To the bishop:

I am not naïve enough to believe that I was the only agent sent to keep watch over the Deceiver. Only the most visible one. I would not hesitate to give my life in the service of Granesh, but being used as a disposable distraction is…unpleasant.

The Deceiver has made threats against my family, and until the Tangled threat is neutralized, I will be avoiding his attention.

“Will.”

“Eh?” Will turned his attention to Brianna, his ‘zipper’ experiment unspooling in a flaccid pile in front of him. It would be embarrassing if Brianna could see Miasma.

“Ria tells me she needs you to let a bit of hot air out of the guard boys.”

“That time already?” Will asked.

“It’s been two weeks, actually.”

Have I slept? Will thought, eye twitching as he scanned his memories.

“We can do this tomorrow if you wan-“

“No, I slept last night,” Will said, nodding. “Yeah, I’ll deal with them. What’s the excuse?”

“Joint training. The top boys have earned the right to receive ‘lessons’ from you publicly.”

“Well, I’d hate to disappoint,” Will said, grabbing a towel and wiping the liquified miasma off his hands. That, Bri could see, since it was glowing like crazy.

“How are you not hideously deformed?” Bri asked.

“I don’t think I’m human.” Will replied, changing out of his Wizard clothes and into his ‘Lord’ clothes.

“That makes sense.” Bri replied, scanning him from top to bottom.

‘Wizard’ clothes were plain coats resistant to miasma and corrosion with plenty of pockets to hold things as he moved from experiment to experiment.

‘Lord’ Clothes were what people typically thought a Lord should be wearing in his off hours. A comfortable vest and undershirt made of cloud wool with gold accents, some trousers of the same material dyed black, and opal crocodile leather shoes gifted from Carrie Envar, lord of the 14th Floor.

Will still thought the shoes were a bit too much, but they had turned out to be the most comfortable boots he’d ever worn, so he was willing to overlook their gaudiness.

“How do I look?” Will asked once he was dressed, holding out his arms.

“Hot.” Bri said with a smile. She frowned for a moment, then pulled out a comb and straightened his hair, studying her work like an artist.

“…Nah.” Bri messed Will’s hair up again, then stood back, nodding to herself.

“Buttoned down works better with a splash of crazy-hair.” She explained.

“As always, I defer to your opinion in matters of style.” Will said, stepping off the balcony and flying down to the ground.

Since Will’s tower had been destroyed two weeks ago, he’d been able to use the anchorite he’d been accumulating in his warehouse structurally, instead of just for accents. Now each floor was floating, separated from the last by an open-air staircase that hovered in midair.

It looked cool as Abyss, and Will loved it.

Will found Ria and the guard kids doing their physical training. They all had a Strength score, but Strength was a multiplier. A weak little girl with a Strength would always be weaker than a large man with the same Strength.

That meant there was incentive for his guards to build muscle. They were currently working out in the practice yard, taking advantage of untuned Anchorite to simulate weights that were thousands of pounds.

Despite all of his guards receiving the same sacrifices, they each had chosen their own Primaries, because Will had no idea what the Class combination offered.

Their Class Sacrifices were Ethereal Metallic Slime, Roc, and Kincaid.

They had good stat growth and lots of Abilities that allowed them to control lightning and metal.

Best of all, Will didn’t have to pay for any of their Sacrifices, since he killed all of them himself.

It was a bit of mixed bag. Some of them seemed to have chosen their primaries wisely, while others…

“Check this out, I can eat lightning!”

One of the young men unhinged his jaw and a second shot lightning directly into his mouth. True to the guy’s words, the bolt of lightning writhed for a moment before disappearing like a noodle getting sucked in.

Kincaid Ability? Good or not? I shouldn’t judge before I find out the details.

“Do you get permanent buffs from eating lightning?” Will asked as he arrived beside the guard.

“Milord!” The two kids started and gave him a hasty bow, quickly echoed by the other young guards at the training ground.

The lightning shooter elbowed the one eating the lightning.

“Ah, no. Um, no I do not, it’s a temporary boost. Milord.”

“I have a friend who gained a small, stacking bonus every time he broke his shield. Keep your eyes open for an upgrade of that nature.”

“Yes, milord.” The young man said, eyes fixed on the ground.

What did I do to them to make them so meek?

“So, Ria tells me you boys have earned some joint training with your Lord?” Will asked. Behind the kneeling young men, Ria nodded.

“So what kind of lesson do you boys want?” Will asked, rolling up his fancy sleeves. “A lesson to get better at fighting…or a lesson about what a Lord can do?”

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“Give me everything you got, Milord!” one of the young men said, rising to his feet and meeting Will’s gaze.

“The latter lesson then. What’s your name?”

“Aaron.” The young guard said as the other kids moved away, giving them space.

“Alright, Aaron. Start whenever you’re ready.”

“Does milord…want to wear any of his Kit?” Aaron asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Will waved off his concerns, equipping the Coiled Dimensional Serpent Amulet.

The young guard shrugged and a moment late a disc of liquid metal formed in front of him. Will watched the strings of miasma create, control and shape the liquid metal.

This is the kid who was swinging around the liquid metal earlier. His control has gotten a lot better.

Will watched as a second Ability triggered. From what Will could identify on sight, it was some kind of lightning Ability, wrapping around the disc of liquid metal. The Ability shot forward, creating a sort of…ribbed archway, creating a path through the air connecting Will and the metal disc.

Will could counter it, but he was curious to see how it worked.

It was obviously meant to guide and accelerate the metal disc, so Will reflexively shoved out with Miasma and diverted the path of the archways to go up and over his shoulder.

An instant later, the metal disc accelerated at a blinding speed that caught even Will off guard, moving faster than even Phantom Hand was capable of. Faster than Will could even react.

…up and over Will’s shoulder.

That could’ve killed me!

Will didn’t let his surprise show on his face, instead standing there with his arms crossed.

“…You missed.” Will said when he recovered his poise.

“Ooooh!” The other kids hooted, seemingly eager to see the top performer taken down a peg.

“Since you asked, I suppose I should stop holding back.” Will said, his eyes narrowing menacingly.

…He was absolutely going to hold back.

Dead guards were of no value.

Will snipped the control threads on the liquid metal, sending it careening away.

Aaron made a wise choice to dismiss his summon and create a new ball of metal rather than try to regain control of the distant metal while Will was so close.

Will snipped the control threads of the new one as well, then gently shoved the sphere into Aaron’s chest, causing the young man’s eyes to bulge as his own Ability struck him in the chest.

Will couldn’t help but give his advice.

“You need to develop finer perception of miasma. This is largely dictated by Focus, but there are a few sensory organs that could give you the edge you need. You can check the warehouse this evening. Until you can sense Miasma, my Abilities will be invisible to you, which will place you on the defensive.

If someone has demonstrated the ability to break the control over your Abilities, don’t just summon it again directly in front of your chest. Throw some sand in my eyes, make a distraction, anything to increase my cognitive load enough to give you time to use your Abilities.”

Aaron shot a hand forward, and Will saw a simple thread of lightning miasma arc out. Will cut it near the base, then tapped his toe on the ground.

A pillar of earth caught Aaron in the crotch.

“Keep yourself light and mobile. Advanced movement techniques can negate terrain advantages. Find them wherever you can.” Will called as Aaron rolled back to his feet.

Will frowned as he spotted Travis among the audience, looking absolutely pissed.

Will walked over to Travis, continuing to counter and redirect the young guard’s Abilities as he moved, keeping the beating within reason.

Sure, Will said he was going to teach them what a Lord could do, but there was a certain level of swift defeat where nothing of value was learned. He was obligated to toy with the kid for a bit first so that Aaron could understand he was being toyed with.

“What’s up with you?” Will asked Travis, his ten semi-autonomous snakes kicking Aaron’s ass out of the corner of his eye.

The illusionist wasn’t looking at Will, he was glaring across the clearing to where Maybel and some random guy were flirting.

“Maybel is cheating on me.” Travis muttered with a scowl.

“The girlfriend that you made and control is cheating on you…Are you fucking with me?” Will asked.

“Do I look like I’m fucking with you?” Travis demanded.

“Kinda?” Will said, parrying an attack without looking. “That guy is an illusion, so I’m assuming you’re role-playing with yourself again?”

Travis’s eyes went wide.

“He’s an illusion!?”

“…Yeah?” Will said, glancing at the rather handsome young man standing beside Travis’s pretend-girlfriend. The strands of miasma in an illusion were vastly different from someone with a real body and a real Class. It was obvious…to Will.

“Dear gods, are they reproducing now?” Travis muttered, his eyes wobbling from side to side as his panic caused him to retreat into his mind. “Have I created a new species of sentient illusions? Are they going to kill me? Who am I kidding, of course they’re going to kill me. They’ve already promised to so many times. I thought it was a funny joke, making them vengeful, but now it’s come full circle. Gods help me. Gods help us all, what have I done!”

Travis grabbed Will’s expensive collar and stared at him with bloodshot eyes.

“Will, I need you to cover my escape! Don’t let them see me leave! I have to find a way to stop this before the entire tower is overwhelmed by living illusions seeking vengeance on their creator!”

“…No.” Will replied.

Travis ducked and began running away, prompting Will to grab him.

“I surrender!” Aaron shouted, drawing Will’s attention to him.

The kid wasn’t too badly wounded, just gasping for air and bruised a bit. Both his body and his ego.

“Who’s next?” Will asked.

A boy hesitantly raised his hand. “Can I get just the combat lesson?” He asked.

“Sure!” Will called. “Just a moment.”

Will turned his attention back to Travis.

“Calm down Travis, it’s not one of yours.”

“…What?” Travis asked, eyes wide.

“Yeah, I think it belongs to her.” Will said, pointing at a young woman who was bitterly staring at Maybel. Similar to Travis’s abs, she was…enhancingsome of her attributes magically, and the miasma weave’s look matched that of the handsome young man chatting up Travis’s fake girlfriend.

Travis gasped.

“That girlfriend-stealing slut! I’m going to go give her a piece of my mind!”

“You do you, man.” Will said, setting Travis aside. The illusionist rolled up his sleeves and began stalking around the edge of the packed-dirt arena, muttering to himself.

Will turned his gave back to his training partner.

“And what’s your name?”

“Rick?”

“You sure?”

“Rick, Milord.” The kid corrected, eliminating the doubt from his voice.

“Rick, would you prefer to practice fighting with Abilities or physically?”

“Physically, Milord.”

Will nodded and jumped the kid, punching towards his face.

The young man warped out of the way, his entire body turning into liquid metal. Will slipped around the counterattack and kicked him in the balls.

CLANG!Will’s foot rebounded off of solid metal.

I guess he learned from Aaron’s fight. Although I question how turning into liquid metal isn’t ‘fighting with Abilities’. To be fair, he was fighting physically.

“You know, this reminds me of a guy who could turn himself into metal at the newcomer tournament in Akul,” Will said. “He used lightning to-ACK!”

Will dove aside as Rick surrounded himself with lightning and suddenly accelerated, nearly without any time to respond between Miasma forming and execution.

“Good speed!” Will said, watching as Rick slide into the spectators, who caught him and shoved him back into the arena.

In exchange for the speed, he can’t control the charge once he starts, Will mused.

Rick turned and charged again, but Will was ready.

Will dove out of the way again, slapping the ground with his palm, creating a pillar of reinforced earth right where he’d been standing.

Rick slammed into the solid pillar hard enough to shake the packed-dirt practice area.

“Ow.” Rick muttered, staggering backwards as his transformation faded.

“Good job! You made me use my Abilities. Like Aaron, you’ve got to work on increasing my mental burden rather than trying your strongest move over and over. When you’re fighting monsters, that works fine, but against other Climbers, you’re playing a mental game. Work on controlling that movement combo. Reducing the output in exchange for better control would be an upgrade overall.”

“…Thank you, sir,” Rick said, stumbling back to his friends, looking a bit discombobulated. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

“Who’s next?” Will asked, glancing over at Travis, whose argument with the other illusionist was rapidly escalating, drawing the attention of all those assembled.

“Oh yeah, well, I think your face is fake!”

Travis shouted. “Nobody looks that good naturally! You’ve probably got crooked-ass, rotting teeth and breath that would curl a man’s nose-hairs!”

“Shows what you know!” The girl shouted back. “I’m only using illusions to dye my hair! You’re probably a fat pig under all that!”

She gestured to Travis’s fake torso.

“You’d be into that, wouldn’t you!?” Travis shot back.

Somehow their illusionary boy/girlfriend had wound up standing near Will, just close enough for him to overhear over all the commotion.

“Your ex is kind of a jerk,” the handsome male illusion whispered to Maybel, who nodded in agreement.

“I’m so glad I have someone who really understands me now, Micheal.” Maybel said, clinging to the other illusion.

“TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE, TRAVIS!” Will shouted.