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brainstorming for the time-skip/ Short break (Patreon)

Published:
2025-09-22 02:06:37
Edited:
2025-09-22 02:11:02
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:

Content

Okay, so a few years are going to go by as Will untangles that particular clusterfuck.I want to make sure i don't forget anything that might happen over the timeskip, because the world doesn't just pause. Shit happens.This is where we come up with ideas for events that might've gone down/advancements made in Will's Stronghold/Class.Here are thoughts i've been ruminating on. Including, but not limited to:Any new cantrips for any of Will's abilities?What special magical ores are there in the desert biome?What kind of cool unique monsters are there on the 10th Floor? How might they have caused trouble as the Stronghold was being established?What kind of unique infrastructure would the Stronghold need to make to survive the hostile terrain? Special wells, water collectors, freezing rooms, Air conditioning, monster repellant, weather considerations. dust storms, monster attacks, magical tremors, etc.What kind of Sacrifice would allow Will's map to update terrain on it's own/Reveal Miasmatic structures?What kind of relationships progressed while time passed?Who broke off and did their own thing and who stayed here?Feel free to suggest answers to these questions, or give completely different ideas.Tomorrow morning, I'll write the epilogue for book 4, then I'll take a week off to brainstorm book 5.

Comments

Scion

I think Jason should grow up during this time. Skip and have all of his powers and stuff and be a valuable member

Scion

Another idea is having someone else be this the official leader of the stronghold so that way will can go deeper to build a stronghold on a deeper layer. Maybe have one of the clones be the leader.

Moon Winchester

One idea that I think you should do in the very first chapter of the time skip is to scare the shit out of the readers by having it in the perspective of a kid who keeps calling Will dad and then everyone calls the kid Junior and just make it seem like Will had a kid. When really it’s just B shape shifted

Joshua Gunty

Am I the only one just hoping Loth wins Will over romantically, eventually? Best girl, most loyal friend, loves Will, breaks my heart that it's unrequited.

Scion

I think it would be cool if he takes out that unique sacrifice that he could give to tons and tons of people and make the 10th stronghold known for that for exports and crafting and all that other stuff from that slime he killed on the lower floor

Moon Winchester

Can we have a complete breakdown of what the 10th floor actually is? Like I don’t really remember what’s unique about it since every floor seems to be unique in its own way what was the 10th floors appearance?

Sable B

I feel like Wills ability to align his fear with someone else's and form a bridge could be used as a tracking tool. Align to somebody, get a feel for the direction they're in

RedInkQuill

Mason and Bee form a dynamic duo that goes off and forms their own stronghold. Travis classes up and makes his goth girlfriend much more real. Will and his baker gf get married while Loth dives into climbing the tower when she gets her tyrant kit again to cope with Will being with someone else. Trade gets established and Will become a rich lord with new people with superior sacrifices making up a good portion of his stronghold. Idk about the specific class ups and powers you want to give people. Will will definitely be able to see again. He makes uber relics and has gotten the support of the other lords by making trades on the ninth floor.

Orthes

For his map I kind of wonder what an immortal serpent sacrifice would do, specifically because of his bloodline. The coils seem directly related to grandpa, and if they are something like his grand fathers body, and his own map already being tied to wills might make something cool. Though if he's gonna do that might need to wait till he finds his dad. Who knows, might be another qualitative upgrade?

Garnett Coetzee

I forgot where he got the homefield advantage relic, but surely there are evolutionary creatures of the same type he could encounter that has stronger abilities? Gosh now im going to read the whole thing again.

Emily Gurnavage

Deserts always make me think of Dune. Besides just new ores, what if they find some small patch of previously undiscovered spice in a cave Loth was checkin for new bugs that turns out to be delicious so they start farmin it and breed new strains and start exporting spice? That floor that sells salt makes a killing, and as we know the higher you go the harder it gets to find good food and salts and spices and such. Good spices on a floor this high would be very profitable and a way for Wills stronghold to make money that normal average people can participate in. You could also then make funny Dune references that sound like honest chatter but that only the crazy guy (and readers ofc) laughs at. Reese, forgot his name a sec. Plus spices would help attract cooks and bakers, one of which Will has an interest in. New breads and such.

Scion

I think it would be a cool Arc to actually build up the stronghold and come up with all those cool ideas you mentioned in the post, so maybe skip the time Skip

Joel Magnuson

Might happen. He's already in a quasi relationship with a girl of multiple personalities and bodies, it wouldn't be much of a stretch.

Garnett Coetzee

Also thinking if floor 9 where word is law floor 10 can be about opposites. Cold nights hot days. The way to survive and thrive is going about it in complete opposite way than you would initially think? Can make for sacrifices that invert aspects of abilities.

McIntosh Ewell

I imagine the desert should have some kind of sunstone that, when refined, gives him a portable light source for his magnifying glass trick For the map sacrifice, maybe a chameleon that perfectly mimics its environment? Or I suppose he could find an actual mimic, maybe one that duplicated a whole ecosystem

Cyrus McEnnis

First sacrifices that come to mind: the Church sacrifices L50+ corpse parts for specific gains. Caddock / Maybin might have some interesting interactions (Maybin specifically for Mason, Caddock for Reggie most likely). Ones for Will to interact with terrain, in a desert biome: either a Bulette (Landshark) or a Sandworm (Purple Worm) analogue would fit the bill nicely. Alternatively, a Termite sacrifice might work, given how they build towers. You used it in Industrial Magic, but Prairie Dog analogues might be another option. Cool mystical ores: we really haven't seen anything other than blessed steel, right? Then there's all the standard ones: Mithril, for magic conductivity. Adamantium, for durability. Neutronium, for density. I will note that typically neutronium is made, rather than found, as typically lore has it being created in the heart of a collapsing neutron star. But it'd make a hell of a nice material for Will to use with the Rods of Gods. L10 monsters - we know from the Myconoid Hydra that some monsters move between floors (side note: this is one option for Will to escape the Caddock Trap). So it might be nice to either have a Fae from L9 acting as the leader of a bunch of sentients, or to have a monster from L11 filter down. Failing that: assuming we have either landsharks, worms, or termites as apex predators: - Giant scorpions are a standard in that environment, and there's good eating on those - Scorpions tend to be insectivores, which leads itself to giant insects for Loth to get jiggy with - Goats can live anywhere, and it's been a while since Will ran into a goat. Might be good as a livestock-style creature. Take that generic engineering that had goats lacatating spider silk, and you have a particularly horrible combination - a goat-spider hybrid Who broke off? Travis for certain sure. Mason most likely. June possibly. Reggie & Alicia, assuming they stay together (and they might not) are likely still with Will. Jason... actually, him going out and getting experience by himself would be the best thing for his growth, but there's a dynamic with him being a powerful dumb kid that I dunno if you want to lose. Loth... Loth ain't leaving Will without a crowbar. Brianna... she could very easily be the bus service to L10 but she'd likely want more levels, so I can see her leaving an Anna or three with Will to keep him company whilst her main body grinds up some levels higher. Relationships: Travis / Mason / Loth are the three I have pegged as "Lord Potential" if only because Travis is such a douche canoe that he'll aim for it even if he can't make it (although, a Lord of Reality illusionist class is OP, hax pls). I dunno that they'd pair up with any of the others. June is in it for the money, and Will is going to redefine the economics of the Tower with his Sourdough relics. She's not likely to leave the gravy train, and I can't see Will wanting to get rid of a competent NCO. It'd be kind of cute if Travis & Mabel actually became a thing. What I'd really like to see is what happened to the party that originally tried to mug Will for the Uru Drake Scale. If they're hiding from his parents they likely didn't go up, and Will may well have eclipsed their level by now. It'd be kinda fun if they hit L10 looking to escape and found Will, waiting. Cantrips. Well, Fear is a terrain now. So using his ability to send spikes of Fear from one person to another is a logical progression. If he increases his ability to control air, he could work on a Force Choke ability where he holds the layer of air around a person's face completely impermeable such that they can't breathe through it: if he keeps it flexible then it'd be hard for someone to shatter it to remove it.

Joshua Gunty

I'm pretty sure it's not bestiality if both parties are people... She's not a human but she isn't an animal.

Crispined Glover Potato Snacks

For the stronghold a massive mesa, think Uluru, made of indestructible magical quartz that has been magically dugout by Loth's bugs. It looks like a big glass plug from the outside but is a gorgeous crystalline metropolis inside. For updating Map, a kind of Lodestone , like used in a compass, harvested from the inner ear organelle of a giant Stymphalian bird, which birds use for navigation. Alicia and Reg are newly married since the opening chapter is at their wedding. A wedding gives a lot of opportunities for characters to reconnect and reflect on their pasts. June is employed as Will's Chief Game Warden, commander of the teams that regulate the monster's on his floor. Mason and Travis have both split off. Travis used his his adventure success to take over his dads old lordship where he lives in a huge mansion full of his harem of imaginary girlfriends. The girlfriends are constantly fighting with each other and with Travis. No one can tell how much of this is Travis going mad or Travis fucking with them.

Nùmenor

I think that with the help of his new map, perhaps with an upgrade or two that allows him to slowly shift terrain (including spawn locations), Will should be able to create a relatively zombie-free trade route through the eighth floor. Such an upgrade could also let him concentrate the tenth floor's mineral deposits in areas where they can be easily extracted without having to worry about monster attacks or digging miles down. Since fear is a terrain, maybe he could even manipulate popular sentiment to his own ends by slowly shifting what his people are afraid of.

Orthes

Hell will's grand dad is a snake god.

McIntosh Ewell

Travis has definitely made a harem for himself. Brianna continues to heal her mental scars. But in the meantime she'll have also become a fixture in every floor below 10. Jason has gone back to hyping Will up. Not only is there not a man, woman, child, or pet who hasn't heard of William Oh, over half the population is convinced they've had a personal run-in with him. Alicia finds a prismatic sacrifice that allows her to filter the miasma that powers her sight, giving her the ability to toggle her vision back to something closer to normal.

Joshua Gunty

And he literally keeps getting offered the power to make himself MORE attractive to Loth lol

Bryce

I must've missed something, why is Caddock leaving a bunch of civilians behind something that blocks Will's tower climb? Especially for years. As for ideas: Loth has been steadily working on her bug collection. She's bred a big scary bug mount everyone calls Reggie 2 cuz its such a tank. Will is quite close with combat lord and ghoul lord (don't recall names off top of head). Since he's been steadily working on cantrips he uses Ghoul to help develop and Combat lord to train. Will has become super rich from selling custom sets. Will has seriously become a prepper - has caches of stuff buried everywhere and his paranoia is actually becoming a bit of a problem maybe? Paranoia could be fed by church sending lots of assassins after him and Will hitting back politically somehow. Will and Jason run a fear campaign - something like the Brandon Sanderson novel maybe? Since fear of Will is an advantage they've setup stories to spread fear and give Will an advanatge. And for people leaving: I would say maybe Alicia and Reggie. They fell in love and settled down. Mason went off on his own cuz he wants to be a lord himself. He has a big training montage offscreen and comes back to Will almost powerful enough to be a peer. He'd still climb with Will but wouldn't stick around in peacetime. June would probably leave temporarily and come back when things heat back up or have become super loyal cuz she realizes Will is going far.

David Burchfield

Here are thoughts i've been ruminating on. Including, but not limited to: Any new cantrips for any of Will's abilities? Will definitely needs to get some cantrips for his map. Maybe some sort of movement technique or refinement/expansion of the one he is already using with fear. I still kind of miss his gravity charges from earlier on. I could also see him getting some sort of terrain manipulation (changing) technique tied to map. Maybe some sort of Meta technique with using map to sort out his own pathways optimizing or modifiying how he uses them with his other techniques. What special magical ores are there in the desert biome? I really like the old style of refining iron from sand ore (dried riverbeds and the like). I like the idea of a similar process playing out in certain areas of the desert. I like the idea of a blue ore that takes on a crystalline sheen when processed and is extremely hard/sharp. Another that is dark like iron and has to be folded with intentionally introduced impurities or another ore until it forms a braided structure similar to wrought iron, very tough and dense but not good for holding an edge. What kind of cool unique monsters are there on the 10th Floor? How might they have caused trouble as the Stronghold was being established? I like the idea of some sort of fast fragile scorpion that tries to ambush and land a single blow, if it does injects a really nasty poison that is very difficult to cure and gradually infects and converts the miasma of the victim ramping up in intensity until it eventually kills the victim. They could pick off weaklings or cause major logistic problems because they are so expensive/time consuming to cure. What kind of Sacrifice would allow Will's map to update terrain on it's own/Reveal Miasmatic structures? Drawing a blank here for now, some sort of cunning monster that watches its targets and memorizes their routines before striking (kind of like crocodiles do irl). What kind of relationships progressed while time passed? Something will have developed with Will, Brianna, and possibly Lloth. Not sure where you are planning to go with all of that but stuff would not just stand still over the course of years. Who broke off and did their own thing and who stayed here? Travis and June would definitely go do their own thing unless Will bribed them. Not sure about Alicia and the Tank, and Mason I could see it going either way, but I kind of imagine her wanting to visit her father since she is pretty close to him again. Lloth and Brianna would stick around (though I could see Lloth going up a floor or two to raise her level cap.) Not sure on Jason, I see him growing up a lot and coming into his own during this time, not sure if this is by staying with will and helping the settlement or traveling up and down the tower some with one of the other groups.

Emily Gurnavage

Ok, I got an ore idea as well, but I gotta preface it - read it all first lmao. Might need some tweaks, but the name has good reasons that will become apparent. Fuckmeum, bullshitum, along those lines. Its not super common, but where its found its in huge-ass veins. Its ridiculously hard to the point that every miner tasked to do so can only say "fuck me, this is bullshit" after attempting. Where its been found before its often just left there and any construction planned there is moved/built around because its way too hard to clear. Its also impossible (until Wills group finds a way) to work up till now, making any blacksmith tasked to find a use just eventually say "fuck me, this is bullshit". Up to you to decide why it was impossible to work / how thats solved though. Maybe with a special bug secretion from Loth that gets turned into an industrial-ish setup? Hence the name though, climbers being climbers, lol. Super heavy, dense, etc. A weapon made with it will be normal sized but require a strength focused bruiser in the 40s+ to even lift and 50s+ to actually use it in combat. The armor is similar, but OPOP and sought after for any tanks with an ability to lessen heavy armor weights while worn.

Hell 5pawn

Speaking of tremors - the torgoids from Tremors? (I think that's the name of the worm/raptor/bird things) Also, could we get something going on outside the tower? Something with the church that worships Holdna, perhaps? A holy war (skirmish, really) where they end up liberating that flag Will disliked so much. Or even the death of that teleporting prick (via Loth).

Bob

Underground bunker life. Due to a lack of monsters, the dungeon continues what was already occurring by monster-izing the concepts. Instead of spawning, giant elemental monsters rain from above at terminal velocities. Sometimes they survive the fall, sometimes they detonate. The air space near the underground fortress needs to be protected by air cover. The sun itself is a sapient super-colossal flying plasma elemental monster that eats most of the fire and lightning elemental monsters. Also, doppelgangers are everywhere. Dumb as rocks. Sometimes there's 10 of the same person sitting around abandoned camps. Or you (doppelganger) is trying to convince you (actual you) to unbolt the door, with what you said yesterday to convince your wife you are not a doppelganger.Of course, doppelgangers are vomited into existence in large numbers by some manner of walking, black bag of holding, roughly shaped like a person.

Hell 5pawn

I like the Alicia part the best. Even better if she can cantrip it to get a facsimile of what Will can do once he learns how to see. IE she has the vision of an 80 year old woman where his is 20/20.

nathaniel evenhouse

Here's my answers to all your requests, I got nothing for cantrips, I tried to think of any haha, but most of them were a stretch. Maybe use the map to predict the brief future? For ores in a desert biome, maybe something that dehydrates/saps the opponents? Or one that creates mirages based on heat? As for unique monsters in a desert floor (assuming thats the 10th), you could use a sand whale type of creature, or you could go dune and do massive sand worm creatures. As for trouble to a stronghold, you could do something like tremors where the only truly safe space is on a rock base, and there's a very limited number of them. Maybe the unique base is either the base that it stands on, or there is periodic sandstorms that bring in monsters that attach enmass as opposed to at the stronger enemies? So it fargets the weak characters? No idea on the sacrifice lol I think mostly the relationships should solidify instead of breakdown/change. It always seems like annoying drama when characters randomly huge changes in their relationships because of a time skip. I could see maybe Mason doing his own thing, but mostly with everything that happens, I feel like everyone would be very dedicated in following will. It would mostly be whether people feel like they can't go any further. Alicia and the tank might be good ones for that, along with maybe Mason? I'd need a list of characters to make sure I didn't miss somebody.. Honestly I don't mind if you totally ignore all of my suggestions haha, but thought I'd give my 2 cents.

Jake Malony

Most of the party can disperse. Loth, Jean, and Jason are somewhat integral, but there is quite a bit of leeway with the others. Travis could make a good villain, depending on your plans. You've kinda left that door open tbh. June follows the money, so I could see a world where she stays for the money, but also another where she uses what she's earned so far to make a name for herself. Gotta do something with the tank and Alicia. Reggie did nothing for the last 50 chapters.

Panzer

Jason grows up and travels the floors, being the best hype man ever seen and starts seeding legends to havest. The desert should have mirages everywhere that jason can see through and use his powers to avoid. I think Travis should leave end up with an actual girlfriend that nobody is sure is real or not and she plays into it 100% as her class is built on deception. Will should also be able to figure out how to pull water out of the air to create springs for his desert base. He can already grab the air and water, he just needs to be more selective. I lile the idea someone else had with Loth continuing to climb as a one woman army. Wills people could all become known for having morphic tools/weapons as part of their kits that scale with them, making them always have the perfect tool at hand for their level.

Thomas

Could you please include, or provide a link to, all of Will's teams abilities? That way we could brainstorm on all of them. Thanks.

Jake Malony

Map should be crazy for lordship purposes. Active quest markers, quest zones, dynamic redistricting as needed. Maybe not a cantrip, but he needs to be able to manipulate terrain through the map. Maybe using snake hands and the eye to limit its power at first?

Cyrus McEnnis

I dunno if it's linked to the civilians or not, but the bounty on Will's head is the easiest explanation for why he's locked to the 10th Floor for an extended period: the wording was that the bounty on Will's head blocks XP and Doors to him till the "matter is resolved".

Arnon Parenti

Huuuge breakup between Will, Bri and Loth where Bri and Loth are banished from all water holes on the floor, Bri leads The Resistance to Will's tyrannical regime and Loth is just gone, some say Will is holding her as a hostage against The Resistance, others believe will went mad and killed half his original group when things in the desert didn't work out the way he wanted. Resistance name is Desert Bloom, they believe in free water, clear sky and untamed soil, everything anathema to Villeton city, aka Vile Town where William OH reigns supreme with his governess June the floor lord.

Exrotes

Hunting the Floor 10 Raid Boss Braincrab conspiracy on the 6th floor and maybe Will's former party properly discovering the secret fish civilization (I assume they are gonna hold off advancing and instead go for rare stuff on lower floors by translating Reese's ramblings). Oilton family or Lanover's probably have some members that can use their deep connection to Will's org to set up a few people with raid boss empowered sacrifices from the slime, cancerfairy, and some higher floor monsters to climb up to his floor or even get some overpowered class for one of the kids once they come of age. Carrie or some of the other tournament attendees becoming elite agents of the other lords or climbing up to the 10th floor and offering themselves as Vassals. Maybe even having one or more of them join up with the party for previously mentioned boss hunting. Akul sending people up to the 10th floor to try and get something out of the massive investment that Caddock set on fire. Current Baron is probably also gonna get a few challengers to the title. Nature abhors a vacuum and something is gonna claim the former point held by Kincaid potentially something worse. As far as party goes I see potentially June retiring once she maxes out her level and can live like a queen on the lower floors/outside, Alicia is in until she accompanies Will to see her dad and Reggie is her +1 so stick around, Loth and the Clones are staying obviously, Mason is playing the long game and has no reason to leave until he can get Will's help to become a Lord and has one of the few abilities that gets exponentially stronger the longer he trains so no reason to leave, Travis got part of his revenge and could leave to mess with the church on lower floors but will probably come back once Will can keep advancing, Jason and Reese are stuck in for obvious reasons.

Crispined Glover Potato Snacks

Following your post, The Bullshitium can be harvested by being termited through by Lost's bugs. The bugs eat the ore and then shit out a liquid form of the ore making it workable by magical smiths. thereby making is Bugshitium.

Hamy

maybe her getting a dragon / immortal serpent sacrifice or something will let her change forms, become more humanoid. immortal serpents at least can take a human form.

Arnon Parenti

The most elusive Sacrifice on the floor is the Sky Kingfisher Wurm, a spatially empowered flying desert worm evolved from the titan wurms of the deep desert, capable of flight, space manipulation and has a terrain altering breath. No one but Reese has ever even heard of them but Will had seen more than one spot where desert Terrain has turned to some other random biome, like the ice pits in the deep desert to the north, the jungle caves in the east, it seems the very miasma of the region was changed and is now supporting a non desert area, the null gravity islands are maybe another sample and The Deep which is an ocean biome in the middle of northwestern desert land is thought to be another. Will wants it and is willing to pay in full personalized sets for mere rumors but his fury when someone tried to sell him an illusion was Legendary leading to the creation of the crystal fields Biome south west of Vile Town.

Crispined Glover Potato Snacks

As a cantrip it would be neat if Will could find a sacrifice that modifies his "Fear is a terrain" into "Fear/Awe is a Terrain". this could be synthesized with Map to allow him to teleport to anywhere he has Mapped and where anyone is in awe of him.

Arnon Parenti

The church of Granesh has made its elusive peace with Lord June and are tolerated on the 10th floor with strict rules. The Archbishop of the 10th is regularly sworn against aiding Desert Bloom resistance in a publicly humiliating ceremony which has become the traditional day of attempting to overthrow and assassinate William OH as it's rumored to be the only day in the year where he has no Charge binding it all to the contracts.

Arnon Parenti

Travis is a Quint agent playing for every side and taking bribes from literally anyone who'll pay anything

Arnon Parenti

There are no strongholds on the 10th floor only Vile Town the megacity William OH built and it's subsidiaries and suburbs that support it, there is no way to reach the 10th floor outside Vile Town's borders, you literally exit in an overguarded gatehouse that is already considered a Stronghold when you climb through all 4 known key sites

Manowargs

I think the big thing for map stuff is to pull from city builder/total war style games. Commercial/industrial/residential zoning that provides buffs, deploying troops/giving orders from the map etc

Gardor

"Okay, so a few years are going to go by as Will untangles that particular clusterfuck." Sorry, he's gotta build his stronghold on the 10th floor? That was always his plan, and now that a bunch of randoms have been foisted onto him, he's locked in? The scheme to keep him on the 10th floor was ACTUALLY "you gotta protect a bunch of refugees you have no connection to", and even knowing that this is an enemy's plan, Will is still going to create a stronghold to keep these people safe? What happens if he goes to floor 11? He cant ship them all down to floor 9? Is he really that moral of a guy, that he'll sacrifice himself (ha) for the benefit of strangers? How much of a clusterfuck is it really? Like, a week ago these people were citizens of a theocracy dedicated to killing him, Caddox's betrayal and their resulting situation is the next step in a long term plan to neuter Will, why would he feel any responsibility for them?

FossilWreckers

Years?! It's still not clear to me why Will can't leave the floor. I think Will should get the ability to wear or cloak himself with the terrain and therefore can wear fear like a cape. The desert should have a graboid type creature. Maybe make it a man eating sand whale to avoid lawsuits. Loth discovers insects that can turn desert silicon into solar cells proceeds to get insect mecha, since she's the only one who gets electromotive forces.

Mariposa

I've been playing the wandering village lately. It would be interesting to have a raid boss be like the onbu the village is on. Will could have a vassal tame it. Having an entire Stronghold that moves seems like a William Oh legend.

Chai

For Will to map out Miasma maybe an Uru drake or other subspecies of dragon? Since Will’s eyes already do kind of what he wants his map to do it makes sense for the new upgrade to come from same/similar sacrifice.

austin kutz

Miasma seems to be pretty evenly distributed but a more macro view of its distribution may reveal new details. That said, I don't think it's worth an ability upgrade slot

Animephoto

I could see antlions being interesting. Loth would love them and maybe theyd give an interesting Aspect sacrifice? Alicia and regie could get married, which would give them a reason to go up to her fathers floor, and travis mason and june would probably go with them.

Animephoto

The plan was always to sit on the 10th floor and build up a stronghold and train his skills, might as well take the free citizens caddock gave him even if it takes slightly longer to settle them, especially since its been hinted lords get power from having more people, and foisting them onto bakton might cost him a favour. Imo he’d spend the favour rather than abandon them if he needed to but i dont think he does

Trey

i could see caddock trying to destroy food/ water sources. he would probably be willing to eat those costs of bringing it himself if it meant that will wouldn’t have it. i’m not entirely sure if food sources are fully able to be destroyed with monsters and all, but maybe? any fresh water sources could be poisoned, any places that have land that could be actually farmed could be salted. just turn this entire floor’s ecosystem into an absolutely terrible starting base seems solid. doesn’t seem like it would take too much effort either. alternate idea is to see if there’s a way that caddock could have made a monster/ boss monster more and more powerful somehow. maybe a monster that caddock thinks could ruin william oh or never die could be something he tried to get stronger and stronger and elevate into the monster that would need to be killed for people to get to the next floor. do that same thing with every area that requires a kill to get to floor 11 and you might have some really tough fights. but i’ll be honest i think it might be a bit far fetched but hey just in case we’re in the blue sky phase i figured i’d throw it out as an idea

Matt

Will gets a sacrifice that adds a tremor/vibration sense (probably from a sandworm or something) but since he can basically do that sort of thing anyways just with his giant acuity he tries it on the map and finds out it trades off being a personal sense but gives it a gigantic range that only updates the map + with his acuity the ability can interpret vibrations in the air not just the ground Or maybe an echolocation sacrifice from a bat monster with the same sort of trade off although that one would play less well with underground shenanigans

Trey

now for my guilty pleasure: relationship drama in books. i wanna see if anything happens with the baker girl army. maybe she needs to take a break to find herself. let jean and crew grow a bit without latching onto will. let’s see if loth tries to make a move. if she’s got time i can see her picking up baking. some more humorous pairings: mason and june have a brief fling that ends terribly. reggie and alicia stay going strong of course. ironically the most dramatic relationship drama occurs between travis and his goth gf. nobody can tell if its him practicing his illusion magic and acting or if he actually is having relationship drama.

Chai

I don't know about macro view but this is more for a micro view of his own body. Will is trying to use his Map skill in order to replicate the system onto his missing hand/prepare for the system to fail him on floor 50. He sacrificed his own hand and got a detailed view of his body. Now he's looking for another upgrade that will let him map out how miasma is used in his body to rebuild the system himself. He noticed miasma concentrations when he looked at his body up close with his eyes and believes that is how the system/class interacts with the body.

Gardor

But...Caddock said shit like "muahaha you're NEVER leaving this floor"...why would Will play in to his plan by taking care of the refugees? Like, anything he can do to side step whatever Caddock did can only be to Will's benefit, no? Even if hes thinking "these extra people will help me gain more Lord power", its gotta be some kind of poison pill. Plus Will already had enough people to grow his stronghold, he doesnt NEED these former Caddock pawns.

Charlie

Yeah this is great. Particularly with Travis, that's a bit too good to not do 😂

Kurt A

I’m a little confused as to why this would stop him. Why doesn’t he just have them bussed down to the 5th floor then become a lord real quick and keep climbing?

Plot Twist

Need more "foo" from loth. I always found it amusing when she was frustrated enough to say that

GryphonKnight

Stronghold William Oh is all about the extravagant, insane, over the top actions (see Wingman) When I think Desert, I think Caves (boring), Oasis (limited) and Mirage Cities of Fable Combining this with ore, beasts, sacrifices, Loth, Brianna, Alicia, A breed of ant lion consumes X, which it refines to create Mirage Oasis above its lair for luring prey Older ant lions can create larger, more complex, mirage oasis (including animals and intelligent humanoids) A cactus thrives among these Mirage Oasis by converting the mirage’s water into actual water Since this conversion shrinks the mirage, the ant lion must eventually move to find more X, and create a new lair The old abandoned lairs, cactus, ant lion, and X can all be used as sacrifices Loth is interested in the ant lions, and the cactus, eventually creating a combination mirage/ pocket dimension/ out of phase city for manufacturing, commerce, and residential Beneath/ Among/ Hidden by mirage terrain/ etc. are the plants, and animals, feeding the population (depending on need for sunlight, and shade) Will is interested in the sacrifices effects on his map Alicia is interested in the sacrifices and effects it has on vision (it cannot 100% cure her vision problem since her vision is a feature, not a bug) Brianna creates several recipes, based on the above, including a bread allowing one to enter, and live in, the mirage city for a week, two weeks, or a lunar month (huge vulnerability if not properly managed) and an alcoholic drink that lets one immediately, and involuntary, leave the city (otherwise you have to wait for the bread to wear off naturally) There are quickly hazing rituals. Like getting someone drunk in a location where they fall from the city into a cactus patch, animal dung heap, animal nursery, animals isolated while in heat, etc. 🎬

Diarmuid McGinnity

I think it’d be cool if we first see Jason again as he’s collecting relic seeds to make the zombie floor easy to cross after spending a couple years sowing legends.

Samuel Beatty

I like the idea of farming giant beetles and using them as beast of burden, for food, digging wells, excavation, etc. Maybe have the sacrifice of the beetles themselves be a core part of a ranching/farming class dominant in Wills stronghold? And maybe have the larva produce some form of silk for clothing? Maybe the pupa shell is a shielder/guard class sacrifice. Loth would love a stronghold with bugs helping with upkeep I reckon

Ral

His orphanage caretaker should come by and visit or like the shopkeeper, some sort of blast from the past, like the expadition leader of the kaith raid.

Max Dudley

Hmmmm, one thing to consider is everyone equipment and how you plan to handle that. We've seen the CRAZY shit will can make with just a few weeks. Imagine what he'll cook up if he has whole YEARS of time to bake some stuff. Whatever happens there will either need to be a plausible reason he hasn't equipped everyone with super OP sets that are perfect just for them, or we'll need to factor all of that in moving forwards.

Crow Says Caw

Questions that I have: Will Travis get a real girlfriend? If not, will there be tales of his escapades trying to shag the fae lady? How will other relationships develop? A multi-year time skip could mean shifting emotional ties even if the core group stay connected as a team. As it’s a desert I would of course be keen to see some Sand Worms. Maybe some Djinn could be floating around in some altered capacity. Will stumbles across a cave of wonders and of course says “open says a me” getting his hands on a magic lamp relic, somehow managing to steal everything else in there too I’m excited to see what happens!

unmellow the gamer

Remember this down time is perfect to recruit for his army. Creating a powerful class with materials from that metal slime, and other strong but farmable monsters. There are a lot of desperate people who are very willing to sign a deal with him for a stable future. Willing to fight to ensure their families don't get kidnapped by religious fanatics again. Also he has plenty of time to send people to harass Caddock's dumb cult. Again he has plenty of angry people more then happy to be an assassin militia seeking revenge against a mutual enemy. Granted they won't go down without a fight so things will either escalate fast or they sue for peace. Also fae bullshit just feels like something that should go in the map too.

Crow Says Caw

Cantrips: I’d like to see Will experiment with what he can do already and just push things in extreme ways. He can manipulate air? Ok what happens if he works on forcing as Much air into a small space as possible? Compressing it over and over? Or if he does the opposite? Can he make a vacuum? Space - time continuum could be said to be terrain since it is all around us. Could he grab hold of it and tear a hole in the fabric of the universe / tower? If he could walk on the sun that would be terrain. Can he mimic that somehow for plasma? Idk I guess if he can think really laterally and completely fuck some shit up it’d be cool. Edit to add: we know from our world that firing something small really fast is super dangerous. Can he compress solid terrain into super hard small bullets and send them supersonic speeds at enemies? He did something similar with the arrow heads so this wouldn’t be a stretch… I can’t remember what he has already done so idk if I’m just repeating stuff now!

Lionheart

Alicia and Reggie talking to her dad about their relationship and him being surprisingly chill about his daughter actually not dating will (and actually dating a guy with the ability to keep her alive) makes sense to me

Stephen E Wilson Jr.

Seems like Will should get used to his misama sight in a few yrs. Wonder how that will change 🤔 his tactics.

Kris Piskorski

1. Will needs to create an army/blueprint based on the snail sacrifice and others, 2. also he needs some structure to his government as I assume he will delegate most of work as he'll be climbing. 3. All of his close crew need to have a soft set made by will. 4. He needs to have a working system/economy for cooperation with the lower floors. 5. And finally the stronghold should be a " concentric star shaped fort" as they're the best and loth should know that, also Will controls terrain so he can make it super unconquerable and huge, potentially

Federico

"The bearer of this Ability becomes more resistant to exposure and altitude" Will's cantrip are all based on the terrain thing, but he also has the ability to adapt given by the goat, I feel like he should be able to make a cantrip that physically adapt him to new environments and miasma density. "Their digestive system becomes able to process food unfit for human consumption" This might become a sort of sourdough cantrip, where he eats ingreedient and turns them into potion/relics Also I would relly like to see Travis try and sacrifice Will's hand, I expect that a Deceiver's parts will give great upgrades to a Decoy/Illusion class <3

Kris Piskorski

to continue point 5. they have an enormous amount of space avaiable and a lot of cheap labor in loth's insects who can do a lot of the manual labor, also will can manipulate terrain so the best oprion would be to make a concentric star shaped fort as the stronghold as they have the ability too. good examples are Almeida in Portugal or Palmanova in Italy just on a "fantasy world" scale

Ariel

This does feel like a good juncture for a time skip. Especially since the fight with Caddok took them all closer to defeat and death than any other. It could definitely be a turning point for a few of the characters. Alicia was summarily handled alot of the fight and alot of her motivation seemed to be related to her dad. Is she intrinsically motivated? Or does she and Reggie go off and have a kid together? Or stay in the stronghold and not choose to advance?

Ariel

Jean as well seems like a character that could have major repercussions from all of this. Being an object of war plus all the curse mage and death she had to endure... I could see her needing a lot of time off to heal, and frankly I ship Will and human Loth anyways.

Ariel

Maybe Jean stays back to help manage the stronghold or smth. June's ambition is to be rich as far as I can tell, not to climb to the top of the tower. Mason I assume wants to be a lord in his own right. Travis got most of his revenge it seems. Very curious to see where things go from here. Also maybe June and Mason get together?

Enzo Elacqua

The main thing I want to see is him doing some experiments on his hand as well as his miasma abilities. Have him set up some sort of wizard tower where he is going crazy trying to figure out how the system works while occasionally nuking monsters that are far away. He might not get much done, but it could allow him to make several cheap cantrips while he works on the big thing which is how his hand interacts with the tower.

Mrfacemanlol

Brianna’s class advancement: Army of one

Patron1kj6tz

Assuming Will's options are relatively standard: Improve existing primary, Convert a Secondary to Primary while increasing its upgrade limit, or pick a new Primary from a list. I suspect she would change Hivemind to a Primary since they've be angling for a messenger build for her.

Gorane

So I think one of the most important things in a timeskip is setting up a proper infastructure between floor 5 and 10. As i recall lack of good ways to progres has kept humanity back for this entire coil. So the worlds between 5 and 10 are 6. ocean - no lord 7. Jungle - Wyrd 8. Zombieland - Ghoul 9. Fey jungle - Baktyon Floor 6 could have more large leviathan ships made, whos whole objective is too patrol in circle and catch new climbers. Or a airballoon type of solution aka just fly to these numerous stronghold boats. Since floor 6 doesnt have a lord, maybe Will can but some relative of Travis in chagre of a sufficiently large boat to count as a stronghold Floor 7. Better relations and co-operation with Lord Wyrd would go a long way. Further, just destroying large paths through of the jungle would create "highways" so people can quickly get through the dangerous parts. Could be done w Will's terrain shifting or lenses Floor 8. A bit more tricky. But create a specific service under Ghoul, whereby for tax you can get specific climbers to escort you around and stop the possessing monsters. This seemslike the hardest floor to fix Floor 9. The fey situation is already much better, with 2/3 fey lords fearing will and the most dangerous one dead. Pluss Lord Baktyon has that anti-fey sword now. This oughto make it much safer

David Burchfield

I would definitely like to see a montage of the legends and stories he spawns during the downtime.

ioajfidsnmfomds77

who wants to live in a desert? why not get a combination of classers together to terraform it to be more habitable

Jimmy Oneil

I would also like to see some form of payment/respect given to his home orphanage since that is his roots yenno

Gibby

A worm/lizard that's whole ability is to move through terrain. It uses hit and run tactics and has tremor sense so people are having issues with it. When Will tries to track it down/capture it, it just bypasses Aspect. But that's all it can do. It does very little damage and just becomes a nuisance to everyone. Maybe Alicia and the others who could deal with it are down on a different floor so Will has to deal with it for a few months while they do that.

Mariposa

I am a little confused as well on why he's stuck on the floor.

Grant Upton

Floor 6 could also basically get a lord under will at any time, since he can get the headdress to send a delegation to both fill out a stronghold and swear allegiance, although it'd likely have to be someone in the party since otherwise they'd blow up that particular spot quite rapidly

Grant Upton

I think it'd be funny if Travis finally got his wosh of being someone important by becoming a floor lord, but he can't even enjoy the power or prestige bc all his followers have a big crab under their silly hats lol

Gibby

On the relationship side, Mason and the other guys (Maybe even Jason) get a relationship but Travis doesn't. Or maybe Travis gets 1 real GF but was catfished/tricked by someone who *also* has Illusion abilities. Maybe even stealing some of Travis' Relics before they left. The kobolds will likely come up eventually so maybe Loth finds someone/ a human scholar or human trap maker. Maybe some humans get with different kobolds. Maybe the person who has the one parasite ability comes up the the stronghold and joins the group more.

Grant Upton

Honestly how many hands could he produce over 2-4 years? He's grown a few over the course of a few weeks/months, could he just build up a stock of William hands and give everybody serpent upgrades? Maybe of he finds a regrowth speed upgrade or consumable, he could even use that as the basis to his soldier class along with the metal slime

Grant Upton

Does/could miasma count as a terrain, in the same way air does? If so, maybe he could learn to manipulate ambient miasma; in doing so, he might also progression down his wizards study path, and learn to structure spells from first principles

Jimmy Oneil

Maybe loth gets a race upgrade when she sacrifices the greater drake? Idk it would make her closer to human and still keep her class/core race and she uses that as a shot to get with will

David Burchfield

Also remember his plan was always to slow down and try to figure out the towers plan and counter it. This is the perfect excuse to do just that without looking suspicious.

HUAAAANG

Mason's class screams "walking Lord" to me. He could take his stronghold/seat of power with him everywhere he goes. Problem is walking in himself.

Orthes

yeah i like hivemind getting an upgrade. A lot of potential there.

Orthes

Might get the lady who ran the orphanage to find more deceivers. Get a whole bloodline of them climbing up. Though I kind of want this to wait until he figures out how to map miasma into his own body. Make an army of his bloodline that isn't beholden to the tower for power.

Ethan B.

I think something like a three eyed mole or maybe an ant lion type enemy could give a sacrifice that let's the user have full awareness of its terrain/territory.

Blue Talon

What happened with all the kobolds and misfits that worshipped Loth?

David Burchfield

Final disjointed thought, unless you are saving it, he needs to get started on mapping out miasma channels and manually using power without relying on the power, it would be a good chance to develop some unique techniques with his severed hand, and start fulfilling some of those weird prophecies Jason made about his hand early on.

MadAdder

Cool idea, what if instead of B it was another spawn of Ouroboros molt? Another deceiver that Will found during the time skip and kind of adopted Just can’t think of a feasible reason for B to go around calling Will dad

war doggle

Does one of their paladins going rogue with a lot of high level gear hurt the church enough to damage its standing? How many soldiers did they lose going after will? Will it go full crusade or fall from prominence?

Trey

loot for this floor btw should def include the actual bodies of their strongest enemies that can be counted as sacrifices. it was said in a previous chapter that this was pretty commonly done in the church and i think there’s a ton of potential for caddock, the feather teleporter, and the lightning glass lady to be used as sacrifices for different members of the party. now that caddock and his group are dead i think there’s so much potential literally lying around. time to loot the bodies! (of their gear and their literal bodies)

Quazzy

Manifesting the map as a combat tool! It's semi-physical, right? Or at least like, definitionally terrain, which means it can be used with Aspect more efficiently than like. Air. Use it as a shield! Summon mountains midair n impale yr opponents on them! Summon a map of a structure and duck inside! Also!! Getting better at fear-jumping should DEFINITELY be a thing, like to the point of opening a map, poking a bit of fear, and jumping in in a matter of seconds. I bet Reggie and Alicia are married (and Lord Zodiac isn't happy about it) and Will gave them each a fancy relic as a birthday gift... and maybe has to deal with the headache of an unhappy (but not outright hostile) lord on the higher floors. Will and Loth can probably be nice n cuddly, I bet they've trained up some seamstresses and gotten the Briannas some clothes that split with them (or like. Could even be an item like her claws, if that's simpler! Or maybe she learns how to shapeshift feathers into outfits. That'd be cooler, because it makes her a more active character. Bonus points if she's got other cool shapeshifting forms now too! Also, maybe the Church of Granesh can't fight Will, but... Holdna's Church might be a target? How do the other Churches feel about one of their own being humiliated? Are they reaching out to make friends, or outraged? And even if Will's stuck here, I bet people like June would still take parties up higher and get levels and loot. She'd probably angle to rule the Stronghold in his absence, too! Even if she's not exactly trustworthy that doesn't really matter if she soft-powers her way into being the defacto ruler anyway!!

Mrfacemanlol

Want that high school bully to show up expecting for the new lord he works for to just have the same name as that kid he used to bully

Mrfacemanlol

Will’s stronghold should have an ongoing war/pest control problem with colonies of ants

Sce7tm

I'd like to see our team using their ability creatively for non-combat purposes. E.g. Will and Loth using sourdough and trap making to mass produce a load of low power utility/QoL relics devices. Earth shaping relics used in the construction industry, plumbing systems built around water wands, that sort of stuff.

Gardor

But...again, "muahaha you'll never leave this floor". Thats a bad thing, pretty sure. Even just going up a floor would probably wreck whatever Caddock's scheme is, whatever tangled webs were weaved.

Win Rar

I would like to hear of some humans trying to train under Loth. Synergy of bugs and farms being something they try. Maybe a snippet of kolbolds who have chosen to migrate to this new kingdom as well.

Moon Winchester

Just to fuck with Will. Because he’s so busy being the Lord and studying the system that the only way to interact with him is to make people think he is a son so she can get through all of the security easily right up to well.

Farxzay

I feel like some kind of giant worm, or other burrowing creature, would be a good pest monster constantly harassing the Stronghold, and could also be the source of Will’s auto-updating map sacrifice. Could be due to some long range tremor-sense, or domain-sense, or something like that.

Mariposa

I definitely think Travis will find a girlfriend from the lower floors and bus her up. Or he will keep trying to woo the fae lord. Either will be incredibly entertaining. I want to know if June actually betrays Will like he's been expecting her to. And I'd like to hear about the relic eater girl (I forgot her name).

Gorane

Wait do we know that the ffeatther guy and glass lighting woman are dead?

Scistra

For the sacrifice: Worm type monster - It uses a form of echo/tremor location to passively map its surroundings. Miasmatic structures might also be discerned as a form of target identification?

Macronomicon

oh, i like that one. Would be hard to catch too if it always saw you coming.

Jk

Will should have classic “dating a hive mind” hijinks, ending with him blindly kissing a farm animal, convinced it’s Brianna playing a joke on him Loth should start talking to her insects in a creepy way Travis should be a remote controlled illusion that Will and co. eventually have to track back to Travis’s fortified bunker Reggie’s class evolution should let him reflect/empower attacks, so he combos better with Alicia

Macronomicon

Are we making Will the bad guy in this scenario?

Arnon Parenti

Reggie is the bad guy for starting Desert Bloom, William OH is just misunderstood, it takes a lot to be a floord, and he needs these taxes.

Kris Piskorski

The metallic one from a couple floors below

Mariposa

Will evolves his map ability to move parts of the floor where he wants them.

Quazzy

June's not going to betray him *as long as he's the winning side.* But could she totally steal the stronghold out from under him by gaining the loyalty and reliance of his vassals? Mhm!

Gutz

Worms and desert go perfectly together, but I think having a monster based on a pleco fish would be pretty cool. When not in water, they dry up and harden, becoming stonelike and easily mistaken for dead. Once introduced to water again, they pop back up like nothing happened. Interesting little fellas. They could be a recurring problem anytime rain does come, with them burrowing into the ground and entering their inactive stage until the next rainfall.

Crow Says Caw

I am so here for Travis and his trials and successes in the quest for a real girlfriend! Definite opportunity for comedy

Crow Says Caw

Sand worms are always great! Throw in some spice melange for everyone to take trips into deeper/higher levels of consciousness 👍🤣

Quazzy

A cool sacrifice for Tanks, too. Sacrificing mobility for Resistance is a great choice if your job is mostly to soak damage for others.

Angus Losier

Springboarding other Lords. It's been mentioned several times that a lot of William's party has the potential to be Lords. I could see William doing some empire-building with the goal of thwarting the usual outcome of his visit to the 50th by elevating the good candidates in his party to lordship -- or at least to be working on doing so. Loth absolutely, Mason and Travis very likely, June as a way to keep her loyal by giving her what she wants.

McIntosh Ewell

I Love the idea of Travis's illusions being so good that no one around him is ever sure if his other companions are real. Bonus points for putting real people through existential crisis as they consider that they may actually be figments of his imagination. I think that would make for a really cool Lord gimmick. So far all the ones we've seen have made their mark through some variety of hard power. Travis's Lordship could be solely based on soft power.

McIntosh Ewell

You know, it would be a lot of fun having the first chapter in the new book be a desert toxin induced fever dream where Will has to escape using the mental tricks Ghoul taught him, and some new ones he's figured out since. I know we already got something similar with Caddock's assassination attempt on the water floor, but this one could be played straight a lot longer. Oooh! Or at the end of the false world, once the "resistance" has "defeated" the "tyrant", everyone removes their baby mind crab and provides feedback on the experience to their hive mind representative. The whole thing is a VR experience generated through miasmatic ability that gives climbers a chance to experience epic adventures without actually going into harm's way.

McIntosh Ewell

Lord Will, with assistance from Lord Ghoul, figures out how to create Combined (or Collaborative) Skills and teaches the method to his party mates. Jason and Travis utilize this technique to create the Skill "Epic Adventure", which transports listeners into the story Jason's telling so they experience from a bystander or character perspective.

McIntosh Ewell

Ooh, we thinking Iron Man getting zapped by Thor's Lightning in Avengers?

McIntosh Ewell

Honestly, I'm wondering when Loth learns to summon swarms of Kobolds as her loyal servants, drastically extending the range of her influence and giving her a form of teleportation when she swaps positions or takes over a sacrificial peon. I imagine something like agents taking over people in The Matrix.

McIntosh Ewell

I mean, just Will's Cantrips would be enough to put any construction company out of business. He could probably single handedly construt his own fortress, provided he had quality schematics and consultants to make sure he puts things in sensible places

McIntosh Ewell

Bruh! Not another Ant Arc😅 I think Will's already exceeded the bounds of conventional aura farming

McIntosh Ewell

Jason discovers a new mineral that collects in the presence of extremely charismatic or important people. When harvested, it can be refined to be consumed or combined into relics to increase a climber's presence. They name it Aura, and it accumulates most rapidly in Will's vicinity.

McIntosh Ewell

Pretty sure the Lightning Lasy (Blair?) got dusted when Will struck her with his lightning shrapnel. I'd be pretty surprised if the feather dude is dead. Dude's more slippery than a greased eel

Quazzy

it should be a plant so u FARM aura instead of mining it ;-; plz dont do this macro gen z would immediately burn their copies

Asheric

do it and you're cool