Mark Wyrd felt like he was finally beginning to relax. The knots were coming undone, the tea from a rare flower that only grew on this floor had a mild sedative effect that managed to pierce a Climber’s Resistance.

And it didn’t taste half-bad either.

“This must be the most interesting wall in all the land,” Amanda Akul said, leaning close and following his line of sight to the blank stone wall.

“It’s not bad.” Mark said with a shrug.

“Would you like some art up there, or…?”

“No, I’m not actually studying the wall, I’m all up in here,” Mark said, tapping his skull.

“Awww, sweety, I hope you feel better.” Amanda kissed his temple before brandishing a stack of papers covered in notes. “Pretty sure I caught an embezzler. I’m gonna go deal with them.”

In this case ‘deal with’ was probably a stand-in for ‘execute’.

“Good luck, have fun babe,” Mark murmured, taking a long swig of his tea to mark the end of the conversation.

It was right about this moment that Mark vaguely wondered what had happened to that Party that picked a fight with a raid boss, about half an hour ago.

They were most likely dead, just based on the amount of time that had passed.

Floor-wide Alert!

The Party of William Oh has claimed the bounty!

Many thanks to our Climbers for their efforts.

A spray of hot tea blasted out of the raised pagoda and sprinkled down onto the courtyard below.

“Shit, damnit, fuck,” Mark muttered, setting the tea aside and springing to his feet, his body compelling him to do something before his mind had a firm grasp of what, exactly.

“…Who’s William Oh?” Amanda asked, frowning as Mark began pacing.

Mark glanced up at Amanda’s lovely brown eyes and frowned. Oh right, you were in prison the last three years.

“He’s this…kid.” Mark said vaguely. “He’s an up-and-comer a lot of people think are going to become a Lord.”

“Well, why are you so worried? You already are a Lord.”

“He already beat me in a straight fight three Floors ago, and he’s going to be even stronger now. By a lot.

“Calm down, you’ve got all your father’s resources. Nobody can touch you now.” Amanda said, punctuating her words with a calming gesture.

“That’s just the thing.” Mark glanced around and lowered his voice. “You know how I killed my father?”

“You stabbed him when he least expected it.” she said with a shrug.

“Yes, that’s what everyone knows.” Mark said. “What everyone doesn’t know is that just before that, William Oh got into a fight with my father and managed to take his ring finger off, presenting a weakness that I exploited. This ring, specifically,” Mark motioned to the powerful Relic on his finger.

“He…did damage to your father?”

“Yep.”

“And he’s still alive?” Amanda clarified.

Mark nodded.

“And he’s surely stronger now.”

Mark nodded again.

“Wow, maybe we should be worried.” Amanda mused. “But…If he’s passing through on his way to establish a Stronghold, he’s sure to stop by here to at least make a gesture of goodwill.”

“Maybe. He hates my family, with good reason. I hear he got along great with your father.” Mark added.

Amanda snapped her fingers.

“Perfect. Let’s use that story. You’re besotted with me, the daughter Akul.” She put her fingers on her chest in a preening motion.

“But I am besotted with you.” Mark said, frowning.

“You allow me to dictate every aspect of the Stronghold’s administration.”

“But I do allow you to dictate every aspect of the Stronghold’s administration.” Mark said.

“Aww, sweetheart, I know,” Amanda said, wrapping her arms around him. “But we’re going to have to sell it.”

“Uuugh,” Mark groaned, going limp in her arms.

“Don’t treat demonstrating how much you love me like a chore!” She said, flicking his nose, forcing Mark to frantically suppress his Thorns lest her nose get broken.

“Young man, allow me to teach you that there are more ways to ‘win’ than simple violence.” She said, pushing him back down into his chair and sitting in his lap.

“This is great and all, but when you talk like your dad while sitting on my lap, it’s just weird.”

Amanda’s eyes narrowed. “Take off your rings, I’m going to pinch you.”

Mark chuckled. “You could try.”

 

***William Oh***

You are now a level 35 Resourceful Climber!

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 35

36 + 49 Strength

108 + 65 Resistance

105 + 63 Kinesthetics

136 + 49 Acuity

70 + 40 Focus

Charges: 60/110

Free Points: 4

Non-stat Item Abilities: +40% Rogue Archetype potency, +40% Ranger Archetype Potency, Coiled Lightning, Decreased audiovisual of Attacks/Abilities, resist tracking/Extrasensory, +30% Ranger Ability Speed and Duration beyond control, 25% audiovisual dampening while trespassing/breaking into a locked location or container. 32%bonus to move/attack. 43% chance to apply Lightning on hit.

Coiled Strike, 70% Audiovisual Dampening while trying to hide.

Phantom Hand Slots: (Ring of Accuracy*) (EMPTY) (Wand of the Undead Retainer) -(Stormfists)- (Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet)

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Immortal Serpent**, Phantom Hand****

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough**

Tertiary Abilities: Phantom Eye

Primary Ability Upgrade Available!

 

“Uuugh.” Will let out a groan as he collapsed backward into the dirt of the Jungle. It had only been half an hour, but it felt a lot longer when you were fighting to the death.

“My lord?” Badur asked, glancing at Will and then up to the massive bowl of liquid metal Will was supporting above them.

Even now it was beginning to leak Miasma. Slimes, especially metallic slimes, were distinctly unnatural, and needed plenty of miasma to justify their existence, so they needed to preserve it immediately.

“Got it,” Will groaned, rising to his feet.

“I’m making a slope,” Will said, gesturing with his hand, prompting a nod from the Logistician.

Invisible slopes worked better than invisible staircases, Will had found, and soon enough the two of them were standing beside the massive pool of liquid metal.

Badur knelt down beside the slime’s corpse, extending a trembling hand, his expression pale, likely thinking of all the razor sharp spears that had been coming out of the thing only moments before.

Will felt several charges flow through Badur, and a moment later, the miasma stopped flowing out of the dead creature’s flesh, locked in place by Badur’s preservation Ability.

“Thanks,” Will said, clapping Badur on the shoulder.

“It’s my job,” Badur said, straightening his undershirt, seemingly a habit from wearing a heavier jacket. He turned to Will with an excited look. “I’d like to go back to the caravan and retrieve some measuring tools and my ledger. I’m confident this slime will be the backbone of your army.”

“Eh?” Will grunted. Army? The Abyss is he talking about?

“Raid boss Sacrifices often have A-rank Growth, which is already excellent. This creature had amazing physical attack and defence, and the ability to bypass physical barriers. It will certainly be an outstanding Sacrifice for a Class Seed. And you’ve got…” Badur scanned the Wagon-sized puddle of liquid metal.

“…Thousands of Sacrifices here.”

Enough to grant identical Classes to a small army, Will thought, nodding. Even as Badur said that, Will was already imagining what an army of men and women wielding flexible swords…or perhaps covered in fluid armor that could both attack and defend.

What if I combined it with a Roc? Lightning and metal? What would the third ingredient be?

Will shook it out of his head before he got too carried away.

“That reminds me.” Will mused, grabbing a double-handful of the liquid metal and offering it up to The Tower.

Let’s see what this does.

Will had been propelled forward to level 35 by the bounty reward, so he now had the Primary Ability Upgrade to spare.

Ethereal Metallic Slime upgrade for Phantom Hand:

Adds polymorphic armor to Phantom Hand, which may be tangible or intangible at the user’s discretion. Durability scales with Acuity.

“…What’s Polymorphic mean?” Will asked, glancing around for Loth.

“’Many shapes.” Badur said. As Will stared at him, he clarified. “It’s a fancy word for shape-shifting.”

Shapeshifting armor for the Phantom Hand… that would certainly decrease the number of times the hand got damaged, but it wouldn’t prevent it entirely. It also doesn’t do anything to regrow lost fingers.

Will thought about it for a moment. Maybe it wasn’t perfectly what he was looking for, but he couldn’t be that choosy. If he didn’t armor up his hand here in anticipation of someday getting something better, and he lost the Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet because of that…that would be stupid.

Do you wish to Sacrifice Ethereal Metallic Slime to Phantom Hand?

Yes.

There was a flash of light as the Tower took the Sacrifice out of his hand, and Will’s snakes shuddered as the Ability was rewritten.

Phantom Hand has been upgraded. Review the description for changes.

Phantom Hand*****

Passive

Active: 1 charge.

Toggle: 14 Focus

Gain the use of an armored* ethereal Phantom Hand. Access a tiny amount of dimensional storage with a Charge. Items inside the Dimensional Storage shrink, scaling with Acuity.

Create a physical manifestation of a stored item for the Toggle cost.

Sacrifice a stored Relic to apply its effect to one of five slots. Only one slot can be active at a time. Switching to another slot causes the previous one to be inactive for 24 hours, and overwriting a slot causes the slot to be inactive for a week.

*Armor is polymorphic. May become tangible at will. Durability scales with Acuity.

A slight shudder went through Will as he felt the armor crawl up the spine of each of his Phantom Snakes like a living thing, the sensation radiating up each digit of his left hand.

Will brought Middle up towards him, so he could inspect it.

The Phantom Snake had a little helmet and articulated armor that flowed all the way back to its tail. It was plain, without any frills or-

Just as Will thought about a fancier armor, the armor twitched, adding some engraving and frills jutting out the side of the helmet. The frills were half-formed and the engravings didn’t really have a rhyme or reason, just a series of squiggly lines only vaguely pleasing to the eye.

When he focused on it, the frills fully formed, and the engravings took on a more logical pattern.

When he stopped focusing on it, the frills and pattern remained, locked into place until he decided to alter them again.

Huh. What if I…

Will formed a simple frill off the back of the snake’s spine, then focused carefully on it, refining the frill down to a narrow, razor-sharp blade.

Then he decided it should be tangible.

Badur flinched as a hollow metal snake with a razor jutting out of its spine appeared in front of Will.

Will held out a piece of his shirt and directed the snake to pass the razor through it.

Slice.

Hmm…

Will’s mind was racing with possibilities, but he shelved the follow-up experiments until he was in private, turning his attention to getting Badur back to the Caravan and getting the slime back to the caravan. They needed a new wagon built specifically to haul the slime, and to cut a path all the way back…

Which would take the rest of the day.

Totally worth it, though, Will thought, surveying the pond of liquid metal.

Despite everything he knew about Frederick Wyrd’s inhumane experiments, Will couldn’t help but let his mind wander about what kind of soldiers could be made using Silverdeath as one of the Sacrifices.

Fast, flexible, metallic, with a hint of ethereal Abilities thrown in. That made for excellent offense.

Now I just need to keep my eyes open for Raid Bosses that pair well with that…

I wonder if Brianna could use this for her Shapeshifting Secondary? Will mused. Or Mason on his Shield Ability to make it more durable or flexible? Or heal faster?

They didn’t all have as many upgrade slots for their Abilities as Will did on Phantom Hand. Most of them were similar to Sourdough, which only had two upgrade slots, so they had to be very cautious about what upgrades they took.

Will refocused on the task at hand and shuttled Badur back to the caravan before setting the carpenters on making a super-wagon to transport the slime’s corpse, Jean on clearing the path back to the lake, and the rest of the Party on cutting their way back to the caravan, with the intention of eventually meeting halfway.

Despite Will being able to fly there and back in about ten minutes, clearing the way for a wagon was an entirely different beast, and Will spent the rest of the day just sitting beside Silverdeath’s corpse, feet dangling off the invisible platform, guarding it against monsters or other Climbers who might want a piece of a Raid Boss, watching as the two lines carved through the jungle got closer and closer to meeting.

Once Mason and the others had gotten far enough away from Silverdeath, Will stole a bit of the liquid metal, about a hundred Sacrifices worth, storing it in his Phantom Snakes.

The difference was imperceptible, even to Will, who had been the one doing it.

…Why would he steal from himself?

Badur hadn’t measured the official volume of the massive slime, and once it was a matter of record, someone would get their eyes on it and be able to make plans based on those numbers. It was always good to have a little bit more than anyone thought you did.

Badur would probably have a meltdown if he knew the numbers were wrong.

My paranoia again, Will thought, scanning the jungle.

While they were all gone, Will experimented with Phantom Hand.

He couldn’t take off his Set or else he would drop Silverdeath’s corpse, but he could tell that the armor could be used to touch things even when the Phantom Hand wasn’t being enhanced by the set.

All Will would have to do to touch things was form the armor around the hand like a glove, and then make the armor tangible.

All people would see was a metal hand flickering into existence.

I finally did it. Will thought, resting his chin on his left hand and chuckling morosely.

I finally got Phantom Hand to where it can replace my missing left hand…and it’s…superfluous. I don’t even need it anymore.

Talk about superfluous…

Will formed a long, thin blade from the snakes’ armor, about twelve feet long and thinner than a hair.

He turned it tangible and whipped it through a nearby tree.

The tree toppled over, a perfectly smooth cut evident where the blade had sliced through it.

Hmm.

That was cool and all, but it was yet another way to manifest physical attacks out of thin air. Something that Will had already been doing for ages now.

Sure, it added a bit of flexibility, but when he stripped it down to what it could and could not do, it was very similar to the manifestation ability. In some ways better, in some ways worse.

There was a lot of overlap.

No, the primary draw here was the fact that Phantom Hand was now armored against direct attacks.

Will could use them in battle with more confidence against higher level opponents, and that alone was worth it.

I have four upgrade slots left in both Phantom Hand and Aspect of the Serpent. How much further can I take them?

In the distance, Will saw the two lines cut through the jungle merge, and the massive wagon was revealed, rolling towards him, pulled by dozens of Climbers.

Won’t be long now.

Will glanced down at the broken ziggurat beneath him, the top missing, with a gaping hole in the center that led deeper into the ancient crypt.

I’ll take care of you tomorrow.