Chapter 16: Ants on a Log (Patreon)

Upon reaching the 2nd Floor, William Oh set about asserting his dominance on the local wildlife. Like a fairy tale princess, the local animals bent over backwards to cater to his every whim. The Rocs granted him their down to guard against the cold, the Kaith built him bridges so that he could survey his new domain.

Those disgusting Barnacle-looking things…stayed in their shells.

Yep, just like a fairy tale princess, all it took to get the local animals to fall in line was a light beating followed by a sound cussing. William Oh’s threats could make a veteran Climber’s heart explode in his chest.

-        Jason Salazar

To his credit, Will didn’t start flailing until after he’d gone horizontal and shown no signs of slowing down.

A world of sun, stone and clouds flashed around him as he felt his heels begin to scrape against the ground, drawn further off the cliff by his sheer momentum.

Panic springing forth in his guts, Will rocked his foot forward and dug his heels into the stone while his hand flung out, seeking purchase on anything he could find.

His hand seized on something with leaves, while his heels found miraculous purchase on the edge of the cliff, Aspect of The Goat exaggerating the footing and saving him from a sheer drop.

Will was, however, dangling upside down from a cliff face, with his back to the cliff, looking out and down at the miles of empty air below him.

This was not ideal.

“Bahahaha!” Loth guffawed as soon as he stepped out onto the cliff-face, looking down at Will and pointing as he did so.

“Rope please?” Will asked.

“I thought this was some kind of human custom you were doing.” Loth said as he unwound some rope from his pack, securing it to the cliff before tossing it down to Will. “But I never saw anyone else doing it.”

“No, just me dealing with some stuff,” Will muttered, grabbing the rope and beginning to pull himself up one-handed.

“…You wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe sometime when I’m not dangling above certain death.” Will replied, grunting with effort as he pulled his whole body up with one hand then released, reaching up to snatch the next handful of rope before gravity could take over.

“Fair enough…Gods, it’s chilly up here.” Loth muttered, disappearing above the cliff face.

Welcome to the 2nd Floor!

Miasma Acclimation: 2 days.

It is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Miasma acclimation period has elapsed. Side effects of doing so include fever, bulging bloodshot eyes, coughing, pustules, necrosis of the extremities, paraphilia, parasitic twin growths, and Death.

There is a Stronghold to your north, and a Key Site in need of clearing to your East.

Again, it is not advised to Ascend or Descend before the Acclimation period has elapsed.

“I always wondered why it took years for my parents to make the trip,” Will mused as he hauled himself back up onto the cliffside. “I guess I never knew that you had to take the same amount of time to go down too…”

Will frowned as he arrived at the top of the cliff, spotting Loth, with his hood up, drawn tight around his face until nothing was visible but the end of his muzzle. He was wearing a coat drawn from his supplies, and the kobold was tending a tiny fire on a round metal sheet while some of his hardier beetles brought bits and pieces of wood from nearby scrub and trees.

“Cold?” Will asked.

“Not good with it,” Loth admitted, adding some pre-made coals and folding a second dish of steel overtop, forming an almost flask-like shape before shoving the whole thing in his coat pocket, causing smoke to begin floating up from the kobold’s coat and over his shoulder.

Will tested the air with his finger.

“Can’t be colder than fifty degrees out here.”

“And that doesn’t bother you?” Loth asked, glancing over his shoulder at Will, who was still wearing his Cloak of Misty Escape which did little to warm him up, made of solidified vapor as it was.

Will shrugged. Aspect of The Goat made him adaptable.

Grumbling, Loth ushered his insects back into their barrel, then slipped a barrel cozy around it before picking up the entire thing and beginning to trudge towards the North.

That didn’t last long, as the land ended suddenly in a sheer cliff, separating them from their destination by hundreds of feet of open air.

They tried to find a way around, circling the edge of their mountain peak, only to find that they were cut off from any other land by at least a solid fifty feet.

After Will climbed down to investigate, he realized that they weren’t on a mountain peak, they were on a floating mountain in the sky, completely disconnected from their surroundings, so far above the ground as to call into question the very existence of ‘the ground’.

“Starting to understand why they can’t grow their own wheat on this floor,” Will mused to himself. And why the caravan needed so much rope.

“Which one?” Loth asked, scanning the surrounding floating mountains.

“That one looks like it abuts several others,” Will said, pointing to the Northeast It. was a little off-course from the stronghold, but it was in close proximity with several others, looking like it offered several paths to travel from.

Loth nodded and took his scaled hand out of his smouldering coat and fished out the head of a silk rope from his supplies.

His insects carried the rope across the gap, and the noose around Loth’s neck glowed faintly a moment before the spidersilk rope knotted itself around a thick pine.

They made their way across the bridge, the rope unknotting itself behind them with an application of Loth’s amulet before rolling up on its own.

They made it about fifteen minutes without incident before they saw the first sign of kaith. The second floor was their home, after all, so this wasn’t entirely unexpected. It was, however, a pain in the ass.

“So that’s what the bridges look like in daylight,” Will mused as they two of them crouched below the nearby ridge, peeking out only far enough to see.

The bridge seemed to be made of regurgitated wood pulp laced into an intricate organic latticework that stretched between the two floating mountians. It appeared as though the kaith had somehow pushed two closer together and then secured them using their bridges as fasteners, effectively joining the range of the two mountains.

That means that the cluster of mountains close together that we just entered is probably Kaith territory. That means the Key Point is probably Kaith territory.

“What’s the plan, fearless leader?” Loth asked.

Will shrugged, glancing down at Loth.

“Drop a rock on it?”

“Do you think we should secure a retreat route before we commit to an engagement with a swarm creature?” Loth asked.

“…Yes. I do think that.” Will said with a nod. “Let’s set up that bridge back the way we came, then see if we can’t pick a fight. Even if we can’t come this way, maybe we can get some grinding done.”

Now that they were on the 2nd Floor, their XP wasn’t being nerfed. Probably.

Following the tactics they had begun refining on the first floor, they created a path of retreat and lined it with traps before dropping a big rock on the bridge.

Rather than destroying the delicate-seeming bridge made of wood pulp, the boulder bounced off of it, causing a shudder to spread across the construction for a moment as the force dissipated through the arch.

If anything, it seemed to just piss the kaith off.

Dozens of workers seemed to materialize out of nowhere, charging toward the two of them.

Will used the trick he’d first discovered against the camel Boss, using his Phantom Hand to shoot tracers across their path, forcing the kaith to push their way through the curtains of fire and acid provided by the wristguard and his ring.

The good news was that they cut the kaith down like wheat, each wave dropping as they were pushed into the lines of fire and deadly traps, pushed by the one behind them.

The bad news was that there was always another wave, pushing with mindless ferocity to reach them, climbing over the bodies of their brethren with no regard for their losses.

Then the soldiers showed up, head and shoulders above the other bizarre insectoid monsters, with chitin armor and stingers to match.

“Maybe we should-“

“Right,” Will nodded, and the two of them turned and ran.

The traps left behind by Loth slowed the kaith enough to allow them to retreat back across the rope. Minutes after they cut the rope, the opposite cliffside was boiling with kaith.

You are now a level 6 Resourceful Climber!

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 6

7 + 4 Strength

18 Kinesthetics

21 Resistance

12 Focus

19 Acuity

Charges: 9/12

Free Points: 1

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Goat, Phantom Hand

Ability Upgrade Available!

“Level,” Will said aloud.

“Same.” Loth agreed.

“What’s the recommended level for fighting Kaith with a party of two without a combat class?” Will asked.

“What makes you think I know?”

“You don’t?” Will asked.

“For total safety, the recommended level for a direct confrontation is twenty-five, but many can and do fight them at lower levels, albeit in guerilla engagements.” Loth said with a sigh.

“That sounds about right,” Will mused. “In other news, I’m about to hit my double-dailies.”

“What should we do about that?” Loth asked, motioning to where the boiling mass of mutant insects was growing closer at a nearly imperceptible rate.

“They’re building another bridge!” Will exclaimed.

“Seems that way.”

“Bastards. Well…we don’t want to be here when they arrive, but we also don’t want to pass on easy XP. Let’s secure another path of retreat and then milk that bridge for every kaith soul it’s worth.

They found a less…insect-y path north, ‘bridged’ it, then doubled back and set up a shooting gallery while the Kaith continued mindlessly building their bridge towards them.

Will emptied out his good sling-bullets from the self-loading pouch and made due with the jagged half-fist sized stones that Loth’s insects dropped into the pouch.

Without having to worry about loading the sling or the pouch itself, Will was able to fling rocks at the kaith at a rate that most slingers could only dream of.

Since the rocks were uneven messes, Will’s aim was way off, but that didn’t matter so much, as the entire surface of the opposite bank was boiling with them.

The Greater Sting Ring caused each stone to melt several inches through the monster’s chitin, causing intense pain, and in some cases, instant death, if it landed near the spine or brain.

For a good hour, Will slung rocks at the kaith bridge-builders while Loth dropped huge rocks on them.

Due to the bridge still being new and uncured, without the support of an opposite bank, Loth was able to smash large portions of the bridge away, along with the kaith holding onto them.

“My insects can’t keep going.” Loth said as the unnatural sun began to dip below the cloud-covered horizon, casting them in shade. “It’s getting too cold for them.” Loth shivered. “Too cold for me.”

“Can’t be colder than…” Will licked his finger and felt his spit freeze on it. “Several degrees below freezing. Wow, I didn’t realize.”

“This rock is really comfortable…” Loth said, curling up around a lichen-covered rock, one arm around his barrel.

“Hey, don’t go to sleep!” Will shouted. It would only take a couple hours for the Kaith to finish their bridge unhindered.

“It’s fine, I trapped my bed,” Loth mumbled. “Shai-Lazu can’t get to me.”

“Godsdamnit,” Will muttered, packing up his gear before awkwardly picking up Loth and his gear and carrying him toward their path of retreat. He wasn’t naïve enough to think that the Kaith couldn’t track them if they crossed over onto another mountain, but if they did, that would be another two hours for Will to figure out a solution to their situation.

When Will arrived at the rope bridge they’d left behind, He skidded to a halt upon spotting the rope dangling slack, and across the gap was a fire with three Climbers sitting around it.

One of them noticed him, a man wearing hardboiled leather armor with a fur undercoat keeping him warm.

“Ho, the other side!” he shouted, waving, while the other three Climbers turned to look at them.

“Why’d you cut my bridge!?” Will demanded.

“Can’t make it easier on Kaith to take new territory, can we?”

His words sounded rational, but Will could hear the smile in his voice.

“I’ve got Kaith coming in behind me. Toss me a rope or something!” Will shouted.

“Toss us your weapons first! We can’t exactly trust a stranger in camp. ‘Specially not one with a Kobold companion!”

As far as Will knew, it was Climbers against The Tower, and anything less than total cooperation meant they intended to rob him.

He would become an easy meal.

And gods know how I feel about that.

“Oh, so that’s how you wanna play!?” Will demanded, inspecting the distance between them. About fifty feet across and maybe a ten-foot drop.

“That’s the rules if you want to cross, boy!”

Will shifted Loth to his other shoulder.

Loth would probably ask a clarifying question that highlighted exactly how stupid this is… Will thought. But what Loth don’t know…

Will whipped out a bullet, catching the fastest looking one of them on the leg.

“AGH!” The Climber doubled over as his leg began to smoke.

“That’s it!” A more lightly dressed Climber stood up and began to weave a glowing bead of flame between his fingers, gaze fixated on the two of them.

I think that officially establishes Combat.

Cloak of Misty Escape.

8/12 Charges remaining.

Boots of Outflanking Active.

Will broke line of sight with his targets, zipped to the side a bit and then made a harsh turn towards his target.

A ball of fire exploded, carving out a large chunk of the obscuring mist where they had just been.

Will got to full speed and jumped, the Boots of Outflanking living up to their Namesake as he crossed the fifty-foot gap and landed beside the Nuker. The lightly armored Climber’s eyes widened as Will skidded to a halt behind him.

Will flung Loth’s limp body toward the fire while Will capitalized on the remaining time on the Boots, charging toward the nuker at triple speed.

“Fu-“

The nuker held up a flat palm and a shield of shimmering light interposed itself between the two of them, deflecting the Serpent’s Axe.

The nuker’s other hand reached forward with a nasty-looking spell growing between his fingers. Will slapped it with his Phantom Hand, causing a gout of flame to erupt over the cliffs and out into the thin mountain air.

Will kicked the nuker in the knee, causing it to fold over backwards. The nuker went down with a scream until Will kicked him in the head.

“Try and rob ME!?” Will demanded, spit flying from his mouth as he rounded on the last unwounded Climber, The Serpent’s Axe rattling in his hand as it begged to be used. “I oughta gut the lot of you and hang you from the side of the mountain by your own entrails!”

The Climber glanced down to where his weapons lay beside the fire, his wounded companions, then at Will’s truncated hand. He raised his hands in surrender.

“You wouldn’t happen to be…William Oh, would you?”