William Oh once faced down an endless horde of monsters that had annihilated an entire city. Facing this threat, he yawned. Sixty-nine hydra heads emerged from his mouth and the sky darkened, raining down fire and destruction on his enemies.

By the time the yawn was over, the world had been cleansed of their filth.

-          Cole Hunter, Level 20 Climber

The five of them sat in a circle around the loot they’d pulled from the Lord’s castle, doing a round robin draw from the pile. Bri had opted out, saying that she was fine just baking until they left the castle.

Normally, Travis might’ve been upset that they had looted his father’s castle, but they were surrounded by thousands of monsters that each took a dozen Climbers at their level to subdue. He no longer had the luxury of being offended.

“I’ll take this one,” Travis said, taking the Ring of the Martyr.

Ring of the Martyr

+7 Resistance

+5 Acuity

+5 Focus

Raises the effectiveness of Taunts by 25%, and restores a large portion of the user’s stamina when a Taunt lands.

It was a good choice for him. The stats alone made it a worthwhile pick, and restoring his stamina when a taunt landed made sure he was always able to lead the enemy on a merry chase.

“I’ll take this one,” Carrie said, plucking a helmet out of the pile. No special Abilities, but it had good stats.

“This,” Loth said, picking up the ornate monocle from the pile.

Monocle of the Overlord

+7 Acuity

+7 Focus

Grants minions a profound sense of purpose, increasing their speed by 15%.

Bestows a small portion of the bearer’s problem-solving ability and will upon their underlings, allowing them to adapt, problem-solve, and coordinate with each other more fluidly, even when outside the bearer’s direct control.

“If this actually makes my insects and kobolds a little smarter, then it’s good enough to make me learn how to wear a monocle,” Loth mused, setting the lens against his cheek, humming in surprise as the monocle secured itself in place magically.

“I’ll take these,” Will said, pulling the unassuming burlap pants out of the pile.

Pants of the Ranger

+10 Strength

+5 Resistance

+15% movement speed

Will already had magic pants, but these pants were way better than what he had on currently, and he was willing to bet nobody would snipe all the torso items before it came back around to him.

Travis clicked his tongue but didn’t argue, instead taking his turn. “This,” he said, grabbing the sword.

Dueling Blade of Agronash

+5 Strength

+5 Kinesthetics

+5 Acuity

A second blade floats along beside the first, making additional strikes as the user attacks. These extra attacks benefit from any Abilities the wielder might have.

1 Charge: The second blade switches from offense to defense, warding off blows autonomously. Lasts until a Charge is spent to switch it back.

Carrie looked a little peeved, and Will was a bit sad he wouldn’t get a cool new weapon, but they kept going.

“This,” Carrie said, grabbing the gauntlets out of the pile.

Gauntlets of Resonance

+5 Resistance

+5 Acuity

+5 Focus

Adds major sonic damage to any metallic or glass weapon wielded by the wearer, while increasing the wear on the weapon.

1 Charge: Detonate the wielded weapon to inflict sonic damage in a 30ft sphere. Does not damage wielder.

“I’ll take this,” Loth said, plucking a silk torso piece out of the pile.

Shirt of Protection

+10 Resistance

+15% all damage mitigation

“Dang,” Will muttered, shaking his head, studying the remaining items. “I’ll take this, then.”

Gladiator’s Chestpiece

+10 Strength

+5 Resistance

+20% to Charm Ability potency while not wearing a shirt. Oils up the muscles nice and shiny.

“Hey!” Travis said.

“What? It’s the only chestpiece that’s left,” Will said.

“You don’t have any Charm Abilities,” Travis said, pointing an accusatory finger at him.

“True, but Strength is Strength,” Will said with a shrug, adding the chestpiece to his pile. “Unless you want to give my cloak back?”

Travis grunted and picked out a pair of pants, then Carrie grabbed a physical-boosting ring. Loth grabbed some leather riding chaps.

Chaps of the Rough Rider

+5 Resistance

+5 Kinesthetics

20% boost to mounted stability, shares a portion of the rider’s defensive Abilities with their mount.

“You don’t ride anything,” Will said.

“Stats are stats, and who knows? I might be riding giant insects someday,” Loth said with a shrug.

They all paused, looking at Will as he regarded the much-diminished pile of loot, carefully weighing what he might be able to use.

“I’ll take this,” Will mused, taking a ring with better stats than the Amulet of the Hearth-Keeper.

Ring of Insulation

+5 Resistance

+5 Focus

+20% resistance to fire

They went around like that for one more revolution before nobody could find anything they wanted.

Loth got some fingerless gloves that boosted Claw Abilities. He didn’t have any, but they made his natural claws sharper, and the physical stat boosts were good:

Gloves of Ferocity

+5 Strength

+5 Resistance

+5 Kinesthetics

Boosts the potency of Claw Abilities by 30%.

Strengthens and sharpens fingernails into natural claws.

Once they had pulled everything out of the pile that they wanted, Will equipped everything and checked his stats.

William Oh

Resourceful Climber, Level 9

10 + 25 Strength

30 + 17 Resistance

27 Kinesthetics

28 + 2 Acuity

18 + 5 Focus

Charges: 9/23

Free Points: 4

Item Abilities: Gravity Charge, +25% Charge/Kick potency, +15% movement speed, Fire Tracers, Acid Bolt, +greater acid damage, Homefield Advantage (ice), 20% fire resistance.

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand

Ability Upgrade Available!

Once all the Relics were on, Will tested his new Strength, hopping in place.

“Whoa!” Will let out an involuntary shout as he sprang into the air, nearly bashing his head on the high ceilings above. The Ranger pants and the Gladiator torso had tripled his Strength.

Yes, this could work, Will thought as he began practicing his jumping, the floor catching him effortlessly as he landed. The others were also doing small exercises to figure out their new baseline.

The gear was outlandishly good for their level, but so was the enemy they had to take down.

“There. We’re each wearing a Lord’s ransom in Relics,” Loth said before glancing at Travis. “How attached to this city are you?”

“Why do you say it like that?” Travis asked.

“I was considering rigging the city to self-destruct,” Loth admitted.

“You can do that?!” Will asked.

“Great One!” Grak said, groveling. “I would give my life to see such—”

“Shut up,” Loth said, baring his teeth in a less-than-amiable manner.

Grak shut up.

“I’d rather we didn’t,” Travis said. “My older siblings are underrepresented among the dead. I believe they’ll arrive here within a few weeks to reclaim the city. It’s a rather critical piece of infrastructure that can make millions of gold each month selling crude oil to the other floors.”

“Let’s call blowing everything up ‘plan B,’” Will said with a shrug.

“Then we truly have our work cut out for us,” Loth said, musing. “According to the Jibleya, there are thirteen thousand Tangled stalking the city, and this number was just below nine thousand three days ago.

“Looking at the data they have provided, the population of Tangled seems to grow by 14.28 percent per day.”

Loth looked around at them meaningfully.

“Okay?” Will asked.

“That is an exponential growth rate.”

“Okay?” Will asked.

“We have to kill no less than…eighteen hundred and fifty-six Tangled by the end of the day, in order to keep their numbers stable,” Loth said, jotting down math on the Lord’s stationary. “And then we would have to do it again, and again, for many days, in order to actually make their numbers go down to a manageable level.”

“I’d like to revisit blowing everything up,” Carrie said, raising her hand.

“What about that curtain of death we ran from to get here?” Will asked. “Last we saw, it was at the Key Site just south of here. It can’t have gone far.”

“It might have the proper amount of firepower, but getting it here would be a challenge…” Loth said, his yellow eyes drifting towards Travis.

“Yeah, we would need someone able to keep its attention for an extended period of time,” Will mused, his gaze also drifting towards Travis. “Someone with high speed…and a Taunt Ability.”

Soon, all four of them were staring at the Master Decoy.

“How in the name of the gods would you plan on killing the swarm afterwards?” Travis demanded. “Wouldn’t we just be trading one problem for another?”

Loth motioned for them to follow him and guided them to a window overlooking the massive screw in the center of the city, a plume of steam the size of several city blocks rising from it.

“What do you think would happen to that swarm of motes if they got doused by a sudden burst of steam?” Loth asked.

“I’m starting to see where you’re going with this,” Will mused.

“Let’s talk details,” Loth said, motioning for them to sit down.

After a quick round of planning, they decided to send Travis out to lure in the swarm of fire-motes, while the other three went down into the bowels of the water tanks and rigged them to explode.

The water tanks, where the Tangled like to sleep at night.

Thankfully, it was still early morning.

And I thought Travis had the worst job, Will thought to himself as the three of them quietly crossed the rooftops at the head of a raiding party of a dozen kobolds.

“There tanks,” Grak said, pointing at a couple squat, round buildings in the distance, halfway around the city from the giant screw that even now spun in the center of the city, pumping oil…somewhere.

“They don’t really seem that big… They go underground?” Will asked.

Loth nodded. “They would have to, to continue holding water for a week after everyone who supplied it died.”

“How do you plan on making an explosion of steam?” Carrie asked.

“There have to be flow controls,” Loth said. “If we restrict the flow, the natural heat will build up again. Then we can unleash the water all at once, when the curtain of fire gets where we want it to be.

“I’ll need some fireproof rope,” Loth muttered to himself, pulling wire and springs out of his satchel and eyeing them critically. “These will do.”

They hunched down and snuck along the rooftops, evading the notice of the Tangled wandering around in their human forms.

“Do all these Tangled look like the same person to you?” Will whispered as they ran past.

Loth peered down and frowned. “Yes.”

“Why?” Will asked.

“I don’t know,” Loth said with a shrug. “Perhaps that’s just what the species looks like. Can you tell two giant snails apart?”

“No, but they do have differences. These Tangled do not.” Will squinted at the young man stumbling down the street with a vacant expression before glancing back up at Loth.

“I’m just wondering if—”

“Hey,” Carrie whispered, tugging Will’s shirt and pointing.

“Eh?” Will grunted, looking down.

The Tangled had collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain.

A moment later, a head and torso budded off the writhing Tangled, groaning in pain as it pulled itself…out of itself.

In a matter of seconds, there were two Tangled wandering aimlessly.

“Well,” Loth whispered, “that explains why they look the same, and why their numbers grow so quickly. Off we go.”

“I have even more questions now,” Will grumbled to himself as they got back on track.

In minutes, they had made it to the water tanks, which were surrounded by steel cages disguised as merchant wagons. The canvas coverings had been stripped aside, revealing the steel doors hanging open, facing the water tanks. Will would bet anything that, until recently, those cages had held Tangled inside them.

These monsters obviously hadn’t caged and driven themselves into Oilton, either.

Will already figured they’d been planted by an outside force, but seeing tangible proof that someone had deliberately doomed an entire city to death, likely to cover the theft of a single Relic…kinda pissed him off.

“Would you mind checking the inside?” Loth asked, nodding toward the squat buildings.

“I am the Scout,” Will said with a shrug.

Time to put this new Strength to good use, Will thought, crouching down and leaping off the tiled roof.

Typically, a jump that strong would’ve shattered the roof tiles and sent him sprawling, but Aspect of the Goat kept them in one piece, allowing him to get the best possible jump.

Will clenched his mouth shut as he sailed through the air and landed on the side of the water tanks. They only looked squat from several miles away. They were actually taller than everything around them. The sheer volume of water was comparable to a massive lake.

Will arrested his fall on the uneven rust peppering the side of the building. Using rust and rivets as handholds, he scampered down to the ground, peering into the massive double doors that hung open and ominous.

Will’s eyes adjusted to the dim light in a matter of seconds, then widened. There were three Tangled in the room, seemingly still asleep. One of them was covered head to toes in restraints and cruelly bound to the floor in a painful-looking position.

It clicked in Will’s head.

That was a human. The Tangled were the result of an Ability. They slept here because this was where their Originator was.

Will crept forward, his heart pounding in his ears as he went.

“What are you doing?!” Will heard Loth’s whisper.

He heard it, but he needed to know.

Will crept up to the restrained figure and scanned the young man’s body. It was riddled with the bright-white scars of torture, most especially the semi-circle white scar on his cranium, which was just beginning to grow hair back in.

A lobotomy.

Will’s hair stood on end and his stomach turned, but he knew what needed done.

“Sorry about this,” Will whispered, sliding the Serpent’s Tomahawk out of his belt.

The restrained Climber’s eyes opened, meeting his for a second. Will might’ve imagined some kind of recognition, but the boy’s expression went slack as Will buried the tomahawk in his skull, pulling it out and severing his spine for good measure.

Will’s grip caused the wood of his tomahawk to creak in pain.

Congratulations!

You are now a level 10—

Will dismissed the prompt and scanned the surroundings.

The other two Tangled were silent, lying completely still. Will couldn’t even hear breathing.

Taking a gamble, Will cautiously walked up and poked one with his axe.

Nothing.

Poke, poke…

CHOP!

It was dead.

Are they ALL dead?!

The Tangled began leaking Miasma, like a normal monster would upon death. All of them except the one human he’d murdered. The Original.

The young man I could’ve been, given an amazing Class, then betrayed, tortured, and used as a disposable weapon.

Will was starting to think he might’ve gotten off easy just losing a hand.

Will scanned the surroundings for any surprises, then ducked his head back out and motioned for the others to join him.

When Loth arrived, he took one look at the restrained human, then glanced at the deceased doppelgangers surrounding him, his sharp mind coming to the same conclusion as Will.

“Grak, take the others and check if the Tangled are still alive.”

“Yes, Great One!” Grak said, scuttling away.

“So it was an Ability. One capable of destroying a city,” Loth mused, rubbing his chin.

Carrie gasped as she spotted the tortured corpse bolted to the center of the room. She turned a bit green and shook her head before stepping back out.

“Oh, crap! Travis!” Will shouted. “We don’t need the swarm of fire. We should—”

“We still need to lay a trap,” Loth said, catching his elbow. “We’re just changing the target.

“The deliberate weakness of having all the Tangled die with the originator means that this city can be reclaimed by a single assassin. Very convenient for a Lord looking to make a show of reclaiming a pristine city from mysterious monsters and earn quite a bit of glory. The perpetrator of this monstrous crime will be coming with an army to ‘reclaim’ the city very soon, now that the Tangled have proliferated to an impressive number.”

Loth glanced up at Will. “Would you like to hunt some monsters?”

Will really did want someone to be punished for this, but his duty as the Party leader weighed down on him. He couldn’t pick a fight with a Lord. Not yet.

But someone had to be punished.

“…I have some conditions,” Will said.