Chapter 44: Floor 4

Leeches once stole a few drops of William Oh’s rarified blood. They couldn’t handle its raw power and were transformed into miniature flaming versions of him, which went on to swarm the insects themselves, shooting them out of the sky in droves and giving them a taste of their own medicine.

-          Jason Salazar

“This would probably work better with a rapier,” Will mused to himself as he buried the blade of the Serpent’s Tomahawk in the salamander. The Boss of the Key Site was fifteen feet long, flaming, and peppered with arrows.

When he swung his tomahawk, the entire blade turned partially see-through thanks to his new cloak, and the sound of it whistling through the air was muffled, except for the eerie debuffing chord, which sounded even creepier when not obscured by grunts and the hiss of slicing air.

Still, an invisible rapier would be better because it had a longer reach and a more unpredictable attack pattern at the tip, which would lean into the partial invisibility. Will assumed that beyond 100 Acuity, his attacks would turn completely invisible, but that was still a ways off.

The Salamander seemed to disagree, thrashing his direction, opening it’s gaping maw to reveal a white-hot furnace inside its mouth, which drove Will to leap backwards.

Travis took his turn jumping in, hacking at the monster’s legs. When it turned to him, dozens of arrows peppered its side, causing it to flinch, giving him the freedom to escape while opening an opportunity for Will to jump in again.

Around them were dozens of dead salamanders, slaughtered where they had been lazing around the Key Site, absorbing the Miasma as it was pumped up into the upper floors.

Alicia Zodiac made things easy, which was a double-edged sword. Easier fights meant more safety for the Party, which Will was totally on board for, but on the other hand, if they got used to easy and wound up biting off more than they could chew…

Will remembered the state of the rest of her Party, frozen into the ice of the 2nd Floor. Total wipe save for Mark Wyrd, who was apparently indestructible and had thorn Abilities for days, the freakin’ wyrdo.

Will still had a grudge against that guy for nearly killing Loth…all she did was try to kill him.

On the other lordling front, Will had tried to have a conversation with Alicia about why her torso, amulet, and pants slots were all filled with Charm-based Relics, but every time he meant to lecture her, those eyes and that flat expression made him beat a hasty retreat.

But I mean, come on, three slots wasted that could be used to boost her Resistance! Why!?

 “Pulling back!” Will said as the Salamander turned back towards him.

“Five seconds!” Travis said, fumbling through his pouch.

Alicia could’ve killed the Salamander, but Will decided they needed practice on their teamwork.

And now he was facing down a charging salamander with backup coming five seconds later than he wanted.

Will sent Phantom Hand out and launched a bullet up into the salamander’s jaw. Manhunter triggered and pulled the steel-melting maw down into the ground.

The salamander’s flaming tail rose into the air as the giant creature nearly flipped over entirely.

“Ready!” Travis said

“Tee it up!” Loth shouted, motioning to herself.

Their Master Decoy shook his jangly whip and gave a mocking laugh, causing the Salamander to rear up in indignation, orienting on the source of the laugh and charge it.

Travis sprinted towards Loth, causing the Salamander chasing him to trigger one of the kobold’s traps.

A boulder whipped into the side of the fifteen-foot Boss’s head. A moment later it crumpled to the ground, dead.

You are now a level 15 Resourceful Climber!

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 15

16+ 26 Strength

45 + 7 Kinesthetics

48 + 14 Resistance

30  Focus

56 + 3 Acuity

Charges: 29/29

Free Points: 0

Item Abilities: Gravity Charge, +25% Charge/Kick potency, +15% movement speed, Fire Tracers, Acid Bolt, +greater acid Damage. Homefield Advantage (ice). +25% Rogue Potency, Audiovisual Dampening, Manhunter, 6 degree correction.

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand*

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough

Ability Upgrade Available! (x2)

Now that you have reached level 15, experience gain up to the 3rd Floor has been nerfed.

If you wish to continue to accumulate power, you must Climb to the 4th Floor.

Finally, Will thought, exhaling.

“Everybody level fifteen?” he asked.

Travis, Loth and Alicia nodded.

Will set aside the prompt to summon the Door to the 4th floor and joined the others in looting. Anything that didn’t get put on was set aside for the Sourdough barrel. The extra Potions of greater healing he’d received from Roger meant they could on average consume one a week.

The more people he had in his party, the more he had to deal with averages, stuff like average food, bandages and pro-fil-ak-ticks per day, which Loth told him would eventually necessitate a ‘logistics officer’, or ‘quartermaster’.

Not quite yet, though, with only four people, but once they found Mason’s Party on the 4th Floor and subsumed it into their own, thing would start getting much more complex.

Will mentally patted himself on the back for his use of ‘subsumed’ as he looted the dissolving salamanders.

Ooh. Will thought as he pulled a whip made of salamander skin coiled around a glowing core. It was merely warm to the touch, but the core of the whip visible through the straps of hide glowed like hot coals suspended in glass.

Fire Whip.

+3 Acuity

+4 kinesthetics

Adds a great amount of fire damage to any attacks made with the whip and counts as a ranged weapon for the purposes of Ranged Abilities.

Neat.

Will didn’t have any ranged Abilities, so it was a moot point for him, but maybe Alicia would like a melee weapon that could be used with Rain of Arrows.

“Hey Will,” Travis motioned him over to where the boss was dissolving into miasma, leaving behind a crumbling skeleton.

Travis leaned over and reached into the massive monster’s chest cavity and pulled out a cloak seemingly made of red and black salamander skin.

Mantle of the Yawning Forge

+7 Resistance

-14 Focus

Creates an Aura of Flame based on the user’s first Primary Ability. Does not harm party members.

“What does that even mean?” Will asked.

Travis shrugged.

Will took off his Cloak of the Fade, and put the Mantle on over his shoulder.

He staggered in place as the drain on his Focus dropped his Charge drastically, but straightened a moment later.

A massive hand made of pure flames appeared around Will, unwrapping itself as though it had been clenched tight around him until just now. Will discovered that he could control it, and it even had a bit of tangible form, although it mostly just burned things when he tried to touch them.

Will took the mantle off and handed it to Travis, who burst into flames, flickers of Travis-lookalikes floating in every direction, making it very hard to tell exactly where he was standing or even what direction he was moving.

Decoys.

Interesting.

When Loth tried it on, the flame aura took on a less aggressive look, instead of raging fire, it had the calm feeling of a night by the hearth at the orphanage. Will just wanted to stuff himself with bread and nap by the fire, breed freely, coexist with people he normally wouldn’t, and do whatever Loth told him t-

“You know what, That’s not really a good fit.” Will said, tugging the mantle over Loth’s horns.

“What was it doing?” Loth asked. “I didn’t feel anything.”

“It drugged everyone with chill-out vibes and the urge to do whatever you tell them to do.” Travis said.

“I fail to see a downside.” Loth said, reaching for the mantle. “I could definitely think of some uses for that.”

“I know you could,” Will said, keeping the mantle out of her reach.

“I almost missed the time people underestimated me constantly,” Loth said with a huff.

Will glanced over at Alicia, who was silently looting dead salamanders, face expressionless as usual. Travis met his gaze and nodded towards her.

Will took a deep breath.

You’re the Party leader. You can do this. You can talk to a girl. Even a weird one like Alicia.

“Alicia, do you wanna try this Mantle on?”

Alicia’s burning blue eyes turned over to him.

“No, that’s okay, you can have it,” she said, her voice barely audible to his enhanced senses.

“Would you try it on?” he clarified. “We’re curious to see whose build it synergizes the best with.

“…what does it look like?” She asked.

“Back and red…it kind of looks like the coals in a campfire.”

“…have a shirt?” She asked.

“Eh?”

Alicia’s face remained blank.

“Do you have a shirt I can use under?”

Will realized that Alicia’s current frilled shirt was a Relic, and in order to wear the mantle, she’d have to take it off.

Will gave her his shirt and turned his back.

“Is wearing shirts this scratchy some kind of Resistance training?” Alicia asked as she switched.

“Nope, I’m just poor,” Will said, facing away.

“I see. I’m done.”

Will turned back around and watched as Alicia put on the Mantle of the Yawning forge.

 A cloud of tiny arrows made of fire sprung into existence around her, making her surroundings appear dotted with flames.

“Can you control the arrows?” Will asked. He’d been in control of the hand, but maybe that was only because being in control of Phantom Hand was part and parcel with the Ability.

“No,” Alicia shook her head. “…I don’t like how much Focus it costs.”

On a hunch, Will took them out hunting, and as soon as a monster got within twenty feet of her, the nearest four arrows in the cloud streaked across the distance and perforated the creature, pinning it to the ground.

With a bit more experimenting, they discovered that the arrows didn’t even need her to be consciously aware of the creature for them to destroy it.

In exchange for 14 Focus.

That might actually be a good deal for Alicia.

“I don’t like it.” Alicia said after taking it off.

“Why?” Will asked. “It raises your Resistance, which you sorely need, and it gives you a passive defense based on your overwhelming attack power, which will go a long way towards keeping you from dying again.”

“Because it replaces my shirt. I need…Charm clothes to…talk to…people.”

Will cocked his head.

“What do you mean?”

“I’m not…good with people,” Alicia said, her voice so quiet that Will almost couldn’t make it out with his superhuman hearing. “Charm Relics make me better at…it.”

Will opened his mouth to tell her that was ridiculous, because Charm relics only enhance Charm abilities, of which Alicia has none, so they don’t do anything for her…then he closed his mouth. Then he opened it. Then closed it again.

Obviously I can’t make fun of this or else we all might die, and refuting the way she feels is an exercise in stupidity.

‘You can’t argue someone out of feeling the way they feel. Now stop crying.’

-          Gertrude, after spanking Will for making fun of Marissa for being afraid of the boogeyman.

“I tell you what…” Will said, his Leader Brain activating. “You’ve been talking to us just fine this afternoon with just the pants and amulet, right?”

Alicia hesitated for a moment, her eyes widening fractionally before she nodded, clutching the amulet hanging around her neck like a protective totem.

“Well, the 4th Floor is just riddled with biting insects of every shape and size. Do you like getting bit by disease-carrying mosquitos?”

Alicia shook her head.

“And the nearest Stronghold on the 4th floor is going to be miles and miles of hiking through bug infested swamps. If you wear that Mantle, it will shoot all the biting insects before they get the opportunity to bite you.

“And then once we get to the stronghold with people, you can put your Charm Relic back on. What do you think?” Will asked.

“…okay.” Alicia said quietly. “Are you mad at me? For being difficult? Your shoulder blades are tensed.”

“Just trying to learn how to be a Party Leader.” Will said, deliberately relaxing his shoulders.

“You’re curling your toes,” She whispered.

“Do you know how to play poker?” Will asked, deliberately changing the subject for both of their sakes.

Alicia shook her head.

“Well, maybe when we get to the 4th Floor Stronghold, we can teach you how to play. Pretty sure you’d clean up. In the meantime, let’s go buy some supplies for the 4th Floor and get our Charge topped off.”

…and buy me a new shirt, Will thought, before glancing over at Alicia, who was absentmindedly itching where his roughspun shirt hung on her shoulders.

Or maybe two shirts.

They went back to the nearest Stronghold and got rested and resupplied. They bought Will and Alicia new undershirts, spending two days to top off everyone’s Charges before they accepted the Door up to the 4th Floor.

Will stared down the glowing yellow door standing in the middle of the desolate ashlands. It still filled him with unease, but it was a manageable amount.

He took a deep breath, and marched through.

The change in temperature alone nearly put Will in shock, but it wasn’t the only change.

The ashlands were quiet, with the occasional distance roar or explosion from a volcano, but the ash that blanketed the ground seemed to absorb any quieter sounds, leading the 3rd floor to have a somewhat peaceful soundscape.

Not so with the 4th floor.

The sound of life and insects pressed in against Will’s eardrums, each individual hum and whine fighting for his attention as thousands of bloodsucking insects detected his presence at the same time and began swarming closer.

The temperature was so much cooler that Will thought he might be freezing, but the knee-deep water he was standing in didn’t seem to be frozen. It was just the sudden shift from boiling-hot to body-temperature that threw him off.

There was water everywhere. Not only was Will standing in the stuff, but it was thick in the air, invading his lungs, condensing and dripping from every branch of the surrounding trees.

Then Alicia stepped through a Door beside him, and flaming arrows hovering around her began slicing through the air at mind-boggling speeds.

A moment later, the sounds of insects swarming towards them had somewhat diminished, and Will had hope that they might get through the fourth floor without dying from insect-borne disease.

Welcome to the 4th Floor!

Miasma Acclimation: 4 days.

It is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Miasma acclimation period has elapsed. Side effects of doing so include fever, bulging bloodshot eyes, coughing, pustules, necrosis of the extremities, paraphilia, parasitic twin growths, and Death.

There is a Stronghold to your North, and a Key Site in need of clearing to your West.

Again, it is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Acclimation period has elapsed.

Will shifted in place to check if Loth and Travis had arrived when he felt a tugging sensation on his shin.

Will lifted his leg to reveal an inky black worm-like creature attached to his skin, seemingly doing its best to burrow its way into his leg.

No, wait. Six of them.

I hate this floor already, Will thought, wielding his tomahawk.