Chapter 192: Commander Oh

This feels wrong.

How so?

The way his Party is moving around, dodging us, not making any desperate attempts to clear a Key Site and run. They’re buying time, but something about it feels…dangerous. Like there’s a guillotine blade hanging over our heads, and they’re just waiting for it to fall.

The question is what, and when?

• Caddock, High Paladin level 63

Will laid out the map of the Floor.

“Wow.” Anna said, eyes wide as the map responded to Will’s mental commands, expanding to about six feet across, revealing the Floor. There were large swaths that hadn’t been filled in yet, because Will hadn’t directly seen the terrain yet.

Phantom Eye (x16)

160 Charges Remaining

Will sent the eyes straight up, looking back down at them.

The eyes vision went dark for a moment as they climbed up through solid sandstone, a moment later, they broke out into the light of day.

Will squinted reflexively at the sudden light and sixteen new viewpoints.

Drawing from his previous experience with the technique, he kept them clustered tight together and looking the same direction, fusing them into one view until they were high enough that they could begin to spread without causing him a headache.

The massive grey map with a few patches of terrain began to fill in, gaining color and even a little texture as his eyes filled in the details.

“That…is a good map.” Anna said, holding her breath for some reason.

Can I mark on this thing? Will wondered before putting down his finger.

“There’s a fort at each of these Key Sites,” Will said, tapping one of them with his finger. The fort was on the map, but the scale made it nearly impossible to see.

The map shifted, causing the miniscule fort to expand for better visibility. The scale was off now, but it was better for studying and making plans.

So the default is everything having the same scale, but I can make some things bigger for legibility.

Will turned his attention to the other Key Sites, and they each expanded to reveal the exact composition of their defenses, save for the soldiers guarding them.

Wait…

Will mentally grabbed one of the forts and expanded it further.

“Eek!”

Anna stumbled back as the fort exploded upward, pushing the rest of the terrain off the edge of the map, dominating the entire space, its walls becoming nearly three feet tall.

Will focused his attention on the wall and discovered a patch of fear.

Right there was a little patch of the amorphous clear stringy goo that he’d learned to associate with fear.

Fear is a terrain.

Someone was feeling fear right there. Was it someone in a fight, someone listening to a scary story or just getting cussed out by a superior? Will had no idea, but he knew for a fact that there was a person there.

Will cocked his head and turned his attention to his Phantom eyes.

Yes. I can see it. A pair of guards and one is being aggressive towards the other.

Will deliberately looked away from the scene and paid attention to his map. After a few minutes he looked back. The argument was over, and the fear was gone.

The problem was that his map registered the fear as being there until he reconfirmed it visually, at which point is registered the change.

Ah, it doesn’t track changes in real time. If it did though, I could track people with even a bit of fear in their hearts. I need real-time terrain tracking.

Can I make the fear easier to see? Color. Glow.

The map broke into a splotchy patchwork of fear glowing an eye-catching red.

Will studied the blobs of fear marching back and forth across the walls of the fort.

Any soldier in wartime had at the very least, the haunting tension of the possibility of a sudden attack.

With fear highlighted and glowing, Will was able to easily make out the positions of the soldiers inside the fort.

I mean, I could already see them with my Phantom Eye…

Despite the situation, Will was looking ahead and thinking of what kind of shenanigans he could pull as a Lord.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

The perpetrators of crimes always had a hint of fear of being caught. Will could produce a map, hand it to his guards with the ‘fear of being caught’ terrain highlighted. The guards would then track down anyone who did anything wrong and arrest them.

Will could isolate and highlight different kinds of fears and his guard could react with the appropriate responses faster than anyone could believe.

Fear of drowning. Fear of being hurt, fear of loss, fear of monsters. Will could absolutely invade his citizen’s privacy and expose anything they attempted to hide.

Attempting to hide things implied a fear of it being discovered. Will could highlight for that.

…Is this ethical?

Well, it’s only a consideration if I get real-time terrain tracking…Which I am ABSOLUTELY going to do.

“What’s this stuff?” Anna asked, poking the red glowing blobs of fear.

“Fear.” Will said, rubbing his chin as he thought.

“Seriously?” Anna asked.

“Mhmm.” Will glanced up at Anna, who was absorbed with the three-dimensional map, her eyes glittering with wonder.

“Can you ask Loth to spin her wand?” Will asked, squeezing the for back down, causing the rest of the terrain to come flooding back in, including the abstract symbol of a wand where loth was carrying his Wand of the Undead Retainer.

“Okay.” Anna’s eyes went vacant for an instant.

On the map, the wand began spinning rapidly.

Will had sent a handful of Tangled copies with the two groups, to act as communication and cannon fodder. It was a bit callous, but All of Brianna was on board.

“That’s good, now let’s ask June’s group.”

On the map, his Amulet began spinning rapidly.

So the only things that do track in real-time are me and my Abilities and Manifested Relics.