Chapter 36: Fancy Inn

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 By all accounts, this is where he 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 2nd 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. 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. Steve mused to himself. He’d been here for several 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. Steve thought, popping another grape in his mouth. 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, Will said, unwrapping Loth from a cloth swaddling he’d wrapped around his chest. The black kobold was 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 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 Loth’s body was suffused with Andover’s grace, and the burns across his entire body began to fade. “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. Steve thought sourly. ***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. 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 could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Ability Upgrade Available! (X2) Secondary Ability Available! All of Will’s gear save for his amulet and rings were missing. Will thought, leaning back against the headboard with a sigh as he spotted his gear against the wall. 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. Will thought, thinking back to Loth’s attack that absolutely wrecked the Climber he’d been fighting. 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. Will frowned. It had a (minor) tag which was the universal sign that he could upgrade it at level 20. But…did he really want to spend all of level 11-20 with what was essentially an expensive debuff cone? Will thought, inspecting the effect. It probably wouldn’t be anything he took, but it was interesting he was being offered it. Passive The User’s field of vision widens, as well as minor improvements to their hearing and smell. Scales with Acuity. 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. Will thought, even though he was pretty sure he wouldn’t take it. Further Was it implying there was some affinity there already? It said ‘progenitor, like the Progenitor Uru Drake. A fringe benefit, perhaps? 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. Will got out from under the silk covers and paused. 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… 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 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. 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. “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 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. 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 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. seaʀᴄh thё NôᴠelFirё.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.