After wrapping up his talk in the underground catacombs, Lloyd went back to exploring the map.
During the rest of the trip, he kept chatting with the lantern. Nothing particularly important came up, but he did manage to pick up bits and pieces of information.
For instance, while to outsiders the Golden Prince might have seemed flawless—practically a living embodiment of the Law—in reality, he often grumbled about working overtime every single day. He had even seriously thought about how to drag his two younger brothers out of the Subterranean Shunning-Grounds just so they could suffer overtime with him...
Or how, when it came to the Ancient Dragon Alliance, the Golden Prince would often sneak off with his good brother and that brother's sister to complain about the old fogeys in their clan, calling them hopelessly stuck in the past...
And even on the subject of the Golden Order itself—this figure who should have been its staunchest believer couldn't help but crack. "Seriously, man, what kind of proper law forces you into marrying your own kin?"
As for the Night of Black Knives, it was just as he had told Old Margit: no matter what really happened, he died, he lost, and he wasn't the type who couldn't admit defeat. Nothing shameful in that.
...
So, while exploring and chatting, Lloyd eventually got a message from Alice, letting him know she was finished.
Since the lantern couldn't be stored in his inventory and was a hassle to carry, Lloyd thought for a moment, then sent it back to Old Margit. After that, he warped back to the Divine Tower.
There, he found two things.
Both were dungeon portals.
He walked over to inspect them.
The first one displayed [Filthy City · Nokron].
But as soon as he touched it, something in his inventory began to tremble. Pulling it out, he saw it was the fragment dropped by that filthy Incarnation.
He fed the fragment into the portal. With a violent shudder, the dungeon's name shifted.
[The End of the Filthlands]
[Through the refraction of essence fragments, arrive at the world of filth.]
[By gathering essence fragments, you may obtain the strength of filth.]
[Once you have amassed enough,]
[You will be able to usurp its essence.]
It looked like an upgraded dungeon, with higher rewards.
But beneath the new name, another line appeared:
[Entry restriction: White Witch]
Lloyd frowned at that, then opened his inventory and equipped the Javier Armor.
A set of pure white, ultra-heavy plate.
He touched the portal again. It went quiet.
[You call this a witch?]
"I think it counts."
As he said this, Lloyd pulled out Dragon Tooth—a giant club only raw muscle could wield.
"See? I even have a staff."
After a beat of silence, the portal simply turned away, clearly refusing to entertain him.
Shaking his head, Lloyd grumbled a few words, then pulled out his bell and rang forth the soul of the [Incomplete White Witch] he had obtained earlier.
From the Eternal City to Liurnia's lakes, from climbing up the Altus Plateau to being teleported into Volcano Manor, and now back here to the Divine Tower—he'd had this soul for quite some time, and had fed it more than once.
Though her consciousness hadn't yet recovered from being consumed by filth, the once translucent spirit—so faint it looked ready to fade at any moment—had grown solid, her form healthier and more stable.
And after being fed several times, she had started to grow accustomed to it, placing a little more trust in Lloyd, her "keeper."
This time, when she appeared, she walked straight to his side, ready to feed again.
But just as she reached him, she suddenly stopped.
As though sensing something, she lifted her head and looked toward the nearby portal.
Then, almost instinctively, she raised her hand to touch it.
But she never made contact.
"Not yet. You're still too weak."
Lloyd held her hand gently, giving it a reassuring squeeze.
After a moment, trusting him, she slowly lowered her hand.
Then, as if stirred by the fragment, the pale spirit regained a sliver of consciousness and whispered,
"I must... save them..."
Lloyd tightened his grip slightly and spoke softly.
"Don't worry. I'll help you. But you need to recover first. Otherwise, I can't let you go, alright?"
The struggling stopped.
After that came the usual feeding. While feeding her, Lloyd thought for a moment and summoned Asimi.
Although her true form was just a silver tear, judging from her abilities she could also be considered a kind of White Witch. So Lloyd let her try as well—and sure enough, it worked.
Asimi was strong enough, but in Lloyd's eyes she was still just a child. He wasn't comfortable sending her off alone. So he decided that once the White Spirit had recovered enough, he would send the two of them in together.
Meanwhile, seeing the White Witch feeding stirred Asimi's own hunger. She waddled over, blinking up at him expectantly, and Lloyd had no choice but to feed her too.
Afterward, the White Spirit seemed to recover a little more awareness. When she caught sight of the ring on Asimi's hand, something seemed to stir in her memory. She lifted her head, pressed her forehead against Lloyd's, and spoke softly.
"My name is..."
"Fretia..."
[Oath obtained: Ancient Covenant +1]
...Wait, oaths could be upgraded?
Checking it, Lloyd noticed the covenant's physical damage reduction had gone up slightly. Then he looked back at Fretia. Seeing her sway unsteadily from overusing her strength, he reached out and caught her, answering in return.
"My name is Lloyd."
She gave a small nod, then returned to the inventory.
As for Asimi, she had absorbed so much power from the Eternal City, combined with Lloyd's steady flow of souls, that she still hadn't finished digesting it all. So after eating, she grew sleepy again. She snuggled against him for a while before turning back into a silver cocoon and returning to his inventory as well.
...
After settling the two children, Lloyd looked up at Alice.
"That dungeon..."
"It's stable. We can leave it alone for now."
"Good."
He paused, then, just as he was about to check the second dungeon, a thought crossed his mind. He turned back to Alice and, after some hesitation, opened his arms.
"So, uh... do you want to..."
Alice didn't wait for him to finish. She blinked straight into his arms and opened her mouth.
"I just burned a little energy. Help me top up."
So he did, and with his free hand he ruffled her radiant golden hair.
It was soft, pleasant to the touch, with a faint fragrance—like vanilla.
"Did you put something in your hair?"
He leaned down to sniff. He couldn't actually smell or taste anything, but with the system's descriptions, he could still imagine it.
Alice didn't answer. Instead, she lifted her long hair and draped it over his head. Then, with her other hand, she held a strand before his eyes and blinked, her gaze shimmering like endless stars.
"Want to try?"
After a brief pause, the Divine Tower filled with a rustling sound.
No taste. That was what the system reported.
When it was over, Lloyd patted Alice's back, signaling he was getting up. He stood, plucked a golden hair stuck to the corner of his mouth, and walked over to the second portal.
He reached out and touched it. A system prompt appeared.
[Glintstone Crystal Lake · Liurnia]
"If I sent you directly into the academy, in your current state you'd either get chewed up or blow the place apart.
But through this springboard, I can put you at the edge of the world and offer some support.
Still, be careful. That thing inside seems to know you well.
It doesn't look like it wants to kill you or fight you outright—just mess with you.
So, be prepared."
Lloyd wasn't surprised. He'd already crossed paths with it in the Divine Tower.
The terrain, the monster placement, the sheer malice dripping from it—forget the original game, even in a fan-made mod people would call this garbage design.
And now he had to step into its territory...
He considered how it might screw with him: endless ranged sorceries, cheap terrain traps...
So he reallocated his stats, leaving just enough Intelligence to cast the two incantations from the All-Knowing, and dumping the rest into Faith and support. He was going full ranged prayer build this time.
Reaching out, he touched the portal. The moment he chose to enter, a familiar haze washed over him.
And when it cleared, Lloyd stood where the path from Stormveil opened out toward Liurnia of the Lakes.
At the same time, as he opened his eyes, a system prompt appeared.
[Glintstone Crystal Lake · Liurnia of the Lakes]
[Order Status: Completely Disordered]
[Special Area: Thunder Lag Mutation]
[Thunder Lag Mutation: This area is experiencing network fluctuations. Your connection is unstable, leading to lag, delays, desyncs, and similar issues.]
[Try pausing your Thunder downloads, it might help]
[—A helpful tip from a certain kind-hearted white dragon]
Silence.
After a long while, the sound of teeth grinding echoed.
"Seath, you fucking bastard..."
Is this really something a human mind could come up with?
And what the hell does this even have to do with sorceries?
[How is space-time sorcery not magic?]
[Oh, I see. You're discriminating against sorcery now?]
Seeing the two messages scrawled on the ground, Lloyd raised both middle fingers.
"Fine. Just wait. Don't let me catch you, or I'll rip every last crystal out of your scaly ass."
But after only two steps forward, Lloyd realized something was wrong.
Lag. Way too much lag.
He walked four or five steps, only to blink and find himself right back where he started, all progress reset as if those steps had never happened.
And it wasn't even consistent. Sometimes you could walk a hundred steps with no issue. Other times, you'd move one step forward and instantly snap one step back.
Overall, it was still "stable" enough that he wasn't walking in circles forever—but the random resets made it infuriating.
Still, movement wasn't the worst part.
A little further ahead, Lloyd ran into a mob.
A Cuckoo Knight, its body crawling with crystals. The moment it spotted him, it raised its sword and charged.
Truth be told, the knight wasn't particularly strong. Its flashy crystalline skin made it look more intimidating, but its attacks were no different from a normal Cuckoo Knight's.
A basic slash, and occasionally tossing a shard of glintstone at its feet to conjure a few weak glowing missiles for ranged harassment.
Its aggression was low. Its stats were mediocre. In fact, downright weak.
The real problem was Lloyd's lag.
He swung Bloodhound's Fang, a clean strike straight through the knight's chest—
Only to watch in disbelief as his blade phased right through, dealing no damage.
Bang—
The knight hadn't even raised its weapon, yet Lloyd staggered back as his health bar shaved off a chunk.
Then, just as he lifted his blade to strike again—
Bang.
The Cuckoo Knight abruptly crumpled to the ground, dead.
...What?
He had clearly one-shot it, but staring down at the corpse, Lloyd couldn't feel even a shred of satisfaction.
Seath, you absolute piece of shit...
He took a few deep breaths, steadying his mood, then switched his loadout.
Ranni's Knight Armor.
Ancient Covenant +1.
Dragon Mother's Emblem.
Dragoncrest Greatshield Talisman (boosts magic negation).
Blessed Dew Talisman +1.
Ancestral Spirit's Horn (restores FP on kill).
In his left hand, the Blasphemous Blade—for healing with every kill.
In his right, a sturdy brass shield.
No rushing. Slow and steady.
Lure enemies with throwing knives, raise the shield, and treat the whole thing like an old-school RPG. No dodging. No spacing. Just tanking hits head-on.
And if he ran into big groups or chained aggro? Cast Rejection to knock them back, then punish with the Blasphemous Blade's Ash of War.
A weapon like a long-range beam cannon—huge range, wide spread, and every hit restores health. The ultimate of ultimate cheese.
Since the enemies on the outskirts were just ordinary mobs with low stats, it was troublesome but not dangerous. After a fair amount of grinding, Lloyd managed to clear the outer area this way.
At the end, a crystallized Soul Shrimp appeared as the boss. Lloyd simply spammed the Blasphemous Blade's Ash of War until it roasted into grilled shrimp.
[Obtained "Soul Glintstone Fragment"]
[A shard formed by fusing Homing Crystal Soulmass with the essence of Glintstone life]
[The result of Seath the Scaleless' research]
[Can be used to enhance Glintstone sorcery]
[Glintstone sorcery seeks to explore the stars and the life within them]
[Soul sorcery originates from the study of souls themselves]
[By combining the two…]
[The Soul Glintstone Crystal was born]
Beneath that was a handwritten note, different from the system text above, the script elegant and refined.
[Of course, this is just an early prototype. Don't take it too seriously.]
After storing away the fragment, Lloyd looked up. From where the shrimp had fallen, several golden Sites of Grace slowly appeared.
He approached, lit them one by one, and saw golden runes bloom around him. Checking through them, he found that almost all were connected to people bound by Covenant.
[Unlike others, Covenant-bearers can always respond to your call.]
[And in certain deeper dungeons, you can summon only Covenant-bearers to fight.]
[The higher the Covenant level, the deeper the dungeon layers they can appear in.]
That was what the message on the ground said.
Even though many golden runes appeared, since Lloyd had only explored a small part of the map, he could only summon one person for assistance.
After a moment's thought, he reached toward Chaos' golden rune.
In a place like this, where lag made close combat far too risky, ranged support was safer. And Liurnia's flat terrain was perfect for her twin rifles to shine.
But...
"Lag? What lag?"
Summoned by Lloyd and told the situation, Chaos looked around in puzzlement, then turned to him.
"Everything here is normal. The only one glitching around is you."
Lloyd: "...?"
What the hell?
After running some tests, Lloyd confirmed it.
It wasn't the world that was lagging, and it didn't even affect the people he summoned. The only one desynced was himself.
Seath, you absolute bastard...
When Chaos realized this, an amused smile crept onto her face.
From the moment they'd met until now—even when she went to tempt Melina—Lloyd had always been composed, always ready with a reliable plan.
But this was the first time she'd seen him like this. The first time he had to rely on her.
"What are you—"
Before he could react, a hand pulled him into her arms.
Chaos lowered her head, blew gently across his face, then smiled.
"Let me defile you."
"...Quit fooling around. We're in a dungeon."
"I know." She nodded.
"But that's exactly why it'll be even better to defile you here, don't you think?"
As she spoke, her fingers toyed with his face—scratching his chin, pinching his cheeks, tapping his nose.
It was distracting, ticklish, and not helpful for thinking, but since he had called her here for help and she wasn't exactly crossing any lines, he let her have her fun.
Lloyd sighed and stayed in her embrace, turning his thoughts back to what kind of monsters might appear next and how to deal with them.
Chaos didn't disturb him further. She just held him close, gazing down at him while continuing her gentle little "defilements."
After a long while—
"Chaos."
"I'm here, dear kin."
"This time, let me be your shield. How about it?"
Her playful fingers froze for a moment.
"...Alright."
...
[Upto 20 chapters ahead for now]
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