“Not many parties defeat a raid boss. Even less do it while below the floor level cap.” Loth’s voice brought Will swimming up out of the depths of sleep.
“I don’t think of them have done it while simultaneously fighting off a higher-level Party.”
“You’d be surprised,” Will said, his voice raspy…from screaming or dehydration? Both?
Will blinked the last of the sleep out of his eyes and focused on his situation. He was in a small room, in a Way Station inn. Linen sheets. Soft pillows. Swanky.
“What happened?”
“We beat the Hydra and brought you back for an operation to remove the mycelium. You were unconscious during most of it.”
“They have a lot of practice at it here,” Loth said with a shrug. “So it was fast and effective. It cost a significant portion of your cut of the boss’s bounty, though, given how extensive it was. It didn’t reach your nervous system though, so you don’t have to worry about being like Roger.
“Thank the gods,” Will sighed. “Don’t worry about the money though, I’d much rather be alive, and besides…I already got my payday,” Will said, releasing Mark Wyrd’s rings and amulet from the Phantom Hand onto the nearby end table.
“Are those…Mark Wyrd’s Relics?” Loth asked.
“Yeah…probably gonna need to find a fence,” Will said.
“Probably. Maybe keep those under wraps until then,” Loth suggested.
Will swept them back into the Phantom Hand with a shrug.
“We get any Sacrifices?” Will asked. Fungal hydra seemed like it might have some applications.
“Yes, and it’s a damn good sacrifice for a Baker. You know how much they like yeast.”
Will winced as he thought of Brianna.
“According to the experts, if you open your Ability upgrades while holding a Sacrifice, if it is compatible, it’s upgrade branch will be at the top of the list.” Loth said, rummaging through their luggage before handing Will a chunk of mummified flesh.
Will held the fungal hydra in his hand and checked his upgrades.
The Phantom Hand gains 5 slots to store the effects of Relics sacrificed to it. Only one can be active at a time, and when the active slot is switched, the previous one will become inactive for 24 hours. If a slot is overwritten, it will be inactive for a week.
Will’s brows rose, but he switched to Aspect of the Goat to see what that had available.
Will wasn’t going to add anything to Aspect of the Goat until he could transform it into a higher tier Ability, namely Aspect of the Immortal Serpent, or Aspect of the Uru Drake, which would increase the overall power and the number of upgrades he could give the Ability.
Will’s eye twitched as he realized that he had another Secondary Ability upgrade, which meant they had passed level 20.
Will thought, checking how the Fungal Hydra interacted with Sourdough.
Sure, it would be nice to recover valuable consumables in a week instead of a month, but Will was going to continue gradually wearing away at the speed problem by raising his stats, and more than anything, he wanted to make Sourdough into something that simply couldn’t be replicated by spending more money.
Will wanted to alter the way the Ability behaved.
“How many of these do we have?” Will asked, motioning to the chunk of mummified hydra and mycelium.
“Plenty,” Loth said.
Will held the Fungal Hydra up high.
There was a flash of light and the chunk of mummified flesh was gone.
Gain the use of an ethereal Phantom Hand. Access a tiny amount of dimensional storage with a Charge. 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.
Relic effect and Phantom Hand’s abilities scale with Acuity.
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Will felt like rubbing his hands together in glee.
The ability to store more than one item was desireable. Even with the cooldown in place, it still meant he could add new things and change his build without losing powerful Relics that he still might use later. There was even wiggle-room for experimentation, one-offs, and ‘trash’ Relics.
That was incredibly valuable.
Will checked his stats.
Primary Ability Upgrade Available! (x2)
Secondary Ability Upgrade Available!
Will thought, assigning his free stats to Acuity.
Like his previous opponent, Will had forgotten base stats were a thing.
And also that he was naked.
Suddenly aware of it, Will tucked his sheets up to his collarbone.
Loth chuckled and shook her head, turning to lock the door, causing Will’s skin to turn cold.
“I’ve been looking for an opportunity to talk to you alone, actually,” Loth said, turning back to him. “The more people we add to the Party, the harder and harder it’s been to find the time.”
Loth came back from the door. “I wanted to tell you…that I like you.”
Will’s mind went blank.
“I have a…thing for intelligence.” Loth said, sitting beside him on the bed.
“I’m not smart,” Will blurted. “I’m barely literate.”
“Literacy notwithstanding, you’re the smartest human I’ve come across.”
Loth kicked her feet against the bed and huffed, looking at the far wall. “But something tells me you’re not physically attracted to kobolds.”
Will opened his mouth. Then closed it. It didn’t seem like lies or reassuring platitudes were what was called for.
“…Not really, no.” seaʀᴄh thё NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
“It would be stranger if you were,” Loth said before cocking her head to the side and tapping a black talon against her chin. “Although paraphilia a side effect of rapid ascension or descension, so there’s always a glimmer of hope I suppose.”
“What’s ‘paraphilia’?” Will asked.
“You don’t need to know.” Loth said, refusing to define a word the first time since he’d met her.
“Oh.”
“I just wanted to let you know that I have a crush on you, and probably will for quite some time. I understand you aren’t interested in a physical relationship, and I’ve already made my peace with you choosing females of your species. I just…saw you almost die, and it made me realize that I needed to tell you.”
“…Thank you?” Will hazarded, making Loth laugh and shake her head.
“What I’m trying to say, is that I’d like to continue to be friends and partners.” Loth said, offering him a hand.
“Absolutely.” Will said, taking her hand and giving it a firm shake. “I’m more than happy to continue being friends and partners. You’re awesome.”
“Yes, I know,” Loth said, releasing his hand with a smirk and standing up, eye level with him as he reclined in bed.
“The others are flooding the markets with Ivory, looking for Relics and Sacrifices, or just drinking all the top-shelf booze at the inn. Was there anything you’d like me to get for you while you recover?”
Will scrolled through his potential upgrades to Sourdough until he found the one he’d been imagining.
“Erosion golem or Immortal Serpent sacrifices,” Will said.
“I know about your plans for Immortal Serpent, but Erosion golem?” Loth asked. “What for?”
“It would allow Sourdough to target permanent Relics for repair.” Will said.
“Useful but a bit of a fringe issue. I would like to repair my rope amulet, but it’s likely not worth pivoting your entire Build to make it happen. You’ve got something more interesting in mind for it?”
Will glanced around to make sure no one else was listening.
“Once Sourdough can target permanent Relics, I’m going to look for another upgrade that will allow me to steep those permanent Relics in the dust of others with specific attributes in order to ‘ferment’ them on those Relics.”
Loth’s eyes widened.
“For example, grab a bunch of lifesteal Relics off a young lord, turn them into dust, and then infuse a tomahawk with the ability to drain health. As a random, non-specific example.” Will said with a shrug. “I’ll have to wait until level thirty at the soonest, but I can feel it in my bones that this will be worth the upgrade slots.”
“…You intend to create a single, powerful Relic with a wide array of stat boosts and Abilities by sacrificing dozens, or even hundreds of other Relics to a single base that was already powerful, then feeding the resulting artifact to your Phantom Hand, greatly magnifying it’s already mind-boggling potency into a passive boost that no one could hope to surpass or remove.”
“Oh. That’s a good idea, let’s do that instead,” Will said.
“I know you already thought of it.” Loth said with half-lidded eyes. “I like it. It’s brutally effective.”
“As brutally effective as causing wasps to erupt from people and eat them?” Will asked.
“Perhaps more so.” Loth said, considering for a moment. “William, you are already a nightmare for other Climbers to battle, given your ability to disrupt their Builds by snatching Relics off their body. If you manage to develop Sourdough in the manner you described, you will become equally powerful against the monsters of The Tower…in short, you will become a Lord.”
“That was always the plan.” Will said with a shrug.
“Yes, but now I can it.”
“You couldn’t before!?” Will asked, aghast, motioning to his sheet-covered body. The motion caused the scars on his right side to twinge, but at least he got a laugh.
“I’ll see if I can find either of the Sacrifices you mentioned,” Loth said, shaking her head. “You just rest. Magical healing is never one hundred percent efficient, so you need bed rest and food to recover.”
“Not my first time being bed-ridden, thank you very much,” Will said, crossing his arms petulantly.
“Yes, and I wish it would happen less often,” Loth said, patting him on the head before retreating through the door.
Will thought as the silence pressed in around him.
It only took two days to completely recover. Once Will had eaten and gotten some sleep, he took the final Potion of Greater Healing, which removed the soreness from the web of operation scars on his side.
Once he could move, he went over to the luggage and dug through the Sourdough barrel full of Relic Dust and pulled out a fully-formed smoke bomb, the Clay Idol, the potion of Fury, and another Potion of Greater Healing, putting the potions in his Phantom Hand, and the Clay Idol on his belt.
Lastly, Will pulled out Cold Harvest, inspecting the sickle.
If Will absorbed it, and it work the way he was hoping it would, then there was no point in keeping it around forever. There were other ways to create hoarfrost to survive the 3rd Floor.
Will checked its stats.
Will switched to slot two, and there was a strange organic that resounded through his mind, like a lizard that had shed a tail, and an odd pain that radiated through the Phantom Hand as its index finger blackened in front of Will’s gaze.
It was odd, but not completely unexpected.
Will was too excited to head outside and test it on a monster, he needed to know if it’d worked so he pulled out his tomahawk and drew a tentative cut across the back of his arm.
Instantly, it felt like someone had shoved him into a bath of ice-water as his entire body erupted with hoarfrost, radiating outward from his left arm.
The sheer amount of hoarfrost dwarfed the amount they’d created when they used the Relic to create water, and Will could barely move. He tried to brush the hoarfrost off, but his joints were stiff and weak, causing him to move drastically slower.
Will thought wryly.
After ten excruciating seconds, the ice faded away, allowing him to move at full speed again.