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Chapter 168: Defeating Lord Bakton
Even in defeat, William Oh finds a way to achieve a more punishing victory.- Jason SalazarTwo weeks went by in a maelstrom of punishment.“I’m not sure I’m getting this,” Will said, using a brush and soapy water to scour dirt and bits of the arena wall out of his front before the priestesses closed it back up. “I’m not sure I’m gonna get this.”I think my tolerance for pain has come disturbingly far in the last year, Will thought, rinsing and re-dipping the bloody brush in soapy water and starting on the next shrapnel-filled scrap...
Chapter 167: Inventory Management
Charnesa wasn’t there when Will got back to the caravan, but some of her disciples of Holdna were present, and they patched him up nicely. Will spent the rest of the evening eating recovery gruel and going through his Dimensional storage, determined to organize it and make space for more than two Potions of Greater Healing.Honestly, I could afford a few of the Supreme ones, Will thought, resolving to buy some when he hit Akul again.Will’s Dimensional Storage had become…rather cluttered as it grew. Back when it could only contain roughly a...
Chapter 166: Saving Face
‘Fighting William Oh’- Idiom meaning ‘to struggle against the inevitable.’Homefield Advantage85 Charges remaining.Rather than play the game where Will danced around and allowed his opponent to transmute the battlefield until he controlled the entire arena, Will changed it into a field of slippery ice.I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of this, Will thought as Sammohan wobbled in place for an instant, just long enough to duck under one of the massive man’s swings and bring the Blade of Frenzy into play, raking it across his ribs.It ...
Chapter 165: Settling a Bet
Will thought his entrance was pretty cool and intimidating, so he wasn’t expecting the entire gambling hall to erupt into raucous laughter.“Look at the balls on this one!” someone cried through the din.The laughter continued for a good five seconds until a massive granite slab of a man raised a single hand, and the seemingly uncontrollable gales of laughter cut off like someone had slammed a door on it.“William Oh, I presume?” The fellow asked, voice gravelly.“Yup, so my associate and I were looking at the grinding map today and-“...
Chapter 164: Criminal Element
‘Oh yeah, I tell all kinds of stories about him. it’s kinda my job. Will hired me outside the Tower about a year ago to be his hype man.’‘Wow, that’s a sweet gig. Does he tell you what to say, or do you have a script, or a notebook, or…’‘Nah, all of ‘em come to me right off the top of my head. Here’s one for you:A group of highwayman ambushed William Oh and wound up giving him everything they owned.’‘Wow, cool. Tell me more.’- Jason Salazar to Melroy Erikson“You heard about the caravan?” Melroy asked, leaning up ag...
Chapter 163: Fleeced
“What’s this?” Loth asked, squatting down in front of a merchant and eyeing a shallow bowl about the size of someone’s palm.“Fae Saucer.” The trader said. The man was covered head to toe in scars and looked like he’d been through the Abyss multiple times in order to get where he was. The oddness of having even merchants look like hardened veterans would never get old to Will.“You fill it with something decadent, like honey, cream, sugar, whisky, brownies, whatever, and leave it exposed to the air at night. The little ones come a...
Chapter 162: The City of Honesty
“Alright, kid, raise your right hand.” The grizzled Climber said. His face and hands bore the scars of decades of climbing. His hair was just starting to gray at the edges, and if his easy confidence was anything to go by, he probably had an Advanced Class, given that the 10th Floor was a mere bus ride away.Will couldn’t imagine someone getting this close and giving up here.How interesting that people who would be demigods outside the tower choose to be rank-and-file guards on the inside. Perhaps ‘retirement’ meant different things to...
Chapter 161: Obstacles to Progress
Will heard Jason’s footsteps, heartbeat and breathing approach. He was excited about something. He was also carrying something composed of dense miasma in his hand.“Will, check this out!” Jason shouted as he jumped up on top of the rattling wagon“Whatcha got?” Will asked, glancing over.“There’s a Myth on this Floor, and I caught it!” Jason said, brandishing what looked like a tear-shaped opaline gemstone about the size of a coin. Will could easily picture it slotting onto a sword, cuirass, belt, or whatever. it was just small an...
Chapter 160: Loth is Scary
“Hah. Hah,” The leader of the Hunt half-laughed, half-panted as he pointed his saber at Loth. He was looking pretty ragged after being battered around by traps for the last few minutes.I wonder if that saber will be any good for my Build, Loth wondered idly as she absentmindedly maneuvered the fae closer to his demise.Her insects were loving the environment, burrowing through the ground with lightning speed, dragging wires and blades through their tunnels to set up traps where none had existed heartbeats before.“You…kobolds. You couldn...
Chapter 159: Learning Experience
Jason SalazarProphet of the End Level 3672 Strength144+22 Resistance36+7 Kinesthetics108+12 Acuity180+17 FocusCharges: 116/197Primary Abilities: Hand of Fate, Withering repudiation**Secondary Abilities: Made Manifest, Flagbearer, Relic SeedTertiary Abilities: Scales of Ouroboros3 Primary Upgrades available!Non-stat Item Abilities: +15% Charm Archetype potency,+15% footing, Concentration, +15% Damage Reduction, Holdout.Jason’s kit wasn’t very…good.He was like the youngest kid in the family, who everyone gave their hand-me-down clothes.Lite...
Chapter 158: Spare Heart
Author’s note: I modified the previous chapter. I agree that the fae’s ability to unilaterally assign Debt was a little too one-sided. I reworded it to focus on the hounds and the symmetry between the two groups. Minor change amounting to scratching out a sentence, tweaking one and and adding another elsewhere, but hopefully should meet ‘fae’ expectations better.Travis OiltonMaster Decoy Level 3642+22 Strength108+25 Resistance108+15 Kinesthetics66+10 Acuity60+25 FocusCharges: 83/85Free Points: 0Primary Abilities: Center of Attention*, T...
Chapter 157 The Hunt
Francisco loved The Hunt. He loved the speed, the wind in his hair, the thunderous sound of hoofbeats, the screams of Climbers, the feel of his mount imposing its will on the terrain, and the shiny black fur of the hunting dogs sprinting alongside them, nearly as big as the horses themselves.He loved the fear of death when they clashed against the Climbers who didn’t run. The joy of vanquishing the brave…and the malicious pleasure of punishing the cowards for years.It was better than sex.Every monster in The Tower had instincts baked into t...
Chapter 156: The Welcome Party
The Fae have a very short list of seven names that they won’t make deals with. Each and every Climber on that list has caused their people untold suffering and has been shunned for life and beyond.William Oh’s name is on that list…seven times.- Jason SalazarWill poured the whisky out so that the tiny person didn’t drown or die from poisoning, uncorking the bottle, but leaving the undead hand just outside the bottle, ensuring it couldn’t run away.Then they came to an arrangement: Every time Will asked a question, the fae would answer h...
Chapter 155: Deal with the Devil
William Oh made a hasty deal with an ancient, malicious fae waiting to prey on the unwary.The fae was saddled with a second hand mortgage and turned to the bottle to escape collections.- Jason SalazarAmulet of the Homefield Advantage.+1 Focus+2 resistanceActive: 1 Charge.Load a terrain into the Amulet for a charge, Summon that terrain around the wearer for another. This does not consume the terrain. Only one terrain may be loaded into the amulet.Load a ‘terrain’, huh? Will thought, inspecting his old amulet with a critical eye.He hadn’t b...
Chapter 154: Fear is a Terrain
Loth drew an oval lens shape with a flat back. Then using a straightedge, she cut horizontal lines all the way back to the center of the lens.Then she meticulously re-drew each arc of the oval-shaped lens between the lines, laying nearly flush against the flat back of the lens, before erasing the original oval shape, leaving a strange sawtooth-looking pattern.“This…is a Fresnel lens. It’s a stripped-down version of a spherical lens. It has a few distinct advantages, namely it saves a tremendous amount of space and weight, it also solves i...
Chapter 153: Much Ado About Light
Will reflexively unloaded every remaining weapon in his Phantom Hand. He didn’t have any weapons, but healing potion bottles were made of glass and when hardened by the manifestation ability, they were stronger than steel. Despite being blunt they could do a respectable amount of damage.Will copied the glass vials and sent them cutting through the air at several hundred miles an hour, creating sharp cracking noises as he released them.While he did, that he dodged to the side and scampered up the wall like a spider. No sense standing still and...
Chapter 152: Glorified Crossing Guard
‘Humans find monsters satisfying on a deep…fundamental level. Do you know why?’Jason shakes head‘Because they have rules. Every good, satisfying monster needs to have strengths, weaknesses, and a proper method of combating them that trivializes an encounter. They represent a threat and a puzzle all at once.’‘But why do rules make them satisfying?’ Jason asked.‘Because monsters with rules have been baked into our very bodies at the most fundamental level. Thousands upon thousands upon THOUSANDS of years ago, when we wore animal h...
Chapter 151: Yeast Master Will
Seed of Inexorable DeathA Synthetic Sacrifice, it is the refined essence of the inescapable Sin Amalgam and three spirit butlers.Adds Undeath, Dimensional, Lifesteal, and Inevitability Abilities to the aspirant’s class choices. Provides 2 Res, 1 Acu, 2 Foc/level. First of it’s kind.Ooh, it’s such a good Nuker Sacrifice, Will thought, practically drooling. This one had S-tier 5 points of stat growth, and it moved the Seed of Undeath’s Strength boost over to Acuity, which was what affected most Nuker’s damage output.And of course, Resis...
Need a specific set of sacrifices.
Okay, so you know how Will got the ability to manifest items stored by Phantom Hand when he added the Wraith Vessel? I'm actually going somewhere with that.I want a very specific set of upgrades to advance the Wraith Vessel upgrade to something REALLY OP.#1 I want to upgrade the manifestation effect, giving him the Ability to manifest the Relics that are imprinted in Phantom Hand. That will give him the ability to double-equip or loan out the super-powerful Relics he's got stored.#2, I wanna allow the imprinted relic to be modified by m...
Chapter 150: Thirty Seconds
Will broke into a sprint.Under no circumstances did he want to fight a Raid Boss in an enclosed area.Ancient papers were scattered into the air as Will flashed past them, a gale of wind following his passage and disturbing things that hadn’t felt a breeze in thousands of years.Will mentally tracked his progress.Left turn. Hallway – BANG! – the seamless door leading to the maintenance room below was torn off its hinges just behind Will.Too late, Will thought, sprinting down the hall and hitting the metal box, jumping straight up through th...
Chapter 149: Take one Please
The next morning, Travis was back safe and un-possessed, much to everyone’s surprise. Of course, Travis didn’t actually sleep that night, so it made sense he was still alive. Upon being informed that falling asleep probably would’ve gotten him killed, the Master Decoy just shrugged and said he was already operating under the assumption that falling asleep on his own in a zombie-infested Floor was a bad idea.Travis brought back a few souvenirs from his time alone. Mostly strange ‘convenience’ relics, rings that heated and flavored food...
Chapter 148: Dangerous for Kobolds
Will’s eye’s snapped open, coughing as the air hit a raw patch of throat.“Was I screaming?” Will asked, peering up at Charnesa.“It’s normal. Looks like there was another one.”“Apparently.” Will mused, glancing down at his palm, which was dimpled where his fingernails had dug into his flesh. He felt like there was a bit of film on his hand, like he’d touched some greasy food and hadn’t used soap to cleanse it yet.Did the night terror evaporate? Will thought.“These things aren’t very smart, so if you go back under, if th...
Chapter 147: Night Terrors
William Oh once sneezed near a Climber Possessed by an evil spirit.‘Bless you!’ the evil spirit said reflexively, not daring to be rude around William Oh, and in the process exorcised itself.- Jason SalazarThe floor wrapped around Will’s heel and propelled him forward at full speed, straight towards the floor-to-ceiling window.Will threw his axe ahead of him, guiding it with his Phantom Snakes.Crash!The axe punched a hole through the strangely strong glass, and Will followed behind, smashing through the weakened hole face-first, using his...
Chapter 146: Extravagant Mediocrity
“You think Travis is okay?” Anna asked as she stirred the massive pot of gruel. It was mostly salt, tough barley and bits of preserved meat from the wagon’s stores, and it smelled absolutely amazing.They’d parked the caravan on top of one of the massive towers for the night. Will wasn’t sure if he could keep the snakes holding up the caravan on task while he was asleep.“He’s probably still alive.” Will said with a shrug. “The main problem these things present isn’t their lethality, it’s their numbers. As long as he doesn...
What should Will be wearing?
So I've commissioned a cover for book 1, and i wanted to go with that dynamic -fighting a million people at once- vibe that the Conan covers did so well.The artist then shot back with 'what is the character wearing'. and I drew a complete blank.What I'm wondering is, since the joke of the entire story is that everything about him is exaggerated, should we have him dressed conan-esque with as many muscles defined as possible, because the cover represents a dramatized retelling of how it went...or should we have him dressed like a...
Chapter 145: The Undead
Foolish mortal. Whosoever places a single foot upon my realm of the dead shall be bound to it eternally!- LumeshThen I won’t.- William Oh“Try not to let anyone die on this Floor.” Arkesh the Mind-conqueror said, the ancient Immortal Serpent walking beside Will as they led the caravan to the West. For once, both the Stronghold and the Key Site were in the same direction: West.“I think that’s pretty good advice in general.” Will replied.“What I mean is, the Ketulkitnah did something unnatural trying to stop the growth of The Tower a...
Chapter 144: 8th Floor
**Caddock, level 65 High Paladin**They were at a party teeming with sycophants, aiming to secure funding from the richest man in the world…and Orev was treating it like a bit.“So I don’t know if you knew this, but I’ve been to the thirteenth Floor and back,” Orev Harti said, subtly flexing as he made his best attempt at flirting with Maybin Glasswind. “No big deal.”I think that man has a learning disability, Caddock thought to himself.“You do realize that I’ve been to the fifteenth Floor?” Maybin asked, stirring her drink wi...
Chapter 143: Clinging Falsehoods
Well…that was a lot of screaming. Will thought, staring into the sky as the wagon bounced and rattled underneath him.Will had heard stories about mind-control when he was living in the orphanage. About Cleophas, an ancient hero with a Charm archetype, who reformed the minds of a population of ignorant savages, making them into upright citizens of his new Stronghold, creating a wonderful utopia.The Stronghold no longer existed, but the descendants of those savages had long-since integrated into the outer ring.And wouldn’t you know it, every ...
Chapter 142: Kill’em With Kindness
Anna poked Will in the cheek, causing his eyes to snap open.With three big blinks, he was awake and aware. The caravan had cut its way into the Wyrd Stronghold’s clearing, and about twenty feet inside the clearing was the welcome party.Beyond them, a massive stone wall jutted out of the grass, an impressive hundred feet tall. The sort of thing you could sit and stare at…if one were so inclined.Stifling a yawn, Will pushed himself out of Anna’s lap and hopped off the wagon, heading towards the front with Loth.She was wearing her new modifi...
Chapter 141: Distributing Booty
Ethereal Metallic Slime upgrade for Aspect of the Serpent:Metal bones: adds passive resistance to physical and lightning damage. Scales with Resistance.Do you wish to Sacrifice Ethereal Metallic Slime to Aspect of the Serpent?No.Will dropped the liquid metal cupped between his palms back into the pond of material. It seemed as though it didn’t synergize well with Aspect of the Immortal Serpent.Extra toughness was good, but it wasn’t what Will was looking for.If it granted something like polymorphic armor, or better yet, some kind of Ability...
