Show me the List of participants.

138,854 Influence remaining

Since the Establishing Quest hadn’t started yet, this was the list of ‘possible’ participants, but almost nobody passed on the easy XP and networking opportunities from the Establishing Quest.

Will scanned through the list…and none of the names meant anything to him.

Wait a minute… Will re-opened a letter on his desk and scanned through it. It mentioned that a retired saint of Holdna had died recently, resulting in a bumper crop of young priestesses using parts of the old crone as Class sacrifices.

The letter requested that Will give them some small consideration should they make it to the 10th Floor.

Holdna seemed to like Will for some reason, and so the church treated him well.

Yeah, might as well help them out. Matter of fact, I could help them out with more than just their Advanced Class.

Will went through his options.

Send a representative – 8500 Influence

Choose any vassal to become a representative to attend the Establishing Quest. Once there they may act on your orders, but direct action against the

rookies will be strictly punished. Doors will be provided to the event, regardless of the vassal’s location.

Hmmm. Will rubbed his chin. It was certainly cheaper than sending someone down ten Floors. Special discount, he supposed, or perhaps The Tower could make a Door any range, but charged an arbitrary cost in order to strangle transportation.

It must, because otherwise that 8500 Influence couldn’t be contributed to the kid’s quest rewards. Moving from the 10th Floor to the First should cost…one billion Influence.

The tower’s façade of a fair system slipped a little more in Will’s mind.

Will stored that little nugget and moved on.

What exactly is the proposed Quest this time?

The Establishing Quest will be exterminating a Maksu tribe that has mutated and exploded in size, preying on caravans between the 1st and 2nd Floor.

That seems like a good place to test out Laurence’s automatic crossbow. In fact, Will wouldn’t mind an opportunity to take a break from his real job and play with a cool toy.

He would never admit that to anyone.

Plus I can check in with Jason for cheap.

I select Jason Salazar as a representative.

130,354 Influence remaining.

I wish to attend myself.

130,354 -> 127,354 Influence remaining.

Lord William Oh, thank you for your participation in this year’s Establishing Quest. You will arrive at the site before the rookies. Secure it and locate the quest goal before they arrive.

….You have been designated as the lead chaperone based on your notoriety. Direct the rookies to complete the quest as you wish. Deliberate sabotage will be strictly punished.

I’ve been what?

Door provided.

2 hours, 13 minutes and 23 seconds remaining until the Establishing Quest begins.

Will gathered up Laurence’s prototypes and placed them in Dimensional Storage before he walked through the Door with a half-hour to spare.

“Will!” Jason waved from Will’s left.

Jason had grown over a foot, coming into his adult height over the last few years.

He was still a bit skinny, but Will expected he would fill out over the next few years. The prophet was surrounded by five ivory snakes floating lazily around him. each of the snakes had the ability to drastically alter fate.

And beside him…

“Check out who it is!” Jason said with a grin, gesturing to the man beside him, the one who’d taught him how to use cantrips.

Mason was still skinny, but the Nuker had grown a beard since he’d last seen him.

“Mason!” Will shouted, greeting the Nuker with a hug that sent cracks all through his pearlescent skin.

“Ooof.” Mason groaned as Will squeezed the air out of him.

“What are you doing here?” Will asked, stepping back and giving Jason his own hug.

“I have a younger brother.” Mason said with a shrug.

“Sweet. What’s this I hear about you being a lord?” Will asked.

“It’s true. They call me the Lord of the Wandering Stronghold.” Mason said, opening his shirt and cutting open the pearlescent skin of his stomach with his fingernail.

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Beyond that….green fields lit by a blazing sun as far as the eye could see, and a castle at the center of it. in the distance, Will could see tiny figures harvesting grain.

Mason had become a world unto himself. Wherever he went, his Stronghold came with him.

“Well, that’s fuckin’ weird,” Will said with a chuckle. “What kind of freaks wanna live inside somebody?

“My wife, for one.”

Will paused.

“Whaaaaaaa….”

“Say hi, Sherry.”

A feminine hand broke through Mason’s shoulder and waved at Jason and Will before withdrawing back inside.

“As for the reasons why people would want to live inside me, I can list them off,” Mason said, ticking off his fingers.

“There’s no Miasma inside me, therefore there are no monsters, or birth defects for that matter. The weather is predictable and steady, leading to excellent farming.

There’s no possible way for another Lord to steal my Stronghold, so the risk of an attack from another Lord is effectively nil, and I’m going to be alive for at least a thousand years going forward, so my death is so far in the future none of my citizens will live to see it. When I get old, I can deliver them outside The Tower.

“…How did you get a sun inside you?” Will asked.

“Careful selection of Sacrifices.” Mason said.

“Fair enough.” Will turned his attention to the prophet.

“Jason, how you been?”

“Eh. Same-old, same-old. Spreading the good word of William Oh.

The church of Granesh tries little micro-aggressions now and then, but anything bigger than an annoyance tends to backfire on them…dramatically.”

“And who’s this one?” Will asked, pointing at a straight-laced young man with a simple short sword belted to his side along with a bow over his shoulder, watching them from a polite distance. Will could tell from feel alone that he was in full Kit, but it wasn’t up to the standard of a Lord.

“Ash Lee, representative of Marksman, milords.” The young man said, giving a stiff bow.

That makes sense. Marksman was stationed on the 2nd Floor, which meant any disruption in trade on the 1st Floor would eat into his profits.

“Might I suggest we do our reconnaissance now?” Ash asked.

Will consulted his Map.

“They’re that way,” Will said, pointing. “There’s about three hundred of them, two miles distant. They’ve even set up rudimentary defenses overlooking the caravan route…

Will paused, glancing through his map.

“And they even have a spiderweb of tunnels leading under the route, allowing them to stealthily flank their prey. Cute.”

“How…as expected of a Lord.” Ash said with a bow.

Phantom Eye

312 Charges remaining.

Will sent an eye to confirm what he’d seen and heard through his map as Doors began to pop up around them, depositing rookies in a cluster a few dozen feet away from Will and company.

The kids glanced over and noted that Will’s group was older and wore expensive Kit, and rightly assumed they were the chaperones of the quest.

In a matter of minutes, Will stood overlooking a gaggle of children, chatting amongst each other, their eyes glittering with hope. Will spotted the dozen Priestesses of Holdna from the letter on his desk. They were spread out amongst the other kids, with knots forming around them, haggling over roles and grouping.

Once the Doors had stopped depositing fresh young faces into the area, Will figured it was about time to get started.

Whistling, Will drew a line in the dirt, catching the attention of some of the more perceptive ones.

“Alright, everybody LINE UP!”

“Right here!” Will shouted, pointing at the line in the dirt. “Go, go go go go! Get your asses on that line!”

Startled into compliance by Will’s sudden tirade, the young Climbers slowly lined up so he could see all of them at once.

“We’re short on time, so I’ll make it quick. My name is William Oh. I’m your babysitter on this Quest.

Someone snorted. There were a few snickers.

“For real? And I’m Lord Zodiac.” someone muttered under their breath, naively assuming that he couldn’t hear their heartbeats.

Will had long since learned how to deal with this: You don’t get mad or pissy. Instead, you allow the truth to gently dawn on the doubters. The expression on their faces when they realized the hole they’d dug for themselves was good as gold.

“Alright, kids, this quest is a big one. A tribe of Maksu have mutated and are wreaking havoc on the shipping lanes between the two floors. Today’s mission is an extermination.”

Will allowed the kids to murmur to each other for a moment as they learned of their task.

“I also have some experimental weapons to test, and I thought to myself, who better than to test unproven weapons in live combat than children?”

The young Climbers glanced at each other uncertainly at that statement.

“The Maksu have a fort made of wood and stacked rocks. It’s nothing impressive, but you level one through fives are barely above human baseline, so a simple stone wall could prove to be your undoing.”

“There’s also a spiderweb of tunnels underneath the fort, which will make pinning down the Maksu nearly impossible. Should they choose to scatter in every direction, you will fail this Quest.”

Will would pick off the ones that scattered, but he figured the little white lie would help motivate them to fight properly.

Will manifested a map of the underground tunnels and laid it out for his audience.

“Do we have any earth mages?” Will asked.

Two kids raised their hands.

“Excellent, that makes this easier. I want you to form up into two squads of ten or so around each of these earth mages.

You’ll travel above these tunnels, and when you reach these intersections, the earth mage will collapse them.

After a day of cutting off the maksu’s maneuverability, you’ll then go on to smash the stronghold.

The rest of you will form smaller Parties of five or so, and you’ll patrol the outskirts, picking off any Maksu that are trying to flee.

“Tomorrow you’ll combine forces for the assault on the fort itself. Does everyone understand the plan?”

The fifty-or-so Climbers nodded.

“Excellent, I’ll give the earth mages maps. While you figure out your grouping, would the priestesses of Holdna come here?”

About a dozen young girls stepped forward, watching Will cautiously.

“You girls don’t have any offensive Abilities, correct?”

They shook their heads.

“We do have passive bonuses to ranged attacks, though.” One of them said. Will noted that most of them were carrying bows or slings.

The thousand-eyed goddess was the patron of hunting, after all.

“That works perfectly,” Will said, pulling out one of the prototypes.

It was a chunky looking crossbow frame with a wooden stock to rest on your shoulder.

“This is called the Laurence Emeris Anchorite Bullet Launcher. – cooler name pending – Anyone used a crossbow before?” Will asked.

One of the girls raised her hand and Will motioned her forward, putting the weapon in her hands and bringing it up to her shoulder, making sure it was aiming somewhere safe.

Anchorite bullets took a long time to stop, actively fighting wind resistance or any flesh in the way.

“Okay, so this thing has six shots. You disable the safety here, then pull this bolt to load the first bullet on the track.

“The weapon also has a bit of a strange habit. You feel the resistance to moving it?”

The girl nodded, waggling the stock back and forth. The anchorite in the weapon made it a little harder to move than it should’ve been, giving the false impression that the weapon would have a steady aim.

“Well, when you pull the trigger, all that resistance to movement goes away for an instant and the aim tends to go a bit squirrely, so squeeze the trigger gently and keep it tight against your shoulder.”

“okay, shoot whenever you-“

CRACK!

The thumb-sized anchorite bullet shot forward, breaking the sound barrier before it destroyed a boulder on the side of the distant mountain a few seconds later.

The surrounding kids stared at them in shock.

“There was no recoil!” the young priestess marveled.

“It’s made for kids of all ages, but I think it’s especially well suited to priestesses of Holdna,” Will said, giving her a thumbs-up.

No recoil was good, because if there had been recoil equivalent to the force of the shot, that little girl would’ve become meat-paste. Since these girls were priestesses, they generally had a lot of Focus and no active attack Abilities to use with them.

Given how cheap it was for him to produce, Will hoped it could become the signature weapon of low Strength, high-Focus support Classes.