Will thought his entrance was pretty cool and intimidating, so he wasn’t expecting the entire gambling hall to erupt into raucous laughter.

“Look at the balls on this one!” someone cried through the din.

The laughter continued for a good five seconds until a massive granite slab of a man raised a single hand, and the seemingly uncontrollable gales of laughter cut off like someone had slammed a door on it.

“William Oh, I presume?” The fellow asked, voice gravelly.

“Yup, so my associate and I were looking at the grinding map today and-“

A high-pitched shriek cut Will off as a man lunged back from where he had tried to reach behind the bar for a weapon only for his hand to get cut off by a Blessed Steel wire.

A cold quiet settled into the bar as the hyperventilating veteran slipped out of his shirt and began wrapping it around his arm.

The men’s grins faded to nothing, and while nobody moved, the tension ratcheted up to suffocating levels.

“Oh right. My associate trapped the place to prevent anyone from getting any ideas.” Will said. “Take the hand with you, it’s still technically yours.”

“You fellows have to understand:” Will continues. “I’m not going to commit fraud, give false testimony, or deprive anyone of their life, property or freedom…I’ll let you take your balls with you on the way out. Maybe someone can reattach them. Maybe all the healers in Bakton Keep are conveniently booked solid today. Who knows?”

“…Take a seat.” The massive man said, motioning to the table.

Will, Loth, and the apparent leader of these men sat down across at the table.

“My name’s Sammohan Cleophas, level fifty-three Mercurial Prospector.” The man said, offering his hand.

Will only had one hand and offering it for someone else to crush while they punched him with the other was not something he wanted to risk. They might be talking softly, but Will could hear their knuckles popping around hidden weapons, hearts thumping.

Will stared at the offered hand until it was withdrawn.

“William Oh, level thirty-eight Resourceful Climber.”

“Loth the Luminary, Level thirty-six hive-Wielding Saboteur.” Loth said.

“William, Loth, if you’ve come to settle a bet, you’ve come to the right place.” Sammohan said, gesturing to the surrounding gambling hall. “How can I help?”

“So we asked around for a bit. Didn’t take long to figure out that the owner of a gambling hall named Sammohan had taken up all the good grinding spots for the day, leaving three isolated pockets of forest that we could go to. I bet my friend here that it was a ploy to scalp grinding spots.”

“And I bet it was a trap so you could kill us and take our stuff.” Loth said.

“Naturally, scalping isn’t illegal, just highly immoral, so you can admit it and we can’t justly kill you, since it was just some harmless hustle.

On the other hand…” Will said, raising his stump.

If they admitted to trying to kill them, Will and Loth could engage in some good-old-fashioned pre-emptive self-defense. Like when they hit the Fourth Floor.

And if they said nothing, then they were 99% of the way to admitting it.

“Hah!” Sammohan barked a laugh. “You’re both wrong.”

He gestured to Will. “Why would you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Word is you made a Set from scratch. We were going to capture you and force you to make Sets.”

Will sat and considered for a moment.

“So I’m pretty sure it’s closer to scalping.” Will said.

“Nuh-uh, it was a trap they were going to spring on us. Capturing you through force.”

“But the method of extracting value is pure extortion, which is an escalation of scalping.” Will said. “You just thought they were going to kill us and take our stuff.”

“They were gonna kill everyone else!” Loth said.

Will sighed. “Damn, you win.” Will handed Loth the voucher for 40 ten-pieces with his signature on it.

I’m out eighty already.

“Your mistake was betting against me.” Loth said, taking the voucher with a dainty claw-pinch.

“So, how should we handle this, Mr. Cleophas?” Will asked, glancing up at where the behemoth of a man was watching them, resting his chin on his palm.

“I mean, you’ve got justification to start a fight, and I don’t think you’d catch too much heat if you killed me.” Sammohan said. “But you seem like a smart kid. Do you really think you could win?”

Will scanned Sammohan, noting the Relics he had on his fingers and neck before widening his gaze to the dozens of other Climbers surrounding them.

“Absolutely.” Will said. “No question.”

“Pretty confident, aren’t’cha?”

“You need proof?”

Sammohan tapped his fingers against his cheek as he stared down at Will.

“Sure. If you can beat me without your Set, we’ll acknowledge that fighting you is a bad investment, and make a profitable concession to you. Nobody else has to get maimed.”

“And if I lose?”

“Well, then we know you’re full of hot air, and will treat you as such.”

“So you’ll keep trying to pick away at me outside the Keep, huh?”

Sammohan shrugged. “Maybe.”

…Seems like a convoluted way to try and steal my Set.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

On one hand, Will didn’t want to let his opponent set the terms of engagement. That seemed…stupid.

On the other hand, you could drown in the machismo swirling around the room. If Will said no and just crushed Sammohan here and now, they’d be afraid of him, sure, but they’d respect him less.

“I have a condition.” Will said.

“Shoot.”

“Every single person who went with you on your little expedition this morning has to watch the fight, from beginning to end. They can wear whatever Kit they like, but they are doing so with full knowledge that they may lose it, or be…harmed.”

Sammohan’s lips twitched in a smile for a moment.

“Deal. Tomorrow, at the arena. I don’t want you busting up my bar.” The massive bandit offered Will his hand again.

Will took it, and they shook once. The Debt around them took notice.

“…Why not just kill them all? They’re gonna cause problems again for other people.” Loth asked as they left the gambling hall.

“So are whoever eventually takes their place,” Will mused. “They’ve got Advanced Classes. They represent a strong fighting force. It would be a waste not to extract value out of them. I’m thinking if I make a strong enough impression, these goons might be quite the allies.”

“Hmm…” Loth rubbed her chin. “It would have to be quite the impression.”

“Oh, it will be,” Will said with a grin.

The next morning, Will allowed the Debt to tug him along to the Bakton Keep arena. It was much smaller than the one in Akul, barely more than a courtyard with seating for a couple hundred rather than tens of thousands.

Will went in through the main entrance and gave the clerk there his name. The clerk then gave him short directions to the fighting pit. There was no underground waiting area, just a small locker that smelled of sweat with a short walk out into a dirt pit, rather than a stone platform.

Despite all of that, Will could feel that the arena was higher quality. The dirt pulsed under his feet, smoothing out his footsteps as he passed. The stone wall around them felt heavier to his senses, laden with magic and strong beyond belief.

Despite being smaller, this arena was built for level 45’s and above to cut loose.

Sammohan Cleophas stood on the other side of the arena, wearing a mining helmet, a pickaxe over his shoulder, and a lantern on his hip. His rings and necklace were concealed by a suit of inordinately heavy armor.

Hmm… Gonna have to peel him out of that. I can’t see his jewelry slots, which will make it harder to get them off him. At least at first.

“Packing a lot of heat for someone fighting a kid,” Will said as he arrived in front of Sammohan. Off to the side, the Lord of the Keep was reclining at ground level, eating some kind of meat, waiting for the fight to start.

Apparently, this was the most interesting thing going on for him today.

“Good morning, Lord Bakton,” Will waved to where the Lord of the Stronghold was sitting.

“Hi Will. You seem to have a knack for getting in trouble. Been practicing?” Bakton asked.

“Not as much as I should,” Will admitted. Most fights ended pretty quick, after all. The Lord clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“I guess we’ll see.” Bakton said, leaning back in his chair. “This should be good.”

“What’s this?” Sammohan asked, pointing at Will’s outfit. “You’re still wearing your Set. That mean you’re backing out?”

“This,” Will said, removing his mask and tossing it aside, “Is a statement.”

Will unclasped his cloak and tossed it over the mask, followed by his weapons, shoes, and pants.

Will felt weird wearing underwear and a shirt with no pants, so he took off the shirt, tossing it aside too, leaving his chest feeling the sun and breeze.

William Oh

Resourceful Climber Level 38

39 + 10 Strength

117 + 15 Resistance

114 + 10 Kinesthetics

148 + 14 Acuity

76 + 15 Focus

Charges: 87/91

Free Points: 0

Non-stat Item Abilities: +10% Rogue Archetype potency, +35% Dimensional Ability Potency. +30% to move/attack. 40% chance to apply Lightning on hit. Homefield Advantage.

Coiled Strike, 70% Audiovisual Dampening while trying to hide.

Phantom Hand Slots: (Ring of Accuracy*) (EMPTY) (Wand of the Undead Retainer) -(Stormfists)- (Dimensional Coiled Serpent Amulet)

Primary Abilities: Aspect of the Immortal Serpent**, Phantom Hand*****

Secondary Abilities: Sourdough**

Tertiary Abilities: Phantom Eye

“There,” Will said, holding out his arms. “I’m not wearing any of my Set.” Will had wanted to use the Coiled Serpent Amulet, but the Floor itself seemed to think that was still part of the Set, even though it’d been consumed by an Ability.

That was why his stats were so low. He’d bought the meager Rogue archetype ring he’d been debating purchasing earlier to shore up his Phantom Hand, but it only granted a ten percent bonus and three Acuity and Kinesthetics. Nothing outrageous.

Beyond that, Will was wearing the Amulet of the Homefield Advantage, his Bracelet of Twisted Space, and that was it.

“Bring it.” Will said, gesturing for Sammohan to come to him. “I’m going to show all of you exactly how it would’ve gone if the lot of you ambushed me.”

Will saw a moment of hesitation pass through the man’s eyes. Wondering if he’d bitten off more than he could chew.

The giant was wearing heavy armor and a full kit while Will was wearing next to nothing. Even if Sammohan won, it wouldn’t mean much to the audience. And if he backed down now…It would be devastating to his reputation.

Machismo dictated that Sammohan lose the armor.

“BAHAHAH!” Rather than match Will’s state of undress, Sammohan broke into a laugh, charging forward.

Will made the polymorphic armor on Phantom Hand tangible and used it to punch Sammohan dead center in the chest, sending him hurtling backwards.

Phantom Hand then grabbed the Mercurial Prospector by the heel as he flew and flung him straight up, sending him sailing upwards until he vanished into the unnatural blue sky.

I said they could wear whatever they wanted, so surely some of them would’ve come armed for a fight…there we go.

Will picked one with some decent-looking kit and snagged them out of the crowd, reeling them from the stands into the arena proper, slamming him into the ground hard enough to kill a non-Climber.

I’ll just borrow this. Will thought, snagging the groaning man’s headband and donning it.

Headband of Processing

+8 Acuity

+3 Focus

Increase the wearer’s parallel processing. Scales with Acuity.

“Thanks,” Will said, tossing the stunned man aside.

Phantom Eye

86 Charges remaining

Will sent the Phantom eye upwards and looked down at himself to watch his own back.

He spotted deformations in the dirt behind him as some Rogue archetype took advantage of the sudden free-for-all nature of the fight, sprinted up behind him, totally silent and invisible.

Will created a buckler from Phantom Hand’s armor and caught the attack, interposing the buckler where he could feel the air moving out of the way of the strike.

The rogue turned visible and Will met the man’s wide eyes for an instant before Phantom Hand’s armor wrapped around and crushed the hand wielding the dagger, causing it to drop into Will’s hand.

“A battle is another form of conversation! Make a bold statement! Did I teach you how to fight or what!?” Lord Bakton shouted as Will inspected the dagger.

Is he drunk?

Blade of Frenzy

+5 Strength

+3 Acuity

Each attack made with this weapon gains 5% extra damage for each preceding strike within 5 seconds.

Will didn’t remember Bakton saying anything like that, but it seemed like good advice. He wanted these men to be afraid of him.

Will grabbed the dagger with Phantom hand and whipped it into the audience at full speed, dragging it through the stands so fast that it made a sharp crack sound, like a whip.

The first dozen or so people only got nicked, but by the time the dagger did two full circuits around the stands, people’s limbs were being viciously maimed, as the dagger had made somewhere near two hundred separate attacks.

“THERE!” Bakton shouted, making an impatient gesture. “That’s a bold statement!”

In the middle of the carnage, Phantom Eye spotted a flicker of something above him, and Will lunged backwards.

An explosion clouded the arena for a moment before a shiny metal form pulled itself out of the crater where Will had been standing, a ripple of mercurial metal seemingly oozing outward in every direction-

No. He’s not oozing, he’s transmuting the floor. Interesting.

Sammohan glanced around, studying his men moaning in pain and applying first aid to the dozens of various wounds inflicted in the ten seconds he’d been gone.

“This is how it would’ve gone, huh?” Sammohan asked, tearing his gaze away from the wounded, settling back on Will.

“It would’ve been worse.” Will said.

Without further discussion, Sammohan charged forward.