Chapter 70: Round One

The day of the tournament marched towards them, but Will didn’t sit idle. Motivated by the fact that his life was on the line, he channeled all his energy into three things:#1: Power. Will bribed/coerced a few solo Climbers into giving up their spot in an upcoming Kaiju hunt. It was impressive standing at the knee of such monolithic beasts, but looking back on it, the fights were kind of boring. The mercenaries had developed a nearly flawless method of subduing them, strapping them to the ground with high-power restraining abilities and thick ropes, giving everyone present an opportunity to take an attack on the creature before it was executed. By doing this, Will was able to cross the boundary into Level 24. #2: Information. He needed to know his opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. This wasn’t some half-hearted attempt to fight in the tournament, test his strength for the fun of it and let the chips fall where they may. His life and freedom were on the line and there was no excuse. His first opponent was a chivalrous young man with brown hair and eyes, a little shorter than most with a Paladin Archetype and a deep-seated need to right the wrongs of the world. Apparently he had a very tragic backstory. The kind one might expect of the hero of a romance novel, who was destined to unite warring kingdoms…according to Loth. Will didn’t really read romance novels, and merely noted that he wouldn’t expect something he considered ‘cheating’ and mobility was not his strong suit. #3: Equipment. Will still had an empty finger in his Phantom Hand, and the idea of leaving it clear for a potential future was kind of meaningless if he didn’t win, so he bought a buckler that enhanced blocking and counter-attacks. He could always overwrite it if he found something truly epic to replace it with. In the meantime, it was advantageous to have another strength-boosting Relic effect he could swap to aside from the mutated Ring of Accuracy, since Will’s Strength was pretty damn bad. Once he sacrificed it to the Phantom Hand, Will checked his Build. It had become…complex. Item Abilities: Summon Undead retainer, Heal undead, 35% eidolon potency, 45% rogue Archetype potency, 50% Ranger archetype potency, Aetherhawk, Lightning Pulse, Wet footing, Homefield Advantage(Ice), Malleable Space 30% Trespass A/V dampening. Will thought as he inspected his Build. He had gone from a -3 bonus due to the falconer’s glove penalty, up to +14., which was a more than double-daily swing. Will sat down and did some math, multiplying his total Acuity, which was 110, by his bonus to Phantom Hand specifically. Since it was an Eidolon a rogue archetype ability, it combined the bonuses from the ring and his rogue gear (not multiplied), for an 80% boost to its power. Which meant instead of 1% increase in his slotted Relic’s potency per point of Acuity, he received 1.8%. Will scratched down the problem with one of the pencils that had mysteriously made it’s way into his room. He’d found himself doing a lot more math and writing than he’d thought he would when he started Climbing. Who knew a Party leader had to do math and write letters!? 110X1.8 equals…198. The interesting thing was that the three point Acuity bonus he got from the Wand of the Undead retainer did not benefit from the boosting effect that the other affixes of the wand received. It have raised the acuity bonus from +3 up to +8, which would have been enough for it to raise to +9… It seemed as though the System applied the bonus to Acuity he got from the item and added it to his total when calculating the slotted Relic’s other powers, but in exchange, excluded Acuity bonuses from benefiting from boosts. Which made sense as a simple way to prevent breaking The System by stacking Acuity on top of Acuity until it went supercritical. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. The System and magic as a whole had an energy source, which was Miasma. Anything that required an energy source couldn’t go infinite. If Wills stats were allowed to go infinite based on self-compounding stats like that, something would fizzle out and break long before infinite stats were achieved. In this case, the thing that fizzled out would probably be Will. Looking at his stats made Will consider. Thinking of it, Will itched his stump. In the weeks since he’d acquired the Axolotl Sacrifice, his missing hand had begun to… Currently, it was just a sore, itchy nub of bone that had begun growing out of his truncated wrist, stretching the scar tissue above it. The scar tissue itself was rapidly fading from the pale white of rapidly-healed wound to something more in line with actual skin. It was only half an inch of growth, but if Will wasn’t embroiled an avalanche of life-or-death bullshit, he would have been ecstatic. The timeline didn’t really matter as long as he got his gods-damned hand back. Of course, faster was better. He’d wanted to wear the Ring of Regeneration, but Loth Steve had told him it might weaken or malform the bone for it to grow back that quickly, something about the new bones needing to ‘experience range of motion’ as they healed rather than regenerating all at once as a fused together lump of bone. Plus, if they needed to make corrections to the hand as it grew, it would be easier if it was growing slowly. Apparently the hand and wrist had tons of tiny little bones and tendon attachment points, and even one the slightest bit out of place could cripple the hand and cause untold pain for years. And if he had to choose, Will would rather have a good, working hand, than a decoration. In the meantime, Will was keeping the regrowth concealed under a gauntlet strapped to his wrist. When it was fully grown, he could simply say that he’d paid a healer an exorbitant sum to replace the limb, and no one would suspect he could grow them back. Still, Will would rather keep it a secret. The fact that The Tower refused to relinquish his old hand…that information could be used to deduce the fact that his hand had been used as a Sacrifice before he even had a Class…and could lead to another avalanche of bullshit above and beyond the one he currently faced. When the day of the tournament rolled around, Will was as prepared as he could possibly make himself, and his first opponent was as as Will could possibly make him. For some reason, the young warrior’s inn had been haunted the last three days…strange sounds at night, things turning up missing. The usual. Will practically vibrated with nervous energy as he waited for the announcer to call them forward. He was so freaked out he actually missed the call until June tapped him in the shoulder. “Hey, you’re up.” She said, poking him. “Right.” Will took a deep breath and walked out into the arena, feeling as though he were a puppet on strings. The sudden brightness of noon blinded him and the roar of the crowd deafened him, rendering his whole world a chaotic wash of light and sound. In a moment, his senses adapted, and he found himself at the steps leading up to a square raised platform. He started climbing them, ending up facing a young man a little older than himself. Maybe eighteen? The announcer’s voice cut through the ocean of cheering. The crowd’s volume dropped to hushed whispers. While the announcer spoke, Will sized up his opponent. The young man was wearing cheap gear that looked a little threadbare, and despite the dark circles under his eyes, he had a determined fire in them. Whereas Will wore expensive Relics from head to toe, hiding his appearance beneath a pearlescent snarling Uru Drake mask. “I look forward to testing our mettle against each other.” Hiro said with a nod. “But be assured I will not go easy on you, because I cannot lose here! My friends are counting on me!” “Huh.” Will replied… Will preferred to think he was the one who was serious about winning. “Fighters, begin!” “I invoke the blessings of Granesh, god of Order!” Hiro said, raising his sword to the sky while Will looked on in bemused silence. “Helm of knowledge!” A glittering nasal helm appeared on Hiro’s head, with a large bar of steel covering the bridge of his nose, but leaving his eyes exposed. “Grants me the wisdom of the ancients!” Will thought, crossing his arms. “Sword of Truth!” the guy’s sword transformed into a glittering, fantastical version of his original sword. “Its light exposes the unnatural!” “Shield of Purity! Defends against the sinful! “Boots of the Zephyr! Grants me the swiftness of the wind!” Hiro must’ve finished applying his buffs, because he crouched down and lunged forward, the wings on his boots flapping to give him that bit of extra acceleration, his extended sword glowing with holy light that honestly hurt Will’s eyes to look at. Will thought, squinting. “Take this! Holy Smi-“ “Pocket sand.” Will said, pulling his hand out from where he’d dipped it into the magical pocket he’d stitched onto the front of his shirt and flinging it into the charging warrior’s eyes. Simultaneously, Will grabbed Hiro’s lead foot with the Phantom Hand, tripping him and turning the headlong charge into a dive. 61/62 charges remaining. The arena snapped to pristine ice in the blink of an eye, and the blinded, flailing Paladin Archetype flew past Will and slid off the edge of the platform. “And…the winner is…William Oh…by ring out, using a combination of throwing sand into his opponent’s eyes and turning the floor into ice. Let’s umm…give him a hand…I guess?” The surrounding crowed muttered to each other, an ominous sound that spread across the arena like a disease…but Will didn’t bother concerning himself with it. Again, he would die or be enslaved if he lost a single match, so being a good sport or giving people a show wasn’t high on his list of priorities. “The Baron has weighed in and declared that yes, sand counts as a weapon, and would like to remind contestants that if Relics of legendary power that can produce blasts of fire or inflict psychic puppeteering are allowed, what’s a little sand? Nonmagical goggles are cheap and plentiful, folks.” Will glanced up and searched the stands, finding an oversized booth where the Baron Akul sat in the center, grinning from ear to ear. Real battle didn’t have rules, so they must’ve been trying to get as close to a ‘real’ battle as possible for this tournament. Will gave the Baron a bow and stepped off the stage, walking past Hiro, who appeared to be trembling with rage, but didn’t act on it. “Stevie. Billy-bob.” Will said as he stepped inside the fighter’s waiting area. “Yes sir?” the spirit butlers asked, peeling out of the wall. “Whoever my next opponent is, go to their house and make sure they don’t get any sleep tonight, and if they’re unwise enough to take any of their kit off before bed, make sure a critical piece is misplaced.” The undead butlers shared a nearly identical sour face at the underhanded actions, but they’d already expressed their distaste for ‘rogue’ work, and Will had already explained the severity of the situation they were in. They disappeared into the wall. Having intelligent minions capable of independent action and critical thinking was a game changer. “You realize that’s the only person who will fall for the ‘sand in the eyes’ trick?” Loth asked. He glanced down at her. “I’m counting on it.” He only had to win five more rounds. He had plenty more tricks. Searᴄh the novёlF~ire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.