Chapter Twenty-Four

Although he had gained plenty from his training, Will hadn’t forgotten about the others in his time. He’d traded and fought for something that each of them could use to improve their own effectiveness, something that would help propel them with him to Floor 4. He handed them out from his Spatial Ring, revelling in the excited expressions of everyone – even Okembe looked intrigued, and Will gave him a wink as he handed over his gift.

Unk was the first to react.

“Elite Class Guide? What’s this?”

As Okembe unfurled the new pair of enchanted robes (which, among other things, would no longer need him to stitch them if they ripped, thanks to paying a Wizard to make them self-repairing) and thanked Will politely, Daphne snatched the book from Unk’s hands and tried to open it. Of course, as the gem on the cover was red, she couldn’t force the pages to separate.

“If you read that, you’ll evolve your Defender Subclass to Bulwark. It’s one of the Elite Classes that are available on this Floor, and I think it might be one of the best ones for you. Obviously, I expect there will be others later in the Tower, so if you want to wait and see that’s totally fair. But the unique ability of Bulwarks is that they can link themselves to their party members and take damage for them, which I thought would be especially useful since we have Daphne and Met who are both fairly squishy.”

Unk grabbed him in a trademark bear hug, and he allowed himself to be mushed against the man’s armoured figure. He had been forced to sell information to a man he knew was working on behalf of the US Government to acquire the Guide, since he lacked the requirements to earn it himself. He seemed okay, but his team were farming Class Guides and low level Items, clearly to fund a large-scale expedition in future. Few of those made it too far without either quitting, dying or deciding to become true Climbers, but especially for Will’s nascent Clan they could be an inconvenience.

“This is perfect, thanks son. Knew it wasn’t a mistake to come back.”

Metrodora was admiring the bandolier he’d bought, connecting each space to her Spatial Bag to ensure that it would automatically refill with the appropriate vials as she used them. Okembe had already put his robes on, and was admiring the stitching, and Daphne was looking curiously at him while holding her gift.

“That Glacial Fortitude Skill doesn’t have requirements, and it’s one that a Summoner wouldn’t normally access as far as I can tell. If you practice with it a bit, you should be able to activate it quickly enough to avoid being injured by things like that icicle. You and Met are our most vulnerable members, and you get more into the mix of combat than she does, so I figured it suited you. Killed the Yeti Lord for that one!”

That turned the conversation into a discussion of how Will had acquired all of these gifts, but he stopped everyone before they got carried away.

“There’s one last thing.”

He pulled a small Spatial Pouch from his Ring, and the party gave him a puzzled expression until he reached in and drew out an instantly recognisable item.

“Wait is that-”

“-a Key Piece?”

Unk and Daphne finished each others’ sentence, and Will gave a sober nod.

“Yeah. You all heard about those thugs I dealt with the other day right?”

“Brunjar told us that you handled some thieves, much like Jackal.”

Will nodded at Okembe’s words.

“Well, after I handed them over to the PETEF guys, they let me keep the Items we took from them. One of them was this. I’ve been asking around, and it seems like nobody has seen the Hunter Squad in over a week. I can’t prove it, but I think those thugs must have either forced them out of the Tower or worse, because this is the Desert Key Piece and the bandits were no-way strong enough to handle a Boss. While I’d have given it back if the group that earned it were still around, they aren’t. So I say, we hit Zones 2 and 4 as hard and fast as we can, and we get to Floor 4 ASAP.”

Nobody had come back after their break with any other desire, so it didn’t take much convincing. Okembe did raise the question of if missing out on the other loot and experience would be wise, but Will was confident anything they missed out on by skipping the Zone was minimal.

They spent a day and a half planning for the Zone, and the other half a day training in the earlier parts of it to get used to each other and their new gifts. Will had “found the trigger during the month” so it was just a matter of navigating to the Jungle Temple and making their way through it to the Boss Room. As they handled final preparations and headed to the gate, Will caught something out of his peripheral vision that made him stop and turn.

“Blanik, come out.”

A moment passed, and then the teenager stepped from behind one of the huts with a guilty expression on his face.

“Please sir, I won’t be any trouble, I just want to see you fight again!”

Before Will could reply, Metrodora had stepped up beside him.

“Oh, is this that kid you told us about? I can see why you said he wasn’t worth fighting!”

“Hey! I’ve got a Subclass, same as you!”

Will nodded at that, inclining his head to the group who’d now stopped to see what was going on.

“This is Blanik. He’s not on our level, but he’s got some potential. I’ve only heard about a handful of other people with the Acrobat Subclass, and they all had well above-average Agility and Reflex.”

His words caused Blanik’s chest to puff, and the boy got enough confidence to step forwards.

“I can help! I...I overheard your planning and you said that where you’re going is full of traps! I have a disarming Skill!”

A trap disarming Skill? On Floor 3? Either he’d saved his Skill Points and bought it, or he’d found it somewhere. If Will had come across a Guide for something like that he’d have bought it himself, but it wasn’t on the Fighter or Enhancer lists.

“Wait, what Skill?”

“Light-Fingers, it was D Rank but I got it up to C and made it Featherlight Fingers!”

He sounded proud, and Will understood why. Light-Fingers was a staple of the Acrobat Subclass, and though it did assist in disarming traps it was mainly aimed at improving use of thrown weapons. Having not only figured out how useful the Skill was in dealing with traps, but managed to upgrade it despite having his progression stunted by the bandits was a very respectable move.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“It’s not safe. If you eavesdropped on our planning, you should know we’re expecting a very tough series of fights. We can’t guarantee you’ll make it back out, because we can’t even guarantee that for ourselves.”

[Are you certain that bringing him with us was wise? Okembe]

[I was outvoted. Will]

The only issue with trying to build a party of equals was that it limited his ability to enforce orders, and honestly he hadn’t been inclined to fight this particular battle too hard. Blanik’s Skill could be useful, and he had higher Agility and Reflex than even Will thanks to focusing exclusively on those two Stats since the first Floor. Plus, with the team not having any physical ranged damage, or anyone skilled in Stealth, he could fill a niche.

“Okay, Blanik, this is where you come in. That path up ahead is absolutely littered with tripwires and pressure plates. Be very careful.”

The teen crept forwards slowly, total focus on his expression, Unk nudging Will quietly and whispering.

“I’ve linked to him, so he should be okay.”

“Okay, then stick with Met in case you need healing.”

Blanik was using one of his throwing knives to carefully unwind a tripwire from a stake, preventing it from sending a cascade of stones crashing onto their heads from the trees above. Although he was tiring quicker than the others, and in a fight he basically disappeared and occasionally tossed in a dart or knife, he’d allowed them to progress through the trap-filled area around the Jungle Temple twice as quickly as if Will had been handling it.

“Okay, you can move up to here. I’m not sure how to handle this one though.”

They followed Blanik, stepping where he indicated, and arrived in front of a web of vines that blocked their way. As Will focused in on the area Blanik was pointing to, he could see a series of wires interwoven with the vines in a way that would be almost impossible to disentangle.

“Okay, Met, send your bird over and make sure the Temple is on the other side. Don’t want to waste our time on a false entrance. Unk, link me. Okembe, be ready to pull me back if I call for it, and Blanik stick with me. Everyone else back up at least 10 steps.”

He’d planned as best he could for this part of the trip. In the first timeline, by the time he came to the Floor there were Clan-operated teams that would take you to the Bosses to Clear them for a fee, and they’d had a Trapsmith guiding them through to this one. The man had waved a hand and the whole vine network collapsed, the web of traps simply deactivating. Will, on the other hand, had worked out a theory on how to disarm the thing but was mainly planning on using Verten’s Vitality, his Items and Unk’s Bulwark Skill to take whatever damage he incurred. With Blanik though, it might actually be possible to make it through without depleting their resources and forcing a few hours of recuperation.

He began pointing out key connections and areas where the wires linked together. Making noises like he was working things out for the first time, he indicated a particular spot to the teenager.

“Cut that when I say so, and then cut this and this. You need to be quick, if you don’t cut the other two fast enough then we’ll be hit with a fireball.”

Blanik gulped, but his hands were steady as he prepared his knives for the order.

“Okay, now!”

No fireball launched itself from the trees to incinerate them, and Will was able to stop the earthquake trap from triggering. As he moved his knife to the last wire he needed to cut quickly though, he fumbled just slightly and heard the hiss of a dart trap firing. It was more of an annoyance than anything else, given that he had sufficient Endurance to ignore the weak poison, but as he was about to turn his head to dodge, Blanik tackled him out of the way and took three darts in the back.

Behind them, the vine network rustled and shook ominously, and then snapped apart.

“Bulwark’s Might!”

Unk’s shout rang through the jungle as he put his shield up, and a wave of golden light in the shape of the shield launched itself out from his position, swelling and causing the barrage of hooked spears that fired towards the party to be snapped and deflected away. Will groaned slightly, having banged his head against a rock on the way down, and looked at Blanik.

The boy was twitching, lying on the ground with his simple thieves’ robes pierced by three of the poisoned darts, each jammed deep into his body.

“Met, antidote.”

A cool glass vial was pressed into his outstretched hand, and he turned the teen over with one hand.

“Did…I save you?”

Will raised an eyebrow at the words of the half-delirious Blanik, and gave a slight nod.

“Technically, yes.”

As Will was uncapping the potion and going to administer it, the teen broke into a crooked smile as foam bubbled from the corners of his mouth.

“Worth it then. Repaid you.”

Will let out a small chuckle as he realised what was happening.

“You’re not dying kid, drink this.”

5 minutes of Blanik vomiting and shaking followed, after which he was two things. One, perfectly healthy. Two, very embarrassed.

“I thought the darts were going to kill you, and you weren’t reacting…”

Daphne was the first to realise what had happened, and she broke out into peals of laughter. Unk caught on and began to chuckle, and then Metrodora followed. Okembe just gave a wry smile.

“Well it was very honourable and noble to take the darts for me, but it was unnecessary. I’m tougher than I look, Unk had linked me, and even though you have more Reflex than me I still had enough to dodge those things. Plus, we’re not newbies. We knew we’d face poison, and we brought antidotes. Don’t go getting yourself poisoned for fun, but we aren’t just going to die because we made one mistake.”

The blush in Blanik’s cheeks made Daphne double over laughing again, and Will just shook his head.

“Great reactions with the defence by the way Unk. I knew that Class would suit you.”

The man thanked Will for the compliment, and once he’d convinced them all to calm down and get serious, they passed the now destroyed vine network and stepped into the entrance to the Jungle Temple.

“Okay, this is as far as I got on my own. More traps, maybe some monsters, and then a Boss room.”

There were only two chambers between them and the Jungle Serpent. The first was more of a hallway, and between him and Blanik the traps should be easily ignored. The one after that would be a fight, but he was confident they had it handled between the 6 of them.

“Let me go ahead here, just in case. I’ll keep Alacrity on so I can move out of the way if needed.”

Blanik tried to protest, but the others all agreed without hesitation. Unk had still linked him, but he told the man to switch to Daphne and Metrodora for the rest of the Zone. He could deal with being injured, but they were both still vulnerable enough that one trap might be fatal.

“Okay, I can already see the first dancing blade trap. I’ll get through, see if I can disarm it. If not, you can follow, Blanik.”