Chapter 183: Spending Upgrades

Kincaid was the smartest, bravest, least homicidal fae lord ever. He never did anything bad like building an underground slaughterhouse where people and fae were butchered before being fed to him to enhance his own power.

What a guy.

-          William Oh, 5th Floor bar

William can tell a truth so profound you’d think he was lying.

-          Jason Salazar

“Everybody got their doors?” Will asked, scanning the individual parties.

Brenna the Leatherworker and her husband were conspicuously absent, caring for their eldest and son-in-law, but their other daughters lifted the green flag.

I’ll help them up on the way back, Will thought.

The rest of the caravan watched him with weird expressions, landing somewhere between awe and zealotry.

Tenth floor. zero casualties. That is amazing. They had surely expected a few of them to get picked off when heading out, but…Hopefully this doesn’t skew their expectations going forth.

Just looking at their eyes, Will could tell that ship had already sailed.

“Alright, that’s good. Keep your doors shut for now.” Will said. Over the course of leading a caravan he’d often found that when telling a large group of people not to do something, a few of them would inevitably miss the part where he said ‘not’.

“We’re going to wait another three weeks!” Will said, raising his voice so everyone could hear. “Go back to Bakton Keep and make final preparations. We’re making a Stronghold.”

Will’s Party approached.

“Why another three weeks? Won’t the Paladin find out?” Reggie asked. The Tank wasn’t…the sharpest member they had. Wasn’t his job either, so no harm done.

“The paladin isn’t going to find out,” Loth said. “Ria, have any new monsters entered the other Key Site?”

Ria shook her head. The One Woman Army was in multiple places at once, providing eyes on the ground wherever they were needed.

“Mail is spotty above the 5th Floor.” Will said. “Even the best couriers can’t go any faster than the Key Sites when there’s no giant holes between floors.”

“That’s really not a good thing.” Reese said, arms crossed.

“So what did you want to do with the extra time?” Travis asked.

“During that fight I hit level 52,” Will said. He’d been hoping to get another level, but Kincaid and the prize for clearing the Key Site was split between the entire caravan, so it was modest.

“You-wha?” June asked, her usual stoic demeanor momentarily shook.

Will pointed at the massive loaf of glass that used to be kincaid’s castle.

“About one percent of those Fae had bounties. Kincaid did me a favor when he gathered them all together, because doing that many bounties at once allowed me to break through the Floor’s Level cap and get my Class Advancement before even setting foot on the 10th Floor.”

“You…son of a bitch.” Travis said, his body radiating envy and amazement.

“I want to take those three weeks to finish my Advancement Trial and completely change my Build.” Will said. Loth nodded in understanding, but the others frowned in confusion.

“Loth, what’s the first thing you would do if you were trying to kill me?”

Loth began ticking points off her obsidian claws.

“First thing? Catch you while you sleep. Second: Separate you from your Set bonuses. Third: Find a way to lock down dimensional effects in an area. Fourth: Prevent escape with a Cursemonger. Fifth: disintegrate via Nuker.”

“You’ve put a lot of thought into it, too, huh?” Travis asked.

“I put a lot of thought into everything.” Loth replied.

“Caddock has fought me before.” Will said. “My set is very powerful, and that power dictates the way I fight. Being predictable in battle is a surefire way to be killed. I need to make myself a soft-set that changes my style so drastically that it will catch him off guard.”

“Any ideas?” Will asked as he scanned his Party.

“Well, let’s see. Your current build is highly maneuverable, tough, and able to deal large amounts of damage from a long distance. It’s a devastating combination, but its biggest weakness is that it relies almost entirely on dimensional warping effects, owing to the Uru Drake in your Class. The second biggest weakness is that most of your active abilities are Eidolons.” Loth said, ticking two claws off.

“Those are the two things we’ll want to avoid while preserving as much combat potential as possible. Preferably in a way that synergizes with your current Abilities.”

My current Abilities, Will thought, his eye twitching. Oh right!

Will cut off Kincaid’s head and brought it to his hand, inspecting it.

Kincaid, Lord of Flesh

A unique Sacrifice, the flesh of a Fae Lord who delegated everything, including his demise.

Adds gluttony, growth, and creation Abilities to the Aspirants’ class choices. Provides 2 Strength, 2 resistance.

That’s an A-tier sacrifice, just based on the number of stats per level. Good for a warrior build. Maybe I can combine it with-

…Delegated his demise?

Did that bastard slip off somewhere? Does he have some kind of tap-root or…whatever, he’s not gonna come after me again for a while.

Will offered it to the Tower.

Kincaid, Lord of Flesh upgrade for Aspect of the Immortal Serpent:

Flesh damaged by environmental effects grows back more resistant to those effects.

Consume terrain to gain power over that terrain in exchange for taking psychic damage. May cause permanent mental damage.

Huh. So I…eat rocks…to gain power…but it might make me go crazy? With summarized the disclaimer. Well, that sounds like a Kincaid power. I’ll pass. Cool as eating fear to gain power over it would be…the System explicitly stated I’d take psychic damage. It’s rare for it to outright say something could be detrimental.

From his battle with Carrie, Will had learned that Psychic damage sucked absolute ass, and voluntarily inflicting it on yourself was the stupidest thing he could possibly think of. The body heals, but the mind… not so much.

Will switched the sacrifice to the other Ability, studying its effects.

Kincaid, Lord of Flesh upgrade for Phantom Hand:

Phantom Hand may now also manifest imprinted Relics and grant them to allies. The imprinted Relic has its full boosted stats, lasts only a short time outside the ally’s possession, and disintegrates immediately if revoked or relinquished.

While manifested, the Relic is not available to the User. The manifested Relic cannot be modified, and if damaged beyond a certain point, it will disintegrate and return to the user, regrowing over 24 hours.

“WHOOO!” Will whooped with unlordly enthusiasm as he held the severed head in his hand.

That would be…upgrade number 6 to Phantom Hand. I would get only 3 more.

One of Phantom Hand’s biggest weaknesses was Will’s inability to have more than one of the slotted Relics in his hand active at once.

This upgrade might be the first step to solving that.

All he had to do was find another three Sacrifices that erased the ally caveat so he could use it, and then the ‘no modification’ rule.

If Will made it so he could wield and modify his own manifested relics, that would be outrageous.

Not to mention, being able to grant other Climbers massive buffs in the form of hyper-powerful relics that I can confiscate at will seems like an excellent Lord Ability.

Do you wish to Sacrifice Kincaid, Lord of Flesh to Phantom Hand?

Yes.

There was a flash of light as the Tower took the Sacrifice out of his hand, and Will’s snakes shuddered as the tingles went up their spines.

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

Phantom Hand*(X6)

Passive

Active: 1 charge.

Toggle: 14 Focus

Gain the use of an armored* ethereal Phantom Hand. Access a tiny amount of dimensional storage with a Charge. Items inside the Dimensional Storage shrink, scaling with Acuity.

Sacrifice a stored Relic to imprint its effect to one of five slots. Only one slot can be active at a time. Switching to another slot causes the previous one to be inactive for 24 hours, and overwriting a slot causes the slot to be inactive for a week. Relic potency scales with Acuity.

Create a physical manifestation of a stored item for the Toggle cost. May also manifest imprinted Relics and grant them to allies. The imprinted Relic has its full boosted stats, lasts only a short time outside the ally’s possession, and disintegrates immediately if revoked or relinquished.

While manifested, the Relic is not available to the User. The manifested Relic cannot be modified, and if damaged beyond a certain point, it will disintegrate and return to the user, regrowing over 24 hours.

*Armor is polymorphic. May become tangible at will. Durability scales with Acuity.

Once I can manifest and modify the Wand of the Undead Retainer…

Will stifled a manic laugh as Kincaid’s head disappeared from his hand in a flash of light.

No sense getting weird just yet.

“So what’s Class Advancement do? How’s it work?” Will asked, rubbing his hands together, glancing over at Loth.

Loth shrugged.

Will trotted over and directed the question to Bakton. The swordsman had mentioned going up to the 16th Floor, so he must have an Advanced Class.

“You pass out.” Bakton said with a shrug.

“…what?”

“Class advancement.” Bakton said, tapping his skull. “I suppose it’s extra strenuous on the body to change your Class, so you pass out for a couple hours to a couple days, and when you wake up, you’ve got your Advanced Class.”

“That’s it?” Will said.

“That’s it,” Bakton said with a shrug.

A bit of motion from the side caught Will’s attention and he glanced over to spot Loth waving him over.

“I’ve been talking to Travis, and I have a theory.”

“Shoot,” Will said.

“You and I both know The System can change your Class at the drop of a hat. I think Class Advancement might be some kind of test that takes place entirely within the mind, and the System simply doesn’t allow the subject to remember it.” Loth whispered in her raspy voice. “In order to prevent us from gaming the system.”

“Don’t we want to game the system?” Will asked.

“Not sure what we want and what The Tower wants are always going to be the same,” Loth said.

True, that.

Will wasn’t sure he wanted The System getting all up in his head, snipping memories or making him pass out for days at a time. That felt…suspect. If The Tower could shut him down that thoroughly, what else could it make him do?

Get himself killed on the 50th Floor for example?

The only problem was, Will already had The System, already had his Class, and passing up on a power-up wasn’t going to make him more susceptible to The Tower making decisions for him than he already was.

“You guys talking about class advancement? My older brother was bedridden for a few days afterwards.” Alicia whispered. “They said he was completely unresponsive for days.”

Bedridden?

So something about Class Advancement requires a rather large investment, physically or mentally. In short: It’s difficult and time consuming, but nobody’s ever failed.

Now Will faced a choice:

Take the Class Advancement now, and possibly spoil his three weeks of prep time by wrecking himself physically, or take care of all the planning he wanted to do for Caddok, and then give himself his Class Advancement.

The problem with the second option was that there was every possibility that if he made his preparations now, that they would become meaningless in the face of what his new Class Advancement could do.

On the other hand, being bedridden for days would be…bad. Might even get me killed if an assassin from the church  shows up looking for me.

Will waffled for a moment until he came to a decision.

Ah screw it.

“I’ll take the Class Advancement now,” Will said, beginning to undress himself. “June.”

“Eh?”

Will held out his cloak to the scout.

“You’ve got the closest Archetypes to mine, so you can borrow my Set ON THE CONDITION that you don’t modify it or lose it, and give it back when I ask.

The scout blinked and nodded.

“Okay.” June said, taking the cloak.

“Reggie.”

“Yeah?”

Manifestation

Will lost 14 focus and his Dimensional Coiled Serpent amulet appeared in his hand, offered to his Tank.

“Take this. It’s way better than your current amulet and it’ll help you fight more aggressively.”

“I’ll be the judge of…Hoooolyyyy….shit.” Reggie forgot how to breath as he studied the amulet.

Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet

+60 Strength

+22 resistance

+56  Kinesthetics

+13  Acuity

+22 Focus

75% Audiovisual Dampening while trying to hide.

Coiled strike: 5 charges, teleport up to 18 feet in any direction, damage output is increased by 563% for 1 second. Applies Psychic Venom.

It actually lost a bit of potency from me taking off my Set, Will thought as Reggie stammered. Still, it rivaled the tank’s entire kit by itself, giving him a staggering amount of mobility and offensive power he might not have had otherwise.

That one Relic could change his build from a Tank to a high-level warrior.

Manifestion

Will paid another 14 Focus and manifested The Wand of the Undead Retainer.

“I think these gentlemen will fit your vibe,” Will said, offering the wand to Loth.

Wand of the Undead Retainer

+11 Acuity

+22 focus

+56% potency of necromancer archetype Abilities.

1 charge: Heal Undead. Repairs undead tissue. Some reassembly required. Does not revive dead undead.

5 Charge: User may summon one permanent medium-power Undead Retainer, to a maximum of 3.

The Undead Retainer is an intangible spirit with the ability to interact with the physical world, performing complex tasks for the wielder. They are sustained by the wand, not reliant on the wielder's Focus. If the wand is unequipped, the Undead Retainer is dismissed.

The Undead Retainer can be the target of Abilities requiring a living sacrifice and subject to lifedrain, as though it were alive.

“Yes…I think they will,” Loth said, an ominous smile spreading across her face. Will would be worried about his butlers, but…they didn’t feel pain nor did they care if they lived or died, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

“Alright, that’s it,” Will said, raising his hands in surrender. “I’m not made of handouts. This is just a precaution in case my Class Advancement takes a lot out of me and I can’t defend myself.”

Do you wish to proceed with Class Advancement? The System asked as Will’s thoughts brushed up against it.

Yes.

Will’s consciousness split in half. Part of him was trapped in his toppling body. He was there, and conscious, but unable to speak or move while his Party rushed to his aid.

The rest of him was somewhere…very different.