Macronomicon
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Chapter 46: Three For the Price of One
🕑 Added 2024-09-13 18:03:57 +0000 UTCWilliam Oh seduced Holdna, the thousand-eyed goddess, and when when Granesh tried to kill him, he lured Granesh into the sky, where he should’ve been at a disadvantage.
In a surprise upset, he rallied Holdna’s family against Granesh in a battle that raged across the skies for eons. The stars themselves supported William Oh’s steps, clouding his enemy’s vision, overwhelming the God of Order with sheer numbers.
That is why the stars in the sky wink when Granesh passes by, declaring their support for William Oh.
- Jason Salazar
‘The Abyss does that mean?’
‘…His army is growing.’
“Yep, that’s rot-lung,” Steve said, listening to Travis’s breathing.
“It’s known as baptismal rot-lung. Most Climbers get it when they arrive, and if they survive, they don’t get it again.”
“And how likely is survival?” Will asked.
“With me here? Hundred percent,” Steve said, his hand glowing with the blessing of Andover over Travis.
He lifted his head and pointed at where Alicia was shivering on top of the cot.
“That is a badly infected wound…and rot-lung.” He said, moving over to the archer and listening to her breathing before he began healing her.
“Why am I fine?” Will asked.
“Because you have freakishly high Resistance.” Roger said, the brawler’s arms crossed from where he leaned against the wall, watching the proceedings with interest.
“What he said,” Steve said, pointing at Roger without looking away from where he was healing the infected scrape on Alicia’s leg.
“Once these three get a few more levels under their belts, they won’t get sick quite as fast, and eventually they’ll be functionally immune to everything on the 4th Floor, like you.”
Steve moved on to Loth whose labored breathing eased greatly as he laid his glowing hand on her chest.
“I expect they’ll be ready to get back out there in about three days.”
“Three days!?” Will demanded. “I thought you were magically healing them. With magic.”
“I am, but the sickness in their lungs is still there, and it’s well-known among healers that rot-lung tends to flare back up if you don’t keep on it for a few days. I have to knock it out a handful of times in a row before their body figures out the trick to fighting it off. Three days.”
“Stupid magic having stupid limitations,” Will muttered.
“Oh I’m sorry, are you dissatisfied with the free healing?” Steve demanded.
“You’re getting paid: one percent.”
“And where’s my one percent!?”
Will flicked a couple ivory across the room, where Steve snatched them out of the air.
“If you want a more precise number, talk to Loth, she keeps better track of our cash.” Will said.
“Sounds like you’re going to need a quartermaster soon,” Roger said.
“Probably,” Will admitted. “Maybe when we have enough spare power to babysit a beancounter.”
“I knew a logistics specialist on the seventh floor that could spend Charges to retroactively change what supplies had been brought with us, just by changing it in her ledger. Beans to bandages, bandages to shaving cream. As long as the cost to acquire it stayed the same.” Roger said.
Will’s brows rose.
“She could even turn gold bars into food…She’s dead, sadly.”
“And…what Sacrifices did she use to make her Class?” Will asked.
“I’unno.” Roger shrugged.
No help at all, Will thought sourly, turning back to his Party, who were laid out in critical condition, just from the air in the 4th Floor.
What can I do to get us off to a quick start once they’re up and ready to go again?
“You look like you’re trying to figure out what to do while they’re on the mend,” Roger said, clapping Will on the shoulder.
Will’s paranoia wanted him to shrug off the hand and tell the Brawler he wasn’t interested in his help, so he could go suck an egg.
But that was silly. Roger was there to guide them through the 4th Floor. He’d given them a lot of money, and his little brother was on the team. The odds he didn’t have Will’s best interest at heart were…slim.
“Matter of fact, I don’t know what to do while we wait. Got any suggestions?”
“Let’s go hunting. I’ll introduce you to the local wildlife, we can get some Loot and once the others are vertical, you can share your newfound knowledge with them.”
Roger glanced back at his resting Party. “The 4th floor is also where you can get some of the better ranger-class gear, as well as the best poison and disease resisting items until the thirteenth floor.”
“There’s another disease floor?” Will asked, exasperated. He was already tired of this one.
“So I hear.” Roger said.
“Alright, I’ll go hunting with you. But first I gotta check some loot we got off a guy who tried to assassinate us on the way in.
“Okay.”
“Okay?” Will asked. “Is it normal for a newbie team to get attacked randomly?”
“Its…more common than I’d like.” Roger said with a shrug. “The environment of the 4th floor makes a perfect dumping ground for bodies, and newbs are almost universally afflicted with rot-lung, making them easy pickings. Some veteran Climbers say it’s a waste to just let them die and lose their Relics in the swamp, so they kind of…speed the process along.”
“They’re in the minority, right?” Will asked.
“Officially, yes.” Roger said, nodding.
“Unofficially?”
“Still in the minority, but some Parties will kill other Parties claiming that their victims were noobs hunting. Verifying is difficult, and usually falls to the Party’s reputation.”
“The Tower keeps track of who does what,” Roger said, pointing up. “It gives people a practically criminal amount of leeway, but if a certain crime is repeated often and egregiously enough, they’ll be given a bounty that reports to everyone what floor they’re on, at which point they’re basically dead meat. That’s why it’s not total anarchy. Nobody quite knows how many strikes they have left.”
“It’s a bit stupid though, since you can hide from The Tower with just a mask.” Roger said, motioning to Will’s goat mask.
Will frowned.
“What’s egregiously mean?”
“In a really, shockingly bad way,” Roger said.
Will grunted acknowledgement and went to inspect the Relics he’d pried off their assailant.
Just the boots, helmet, amulet and rings, because Will had been on a time-crunch and wasn’t interested in doing a full strip while his Party’s lungs were actively rotting.
First the helmet, Will thought, inspecting the item. It was a diadem seemingly made of carved ice and moonstone.
Diadem of Phantom Ice:
+5 focus
Ice effects created by the user no longer manifest physically, but ice debuffs remain.
Triples Ice Debuff duration.
So that would turn Ice abilities into pure debuffs in exchange for not being able to do damage shooting shards of ice or creating ice walls. It would turn an ice-based Build towards pure debuff, and allow them to work better as a crowd-control role.
Hmm…
Will rummaged through their luggage until he found Cold Harvest
Sickle of Cold Harvest
+2 Focus
+ 3 Strength
2% life drain
Applies Hoarfrost debuff to those damaged by the sickle, 5 seconds.
(Hoarfrost: the victim’s attack and movement are slowed 30% as crystals grow on their joints. The sharp crystals boost bludgeoning damage against the victim but interfere with slashing and fire damage.)
Soft set, Will thought, putting them together. If he was reading this right, the sickle would no longer create shards of ice that made slashing damage less effective, and the debuff would last fifteen seconds rather than five.
Fifteen seconds was a huge amount of time in a fight.
Wait a minute.
Will pulled another ring out of his dimensional Storage.
Ring of Curse Concentration.
+3 Strength
+4 Resistance
The duration of debuffs inflicted by the wearer are divided by a certain amount, while their effects are multiplied by a similar amount. Scales with Focus.
Holy….cow. Three-part soft set.
Fifteen seconds was frankly more than enough time. If it got whittled back down to ten, or eight, or even 6, if the slow debuff was similarly improved it would be a net win.
…Actually, if I put the Sickle of Cold Harvest into my Phantom Hand slot, it would be eight seconds of debuff, which would then be tripled, and the 30% slow effect would become somewhere around fifty percent, base.
…Is it possible to get a slow debuff to 100%? Because that sounds fantastic.
There were only two problems: Will’s Focus wasn’t the best. It wasn’t bad, but it certainly wasn’t great, so the ring of Curse Concentration’s effect probably wouldn’t be extraordinary.
And second, he would have to throw away the mutated Ring of Accuracy, never to return again, along with the possibility of ever using the sickle of Cold Harvest, and he’d have to find a different arm-slot item, because tracer fire would probably undo the cold debuff…
Third problem, Will realized. I would have to take off the mask and no longer be able to fly. Which would then invalidate my footwear. And the Sting Ring.
A complete shift in his Build design, in exchange for applying an insane slow effect and life-drain to every attack he made.
It was very tempting, but Will decided to hold off until he checked the other items.
The next item he checked were the boots.
Swampstompers
+2 Kinesthetics
+3 resistance
Increased movement speed on swampy terrain, increased footing in watery, slimy, mucky or muddy terrain. Scales with Resistance.
+15% Ranger Archetype Passive potency
Yes, please.
Next.
Will checked the amulet.
Amulet of the frozen Heart
+4 Focus
+2 Acuity
Nuker Archetype Abilities are converted to Ice damage and gain a Hoarfrost Debuff (30% Slow)
Guess I’ll see if Mason wants that.
Ring of Mud Hardening
+3 resistance
+2 Acuity
Passive: Mud under the user’s feet is hardened.
Active: 1 charge
Hardens several cubic feet of mud into ceramic, as if it had been fired in a kiln. Scale and strength scales with Acuity.
I can sell that.
Sure, Will always wanted better footing, but he only had one ring slot, and the ring of Mud Hardening wouldn’t make the cut. It seemed like its active would be very, very good for a potter or a golemancer.
And the last ring.
Ring of Consideration
+3 focus
Negative effects created by the wearer are resisted by party members.
Scales with Focus.
I could probably sell that to Mason too.
Imagine being able to drop a fireball right on your friend’s heads without them catching on fire. That was the sort of thing a Nuker might like to have.
How close they’d come to being slaughtered sank in. Alicia killed their Crowd Control before he had the chance to apply a devastating Hoarfrost effect to everyone, which would be resisted by his allies, creating a strong speed imbalance.
Added to the berserk effect, and the healing…
If he hadn’t told Alicia to take the shot, they would be dead. There was no doubt in Will’s mind.
Need to get that girl some more scouting experience/relics because she could be one of the greats.
“Roger, can you join my party so I can punch you real quick?” Will asked, taking off his sting ring.
“Knock yourself out.” Roger said, joining the Party.
Will punched the lumbering Rustic Brawler in the stomach.
“Three out of ten.” The giant opined on the damage.
Will donned the Ring of Consideration and punched him again, feeling a faint tugging sensation, as though something was pulling his strike.
“one out of ten.” Roger said.
“Very cool,” Will said, pocketing the ring. The umbrella term ‘negative effects’ seemed to apply to both damaging effects and debuffs. If it was bad, it would help your Party resist it. Maybe he could give it to Mason, or maybe Alicia could use it to safely rain arrows down around them, only bruising her party members rather than skewering them.
A very good ring for massively damaging, indiscriminate Abilities…
Will sighed.
Sadly, that will never be me.
No matter how much experience Will got with the realities of Climbing, and how excellent his Class really was, he’d always be jealous of those who could simply rain fire.
Maybe I could fill the Phantom hand with explosives and drop them on people?
…No, it’s just not the same.
You know, speaking of Mason…
Will rummaged through their luggage again for Reggie’s Contract.
There was only one Stronghold on the Fourth floor, because absolutely no one wanted to live here.
So the chances were good that Mason’s Party was in the same mud-covered, mosquito-infested town built on stilts so as not to sink into the swamp.
“Can I take care of one thing before we go hunting?” Will asked, twirling Reggie’s contract in his fingers.
Roger shrugged.
“Sure.”
In less than half an hour, Will had tracked Mason’s party down to a mid-range inn with only some gaps in the walls for mosquitos to find their way in.
Then he went for the kill.
“Absolutely not,” Mason said, his face turning red.
“You see your dad’s signature at the bottom here?” Will said, pointing. “Where it says he’s giving the leaders of Alicia Zodiac’s Party – that’s me – ownership of Reginald Thatcher’s Tank contract.”
“That’s…umm…that’s the paper I signed,” Reggie said, his eyes wide.
“I will believe you’re Alicia Zodiac’s party leader when Lumesh brings the Abyss up out of the ground and Ouroboros swallows The Tower.”
“Join my Party and you’ll know.” Will said with a shrug.
“I’ll do it,” June, Mason’s scout said.
June Ferrier has joined the Party
June Ferrier
Wilderness Traveler level 16
32 Strength
32 Kinesthetics
48 Resistance
16 Focus
32 Acuity
Charges:10/16
Free Points: 0
Primary Abilities: Trailblazer, Hunter’s Patience
Secondary Abilities: Fletching
“Umm…wow.” June said, eyes wide as she read the roster of Will’s Party.
“Wow what?” Mason asked.
“Yeah, Alicia Zodiac is in his Party. Their stats are…” June shook her head. “Wow.”
“Well, where is she, then?” Mason demanded.
“Laid up with rotlung,” Will said with a shrug. “Until the rest of our Party gets up and running, Roger Oilton here is going to give us a tour of the 4th Floor.”
“Tour…That is true.” Roger said, a faint smile at the corner of his lips.
“What do you mean ‘our’ party?” Mason demanded.
“Well, since Reggie is joining my Party, I figured you would…wanna come with.” Will said with an innocent shrug. “Think of it as an opportunity to become friends with Alicia Zodiac. Your dad did.”
Mason’s eye twitched and he glanced at Reggie.
The large straw-haired Tank gave a guilty shrug.
“I can feel the Contract nudging me. It’s real. I have to join Will’s Party. And soon.”
Mason gave Will a long, weighing look.
They both knew that Mason’s life expectancy depended on a Tank, especially at the lower levels. That meant that wherever Reggie went, Mason had to go.
Steal Reggie, steal Mason. Steal Mason, and June had to follow suit to avoid being stranded alone on the 4th floor.
Three for the price of one.
“I don’t want to create bad blood. If anything, I want you to be happy about this, so I’ve got a signing bonus to sweeten the deal,” Will said, putting his hand on the table and releasing Relics from the Phantom Hand beneath his palm as he swiped it across the wood in a simple magic trick.
He released the ring of Arcane endurance, The Ring of Consideration, the Amulet of the Frozen Heart, and the ring of Haunting Blood.
Mason picked up the Ring of Arcane Endurance, and his eyes nearly popped out of his skull.
Ring of Arcane Endurance
+8 Focus
+5 Acuity
Whenever the wearer enters a new combat encounter, they receive a 1-Charge buffer to spend on Abilities.
“How did you…nevermind, not important.”
After a minute of silence, Mason reached across the table and offered his hand.
“I will accept on the condition that we get to keep these Relics, and when we reach level thirty and Reggie’s contract expires, we renegotiate a more equitable relationship, else we go our separate ways.”
“Deal,” Will said, shaking Mason’s hand.
“Dude, William Oh just stole your whole Party,” June said.
“Don’t remind me,” Mason groaned, sitting back in his seat. “We just recovered from our rot-lung, too. Damnit.”
Comments
MTGamer
Because they forgot, obviously!
Spoolofwhool
I think when the user is hit or wounded it spawns a ghost which applies fear to enemies. Intended for Reggie since he would be getting hit a lot as the tank.
Spam Kindle
Theres another pattern that gives credence to your idea: 1. The mask man said it was impossible for our mc to sacrifice his arm, indicating there is something besides human in him. 2. When they ransacked the churches sacrifices, we learn that you can sacrifice human parts of someone who already had an ability. Will at the time shouldn't have any abilities, assuming he's human, to gain.
Donovan
I don't want to spoil anything but I think I made a connection with Will's last name and the information the head priest guy made about Will's parents. The big O.
Macronomicon
the mask grants Gravity charge
Tate Browder
Why is it that he can’t fly without the mask?
Mundane
"What, I just thought it was spicy."
Mundane
With the way this story is going he is going to end up with a cute baker boy disguised as a girl pretending to be a noble but who is actually a commoner.
Mondred
There was 2 more but can't find them I will post when I do.
Mondred
when when Granesh tried to kill him, he lured Granesh
chris
'sall good. this fiction has everyone have a casual disregard for human rights. Live by the climb, Die by the climb
Cyrus McEnnis
Easy enough to make it a social "thing". Everyone gets it, it's a mark of a successful climber, it's a social faux pas to warn about it. You could extend that out so that it explains why Loth didn't know to prepare for the cold on Level 2, or why they don't know about other surprises to come in anything more than generalities the next time they hit a floor "surprise".
Andrew
Thank you!
Kronos
Lmao
Bookworm bibliophile
That understandble after all it is webnovel format. But if i may suggest something you could set a theme for the first ten or thirteen floor and have certain objective for it. You could even make a dnd session or sessions out of it Than think of how a normal climber would climb that is not the mc and how they usually plan for it, maybe from the point of view of steve or Roger because they are more normal and morw grounded on reality then the mc who is extremely talented and somehow uncaring for the average joe or maybe can't relate to them.
Macronomicon
mostly because I didn't know I would be making it a thing until I wrote it, which causes a tiny bit of an issue...
Macronomicon
dear god, i must've been going fast.
Kronos
Tftc! Loved the chapter lol. “inspecting the item it was a diadem” -> needs some form of punctuation between “item” and “it was” “fifteen seconds was frankly more than enough time.” ->Fifteen should be capitalized. “increased movement speed on swampy terrain” ->Increased should also be capitalized. “knock yourself out.” Roger said, joining the Party -> same thing lol “Think of it as an opportunity to become friends with Alicia zodiac.” -> Zodiac lmao “Steal Reggie, Steal Mason.” -> switcheroo on the capitalized “Steal” before Mason?
Cyrus McEnnis
Add on the cloak Alicia's currently wearing and see what happens >.>
Cyrus McEnnis
I've been thinking for awhile it'd be a semi- amazing plot twist if the reason Will is so important is that he's the only male in the tower. Doesn't really fit with the lore that's already been given, but...
Cyrus McEnnis
Ring of Mud Hardening would be an amazing CC ability if you could splash mud onto people at will. Why, hello there, Amulet of the Homefield Advantage loaded with Mud terrain....
DM
What if EVERYONE except Will is a secret gal?
Joe ?
Time for the party screen to betray Mason as the second secret woman.
Bookworm bibliophile
I dont get why Steve and roger didn't warne mc from the rot and other people they may hunt them when they arrive.
chris
I think the Ice build would be good for Mason. Equipping him with The Diadem of Phantom Ice, The Ring of Arcane Endurance, The Amulet of the frozen Heart, The Ring of Consideration in order to pivot his built toward a more Fire & Forget debuffer type would allow him to inconsiderately attack Will's location without having to worry about collateral murder relative to Will's Resistance. The Ice Blasts could also be useful in a swampy marsh potentially turning the soggy ground it strikes into difficult or spiky terrain Additionally he should get The Sickle of Cold Harvest as a close up backup. It allows him to defend himself and apply Hoarfrost when he's low on charge, since the effect from the sickle is free of Charge.
Uroš
Does it turn into a raid when the party limit is exceeded? :D
Uroš
What does the ring of Haunting Blood do again?
Exrotes
Would Will even notice if someone tried to poison his food? Goat powers plus insane resistance.
Macronomicon
non-stacking, 1 charge buff, which gives you an incentive to use it as soon as possible. I'm gonna say it's usually by pod but if you get attacked mid-fight by another group according to The Tower's classification, it'll spot you another Charge.
Macronomicon
where at?
Daemion
While William's party is a bunch of oddballs and non-standard classes, Mason had the boring trifecta of tank, rogue, caster. Both sides will benefit from the merger greatly... and with those relics thrown in on top, this party can punch above their weight class. I especially like how he's collecting the kids of nobles while he's a commoner from an orphanage. But I guess we got a hint that his parents are a huge deal in the upper levels of the tower, so that might flip things later. Now all he needs is a cute baker girl who can double as quartermaster and he'll be set. ;)
Ryan
Just wondering how ring of arcane endurance works. Does video game logic apply where there are pods of enemies to trigger? Or is each new enemy a new encounter? If you’re fighting some monsters and some people ambush you is that a new encounter or a continuation? If you attack one person, do you pull just them or their whole party? Seems like you could get an insane amount of charges if you charge through somewhere slapping everyone. Or is it just a single charge buff that doesn’t stack?
Macronomicon
Mmmaybe?
Daedalus
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you *The* William "But what do I bring to the Party?" Oh.
Mondred
Edits: repeating words here and there.
Apotheosis
The army grows, is there a party limit?
Macronomicon
lol, whoops
SV
The chapter has a wrong number
