Nova was on his twenty-third loop, and his approach to 'ruling' his universe with the Self-devouring Eye was similar to Emelia's, except less naïve and more selective. He selected people he knew made it far and gave them the information he thought they might need to grow just that extra bit stronger to make it even further.

He was like a gardener who oversaw his crops and let them grow without his interference for a bit, and then the ones that flourished were given fertiliser to grow even stronger, while the rest would be left to wither as a matter of course.

It was brutally efficient, but it made a lot of sense.

Emelia had tried something similar, but she'd been giving out information in a much broader way, trying to spread it to as many people as possible.

Both had reasons they could work, and it seemed mostly that the time-loopers behind these philosophies shaped them according to their morals. Nova didn't seem like a bad guy, but he didn't care about those who wouldn't reach Stage Ten, and that alone basically excluded 99.9% of all Players.

The problem with humans is that we're really bad at conceptualising big numbers. It's really easy to write off 400+ million people because it's too big of a number to imagine.

And if Emelia was right, and only three to five thousand make it to Stage Ten, then those people represent 0.001% of all Players. And Nova is selecting from the ones who survive, which probably means even less than that.

Putting it into perspective like that is actually insane.

I'm still struggling to understand how hundreds of millions can be reduced by that much.

After all, 22 million survived Stage Six in Emelia's universe. If what happened to us in Stage Seven wasn't out of the ordinary, I suppose it explains why a lot of teams just got straight up wiped out. And Stage Nine and Ten were harder than that.

Maybe it does make sense when I think about it that way…

Emelia and I both died, and that was despite knowing almost all the challenges.

I can't imagine how those doing it blind would ever survive for any other reason than dumb luck. Even those competent and skilled enough to make it far have to get lucky with their teammates.

Adam was standing in the centre of the island, thinking about some of the things they'd discussed, when the announcement came through.

< < Visiting Stone Activated > >

< Player Alexander Nova has entered your Dimension >

The time-looper materialised right in front of him.

He was taller than Adam had expected, standing at 2 metres and some change, easily a head above him. Unsurprisingly, he wore an Epic Relic from a later Stage. It was the Body of Sloth that came from a Secret Boss in Stage Six. Like the Spear Dancer evolution of the Lancer, it increased damage based on movement speed. Nova was clearly taking advantage of this, since he also had a spear on his back. But his main weapons were a sword and a shield, both of which were made of some dark metal that swallowed the light around itself.

"It has been a while since I used the Visiting Stone," Nova admitted as he stepped forward and offered Adam his hand.

Adam shook it willingly.

Even though they hadn't talked much, Adam had a very favourable impression of the guy, though his philosophy for how to spread his guidance seemed overly selective. Adam knew that it didn't take a lot to turn someone destined to die into a potential asset. After all, Gladwyn and Beck had been full of potential, and all just because they'd been given a helping hand early on.

"Shall we?" Nova asked, gesturing towards the west where the Market lay on the island.

Despite his friendly demeanour, Nova had turned out to be fairly paranoid, which surprised Adam somewhat. His entire explanation for why he wanted to use the Visiting Stone was that he didn't want anyone to spy on them as they talked. Though he also said he wanted to show Adam something.

They'd only gone a few steps when Nova paused and look towards the north, where the tip of the lighthouse poked above the other buildings.

"What is that?" he asked.

"You're unfamiliar with that particular secret?" Adam replied.

Nova nodded. "It seems so. If you tell me about it, then I will share something you may not yet know."

Unlike Emelia, Nova hadn't really asked any clarifying questions when Adam had told him he was a time-looper. But he seemed smart, so he would've easily picked up on the fact that Adam was using a starter weapon, and that his Saved Relic was a Rare from Stage Two.

When they arrived at the lighthouse, Adam explained its purpose, though he did not yet know what effect it would gift him. He shared the effect that Emelia's flame had possessed.

He had almost entirely forgotten about it now, but she'd told him that her effect was that anyone on her team would recover 75% of the health lost from the first attack they suffered in a Stage.

I think I triggered that on taking fall damage in Stage Seven…

"How can I get this flame?" Nova asked.

"I think it's possible to get it by worshipping the First Light," Adam guessed. "But I can gift you a Kindling Flame when mine has matured. I need to travel to your dimension though, and for that I need two more Mastery Shards."

Nova nodded. "I would appreciate not having to worship the First Light. It would complicate matters."

The weakness from the First Light would damage him if he hurt other people. And I guess he's planning on fighting other Players…

Nova led Adam to the Market and they stopped in front of Yenna by the fountain. She was playing a cello in a melody Adam wasn't familiar with. The sun was setting in the horizon and it would soon be night.

"Hello Yenna," Nova greeted the wasp.

"Evening, Alexander," she replied.

Nova turned to Adam and said, as though Yenna wasn't right there and listening, "If you gift her the Vanity mirror, she will grant you a Divine weapon called The Everchanging Melody."

Adam froze.

There was a point to that shallow Mastery Upgrade after all!

"Have you tried it?" Adam asked.

Nova nodded. "Though I didn't bring it into a Stage with me. It's difficult to use and I've spent the last six loops just trying to master it here on Interim Island. You need to get the Builder to make a weapon rack though, otherwise taking the weapon will delete the one you have in your hand."

"In my last loop, Yenna turned Finnian into a puddle with a small drum."

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"Finnian? Is that what you call the slime denizen?" Nova asked. "I'm familiar with the drum. It's called a Kotsuzumi. If you use a high-pitched flute against the Sloth Demons in Stage Three and later, like a piccolo, they go berserk, even when it's just a dummy in the Player House. There are a lot of other things like that, and I think, in theory, you can beat each Stage with Yenna's Everchanging Melody by using the right instrument. But you need to know how to play each instrument, since Divine Weapon Types don't give you the insight that other weapons offer upon touch."

A weapon that takes several loops to master… It's literally made for time-loopers then. And not my kind of loops either, but full-on loops going through twenty Stages.

"Yenna, play Rachmaninoff's 'Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18'," Nova told the musician.

She looked to Adam for approval, since it was his dimension, after all.

He nodded and she transformed her cello into a piano and immediately started playing. The melody started out sombre but brightened as it continued.

Nova smiled slightly. "I had the pleasure of witnessing the great Nobuyuki Tsujii play this with an orchestra."

They stood there for a while, just listening.

"Do the other denizens offer similar weapons?" Adam asked once Yenna had finished and the sun had set.

"I have only used the Vanity on Yenna and Thea, but Thea gives you a hammer. I haven't yet started to unravel how it works, but it is not Divine rarity, only Epic."

"Have you tried using Alepheria's Paintbrush?"

Nova shook his head, and led Adam down through the Market. "I have seen it only once and I will not be going back. To put a Voidspawn Apex in such a small chamber is the most insidious trap I can think of. I always make it a habit to avoid them until Stage Eighteen."

"How did you escape it in Stage Seven?" Adam asked.

"I killed it," he replied.

That statement alone sent a chill down Adam's spine.

"How?"

"Do you have access to the Alchemist?"

Adam shook his head.

"Well, she can craft a potion called Return to Sender. It redirects 100% of the damage you take back to its source. The ingredients are not easy to find, but if you send back seeds with the Relic Saving chest then you can cultivate them between Stages."

Adam gaped. "You can do that??"

"Anything without rarity can be sent back through the chest," Nova explained. "It's kind of an exploit, I think. Flower seeds and very small items can go in without issue, but I tried sending back spell scrolls and flowers, and it didn't work. They were just spat out as ash on the other end."

"Isn't the potion an easy way to deal with Voidspawn though?" Adam asked.

"Voidspawn are a hivemind," he replied. "I guess you haven't gone far enough to see that in action, but the issue with them is that they adapt to anything they encounter, and if something kills a Voidspawn, then the others will know it and build countermeasures. The potion trick is easy, but using it early on is a waste. It's better to save it for Stages like Eighteen where you can't avoid encountering them."

Damn, so even if you find a way to defeat them, it won't work twice…

Now I understand why Emelia felt so sure we would lose. Even if we had found a way to defeat the Voidspawn, the next encounter would've become so much harder.

"The best way to fight them is to have a way to kill them in one blow, right?" Adam asked.

Nova nodded. "That's right. But there are still hundreds of Players around when they start popping up, and they will fight as hard as they can against the Voidspawn, making the future ones that much stronger. I always try to warn the Players after Stage Ten, but it doesn't really work. Overconfidence as a side-effect of surviving against the odds is the biggest problem once you get that far into the Trials."

Adam looked at Thea's stall where Nova had stopped.

"What's the thing you wanted to show me?" Adam asked.

The time-looper's expression darkened, which worried Adam.

"Thea, would you come out here," Nova asked.

"Of course, Alexander," she replied and stepped out from under the blue overhang.

"You are not likely to use her services much, correct?" Nova asked Adam.

He frowned. "What are you trying to show me. And I do need her. For the crown after the Goblin Village."

"Don't fight the shadow in Stage Nine," Nova told him. "Now, pull out your Abyssal Tooth and jam it into her heart."

Adam took a step back. "I'm not doing that!"

"Would you rather we sacrifice a different denizen?" Nova asked.

"I'm not sacrificing any of them!"

"They will come back in the next loop," he said. "Sacrificing denizens isn't permanent like with Players."

"Why do you want me to do this?" Adam asked suspiciously. Thea was just looking between them, but either she didn't understand the danger she was in or she'd already resigned herself to it.

"It's to open a door in the Deep Place," Nova said.

Adam suddenly remembered the doors that'd been carved into the cavern wall behind Skǫll. They'd had round holes with some engravings at the back that he'd been unable to see.

"Thea's door is not as powerful as the one Lucca opens with her core, but it is still useful. The last door should be possible to open with the core of Alivida or Luvicidix, but I have yet to try it since I am unsure if they come back."

Adam frowned. "What do the doors lead to?" he asked, gesturing for Thea to return to her stall.

Nova cast him a blank stare. "You won't do it?"

"No."

"If you give me your Kindling Flame, then I will tell you. Or no, better yet, I will show you."

I might need to reevaluate my opinion of this guy.

I know the denizens are not people, but they aren't just NPCs either.

To just sacrifice them for some small reward is psychotic.

I don't want to treat my time-looping power as a tool to erase my sins.

"Will you tell me how your time-looping works?" Nova asked.

Adam had been waiting for the question all this time. He'd thought there was no harm in telling him, but now he wasn't so sure.

"Maybe later," he replied. "I will tell you something you're unlikely to know however."

Nova's expression softened and his eyebrows lifted in interest.

"What would you like to know in return?" Nova then asked.

"I want you to tell me how to save weapons between loops."

"Deal," he replied.

"Have you ever been to the bottom of Interim Island?" Adam then asked.

"Deeper than Nwetrou's cave? No. I thought there was nothing there."

"At the very bottom is an eye," Adam said. "The whole island is alive."

Nova seemed to reach some sort of epiphany. "Souleyman told me that to gain the attention of the Keening, I must cause the island's eye to blink."

"The Keening?" Adam asked.

"It's a powerful Absolute," he said. "I thought Souleyman's guidance was just another puzzle. A lot of his advice was like that."

That's one of the missing Absolutes at the Altar.

No wonder it's such an unknown with an unlock requirement like that. I only happened to find the eye because I could fly with my barriers.

"I wonder if Weaver will make me a rope long enough to go down there," Nova muttered to himself. Then he met Adam's eyes. "Thank you, this was valuable."

"So, how do I save weapons across loops?"

"You have to fully evolve five weapons in the same loop," Nova replied.

"Do the upgrades carry over?"

"Of course not," he answered.

Still, with the six upgrades from Stage One, along with 5,400 Points from the Stage and Cores, it's possible to have a fully-evolved weapon before the Goblin Village. That's crazy.

Maybe I should invest Points into reaching this upgrade.

Emelia also said that if I spend 5,000 Points on the Builder, then I get access to an upgrade to save all the things she builds. And there's also the thing to complete three denizen quests to permanently unlock the rewards of quests I've completed.

It feels like I've hardly made a dent in all the potential upgrades.

I need to survive past the Sanctuary to evolve my Kindling Flame, and I need two more Mastery Shards to get the Visiting Stone.

I guess I'm staying in this universe for a while longer.

"You should get the Brawler weapon and replace Gram," Nova suddenly said. "That will almost guarantee that the Pugilist's Belt appears in Stage Four."

"What does it do?" Adam asked.

"It's similar to Brawler's Pit Fighter and Priest's Zealot evolutions, since it increases damage dealt the closer you are to an enemy, except specifically for fist-based weapons and up to 100% instead of 50. It's worth using a Lucky Stone to get."

So, if I get Pit Fighter and this belt, that means I can get my Damage multiplied by 100% and then again by 50%. That'd mean my current damage of 175% plus the 40% from my weapon upgrades, would become either 645% or 735% depending on whether weapon and general upgrades are additive or multiplicative.

"Looks like you figured out why I'm telling you," Nova said.

"Yeah, that would be an insane boost to damage," Adam replied.

"What's the Beast like?" Nova asked.

"A bit hectic," he replied.

He went on to share the stats and how the Mana worked with Howl and Leap, as well as what he knew about the evolutions, not to mention how he'd used it in the Magical Forest.

"I usually favour a speedy tank build," Nova replied. "The Forlorn Knight's sword and shield from Stage Nine has a special skill that allows me to ram at double my speed. Coupled with the Spear Dancer evolution's damage boost from speed and the boost from the Body of Sloth, it means I can instantly kill anything until Stage Twelve. And all that without sacrificing Defence."

It's interesting how many different possibilities there are.

I guess if I follow his advice, I would achieve something similar to Emelia's setup, just without the Priest weapon.

"Let's talk again after Stage Two," Nova said abruptly. "The Tavern is still open and I left my steak unfinished, plus I've got someone else to talk to."

"Wait, before you go," Adam said, stopping him from pressing his hand against the Visiting Stone he was holding.

"What?"

"Can you help James and Benjamin Kvarnström survive? And Lenard Schulz?"

"Lenard already makes it far," Nova revealed. "I don't know the other two, but I'll give them a chance I suppose."

"Thanks," Adam said.

< < Visiting Stone Deactivated > >

< Player Alexander Nova has left your Dimension >

Ultimately, I think Nova is a good guy.

But I think he doesn't view the island denizens as real if he's willing to sacrifice them so easily.

That's a mistake, I'm sure of it.

Adam sighed. Despite the brief scare, his conversation with Nova had been quite fruitful.

He headed towards the Player House, wanting to practice with his claws a bit more before facing the goblins.

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