Chapter 44: Floor 4

Leeches once stole a few drops of William Oh’s rarified blood. They couldn’t handle its raw power and were transformed into miniature flaming versions of him, which went on to swarm the insects themselves, shooting them out of the sky in droves and giving them a taste of their own medicine.

• Jason Salazar

“This would probably work better with a rapier,” Will mused to himself as he buried the blade of the Serpent’s Tomahawk in the salamander. The Boss of the Key Site was fifteen feet long, flaming, and peppered with arrows.

When he swung his tomahawk, the entire blade turned partially see-through thanks to his new cloak, and the sound of it whistling through the air was muffled, except for the eerie debuffing chord, which sounded even creepier when not obscured by grunts and the hiss of slicing air.

Still, an invisible rapier would be better because it had a longer reach and a more unpredictable attack pattern at the tip, which would lean into the partial invisibility. Will assumed that beyond 100 Acuity, his attacks would turn completely invisible, but that was still a ways off.

The Salamander seemed to disagree, thrashing his direction, opening it’s gaping maw to reveal a white-hot furnace inside its mouth, which drove Will to leap backwards.

Travis took his turn jumping in, hacking at the monster’s legs. When it turned to him, dozens of arrows peppered its side, causing it to flinch, giving him the freedom to escape while opening an opportunity for Will to jump in again.

Around them were dozens of dead salamanders, slaughtered where they had been lazing around the Key Site, absorbing the Miasma as it was pumped up into the upper floors.

Alicia Zodiac made things easy, which was a double-edged sword. Easier fights meant more safety for the Party, which Will was totally on board for, but on the other hand, if they got used to easy and wound up biting off more than they could chew…

Will remembered the state of the rest of her Party, frozen into the ice of the 2^nd Floor. Total wipe save for Mark Wyrd, who was apparently indestructible and had thorn Abilities for days, the freakin’ wyrdo.

Will still had a grudge against that guy for nearly killing Loth…all she did was try to kill him.

On the other lordling front, Will had tried to have a conversation with Alicia about why her torso, amulet, and pants slots were all filled with Charm-based Relics, but every time he meant to lecture her, those eyes and that flat expression made him beat a hasty retreat.

But I mean, come on, three slots wasted that could be used to boost her Resistance! Why!?

“Pulling back!” Will said as the Salamander turned back towards him.

“Five seconds!” Travis said, fumbling through his pouch.

Alicia could’ve killed the Salamander, but Will decided they needed practice on their teamwork.

And now he was facing down a charging salamander with backup coming five seconds later than he wanted.

Will sent Phantom Hand out and launched a bullet up into the salamander’s jaw. Manhunter triggered and pulled the steel-melting maw down into the ground.

The salamander’s flaming tail rose into the air as the giant creature nearly flipped over entirely.

“Ready!” Travis said

“Tee it up!” Loth shouted, motioning to herself.

Their Master Decoy shook his jangly whip and gave a mocking laugh, causing the Salamander to rear up in indignation, orienting on the source of the laugh and charge it.

Travis sprinted towards Loth, causing the Salamander chasing him to trigger one of the kobold’s traps.

A boulder whipped into the side of the fifteen-foot Boss’s head. A moment later it crumpled to the ground, dead.

You are now a level 15 Resourceful Climber!

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 15

16+ 26 Strength

45 + 7 Kinesthetics

48 + 14 Resistance

30 Focus

56 + 3 Acuity

Charges: 29/30

Free Points: 0

Item Abilities: Gravity Charge, +25% Charge/Kick potency, +15% movement speed, Fire Tracers, Acid Bolt, +greater acid Damage. Homefield Advantage (ice). +25% Rogue Potency, Audiovisual Dampening, Manhunter, 6 degree correction.

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand*

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough

Ability Upgrade Available! (x2)

Now that you have reached level 15, experience gain up to the 3^rd Floor has been nerfed.

If you wish to continue to accumulate power, you must Climb to the 4^th Floor.

Finally, Will thought, exhaling.

“Everybody level fifteen?” he asked.

Travis, Loth and Alicia nodded.

Will set aside the prompt to summon the Door to the 4^th floor and joined the others in looting. Anything that didn’t get put on was set aside for the Sourdough barrel. The extra Potions of greater healing he’d received from Roger meant they could on average consume one a week.

The more people he had in his party, the more he had to deal with averages, stuff like average food, bandages and pro-fil-ak-ticks per day, which Loth told him would eventually necessitate a ‘logistics officer’, or ‘quartermaster’.

Not quite yet, though, with only four people, but once they found Mason’s Party on the 4^th Floor and subsumed it into their own, thing would start getting much more complex.

Will mentally patted himself on the back for his use of ‘subsumed’ as he looted the dissolving salamanders.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ooh. Will thought as he pulled a whip made of salamander skin coiled around a glowing core. It was merely warm to the touch, but the core of the whip visible through the straps of hide glowed like hot coals suspended in glass.

Fire Whip.

+3 Acuity

+4 kinesthetics

Adds a great amount of fire damage to any attacks made with the whip and counts as a ranged weapon for the purposes of Ranged Abilities.

Neat.

Will didn’t have any ranged Abilities, so it was a moot point for him, but maybe Alicia would like a melee weapon that could be used with Rain of Arrows.

“Hey Will,” Travis motioned him over to where the boss was dissolving into miasma, leaving behind a crumbling skeleton.

Travis leaned over and reached into the massive monster’s chest cavity and pulled out a cloak seemingly made of red and black salamander skin.

Mantle of the Yawning Forge

+7 Resistance

-14 Focus

Creates an Aura of Flame based on the user’s first Primary Ability. Does not harm party members.

“What does that even mean?” Will asked.

Travis shrugged.

Will took off his Cloak of the Fade, and put the Mantle on over his shoulder.

He staggered in place as the drain on his Focus dropped his Charge drastically, but straightened a moment later.

A massive hand made of pure flames appeared around Will, unwrapping itself as though it had been clenched tight around him until just now. Will discovered that he could control it, and it even had a bit of tangible form, although it mostly just burned things when he tried to touch them.

Will took the mantle off and handed it to Travis, who burst into flames, flickers of Travis-lookalikes floating in every direction, making it very hard to tell exactly where he was standing or even what direction he was moving.

Decoys.

Interesting.

When Loth tried it on, the flame aura took on a less aggressive look, instead of raging fire, it had the calm feeling of a night by the hearth at the orphanage. Will just wanted to stuff himself with bread and nap by the fire, breed freely, coexist with people he normally wouldn’t, and do whatever Loth told him t-

“You know what, That’s not really a good fit.” Will said, tugging the mantle over Loth’s horns.

“What was it doing?” Loth asked. “I didn’t feel anything.”