Chapter 268: Titan’s Grasp

William Oh’s first painting was so enormous in scale, the canvas was a mountain and the paint was the blood of his enemies.

Those who witnessed it are said to have fainted from sheer bliss

• Jason Salazar

 

Will was sitting with a selection of Sacrifices in front of him.

Simon the Indigestible Sacrifice for Phantom hand.

Phantom Hand gains the ability able to bind itself to other objects of like makeup.

Next.

Simon the indigestible Sacrifice for Aspect of the Immortal Serpent.

Bind together two or more terrains. Affix terrain in place semi-permanently

Next.

Simon the Indigestible Sacrifice for Map

Changes to the landscape made by the user’s Abilities are automatically reflected on the map.

Next.

Simon the Indigestible Sacrifice for Uru Drake’s Eye.

Incompatible.

Will sighed and set the chunk of raid-boss down. It wasn’t that exciting, all told.

Well, on to the next.

Will checked the wire hair gorillas.

For Phantom Hand, it enhanced the armor. For Aspect, it boosted Will’s protection against physical damage, and it was incompatible with Map and Uru Drake’s eye.

Will kept going for several hours, putting aside the potential upgrades he liked the most into piles based on which Ability they were for…until he reached the piece of what appeared to be wood.

The crimson puppeteer was a rare and elusive monster he hadn’t come across on the 9^th Floor that took control of people and animals and used a variety of abilities through its puppets.

Crimson Puppeteer Sacrifice for Map.

User may have their Abilities originate from any location on the map within the radius of the automatic update.

Will frowned, leaning his chin on his palm as he studied the description. Did that mean he could use Aspect to create earth spikes miles away?

Will set it aside.

After another half hour of looking, he’d narrowed his primary choice down to either Crimson puppeteer or Xanith Forgemaster for Phantom Hand.

Xanith Forgemaster Sacrifice for Phantom Hand.

User may fully manifest Relics slotted in Phantom Hand. If the Relic is destroyed, replaced, or modified, Phantom Hand’s connection to the Relic is lost, and the slot will take a week to regrow.

Will compared the two in his mind.

The Forgemaster Sacrifice would allow him to take out and modify the Wand of the undead retainer, and potentially replace certain valuable pieces like the Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet without breaking them.

The map ability would allow him to use his ability to modify distant terrain with Aspect of the immortal Serpent, create eyes and ears miles distant in an instant, and potentially lead to more powerful upgrades to Map in the future, such as directly modifying terrain and teleporting to locations on the map without requiring a fear anchor.

Beyond that, with the upgrade that allowed him to map his own body he could accurately use Abilities to modify the Miasmatic Structures inside himself…once he had the ability to do so.

The Forgemaster sacrifice was…great to have, but not critical. The Crimson puppeteer was a strong advancement in Map’s progression, which only had two upgrades so far.

Seems like I’ve convinced myself. Will thought.

Do you wish to sacrifice Crimson Puppeteer to Map?

Yes.

Will’s body shuddered as his Ability was rewritten.

Map has been upgraded. Review the description for changes.

Map***

Passive:

You have a map.

This map is a mental construct that contains an accurate, self-updating record of terrain in a radius around the user. Current location, heading, Abilities, and manifestations therof are displayed on this map. You may summon this map and dismiss it at will, and it will only be perceivable to you.

Radius scales with Acuity. Beyond this radius, the map does not update, but will retain anything that was already filled in. Within this radius, the user’s Abilities may originate from any point displayed on the map.

The map has an alternate mode that displays an in-depth map of the user’s body.

Toggle: 7 Focus

Manifest a physical copy of the map.

Will felt it as the map changed in his mind. It was no longer a flat lifeless thing, and more like a thin, stretchy film his Abilities could interact with and pierce through with a single mental command.

Tweak it just like this…

Will went onto the balcony of his tower and plucked a portion of the map, leaning on his years of experience with his first cantrip.

Miles in the distance, a portion of the mountain shot upwards in a cloud of dust before gradually sinking back down, creating an avalanche so distant that Will couldn’t even hear it.

Brianna walked out onto the balcony beside him, drinking coffee as she peered out into the distance. Coffee was definitely a luxury this high in the Tower, but she’d figured out how the farmer kids could produce a huge quantity of both coffee and sugar, so Will had no reason to complain.

“…Was that you?” Brianna asked, scratching her mussed up hair as she peered at the mountain, her oversized bedshirt rendered luminous by the morning sun.

Will made two fat pillars and a curved line, drawing a smiley-face on the distant mountainside.

“Hmm…” Brianna left and returned a moment later with a map of the surrounding lands.

“Flatten the spots in green, dig trenches in the red, and plow the checkered portions, milord.”

“Why can’t your farmers do it?” Will asked, overlaying her map onto his own.

“You’re faster,” Brianna said over her shoulder as she walked back inside.

Will was indeed faster, finishing the task in the three strides it took him to follow Bri back inside the tower.

Will sat back down at his table and mulled over his next picks while Brianna got dressed and left for work.

In front of him were a slew of preserved eyes from different monsters with eye abilities and enhanced senses. Uru Drake’s eye was kind of picky about what Sacrifices were compatible.

Basilisk sacrifice for Uru Drake’s eye

Uru Drake’s Eye gains an Active Ability that inflicts paralysis.

Nope.

Desert Eagle Sacrifice for Uru Drake’s Eye.

Visual range of Ability is vastly improved. Small damage boost to ranged attacks.

Interesting, but no.

Eye King sacrifice for Uru Drake’s eye.

Uru drake’s eye gains a toggleable direct damage effect.

Neat…but no.

Will didn’t really need more ways to deal direct damage, even if it was as cool as shooting beams out of your eyes.

Gods I probably would’ve taken the Ability in a flat second when I was starting out.

Who wouldn’t want an attack that cool?

It stung setting the Sacrifice aside and moving on to the next one. it was a flying eyeball called a Flitting Orb that was incredibly difficult to pin down because only the stealthiest Climbers could even get close to it. A good scout sacrifice.

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Flitting Orb Sacrifice for Uru Drake’s Eye.

The user’s other senses become attuned to what the eye can see.

…

Does that mean I could feel, hear, and taste miasma instead of just seeing it?

Will would’ve jumped at the opportunity to take it a few years ago, but now he thought twice about it.

Yes, that would help with my research, BUT…what do I do if it clouds my senses in the same way Uru Drake’s Eye messed with my vision? Would it be like standing at the bottom of a waterfall and completely overwhelm my senses until I adapted?

Will saved the Sacrifice until the end. He was probably gonna take it, but best choose the other stuff while not dealing with sensory disorientation.

Show me the Abilities available for my secondary and tertiaries. Will thought.

…Oh, they’ve changed.

Uru Breath (major)

Active: 5 Charges, unleash a blast of space-warping breath, the dimensional ripples cause extreme damage and disorientation to those inside the cone. Does extreme damage to the environment. May linger.

Uru Breath had gone from minor to major, and the damage had become ‘extreme’.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything described as ‘extreme’, Will thought.

Scaled Charge

Active: 1 Charge, Kin/5 seconds. Coats the user’s body in scaled armor and/or propels them forward at lethal speeds. Damage dealt while charging inflicts psychic venom and bleed.

‘Stone Charge’ became ‘Scaled Charge’, adding a duration rather than a short fixed range, along with a venom effect.

Venom strike

Active: 1 charge, Add Psychic Venom to the next attack or ability. Scales with Acuity.

Psychic venom instead of regular, less restrictions on the application.

Legendary Leap

Active: 1 Charge, user’s jump distance is tripled for a single jump. Inspire those who witness it.

‘mighty’ became ‘legendary’, and it added a buffing effect. Is this all because of my Advanced Class?

Serpent’s Senses

Passive: The User’s range and field of vision is enhanced, as well as their hearing, touch and smell. Scales with Acuity.

…Would that pair well with the Fleeting Orb upgrade to Uru Drake’s Eye? It’s definitely upgraded.

Inexorable

Active: 10 Charges

choose a creature, object, or point in space within range. The user is compelled to move towards it by the world itself. You cannot move further away, nor be moved further away. If you do not move, you will be pushed towards the target at a slow pace. Until User reaches the target, they cannot die, but can be mortally wounded.

Scales with Resistance.

Same as before. Likely because I got it late. It seemed to be the Abilities Will got offered earlier that were being spontaneously upgraded.

Consumption

Active: 5 Charges

Consume a permanent relic, destroying it in the process, to gain some of its effect for a few minutes. Can only benefit from one consumed relic at a time.