The Legend of William Oh

Chapter 229: Changing Names Like Clothes

Will was lying on his side, waiting for the nausea to pass when he heard crunching footsteps approaching.“How’d the wedding go?” Loth asked, squatting down beside him.

“Danced with the Rotwitch.” Will coughed.

“That bad, huh?”

“Not bad at all really. Kinda tingly. We just had to cut the reception short because an abomination showed up, stole a matching Climber and set, and it’s all hands on deck now.”

“How long ago?” Loth asked.

“Only an hour or so,” Will muttered, pushing himself to his feet as the nausea passed.

“What’s the plan?” Loth asked.

“Any Lord potentially in his path is going to lock him down and request backup, then we’ll kick the crap out of him.”

“Who gets the set once it’s dead?” Loth asked.

Will glanced up at Loth with a raised brow.

“Ah shit, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” Will muttered.

As soon as the threat of city-ending infestations was past, the remaining Lords would immediately fight over the unclaimed set.

Fabron sure as Abyss wasn’t going to claim it.

thatWill assumed it was just to ‘watch’ each other, but there was an extra layer to it.

They left Will to his own devices because…either they thought he was neutral or they didn’t think he would win, merely buy time.

Will thought back to the fae he’d managed to destabilize, glancing back down at his truncated arm.

“I’m going to go my tower to practice something.” Will said. “I should see him coming from twelve miles away if he attacks, but he’s also got minions that I might not see coming. Put everyone on high alert.”

“Alright.” Loth said, nodding, gesturing for Brianna to follow her.

Will thought, opening his Lord menu and selecting ‘Issue Bounty’

***Vincent Duncan***

Void opened the next Ability, studying it’s effect on his Build.

Void frowned, cocking his head.

There to have been a reason he had done that, but there was no one to ask.

It always took several months before his proficiency with a Build reached the same as its original owner, if ever.

Unless that original owner was particularly stupid, which happened before, but it didn’t seem like Void was one of those types.

The hosts had their whole careers to figure out all the best tricks baked into their Build and master them, gradually adjusting as each new ingredient was added to the pot that was their Build, coming up with their own unique techniques, exploits, and cantrips.

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Jumping into this body at full strength without first studying it in depth was a surefire way to lose some of their carefully crafted techniques forever.

Void thought, inspecting the scythe he’d been wielding.

Void glanced at the secondary band on his left hand. It wasn’t quite as ostentatious as the Signet of the Burning Court on his right hand, but it pretty, with a simple band of fire opal set in the center of the ring.

Many Necromancer Abilities scaled with Focus. If he were to gain control of a massive horde, he would have to accept a large penalty to his Focus, which would in turn drastically reduce the strength of his passives, which would reduce the strength of his individual undead.

Since Unliving One made him count as an undead, and Grave Commander provided massive passive buffs to undead ‘under his control’ Void would be willing to bet that all of his passive buffs and healing effects from Necrotic Balm applied to himself.

The scythe might’ve just been for situations where he simply needed extra hands, not a primary feature of his Build. A red-herring.

Void thought.

“May I ask my master his thoughts?” Aria asked, her eyes downcast.

“I’m acquainting myself…with my self.” Void said, glancing back down at her. He was taller now. He could make out the crown of her head through the silver hair.

He could feel the power radiating off of her. Aria was not a combatant by any means, and yet with Void’s passives coursing through her, Void could picture her single-handedly slaying a Lord and burning their Stronghold to ash.

She was definitely an undead ‘under his control’.

Best of all, the mysterious unspoken cost of maintaining these ‘free’ fae undead was being defrayed by either Necrotic Conduit or Unliving One, because Void’s body felt no strain, even with all seven of them summoned.

Void had always found eating and shitting to be an icky waste of time, solely necessary to maintain the body and keep up the façade around those panicky Hosts.

“Master…what do we call you?” Aria asked.

“Mm? call me Void.” Void replied. “I don’t really like ‘Vincent’”

“I mean…what do we call ”

Vincent stared at Aria, watching the fae curl inwards and slowly shy away from him.

“Actually…call me Vincent. Names are only as good as the clothes and body they come with.”

“Yes…master.”

“Why did you ask that question if you were gonna…nevermind. When referring to me to others and amongst yourselves, you will call me Vincent. Understood?”

“Yes, master.” Aria said, staring at the ground.

Vincent had never had to deal with summons with their own independent minds before. It was a new experience, and it was uniquely irksome to his sensibilities to have a thinking being know he was and not have killed them already.

To put it like a Climber might. It felt like being caught naked at their…youngling initiation building…or whatever it was called.

Vincent dreaded hosts talking about their ‘childhoods’, because there was some unwritten rule that as soon as they finished, he was obligated to tell them about his. Which led to opportunities for the hosts to pick up on discrepancies and uncover his identity.

Perhaps it was some kind of instinctive imposter-catching behavior developed to protect against creatures like Vincent.

Vincent shuddered. He had since learned to keep his backstory vague. Any body that he didn’t know the background of, he would give a sanitized version of his own.

Proceed to stay quiet and stare into the distance.

Strangely enough, his story often gained more sympathy and back-pats than made-up childhoods designed to ‘fit in’.

Hosts. Go figure.

Vincent shook the thought off and turned his attention to the rest of his new set, carefully studying each piece of the puzzle, sorting through which ones synergized the best with his build. It wasn’t 100% but most of them were pretty good for his Build.

+4 Strength

+4 Kinesthetics

+12 Resistance

+15 Focus

+12 Acuity

Vincent thought to himself. his heart didn’t burn with anything. Was it a metaphor? Was it some kind of hidden activation clause? He had no idea.

he thought, moving on to the next.

Vincent had been to the ninth Floor before, and the effect of Debt was nothing to scoff at.

“Bring me some test subjects.” Vincent said, causing Aria to shudder beside him.

“Right away, Master.” She said, bowing.