Chapter 42: Infiltrator and Saboteur go for a Walk

And lo, William Oh was delivered unto the hands of sinners, who crucified him, and on the third day, he rose again, crawling through a river of shit and coming out clean on the other side.

• Jason Salazar

“Hey, check this out,” Will said, pushing his foot against the surface of the water, which seemed to bend under his foot like he’d stepped on a gelatinous sweet.

“It seems like your Ability affects surface tension,” Loth mused as Will pressed nearly six inches into the water before it broke and surrounded his foot.

“Does that mean I can walk on water someday?” Will asked.

Loth shrugged.

Will’s amusement with the newfound ability to wiggle water with his feet didn’t last long once the smell truly engulfed them.

“It’s times like this I regret not getting the phantom eye,” Will said, trying not to gag.

With the phantom eye he could’ve done all of this with significantly less crawling through shit.

They’d briefly considered the Confidence Man technique where he simply bluffed his way into the temple, but Will wasn’t exactly the smoothest, and his missing hand was a dead giveaway.

Will wasn’t that kind of Infiltrator.

No, he was the kind of Infiltrator that got to wade through the city sewers, then squirm his way through a shit-pipe, then wait while Loth used her insects to carefully remove the toilet above them.

Will held his arms out while Loth’s insects removed the waxed onesie. Loth did the same, and they tossed the suits into the pipe before Loth’s insects set the toilet back exactly where it had been before.

The two of them were inside the Temple of Granesh, and clean to boot.

“Okay, the waxed suits were a good choice,” Will whispered as the two of them crept into the main hall.

“Of course they were,” Loth whispered back.

It was currently the dead of night in the temple of Order. All good priests and priestesses were in bed, dreaming of fire and brimstone…or whatever they dreamt of.

Will paused in the hall as a glint of green caught his eye.

He glanced to the left, where the public would gather to join the clergy in prayer. There was a green pattern on the ground, presumably from stained glass art lit by the street lights outside.

“This way,” Loth whispered, tugging his sleeve.

Will turned and followed as Loth stalked down the halls.

They discovered the barracks, with dozens of priests sleeping off the hard work of spreading the word of Granesh and smiting whoever disagreed with them.

They crept past it.

The next room was a solid wooden door warded by some kind of knot of magical energy that glowed as they approached. Will was tempted to try his hand at disabling it, but he didn’t want to try until they explored the rest of the temple.

No sense triggering an alarm before they got all their options.

Loth tugged at his shirt and pointed to a door at the far end of the hall, marked ‘Storage’

Will nodded and the two of them crept down the hall to the door.

The door wasn’t warded magically, but it was locked. Loth fed some insects into the lock, which turned a second later.

They crept in and Loth held out a glowbug to scan their surroundings.

At the front of the room was normal stuff. Cleaning supplies, brooms, nails, wood, tools, etc.

The further back the shelves went, the more esoteric things got, until the room was subdivided by a towering shelf with a ‘Sacrifices’ sign on it.

Will and Loth glanced at each other and shrugged.

Might as well grab something valuable while they were risking their hide like this.

They went past the shelf and saw the other half of the room was dedicated to shelf after shelf of Sacrifices wrapped in preservatives.

Ooh, they’re organized by floor then monster type, Will thought, heading for the shelf labeled ‘4^th floor’.

Will carefully rifled through the shelf.

Ooh, swamp witch. Elite creature from the 4^th floor with powerful magical abilities. Bloodsucker, Mankeran Burrowers…

Will turned and held out the jar of preserved insects to Loth.

Loth shook his head. “I want to domesticate them, not add them as Sacrifices.”

Fair enough, Will thought with a shrug, turning back to the shelf. Adder, diseased lumberer, dreamcatcher vine, giant leech, not to be confused with the bloodsucker.

Just based on the Sacrifices it offered, Will could already tell that the 4^th floor was going to be an inhospitable place.

…

Will’s eyes widened.

Relic worm!

In the glass jar were hundreds of dead worms snarled into a disgusting mess. They were segmented, pale things with strangely glimmering mouthpieces, as if the worms had metallic mandibles.

Which on a worm…doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Will set the jar in the crook of his elbow and popped it open, setting the top aside before he plunged his hand into the slimy snarl of worms.

Mimicking what he’d seen Loth do, Will held the fistful of dead worms up high, offering them to the Tower.

Do you wish to Sacrifice Relic Worm to Phantom Hand?

Yes.

There was a flash of light and the relic worms were gone.

Phantom Hand has been upgraded. Review the description for changes.

Phantom Hand

Passive

Active: 1 charge.

Gain the use of an ethereal Phantom Hand. Access a tiny amount of dimensional storage with a Charge. Sacrifice a stored Relic to gain its effect. Relic effect and Phantom Hand’s abilities scale with Acuity.

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

Acuity gain from items in Phantom Hand do not apply scaling to their own effect.

Current effect:

Ring of Insulation

+6 focus

+6 resistance

+27% resistance to fire.

Oh gods, it’s every bit as awesome as I thought…I think?

“What was that?” Loth whispered, blinking her eyes.

“Found my relic worms.” Will said. “Sacrificed them.”

“Warn me next time, I’m seeing the shelf every time I close my eyes.”

“Sorry,” Will whispered back. “By the way, if something goes from twenty to twenty-seven, what percentage is that?”

“Thirty-five percent.”

Okay, so it was one percent improvement for each point in Acuity, and it’s definitely rounded down…damn.

Will had assumed the scaling would match Stat scaling, boosting the effectiveness of items by 5% per point in Acuity, but The Tower had decreed that wouldn’t be so.

It was still incredibly powerful with the right item, though, and in theory, if Will got to level 50, that would be an extra 154%, which was nothing to scoff at.

Will dropped three free points into his Acuity, bringing it up to 40, then checked the Relic currently sacrificed to his Phantom Hand. Vindication followed a moment later:

Ring of Insulation

+7 focus

+7 resistance

+28% resistance to fire.

Nice. Four extra stats and eight percent extra resistance. Gotta get back to work, though.

They kept searching through the floors, paying special attention to the 7^th Floor shelf, but they didn’t find any Immortal Serpent, which was a bummer, but not unexpected.

Saints