Chapter 247: Easy 7-Step Plan (Patreon)

William Oh is so fast, he arrives at his destination before he’s set off.

William Oh is so fast he delivered a pizza in the middle of a fight.

-          Greg Adams, level 25 Courier

William Oh is so fast he delivered a baby in the middle of a fight.

-          Jason Salazar, level 50 Prophet of Ouroboros

William Oh is so fast that when he punches someone, their mom feels it at the moment of conception.

-          Emery Wood, level 32 Plumber

119 Charges remaining

“Well, that was disappointing,” Will said, arms crossed as he activated the wand, with Stevie arriving directly in front of him. Will kicked himself for blowing a whole fifty-five Charges for what was supposed to be a probing maneuver. He should’ve sent just one or two butlers.

But there was no time to go back, only forward, and kicking yourself was unproductive.

“My deepest apologies, sir,” Stevie said, fear rolling off him in waves.

I know for a fact that he’s not afraid of abandonment or death…what is that fear? I haven’t seen it before.

“No, it was my mistake. Stevie, can you feel fear?” Will knew the answer to that question, but it was best to lead into these conversations naturally.

“Yes, my lord.”

“What are you afraid of, exactly?”

“Failing to perform to my master’s satisfaction.”

“Hmmm.” Will mused for a moment, then snapped his fingers.

“Let’s copy the raven guy.”

“Excuse me?” Stevie asked, the butler looking up at him with mild confusion.

94 Charges remaining

Will summoned another five butlers.

“Maintain a range of 100 yards beyond the distance where Void caught you the first time. Spread out and keep moving so they don’t get a bead on exactly where you are.

“Yes, milord.”

“And keep one of you here, safely behind the Key Site. And your job will be to fear failing to perform your job as hard as you can. I’ll be very dissatisfied if you don’t manage to do it.”

“Right away, sir.” The butlers said before scattering.

Will turned his attention back to the distant barge, which was nearly at the edge of his map’s update radius. Thanks to the Wristband of the Lookout, his range was now a bit over sixteen miles.

Let’s see….fear of giant snakes…there we go. Will spotted the dozens of Climbers as they entered his map, many of them radiating fear of the giant snake approaching the barge.

Ironically, the Climbers that the worm had assembled around himself as meat-shields also made excellent fear-markers that Will could teleport to.

This was where the Ring of Traversal really shone.

Ring of Traversal

+8 Strength

+8 Resistance

+8 Kinesthetics

+8 Acuity

+8 Focus

+40% Potency to Terrain-related Abilities

Increased Movement Speed. Scales with Kinesthetics.

Environmental resistance to movement across all terrain lowered. Scales with Resistance.

Ever since Will had managed to escape Kincaid’s stomach by creating a bridge of fear and crossing it, effectively teleporting, he’d been looking for a way to make this cantrip easier to pull off. Practice had made the process smoother, but it was never easy…until the Ring of Traversal.

There was a lot of resistance against Will traversing through fear, which made it slower and mentally exhausting to do multiple times in succession. The ring greatly reduced both of those downsides.

Incidentally, the ring also made it much more comfortable to fly at high speeds, allowing the air to slip around him without causing drag.

It really let him take full advantage of his high movement speed. When he was first getting started, Will had never taken wind resistance into account, but he’d come a long way.

Will took a moment to practice teleporting to the butlers, matching their fear of failing him so that he could do it seamlessly.

…Now, let’s try poking him a bit and see what happens.

From what Phantom Eye could see from its vantage point, the worm was near the rear of the ship, protecting the engines with his summoned fae.

Will focused on the fear of giant snakes, cultivated the same fear inside himself, linked the terrains together…then dove into the pool of fear at his feet and crossed the bridge.

The air pressure and gravity changed as Will popped out into existence beside a confused Climber.

Will struck him with the back of his tomahawk and leaned out of the way of a faefire explosion, pushing off the air and charging towards Void while concentrating on matching his distant butlers.

He felt Void seize the air in front of him, so he teleported to one of his butlers.

Through Phantom Eye, which was hovering high above the ship, he saw Void’s head scan the bridge, and when it was facing away from one panicked Climber in particular, he manifested a cannonball from Phantom Hand towards the aft of the ship to distract Void while Will teleported to the man outside his line of sight.

Will appeared, kicked the Climber out of the way of Void’s reflexive snap shot, just as Void’s undead deflected the cannonball, causing the entire barge to shudder in place.

Will sprinted past Void’s counter, flared unstructured miasma from his left hand to part the faefire aura and slammed the blade of his Tomahawk into Void’s neck…accomplishing nothing.

The blade dimpled the man’s skin, but nothing more.

Will’s Strength had been in the high four hundreds with Hammer of God, but the Wand of the Undead Retainer had zero bonus to Strength, so Will’s Strength was closer to one-fifty at the moment.

Which wasn’t terrible, but…

“Crap.” Will muttered, ducking under Voids counter and diving into his own fear of failure, teleporting to a butler before Void was able to swing that dagger back around and stab him in the face.

Okay, so he really is reinforcing his Resistance, Will thought, shaking off the lingering remains of the corrosive flames prickling his skin, taking extra care to make sure Abby didn’t get hurt.

Even with lower Strength, concentrating that much force onto an axe head should at least break bare skin….unless Void’s effective Resistance was in the thousands

…I just need to figure out how he’s doing it...and how to trick him into overdoing it, until his brain-meat is stronger than Blessed Steel.

For all Will knew, his synergy allowed him to gain Resistance based on the mass of undead he had, or how many kills he’d strung together in one combat or…

Ah, shit!

Will slapped his forehead.

He should’ve captured Kyle and the others and interrogated them while he had the chance!

They were obviously vassals working for Void, but they were cowardly and would certainly spill their guts it pressed. He could probably drag some key details out of them, especially since the time dilation made things pass by too fast for Void to notice.

Too fast for Void to notice?

Will glanced at Steve. The undead was turning towards the island, likely with the purpose of wrapping around it and exploding. If it blew up from every direction, the Key Site wouldn’t be able to protect anyone.

Someone’s speeding it up again…I wonder.

Will focused, picturing himself in their shoes.

They’re being used to generate Influence at a high rate of speed for Void, and they’re surely going to be aware that they’re being taken advantage of.

I’m afraid that worm is going to leave me on this snake, that I’ll wind up being used up and discarded burned to ash in an instant without ever being able to- THERE!

Will linked up with someone, and then crossed the bridge, stepping out of Roger’s fear.

Roger shrieked, the ranger swinging his bow towards Will.

Will stepped close and pushed it aside while he scanned the field, locating the other three getting ready to pounce on him.

“Hold a moment,” Will said, holding up a hand.

He checked Phantom Eye, and as he’d hoped, it showed the barge from above, the scene of combat frozen in place.

He couldn’t seem to move the Phantom Eye, as it was also frozen in time, but that was fine.

“Greetings Kyle, Bess, Amy, Roger.” Will said, turning his attention back to them.

“Tell me everything you know about the worm and I’ll let you live. If the info is good I might even pull you out of this little predicament.”

“Anything you wan-

“His Fae summons are-

“I’m pregnan-

“STOP!” Will shouted, holding up his hands. “One at a time. I’ve only give a couple minutes.”

Will didn’t want to be gone longer than a few seconds in real-time, and even though things were moving extremely slow outside, they were still moving. Staying here was a gamble every second.

“You.” Will said, pointing at the sly-looking mage who had at one point captured a Will-o-wisp for him. “You’re pregnant?”

“Yessir! I figured it would be a free pass out of this bullshit!” Bess said, standing straight. She truly did seem to have a tiny bit of belly under her torso piece.

It’s only been 2 weeks…

Come to think of it, in the two weeks I was away from this Floor, depending on the amount of time they’ve been trapped on Steve farming Influence while under time-dilation…that’s possible.

Will’s eyebrows raised, glancing over at the two men.

“Yeah, she’s with child.” Roger groaned, dragging his palm down his face. Kyle rolled his eyes and nodded.

“…Wow. Uuh…Congratulations. I guess?” Will said, internally revising his opinion of Bess even lower than before. Good survival instincts, though.

She wasn’t wrong about it being a free pass. Lords had obligations. How ever he felt about her personally did not warrant killing an unborn baby through inaction, but he’d buy her the Door after they were done telling them what they knew.

“What were you saying about the fae?” Will asked, pointing at Roger.

“They hate the guy and want to kill him, but they can’t directly disobey. Maybe you can work with them.”

Yeah, I got as much when they sent me the ‘breadbox’ message.

“Any of you know how his Resistance got so high?”

“Vincent had his Fae spent days eviscerating his body and each other, and they gradually grew tougher over time.” Kyle said.

“So it’s a toughness on damage or healing effect.” Will mused. “Do they heal automatically?”

“Yeah. Doesn’t seem to cost him anything, either.” Amy said.

“Probably on heal then,” Will mused. “Can he offload damage to his undead?”

They nodded.

“Damnit.”

That implied that Will couldn’t kill him until Steve was dead and stopped soaking damage. According to Anna’s reports, the moment one of his undead died, it exploded.

In order to kill Void, he had to detonate Steve. One way or another.

How the Abyss do I manage that?

Unfortunately, due to physics, Hammer of God had a maximum effective range inside atmosphere, because after a certain speed, projectiles simply evaporated.

That was why his arrowheads had exploded high above their heads when he’d used them against Caddock.

Since this whole area had atmosphere, he probably couldn’t shoot Steve from a thousand miles away and blow it up that way. The projectile would disintegrate long before it built up the necessary speed and mass to destroy a continent.

Bastard made killing him into a ten-step process.

Trick him into detonating Steve

Save the innocents

Chase him to the Floor he’s planning on escaping to.

Remove his Fae from active combat so he can’t offload damage.

Pull him into one-on-on combat so he can’t convert others into undead and restart the damage offload.

Damage him a LOT, to make his brainmeat exceed the durability of the worm.

Hit him in the head with a cannonball exceeding the speed of sound.

Eh…that’s only seven steps. Still a pain in the ass.

After a bit more interrogation, Will felt like he’d gotten most of what there was to get out of these four.

Checking back on the Phantom Eye, it seemed like only a few seconds had passed in the time they spent talking.

Will turned his attention to Bess the barrier mage.

“You might think you’re clever, but I think you’re just lucky a Lord showed up.” Will said, looming over her. “You’re still on my shit list. I’m not going to kill someone’s mom in front of them, but I will be hiring people to watch you and checking in on you personally every few years or so, and if that kid isn’t well-adjusted as FUCK, I’ll make life very uncomfortable for you, up to and including separation and an anonymous death. You’re gonna be a demigod outside The Tower, so I expect you to be able to make a living easily. Any blame for childhood deprivation will solely be on your shoulders, and I will judge you even more harshly with that in mind. Do you understand?” Will asked.

Bess swallowed and nodded.

Will grunted and pulled out his pocket notebook and jotted down a quick message for Bakton, handing it to Bess.

Open Lord Menu

Will scrolled through the categories and went to ‘logistics, consumable’.

…Purchase Door?

Will selected the recipient and the Floor

15668 -> 15547 Influence Remaining.

Oh, I got three Influence since I bought the freight Door…I need more Vassals.

“Thanks Roger!” Bess said, blowing a kiss before disappearing through the door.

The ranger silently waved her off with a complicated expression.

“You guys…?” Will asked, pointing between Roger and the space Bess had just occupied. Kind of a stupid question, there were only two guys here.

“Eh…” Roger waggled his hand. “It’s complicated. We get along and she trusts me enough not to kill her mid-coitus, I suppose, but we don’t…love each other like that. I don’t think either of us are capable of it. I’d be happy to spend a couple decades raising a kid if it got me out of this mess, though.”

“Well at least you’re honest.” Will said. “Same rules apply.”

15547 -> 15426 Influence Remaining.

Will turned his attention to the two remaining. Amy and Kyle.

“You two pregnant too?”

“Gods no,” Amy said, recoiling away from their Party leader in a manner that suggested the thought was abhorrent, and also frightening.

There was little love lost between the two.

Interesting.

“I’m going to buy you both a door to my Floor,” Will said. “Make yourself at home in my stronghold. If you run away or kill each other, I’ll be very upset with you.”

15404 Influence Remaining.

“Why save us?” Kyle asked.

“It doesn’t cost me much and affords me the opportunity to exact further revenge.” Will said with a shrug.

“I wasn’t even THERE!” Amy shouted, seemingly at the end of her patience.

“You’re a priestess of Granesh. Did your god steer your Party towards my little town?” Will asked.

Amy paled.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Will said, kicking the priestess through her Door.

Once they were both gone, Will dusted off his hands.

Got that taken care of. Now for step one through seven:

Tricking him into detonating Steve early.

In order to do that…I need to bring Zodiac into the fight and make the worm think that it’s the perfect opportunity to wipe at least a few of us out.

Will teleported to a butler, then one of the crewmembers. took a couple of them down, then shot a manifested chakram into Void’s chest.

It sank in a half-inch, which made sense, given that Will could shoot with the Phantom Hand far harder than he could swing with his hand.

Will vanished, harrying them a little longer while also spreading his butlers around. Zodiac and Travis were likely watching from somewhere, close enough to seize an opportunity.

Will rapidly teleported from butler to butler until he got a response on his Map, Zodiac and Travis’s marker showing up in the distance.

There we go.

Will sent the butler shooting towards them, teleported back to another crewmember and inflicted another minor strike on Void, keeping the worm thinking that he had Will’s full attention.

A few minutes of this harrying later, Will dove into a pool of fear and emerged beside Zodiac and Travis.

“My thanks to Father for granting me such a powerful body.” Will said, raising his tomahawk. “Now my siblings will inhabit yours.”

A flood of fear gushed out of Travis and to a lesser extent Zodiac, as they tensed, preparing to defend themselves.

“Oh, great! You guys are still human!” Will said, slipping his tomahawk back into its belt loop.

“That’s not funny!” Travis shouted.

“It was a little funny.” Will said. “Plus I had to check you for worms.”

All four of Kyle’s Party had been gushing fear, so he was sure that none of them had a worm in their brain.

“Let’s discuss the plan to bring that thing down,” Will said, sitting down beside them. “I’m going to need your help to do it.”