Kristoffer Pauly
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Loopshard - Chapter 125
🕑 Added 2025-11-22 03:09:04 +0000 UTC-Previous Chapter-
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I should have chapter 126 out early tomorrow. It's already done but needs to be edited.
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Chapter One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Five
Adam hadn’t seen Luvicidix since before Stage Five, so he’d missed her transformation into a humanoid, and since his mind had been so occupied with many other thoughts, it briefly surprised him to behold her new visage as she alighted on the ground before him.
Also, she looked upset.
“Sorry that I didn’t talk to you after the Altar,” he said, pre-empting her complaint. “I just didn’t have anything I wanted to buy.”
Her large eyes brightened at his words.
“I’ll say!” she exclaimed, though she was smiling. “I was so excited for you, since you saved all the Players in the Forbidden Altar, but then you never called for me!”
“I didn’t realise you were following along with how I fared inside the Stages,” he replied.
“Well of course I do!” she said.
“My trip to the tower didn’t go super well,” Adam added.
“While I disapprove of your choice of Absolute, I think you did a good thing in taking out Nwetrou’s adherent,” she said, surprising him once again.
“I didn’t think you were allowed to comment on the other Gods,” he responded.
“Who said that?” she asked.
“I don’t know, that’s just the feeling I got.”
“The All-Seeing System forbids us from aiding Players directly, but we are allowed to have opinions and comments on things that have already come to pass.”
“Then what was that warning about?” Adam asked. “You told me to be careful.”
“I… I cannot say,” she replied.
“Was it about the Flayed Lady?” he asked.
Luvicidix did a ‘my lips are sealed’ gesture across her mouth.
“Why is everyone being so cryptic?” Adam muttered, annoyed. “You do know it just makes me more distrustful of people I encounter, right? Also, the Flayed Lady has so far been good to me, even if she’s very controlling.”
Luvicidix frowned, but didn’t say anything.
She’s definitely not a fan of her.
“So,” Adam said, after letting the silence hang for a few seconds. “Do you have a new upgrade for me?”
“I sure do!” she exclaimed and gestured with a hand in front of her.
< < Meta Upgrades For Sale > >
< Mana — Increase Mana by 50 — 5000 Points >
< Saved Weapon — Start every loop with a saved Weapon of Common rarity — 10000 Points >
< Scale of Remembrance — 2630/25000 Points >
“That’s so expensive…” Adam groaned.
“I don’t decide the prices,” she replied.
“Who does?”
“I cannot say.”
“Of course not. So, how does it work? Do I just start with a saved weapon in my next loop or can I still pick a weapon from the start selection?”
“Since you have unlocked the Second Sheath from my sister, you will received your Saved Weapon in that secondary slot. It will not hinder you from selecting a starting weapon.”
Adam nodded.
That’s very useful then. Probably explains the price tag. And I’m guessing it works like the Saved Relic upgrade, so each rarity tier up is going to be another 10,000 Points. Which means that saving Blood Mage would cost 40,000, and the Spidersilk Needle would cost 50,000.
Actually…
“Would I be able to save my Spidersilk Needle?” he asked.
“No. That weapon is tied directly to the Vanity mirror and Weaver.”
Damn.
“What about evolutions, they’re not saved, right?”
“Correct.”
“Are there other weapons than the ones tied to the island’s denizens that I can’t save?” he asked.
“I cannot say.”
Adam frowned. “That’s unhelpful.”
“Sorry,” Luvicidix replied.
“I’ll be back later,” Adam told her. “Think I’m better off spending my Points elsewhere.”
“Don’t be a stranger!” Luvicidix yelled as she took to the sky and time resumed.
Now then, I think I should find Sylvia before I hit up the restaurant and search for Nwetrou worshippers. Besides, I wouldn’t be able to do anything to them until after I’ve visited Alivida and gotten the Challenge Stone.
But I hope it won’t be necessary.
Still, it’s doubtful that Jun was the only one sent to fuck up this universe.
And if there are others, they’ve probably managed to sacrifice Players during Stage Six…
Adam flew above the houses as he crossed the island to get to the Tavern where the melody of Sylvia’s blood sang out to him. The more he focused on it, the more he could tell she worshipped the Flayed Lady just like him, because inside her was some part that resonated differently than all the other denizens whose song he could hear with the Mandate of Blood.
Sylvia walked out of the Tavern with Migraine in tow just as Adam landed in front of the building.
“You got trophies for Migraine?” the purple goblin asked.
“I don’t,” Adam told him. “I’m here to buy scrolls from Sylvia.”
“Aww,” Migraine moaned.
Sylvia looked down at Adam’s new hand. “The Flayed Lady must have taken quite a liking to you,” she commented. Then she looked up and met Adam’s eyes. “The transformation is underway as well, I see.”
Adam blinked.
Transformation?
“I see you’re not aware of that aspect of her gift,” Sylvia remarked. “You should find a mirror.”
Is this why Yenna said I looked pale?
“What am I turning into?” Adam asked.
“I cannot say,” she replied.
Adam suppressed a frown. He’d heard the same line in response to so many of his questions that there was no point continuing to get upset about it.
“Show me your wares,” he told her.
< < Spell Scrolls For Sale > >
< Frost — Your next attack inflicts Frostbite, halting all of target’s regeneration — 200 Points >
< Conflagrate — Your next attack inflicts Conflagration, dealing periodic burn damage to target — 200 Points >
< Zap — Your next attack inflicts Electrification, periodically draining target’s Mana — 200 Points >
< Desiccate — Your next attack inflicts Wither, increasing damage inflicted to target by 50% — 200 Points >
< Tangle — Snare indicated target — 500 Points >
< Blood Crystal — Crystalise targeted blood — 600 Points >
< Heart Lance — Launch a beam of pressurised blood — 600 Points >
< Blink — Teleport to indicated location within your line-of-sight — 750 Points >
< Beckoning Crimson — Pull all spilled blood within 10 metres to you to replace lost health. Excess blood turns into a flexible layer of armour — 1000 Points >
< Shade Barrier — Negate the next attack that deals damage to you — 2000 Points >
I want to test out my theory first, so I’ll buy the cheapest blood spell she has.
< < Spell Scroll Purchased > >
< Blood Crystal >
< 5425 Points Remaining >
Adam took the spell scroll from Sylvia’s hand and immediately pulled blood out of his own body, floating it in front of himself as a small spherical ball.
He took a few steps away from Sylvia and Migraine, and then he read the scroll while holding it in his left hand and channelling it through his right.
“Blood Crystal,” he intoned.
Energy flowed into his hand, making the crimson glass glow alongside the trigger sigil.
The ball of blood in front of him crystallised in the same way as the Fiendbarb effect, except it was under his control and not a chaotic chain reaction.
Unlike when Adam had used Alepheria’s Mandate to understand the barrier spell inside his spell-tome, the Mandate of Blood activated as he used the spell. It continued to glow after the spell scroll vanished and the ball of crystallised blood lost the bit of his Mana used to keep it under his control, dropping to the ground where it shattered into glass like fragments.
The glow in his hand condensed into a ball and then flowed into his veins.
Adam gasped as he felt the knowledge forcefully lance itself into his mind, inserted like a large syringe and pumping his consciousness full of the spell’s intricacies.
I think it worked.
He brought out a small amount of his own blood and floated it around like a coiling serpent in the air, before mentally activating the specific frequency that was required for its melody to change.
The coiling blood crystallised and he quickly pulled it apart into individual fragments, before shooting them all forward and into the side of a building just as the last embers of his Mana faded from them.
Adam turned to face Sylvia. “I’ll buy all of your spells that can work with blood magic. Except for Blood Crystal.”
The blood mage apprentice frowned. “I don’t approve of this, but I do not make the rules.”
“Do you really care about the Points it would’ve cost me to learn the spells from you?” Adam asked.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I cannot say.”
There’s gotta be some important reason as to why all the denizens care about Points, and why Alivida is concerned with collecting Mastery Shards.
Sylvia pulled out scrolls for Tangle, Heart Lance, Blink, Beckoning Crimson, and Shade Barrier.
“That will be 4850 Points,” she said.
“I don’t need Tangle,” Adam told her. After all, he already knew how to cast something similar.
She put that particular scroll back into her cloak. “4350 Points then.”
“Deal.”
< < Spell Scrolls Purchased > >
< Heart Lance >
< Blink >
< Beckoning Crimson >
< Shade Barrier >
< 1075 Points Remaining >
I’ll have to ask Beck to help me test the Shade Barrier.
Adam wanted to test out all the spells to learn them with his Legendary Relic, but since the shade spell required him to take damage and Beckoning Crimson required a lot of blood around him, he stuck with just trying out Blink and Heart Lance for now.
Migraine left as Adam lined up to hit one of the distant houses, but Sylvia stayed behind to watch. He made sure that there were no people in the direction he picked by listening to the melodies around him, and then he read the lance scroll, firing it through his right hand. It was only after activating it that he remembered that he couldn’t tell where Sprite and Finnian were, so he just hoped they weren’t on that part of the island.
Since the scroll itself was charged with magic, it simply summoned blood into Adam’s right hand, as opposed to drawing it out from within him, and then his hand automatically closed around the small ball of blood in his palm, forming a beak with the fingers.
Adam held his hand like that for a couple of seconds, but then suddenly the Heart Lance fired, shooting a thin beam of blood out from between his fingers.
It was completely silent until it struck a distant house and went all the way through.
That’s really strong, Adam thought as the beam disappeared from sight. Sounds from the distant houses behind his target indicated that the lance kept going for a while.
As the spell fully concluded, the glass hand fed the knowledge of how to cast the spell back into Adam’s body.
Unlike the Blood Crystal spell, it was quite a lot more complicated.
He had to first draw out quite a complex three-dimensional pattern shaped like three overlaid wire-frame pyramids that held a floating ball of blood in the middle, and then he needed to precisely close his hand over the ball in the beak shape before it would fire.
Aiming it like this would be quite difficult if I’m on the move.
“Fascinating,” Sylvia muttered to herself after he fired another shot that went through a row of houses.
“How so?” Adam asked, turning to her.
“It is different from how I would have taught you to cast the spell,” she explained.
“Really? How so?”
She paused and Adam shook his hand dismissively, “You can’t say, right?”
Sylvia shrugged.
Adam brought out the Blink scroll and held it in his right hand. He wasn’t quite sure how exactly he would learn it, but he figured the Mandate of Blood might translate it into a type of spell he could understand and utilise with his blood sigils.
He focused on the roof of the Interdimensional Tavern and triggered the spell.
The air was pulled out of his lungs, and then he gasped and found himself standing exactly where he’d been wanting to teleport to.
That was weird.
The knowledge flowed back into his body from his glass hand.
Adam frowned.
It was ludicrously complicated, and the version he’d learnt was clearly tied to blood magic, since there was no way he’d be able to cast it with the Summoner’s wand.
But I don’t think that Sylvia was entirely correct about how it would work with blood magic, to say nothing of flesh magic.
I’m quite sure I don’t need to use it on another flesh-and-blood creature, if I’m understanding it right.
With a nudge of his power, Adam pulled some non-essential flesh and fat from his left leg and shaped it into a simple hand that he fired down at the wall of a house below him, close to Sylvia. The hand left his range of control, but didn’t evaporate or disappear, which was something he’d already been utilising with his flesh magic whenever he reached capacity. When it struck the wall, the short talons he’d given it dug in and it stuck loosely to the brickwork.
Then Adam activated his two rings to get enough blood for the spell.
First he formed a floating double-helix ring around his head and torso, essentially orbiting his brain and heart, which was a safety measure baked into the spell. Next he made a wire-frame sphere of blood, within which was a pyramid that had its four points connected to the sphere.
To activate the spell, Adam shoved his hand into the pyramid within the sphere, before flooding it with all the Mana available to him.
Instead of the air in his lungs getting sucked out, it instead felt like Adam’s blood was pulled from his body and into his hand.
Then suddenly he was hanging from the wall where he’d fired the flesh-shaped hand, his fingers sprouting talons of their own.
Adam let go of the wall and dropped half a metre to the ground. Then he unshaped the talons from his fingers, returning them to normal.
That was quite slow.
It had taken him about a minute to nail the shape of the ball and two double-helix rings, and it consumed 35 Mana, which was just below his total of 40, since Prince’s Gambit used up the other 40.
But at least I can teleport to a flesh construct outside of my manipulation range.
That’ll allow me to leave behind constructs as teleport points in a Stage, which presents some really cool ways to traverse Stages.
I need to test it more though, just to make sure I can use it from really far away and without requiring line-of-sight like the default Blink spell.
“Your mastery is improving,” Sylvia told Adam. “I did not realise the spell could be utilised in such a way, and you formed the spell pattern correctly on your first attempt.”
“Is it the same as the one you would’ve taught me?”
“No,” she replied. She seemed a bit annoyed, if he was judging the look on her face and melody of her blood correctly. It was possible that Adam’s version of Blink was better than hers, especially since she’d made it seem like it would only work with a full-bodied target.
Adam looked at his crimson glass hand.
Knowledge is truly power.
I wouldn’t have had the first clue about how to do this without the Mandate.
“Would you also like to buy my elemental scrolls?” Sylvia asked.
“Maybe tomorrow,” he replied.
She gave him a look. “You won’t be here tomorrow,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
“Your next Stage lasts three days,” she replied.
“Oh, right. For some reason I thought that time flowed differently on Interim Island.”
“It is the same time,” she replied but then froze, a weird look on her face.
“Same time?” he asked.
Sylvia walked off without a word.
“What do you mean it’s the same time!?” he yelled after her, but she didn’t stop.
The melody emanating from her had a discordant note to it. It was as if she was in pain.
What the hell was she trying to tell me?
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Comments
Benw8888
I wonder if he can leave some flesh on the interim island to teleport back mid-stage
the ice man
It was as if she was in pain, thinking that the rules affecting her
