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Chapter 185: The Beaten Path
🕑 Added 2025-08-15 18:51:41 +0000 UTCClass Advancement review:
Contribution: An external error has caused Trial Contribution points to be divided by zero. Default to maximum points.
Methodology: Evasive, indirect, traveling, Ability-heavy.
Outcome: No detectable changes: Presumed Failure.
Generating Advanced Class…
I don’t fail at shit, Will thought sourly. Obviously whatever trial that was administered while I was asleep was simply confused by the enormity of my success.
Will told himself that to ease the sting.
Advanced Class generated:
World Traveller:
A World Traveller scorns borders, both real and imagined. Their drug of choice is the path untraveled. They embody the question unasked, action untaken.
They go places and do things solely because none before them have, and from these experiences, they derive strength in ways hidden to the naked eye.
They are strong, mentally and physically. They are tenacious, enduring. The World Traveller receives bonuses to tools, Meta Relic use, hardiness, and mobility, with a focus in Earth and Spacetime.
Will reviewed the Class changes for a moment, head cocked.
The ‘flavor’ portion was longer than it had been originally. Two paragraphs instead of one, and that little nod to ‘going places none before have’ felt like The Tower itself acknowledging his desire to sidestep the sudden end his predecessors had suffered.
The third paragraph, the description of the Class’s effects, was nearly the same as Resourceful Climber’s. A few key words were cut off, though.
‘But most importantly’ had been cut off in front of ‘tenacious, enduring’.
‘Minor’ had been removed in front of ‘focus in Earth and Spacetime’.
Does that mean my toughness max potential got slightly downgraded in exchange for a slightly upgraded focus in Earth and Spacetime? That’s it?
Does that mean I might be able to grab a better Teleport Ability? Will thought, frowning. I mean it is a Traveller Class, so I could see it happening. If I get a true Teleport out of this, that would be so awes-
Will’s thoughts stopped in their tracks as his new potential Primaries began marching through his mind. And they were...really good.
Generating primary Abilities and Upgrades based on your new Class and performance during the Advancement Trial. You may choose one of these options to add to your Primary Abilities.
Upgrades:
Phantom Hands:
Note, not a Primary Ability. This is an upgrade to Phantom Hand. Gain a right-hand Phantom Hand and all the benefits thereof. User will not gain another Primary Ability.
Upgrade Secondary:
User may upgrade a secondary Ability to a Primary Ability, increasing it’s potency and upgrade cap in the process. If this choice is taken, a tertiary Ability will be upgraded to take the secondary’s spot. User Will not gain another primary Ability.
Primary Abilities:
Consume:
Active: 5 Charges
Consume creatures or objects with strong miasmatic signatures and temporarily absorb a fraction of their power into yourself in the form of stat increases.
Map
Passive:
You have a map.
This map is a mental construct that contains an accurate record of terrain you have perceived. Your current location and heading is displayed on this map. You may summon this map and dismiss it at will, and it will only be perceivable to you.
Toggle: 7 Focus
Manifest a physical copy of the map.
Snake Husbandry:
Passive.
You may more easily control snakes and convince them to breed. Snakes view you more favorably and are less likely to become hostile.
Holdna’s Gaze:
Active: 1 Charge
Inflict Psychic damage and (acu/10) seconds of Paralysis on a target you can see. Acuity contested by Focus or Resistance, whichever is higher.
Tunnelling:
Active 1 Charge
Instantaneously tunnel Acu/10 feet from a terrain the user is in contact with to another contiguous terrain. If the location is largely changed or the relocation would cause physical harm to the user, the Ability fails.
Holy…shit.
It didn’t matter what Will chose, he was going to be kicking himself in the dick for the rest of his life for passing up on any of these.
Except maybe Snake Husbandry. I don’t plan on marrying any snakes.
And Map. I remember where I’ve been.
The others were mouth-watering.
Tunneling was a straight-up teleport ability, which was absolutely phenomenal. Will could vaguely guess from context that ‘contiguous’ meant ‘connected’. Maybe it had been created based on an extrapolation of how he’d moved through Kincaid’s fear.
That makes sense.
Will had to look at all these Abilities not just based on what they could do now, but what he could upgrade them to accomplish in the future.
lose the ‘contiguous’ restriction, change feet to miles, and BAM! I’m teleporting miles at a time. And even if I can’t lose the ‘contiguous’ restriction, air is a terrain, and it’s all connected as far as the sky stretches. So I mean…
Will mentally hovered over Tunneling a moment, his mental finger hovering over the selection.
Gah, but Holdna’s Gaze! It’s too freakin good to pass up!
It was obviously a direct upgrade of Serpent’s gaze, but it had an added damage effect, it lasted ten times longer, and didn’t require him to see the targets’ eyes.
Not to mention as a primary, he could take it so much farther than Serpent’s gaze as a secondary, and deploy it through Phantom Eye.
Will’s heart hurt.
…But Consume synergizes with my build perfectly! I could use sourdough on Relics to charge them up, then eat them, retain them with sourdough, and recreate them! And as a primary I could enhance it way, WAY further.
I could even make it give me new Abilities, or make the changes permanent!
The extra hand would give me TEN slots, and I might even be able to slot two of them at a time!
Upgrading Sourdough to a Primary would unstick its progression, and I’d be able to make even better Relics. Maybe even duplicate them.
At the end of that progression, Will could see himself creating a duplicate legendary weapon every couple weeks, by consuming the first and getting two Starters out of it then baking them in Relic dust.
Agh! This is so damn painful!
Will paused, frowning.
It is particularly painful. Every choice is dazzling and competing for attention. Any one of them I pick will be a huge jump in power for me, making me one of the strongest Lords in the Tower.
…Something smells. The agonizing pain over his choice felt…constructed, and it triggered Will’s paranoia. Maybe that stemmed from Will’s inability to accept good things at face value, but he doubted it.
Is The Tower offering these to conceal something more potent but less obvious?
Will had been Climbing with Loth long enough to recognize juicy bait concealing a trap.
What’s the trap?
Will thought back to his ruminations of changing his mindset when he became a Lord, as well as his musing on the nature of his prophesized death on the 50th Floor.
Power.
Power is the trap.
Power borrowed from The Tower can be rescinded. And while it’s offering me a great deal of power right now, what a good Lord needs, What I need to survive is…information.
Will turned his attention back to the two Abilities he’d casually tossed aside.
Snake Husbandry:
Passive.
You may more easily control snakes and convince them to breed. Snakes view you more favorably and are less likely to become hostile.
…This hooks into the Progenitor thingy, doesn’t it? Will could see himself upgrading it to apply to all the myriad descendents of Ouroboros and creating an army of potent scaled monstrosities.
A Lord among the scaled.
No, this isn’t the one.
Will brought up Map.
Map
Passive:
You have a map.
This map is a mental construct that contains an accurate record of terrain you have perceived. Your current location and heading is displayed on this map. You may summon this map and dismiss it at will, and it will only be perceivable to you.
Toggle: 7 Focus
Manifest a physical copy of the map.
Will frowned.
You have a map. Sounds boring. What can you do with a map? Although…Lords look at maps all the time. They use them to oversee their territory and plan expansions.
Huh, Territory and Terrain sound like they share a root word. I wonder if-
Will’s eyes widened as ideas began to flash through his mind, almost too quickly to keep up. Even though he’d just reminded himself to view each Ability for its potential, he’d still been far too dismissive.
What if an upgrade lets me control my Territory, like Aspect allows me to control terrain? What if I upgrade it to provide real-time information, and can watch my friends and enemies from a god’s-eye view at any time? What if I upgrade it to allow me to teleport myself, or others like pieces on a chessboard?
If the miasma and dimensional effects I can see via Uru Drake Eyes are terrain, could I map out time itself? See the future? Or find routes to travel between Floors without the Tower’s permission?
Dear gods, This is a LORD ABILITY! Will thought, sitting up stock straight. The prospect of simply seeing everything from a god’s-eye view, and knowing things that others couldn’t possibly know was such a huge advantage.
What if-
Will paused.
What if…miasma, charge, and dimensional effects COULD be displayed on the map?
Will held his right hand up to his gaze.
The range of his eyesight had increased by about an inch overnight, so he could just barely focus on the palm of his hand.
Will sat there, staring at his own palm for several minutes. Minutes stretched into hours.
Will heard people come and go, and words were said to and around him, but he ignored them, focusing on his palm.
During a shallow moment of his trance, Anna’s voice cut through.
“Umm…are you okay?” Anna ventured to ask.
“Thinking, don’t worry.” Will breathed, his gaze unbroken as he stared at his palm.
A few hours later…something inside his palm came into focus. His brain still gave it the same miasmatic blue as everything else, but it felt like a vaguely different color to his mind, simply in a way that he couldn’t describe.
And there it is. Will thought, watching tiny squiggles of miasma travel through his palm, coalescing into spots like cities, branching out like rivers and roads, connecting his palm to his fingers, where they ended in little dots.
Will followed the squiggles of miasma back into his palm, back through his wrist, noting the way they suffused his skin, nerves, muscles, blood vessels, each a subtly different color and shape that allowed him to differentiate between them.
Will learned this by spotting where a branching tube of miasmatic squiggles of a subtly different color pressed up tight against those in his skin exactly where the veins in his forearm were most visible.
It hurt his neck, it hurt his arm, it hurt his eyes to stare at his entire arm from two inches away, observing everything tiny piece by piece, unable to physically see all of it at once, like an ant on an apple.
Those squiggles that permeated him that looked like roads and rivers…Those were the effects of his Class, visible through his Uru Drake Eye.
No, not the effects of. That’s my actual Class, as it resides inside me.
That is the framework that directs miasma and Charge around my body, strengthening it, allowing Abilities to be used without any conscious effort from me.
Could I…Map my Class within my own body? And then recreate it on my left hand? Modify it? Will thought, his skin going cold.
Could I map The System itself?
With that information…Could I make my own? Separate from The Tower?
Will took a deep breath…I’ll take Map. Will thought.
…Are you sure?
Will’s eyes narrowed even as the hair on his neck stood up. He’d never gotten that question from The System before. It was always phrased ‘do you wish’. Never ‘are you sure’.
I’m sure.
Maybe he was making the same mistake every predecessor before him had made.
Or maybe he was going off the beaten path.
Comments
Apotheosis
...you know, he did perceive the trial, wondering if it'll be on the map
dijet
But that's just the thing, a lords strength isn't purely in single combat, they get power from their subjects who can achieve things the lord himself often can't, take for example the class advancement trial, will couldn't have rescued holdna on his own without that tank there to protect her from the miasma. A single person can only do so much but a kingdom is way less limited in its capabilities.
William Farrar
There is a lot of emphasis throughout the story on the fact that his heritage is from a molt and is aspected to regeneration. I keep coming back to this concept as he moves up the tower. He may have to "shed" his tower forged body to cheat his fate. The moment he went into his advancement, descriptions of feeling in two places at once, may further imply the presence of distinct entities, hand and body.
Don
Totally not on board with the whole you need people not personal power bc you need both but more of 1 in a fight and it's not a bunch of extra bodies in the way.
Revilo
Also it sounds like something not being able to be influenced by the tower is a unique property, maybe worth trying regenerate a spare system immune body from just the hand for Will?
Patron1kj6tz
Like Ouroboros eating itself?
Tom C
Yes! Ken Wilber banged on about this, read one of his books decades ago
Frotzy
So, im just puttning this here to say i told you so in a houdred chapters, due to Will needing to die at the 50th floor, and the amount of miasma you have in your body at that level. He will be able to "sourdough" himself, using himself as a consumable.
Win Rar
So he will be able to map out fear since that is now a terrain. William will be able to find anyone who fears him; there is no escape. "Do not fear William Oh, for if you do, he will have you marked on his map to visit you when you least expect it"
EDMANGO
I think I dislike this aspect because then it becomes the beaten path again, if he has a compass showing him exactly where everything or his specific goal is it becomes less his choice and more whatever omniscient systems choice
Charlie
Iirc Will suspects that his immediate predecessor, Exekial the serpent, was involved in punching the holes somehow, while Reese was stuck in the coffin.
Charlie
Yeah, if it's retroactively applied to places he's perceived before getting map, then being able to see some of the top of the tower would be a super neat loophole in the class advancement system.
Patron1kj6tz
As best I can tell the tower and or system (I'm actually a tad curious how intertwined the two are) doesn't want Will to take Map but is unable or unwilling to just not give it to him. This raises a lot of questions. Also Kincaid mentioned that the tower will eventually collapse, am I the only one wondering if the holes in the lower floors are a symptom of the tower reaching the end of its functional life? If not, then whatever caused those holes has probably drastically reduced the towers lifespan by wrecking its structural integrity. I can't shake the feeling that, one way or another, this coil will be the last.
Dlandis
Also, a benefit could be seeing places he has perceived. He may be able to remember the layout of the class upgrade region. And imagine if that also somehow relates to a higher floor where Holdna still lives, shacked up with a great big snake.
Jeff Wells
Yeah that's definitely where this is going. Not that specifically, but building his own abilities and such. Super cool.
Jeff Wells
Yeah it's exactly the kind of thing Ghoul taught him too do, and I totally missed it at first. Sure, a minimap is cool, I don't play Minecraft without it these days, but considering how much Will was able to do with a simple "sure footed" ability, something like Map is potentially insane.
Ano Ano
I'm feeling clever for being the most excited about map at first reading of the list.
Zachary Atwood
Will missed the the biggest thing about Map. Maps *show you how to get to where you want*! With the right upgrades, the Map could be like a quest tracker in an RPG, telling him exactly where to go and who to talk to to progress in his goal.
SunderGoldmane
Ah, he did perceive that terrain. So mow he has a data point that exists somewhere in time and distance away from now and here to orient on.
Joshua Little
Thanks for the chapter.
Moon Winchester
When I saw his ability selections, my mind immediately narrowed in on map because everything he does revolves around terrain
Ranger Science
Yessss Loth ftw
Natalie
You know I was thinking something like that too when it mentioned "anywhere you've been" but I was thinking... What if it recognised his past selves as him too? He could see where the previous versions of himself went, and see whether there are any strange sudden cut offs, that would probably be best avoided. Sort of like that Nic Cage movie where he scouted a safe path through by watching where he dies
Natalie
How else do you know if it's been travelled before? If it's not on the map, then it's good to go!
ReadingObsessed
I love how you flip these right on their head. Masterfully done!
Alexis Lionel
Boy, he could have the sum total knowledge of the entire existence of the system... And still lose a bet to Loth the mfing Luminary
Emily Gurnavage
I really enjoyed that one.
McIntosh Ewell
Perhaps if he learns to map out probabilities he'll be able to actually win a bet against Loth
Clairvoyant Vision
I'm pretty sure he's going to get the second phantom hand (or something similar) along with some form of teleportation anyway. In fact this would make for a great Willam Oh'ism.
Munirah Hutchinson
The pterodactyl screech i let out at the meta implications was very unsightly. Well done.
Bananaman Slamma
Right lol. I need me that remote from Adam Sandler’s hit blockbuster film, Click, wherein there is a fast forward button which the protagonist, portrayed by Adam Sandler, uses to quickly bypass much of his own life - to get to the good parts. Little does he know that life is about the journey, and not the destination. He finds this out the hard way when he fast forward so much he becomes old. Quite similar to that one movie where there is a beach that turns you old.
Redc05
This was a fun chapter. When is the next one? XD
RedInkQuill
Wills progression choices map out a path to travel the world beyond the tower.
Imp
William Oh's missing hand has truly become the greatest relic within the tower
Arnon Parenti
Lol if the map is of Terrain William OH Percieved, then someone telling him about a place could be enough to add it to his map, including Reese and his 50th floor nonsense.
Arnon Parenti
If Map is a tool then William OH receives bonuses to tools, Meta Relic use, hardiness, and mobility, with a focus in Earth and Spacetime for it. The whole Class is geared to make this one ability stronger.
Exrotes
Once he can affect the floors via maps I bet he could manifest a map of the 11th and 4th floor and poke a hole in the top one, instant highway between floors. Maybe make a "map" of the tower by piling completed maps of floors on top of eachother then rearrange them. I bet a similarly buffed ability was how the existing inter-floor highway got made.
Arnon Parenti
William OH can find his asshole with a map.
Andrew
Thank you!
Prinny Knight
noice, -insight +1
Josiah
So those primaries aren't going to come back as options for secondaries or tertiaries? (Besides the two upgrade ones, obviously those two weren't coming back)
Crispined Glover Potato Snacks
"For William Oh, The Map is The Territory." Reference to the phrase The Map is Not The Territory, a phrase used in semantic philosophy to describe that the model abstracted from an object is not the object itself.
vVip3rzzz
“They say William Oh drew his own map to the ass kicking the gods had coming. Personally, I think the map drew William Oh first.”
Metool
Map would let him project his class advancement. At least where it happened in relation to himself.
JTP
I will have some meta magic, thank you very much!
EDMANGO
I wanna know if he can map the location he visited during his trial... And also I wanna know how many of the other climbers in that trial were oroborous spawn too!!!!
Vinohr
Interesting that stepping off the beaten path in this instance involves finding a map
Stanisław Drewienkowski
William Oh, who was scorned by Granesh and denied access to the map of gods, decided to make one of his own. God of order couldn’t have anticipated that map made by William Oh would be greater than original, allowing him to reshape world to his will, and throw it into chaos.
vVip3rzzz
The second I saw map I was like oh I can see some fuckery with this because it was both simple and extremely vague. It’s always the vague abilities that be broken. Then again though double phantom hands does seem broke as all hell, but clearly map is the better option. It’s interesting to see that Will’s “build” is now branched into two kind of definitive sections. He’s got his short term power house build and his long term possibly “god level” build. It’s interesting because I imagine it’ll curve his power a bit for now and bring him down from the sheer Demi god status to keep the stories and stakes interesting. But best believe William Oh is on a scale and that scale in exponential :)
Doggo
some days i hope for a chapter and it comes out and when it does i feel like an oracle
Daemion
Yeah, no matter what he takes, it would end up broken and OP in the end... but only the map seems like an ability that gives him something no one else has. A basilisk's gaze is neat, but there are probably lots of monsters with such an ability around, so countermeasures exist. I've always been a fan of making "useless" or "weak" abilities work, be it in games or in stories. I hope Will is correct in his choice and will survive this coil.
Nyroe
William Oh something something map something something final destination.
Not_You
I love power being a trap. Information build!
Jake Malony
Nah this chapter was perfect. We/He knows they've been tried. Map is perfect. And very exciting.
Macronomicon
might be confusing it with another of mine. Most of my protagonists seek to make their own way through the world of magic, so i think i've had this particular theme/line of thinking more than once.
Hell 5pawn
Map's perfect. I like the reasoning. Edit: I goggled at the possibility of a mini-map because my gamer side squees in delight at what I consider a necessity.
Tom C
I’m getting deja vu… did he encounter this before and it was retconned out cos it was too powerful? Or am I just confusing another story with this one (it happens!) TFTC!
Ford-Thomas Frank Loveland
Deal lord that is gonna end up broken
Macronomicon
Bit short, sorry, but hopefully his justifications for passing on all those crazy-good Abilities are reasonable
