Chapter 105: Level 30

‘Level thirty is a big jump in power and flexibility for most climbers. It’s the first level where a Climber gets a Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary upgrade all at once, and it’s usually the only tertiary anyone ever gets. I was actually level thirty when-’

‘What’s Tershierry?’

‘Means third in line.’

-Gertrude, to a younger Will.

Will sat under a pile of bugs crawling across his skin, focusing on his new Abilities so he didn’t panic from all the things skittering across him, their proboscis dipping down to sip…something out of him. It didn’t bear too much thinking about.

Please choose a Tertiary Ability

Uru Breath (minor)

Active: 5 Charges, unleash a blast of space-warping breath, the dimensional ripples cause temporary damage and nausea to those inside the cone. May cause objects to crack or joints to loosen.

Stone Charge

Active: 1 Charge, 20ft range. Coats the user’s body in stone armor and/or propels them forward at lethal speeds.

Venom strike

Active: 1 charge, Add a poison effect to the next attack with a slashing or piercing weapon. Scales with Acuity.

Mighty Leap

Active: 1 Charge, user’s jump distance is tripled for a single jump.

Prey’s Senses

Passive: The User’s field of vision widens, as well as minor improvements to their hearing and smell. Scales with Acuity.

Deceiver’s Molt

Active: 5 charges. Moderate Self-heal. User slips out of their skin and creates a decoy that can perform simple pre-determined actions. The decoy will retain any wounds the user has healed through this Ability.

Titan’s Grasp

Passive: Space and gravity subtly warp around objects the user tries to hold, allowing them to handle objects both larger and smaller than they might’ve otherwise been able to handle, whether that be from cumbersome size or weight.

Phantom Eye

Active: 1 Charge Summon a Phantom Eye for (Acuity) Seconds. The Eye is invisible, goatlike, moves at the same speed as Phantom Hand, and has depth perception.

Progenitor affinity

Passive: Further enhances the natural affinity scaled creatures have towards you.

Stubborn Ass

Passive: User’s Inertia becomes more difficult to change through outside forces, adding force to their attacks and resisting shoves and strikes.

Serpent’s Tongue

Active: 1 Charge

With a vile word of Eternity, extend the duration of debuffs on the target for (Acu/10) Seconds.

Gravity Charge

Active: 1 charge

The user’s personal gravity is oriented in the direction of the target for Resistance seconds. Ethereal horns grow from the user’s skull, and their brain, skull, and neck are strengthened against impact. Scales with Resistance.

Cancelable.

Blood Binding

Active: 20 Charges

Apply your tainted blood to a weapon to imbue it with a fraction of your nature. The weapon will warp fate to always return to you.

On Binding, one Ability will be randomly added based on the User’s Sacrifices. Only one Ability can be bound at a time, To re-roll the random Ability, Cast Blood Binding again.

Uru Drake’s Eye

Passive: Become able to see that which a Uru Drake Progenitor can. Dimensional effects, Charges and miasma become visible to the naked eye.

Serpent’s Gaze

Active: 1 Charge

Inflict (acu/100) seconds of Paralysis on a target you can see the eyes of. Acuity contested by Focus or Resistance, whichever is higher.

Astral Tread

Passive: A small doughnut shaped area of gravity below the user’s hands and feet becomes under the control of the user and can be used to push off of, or pull into objects and surfaces. Can provide a tiny amount of propulsion should the user be outside the range of any solid objects, such as underwater or in outer space.

The heck is outer space? Will thought, scanning the Ability. It seemed like it extended the effect of Aspect of the goat, allowing him to latch on to things and cling to them better, possibly even walking upside down on things, like the gravity goats were able to do.

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There were a handful of new selections since the last time he’d been offered new Abilities at level 20. Gravity Charge had been added, which surprised Will.

Maybe my Class learned it after using it for a while? Will mused.

One of the Abilities on offer, Molt, had been modified to Deceiver’s Molt, raising the price, the potency, and including a decoy effect.

Blood Binding was new, and it looked good. So good, in fact, that Will didn’t want to have it languish as a Tertiary Ability, forever unable to receive upgrades. It’s Relic-focused effect dovetailed in so nicely with his build design for Phantom Hand and Sourdough that he would kick himself forever if he took it as a stagnant tertiary.

That’s the problem, isn’t it? I need to pick something good, but also something I’m comfortable with never getting any better.

Gravity Charge was a good Ability, but Phantom Hand could move him around just fine as long as he was wearing the Ring of Eidolon.

Although, the ability to fly regardless of whether I have the ring is….pretty tempting.

Will added it to his mental list of possibles.

Deceiver’s Molt looked pretty good too. It had gone from minor healing to moderate healing, and included a decent way to recover or escape mid-fight.

Although, Will was plenty slippery even without a decoy, and the healing effect’s value was undermined by Sourdough keeping his Potions of Greater Healing refreshed, and being able to always keep one on hand with Phantom Hand.

Phantom Eye would let Will spy or use Phantom hand with precision from an outlandish distance, boosting the power of the Infiltrator portion of his Class. When he first was offered it, the speed of Phantom Hand wasn’t that high, and his Acuity wasn’t high enough for it to last very long, but now, it would last roughly two minutes, and could move at staggering speeds, allowing him to catch a glimpse of just about anything he wanted within a several mile radius.

Adding that to the list.

Serpent’s Gaze…Not bad either.

Serpent’s gaze had a lot of nerfs to make it less appealing, and it still was very tempting.

One second for every hundred Acuity seemed like almost nothing, but one second of paralysis was more than enough to perform a coup de grace or force an enemy to miss a critical step.