Chapter 43: Build Tweaking

William oh once had a staring contest with Holdna. His gaze was so smoldering that the Thousand Eye Goddess was forced to blink.

The air was quiet in Bishop Gilder’s temple. The acolytes and priests tiptoed around him as he sat in the main hall, contemplating the nature of the war they were waging.

Order against chaos. Progress against collapse.

“It seems as though we were visited by Deceivers last night.” Bron Gilder mused to whoever was listening. His aide was always listening, and well-trained at agreeing with everything his Bishop had to say.

“It appears that way, Bishop,” The aide, a young man with a scraggly beard said, nodding.

“Why do you think they took the body of their comrade?” Bron mused.

“You’re asking me, sir?”

“Yeah, why not?” Bron asked with a faint smile.

“to gain forbidden power by Sacrificing-“

“Nope, try again.”

“…To honor-“

“Nope.”

“…To strike fear into-”

“Almost. Listen.” Bron pointed to where several acolytes were clustered together, pretending to sweep the floors as they gossiped.

Low-level youngsters never did understand exactly how good Acuity made a higher level’s hearing, and Bron did nothing to convince them otherwise for moments such as these, when he wanted unfiltered gossip.

“The Deceiver came back to life in the dead of night, when its patron’s profane power is strongest and slipped away like a will-o-wisp in the night!”

His aide frowned.

“But they’re ignoring the two wax-suits we found in the toilet. There were obviously two people who intruded from the outside, and they were surely the ones who took the corpse. It didn’t just get up and walk away.”

“But it doesn’t make as good a story, does it?” Bron asked. “Oftentimes, once a good story has been born, it doesn’t matter how much evidence to the contrary comes out days or weeks later. The good story will outlive and outspread the truth. Because the truth is boring. Five years from now, the commonly understood ‘truth’ will be that a corpse came back to life and escaped, and only the most pedantic scholars will bother to check the church records where we will record what actually happened.”

“Misinformation, then? They intended to muddy the waters?” his aide asked.

“A side benefit, to be sure,” Bron said, looking up at the stained-glass mural, where Granesh battled Ouroboros in the sky above The Tower, the manifold worlds pictured beneath them.

The legend went that Orouboros’s coils eventually grew so large and wound so tight that it forced The Tower to grow a Floor simply to contain it, and humanity suffered a major upheaval as more powerful creatures were pushed down into the lower floors.

One day, full-blooded demons would roam the hunting ground, and the thick miasma would corrupt every living thing, causing deformities, still-birth, and painful diseases.

Completing The Trial would become impossible, and humanity would just…end.

It had become noticeably harder to complete the Trial since Bron had been a young Acolyte. Nobody else noticed it, but Bron had dug through the register of Acolytes and simply counted those who survived their Trial each year and those who had not.

The percentage of those who died had been creeping up ever-so gradually for centuries. Since the oldest register he could find.

And that’s including modern advances in Class knowledge and Trial preparation. He thought. That should’ve brought the casualties down, but they continued to creep slowly up, implying the actual challenge was rising faster than the numbers would convey.

It might not be this year, or a thousand years hence…but it was coming, as slowly and inexorably as Ouroboros wound its way around The Tower.

The proliferation of half-demon Deceivers, and Unclean half-men was just another sign that the prophesied end was marching towards them.

High-level Climbers were replaced by shape-shifting demons on the higher floors. They would then breed with hapless humans and deliver their low-miasma-tolerant brood to orphanages before mysteriously disappearing.

Orphans with high-level parents were the perfect cover for Deceivers, and therefore watched the most closely by the church of Granesh.

By the church of Granesh’s estimation, either Mary or Thomas Oh had long been replaced by a demon, delivering their spawn to an orphanage before the demon killed the human and disappeared into The Tower, ready to do it again.

“…Sir?” the scraggly-bearded young man asked, jolting Bron out of his musing.

“I believe whoever broke in took the body because they thought it was funny. These actions unintentionally spawned legends. I know of one Deceiver who leaves innumerable legends in his wake.”

“Who would that be?” his aide asked.

“William Oh.”

His aide went quiet.

“Now I’m not sure if William Oh is still alive and stole his doppleganger as a joke, or if William Oh’s corpse simply had one last legend to spawn.”

“I would prefer to believe we didn’t kill an innocent boy.”

“Wouldn’t we all?” Bron said. “Sadly, wishful thinking isn’t what The Church is founded on.”

**William Oh**

Leaving The Ring after their ‘adventure’ seemed prudent.

Naturally they couldn’t haul a slowly decomposing corpse with them everywhere they went, so they buried Dead Will on a scenic hilltop with a nice view of The Tower, then got the Abyss out of town, because the militant arm of Granesh was out in droves, spilling out of the many temples like wasps from a kicked nest.

Standing on every corner.

Watching.

It made the normal populace nervous, and it made Will and Loth terrified.

They slipped out of town in the dead of night and travelled off-road back to The Hunting Grounds, watching their backs for any sign of pursuit. They made good time thanks to Loth’s insects carrying them when they tired, but for the most part they just ran.

After they arrived, Will and Loth cleared a Key Site, and a day later, cleared another to land themselves on the 2nd Floor.

From there, they travelled to Skyhold, cutting through Kaith and harpies on their way.

The extra levels and the outlandishly powerful gear they wore made it a simple task.

There was a brief Roc sighting, as the mountain-sized raid boss flew with its wings highlighted by the setting sun, but thankfully for everyone involved, it was miles distant, and didn’t come any closer.

Will and Loth met Travis and Alicia in a Skyhold inn. There was some confusion at first until they went to the very most expensive one, which offered creature comforts nearly as luxurious as the one in The Ring, finally finding the rest of their Party.

“Did you guys get what I asked for?” Will asked after greetings had been exchanged.

“Sure did. When Allen Lanover found out his son could have the opportunity to be in Alicia Zodiac’s Party, he actually paid us to take Reggie’s Contract.” Travis said, pulling out an envelope.

Will opened it up and was immediately assaulted by dense legalese that he couldn’t make heads or tails of, but at the bottom was ‘Reginald’ and a brown spot of long-dried blood.

“Excellent. Wait. He paid us? With what?”

“A few relics, mostly for Mason, but you might like this one,”  Travis said, holding out a cloak made of dark material that seemed to eat up the light.

Cloak of the Fade:

+3 Kinesthetics

+3 Acuity

Lowers the audiovisual effects of attacks and Abilities. Scales with Acuity.

Raises the potency of Rogue archetype abilities by 25%

Will compared it to his current torso Relic:

Gladiator’s Chestpiece

+10 Strength

+5 Resistance

+20% to Charm ability potency while not wearing a shirt. Oils up the muscles nice and shiny.

Will hissed through his teeth. That’s a huge difference in the raw stats, but the synergy with my build is just better.

Infiltrator fell under the Rogue Archetype umbrella, and Phantom Hand was definitely an Infiltrator Ability.

“Let me try it on,” Will said, unsnapping his chestpiece and throwing the cloak over his shoulders.

Once it was on, Will tested his Phantom Hand, and saw that it was moving noticeably faster.

He checked his imprinted item.

Ring of Insulation

+7 focus

+7 resistance

+30% resistance to fire.

Okay, so there is a benefit. I would guess that the stat increase simply got rounded down. The extra 2% fire resistance implies I crossed from a 40% boost to a 50+% bonus. Which is higher than 43%... Which means the Cloak of the Fade actually does power-up the Relic-scaling effect from the Relic Worm.

1.25% per Acuity rather than a flat 1%. The speed was faster, and presumably the storage volume is also increased by 25%. Can’t test that without a measured container or some wooden cubes.

All those factors together are very useful.

But the loss of stats....

“Well?” Travis asked as Will mused.

“It would push me more in a rogue build direction. It synergizes really well with the Phantom Hand, which is my cornerstone, but…

“The stats?” Travis asked.

“The stats!” Will whined. “The chestpiece alone accounts for a quarter of my total Strength! I wouldn’t be able to solo things as well at all.”

“You’re in a Party now.” Travis pointed out. “You don’t have to solo things?”

“You just want to steal my clothes again,” Will accused.

“Just because I’m immediately going to snatch up the Gladiator’s Chestpiece if you choose to keep the cloak, doesn’t mean I’m trying to pressure you.”

“He is.” Alicia said.

Will’s face screwed up in thought for a moment.

“I need to go outside the city and test something out.”

They travelled out into the ash lands, searching for a flammenwulf. It didn’t take long until one of the snarling monsters caught their scent and closed in.

Will swapped out the Greater Sting Ring on his hand for his mutated Ring of Accuracy.

Ring of accuracy*

+7 Strength

4 degrees of correction.

Manhunter: When a creature is struck by a projectile from the wearer, they are drawn toward the shooter along the path of the projectile. Force scales with Strength.

His sling bullets made nearly inaudible hissing sounds as they cut through the air, released from the Phantom Hand as it travelled at full speed, far faster than he’d ever been able to physically launch a bullet himself.

The flammenwulf snarled in pain as it was slammed in the side of the ribs, then its limbs flailed as it was tugged through the air a solid five feet before the Manhunter passive from the Ring of Accuracy let go of it.

It didn’t take any damage from the tracer of fire hanging in midair that it’d been drawn through, but that was because the wolf was made of flames and charcoal.

Hmm.

As the flammenwulf was climbing to his feet, Will released another bullet straight down from above.

The flammenwulf yelped as it flew up into the air.

Will released another ten shots, causing the flammenwulf to be yanked roughly thirty feet straight up. The manhunter did not specify that the target was drawn along the ground, rather that they were drawn along the path of the projectile, which meant Will could use this to move monsters whatever direction he wanted them to move.

To the spectators, it simply looked like the flamenwulf started getting yanked around by an invisible force. Keen-eyed observers probably noticed the bullets shooting out of thin air, but it was difficult at this distance…

Oh! The Cloak of the Fade is making the bullets harder to see and hear. That explains why I’m shooting bullets faster than I ever have before and I can still barely hear them.

“What the Abyss are you doing?” Travis asked, jaw slack as he watched the Flammenwulf get yanked around in midair, as if it were being juggled by a mad giant.

“Establishing a baseline,” Will said.

Moments later, the flammenwulf crumbled to ash, and Will took a deep breath and said goodbye to the Ring of Insulation.

Would you like to Sacrifice the Ring of Accuracy* to gain its effect?

Yes.

The Ring of Insulation’s effect will be discarded. Do you still wish to Sacrifice the Ring of Accuracy*?

Yes.

Will shoved down the shudder as the new item slotted into the Phantom Hand, then he checked it’s effect:

Ring of accuracy*

+10 Strength

6 degrees of correction.

Manhunter: When a creature is struck by a projectile from the wearer, they are drawn toward the shooter along the path of the projectile. Force scales with Strength.

Hmm…

Will dropped his last four Free Points into Acuity. He was confident that this was the path he was going to follow.

Ring of accuracy*

+11 Strength

6 degrees of correction.

Manhunter: When a creature is struck by a projectile from the wearer, they are drawn toward the shooter along the path of the projectile. Force scales with Strength.

Will checked his new stats.

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 12

13+ 26 Strength

36 + 7 Kinesthetics

39 + 14 Resistance

24  Focus

44 + 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 Ability Potency, Audiovisual Dampening, Manhunter, 6 degree correction.

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand*

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough

Ability Upgrade Available!

I actually gained a point of Strength by making that switch, at the cost of Focus and Resistance.

Will had Resistance to spare, but the lower daily charges stung a bit. Still, it was nice that he was basically as melee-effective as he’d been before.

Now that the ring had been slotted into Phantom Hand, Will needed to try another Flammenwulf.

They stalked across the ash-covered landscape, and finally found another flammenwulf of similar stature.

Will shot it with the Phantom Hand

The monster reacted like it’d been punted by a giant, flying more than eleven feet through the air along the path of the projectile before hitting the ground and rolling in a violent tangle of limbs and spraying ash, it’s midsection hollowed out by acid, due to the Greater Sting Ring’s effect on the tracer.

“Huh.” Travis grunted.

“Does it take any effort for you to accelerate those sling bullets with Phantom Hand?” Loth asked.

“No,” Will said, shaking his head.

“So why not a chakram…or a cannonball?” Loth asked.

“…Mostly because it didn’t fit in Phantom Hand until recently.” Will said, his eyes widening as the possibilities began flooding his mind. He had been limiting himself to sling-bullets to save on volume, but his storage was starting to grow large enough to accommodate more options.

A cannonball going that fast…I could totally take Alicia’s role in the Party.

“Are you trying to take my role in the Party?” Alicia whispered, staring at him with those piercing blue eyes.

“No?” Will said.

“Don’t move.”

Alicia turned away and shot her bow straight upwards with a flicker of spent Charge.

In midair, the arrow split into several dozen, then each individual arrow split into three, creating a cloud of Death directly above them.

Alicia looked back down at Will, expressionless, as the cloud of arrows began to fall.

Will crossed his arms and met her gaze. This rich girl’s not going to make me flinch.

So, William Oh and Alicia Zodiac had a staring contest while death descended from above. At least I think it’s a staring contest. I have no idea what this girl is thinking.

Loth and Travis wisely moved outside the area of the volley of arrows.

Above, the cloud of arrows seemed to coalesce into a dozen or so tight clusters as they descended.

Will was pretty sure he didn’t flinch when the arrows rained down around the two of them.

Alicia didn’t give any hint of emotion as she turned away and walked over to one of the clusters of arrows thrust into the ash.

She grabbed several of the arrows in the center of the cluster and yanked, pulling a dead Ash-skimmer out of the ground, where it had been hiding from them.

Will scanned the surroundings and the other dozen clusters of arrows, realizing that each of the stands of arrows was a target.

Ash-skimmers weren’t particularly dangerous, but that hadn’t been the point. She was demonstrating overwhelming accuracy and firepower.

“I’m not trying to take your role,” Will said, hands up in surrender.

“Oh, thank goodness.” Alicia said in monotone, heaving a deep breath.

What is going on with this girl!?