Chapter 54: Akul, Metropolis of the 5th Floor

The first time a kaiju spotted William Oh, it fainted from sheer terror.

• Elijah Hammond, level 25 hunter.

“Ugh, stomach feels a bit off,” Will muttered, rubbing his stomach and frowning.

“Probably because you were poisoned.” Loth said.

“The aftertaste on the meat was odd, but in a good, spicy way…and sweet old ladies don’t poison people.”

“That’s pretty much exclusively the demographic that poisons people.” Loth said. “Males just beat each other to death.”

“Huh.” Will grunted. “Well, either I’ll get over it or I’m already dead. No sense worrying about it.”

Will had more important things to do, which included debriefing his Party, seeing what everyone got for their Ability Upgrades, (if anything) and informing them that they would be trying for the fifth floor, since their levels were capped out for the floor. Two levels over the cap, actually, because they’d fought a raid boss, whose rewards weren’t under any kind of restriction.

June gathered everyone together, and Will took stock of his Party.

Reggie, the enormous Tank, capable of soaking up damage meant for others.

Mason, the Nuker, who had a balanced build, but a narrow frame.

Alicia, the Artillery, an archer with the ability to see through anything and launch devastating attacks from beyond the range of traditional weapons.

Travis, the Master Decoy, who could direct the attention of the enemy wherever they wanted it to be.

June, the Scout with a knack for leading small teams, who could cobble together her own arrows on the fly and set devastating ambushes.

And Loth, the Saboteur, Will’s second in command, some kind of Kobold demigod of intellect, who focused on the intersection of traps and insects.

“Alright, before we make plans to challenge the Key Site, what changes if any, did you guys make to your Builds?”

“I added the fungal Hydra to my Second Wind, It’s now a passive that heals and restores my stamina, but I can still use a Charge to boost it.” Reggie said. “Found a better shield with an effect that absorbs a bit of damage, which works to mitigate damage from toft. I’m currently looking for a Sacrifice that can let me protect more than one person at a time. I upgraded Heavily Armored.”

“I found a Sacrifice that expands Hunter’s Patience to apply to pretty much anything I do.” June said. “Along with a nice quiver that poisons arrows inside it.”

“I didn’t find anything,” Alicia whispered.

“I upgraded Feedback Shielding to be more potent.” Mason said. “I need a piece of Spirit Turtle from the Fifth Floor to give it a permanent passive effect.”

“I made out like a bandit and found an upgrade for Taunt that allows me to target multiple opponents with it, as well as one for Center of Attention that increases it’s effectiveness.”

“I found a sacrifice for Trap Savant that lets my Abilities bypass a small amount of the opponent’s Resistance. I didn’t find any Ripley Sacrifices on offer, so I upgraded Master of the Vivarium with a chimera Sacrifice that will allow me to interbreed and modify my insects.”

“Weren’t you already breeding them?” Will asked, recalling a long night where Loth explained how she had identified a strain of glowworms that produced more light, and had been breeding them to be even brighter.

“Inter breeding. Prepare yourself for spider-mosquitoes.”

Will shuddered.

“Sounds like everyone except Alicia found some good stuff,” Will said fishing through their luggage until he retrieved the preserved eyeball.

“What will this do for Penetrating Gaze?” Will asked, offering Alicia the eyeball, tag first.

Maribel Johan, Reached the 14^th Floor and achieved level 62 before retiring. In life, acquired powerful healing and sight-based Abilities.

“I can’t read that,” she whispered.

“Oh, right,” Will muttered, handing her the Sacrifice so she could hold it in her hand to see what The System would say.

“Vitality Sight.” She whispered. “The functionality of Penetrating Gaze expands to include critical weak points, such as hearts, brains, nerve clusters, major arteries, and so on, as well as revealing whether something is dead, alive, or undead.”

“I’m not sure you would want to be looking at Will’s brain,” Travis chimed in.

“Wow.” Alicia glanced back at Will with a pleading gaze. “Can I?”

“Should you?” Mason asked. “that’s a church’s Sacrifice, isn’t it?”

“I ain’t gonna tell anybody,” Reggie said with a shrug.

“I know it’s dangerous, but…” Alicia’s voice diminished until none of them could make it out, even with superhuman hearing.

“But?” June prompted her to continue.

“Once this sacrifice is added to my Class…I might get offered a healing secondary. Everyone loves healers.”

I know some healers that might make you rethink that statement. Will mused.

“Do you want to be a healer or do you want to be loved by all?” Will asked. “Because those two aren’t necessarily linked.”

“…Both, I guess?” Alicia whispered.

“Alright, go ahead, if you want the option, it’s all yours,” Will said, motioning to the preserved eye.

Alicia nodded, and the eyeball disappeared in a flash of light a moment later.

She glanced back up at them and yelped, scrambling backwards and hyperventilating as she glanced around frantically.

“You all look so different.” She whispered, slowly relaxing, like someone might around a spider that hadn’t moved in an hour.

“Who is who?” Alicia asked, her voice barely audible.

“I’m Reggie,” Reggie said, tapping his chest.

“You’re five inches taller than everyone else,” Mason said, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes. “You’re the most obvious out of all of us.”

“I’m Will,” Travis said, waving to Alicia.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I’m June,” June said, glaring at Travis.

Loth didn’t say anything, but she was several feet shorter than any of them with a completely different body shape. She was the most obvious.

“So that must be Will,” Alicia whispered, turning her gaze back to Will.

“Did you know you’re poisoned?” she whispered, glancing at his stomach.

“Don’t worry about it,” Will said with a dismissive wave as his Party’s collective gaze settled on him.

“…I’ll be fine.”

Despite painting a Tower-sized target on his back for Fate to skewer him, she held back her javelin of Cruel Irony. Will wound up having no worse than an upset stomach, which cleared up by the end of the night.

The old lady was nowhere to be found, which strengthened the case that it’d been a deliberate poisoning.

Odd that anyone would want to kill him, though.

William Oh was beloved by all.

Except the church of Granesh, and the Wyrd family. It was a pretty short list of people that didn’t like him.

Most likely? Mark Wyrd paid a local to try and poison him should he come by again.

It was unlikely the church knew where he was and went with something as tepid as poisoning…not after sending an entire Party to kidnap him.

Least likely? The woman had been jealous that Will was her son’s hero and had punitively poisoned him.

In any case, Will didn’t want to waste time chasing down someone who had given him free food. Once they were sure that Mark Wyrd’s Party wasn’t hanging around the outskirts of Way Station to ambush them, they headed out to the nearest key Site in need of clearing in exchange for a Door to the next Floor.

The Key Site was populated by water beetles the size of cows. They had spear-like proboscis and armor thicker than a man’s palm, and from what they observed in the distance, could charge forward across hundreds of feet in the blink of an eye to impale/crush their prey.

The boss was nearly the size of a house, his proboscis bathing in the stream of miasma flowing up into the Floor above.

They were all dead in a matter of seconds beneath Alicia’s rain of arrows. Each one struck dead center in a critical nerve cluster that dropped it lifelessly to the ground.

The men in the Party glanced at each other and shrugged.

Thank you for clearing the Key Site. You may advance to the 5^th Floor at your discretion.

+ 2000XP