Chapter 141: Distributing Wealth

Ethereal Metallic Slime upgrade for Aspect of the Serpent:

Metal bones: adds passive resistance to physical and lightning damage. Scales with Resistance.

Do you wish to Sacrifice Ethereal Metallic Slime to Aspect of the Serpent?

No.

Will dropped the liquid metal cupped between his palms back into the pond of material. It seemed as though it didn’t synergize well with Aspect of the Immortal Serpent.

Extra toughness was good, but it wasn’t what Will was looking for.

If it granted something like polymorphic armor, or better yet, some kind of Ability that allowed him to become intangible like his Phantom Hand, he would’ve leapt on it in an instant.

That leads me to ask: what would synergize well with Aspect of the Immortal Serpent? Will thought to himself.

Immortal Serpents were known for shapeshifting, Psychic attacks, and strong healing. Will had already grabbed the ‘strong healing’ piece of it.

Maybe it would grant powerful Abilities if I followed the theme and Sacrificed Psychic and shapeshifting monsters to it? Will wondered. There were supposed to be some of both on the 9^th Floor.

Or perhaps instead of branching out, lean further into the Abilities I already have… Will mused to himself.

Maybe he could get psychic attacks or shapeshifting powers, but if he doubled down on the ability to control his environment through Aspect’s ability to control Terrain, it could become something extraordinary.

In the future, it would probably be best to have a couple unstoppable Abilities rather than dozens of mediocre ones.

Then again. I’ve only added two upgrades out of six. If I focuses all of the remaining four on building psychic abilities rather than pursuing terrain control, that would definitely be enough upgrades to guide Aspect into a completely new specialty.

Terrain control was awesome, but Will had been irritated that he couldn’t deal any real damage to the metallic slime. Having a powerful non-physical attack would be handy.

…I guess we’ll see how things play out, Will thought as the wagon designed to carry the slime’s corpse arrived.

Jean arrived along with the wagon, and once the slime was successfully moved into the wagon, she held a cupful of liquid metal aloft, frowning as she read her upgrade options.

Since Bee was technically her, she had been included in the Bounty and had been propelled straight to level 35, granting her another Upgrade.

“Anything good?” Will asked.

“Nothing fantastic for my primaries, but for my Shapeshifting Secondary, it would allow me to create metal weapons from my own flesh.”

Will’s brows rose at that statement. That would allow her to change the gloves she was wearing that allowed her to summon claws out with something better.

“Do you want it?” Will asked.

“Honestly, I’d prefer things that defend against mental manipulation or grant the ability to bake better.” Jean said with a shrug. “But I’ll take it if you think that’s best.”

It was hard to find monsters known for their mental defense, because Climbers didn’t go around constantly testing that. it wasn’t the primary means by which monsters were dispatched, so mentally strong but physically weak creature would always die immediately, long before their mental abilities were discovered.

And monsters that were strong mentally were usually using that Ability offensively in some way.

“I’ll give it some thought. No rush, you don’t even have a secondary upgrade yet.”

Jean nodded and dropped the liquid metal back into the wagon.

Will was feeling generous, so each and every person got the opportunity to check if any of their Abilities could benefit substantially from Sacrificing Silverdeath. That’s what these pioneers had signed up for after all: In exchange for the danger of establishing a new Stronghold, they would always be first in line for the rewards.

Strangely enough, civilians got more good uses out of Silverdeath than Climbers, because the metallic slime was powerful, unique and had a tendency to overshadow or overlap other offensive abilities.

Many of their Climbers passed on it because it had poor synergy with their build, but for the civilians, it provided the best Ability they would likely ever get.

Some tailors got the ability to mentally control their sewing needles, while others got the ability to give wire the texture and flexibility of string, while still others gained the ability to ‘metallicize’ clothing, making soft, flexible armor that felt and weighed the same as normal clothes. Given three sacrifices, they could get all three Abilities.

The resulting clothes weren’t Relics, either, so the slot limit wasn’t even a concern.

Once Will knew about that, he decided to allow the tailors use multiple Sacrifices, in exchange for a small cut of their output…Which Loth informed him was already part of their contract.

Will shrugged and told them if that was the case, then they were more than welcome to the sacrifices. Any enhancement he gave them for free would be repaid eventually anyway.

If there was a good fabric that could be produced on the 10^th Floor, that could become a backbone of their exports.

The civilian Parties understood that something like this could define a generation, and Brenna Egan wept tears of joy, hugging her somewhat confused daughters, who perhaps didn’t understand the implications of effortlessly creating near-Relic quality armor.

Will knew if they moved back down outside the Ring, they would essentially be nobility.

Mason passed on the Sacrifice, muttering something about ‘nodules’, which nobody wanted anything to do with.

Jason passed, saying it didn’t fit his build, which made sense.

Reggie took two sacrifices, applying one to his ‘Heavily Armored’ Ability, and the other to his Second Wind Ability, granting him passive higher physical resistance and active temporary intangibility.

Reggie’s armor began to flex and twitch on its own, seemingly fixing near-invisible misalignments and adjusting itself to fit him even more perfectly.

Reggie began bouncing on his toes, and Will could see the Tank’s heavy armor itself flexing and unflexing, adding strength and bounciness to his movements.

Looks like Reggie came out ahead. Makes sense.

Even Badur got something interesting.

The Logistician held his palm over his ledger, and with a flash of light, the ledger vanished, replaced by a miniature representation of the camp, composed entirely of liquid metal.

No, it isn’t the camp, Will thought, frowning. It was only things that Badur had written in his ledger. The people were missing, as was the fire Anna was cooking over, the tree stumps they used as chairs, things like that.

Badur glared at one of the wagons which was sloppily organized, and a moment later, the miniature began to fix itself, tiny luggage straightening into neat rows.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

That change was reflected in the real world as well.

“Can you make the wagons move?” Will asked.

Badur frowned and glanced at the wagons, which lurched forward.

“Yes, my lord, but it takes a bit more effort. It would probably work best for getting them unstuck or moving them if there were no alternative.”

Good to know.

Carpenters saw some benefits from Silverdeath when added to the Abilities that allowed them to treat wood. They also got the option to gain mental control over their tools, but felt like it was a waste, and to a man, passed on that Ability.

Carpenters liked feeling what they were doing.

Loth passed on the upgrade, but mentioned that it might be a good sacrifice for kobolds who hadn’t yet specialized their Trap Savant Ability.

June and Alicia passed as well, holding out for more specialized Sacrifices for their Builds.

The water-mages passed, but the earth mages in the caravan took two apiece, allowing them to reinforce their earth-works with metal.

The healers passed.

Once everyone had taken what they wanted from the wagon, Badur measured the depth with a marked stick and did some math in his notebook.

Then he said something insane.

“Excuse me?” Will asked, eyes round.

“Fifteen thousand, three hundred and nine Sacrifices.” Badur repeated, his gaze scanning across his notebook, checking for errors. With a margin of error of…three or four.”

…damn.

The caravan surrounding him cheered, and Will knew why. This was an incredible windfall. They could sell maybe a couple dozen of these Sacrifices at auction in Akul to pay for the entire trip, and the rest could go into the Stronghold’s war-chest, towards covering future costs or creating Classes.

Of course that means it’s a prime target for theft.

Will glanced around the caravan, scanning the excited faced and back-slapping, wondering which of them might try to steal some or spill the story to other Climbers in a fit of bragging.