Chapter 342 Midgame

***The beginning of the loop, William Oh***

Will stepped through the Door, and suddenly he wanted to kill someone.

But something else stole his attention immediately.

“Ah! What the f-“ Will rocked backwards as the map constantly hovering on the edge of his consciousness began to glow and flicker violently, instantly giving him a mild headache from the sheer brightness and amount of contrast.

It was as if he’d deliberately gone in and changed all the settings on his Map to make it scare the crap out of him. The contract on the land was turned way up so everything looked spiky, the miasma glowed an eye-watering unnatural color, while the saturation on everything else had been turned up as far as physically possible.

Will clutched his head while he mentally went into his map and starting turning the settings down, freezing when he saw the new entries in his legend.

Jason dead? Shapeshifter!? MINDWIPE!?

Oh, somebody’s gonna die, Will thought, orienting on the distant cave marked in his legend.

From what he could see, there were bones of hundreds of hapless climbers stashed away, hidden from the surface…but unlike the picture in his legend…no Jason.

***Jason Salazar***

Jason collapsed onto his side and curled into a ball as an overwhelming sense of dread filled his lungs, growing roots that pierced through his guts and rendered his limbs weak.

I’m gonna die. This is it.

I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna-

“AAIIII!” Jason shrieked as William Oh manifested out of thin air and jumped at him, carrying a wave of barely restrained power with him as he moved unnaturally smoothly through the air.

“Who are you?” Will demanded, grabbing Jason by his shirt collar before he could even think of scrambling backwards and dragging him up to eye level as the surrounding Climbers backed away.

“Wh-I mean, you know me, right!?” Jason asked.

Will’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced at the alarmed citizens of the Stronghold.

“Let’s take this somewhere else.”

Jason felt an invisible force wrap around him and carry both of them to Will’s tower.

They skipped the entrance and went straight to the balcony, which had a floor-to-ceiling shutter that raised with a pulse of miasma from Will’s left hand.

The sudden premonition of death looked like it might be coming true any moment now as Will regarded him with an icy expression.

“So you’re a shapeshifter, huh? Where did you put Jason’s body? Answer me or I’ll start peeling off fingernails.” Will said, sitting in a chair while the invisible force held

“…What?” Jason asked, his skin going cold.

Will stared at Jason in silence for a moment. The index finger of his ruined right hand tapping on the chair’s armrest was the only sign that he was anything more than a glaring statue.

“I’m Jason, so…my body is right here?” Jason said into the deadly silence.

“…Prove you’re Jason.”

Jason crossed the fingers on the hand trapped against his side and rolled the dice.

Withering Repudiation

513 Charges remaining.

“Your mom fucked a snake.”

Will winced as the psychic damage hit him. Jason didn’t follow up and allowed the Ability to fade.

“You could’ve just done a coin flip,” Will grumbled holding his head as the invisible forces holding Jason in place released him, allowing Jason to sit down on the chair facing Will. His knees were too wobbly to stand.

“Who runs the orphanage?” Will asked.

“Gertrude.”

“Who do I find the most annoying?

“Aside from me? Umm…Marissa.”

Will stayed silent for a moment before he spoke.

“You have Jason’s Class, Jason’s Abilities, and seemingly his memories.”

“Cuz’ it’s ME!” Jason shouted, throwing his hands up.

“So it would seem.” Will said, rubbing his chin.

“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on!?” Jason asked.

“No.”

“WHY?”

“Because if you’re not Jason, then revealing what I know will give away too much information. I will tell you that we seem to be dealing with someone or something pernicious on this Floor.”

Jason paused, frowning as a fancy word he’d never heard before crossed Will’s lips.

Is that actually Will?

“What, umm…what’s pernicious mean?”

“Sneaky, dangerous, and malicious.”

“Are you memorizing words to impress Loth?”

Will jumped out of the chair and punched Jason in the arm, immediately sending him back five years to the orphanage, causing him to reflexively yelp and flinch back.

Yep. That’s actually Will.

“Yes. You’re going to stick with me until we sort this out.”

“O-okay.”

“While we’re out and about, I want you to run your luck buff constantly. Luck is hard to plan around. We’re gonna light this bastard’s house on fire and see what rushes out.”

“O-okay.”

“And it doesn’t need to be said, but if you give me reason to believe that you’re not Jason, I’ll kill you.” Will added.

The author did not permit this reproduction from their posted chapter; the official page is where reading supports their continued work.

“Uhhh…so just…be myself and I don’t die?” Jason shrugged. “Sure, why not?”

Hand of Fate

512 Charge remaining.

“Alright, follow me,” Will said, turning towards the balcony.

“Where are we going?” Jason asked.

“To make some wanted posters,” Will said, rising into the air.

“Before we do that!” Jason interrupted. “Can we go to my house for some of my augury tools?”

Will’s brow rose.

“I’ll allow it.”

They sped down to Jason’s abode, mostly funded by gambling and nepotism.

“You need a maid.” Will said, scanning the room, which Jason was currently using only to sleep, and it showed.

“I’m not rich like you.” Jason said defensively as he brushed past Will, opening up his trunk full of goodies. “In fact, I think Hand of Fate wants me to-“

…Jason’s skin went cold.

“The Set is gone.”

“You probably gave him a hard time with it on, so he decided to steal it first.” Will replied from the doorway with his arms crossed. “I’m actually surprised it wasn’t stolen before this.”

“We’re near the temple of Holdna. They generally keep the peace.” Jason responded, digging deeper and pulling out his augury bag.

Will gave a wordless grunt of acknowledgement as Jason turned back with his leather bag.

“Before we get started,” Jason said. “I want you to understand that while a coinflip is almost a sure shot, my accuracy drops drastically as soon as I start adding variables. With a four-sided die, the chance of a miss is ten percent, and with a six-sided die, the chance is nearly a quarter.”

“Uhuh?” Will grunted.

“So I want you to promise me something.” Jason said.

“Wazzat?”

“You won’t kill me if something crazy happens or if we get a couple bad rolls.”

“I’ll take it under advisement.” Will said with a shrug as they left.

“Hey, don’t screw around with me, sometimes my Luck buff doesn’t work at all!” Jason called after him, hustling to catch up.

“That’s because you don’t know Hand of Fate’s end goal.” Will said.

“Eh?” Jason asked.

“How does your buff know what is ‘lucky’ for you and what isn’t?”

“I…thought it used my own interpretation.”

Will gently smacked Jason upside the head.

“If it did use your interpretation of ‘lucky’ you would’ve won the bet against me, remember? It knew the outcome before the outcome happened, so it must be deciding with some advanced knowledge of the future…or…”

“…Or?” Jason said.

“An end-goal.” Will said. “If Hand of Fate has an end goal in mind for you, it doesn’t need to know the far-flung future accurately, it simply needs to make simple decisions that nudge you closer and closer towards that goal. Having more money makes it more likely to hit that end goal. Being alive makes you more likely to reach it. Same with being healthier or more powerful. It feels like luck because it’s all good things, but it’s just ensuring your safety while guiding you towards a pre-determined outcome. Whether or not you think that final outcome is lucky is irrelevant.”

Jason’s hair stood on end.

“Hand of Fate’s end goal could be to have you die here today, or on the thirty-fifth Floor heroically sacrificing yourself to save my ass.”

Will turned and brandished his left hand before poking Jason in the chest with it.

“Don’t forget: Your Class has a part of me in it, so don’t be surprised if your ‘luck’ has something to do with my fate.”

Will shrugged.

“Or I could be totally wrong and Hand of Fate is actually omniscient and benevolent, and only wants what’s best for you…whatever that means.”

“Well, now I’m not sure if I wanna use these.” Jason muttered, staring at the bag in his hand, which had gained a more ominous nature since Will’s musings.

“Sometimes you gotta roll those dice.” Will said with a shrug. “We’re in such a shitty situation that as long as Fate doesn’t want you to die here, it should help us out.

“Agh, fine.” Jason reached into his back and pulled out a handful of dice before blindly tossing them out on the street.

Each die had between two and six sides, with words instead of numbers. Jason used to use them to plan a night out, until after he got a girlfriend and they stopped working.

Taking into account Will’s ‘end goal’ hypothesis, it could be because he no longer gained any benefit from going out to have fun, so the dice always led him to wandering around by himself in the wilderness.

Huh. Jason glance down at the bone dice –and one coin–, reading the words that were face up.

Here

Festivities

Do

“NOW!?” Jason demanded.

“What?” will asked.

“It says we should throw a party.” Jason replied. “Sorry, that was a bad roll, I’ll-“

“Nah. Let’s throw a party.” Will said with a grin.

Will expression sobered for an instant before he grabbed Jason and sprinted to the nearby tavern.

“Drinks are on me until the morning!” Will shouted into the tavern. The roar of approval flooded out into the street as people began trying to cram their bodies into the taverns.

“Bring some barrels out for the street!” Will shouted to the proprieter, who gave Will a deep scowl.

“Alright, what next?” Will asked.

Jason stirred his augury bag a bit before before reaching in and tossing out another handful of dice.

Good View

Friend

Do

Share

“It says we should share a good view with a friend? Or something like that.” Jason said, rocking back from the dice and rubbing his chin. “Keep in mind one of these dice is likely wrong.”

Will snapped his fingers.

“I got it.”

***Kyle Eggers***

“GODDAMNIT!” Kyle kicked his chair over, panting with rage.

Usually, when someone or something proved to be difficult, Kyle only needed to wait a couple loops for their bad feelings to fade after being out of danger for a time.

Once his prey was no longer on the defensive, he could approach them again and try a different tactic. Sooner or later he would find an avenue of attack that would allow him to consume them.

Five loops. Five FREAKING loops! I left that bastard alone for five loops and he keeps looking for me every time! And it keeps getting worse!

The Climber named William Oh was passing himself information somehow. They even made a wanted poster with Kyle’s face on it!

That shouldn’t be possible, according to what Kyle knew. Memories weren’t sent back to the beginning of the loop. Not for anyone but Kyle. That was how his Class worked.

Only festering negative emotions and…

Wait. There was that one guy?

A few thousand years ago, there had been a Climber who had become permanently alarmed because he had managed to gain a level against the local monsters during one of the loops.

From then on, at the beginning of each loop, he had been surprised and a bit suspicious that he was a higher level. After taking care of that, Kyle had made sure the local enemies gave next to no experience, in order to make the trap even more perfect.

That meant that all Classes retained information between loops, because The Tower itself was outside the loop. That was how Kyle remembered things, anyway.

That bastard’s taking notes with a System Ability! Kyle realized.

He knows he’s in a time-loop, doesn’t he?

I can’t keep delaying this any longer. I need to nip this in the bud.

***William Oh***

I’m in a time-loop, Will thought.

How many times have I done this now? Will thought, consulting his legend. According to his notes, he had been awake and aware for at least five loops, with possibly more before he had noticed and started taking notes.

Each recorded loop, he hadn’t encountered the one who had supposedly killed and replaced Jason and Badur. If Will had to guess, the creature was backing off to avoid revealing anything more about itself.

In a situation like this it was a battle of who could figure the other one out first.

They were at such a distinct disadvantage that Will would’ve loved to use his Lord privileges to buy them a Door, and he had tried,more than once, but another Lord was blocking it. Whatever their opponent was, it was also a Lord, and had somehow locked down the entire Floor.

According to his notes, this thing was a shapeshifter, but it wasn’t able to absorb memories or omniscient, so it would have to target individuals on the fringes of society and drag them to its lair where it needed to pump them for information about Will.

It seemed to like targeting Jason and Badur since they were integral to his Stronghold and emotional well-being. They knew a lot about Will too, but they were distant enough for their absence not to be noticed immediately.

Both male with slight builds so the shapeshifter could replace them easily as well.

So in the first recorded loop, Jason and I threw a party, made wanted posters of this guy and the party is how I discovered Badur was gone. There were a few hijinks but we narrowed down his location, and…time must’ve run out as we got close to the end.

The very next loop I immediately gathered up Jason and Badur and went towards where he should be but he’d abandoned the location.

Ever since the first recorded loop, Will had thrown a party every time, opening his tower’s store-room to get everyone inside Mason dead-drunk. He’d realized that the party was an excellent method to calm everyone down.

Can’t accumulate bad feelings when you’re unconscious from partying too hard. That should wet down the tinder this creep is trying to set on fire.

“What does it say we should do next?” Will asked, glancing over at Jason.

“Umm…”

Jason tossed a handful of bones out and read the results.

Death

Bring

Swiftly

Prepare

“…It’s bad.” Jason said. “It sounds like it’s going to attack us really soon and we should prepare.”

Will, Jason, Badur, Loth, and the others tensed up, turning their backs to each other and forming a small circle.

…

Nothing happened.

“It’s not always right.” Jason said apologetically.

No, I think it was, Will thought, modifying the settings on his map.