The Legend of William Oh

‘Level thirty is a big jump in power and flexibility for most climbers. It’s the first level where a Climber gets a Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary upgrade all at once, and it’s usually the only tertiary anyone ever gets. I was actually level thirty when-’

‘What’s Tershierry?’

‘Means third in line.’

-Gertrude, to a younger Will.

Will sat under a pile of bugs crawling across his skin, focusing on his new Abilities so he didn’t panic from all the things skittering across him, their proboscis dipping down to sip…something out of him. It didn’t bear too much thinking about.

Please choose a Tertiary Ability

Uru Breath (minor)

Active: 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.

Stone Charge

Active: 1 Charge, 20ft range. Coats the user’s body in stone armor and/or propels them forward at lethal speeds.

Venom strike

Active: 1 charge, Add a poison effect to the next attack with a slashing or piercing weapon. Scales with Acuity.

Mighty Leap

Active: 1 Charge, user’s jump distance is tripled for a single jump.

Prey’s Senses

Passive: The User’s field of vision widens, as well as minor improvements to their hearing and smell. Scales with Acuity.

Deceiver’s Molt

Active: 5 charges. Moderate Self-heal. User slips out of their skin and creates a decoy that can perform simple pre-determined actions. The decoy will retain any wounds the user has healed through this Ability.

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.

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.

Progenitor affinity

Passive: Further enhances the natural affinity scaled creatures have towards you.

Stubborn Ass

Passive: User’s Inertia becomes more difficult to change through outside forces, adding force to their attacks and resisting shoves and strikes.

Serpent’s Tongue

Active: 1 Charge

With a vile word of Eternity, extend the duration of debuffs on the target for (Acu/10) Seconds.

Gravity Charge

Active: 1 charge

The user’s personal gravity is oriented in the direction of the target for Resistance seconds. Ethereal horns grow from the user’s skull, and their brain, skull, and neck are strengthened against impact. Scales with Resistance.

Cancelable.

Blood Binding

Active: 20 Charges

Apply your tainted blood to a weapon to imbue it with a fraction of your nature. The weapon will warp fate to always return to you.

On Binding, one Ability will be randomly added based on the User’s Sacrifices. Only one Ability can be bound at a time, To re-roll the random Ability, Cast Blood Binding again.

Uru Drake’s Eye

Passive: Become able to see that which a Uru Drake Progenitor can. Dimensional effects, Charges and miasma become visible to the naked eye.

Serpent’s Gaze

Active: 1 Charge

Inflict (acu/100) seconds of Paralysis on a target you can see the eyes of. Acuity contested by Focus or Resistance, whichever is higher.

Astral Tread

Passive: A small doughnut shaped area of gravity below the user’s hands and feet becomes under the control of the user and can be used to push off of, or pull into objects and surfaces. Can provide a tiny amount of propulsion should the user be outside the range of any solid objects, such as underwater or in outer space.

The heck is outer space? Will thought, scanning the Ability. It seemed like it extended the effect of Aspect of the goat, allowing him to latch on to things and cling to them better, possibly even walking upside down on things, like the gravity goats were able to do.

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There were a handful of new selections since the last time he’d been offered new Abilities at level 20. Gravity Charge had been added, which surprised Will.

Maybe my Class learned it after using it for a while? Will mused.

One of the Abilities on offer, Molt, had been modified to Deceiver’s Molt, raising the price, the potency, and including a decoy effect.

Blood Binding was new, and it looked good. So good, in fact, that Will didn’t want to have it languish as a Tertiary Ability, forever unable to receive upgrades. It’s Relic-focused effect dovetailed in so nicely with his build design for Phantom Hand and Sourdough that he would kick himself forever if he took it as a stagnant tertiary.

That’s the problem, isn’t it? I need to pick something good, but also something I’m comfortable with never getting any better.

Gravity Charge was a good Ability, but Phantom Hand could move him around just fine as long as he was wearing the Ring of Eidolon.

Although, the ability to fly regardless of whether I have the ring is….pretty tempting.

Will added it to his mental list of possibles.

Deceiver’s Molt looked pretty good too. It had gone from minor healing to moderate healing, and included a decent way to recover or escape mid-fight.

Although, Will was plenty slippery even without a decoy, and the healing effect’s value was undermined by Sourdough keeping his Potions of Greater Healing refreshed, and being able to always keep one on hand with Phantom Hand.

Phantom Eye would let Will spy or use Phantom hand with precision from an outlandish distance, boosting the power of the Infiltrator portion of his Class. When he first was offered it, the speed of Phantom Hand wasn’t that high, and his Acuity wasn’t high enough for it to last very long, but now, it would last roughly two minutes, and could move at staggering speeds, allowing him to catch a glimpse of just about anything he wanted within a several mile radius.

Adding that to the list.

Serpent’s Gaze…Not bad either.

Serpent’s gaze had a lot of nerfs to make it less appealing, and it still was very tempting.

One second for every hundred Acuity seemed like almost nothing, but one second of paralysis was more than enough to perform a coup de grace or force an enemy to miss a critical step.

Will was fairly sure he could stab someone at least six times in one second.

The requirement of seeing their eyes was another nerf, and giving them the ability to resist with Resistance or Focus implied that it would be equally resisted by magic-users and warriors. No way to use it as a class-specific killer.

And still…

Will’s Acuity was outlandishly high for his level, and the only people likely to resist Serpent’s Gaze would be…Reggie, maybe? Reggie was a professional Tank, one of the only Classes that had four or more stat growth for Resistance. Even dedicated Ability Users rarely had more than three growth in Focus.

…could I use Serpent’s Gaze through the Phantom Eye if I got it as a secondary later? Will wondered, brows raising.

…Add it to the list.

Will was scanning back through and paused on Stubborn Ass.

Stubborn Ass would compensate significantly for his low Strength, making him harder to shove, and his attacks hit harder because it would artificially add force to his arms and legs.

It would be a good boost if he was planning on getting into a lot more close-combat fights.

Will added it to the list.

Titan’s Grasp…Will didn’t really want to add it as a tertiary ability. If it synergized with Phantom Hand that would be fantastic, but if it didn’t, then maybe there would be an upgrade that would allow it to do so. If he took it as a tertiary and it didn’t do what he hoped, he would be stuck with a non-synergizing Ability forever.

His tertiary Ability needed to be something that could stand on its own, or had inherent, obvious synergies.

Will scanned through the whole list again and then reviewed his list of possible choices and how they would affect his Build.

Gravity Charge:

Greatly increased mobility, and an alternate method of attack. (headbutts)

Phantom Eye:

Huge boost to stealth and information gathering abilities, allowing Will to deploy Phantom Hand in places he couldn’t actually see and scout dangerous locations without risking his own skin. The choice pushed his build further into the Infiltrator rogue Archetype.

Serpent’s Gaze:

Powerful, fight-ending combat debuff that could be used to dispose of mid-grade Climbers instantly. Ineffective against those that were much stronger than him and only useful in direct combat. Serpent’s Gaze pushed him in the direction of an Ability user.

Stubborn Ass:

Powerful boost to Will’s direct combat effectiveness, with utility for attack and defense, Stubborn Ass pushed him more in the direction of a pure warrior.

After some consideration, Will mentally crossed off Serpent’s Gaze. Perhaps he could take it as a secondary, especially if he already had Phantom Eye to boost its applicable range. It was just of limited use when punching up, and punching down was already easy enough. And there was no utility aspect to it. It was pure combat.

As good as Stubborn Ass was, Will had never wanted to become a pure warrior, so it simply didn’t follow the path that appealed to him.

That left Will weighing Gravity Charge and Phantom Eye against each other.

Gravity Charge was incredibly freeing, mobility-wise, and he could use it to cross vast distances in a short amount of time.

But…Aspect of the Serpent boosted his mobility, and it would likely continue to do so as he gained more and more power Resistance over time.

At the moment, Will could walk along any solid and even water. In the future, with the right upgrade to Aspect of the Serpent…he might be able to walk on air.

Which would diminish the relative value of Gravity Charge.

In the end, Will decided on Phantom Eye because it synergized directly with Phantom Hand, Uru Drake’s Eye and Serpent’s Gaze (if he ever got them) and gave him access to something he simply didn’t have, rather than giving him an upgrade on something he already did have, or something he could obtain without spending an Ability.

And it sounded like fun.

Will took a deep breath and selected Phantom Eye.

The Ability fell into place with barely a tingle, leaving only the inherent knowledge of how to use it fresh in his mind.

Phantom Eye

1->0 Charges remaining.

Will felt his stomach churn as he suddenly saw the world through another eye, making his vision overlap strangely, as if he had crossed his eyes.

Will closed his eyes and that helped bring the new image into focus.

It was an image that seemed to originate from his forehead.

With that brief thought, the image surged forward nearly a thousand feet, plunging into the ocean below.

Will jerked in place under the mass of insects draining his Miasma.

“Something wrong?” Loth asked.

“Just got Phantom Eye.” Will said, reeling the eye back in. “It’s a bit…touchy.”

“Ah,” Loth’s voice came from beside him. “Should’ve gotten Progenitor Affinity. Comes with a built-in army. And you could stand to be handsomer.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking.”

“I’m joking. Any of those choices would’ve served you well, because you’re you.”

“Even Stone Charge?” Will asked as his phantom eye was carefully reeled back through Shimmer, each individual cabin passing by in a flash until it stopped in front of him.

Wow.

“You would not pick something stupid like Stone Charge.” Loth said.

“Fair enough,” Will mused, viewing himself from an outsider’s perspective.

Have I aged? Will hadn’t had access to a good mirror since…ever. What he saw through the Phantom Eye looked like…

Well, it looked older than fifteen, but maybe that was the months of hard living, the loss of baby fat and innocence. That could account for a few apparent years.

Will didn’t feel like he’d changed, but he certainly looked like it.

Less innocent Aspirant, and more hardened Climber.

Will turned his head from side to side, inspecting himself. Poking his chin and cheekbones.

No, there’s still a little of me in there.

Will took a breath and opened his eyes, carefully staying as still as possible and focusing until the two points of view separated from each other in his mind.

His gaze was more piercing than he expected from a boy his age. More like someone who could and would kill someone who got in his way.

And I have. I could probably make the younger kids in the orphanage cry just by looking at them.

Will turned his attention to his real eyes, and saw that the Phantom Eye was as described, a faint floating orb with a goatlike pupil, only visible to Will.

Will turned his attention to Sourdough.

He’d reached the level 30 mark. He’d already sacrificed the Erosion Golem to it as soon as he got it, so the Ability could target and repair permanent Relics. All he needed to do now was find a Sacrifice that would allow him to modify the items instead of simply repair them.

Will had heard of some potential monsters in the floors above the tens, but sacrifices for them were exceedingly rare, so they’d likely have to get them themselves.

Which I guess means I could spend my Secondary Ability this time on something els-

KNOCK KNOCK.

Will sent the Phantom Eye through the door and spotted Anna on the other side.

“Reese says we’re almost there, you two!” The baker called before bouncing on the ball of her foot and spinning away to attend to something else.

Will didn’t have to take her word for it, because The System agreed.

Chum the waters.

An underwater city of Aluum tasked with protecting a Key point have begun performing ritual sacrifices in the beam. These particular Aluum have become unusually warlike, disrupting Climber activity across the 6^{th Floor. Investigate, cull any showing aberrant behavior and drive the rest away from the Key Point.}

Will rolled his shoulders. “You still feel good about doing this with no Charges?” He asked.

“Our Party is phenomenal. Let’s ride their coattails for once,” Loth said.

As soon as they left the room, Will felt a feverish heat as Miasma began to sink back in before it was sucked out by the insects covering him. Together the two of them headed to the quarterdeck, above where Reese was steering the ship.

From their vantage point, they could easily make out the distant beam of Miasma erupting from the water.

The water boiled with fishmen corrupted by the miasma.

‘tasked with protecting a key point?’ Will thought to himself as the boiling ocean began to stretch towards Shimmer.

That implied that these people had been civilians simply living around the key site before something had changed them into monsters.

Perhaps one of them had, in an effort to become stronger, violated taboo and bathed in the light of the beam, coming away stronger than all of his peers. Maybe it had even been fine for a while, but the corruption had eventually consumed him. Or perhaps others had sought to emulate his success, but hadn’t been so lucky.

I guess it doesn’t matter now, Will thought as his Party assembled at the bow to crush them.