Chapter 125: Pioneers are Stupid

It was remarkable how quickly things grew when you weren’t paying attention to them. That applied to severed hands and organizations that treated you like a Lord.

By the time Will got back to the Fifth Floor, Thea Oilton, socialite extraordinaire and older sister to his Party’s Master Decoy, had liquidated a large portion of the Party’s wealth and repurposed it to create an organization specifically designed to…

Make Will feel important?

Everyone flinched or bowed and stepped aside as he walked past. One poor girl spilled her entire binder full of documents, and Will was certain she would have a heart attack when he offered to help.

The stories of him slaughtering hundreds of Graneshian soldiers spreading through the Tower might’ve played a part. Exaggerated or not, Will had killed a lot of people.

No, I’m sure it’s not just to make me feel important. They were clerks tasked with divvying up the wealth the Party had accumulated, creating packages of money, Relics and Sacrifices, offering cushy benefits and powerful civilian Archetypes to Aspirants who wanted to get Class that commanded a high salary for themselves and their future families.

The Jibleya and kobolds that he’d met on the Third Floor and again outside the Tower had jumped on the wagon early, joining the organization and securing jobs for themselves and Classes their children.

Will knew what the kobolds would do with their Classes, but as long as they were working for Will, he had no problems with their love of trap-making.

In the city of Akul, there was an apartment complex that had been crushed by the kaiju attack nearly a year gone by now. Thea had purchased the property and renovated it, making it a place to accumulate and store the first two hundred ‘settlers’ before they sent them up to the tenth Floor.

Once Will made it that high, they could come back and escort the seed of a Stronghold up.

Cheaper and safer than sending them up in ones and twos.

Despite being cheaper and safer, they were bleeding ivory, kept out of debt by a generous donation from Lord Zodiac that Thea had secured by hinting that Alicia was indispensable to Will’s Party, and there might even be a romantic interest…

Which, to be perfectly clear, she wasn’t, and there wasn’t, but romance aside, Will had done Lord Zodiac a solid by finding and delivering his daughter’s corpse back to him for resurrection.

Thea probably hadn’t needed to be sly about it.

Even with the massive war chest and the extra money from his connections, Will was on a tight time-table.

He needed to reach the 10th Floor and establish a settlement, then upgrade it to a Stronghold in the next three months or his Party would be broke.

30 days there, 40 days back. Will mused. Not a lot of wiggle room. A few days to relax and Acclimate, then back up to the 10th Floor, another 30 days. A third of a year gone just making the trip there twice.

Starting to understand why my parents don’t visit so often…and because one of them is probably a demon snake thing.

That led Will down a rabbit-hole of thinking how he would react if one of his parents had killed the other once they’d served their purpose as human cover.

I suppose in either situation, I’ll simply side with my mother, Will thought. It seemed the proper thing to do.

William Oh clumsily rolled a large gold coin over the knuckles of his left hand as Thea laid the details of their plans out to everyone who needed to know the big picture.

Namely Will, Loth, and the captains.

The number of Climbers working for and with Will had ballooned to the low fifties, broken up into six Parties. Each of these Parties had a leader who would report to Loth. This wasn’t including June, who was the captain of Will’s party.

They would’ve had more, save for people’s unreasonable aversion to taking orders from a kobold.

On a side note, human injuries from sudden releases of kinetic force had increased a hundred times over since the kobolds took up residence, and it was only the fact that Steve the Charlatan was technically working for a percentage and not a fee that they could keep up the healing.

That needed to stop. Will knew kobolds well enough to know that telling them to stop would be far worse than ignoring it. They did not understand ‘not liking traps’ and to suggest otherwise enraged them and led to more trap creation. Instead, they needed a more productive outlet for their nature.

Like the First Floor, the tenth floor was a desert. Unlike the first Floor, there were many valuable magical ores and powerful monsters.

Loth had bought a 10th Floor bestiary and set the kobolds on the task of designing traps for them, which was working, although the kobolds were getting anxious to test the designs on something.

The jibleya on the other hand were cooperative, good natured, and sometimes just a bit unaware of how weak other species were to corrosive and poisonous chemicals, which led to more than one incident where the jibleya wing of the apartment complex became off-limits to humans and kobolds because someone spilled a ‘mild irritant’.

The gold coin fumbled its way across Will’s knuckles until he dropped it. The coin he’d pried out of a dimensional oyster landed on its side. It always did.

Still a bit stiff, Will mused, picking up the coin and starting again. He was carrying other strengthening toys in his pocket, including a squeezy-toy and an elastic band made of the sap of some tree monster or other.

“Is there anything you’d like to add, Will?” Thea Oilton asked, turning to Will, causing him to break out in a cold sweat as every eye in the room turned to him.

“I’d like the vanguard of the caravan to clear the path with extreme prejudice. It would cause more chaos with a bunch of civilians winding around threats than simply clearing a tidy path. I’d be more than happy to take part in it to keep costs down.”

“We couldn’t ask our potential Lord to stoop down to scouting…” Thea said, fanning herself as if the idea was giving her hot flashes.

“My Class archetype is literally scout.” Will said, causing several of the captains to chuckle quietly.

Thea pouted a bit, then turned back to the board, erasing chalk and changing the diagram.

“The Lord will clear a path for the caravan and cut straight through the floor’s threats along the – she glanced over at him – easiest path for the caravan to follow.”

Easiest, not straightest. That made sense. Although with Will that might not warrant a distinction.

“Everyone follow me.” Will said, pocketing the coin and standing up.

Minutes later, they were standing beside one of the bridges that connected two sides of Akul, the largest city inside The Tower.

Will sent one of his snakes over into the open air beside the bridge. Understanding his intent, the snake coiled into a circle and grabbed hold of the air itself, creating an invisible platform that stretched from one end of the bank to the other.

“I’d like you all to walk across the river,” Will said, pointing.

One of the captains shrugged and headed out, stumbling when he came across the platform of air, but continuing to walk across empty air until he reached the other side.

The other Climbers, forewarned, followed suit.

“As long as I’m in the caravan, terrain shouldn’t be a concern.” Will mused, watching the captains marvel at the invisible bridge.

“You can’t possibly have enough Charge to spend on caravaning. Focus on staying combat ready for when they need you to act the Lord.” Thea admonished.

“It’s a cantrip.” Will said with a shrug.

Thea simply stared at him, shaking her head. “I forgot how outrageous you were.”

Once the meeting was over, Will had the rest of the night to himself, until they set off in the morning.

About a third of their number would head out tomorrow as pioneers, aiming to carve out a safe zone in the treacherous 10th Floor of The Tower that the second wave could expand.

And Will would be their Lord.

This feels like a dream.

Will checked himself for mind-control, running through his Memory Key to disrupt any effects that might be keeping him blissfully ignorant while something ate him.

But no, this was really happening.

By the next morning, Will was at the front of a caravan of some sixty people: Will’s Party, Three Parties of glory-seeking Climbers that wanted to be the nobility of a newly created Stronghold, and three Parties of Civilian Archetype classes rolling the dice on fortune or death: eight craftsmen of various flavors, seven cooks, four earth mages, three priestesses of Holdna, two water mages, and a bean counter.

The first thing that struck Will was how much organizing an organization needed. Everybody had to be told what to do multiple times over the course of the day and someone inevitably misunderstood or wasn’t paying attention and got it wrong anyway.

Case in point: Once they defeated the kaiju guarding the Key Site and stepped through into the 6th Floor, they had been instructed throughout the day by their captains to wait until after Will stepped through to enter.

Only for one of the younger carpenters to scream “Yeehaw!” and jump through before Will took a step.

On the other side, it was a nice clear day. Not a skyshark cloud in sight. Will relaxed, watching the craftsmen carry through inordinate amounts of wood for their ship, which was being assembled with inhuman speed.

Just something that would last them until they could expand it further with flotsam or monster materials.

It just needed to be big enough that a Leviathan wouldn’t be eager to eat it.

There was a trick for that, actually.

A large tarp could be used to expand the profile of the ship to make it seem bigger than it actually was.

Will glanced over at the sound of splashing as the carpenter’s captain knelt down on the water’s surface and dunked Leeroy’s head back under the water until he learned his lesson.

“And what did we learn!?” the older woman demanded.

“Listen to the plan!” the carpenter gasped while some of the younger cooks tittered at their antics. His name probably wasn’t Leeroy, but it seemed fitting.

The older woman spotted Will watching and stood up straight, allowing Leeroy to finally throw a hand up onto the hardened surface of the water and haul himself out, gasping like a fish.

“Apologies, my lord.” She said, straightening awkwardly.

“I don’t care how you discipline him as long as the healers don’t have to spend charge to bring him back to health.” Will said.

“You hear that? The Lord says I can punish you however I like.” The older woman demanded, nudging the carpenter with a toe.

“I can take it.” Leeroy said, staring at the sky.

“Oh, how about I have you and Eolande bunk in separate tents?”

At the mention of Eolande’s sleeping situation, a young cook blushed, her friends nudging her ribs.

The carpenter’s eyes widened, and he shot to his feet, giving Will a sloppy salute.

“It won’t happen again sir!”

“Go help with the ship, you daft boy, or you’ll be sleeping with Duncan.” She said, cuffing him on the back of the head, to which he ran off.

“Apologies about my son-in-law,” She said, turning her attention. “I’ll keep a shorter leash on him in the future.”

Son in law? Will thought, scanning the civilian Parties.

Older captains, with a mixed group of young men and women.

It wasn’t just Parties, it was families. Two generations in each.

I’m responsible for three families.

A strange weight settled over him, seemingly coming from everywhere at once.

“It’s only his safety that he’s risking so far,” Will said. “…But maybe emphasize what will happen to Eolande if he gets himself killed.”

The old woman’s eyes narrowed.

“Excellent idea, My Lord.”

“I’m not a Lord yet,” Will said.

“Closest I’ve ever spoken to.”

“William Oh,” Will said, offering his hand.

“Brenna Egan.” She said, engulfing his hand in a weather-worn grip.

“And his name?” Will asked, thumbing towards the soaked carpenter hauling wood to where their craftsmen were magicking the ship together from the wood they’d carried across, bending and stretching the material in ways it was never meant to.

“Kearney, my lord.”

“Would’ve been funnier if it was Leeroy.”

“...We could make that happen.” Brenna offered.

Will thought about it for a moment.

“…nah.” It was a funny thought, but punching down was a bad look for a Lord.

Once they had made a serviceable ship, Will’s Phantom Snake released the water, and they headed for The Flotilla.

Unlike the first time Will had gone through the 6th Floor, everything went remarkably smoothly, with them arriving at The Flotilla without any major incident.

One of their healers removed a particularly large splinter from a young man who’d been roughhousing.

Once they arrived, the crab-heads who resided there gave Will’s settlers free room and board, along with a resupply to allow them to tackle the Seventh Floor. This satisfied the terms of their lease of Shimmer, the leviathan-bone ship that Loth had patched together the first time they’d come through the 6th Floor.

Needless to say, nobody woke up with a crab attached to their head, either. But Will checked himself just in case.

Once the group was Acclimated, they shipped out to the nearest Key Site in need of clearing.

Between the thirty-odd fighters, the giant eel jealously guarding the beam of Miasma was hauled into the air and beaten to death in a matter of minutes.

Each of the captains made sure they got in a hit or three to make sure their Party got the option to go through the Door.

“Captains, sound off!” Loth shouted, scanning the assembled groups.

Just as they practiced, each Party captain raised a green flag to indicate that they’d been offered the Door to the next Floor.

Loth counted them and nodded.

“After you.” Loth said.

Will braced himself and summoned the Door, stepping through onto the 7th Floor.