Chapter 256: Curiosity
by inkadmin“Loth’s awake.” Brianna said from across their little stone table. They’d been taking a break between searching for a Key Site and moving large quantities of meat received from Zodiac.
“For good?” Will asked.
“For good.” Brianna nodded.
Now that Loth was awake, they needed to find a Key Site and clear it to rejoin with the others and resume the Climb.
Where’s the nearest Key Site in need of clearing? Will asked the Tower. It was something he’d picked up over the years. The System always told a Climber where the closest Key Site in need of clearing was when they entered the Floor, but they could also directly ask whenever they wanted.
There is a Key Site in need of clearing to your north East, twenty-five degrees upward.
Will consulted his Map, spotting the place in a matter of seconds.
“looks like the one we passed last time we came through got infested.” Will mused.
Some floors had very few monsters and took a long time for Key sites to be in need of clearing again, but thankfully the 12th Floor that wasn’t the case.
Little boulder-like crustaceans liked to swarm around the Key Sites and soak up all the miasma as soon as no one was looking.
Their larval form resided in the endless stone beyond the narrow tunnels of the 12th Floor, so there was no way of getting rid of them.
Let’s see here…
Will traced a mental line from the distant Key site, down through the labyrinthine tunnels towards where they were currently.
The view pulled out like it was, the tunnels looked like an angry snarl of wool, each strand of hair one tunnel, and not all of them connected.
After a few minutes of tracing and starting over a couple times, Will found a route that didn’t require cutting through any walls, and he applied the line to the map, making a semi-permanent mark that he could follow.
“Alright, I have a route.” Will said. “Should take us about an hour, give or take.”
Being able to consult the line he’d drawn on his map at any point in time, they made excellent time, only behind messengers who specialized in the 12th Floor.
When they arrived at the Key Site, he and Brianna exterminated the stone mites and hopped through the Door to the next Floor.
Will picked up himself and Brianna and cruised through the bleak grey sky of the 13th Floor, avoiding clumps of proto-curses as they flew.
Will started to a strange checker pattern a couple miles out, and when they arrived at the rendezvous point, Will had to stop and do a double take.
“Loth…”
“Mmyes?” Loth asked as Will and Bree landed beside her.
“This setup is freakin’ awesome!” Will said, gesturing to the surrounding swamps.
In the short time that the former kobold had been awake, she had set up a grid pattern across the swamp that maximized the space for monsters to spawn and directed them towards the party to be disposed of in an orderly fashion.
With a cry of pain, an emaciated crocodile-looking thing leapt out of the water, desperate to escape, yet taking the pain with it wherever it went. Boils formed on the crocodile’s hide and burst forth with dozens of bullet wasps, some of whom went on to seek out more victims while the rest effortlessly picked up the corpse and carried it towards the growing pile of monster flesh degrading into miasma.
“Is it the new Ability?” Will asked. “How does it work, what’s the name?”
Will slapped his forehead and checked his Party list, where Loth’s new Ability was revealed.
“Draconic Domain!?” Will exclaimed.
Nora had been able to use harness the proto-curses in the environment to some extent around her lair. That seemed to follow with what Loth was displaying.
“What’s the range?”
“Currently? Only three miles.” Loth said, raising her snoot in pride.
“Three MILES!?” Will shouted. “That’s cheating! I want a re-do!”
“Cry to your goddess of eyeballs and hunting.” Loth said with a smug grin. “Your map Ability is sixteen at the moment, isn’t it?” Loth replied.
“Yeah, but I can’t change the stuff that’s represented on my map!” Will replied. The ability to actually affect the terrain warranted a much smaller range, so three miles was…whew.
Maybe I shouldn’t have given her Attrition.
“I can’t change the stuff that’s on my map…Or can I?” Will mused, struck with sudden inspiration. What kind of Sacrifice would do that? Some kind of voodoo creature? Something that established a link between an object and a representation of the object.
I can’t think of Anything like that.
Stll, Map had a lot of spare upgrade slots. At least four, and at best seven. Maybe he could figure something out.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
In the meantime…
“You coming after me? Huh?” Will asked, jabbing Loth with his elbow. “You trying to beat me at terrain control?”
“I’m pretty sure I already have?” Loth said, gesturing to the industrial slaughter of the 13th Floor’s inhabitants. It was definitely at a level that Will would struggle with.
“Will, aren’t you going to complement Loth?” Rotwitch asked.
Will glanced at Loth and frowned.
“About…what?”
“How she looks!” Rotwitch said, gesturing to Loth.
Loth was still wearing her gilded cuirass, but had done away with the robe. She was exactly the same height as Will now, and her face was slightly more expressive than before. Her legs were long and made for sprinting, her fingers slender and tipped with short-but-sturdy claws that didn’t interfere with her dexterity.
The stubs emerging from her back when Will left to secure a food supply were now massive leather wings draped over her shoulders, forming a makeshift cloak.
She looked totally different.
Will turned and looked at Rotwitch.
“You don’t know Loth very well.” Will said, turning away from Rotwitch’s offended gasp and back to the former kobold.
“So I saw that critter explode with Bullet Wasps, but I didn’t see any Charge leave your body. I know it’s not a cantrip, there wasn’t even any miasma leaving you, either. The miasma just like…coalesced on it and turned into parasitic wasps. Freaking amazing, how did you do it?”
Will was giving Loth the compliments she wanted.
“A lady must have some secrets,” Loth preened.
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