Chương 218: Chapter 294: Dragonkind

To the esteemed Carrie Envar I was disturbed to hear of your troubles on the 14 th Floor. Of course, I'm sure that you and William Oh did your best, but as is often the case in life, the best efforts of men go unrewarded. It grieves me to hear about the struggles of the promising young Lord who gave such a grand showing in the Tournament. Because of the blows your Stronghold has suffered, I have found myself in the perfect position to give aid.

I'd like to meet in Akul to discuss a business opportunity that both of us may benefit from. Marksman Ring of Dragonkind 12 Strength 16 Resistance 4 Kinesthetics 8 Acuity 15 Focus 35% resistance to energetic damage Active: Dragon Breath 1+ Charge Breathe a cone of flames. Damage and size scales with Charge spent. Dragonkind Set: Aspect's environmental resistances now include aging, hunger, and miasma sickness (1 item)"Oh look, immortality," Will mused deadpan, studying the set effect.

Not aging sounded great and all, but it really didn't DO anything for him. The Storage capacity of Phantom Hand increases by 5000% (2 items) Map passively applies the effects of Sourdough when allies use consumables within range. (3 items) It's good, but it's not something I'd build my entire kit around, Will thought. The effects were: 1: Add a draconic defensive effect to a primary 2: A fifty times boost to one of a primary's effects. 3: Add a domain-like effect to an AOE passive. Or something like that.

Presumably. It was good, and it could allow someone to move across the tower fast, but it wasn't something Will needed. It would likely work better for Loth's build.

"Check it." Will said, flicking the ring to Loth. Loth caught the ring and studied it, tossing The Devourer of World's corpse back to Will. Devourer of Worlds Sacrifice for Aspect of the Immortal Serpent Miasma is Terrain. YES! That would allow so many- Because of the size of the Sacrifice, the chances of a successful upgrade are 0. 1% The upgrade slot will not be lost in case of failure, but the Sacrifice will be lost. NO!

Will had been expecting a caveat, and he didn't even have an upgrade slot at the moment, so it was all hypothetical at this point.

"Alright, I know you're gonna make it your pet project to try and recreate more of those spiders. I'd like a couple pounds of them." Will said, gesturing the appropriate dimensions.

"If they have the same Sacrifice effect, I'll waive my claim on the set in exchange for enough Devourers to trigger an Upgrade."

"You are assuming I can even accomplish that. What if I can't?" Loth replied.

"I don't need the set that badly." Will said, rubbing his chin.

"Owe me a favor?"

"Deal." The Dragonkind set was small, with only a ring, a cuirass, and a buckler. Loth grumbled about having to change her Tyrant cuirass out but she seemed to like the effects from the Dragonkind set better. Since she'd packaged her primaries together into one, Will could only assume that every set bonus applied to the exact same primary, which meant the effect made an extraordinarily focused Ability even more powerful.

Where Will had three primaries that each received a modest bonus, Loth had one primary that would receive three set bonuses. As Loth put on the set items, her Domain became oppressively powerful. Where before it had been soft as a goose feather, it now weighed down on him and everything else that could feel the change, like he'd suddenly been submerged in the abyssal depths of the 6 th Floor, inky black water pressing in from all sides. It also had a living element to it.

An ominous presence looking over his shoulder at all times, which reminded him of Nora's well-established Domain on the 13 th Floor.

"Bleh," Will grunted, shivering as the world seemed to ripple and deepen around him.

"I wonder if that's how people feel around me."

"Your Map Ability feels like being exposed to sunshine just a little bit too long. Warmth with faint prickles on the skin." Loth replied. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

"That doesn't sound too bad. Yours feels like I'm drowning a league underwater and about to be crushed by something in the dark." Will said.

"Excellent." Loth said, steepling her fingers. A moment later, the ominous sensation retreated as he got used to it. Together, they headed back to The Devourer of Knowledge, who was stuck in place, unable to move ever since their connection to the physical world had been destroyed. Will checked The Devourer for any lingering wounds.

Will was certainly not a doctor, and that went doubly so for a being made entirely of Miasma, but aside from the 'scar' tissue where it had nearly unravelled, Will couldn't make out anything that looked out of place. When they got back, The Devourer of Knowledge was drifting in place above the same upraised root where its physical body had been killed. The creature was attempting to weave itself more advanced spinnerets.

From what they'd gathered, the physical body had been capable of more advanced weaving of miasma strands, and the miasmatic entity it had created had been granted the ability to create offensive strands and perform some basic repair functions in order to lessen the load on the physical body. Until the moment the physical body had died, The Devourer hadn't quite realized that the two were more separate than it had imagined.

Will sat down across from Devourer and taught it the theory behind how his magic missile moved, which was basically a corkscrew of dimensional energy that was buried inside the sphere, and was shattered when it exploded on contact. The Devourer grasped the theory quickly enough, but without its body's spinnerets, it couldn't freely create whatever it wanted. It was like watching a master smith slowly going mad from being forced to use sticks and stones.

In the end, Loth and Will made a simple miasmatic raft that The Devourer was capable of steering with its limited ability to move. It would have to do for the moment. The next step was rescuing Aguillion… assuming he wanted to be rescued. Will bought Maribelle a Door and the four of them went down to the thirteenth Floor, taking a long detour that ended at an out-of-the way cavern in the middle of the cursed swamp.

A black dragon about three quarters Maribelle's size barreled out of the entrance, wickedly cursed flames dancing around her mouth as the dragon prepared for a fight.

"WHO DARES TO- Oh, hello William. What can I do for you?" Nora asked, peering up at Maribelle.

"And who's this?" Nora's scales seemed to ruffle defensively as she assessed the larger dragon.

"Is Aguilion in there?" Maribelle asked, leaning forward. Nora's enormous golden eyes slowly slid away from Maribelle's gaze, her neck pulling back as the larger dragon crowded her space.

"You brother stealing runt!" Maribelle snarled.

"Fair game, you pendulous bitch!" Nora shouted back.

"You're gonna die now, you tar-colored sow!"

"WAIT!" A voice roared from inside the cavern. A moment later, Aguilion emerged from the hole. How much room is in that cavern? Will thought. Aguilion looked…drained, for lack of a more fitting word.

"Maribelle, what are you doing here?" Aguilion asked, stifling a yawn.

"This bitch kidnapped you!"

"What? No, she showed up on the 14 th Floor, made me an offer and I accepted."

"Oh, so you're the whore." Maribelle said, turning her gaze to Aguilion.

"Where's this coming from? With respect: It's none of your business." Aguilion said. Maribelle gasped.

"And for your information," Aguilion continued.

"I've never been happier, and it's not because I have mind-bending sex six times a day, it's because I don't have to deal with YOU anymore!" Will glanced at Loth Six? He mouthed. It was possible with superhuman stats, but…at a certain point you had to stop to eat, clean, go to work. And after a while, just relaxing and reading a book was more appealing. Maybe it was a dragon thing. Loth shrugged. Will looked up at the stunned Maribelle, whose jaw was twitching as she struggled to process her brother's words.

"I thought you were dead!" Maribelle shot back as soon as she could form anything more articulate than offended gasps.

"Why? Not like anything can kill a dragon."

"Yes, it freakin' can! There was a raid boss, and you disappeared, and it was a spider, and everyone started dying, and spiders are really tiny, so we couldn't find it, and everybody was gone when I got back, and I was so scared," Maribelle started bawling. Are dragon tears valuable? Will signed to Loth. Loth shook her head. Nora gave the larger dragon an awkward pat on the shoulder as tears of relief fell and mixed with the brackish swamp.

"I guess…I'll wait here until the Migration, then I'll go down where Mother was planning on moving next Coil." Nora and Aguilion both looked extremely uncomfortable with the idea of Maribelle hanging around for potentially years before finally getting out of their hair. So Will decided to step in.

"Actually, our deal was to find your brother, you make me a dictionary. We found your brother." Will said, gesturing to the green-scaled runt.

"I'll buy your way down to the 10 th Floor."

"But he wasn't even in danger!" Maribelle whined.

"Now, sister, it would make your word meaningless if you didn't follow it. It's just a few years of work." Aguilion said, seemingly desperate to be rid of her.

"True, it's not a difficult task…" Maribelle said.

"You're sure you'll be all right on this floor? You're such a sickly thing and this Floor is riddled with curses."

"Nora is teaching me how to work with them." Aguilion said, "Once I can protect myself from the curses, I'll be able to move around on the Floor more freely." Maribelle gave Nora a narrow-eyed stare.

"A likely story. I'm going to visit in a hundred years, and if she still hasn't taught you to ward off the curses, I'll gut her."

"You hear me? This better not be a ploy to keep my brother chained up in your soggy swamp-basement life some kind of stud-slave." Maribelle said, turning her attention to the black dragoness.

"Of course it isn't," Nora said, looking supremely nervous to Will.

"We shall see." Maribelle shot before catching the wind with her wings and launching herself into the sky.

"That sister of mine, always has to have the last word." Aguilion said, shaking his head.

"I'm sure she'd have a better attitude under different circumstances," Will said, buying Aguilion a 3-Floor Door.

"I for one, wish you all the best with your new life." Aguilion flinched at the sudden announcement from the System, and Will put a finger over his lips and winked, suggesting that he keep it to himself. The cost was cheap enough and if Aguilion was being kidnapped, at least he had an escape route…One that that landed him in Will's clutches, sure, but it was better than nothing.

"Thank you for your concern, William Oh." Aguilion said with a nod, understanding Will's gift. After bidding farewell to Aguilion and Nora, they dropped by the Rotwitch's Stronghold and let Carrie know the problem was dealt with. Loth picked up some curse-weaver spiders from the same species as The Devourer and added them to her barrel. They didn't stay on the 13 th floor for long after that, because the proto-curses made The Devourer of Knowledge grumpy and got stuck in the fine fur that coated her inner funnel.

Will went down towards his own Floor with Maribelle, while Loth went back up to the 14 th Floor with Devourer of Knowledge, Carrie Envar and what little remained of her crew, acting as a mercenary while Carrie recovered her Stronghold. Nearly half of Carrie's Climbers had fled back down to be gods among men rather than prey animals to eldritch forces, and it was difficult to blame them.

When Will got back to his own Stronghold, he arranged for Maribelle a good lair, a constant supply of food, an English dictionary and plenty of scribing materials. Shortly after that, he received a message from Carrie through Bri requesting permission to rent a building to recruit Climbers from Will's Stronghold. It wasn't a bad idea. The Burning Stronghold's growth was strong with the 8 th Floor being much safer. The appeal of reaching an Advanced Class kept bringing in new blood much more quickly than they left.

With the population surge, It was only Will's new farming specialists that were keeping everyone from starving. Tons of fresh blood hitting level fifty with relative ease meant there were plenty of Climbers who were a little overconfident, and felt like they could go even further. They set up a recruiting office for Carrie's Stronghold, with several banners on the main road pointing to the building.

Mass production of Laurence's automatic crossbows was well and truly underway, with thousands being poured out per day. According to Badur, they were losing a little bit of money on each magazine on account of having to buy giants bone from one of Zodiac's resource nodes, but they were making a hefty profit on ammunition, since it was simple enough to make and only required raw anchorite.

Will earned anchorite for free as tax, and he owned all the cutting machines that formed the bullets, so he was basically printing money. Everything seemed to be going pretty well until he got word that Marksman was secretly trying to kill him, and while not surprising, it was… disappointing.