Macronomicon
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Chapter 36: Fancy Inn
🕑 Added 2024-08-23 21:18:34 +0000 UTCGranesh found an idyllic pond in his divine realm, where a beautiful crimson fish of massive size swam back and forth from bank to bank. When none of his hooks were big enough, he cut the head off a magnificent ox with horns as sharp as blades. The god attached the head to a rope, carved barbs into the horns and threw it into the pond, eager to catch this enormous crimson fish.
But it was no pond, that divine pool led to the sky of the third floor, where the crimson sun circles the world.
One day Granesh succeeded, and the sun of the third floor simply stopped.
William Oh flew up to investigate, to find that the burning circle had been snagged by a massive hook made of horn. Even as he watched, the crimson ball of fire consumed the ox’s head, growing ever hotter as it did.
William Oh wrenched the sun away from the razor-sharp horns that the gods had callously carved barbs into, his left arm turning to char and his wings bursting into flames.
Having saved the sun, he fell from the sky and where he landed, the charwood nymphs of the ashlands gathered around, nursing their savior back to health.
Without William Oh, the sun would loom forever overhead, growing hotter and hotter until there was no life left on the third Floor.
No life at all.
- Jason Salazar
“Ah, this is the life,” Steve Holland said, relaxing in his bed, eating some Ashvine grapes, specially grown in the ash-covered vineyards that surrounded Coleton. Growing them was a major pain in the ass, but the flavor…
By all accounts, this is where he should be meeting Will’s party.
He’d already made inroads on over a dozen lucrative contracts that he knew were within his team’s capabilities. He knew only one or two would pan out, but it was a good start.
William Oh’s name was starting to have Brand Value. There were only two downsides: First, the Lord he’d pissed off on the first floor who was probably looking for him, and second, the growing number of copycats.
The second problem actually made the first problem less worrisome, although it made it difficult to convince people that his team included the actual William Oh, or failing that, William Oh levels of quality.
Surprisingly that second option is more popular. People liked getting high-quality knock-offs: They felt like they were getting a good deal.
A job where all he had to do was lounge around and talk to people? Perfect. He’d even been making good money on the side healing parties drifting through town.
Ah…but the job might be over before it even got started, Steve mused to himself.
He’d been here for several days, and it really didn’t take that long for people to travel from the nearby Key Site to Coalton, which was the closest city to where they’d arrived.
He’d picked up distressing rumors about busses getting attacked and Oilton going silent.
If Will got swept up in the middle of all that and had died out there on the third floor…Well, that would be a bummer.
End of the gravy train already in sight.
At least Will’s corpse would mummify in the heat, so the chances of it being brought in by scavengers and identified was pretty good.
Always good to have closure, Steve thought, popping another grape in his mouth.
CRASH!
The ceiling of Steve’s room at the inn collapsed inward as a figure covered in ash-caked blood fell through it.
“HEAL, NOW!” William Oh said, an ash-caked line across his chest and arm.
“Right!” Steve shouted, throwing the covers and debris off himself.
Candy shrieked and tugged the covers back, but Steve was already halfway across the room, his hands glowing with divine power as he reached toward Will.
“Not me, him!” Will said, unwrapping Loth from a cloth swaddling he’d wrapped around his chest.
The black kobold was wrecked, covered from head to toe in oozing burns, and likely holding on by a thread. If he wasn’t dead already. In a matter of hours, those wounds would get infected and things would get really bad.
It was way beyond what a simple Health Potion could do.
“On it,” Steve said, rolling up his sleeves and warming up the 20 Charge Full Heal
Blessing of Andover: Full Heal
82/105 Charges remaining.
Loth’s body was suffused with Andover’s grace, and the burns across his entire body began to fade.
Still alive then. Can’t heal a corpse.
“Oh, thank the gods,” Will said before he slumped down in the pile of ash-covered roof-debris and fell asleep.
“I’m just gonna…go.” Candy said, wrapping the blanket around herself and tiptoeing out the door, which was currently laying on the floor.
“HEEEY! WHO’S GONNA PAY FOR THIS!?” the Madame demanded, glaring through the empty doorway.
Well, there go my plans for the night, Steve thought sourly. I should’ve knocked on wood.
**William Oh**
Will woke up in a soft bed with minimal ash covering. He tried to sit up, but his entire body was stiff as the Abyss.
“Gah,” He groaned, rubbing the soreness out of his arm as best he could. There was the faintest hint of a scar, but it appeared that their healer had fixed them up nicely.
Where’s Loth? Will wondered, his eyes adjusting to the dim candlelight.
As it turned out, Loth was sleeping beside him, large patches of his scales had been burned away, leaving the dark skin underneath.
“Well, for only getting into one actual fight, we sure got wrecked,” Will mused.
You are now a level 11 Resourceful Climber!
William Oh
Resourceful Climber Level 11
12+ 2 Strength
33 Kinesthetics
36 + 5 Resistance
22 + 5 Focus
34 Acuity
Charges: 9/23
Free Points: 6
Item Abilities: Acid Bolt, +greater acid Damage. Homefield Advantage (ice). 20% fire resistance.
Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand
Ability Upgrade Available! (X2)
Secondary Ability Available!
All of Will’s gear save for his amulet and rings were missing.
Did that bastard…no, there they are, Will thought, leaning back against the headboard with a sigh as he spotted his gear against the wall.
Got an extra level for fighting those bandits, Will thought. He’d hit the magical level 10 in Oilton, which gave him the option to select a secondary Ability, as well as another Primary Ability upgrade slot.
Maybe I should get an Ability with Direct damage? Will thought, thinking back to Loth’s attack that absolutely wrecked the Climber he’d been fighting.
No. It is impressive, but it’s part of a build that Loth is trying to complete, and it’s well-suited for him. I shouldn’t just grab a direct damage Ability Willy-nilly because I want one.
Oooh, look at this one! Will thought to himself as he perused the Secondary Ability options, momentarily forgetting about his resolve to be cool and calculating towards his next ability.
Uru Breath (minor)
5 Charges: Unleash a blast of space-warping breath, the dimensional ripples cause temporary damage and nausea to those inside the cone. May cause objects to crack or joints to loosen.
Wait, temporary damage…nausea? Will frowned. It had a (minor) tag which was the universal sign that he could definitely upgrade it at level 20. But…did he really want to spend all of level 11-20 with what was essentially a debuff cone?
Well, there’s more choices to look at:
Stone Charge
Active: 1 Charge
20ft range.
Coats the user’s body in stone armor and/or propels them forward at lethal speeds.
Seen it.
Venom strike
Active: 1 charge
Add a poison effect to the next attack with a slashing or piercing weapon. Scales with Acuity.
That’s new, Will thought, inspecting the effect. It probably wouldn’t be anything he took, but it was interesting he was being offered it.
Does the Uru Drake have poison?
Mighty Leap
Active: 1 Charge
You Jump distance is tripled for a single jump.
Seen it.
Prey’s Senses
Passive
The User’s field of vision widens, as well as minor improvements to their hearing and smell. Scales with Acuity.
Seen it.
Molt
Active: 3 charges
Minor self-heal. Stops bleeding and minor ongoing damage.
Very interesting.
Sourdough:
Active: 1 Charge
The user may gain the full effect of a Consumable Relic only using 80% of the relic. The remaining 20% may be reserved to ferment a new Consumable Relic if provided powdered Relics, time, and additional Charges. Scales with Focus.
Seen it. On the short list.
Titan’s Grasp
Passive:
Space and gravity subtly warp around objects the user tries to hold, allowing them to handle objects both larger and smaller than they might’ve otherwise been able to handle, whether that be from cumbersome size or weight.
Oooh.
Just from a cursory glance at its effects, Will figured it would allow him to wield Two-handed weapons one-handed. Two-handed weapons had better stats and damage.
There were also edge-case uses, like did it synergize with Phantom Hand’s ability to touch magic, or a vastly expanded selection of Improvised weapons.
Phantom Eye
Active: 1 Charge
Summon a Phantom Eye for (Acuity) Seconds. The Eye is invisible, goatlike, moves at the same speed as Phantom Hand, and has depth perception.
Good Ability for the Infiltrator part of my build, Will thought, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t take it.
Progenitor affinity
Passive:
Further enhances the natural affinity scaled creatures have towards you.
Eh? Further enhances the natural affinity scaled creatures have towards you? Was it implying there was some affinity there already? It said ‘progenitor, like the Progenitor Uru Drake. A fringe benefit, perhaps?
Interesting, but not important enough to spend one of my few secondary slots on.
Stubborn Ass
Passive:
User’s Inertia becomes more difficult to change through outside forces, adding force to their attacks and resisting shoves and strikes.
Oh, that’s cool, but I wonder if it would increase the damage I take in certain circumstances? Like if I got hit with a massive log wielded by a troll, would my body just stay in place and get crushed rather than bounce off?
Serpent’s Tongue
Active: 1 Charge
With a vile word of Eternity, extend the duration of debuffs on the target for (Acu/10) Seconds.
…That’s an odd one. Debuffs as defined by The Tower included things like poison, burning, bleeding, mind-control, fear, curses, and stat drains like the one Serpent’s Tomahawk did.
But did Will want to divert his entire Build towards debuff Synergy? Not really.
If anything, Will gravitated towards two options:
Sourdough and Titan’s Grasp.
The former because of the Relic synergies that were already at play with Phantom Hand, and that he was planning on improving once he got a Relic Worm Sacrifice, giving him a strong, unfair synergy that he might be able to loop Sourdough in on eventually, as the Ability specifically worked with Relics.
The Latter attracted him because it partially offset his disability, and there were possible sacrifices in the future he could possibly use to link Titan’s Grasp passive with Phantom hand. maybe even one day make it interact with the physical world.
If he could get his ability give him a left hand again…
Will took a deep breath and set aside the choices for now.
I’ll talk about it with Loth.
Will got out from under the silk covers and paused.
Silk covers?
He paused and studied the expensive fabric, his gaze turning towards the oversized bedframe with opulent padding. The down pillows.
The soft mattress.
The rich rug that was heavenly smooth against his feet, which sank deep into the weave.
The red walls, and fake gold on every surface…
What kind of inn is this? Will thought as he slipped on his shirt and pants, looping the suspenders up over his shoulders.
The door creaked open and Steve ducked his head in.
Will thought he perceived a flash of someone running in the hall behind him, but he couldn’t process exactly what he was seeing.
“Oh, good, you’re awake!” Steve said, steering a cart into the room with a wide grin. “I hope you don’t mind, I took some of the Ivory you hid in your socks to pay for the damages to the ceiling.
Will had squirreled some away as soon as he had a moment of time away from prying eyes in case Travis double-crossed him. The young Master Decoy had not gotten the full amount back. Still, it hadn’t been explicitly stated that the whole amount was in the bag when Will offered it to him to lead the Wyrd away from the rest of them.
Explicitly. That’s a good word.
His paranoia had come in handy just now, it seemed.
At the mention of the money in his socks, Will idly thumbed his belt, checking that the coin in the band of his underwear was still there.
Still there.
“I brought you guys some meat, wine, cheeses.” Steve said. “Not many vegetables here. The Ashvine grapes are delicious, but they’re expensive and not exactly the filling. No, you two will need plenty of meat, to help restore some of your reserves.”
“Isn’t magical healing…Magical?” Will asked.
“Well, yes, and no,” Steve said, reaching under the cart and pulling out a pitcher of wine and cups. “All healing drains the body’s resources to some extent, and this extent varies wildly based on the power of the healer, their skill, the god, the extent of the damage, the Resistance of the person being healed.”
“And I am not the most powerful or skilled healer,” Steve said, shaking his head and chuckling. “Not by a long shot.”
“Should we find someone better?” Will asked.
“Tough talk for someone whose life I saved.” Steve said, taking a sip of his cup before offering it to Will.
Will eyed it suspiciously.
“It’s watered down,” Steve said with a shrug.
Will tried it, tasting the faintest hint of wine.
After the first sip, his body realized exactly how thirsty he was, and he knocked the entire thing back, devolving into a coughing spree near the end as he partially inhaled some of the wine-flavored water.
“Haven’t drunk anything except for cooled ice crystals and tuber-juice for days.” Will gasped once he was done coughing.
“Sounds like a good way to get scurvy,” Steve said, pulling Will’s cup back down and refilling it, squeezing half a lime into it.
“Drink that.”
Watered down Lime-wine was…an experience. Almost good. Tolerable, even.
“Here, have some stew,” Steve said, revealing two massive bowls of brown goop filled with massive chunks of meat. “Made with salt from the second Floor and flamenwulf from this Floor. A regional specialty.”
“By the gods, I missed salt!” Will said, inhaling the stew. He’d gotten some when Brianna cooked her bread bowl stew, but-
“Where’s Brianna and Carrie!?” Will asked.
“They’re resting in an Inn a few streets down.” Steve said. “They arrived a few hours after you did, asking around town for you and Loth,” Steve said, pointing at the Kobold, who seemed to be rousing now that the noisy healer had barged in.
“Smell food,” Loth growled, uncharacteristically blunt. He tried to get up, but made an inhuman whine and went limp, panting in pain as he stared at the ceiling.
“I can move my arm,” Loth said, waggling his right arm for emphasis. “Sit me up!”
Will went and sat Loth up against the headboard and set the bowl in his lap.
Over the next handful of seconds, Loth downed the contents of the bowl followed by the entire remainder of the pitcher.
Where is it all going? Will thought, studying the waist-high kobold. Surely his stomach had to be smaller than Will’s…surely.
Loth set down the pitcher and glanced between the two humans staring at him.
“My apologies. That was rude of me. I was very hungry.”
“Oh, no problem! That was your food, so how you eat it is no concern of mine,” Steve said with a shrug. “I’ll go get another serving in case she’s still hungry.”
“Who?” Will asked as Steve disappeared through the doorway.
Will glanced back at Loth, who drew the covers up over himself, watching him cautiously.
“Who was he…”
Will cocked his head.
“But…”
“You…”
“But…”
“You…never really said anything one way or another, huh?” Will said, rubbing his chin.
“No, I did not.” Loth said. “I don’t even bother to hide it. It might not surprise you to know that humans have a great deal of difficulty telling apart kobold sexes. I typically don’t bother to correct them. being assigned male has social benefits.”
“…” Will looked around the room, eager to find some other topic of conversation.
“So! how about this Inn? Weird, right?” Will asked. “Kinda fancy, but uses a lot of red and gold for some reason?”
“It’s a brothel, Will.”
“So! Level fifteen, huh!?” Will desperately shifted topics.
Loth laughed.
Comments
JACOB HEBERT
I hope Will and Loth can still act like bros as they have been, that was fun. I do like the surprise, was not expected.
Jaxer30
A bit OOTL. Who are those?
Jaxer30
I hate you and you should feel bad. Good one, btw
Apotheosis
willoth for the win!!
bbwhistler@outlook.com
I was more thinking it would be interesting to see if will would warm up to a relationship with a male Loth. Wouldn't have to be sexual - something like a bromance with extra big hugs would be really cute!
Gavriel
I'm more comfortable this way 😁, noone wants unrequited romance in a story.
bbwhistler@outlook.com
Ah, what a good chapter! I'm both disappointed and loving the reveal, I thought the idea of cross species relationships not being heteronormative was really interesting but female Loth is also a really cute reveal! It also makes the possibility of something... happening there feel more likely haha
Derrick McDowell
You keep coming out with bangers of novels. Another good one.
Draugluir
Plenty of animals have poison! Frogs, toads, worms and even birds. The difference is the delivery system - venom is actively injected with something like fangs or stingers, poison is delivered passively with touch, inhalation or ingestion.
Bookworm bibliophile
I meant male best freind or best man.
Leo Yankovic
I Just Hope for a polycule of any Kind again :)
Stephen E Wilson Jr.
Will doesn't have the mean streak Calvin does by far and Calvin is way more "rude" he wouldn't feel awkward the way Will does either he's just wired different.
Lerous
Will wouldn’t know the difference… probably. Also there are poisonous snakes. It isn’t as clear cut as you said
Kronos
Tftc! Lmao that ending is hilarious “First, the Lord he’d pissed off on the first floor” Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it the Second floor? “them. being assigned male has social benefits.” being -> Being
Mondred
Does the Uru Drake have poison?-> venom. Animals venom and plants poison.
Red Viking
That end is adorable.
Akkido
Why are you implying that a female can't be a male's best friend?
Bookworm bibliophile
Each man needs a best freind. Now that loth is female stive may fill that role.
Gaunt
This was very excellent to read. Will just screamed inexperienced and uncomfortable at the end in the most humanizing way
Ryan Kaiser
I'd have loved for Loth to be male, but to each their own!
chris
Natural affinity scaled creatures have towards him, interesting. Loth is revealed to have a snussy, interesting.
Exrotes
Woo breath attack made it in, didn't get picked because Will doesn't understand the glory of spewing toxic smoke on people after headbutting them but that's his fault.
MurkyTruths
Nuts,I still have hope for the bi polycule with the taunter tho..
Will Iam
Also thanks for the chapter
Will Iam
Shouldn't this be chapter 36?
Andrew
Thank you!
BelligerentGnu
I would say prey senses should be on the short list, see the thing about all lords are alive. But relic is the better of thw two I think.
alex ayala
Ok I'm ngl you got me with that reveal. That one I didnt see coming.
EDMANGO
I am SO here for a female kobold party member letsgooooo Loth is already so cool this made her cooler!!!!!
Edward Jeffs
God said "Let there be light." William Oh said "Say please."
james apfel
Sourdough is practical but dull, we want cool spatial abilities
Drakos
Kobold children let’s go
Vinohr
That's fair. Though if this story ends up being exponential like ISM and WoTR were maybe there will be chances to gain more in the future
Macronomicon
sadly i designed the leveling system to only allow a very limited number of Abilities.
vetro 26
Kind of like Calvin but like normal farmer Calvin instead of raised by powerful knowledgeable Karen calvin.
Vinohr
Titan's Grasp! That was my suggestion! That makes me weirdly excited even if I feel like Loth will probably lean towards the relic duplication if asked
In-Game_Name
I love how awkward and uneducated Will is it's an interesting contrast to Paradox or Jeb
Lake
oh no
Joshua Gunty
This is a dumb joke but it got stuck in my head and now it's all of your problem.
Joshua Gunty
*tips Helmet* M'Lothy...
Prinny Knight
Thanks for the chappy
