What does the Church of Holdna see William Oh as? A good Oh-man.

*much groaning at the bad pun.

- Thomas Sinclair, level 13 Swift-foot Messenger

They took him to a private room in the palace, and Will was once again surrounded by people he was fairly sure could end him in the blink of an eye: Ghoul, Bakton, and Luis, who had been waiting for the three of them.

Luis gestured for them to sit, and Will did so, heart hammering in his chest.

“So, about the auction—” Will said before Luis held up his hand.

“We arrested several Vassals of Frederick Wyrd that had been subdued by the auction vault’s defenses. Obviously, Frederick was the one who stole the auction’s goods,” Luis said.

Ghoul and Bakton nodded along with amused expressions.

“We don’t care about the trinkets so much as we care about the prosperity of this neutral ground,” Ghoul clarified. “The advantage it provides us in terms of produce and manpower is not to be understated. And you preserved that.”

Rare and valuable Relics only available at auction, and they’re ‘trinkets’? Lords have a different perspective on things.

“In any case, Frederick was definitely the perpetrator, and sadly, he died before he could reveal where he hid the stolen goods, so they may be lost to the sands of time forever,” Luis said, leaning back in his ornate chair.

“…Right,” Will said. People had seen his Party leaving with some of the loot hoisted over their shoulders, but if the Lord of the city said something loud enough, it would become the truth.

That was a relief. It was nice to see those kinds of things working out in his favor, but Will wasn’t naïve enough to believe they always would.

“So why am I actually here?” Will asked.

“Baron Akul was the spearhead in the movement to lift up promising young Climbers. We wish to preserve his city, and the traditions he began. They are both the right thing to do, and profitable for us, so it is an easy decision to make,” Ghoul said.

“To that end… Has anyone ever taught you how to fight?” Bakton asked.

“I fought all the time, back in the orphanage,” Will said with a frown.

“No, I mean actual training, from an instructor. On how to fight.”

Will didn’t say anything, thinking back. Nothing came to mind.

“Let me guess,” Bakton said, leaning forward in his chair. “Every fight you’ve ever been in since you became a Climber has been a white-knuckled ride on a wild horse that could throw you any second, constantly bouncing from desperate gambit to desperate gambit that always seem to work out because of your high natural talent.”

“That’s…fairly accurate,” Will said. Not every fight, but a lot of them.

“In honor of Stephan, I’ll give you one lesson. We’ll see what you can do with it,” Bakton said.

A single lesson from a Lord whose focus is melee combat? Valuable to me, or pearls before swine? Will thought.

“I’d like to give you a lesson on Ability use,” Ghoul said.

Will glanced over at Luis, wondering what he was going to offer.

“I already let you keep the contents of the auction…but I can throw in a boat,” the new baron of Akul said with a chuckle.

“Much appreciated,” Will said with a nod.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Bakton said, the swordsman rising to his feet.

“…Now?” Will asked.

“I’m only in town another day before I’m going back up to my Floor,” Bakton said. “So yes. Now.”

Will hastily stood and followed the swordsman while he walked. The man was lithe, with defined muscles that seemed to anchor into his skeleton under constant tension, like a taut bowstring.

I wonder if girls like that? Will thought, poking his own normal stomach. Sure, it was flat, but it didn’t ripple.

Will followed Bakton out to a courtyard lined with weapons racks, a circle of sand in the center.

“We’ve only got time for one lesson, but it’s going to make a big difference,” Bakton said. “In order to throw a spotlight on your biggest weaknesses, we’re going to need to establish some ground rules to avoid you compensating with Abilities, as you’ve become accustomed to. Wear this.”

He tossed a metal collar to Will while putting on one of his own.

“What is it?” Will asked.

“It’s a cursed Relic,” Bakton said.

Will blinked, holding the Relic away from himself.

“Just put it on. I haven’t got all day.”

“What’s it do?” Will asked.

“Sets our stats the same and messes with your perception of time.”

Ah well, if they were trying to enslave me, they wouldn’t need to trick me.

Will put the collar on, stiffening a bit as the cold metal touched his skin.

“Piiiick aaa weaaapooon,” Bakton said, pointing.

“Yoouu sooound weeeird. IIII sooound weeird!” Will gasped. He felt normal, but when he tried to speak or move, it felt like he was moving through honey….albeit less sweet.

Will’s senses adjusted, making Bakton sound a bit more normal as he chose a tomahawk.

“Interesting choice,” Bakton said, taking a tomahawk off the wall as well.

“I thought you were a swordsman?” Will asked.

“At your level? Doesn’t make a difference.

“Come here and spar with me. The one rule is that you are not to use your Abilities. I will not use mine or my left arm. Our weapons are the same, our stats identical, so the only variable is skill. Do you understand?”

Will nodded.

“Then come.”

What followed next was both humiliating and enlightening.

With how slow they moved relative to their perception of time, Will was able to catch every single subtle move the Lord made. Every time Will made a mistake and it was punished was made glaringly obvious by the time dilation.

Every move was calculated to put Will at a disadvantage, buy time, or go for the kill. Not a single action was wasted, and as he was sent reeling to the ground over and over again, Will had plenty of time to analyze what happened before he crashed into the dirt.

The first thing Will learned was to widen his stance and catch his balance as quickly as possible between each exchange, or else Bakton would punish him.

After Will no longer complacently stayed overextended, Bakton started adding in strikes to deliberately catch Will off guard or spin him around, causing him to trip over his own feet and topple onto the ground in slow motion.

Will’s footwork gradually improved, perhaps unconsciously matching Bakton’s.

When Will no longer fell for overextensions and footwork puzzles as often, Bakton disarmed him repeatedly.

When Will began retaining his weapon better, Bakton threw in arm locks and leg swipes interspersed between the chops that should have severed his spine or perforated his lungs.

When Will started copying some of the more aggressive attacks that Bakton deployed, the swordsman went on to demonstrate the perfect response to them before going back on the offensive.

That’s all it is: action and response. Like a game. Or a conversation.

Will felt like he was fighting against a mirror of himself that was guiding him through a foggy landscape…that was beginning to clear a bit.

At the end of the ‘lesson,’ Will was a shaky mess, his body trembling from exertion. His legs especially felt like they would give out on him.

“You did well,” the taciturn Lord said, taking off the steel collar and cancelling the effect on both of them. “Not a savant, but a quick study. I hope you’ve learned something that can be useful for you.”

“I think I have,” Will said, nodding. He felt like he was beginning to grasp the interplay of combat one move further ahead than he had when they’d started.

Against Bakton, all that ‘one move ahead’ really let him know was when he’d made a mistake and it was about to be punished, and possibly how. But that was more than he saw when they’d started.

And it would likely be more useful against someone who wasn’t Bakton.

“Keep practicing. I gave you a seed, but if you don’t water it, it’ll wither before it can grow big enough to sustain itself,” Bakton said before leaving.

“And if you make it to the Ninth Floor,” he called over his shoulder, “let’s spar again. I like a quick study.”

“I think he likes you,” Ghoul said, watching Bakton leave. “He’s never offered a second lesson before.”

“You think I want to go through this again?” Will motioned to his bruised form.

“You just improved your battle sense by leaps and bounds in a single lesson. I’m absolutely sure you want to go through it again.”

Will shrugged sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“Now for my lessons,” Ghoul said, rolling up his sleeves.

“Lessons, plural?” Will asked.

“Yes. I want my lessons to make Bakton’s look plebian by comparison,” Ghoul said, his emaciated skull giving him a death’s head grin.

From context, ‘plebian’ was…bad?

“Have you ever heard of a ‘memory key’?” Ghoul asked.

Will shook his head. “No.”

“Of course you haven’t,” Ghoul said, preening a bit. “Because I invented it.”

Will’s brows rose.

“And if you teach anyone else about it without my permission, I’ll kill you,” Ghoul said, with the tone of someone speaking absolute truth. “If this technique spreads far and wide, a counter will be developed and it will lose all its value. So don’t.”

Will nodded.

“We can sit down for this part,” Ghoul said, and they both collapsed into the sand.

“A memory key is memories, ranging from a handful to hundreds, strung together end to end.”

Will cocked his head, not quite understanding.

“Crystalize a memory in your mind. As accurately as you can, remember everything, from the feel of the sun on your skin, to the smell, feeling, emotions you were going through.”

Will tried, picturing Muse on a typical orphanage morning, placing her buns on the rack to cool.

“I can tell from your expression that it’s a pleasant memory. Now, do you have it crystalized?”

“I think so?”

“Now crystalize a deeply unpleasant memory.”

Will focused on the time he’d gotten a nail through his foot, remembering the pain and panic as it had slowly pulled out of his skin, scraping against bone on the way.

“Now connect the two, first one, then the next.”

Will did so.

“Now add a pleasant memory to the chain.”

Gertrude feeding me soup when I was sick.

“Now an unpleasant memory.”

Almost choking to death on the peanut butter I stole.

“And how are these useful to me?” Will asked.

“Mental manipulation is a brittle thing,” Ghoul said. “And one of the few true threats a Lord has to face.

“Picture a memory key as…saw teeth, or switching between hot and cold on a piece of glass. Whenever you suspect mental manipulation, run the memory key through your mind, as quickly as you can. The fluctuation between the memories will erode or crack most forms of manipulation, giving you the opportunity to break through the rest of the way on your own.

“It can also serve as an identification code for your true self, should you ever be launched from your body or be confused about who you are. Which may happen more than you expect.”

So my memory key is:

Muse in the window.

Nail through foot.

Sick soup.

Choking on stolen peanut butter.

“Practice crystalizing those memories and switching between them until you can do it perfectly, and quickly. Once you’ve got them down, add more ‘teeth’ to your key. More is better, as long as you make sure to crystalize them perfectly. Tepid, half-remembered memories do no good.”

“Yes, sir.” Will nodded, before cocking his head. “How big is your memory key?”

“For obvious reasons, I’m not going to give you an exact answer, but…big.”

Will nodded.

“Alright, keep practicing the memory key, and remember not to speak of it to anyone.” Ghoul gave him a warning finger-waggle that reminded him of Gertrude.

Maybe they’re the same age: ancient.

“For the next and final lesson, I’ll help you refine something you were experimenting with in the tournament final. You’ll actually have to stand for this.”

Will painfully climbed to his feet.

“You were making ripples in the floor to throw your opponent off balance.” Ghoul made a stomping motion.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how I did that.”

“How does your Ability work?”

“It helps with traction, mostly.”

“Does it stiffen water?”

Will nodded. “It also extends surfaces to provide a better grip.”

“Show me.”

Will walked up the side of the courtyard wall, thin shelves of wall extending outward to support his feet.

He really hadn’t measured how far they extended outward, but they supported his whole foot, and they had for a while.

I wonder…

If it scales with Resistance, and my Resistance is 24 times more powerful than when I first used it…

Will stepped a little further out, the wall jutting out an extra foot to support him.

Holy…wow. I didn’t know I could step out that far.

“It seems like you’re already having ideas and experimenting. Good. Can you walk on air?”

Will tried, but Aspect of the Immortal Serpent wasn’t having it.

“Nope, seems like it has to have substance,” Will mused.

In response, Ghoul blew a breath of rancid undead air in his face, with all the strength of a Lord, sending Will reeling backwards.

“Did that have substance?” Ghoul asked.

“Point taken.” Will coughed.

“Does it have to be earth? Because all air has tiny amounts of dust in it. Dust is just tiny particles of stone…among other things. Focus on that.”

Will tried walking on the dirt in the air.

Will felt the slightest resistance before it evaporated.

“I felt something, but it shattered pretty much immediately.”

“You’ll likely have to gain several levels, get an Ability upgrade, and maybe some specialized equipment, but I want you to be aware of it as a possibility,” Ghoul said.

Will was already thinking about putting something to boost Aspect in his Phantom Hand. The amount of boost should eventually be enough to enable him to walk on air.

It would be better to not have to waste a slot on it, though.

Still, regaining the ability to fly on command would be…very nice.

“…What’s stopping you from making stilts out of the floor and walking two feet off the ground?” Ghoul said after thinking for a moment.

Will opened his mouth to reply, before pausing to think about it.

The wall was jutting out two feet to support me. Why not the floor?

He’d never thought of it because he’d never had any reason to need it, but he could tell Lord Ghoul was getting somewhere with this question.

Will tentatively raised his foot before lowering it, taking one step forward.

The ground twitched upward as if reading his intent, before lying back down.

“Try again, focus on rising above the rest of it. Imagine the ground is lava and you have to stay above it. The wall supports you because you don’t want to fall. Use that sense of consequence.”

A little children’s rhyme started going through Will’s head.

Step on a crack. Break your mother’s back.

The ground twitched harder under his feet before lying back down, as if sensing that Will wasn’t actually in danger.

But I’m starting to get it.

Will didn’t feel like he was in danger when he climbed walls. Danger wasn’t a requirement; it was that sense of consequence that allowed him to get a feel for how the Ability worked.

In a matter of minutes, Will was walking across the floor, each step met by a two-foot pillar of solid sand.

“Okay, now raise up a pillar and drop it quickly,” Ghoul said.

Will raised his foot, the floor drawing up with it, before stomping it back down.

Ripples traveled outward through the solid surface of the floor, pushing several feet out in every direction.

“A fast study, like Bakton said,” Ghoul said, nodding.

“Now…” Ghoul said. “Can you make the ripples stronger in one direction? Can you make spikes come out of the ground?”

“Why would I be able to do that? My Ability doesn’t—”

“Does it say anything about making the ground ripple like water?”

“…No, it does not,” Will admitted.

“Get to it.”