Chapter 85: Spoils of War Pt. 2

“Punth me in the fathe.” Reggie said around the mouthguard.

“I believe you.” Will said, holding his hands up. “Just because it says it reduces damage to your nervous system doesn’t mean there won’t be any. I’m not gonna give you brain damage to test it.”

“Aw heck, I’ll do it,” Bee said, stepping forward and winding up a tiny fist.

“Wait, Bee-“

There was a small explosive sound as the shapeshifter’s fist hit the Tank’s jaw at superhuman speeds, sending the oversized young man bouncing away like a child’s soccer ball. Will winced in sympathy as Reggie finally hit the ground, limbs tangled and dirty.

A moment later, Reggie coughed and groaned, putting his arms and legs under him before staggering to his feet.

“WHOOO!” Reggie exclaimed, while Loth sighed and shook her head.

“Your jaw, skull, brain and spine are unharmed.” Alicia whispered, holding up Reggie’s arm like the victor of a particularly nasty street fight. “The rest of you…”

“Wait, I didn’t get my hips in it, lemme try agai-“ Bee began.

“Absolutely not,” Jean said, dragging her repressed anger away by the ear.

‘Jean’ was complicated. They had originally met her on the third floor under the name ‘Brianna’, where she had been the victim of a plot to engineer living weapons. The abuse she had suffered at the hands of her captors had led her to use her Ability to split to break her emotions off into manageable chunks, which led to the creation of Bee, Ria, Anna, and Jean.

Bee had gotten a little less outburst-y now that she knew what she was mad about, but she was still a bit of a wild card.

Ria had gotten quieter and less brash, seemingly still in the process of absorbing the root of her burning desire for justice, and the fact that she would never have it. Even now she sat in the corner of the warehouse, sharpening her halberd and staring into space.

Anna was more active, the chubby blonde cheerfully cooking and baking for the group, putting on a façade and keeping herself busy so she didn’t have an opportunity to think about things too deeply.

Each of them were working through feelings that had been cut out of Brianna by her tougher, older alter ego Jean, feelings that would cripple a normal person’s mind.

And they were now a part of William Oh’s Party.

Why do I do this to myself?

From Will’s understanding, their stats were identical:

Bee/Ria/Anna/Jean Baker

One Man Army Level 32

160 Strength

64 Kinesthetics

150  Resistance

10 +15 Focus

32 Acuity

Charges: 25/25

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: E unum Pluribus**, Regeneration**

Secondary Abilities: Shapeshifting*, Hivemind

Item Abilities: Total Freedom

The Tangled, the brainchild of a mad Lord obsessed with power, was designed to be the perfect footsoldier.

Strong, hardy, and cheap.

Strong, because she had 5 Strength growth, which was outrageous.

Hardy, because her Resistance was equal to a Tanks, and any damage she did sustain was healed in a matter of heartbeats.

All at the expense of Focus and Acuity.

Any Focus in her status was purchased with Free Points as she had no natural growth for the stat. From what Will had heard of her time spent on the seventh Floor, she’d been directed to only put seven points into Focus to achieve daily charges, and all the rest went into Resistance. The last three points into Focus had been after she escaped, determined to ward off the Handler’s control.

Finally, Tangled were cheap because they could copy themselves infinitely, and each copy gained the benefits of the original body’s Relic slots, making them insanely inexpensive to deploy en masse relative to a typical army.

Will knew they shared Relicc effects because Jean had been wearing the ring of Total Freedom, but Bee had been impossible to grapple or restrain when Will fought her, above and beyond what her shapeshifting could account for.

And all of them had more resistance to mental effects than their base stats would account for, allowing them to avoid the worst of the Handlers signal for Tangled to begin attacking the city. Again, because of the Ring of Freedom.

And from what Will had seen in Oilton, each of them could split an extra copy of themselves up to three times a day. And those copies could do the same.

There were many caveats to this, but worst case scenario, Jean could spread across the land like wildfire, exterminating all life in The Tower, if she really put her mind to it.

Thankfully she did not.

But she could.

Will did not bring this up in casual conversation. Especially not where Bee might hear him.

Tangled were cataclysms in the making. They were nearly as powerful as a Lord, save for their built-in weakness to mental attacks.

They were strong, tough, easy to transport and deploy in large numbers, and…

Can they count as two hundred residents in a settlement, bypassing one of the steps required to gain Lordship? Will thought, eyes widening.

The Tower wouldn’t let people exploit the system like that…

Will’s entire experience Climbing flashed in front of his eyes.

Okay, maybe it would.

Will glanced over at Loth, whose insects could construct fortifications and traps in a matter of minutes. If they could produce those, surely they could make houses as well. Enough to make a ‘settlement’, anyway. Get a few hundred tangled copies ‘living’ there…could he fool The Tower?

…Could I bypass the majority of the requirements?

That’s assuming a lot. Best not bank on my hairbrained idea being correct.

Even if that were the case, he still needed a dozen people willing to make him their Lord.

Will glanced around his Party. Mason and Loth had their own plans for the future, and likely wouldn’t be interested. Alicia might, given that she couldn’t become a Lord. June might become his vassal if she smelled a big paycheck.

Reggie just wanted to wait out his Contract and be done with it…although his attitude towards climbing had relaxed somewhat. Still, it couldn’t be fun being the surrogate risk-taker of the group.

Steve their Healer liaison, might swear fealty.

Travis…Travis probably wouldn’t be interested in being the vassal of someone he perceived as being lower-born than himself.

Still, in a vacuum, if Will could convince Alicia to become his Vassal, Travis might follow suit.

Jean had been Frederick Wyrd’s Vassal, giving him an extra measure of control over her until his death. She couldn’t be a Lord in her own right anymore, but would she be interested in subordinating herself to anyone ever again? Unlikely.

What does that give me? Five at best?

Will glanced back at the pile of expensive loot.

Thea was right. He needed bribes and expensive Relics to lubricate the attitudes of other Climbers toward throwing their lot in with an untested boy as a Lord.

It wasn’t like he could just get so famous that people would pop up out of the woodwork eager to…

…Or could I?

Will was an urban legend, winner of the yearly tournament and savior of the city.

They were building a statue of him on the islet in the center of the city.

I need to talk to Thea and Loth.

“Jean.”  Loth said, holding out an amulet. It seemed to be made of burnished steel depicting some kind of spiked collar. “This one’s for you.”

Jean took the amulet and studied it.

“Amulet of the potent beastmaster?” Jean mused.

Amulet of the Potent Beastmaster

+10 Focus

+5 Acuity

Living creatures created, summoned, or controlled by the wearer’s Abilities receive a 10% boost to their stats.

Oh my, Will thought, brows raising as Jean listed off the item’s effects.

That extra ten percent didn’t do anything for Loth. An insect that was ten percent stronger didn’t make any noticeable difference, but Jean’s clones, whose Strength was 160?

An extra 16 points of strength, fifteen of Resistance.

That was substantial.

It also raised Focus, protecting Jean and the others from mind control.

Assuming Jean’s girls counted as ‘minions’.

Jean draped the Relic over her neck.

“So how do we know if-“ Jean began.

Screeech!

They glanced over at where Ria had accidentally driven the whetstone too hard against the edge of her halberd, causing the blade to crack and tear.

Ria calmly set the broken Halberd down and stepped away from it.

“I’m going to go lay down for a minute.” The athletic brunette murmured, walking away stiffly.

“…I’ll go talk to her,” Jean said, following after Ria.

“Hey guys, I accidentally broke your mixing bowl?” Anna said, her head popping out from the makeshift kitchen she’d been operating from.

“It works.” Will muttered.

Yikes. A hundred and seventy-six Strength. That’s what…nearly ten times human normal?

“We need to get her more mage gear, specifically Summoner and Tamer Archetypes.” Loth mused, watching Jean go. “To balance out and synergize with her Build. Can I see the ring box?”

Mason wordlessly handed over a little jewelry box filled to the brim with rings of every shape and size before returning his attention to the Dimensional Oyster Sacrifice in his hand.

“If the girls count as ‘minions’, wouldn’t the Cuirass of the Cruel Tyrant make Jean essentially unkillable?” Will asked, pointing at the ornate cuirass in Loth’s pile. Jean herself and each of her offshoots was an incredibly hardy physical specimen, only outclassed by Reggie with the application of Class-specific Abilities meant to absorb and redirect damage.

“Yes, but I saw it first,” Loth said with a toothy grin.

She glanced at where the Tangled had disappeared. “Also, do you think it’s wise to make her unkillable?”

Probably not. Will thought. Not that he planned on killing her…but who knew what the future held?

Will turned his attention to where Mason was contemplating the Dimensional Oyster.

“What’s the hold up?” Will asked. A bit insensitive, but Mason had been staring at his collection of Rings and Sacrifices for a half hour and Will was getting impatient.

“This is the single most critical decision I will ever make regarding my build:” he said. “How I integrate my shields into my style. I felt like my mind was opened when I saw Nephir combine Conflagrate with Feedback Shielding. I always thought of them as two separate abilities. Attack and defense, each handling their own role and not intruding on each other. But that was rigid thinking.”

“Okay?”

“The dimensional oyster won’t allow me to control my shields.” Mason said. “It won’t add any flexibility to my Build. It doesn’t merge the two into a unique style. All it does is make the shields have nacre buildup.”

“Nephir’s Relics didn’t help?” Will asked.

“This one makes Nuker Abilities linger until they deal all their damage to an opponent, and this one makes shields selectively permeable,” Mason said, holding up two rings. “The ability to shape his shields was from a Sacrifice, which we simply do not have here.”

“That is a problem…but who says you have to copy Nephir? I beat his ass.”

Mason shrugged. “You did, but his Build isn’t finished yet.”

“Neither is mine,” Will said with a shrug. “Neither is yours.”

“I only have two upgrade slots left for Feedback shielding. After this it will be one. If I don’t find a way to integrate my two primary Abilities, Lordship will be out of reach.”

“Okay, then don’t Sacrifice the dimensional oyster.

“But it’s such a powerful effect!” Mason protested.

“Okay, then, do Sacrifice it.” Will said with a shrug.

“But I could be locking myself out of an amazing Build like Nephir’s!” Mason said, his voice growing more plaintive.

“I’m…not sure what you want me to say here.” Will said with a shrug. “What’s the dimensional oyster do for you?”

Mason rattled off the changes Feedback Shielding would go through if he were to feed it the dimensional oyster.

Dimensional Oyster

Adds nacre to Feedback shielding. When the shielding is broken, Feedback Shielding leaves a residue that permeates the user’s tissues.

“What does that even mean?” Will asked, frowning.

“I’m…not sure.” Mason said.

“Is…’permeated tissues’ a good thing?” Will asked.

“Probably?” Mason said, shrugging. “Ability upgrades are rarely harmful, and those that are, are usually explicit about it.”

Will scratched his head, contemplating.

“Well Mason, the way I see it, every person who became a Lord did so because they were the first one to master a specific Build. They didn’t know they were going to become a Lord. Once they become rich and powerful, people start developing countermeasures to their Build, and they spend their entire career as Lords barely keeping ahead of those countermeasures. The window to follow Baron Akul just isn’t open anymore because people know how to dismantle copycats with less raw power.”

“If you wanna be a Lord, you’ve gotta do something scary: strike out on an unexplored path with no guarantees.” Will said, looking their Nuker in the eye.

Mason took a deep breath and nodded.

“You’re right. Copying Baron Akul is a losing game. Let’s see what this does.”

In a flash of light, the dimensional oyster sacrifice was gone.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me…” Mason said, standing. “I need to go exploit this.”

Mason turned towards their Tank and waved, catching Reggie’s attention.

“Reggie, I need you to punch me!”

Loth cleared her throat, drawing Mason’s gaze to herself.

“If you truly wish to exploit your new Ability Upgrade, then you will need a higher rate of shield-breaking than two young men punching each other a few dozen times. There is no room for wasted time and effort.”

She rested a black-scaled hand on her barrel, which began to ooze biting insects like morning dew.

“You will need to break your shield tens, or even hundreds of thousands of times. Building up nacre takes years, but I think we can accelerate the process.”

“Ummm.” Mason Gulped audibly.

“Do you want to try?” She asked, eyes locked on the Nuker’s.

“…I want to be the best. So yes. I want to try.” Mason said, swallowing his discomfort at the idea of being swarmed by biting insects.

“Wear these rings.” She said, handing Mason some Thorns rings. “Reggie, we’ll need your assistance.”

“Sure,” Reggie said, trotting over and spitting out his new ‘helmet.’ A white mouthguard one might see in a sport where lost teeth were a common occurrence.

The Mirthful Mouthguard

+15 resistance

Provides extra protection for the head and nervous system, as well as against debilitating negative emotions.

Does not protect against debilitating positive emotions.

As Loth proceeded to set up a near-infinite shield-breaking loop with Mason, will turned his attention to where Alicia sat. She pulled a conical hat out of the pile, wide-rimmed, midnight blue with gold embroidery.

“Oooh,” she said, putting it on her head. A moment later she turned to Will, her expression excited.

“Do you still have the Ring of Curse Concentration?” She whispered.

Will nodded, handing it over to her.

“Thank you.” she whispered, slipping the Relic onto her finger. Will thought he saw her blue-flame eyes flicker just a bit as it settled around her finger.

She tapped the glowing blue eye nestled against her chest, staring through Will.

“I need to test this soft-set on something we don’t mind dying.” Alicia whispered.

Will’s brows rose.