Chapter 130: Power-leveling Civilians

William Oh once found a turd on the side of the road, and on a dare, polished that turd until it shone…

It’s the centerpiece of Andover’s crown now.

• Jason Salazar

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 31

32 + 95 Strength

96 + 76 Resistance

93 + 106 Kinesthetics

120 + 62 Acuity

62 + 61 Focus

Charges: 118/123

Free Points: 0

Non-stat Item Abilities: +40% Rogue Archetype potency, +40% Ranger Archetype Potency, Coiled Lightning, Coiled Strike, 70% Audiovisual Dampening while trying to hide. Decreased audiovisual of Attacks/Abilities, resist tracking/Extrasensory, +30% Ranger Ability Speed and Duration beyond control, 25% audiovisual dampening while trespassing/breaking into a locked location or container.

Phantom Hand Slots: (Ring of Accuracy*) (EMPTY) (Wand of the Undead Retainer) (Stormfists) -(Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet)-

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Immortal Serpent**, Phantom Hand****

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough**

Tertiary Abilities: Phantom Eye

…And that’s without anything equipped to my neck slot, hand slot, or rings, Will mused. Damn.

It was time to start sorting through the Relics they were acquiring to see if he could grab anything that could act as a standby.

Will still had the ring of Snaring, but it didn’t synergize well with his build as a whole…

Another Ring of the Eidolon would be nice, but I don’t think they make those things below the 9^th Floor. And I can wear two now!

“A rare few people simply aren’t cut out for fighting.” Loth mused, bringing Will’s attention back to where Logistics Officer Badur was trying to kill a Lathran, which looked something like a giant centipede with fur.

The creature was pinned to the ground by one of the thousands of nonlethal traps that Loth’s minions had placed along their route overnight.

All they had to do was follow the path they were planning on taking anyway, and have their weaker members pick off the trapped monsters. Usually with a long spear and some hand-me-down Relics designed to raise their Strength.

Badur let out a shriek and swung the spear sideways for some reason, the blade twisted and bounced off the target, the entire pole vibrating in his hands, causing him to drop it to the forest floor.

He spent the next five seconds fumbling to pick it up, during which time the monster would’ve definitely killed him if it wasn’t strapped to the ground by nearly unbreakable webbing.

“Most people aren’t cut out for fighting.” Will said, giving their bean-counter the benefit of the doubt.

“Not true,” Loth said. “When threatened with death, even the most mild-mannered civilian will fight, and surprisingly viciously. It’s in your blood.”

Will glanced up and spotted other Climbers watching, shaking their heads, whispering to each other and stifling laughter as Badur flailed again, doing basically nothing to the monster he was supposed to be killing.

A thought occurred to Will.

He sent his Phantom Snakes out, ripping the webs keeping the monster pinned out of their anchors in the ground.

Badur let out a yelp of terror as the Lathran reared up, glaring down at the human that had been harassing it for several minutes, black mandibles twitching with anger.

Loth gave Will a sidelong glance as shouts of surprise rippled through the camp, the nearby Climber’s hands going to their weapons as the civilians backed away.

Badur shrieked again and tumbled away as the Lathran struck like a snake, carving out a section of ground inches away from their beancounter.

Badur rose to his feet, his breath coming fast as the lathran reared up again. Will could see his heartbeat in his skin, practically humming.

“Stay back!” Will shouted to the Climbers who were edging forward, ready to subdue the monster again. They looked at Will with confusion, edging away.

Let’s give Badur’s mind a moment to process that feeling of near-death.

Badur was too trapped in the moment to hear Will’s command. The world had shrunk to just him and the lathran. He tried to lever the spear against the ground as the monster struck down. A smart move, but it wasn’t a Relic, and the creature was too heavy and too heavily armored.

The spear snapped off in Badur’s hand, the Lanthar smashing into their Logistics officer and trapping him against the forest floor.

Will caught the creature’s mandibles with two Phantom Snakes, preventing them from crushing the skinny man, or cutting him in half.

Badur’s horror at being trapped between the mandibles with the mouth-parts trying to nibble at him while trapped against the ground triggered exactly what Loth had been speaking of.

Badur let out a feral scream and began stabbing the lanthar’s eye with the spearhead, over and over again with every ounce of muscle he could bring to bear, and then some.

Will discretely had one of his invisible snakes bite the Lanthar’s hairy underside where no one would notice the wound, inflicting Psychic Venom to speed things along.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

In a matter of seconds, the beast’s writhing coils went slack and Will helped Badur out from under the beast’s mandibles.

“I got three levels.” Badur whispered, eyes white all the way around.

“Nicely done!” Will said slapping him on the back. “How about that!?” Will shouted to the observing Climbers.

“Whoo! Badur!” One of the Climbers shouted.

“That was sweet!”

“Badur, write off some food and booze, we’re having a celebration tonight!” Will shouted.

Badur nodded numbly, staring into the distance as the other Climbers surrounded him, patting his back and giving him congratulations for the levels and for not dying.

In moments, Will was able to disengage from the situation and walk back to Loth, the celebration having already taken on a life of its own, Badur being sat down at a fire and handed a mug of beer.

“Why?” Loth asked.

“A lot of reasons,” Will said. “I wanted to see if Badur had ‘it’ deep down, like you said. I also wanted to ease tension between our logistics officer and our Climbers. And our guards were too relaxed. From now on they won’t be.

“But you cast doubt on the ability of my traps to contain monsters,” Loth pouted.

“Aww, I’m sorry. I know your traps are inescapable.” Will consoled her.

Loth crossed her arms, looking away from him.

“And you wouldn’t want people to correctly estimate their danger, would you? Misdirection is half of what a trap is about.”