth loop. The main difference were the faces at the end. There were five of them, counting his own. Three were women and besides Adam there was another guy.

He didn’t recognise any of them, but he made sure to memorise their distinctive features. The man looked Hispanic, with large dark-brown eyes, caramel skin, and a very faint scar between the top lip and left nostril. Two of the women were Asian. One had thin eyebrows, glinting dark eyes, pale-yellow skin, and long black hair. The other had short and wild blond-dyed hair, dark skin, and a mouth that looked like it defaulted into a smile when at rest. The last woman was Caucasian with black-and-green-dyed shoulder-length hair, and had green-blue eyes and two piercings in her right eyebrow.

< < Orb of Insight Deactivated > >

Adam’s mind returned to his body and he gasped like he’d been holding his breath.

I might be able to find them if I query the Tavern with their specific traits.

Just a shame it only shows me their faces and not their Relics and weapons.

Before returning to the basement of his Player House, Adam swung by the Market to see Thea. Since he’d gotten the Vendors meta upgrade, she showed him five weapon upgrades for his new weapon.

< < Weapon Upgrades For Sale > >

< Needle Speed (Uncommon) — Increases needle speed by 20% >

< Needle Impact (Rare) — Increases the power behind needle impacts by 15% >

< Spidersilk Efficiency (Uncommon) — Reduces the manipulation cost of spidersilk by 10% >

< Spidersilk Effect (Uncommon) — Increases spidersilk responsiveness by 30% >

< Spidersilk Power (Epic) — Increases spidersilk effectiveness by 70% >

“I’m guessing the last potential upgrade is Needle Damage, right?” Adam asked.

“I cannot say,” Thea replied.

“Seriously?”

She just shrugged.

Needle Impact seems similar to the thing that Woodsman had, which made axe strikes hit harder.

The Spidersilk Power is no doubt the same as Blood Mage’s Invocation Power, which means it would make the strange silk tricks hit much harder. Probably. I’m still not entirely sure that’s what Invocation Power does for my spells…

I could buy an upgrade, since I have 700 Points left, but I think I’ll hold off on that.

“I’ll be back tomorrow,” Adam told the beetle smith.

“Goodnight then,” she replied.

Adam returned to his Player House by the silver light of the moon, playing around with the Spidersilk Needle and his blood magic as he sauntered across the cobblestone streets. He hadn’t really gotten that much better at using it, but he figured it would be useful for the Altar nonetheless. After all, he had to kill the other Players if he wanted to get any blood and flesh without hurting himself, so dealing with the Statue Elementals would be a pain in the ass. Particularly because he was planning on triggering the Hardmode for the Stage too.

From what Emelia had told him before they’d died in his fourth loop, the Hardmode for the Altar meant that all of the statues would awaken, and they would be a lot tougher to crack. But if he could kill a lot of them, he would get a ton of Points.

However, the real benefit of the Hardmode was that it also doubled the Points rewarded from killing other Players. If he killed the other four people who would be in the Stage with him, he’d get 2000 Points, not to mention whatever price their Relics would fetch when sold.

But activating Hardmode might get them killed against the statues.

And besides, I don’t really feel that excited about having to kill other Players, even if there’s the Eradication bonus tied to it…

Adam sighed.

He entered his Player House and went down to the basement restaurant, finding a seat and immediately running through queries to locate the four Players he would be up against.

Although he couldn’t find the Asian woman with the long hair, since she hadn’t had something that allowed him to really narrow down the query to find her amidst literally millions, Adam was able to find the other three. The Hispanic guy had picked Defender, as had the woman with the eyebrow piercings. The Asian with the blond-dyed hair used Spellcaster. Between them, none of their Relics were cause for worry, since nobody had the slime gloves or blood rings. But Adam wasn’t completely familiar with their weapons, and the two who used the sword and shield had gone a different route from Gladwyn, since their shields were slimmer and more aggressive-looking. The fake blonde with the staff also wasn’t using an evolution Adam was familiar with.

Beck had gone the route of Acolyte to enable up to three spells to be primed, then Element Tamer to be able to absorb elements and incorporate them into spells, and finally Elemental Avatar, which allowed him to imbue his own body with the elements he absorbed too, gaining high resistance to damage of that kind, which sounded ridiculously strong. It would also pair well with the Mage Aspirant’s Cowl that allowed the wearer to see and absorb Mana.

Adam tried again to find the last Player he’d be facing, but he still came up empty.

After eavesdropping on the three others for a while longer, trying to get a good sense for them, Adam hit up Gladwyn and Beck again.

They talked until the Tavern shut down, but, surprisingly, the basement restaurant remained active and Charlie didn’t go anywhere.

It was an extremely strange experience for Adam to see all the people, who normally popped in and out of existence on the seats around the different tables and bar, get up and vanish all at once. Of course, the special denizens, plus Yenna and Weaver, were still present within.

Adam listened to Yenna’s soothing guitar melody for a few minutes, and then Beck appeared opposite of him.

“Weird, right?” he said, referencing the lack of Players.

“It feels almost like a secret hideout,” Adam replied.

“Gladwyn is refusing to spend his Points on it,” Beck said.

“Understandable. For what it is, it’s too expensive,” Adam replied.

“Not if you like eating late night snacks in bed,” he argued.

Adam laughed. “Well, I’m getting off for tonight. Got a bit more practice to get done before taking on the Altar.”

“See you tomorrow,” Beck said.

With that, Adam got up from the chair and said goodnight to the denizens in his basement, before heading up the stairs to his private quarters with Sylvia in tow.

He spent a couple of hours practising with the Spidersilk Needle and blood magic while she gave small pointers, then she left his house and he went to bed.

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