Chương 59: Chapter 136: ‘Good’ Luck

William Oh won a coinflip against the God of Misfortune, who withered and died, having finally been released from his curse of infinite success. Jason Salazar"Okay, we've got three Greater Healing Potions and six people." Will gave Reggie and Mason one, taking the final one for himself.

"Nobody get injured more than half. That's your budget for the trip," Will said, scanning his team.

"Half of what?" Jason asked.

"Half. You know. Halfway." Travis said, rifling through a satchel full of supplies. He grabbed a bag labeled 'eye irritants' and set it aside. Eye irritants wouldn't be useful against a metallic slime.

"Halfway to what?" Jason asked.

"You know, halfway there." Reggie said, standing still with his arms extended while a couple of Anna's made sure all the joints on his armor were clean and smooth.

"Halfway where?" Jason asked.

"They're just messing with you." Mason said, applying some kind of powder to his staff so the wood didn't slip.

"Will was making a joke. No one has any control over how injured they get." I mean…I do, but generally, most people don't.

"Alright, is this the first time this particular group has hunted together?" Will asked, thinking of Jason and Bee. Mason nodded, while Travis grunted.

"Alright, you know the drill. Give the team a rundown of your powers."

"I can make explosions. I've put a lot of effort into making sure the explosion is the right element to bypass damage resistances. I'm the most likely to deal lasting damage to the slime. My defensive shielding and damage-resistant body make me pretty durable." Mason said.

"I've got tons of tricks for controlling enemy aggression, and I've gotten some sweet illusions recently." Travis said.

"Fairly durable, but no Abilities for soaking direct damage, so I won't be poking my head into the fight directly." Travis said.

"I-I've got like three different Buffs for you guys and a damaging debuff for the enemy." Jason said, eager to be included.

"Withering Repudiation is language-dependant isn't it?" Will asked.

"Not anymore!" Jason said.

"In Akul I Sacrificed a Teranti Hive-queen, which erased the language-dependent requirement, then a Shrieking Fungus, which erased the single-target requirement.

"Read it to me."

"Ahem:" Withering Repudiation ** Active: 1 charge Mentally describe to an area in line of sight exactly why you don't like the creatures inside. Inflicts paralysis and psychic damage over time as long as the user continues to think mean thoughts. Affected creatures must have a mind. Area & damage Scale with Acuity. It went from language-dependent to mind-dependent.

"That is awesome," Will said, to which the other Climbers present nodded in agreement.

"…Does a metallic slime have a mind?" Jason opened his mouth…then closed it.

"I think…I don't think they do."

"They don't." Mason said.

"SHOOT!" Jason cried, kicking a nearby stump.

"It's fine, just stick to the buffs." Will said.

"What do you have?"

"I've got Hand of Fate, Made Manifest, and flagbearer."

"Did you pick a tertiary Ability?" Will asked. He should have one more secondary and a tertiary available, provided he didn't upgrade any of his secondaries.

"At level thirty, I got both a secondary and tertiary. I've been waiting to decide on which one should be the tertiary Ability." Jason said. The Prophet of the End explained the remaining choices he had available.

"Scales of Ouroboros." Will, Reggie, Mason and Travis said. Scales of Ouroboros Active: 5 Charge Create an ethereal scale somewhere on the body. (max 20). When the user is wounded, consumes the scale and reverts the damage. Scales with Focus.

"But it won't get any better as a tertiary" Jason said, frowning.

"True…but it doesn't need to get any better. It's already good." Will said.

"It'll save your life, but its scope is pretty limited to just that. Relic Seed on the other hand…" Will mused.

"That one sounds like it could get pretty crazy." Relic Seed: Variable Charge Harvest a myth sown in an area and condense it down into a prepared Sacrifice to create a Relic Seed which can be added to a Relic to give it powers in line with the myth. The myths harvested this way have a chance to be uprooted and forgotten. As the Relic gains notoriety, the seed will grow in power. One Relic Seed per Relic. Once planted, Relic Seeds cannot be removed.

"Really? It doesn't make any sense to me." Jason said.

"What does harvesting a myth have to do with anything? I don't understand what it does, and even if I did, myths are only available where there are people to tell them, so I'd have to use it in civilized places, wouldn't I?"

"All you really need to know is that it adds an extra Affix to a Relic, which is really good. And just like your Withering Repudiation, if you find the right Sacrifices to eliminate the restrictions, you could make something really special. Not to mention, the word 'seed' implies that there's some inherent potential for some form of pro…profil… Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Proliferation!" Loth shouted from across the camp.

"Pro-filteration," Will said with a nod.

"With the right sacrifice, they might be able to profilterate.

"Proliferate!"

"Hmm…" Jason mused.

"Yeah, I can see that. Took 'em."

"Okay, get your scales maxed out."

"But that's like a hundred Charge!" Jason said.

"How much Charge do you have?" Will asked, expecting something like eighty or maybe even as low as sixty. Jason muttered under his breath." What?" Will asked, desperately hoping he didn't hear what he thought he just heard.

"…Eight." Jason admitted, causing everyone to glance at each other in confusion. Will pulled up Jason's simplified Status on the Party Screen. Jason Salazar Prophet of the End Level 30 60 Strength 120+5 Resistance 30+3 Kinesthetics 90+12 Acuity 120+7 Focus Charges: 8/127 Primary Abilities: Hand of Fate, Withering repudiation** Secondary Abilities: Made Manifest, Flagbearer, relic Seed Tertiary Abilities: Scales of Ouroboros"You have nearly twenty dailies." Will said, inspecting Jason's simplified Party Status.

"So why the Abyss do you have only eight Charges left?" The assembled men stared at Jason until he crumbled.

"Turns out Hand of Fate is really convenient." Jason admitted with a guilty shrug.

"I knew you were cheating at cards!" Travis accused.

"You were cheating too!" Jason shot back.

"Yeah, but I was using cantrips, so it's fine," Travis said. Mason raised a skeptical eyebrow at that statement.

"No cheating at games of any kind." Will said.

"More importantly…I can't take you with us."

"What!?" Jason shouted, his eyes watering.

"But. But…" Will held up a hand to forestall any crying.

"Look, it's our fault for not instructing you properly, but that doesn't change the fact that you lack the Charge needed to respond to the unexpected. If the fight goes long, or if we get ambushed by some claim jumpers, you won't have the Charge you need to defend yourself." Jason seemed to curl in on himself like a dying spider.

"I say we take him." Mason interrupted Jason's slow self-implosion.

"Eh?" Will glanced up at the unexpected support from the Nuker, who was more rigid about preparation and following the rules than the other three.

"You're worth an entire Party of Climbers of your level," Mason said.

"And none of us are slouches either. I think he'll learn more from running out of Charge and spending the whole fight cowering and feeling useless than he will being mad at us for leaving him behind."

"Yeah, if something can kill him with us there, then it would've killed him anyways." Reggie said. Will glanced at Travis for the final confirmation.

"…I don't care." Travis said.

"Alright, looks like you're coming with us." Will said.

"WHOO!" Jason shouted, jumping in place.

"…But seriously, stop using Hand of Fate in the camp. And Travis, stop using cantrips to cheat at cards." Will said. Travis clicked his tongue.

"What's a cantrip anyway?" Jason asked.

"Mason, you volunteered to teach him about cantrips." Will said, gesturing at Jason.

"I did?... I suppose I did." Mason sighed, standing and gesturing for Jason to follow him. Will stood, shaking his head and watching them retire to a campfire, where Mason began dancing a mote of flame across his fingers.

"Leadership feels a lot like babysitting." Will mused.

"Now you know my pain." June said from the firepit. Will chuckled and turned aside, going back to making sure they had enough supplies to survive a trek through the jungle. Sure, Will was planning on flying them out there and back in the space of a single afternoon, but they should at least have enough supplies to survive the walk back if Will got knocked out. Unlikely but possible.

Several hours later Will was just about finished making sure everyone had everything they needed for the trip in the morning when Jason sprinted up to him, cheeks red and panting.

"Check this out!" He revealed a coin in his hand.

"Heads!" The gold coin spun in the air for a moment before landing in his palm: Heads.

"Heads!" It happened again.

"Heads!" It happened again. Will raised his hand to forestall any more coin flips.

"I get the picture. You figured out a cantrip."

"I will NEVER lose a coinflip again!" Jason crowed, holding the coin above his head and posing.

"Wanna bet?" Will asked.

"Oh yeah, Let's do this." Jason said, readying to flip the coin.

"Hold on," Will said, gesturing for Jason to pause for a moment.

"Let's add some stakes. A real coinflip has gotta have some stakes."

"Oh right. If I win…I get Anna to feed me a fresh batch of caramel. Naked." Will blinked.

"Okay. And if I win, I get to punch you in the face." Hand of Fate, if you're listening, I will punch him either way, but also, I'll give Jason an ivory ten-piece if he loses, and he will learn a valuable lesson. Losing here will be the luckiest outcome for him.

"Heads!" The coin landed Tails. The expression of shock on Jason's face was priceless an instant before Will's fist made contact. Not particularly hard, considering Jason's excellent Resistance, but the young lad did go flying five or six feet and sat up with a bloody nose. Jason sat up, face pale. Rather than look at Will, he stared at the coin in his palm like it'd betrayed him. Which it had, in a sense." HOW!?" Jason demanded, looking up at Will, who was rifling through his pocket for an ivory ten-piece.

"I'm William Oh," Will said, flicking the ten-piece into Jason's lap.

"…" Jason just stared at him in absolute shock until Will couldn't keep a straight face any longer and burst out laughing.

"Just kidding. I tricked Hand of Fate," Will admitted, squatting down next to Jason.

"It's got some easily exploitable flaws, so I want you to sit and think about what those flaws are, and try to understand how it works better than a method for winning a simple coin-toss…Don't trust it blindly, and try not to use it against people like me or Loth, alright?" Jason nodded numbly.

"And seriously, if I hear you creeped out Anna…" Will shook his fist under Jason's nose.

"Understood?" Jason nodded.

"Cool cantrip." Will said, tousling Jason's hair and leaving. The fact that Jason could literally predict the future with a coinflip was outrageous, even if it was as simple as 'good' or 'bad', but only Will and Loth would probably understand at a glance how outrageous it was and think of a way to exploit it: Picking the best path to take. Deciding whether or not to do something with high risk to reward. Winning bets against people who were not schemers.

Naturally, the outcome was only what was best for Jason, but generally his Party's well-being translated to his well-being, so it could be… roughly relied on to serve the group. Mostly. Except in rare cases where a punch to the face was the best outcome for Jason. There were probably many more things Jason could do with it, but… Best to let him unravel it on his own with some helpful guidance.

The next morning, all seven of them were standing at attention, their gear properly attached to their bodies and ready to go. Mason, Reggie, Travis, Jason, and three Bees stood in a line as Will gave them a final inspection. Everyone looked perfectly squared away, so Will stopped by Jason.

"Jason, how much Charge to do you have?"

"Twenty-eight."

"You should only have twenty-six."

"I dumped my free points into Focus. I'm almost Hourly now." Mason and Travis looked silently jealous. Hourly Charge was a Nuker's wet dream, and usually didn't come around until after Class Advancement. Will rubbed his temple. Rather than exercise more discipline, Jason had decided to just go all in on Focus so that he didn't have to. Well, his loss. Higher Focus means higher discipline anyway.

Jason's Acuity-based Abilities wouldn't be as powerful as they possibly could be without that sweet extra thirty points, but they were already getting a healthy three points per level anyway, so… whatever. Nobody suffered from having too much Focus.

"Alright, give yourself two Scales, and everyone hop on the sled," Will said, gesturing to the sleek piece of carved wood. Will only had five Phantom Snakes and eight people to carry including himself, so the carpenters had been happy to help out by building a transport for them. Once everyone was on, Will climbed onto the sled behind everyone else and strapped in.

"So is the sled gonna go through the jungle or…" Jason's voice was cut off by a shrill scream as four of Will's snakes lifted the sled straight up into the air and then proceeded to head straight towards the ancient lake.

"Keep your eyes open for a lake under a waterfall!" Will shouted over the blast of wind steaming past them. About six minutes later, Travis waved his hand, his voice nearly lost to the wind.

"Is that it!?" the Master Decoy shouted, pointing ahead and off to the right, where a small lake lay just below a waterfall, barely visible even from their extreme height. The entire place seemed to be slightly sunk into the earth, which made spotting it from land nearly impossible unless you were right on top of it. In the center of the lake, a stone structure rose out of the water. A ziggurat, seemingly overgrown with ancient, gnarled wood.

"Yeah, I think that's it." Will said, banking them slightly to the right and beginning their descent.