Chapter 47: Chain of Command

William Oh was once bitten by the dreaded swamp vampire.

After three days of agonizing pain…the vampire died.

• Kenneth Peterson, level 25 Carpenter.

Mason Lanover has joined the Party!

Mason Lanover

Potent Detonator Level 16

16 Strength

32 Kinesthetics

32 Resistance

48 Focus

64 Acuity

Charges: 48/48

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: Conflagration*, Feedback Shielding*

Secondary Abilities: Phase Shift

Primary Ability Upgrade Available!

Reginald Thatcher has joined the Party!

Reginald Thatcher

Selfless Bulwark Level 16

32 Strength

0 Kinesthetics

80 Resistance

16 Focus

16 Acuity

Charges: 16/16

Free Points: 0

Primary Abilities: Take One for The Team*, Second Wind**,

Secondary Abilities: Heavily Armored

By the gods that’s a lot of Resistance…by the gods, that’s some low Acuity and Kinesthetics.

Reggie was by all accounts, weak-willed, blind, deaf, and clumsy, but he could take a punch. Any punch. Any time.

I thought I had good Resistance, but apparently I am on the low end of what a Tank is capable of.

Will didn’t know exactly how best to utilize their abilities, so he decided not to flail about blindly.

“What’s up, boss?” June asked once he got her away from the others.

“So, my understanding is that you’re the Party leader?” Will asked.

“Mason’s the Party leader.” June said, a faint smile peeking through the scout’s stoic expression.

“On paper.” Will said.

June’s eyes narrowed, scanning him up and down. “Fine, I call the shots. What do you want?”

“You good at it?” Will asked.

“Out of three people? Yeah, I’m the best at it.” June said.

“I want to create a chain of command. I want to put you in charge of Travis and Alicia, in addition to your regular Party. You’ve got experience herding rich kids.”

He glanced off toward Mason meaningfully.

“How are you going to get them to agree to it?” June asked.

“Alicia isn’t particularly headstrong, just shy and withdrawn, and Travis will blindly go along with anything she does. Get her to agree to follow your lead in front of him, and you’re set.”

“I see.” June said, chewing her lip. He could see the coins glittering in her gaze. June was similar to Will in that she did not enjoy a particularly wealthy upbringing, and had developed a somewhat mercenary attitude towards money and life in general.

She understood that rubbing elbows with three rich scions on a regular basis could be quite lucrative in the future, so the offer he was making her was very attractive.

“Here’s the kicker. You’re going to have to take orders from Loth. Can you do that?”

“The little black one from the Establishing Quest?”

“She’s actually really big for a kobold. But yes, that one.”

June seemed to consider a moment before glancing back up at him. “She good?”

“I’m pretty sure she’s some kind of freak of nature. She makes smart humans look stupid and smart kobolds look like animals. Loth is responsible for damn near all of my success.” Will said.

“Alright.” June nodded, offering him her hand. “I’ll wrangle the rich kids, and I’ll take orders from you and Loth.”

Will took it.

“Much obliged. Now let’s go hunt some swamp monsters.”

“Yes sir!” June said, giving him a mock salute.

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“Yes, sir.”

They rejoined the others, and Will explained to Mason and Reggie that their current command structure wouldn’t change, and when the rest of Will’s Party were back on their feet, they would shuffle Alicia and Travis into their squad.

Roger was nearing the end of his patience when they finally had the group organized, with June leading the group, Will ranging, Mason and Reggie tucked in close together behind the scout.

Will switched out the Combat Platforms for the Swampstompers, and suddenly he was a lightning bolt. The layered bonuses to his footing and Aspect of the Goat literally allowed him to walk on water and pond scum, and faster than he had any right to do.

Will delighted in the sheer speed for a while, until he noticed that Reggie was having a great amount of difficulty keeping up with the others, so he gave the Tank the Swampstompers, bringing Reggie up to speed.

Will’s reasoning was: A Tank that isn’t maneuverable enough to get between his ward and the danger, was a useless Tank.

Reggie didn’t have any Ranger passives, but his Resistance was enormous, boosting the boot’s effectiveness.

The change in equipment brought Reggie from the slowest to the second fastest after Will.

Will put on Reggie’s boots until he could get back to town and grab his combat platforms again.

Boots of the Sentinel

+3 Strength

+3 Resistance

Wearer is more difficult to move against their will. Scales with Resistance.

Sure, that would be great for a Tank, but again, if he’s too busy struggling with the mud to get in front of his Party, it’s a moot point.

“Hold up!” Roger said, holding up his hand before pointing into one of the swampy ponds, identical to every other swampy pond they’d ever seen.

“Clearwater Slime.” Roger said, pointing at the water.

“Eh?” Will frowned, looking at the pond, not seeing anything out of the ordinary.

“You can identify them by the defined edge of scummy swamp water floating with all sorts of gunk, and then a circle of perfectly clear water.” Roger said, motioning with his hand.

Will’s eyes adjusted now that he knew what he was looking for.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Oh, wow.

There was a line where the water turned perfectly clear, without any of the floating bits he’d taken for granted. A massive circle, eight feet across.

“If you jumped into the water right there, it would wrap around you and start digesting your feet.”

“What’s the best way to fight them?” June asked.

Roger grunted.

“Typically, I jump in there and beat them to death before my legs are completely gone, but you kids might want to try a different approach. Heat works well on just about everything on the 4^th floor.”

“Your time to shine.” June said to Mason.

Mason stepped forward and a moment later, the pond erupted with scalding hot water, the slime turned milky white by the heat.

The creature shuddered and died, and a moment later, began releasing Miasma into the air as it died.

“Fantastic,” Mason said, kissing the Ring of Arcane Endurance.

“Get a room you two,” Reggie said.

“You-“

“Ey, ring of the carpenter!” Roger said, fishing a wooden ring out of the slime’s rapidly decaying corpse. “Gives the ability to dry out wood. These don’t sell for a lot, but they’re real good for the people running Waystation.”

“Moving on,” Roger said, hauling himself out of the water and brushing off the leeches fruitlessly trying to attach to him.

“That there’s a gator. It’s a real animal so you can treat them like trail rations.”

A few minutes later, Roger grabbed a plant out of the ground, revealing roots shaped like a human.

Will started feeling…weird.

The moment evaporated with an audible *crack* as Roger callously broke the creature’s neck with a twist of his hands before crushing it between his fingers.

“Mandrake root is the only creature that does psychic damage on this floor.” Roger said, rubbing the pulp all over himself. “Interestingly enough, when you pulp it, the psychic damage remains at just a high enough level to kill any biting insects that get close, but not high enough to actually cause any harm to someone with a Class.”

To demonstrate, Roger held out his arms and waited…Will was surprised to notice that insects were now actively avoiding the Rustic Brawler.

“Note that this only works for natural insects and the very weakest monsters. Bloodsuckers will still make a play for you. Speaking of,” Roger pointed.