Chapter 191: War of Attrition

Floor-wide Alert!

William Oh has been spotted on Floor 10.

A Bounty For William Oh, the level 52 World Traveler has been posted by the Lord Caddock.

Wanted, Dead.

Reasons given: murder of numerous church members outside The Tower, being an ill-omen, general lawlessness, lack of hygiene.

The Tower will not provide Doors or XP to the subject of the bounty until the matter is resolved.

Bounty: 300,000 gold, 2,000,000XP, to be shared among the party that claims the bounty.

Well, there goes the idea of keeping him at level 45. At least he can’t leave.

-          Caddock, High Paladin

**William Oh**

“He can do that!?” Will demanded, hastily setting his food down and shoving his helmet back on. It was too late, but the sentiment remained.

“It’s said that Lordship confers limited interaction with The Tower itself.” Loth replied. “This seems to validate those rumors.”

“Why have I never seen it before?” Will asked, summoning a Phantom Eye and scanning the horizon.

“Why spend valuable Tower resources tracking a single person down when they could have a vassal do it? There are likely many better things a Lord could be doing with whatever currency The Tower operates on.” Loth replied. “But in this case his priority is killing you specifically, not growing his demesne, so it makes sense that he wouldn’t hesitate to spend his resources to lock you down.”

“Hah, lack of hygiene.” Travis chuckled, shaking his head before wolfing down the last of his meal and standing.

“I’ve never seen a bounty prevent someone from moving between Floors.” Will muttered, joining the others as they began rapidly packing up their camp. Now that everyone knew he was here, this Floor would swarm with Parties looking to make an easy payday.

“Maybe he paid The Tower extra?” June asked.

Who knew? They could only guess, and their time was better served moving.

The Tangled split and a few stayed in place, camouflaging themselves and lying in wait, while the four primaries came with Will and the rest of the Party.

The plan was to move fast and leave small groups of Tangled dotting the countryside.

Because each individual copy of Brianna generated her own Charge, the more of her there were, the more of themselves they could make.

Her presence on the Floor could increase at an exponential rate. All they needed to do was drop enough seeds and wait.

Her Anti-Charm Kit drastically increased her Charge as a side-effect, so she could make about fifteen copies a day. And those fifteen could make another fifteen apiece.

And so on.

“There he is!”

Assuming we get the time, Will thought as a Party of Climbers caught sight of them, their heads appearing above the ridge of sandstone they’d been following the last hour.

“The one with the stupid bucket on his head!”

…Gods I hate this set, Will thought, warming up his smashing arms. He currently was about six and a half feet tall, which was awesome, and before this week was over, he’d be getting a whole lot bigger.

“Will, you’re the general.” June reminded him.

Will stopped warming up his arms and slumped in place. It was an odd feeling, delegating the ass-kicking.

But I need to learn it to become a Lord.

“Let’s move out quick and leave behind a surprise.” Will said, leaning on what he had learned about leading from Loth.

“Mason, shake ‘em up.” Loth said, pointing.

Her next commands were communicated with Climber sign as the explosions rocked the clearing and blew their hearing.

‘June, make path, Jean, six Ria Here. Travis, keep them look Ria. Everyone follow June.’

They darted away as Brianna used her reserve of Charge to create a whole Party of Ria in the smoke and dust of Mason’s explosions.

They moved unusually quickly as June’s trailblazing Ability kept even the slowest of them moving at a respectable clip.

Behind them, Will heard shouts and the clang of steel on stone and claw.

Individually, Brianna’s copies were only about as dangerous as the average Climber. Despite having outrageous strength and regeneration, they didn’t have what most other Climbers had by this point: Offensive Abilities and Kit that synergized with them.

Because of this lack of kit it was actually more impressive that they could keep pace with nothing but the ability to shapeshift.

Still, infinite average soldiers could do some good work.

“They’re creating a search net.” Jean said, her expression vacant as she communicated with her copies. “The groups we left behind have run into them across a line,” She motioned to the scrublands behind them.

“Presumably this search net continues this way,” Jean said, motioning. “It seems to be tightening now that they’ve spotted us.”

They paused for breath behind a rocky outcropping, and Will used Phantom Eye to look around the stone that sheltered them.

Will glanced into the sky, where dozens of fliers were raking the ground with their gaze. In a matter of moments, they would spot the group and sound another alarm, putting them back on the run.

Will glanced at Travis.

Travis motioned for everyone to move in tight.

Amusing how much of Climbing is packing your Party in uncomfortably close.

They all grouped up tight with zero regard for personal space.

A moment later a copy of their Party manifested just beyond them and started creeping away. A heartbeat afterwards, everything went dark as a hollow rock appeared around them.

Will moved his Phantom Eye outside the illusory rock, and glanced back down. From the outside, the Party looked like nothing so much as a large boulder that had separated from the main wall of sandstone.

It blended seamlessly into the dusty earth, seemingly having fallen there long enough for the rains to cement the earth around it, and little shrubs to emerge from the stone’s shade.

The attention to detail was excellent, but Will would never admit that to Travis’s face.

Will turned his eye back outwards and watched the illusory party create as much distance as possible from where the real one hid.

An instant later, they were spotted by the fliers and broke into a sprint as the net tightened around them.

It was perhaps the result of a lack of training that the other nearby fliers changed their paths to focus on tightening the net around the illusiory party.

This created gaps in their vision.

“We’re in a gap,” Will whispered, scanning the skies.

“Drop the rock.” Loth whispered directly into Will’s abdomen.

The rock illusion vanished, and Will’s Party spilled out in every direction.

Loth motioned for them to follow and gestured at the clif-face they had been following. She tapped the sandstone with an obsidian claw and the stone crumbled away, revealing a tunnel her insects had created over the last minute of waiting for the gap.

They needed no instructions to pile into the hole, and a few heartbeats later, the stone closed up behind them, dropping them into complete darkness.

“This’ll buy us a moment, but presume they’ll catch your scent again in a matter of minutes.” Loth said, taking out a handful of glowbugs that lit the room like a torch before turning to Jean. “How many groups of yours evaded detection?”

“Two. We’re getting better at camouflage, though.” Jean replied sheepishly.

“Two is less than I’d hoped, but it should definitely help. I wish there was a way to give them a safe place to proliferate on this Floor.” Loth muttered.

Will glanced at Mason.

“…What?” Mason asked.

“How many Bee do you think could fit inside you?” Will asked. Mason

“What!?” Mason reiterated, his eyes bulging.

“I’m not sure he’s into that.” Travis chimed in.

“You know what I mean.”

Ever since Mason had added the Dimensional Oyster sacrifice to his shields, they had begun adding extradimensional space between his organs and his skin every time his shield broke.

In the time Will hadn’t been working with the group, Mason had perfected a two- part training Kit of Relics that he could use to create a damage/shielding feedback loop that could grind through thousands of shields per hour, when done with a partner with high Resistance like Reggie. Each shield added less volume to his internal reservoir than a chin-hair, but Mason was nothing if not diligent.

“I mean…a few hundred, maybe a thousand?” Mason said with a shrug. “There’s not really much air in there, though…” Mason said, his gaze drifting away as he seemed to be in thought.

“I could make air.” Loth said. “One of the basic functions of Master of the Vivarium is to make any container more able to support life. At my current strength, I think I could make the interior of Mason livable.”

“What do you guys think?” Will asked, glancing between Mason and Bee.

“An important caveat. Master of the vivarium has the side-effect of putting creatures inside the container under heavy suggestion. Is that something you are willing to do, Bee?” Loth asked.

Bee gave it some serious thought before she nodded.

“I trust you, Loth.”

“Mason?”

Mason chuckled and shook his head. “Never thought I’d be using it like this. Let’s do it.”

Mason slipped his slender frame out of his robe and took out a knife, jamming it into his throat and cutting all the way down to just below his navel.

He set the knife aside and pried his cracking skin apart, revealing the black void inside him.

“In you go,” Mason said.

Bee dove headfirst into Mason’s chest, to no apparent discomfort.

“Does that hurt?” Will asked.

“It’s the dead layer of skin on the outside of my body. I feel a slight tugging sensation.” Mason said.

“Huh. Neat.”

“Bee. Take some light, food, and some reading material.”  Loth said, tossing the Tangled a book, bread, and a container filled with glowbugs.

“And don’t touch my stuff.” Mason said before closing the rift in his chest, sealing it back up with a healing potion administered by Will.

Loth placed a hand on his shoulder, and Will detected Charge running from her and suffusing Mason’s pearlescent skin.

Maybe it works because it’s the dead skin, so it doesn’t count as a living thing? Leather’s not a living thing anymore. Neither is wood, and Loth doesn’t seem to have any problem using Master of the Vivarium on wooden barrels.

Will turned his attention away from Loth and Mason and towards Reggie, Alicia, Jason and June.

Alicia’s current curse build would be lost if I gave her the Family Gathering Set.

Reggie would become a better Tank.

June…maybe. Not sure I trust her.

Will’s gaze landed on Jason.

“What?” Jason asked.

Jason was trustworthy…ish, albeit naïve. If Will gave him the family gathering set…according to Jason, Withering repudiation could be applied by his snakes, and it was devastatingly powerful. He could probably kill everyone hunting them in a matter of minutes…

I’m not asking a twelve-year-old to kill hundreds of people for me.

Not to mention… Will considered the fellow who’d exploded as a result of Will’s thorns build. It was aways risky playing around with instant-kill Abilities, because there was never any way to predict when they might backfire spectacularly.

“What!?” Jason asked again.

There’s six pieces of the set. I nee Jason to have four, and I need June to wear the amulet. That way she can get the full set bonus, and I can take it away from her if she tries to kill me with it.

“Jason, June,” Will said, motioning them forward and dropping his pack to the ground, pulling out the Family Gathering set.

“These are for you,” Will said, handing Jason the dagger, tomahawk, mask and pants.

Will Manifested the Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet and passed it to the scout along with the cloak and boots.

Will’s Acuity was over 200 naturally, and with the boost from his bangle, Phantom Hand was allowing the amulet to act as four pieces of the set.

“Jason, can you use those snakes to buff us when we need it?” Will asked.

Jason nodded, his eyes glittering as he looked down at the set.

“And June-“

“don’t trust me, huh?” June asked as she looked down at amulet, reading its effects.

“It’s so you can use the bow.”

“Bitch, do I look like I need a bow?” June asked, donning the Relics before holding out her hand. A long, narrow snake manifested above her hand, and it became rigid and arrowlike, radiating power as she charged it with her arrowmaking Ability.

Will knew in his heart of hearts that that snake would kill even him if she directed it to do so.

“I guess not.” Will mused. “Can you and Travis slip out on your own and power level with that?” Will asked. “They have the Key Sites locked down, but you should still be able to level if you leg it far outside the normal areas.”

“Yeah, I can lose anyone following if it’s just us.” Travis said.

“We can do that.” June said, nodding.

“You guys stick together.” Will said, pointing at the amulet. “I can see you on my map through that amulet. I’ll keep an eye on it. If you get in real bad trouble, spin it around your finger.”

June’s brows rose, but she nodded.

“We taking the kid?” She asked, nodding at Jason.

“Not hardly.” Will said, holding Jason’s shoulder. You two are a bad influence on-“

“EEEK!” Mason gave a girlish shriek that brought their conversation to a halt.

“Hey, can you guys hear this?” Bee’s voice came from Mason’s mouth.

“Bee, those are my INTERNAL ORGANS.” Mason said, eyes wide. “PLEASE. Do not touch them.”

“I can hear you! Did you guys know I can see through his eyes? They’re like big windows in the sky!” Bee’s voice came from Mason’s mouth slightly muffled, like someone standing on the other side of a thin wall.

“You’re breathing on my face!” Mason said.

“…This Party is messed up.” June muttered, shaking her head.