Will's Party

Will's Party is the adventuring organization built around William Oh as his ascent through The Tower turns from a solitary struggle into a network of people, creatures, contracts, and practical dependencies. Its significance lies in the contrast between the party's informal, improvised character and the increasingly formal reputation attached to William Oh's name: it begins with a possible twelve-year-old recruit and a useful barrel of insects, yet eventually becomes a recognized force capable of attracting contracts, minions, rescuers, copycats, and enemies.

Formation and Early Functions

Will's Party takes shape through recruitment as much as through combat. Jason Salazar serves as an early prospective member and publicity specialist. William Oh gives him money with only a twenty-percent expectation that the boy will spend it on becoming stronger, but that small possibility also represents a chance to gain a reliable team member. Jason's value is not merely physical; he is good with words and has already demonstrated persuasive ability by obtaining five silver from a fellow orphan. His role therefore establishes a principle that governs the party as it grows: usefulness is broader than direct damage, and publicity can be as strategically valuable as strength.

Jason immediately performs that function by spreading an extravagant account of William Oh's origins. Over soup, he claims that William Oh was born on the Hundredth Floor and bathed in lethal Miasma, producing abilities beyond human comprehension. The story is challenged by a scar-faced Tank, but its factual weakness is part of its usefulness. It turns William Oh into a subject of speculation before the wider climbing community can reliably distinguish achievement from invention. Later tavern rumors claim that William Oh can turn into lightning, that his missing hand is a cursed talisman, and that he can eat a lightning bolt. These versions exaggerate real features of his reputation and abilities, showing how Will's Party expands through a parallel institution of narrative: Jason and later listeners make the party famous by making its leader unbelievable.

The party's practical base also includes Loth, whose methods differ sharply from Jason's. During the search for the Kaith supply line, Loth controls dozens of insect species housed in a bucket-sized barrel of soil topped with food scraps. He marks cave branches with arrows made visible by the luminescent juices of crushed glowbugs, giving the group a reliable route through a branching tunnel system that would otherwise swallow separated scouts. When William Oh nearly falls from a ledge, Loth throws him a rope and directs him to hold it against the wall. These episodes define Loth as a logistical and rescue-oriented member: his creatures, markers, and equipment extend the party's reach into spaces where ordinary confidence would not suffice.

Operations, Roles, and Recognition

Will's Party operates within the rule-governed economy of The System. Its members pursue quests, levels, rewards, and advancement, but the party's capabilities emerge from combining specialized contributions rather than treating every member as interchangeable. William Oh studies his Primary Abilities carefully after the Class Seed process fails when a thumb-sized piece of pemmican is placed on an Altar and disappears in a flash of light. The System later asks him to choose his Primary Abilities, and his decisions are made with attention to the larger Build he is trying to construct rather than to immediate spectacle. That caution matters to the party because its future depends on complementary roles, not on every member copying the same offensive pattern.

The group's progression is tied to mission success. After William Oh reaches level five on his first Establishing Quest, the System issues a new quest to ascend to the 2nd Floor and ranks his performance 1053rd among that year's Aspirants. The party thus becomes part of a measurable climbing process in which advancement is publicly legible and materially consequential. William Oh's later fight against bandits carries him to level ten in Oilton, unlocking a Secondary Ability and another Primary Ability upgrade slot. Even then, he rejects the temptation to take direct damage simply because Loth's attack is impressive, recognizing that an ability suited to Loth's Build may be wrong for his own. Party cohesion is therefore reinforced by differentiated development rather than by uniform growth.

The party's organization becomes visible to outsiders through both formal recognition and informal acclaim. A passerby praises William Oh for fighting like a level-nine Climber and running like a level-forty Climber, even though Will identifies himself as level six. The comparison captures the group's central asset: its leader's unusual ability to survive situations that should exceed his level. At another point, two Climbers hold Loth's smoldering body hostage and demand information about a girl in exchange for healing him. William Oh tries to negotiate by offering a health potion for his Party member, making explicit that Loth's condition is not an incidental detail but a direct pressure point in the party's operations.

The organization also acquires nonhuman support. A group of kobolds is officially recognized by The Tower as Loth's minions, and that status grants them multiple stacking speed benefits. Grak leads them forward shouting, “FOR THE GREAT ONE!” Their recognition changes them from a loosely associated group into an administratively empowered extension of the party. The System's classification therefore does not merely describe the party; it changes what the party can do by distributing movement advantages and legitimizing a force that would otherwise remain outside ordinary party structure.

Contracts, Reputation, and External Pressure

By the time Steve Holland expects to meet Will's Party, the group has become a marketable name rather than merely a band of survivors. Steve has already opened negotiations on more than a dozen lucrative contracts that appear to fit the team's capabilities, while expecting only one or two to succeed. This pragmatic approach suggests that the party's expansion is based on a portfolio of opportunities rather than a single guaranteed patron. Its name creates access, but each contract must still be tested against what the team can actually accomplish.

That name has begun to possess brand value. The benefit is immediate: potential work can be found before the party arrives, and the party's reputation helps Steve identify contracts worth pursuing. The cost is equally concrete. William Oh has angered a Lord on the 2nd Floor who may be searching for him, and the growing number of copycats threatens to blur the connection between the real party and the stories circulating under its name. Reputation becomes an autonomous force, attracting both money and danger. The organization is no longer able to control its identity simply by controlling its own actions.

William Oh's public image also changes the scale at which the party is perceived. The System's clerk recognizes that he is the sixth William Oh to claim a quest reward, then confirms that he is the correct one and awards him a sum of gold roughly equivalent to Mason Lanover's. The scene combines bureaucratic confusion with unmistakable fame: even the reward process has been affected by impersonators. The party's identity is now valuable enough to steal, and verification becomes part of its institutional reality.

Membership, Departure, and Continuing Direction

Will's Party remains fluid rather than permanently settled. Jason Salazar's promised self-improvement makes him a possible long-term team member, but William Oh refuses to entrust a twelve-year-old with enough money to obtain a Class immediately, suspecting that the money will inevitably be used for that purpose. This hesitation reveals a recurring boundary within the organization: loyalty and usefulness do not automatically overcome concerns about age, judgment, or risk. William Oh wants reliable allies, yet he continues to ration trust.

The party's later plans show several members pursuing different routes while remaining connected to the same organization. Brianna plans to use the bussing agency's existing contract to ride to the Seventh Floor, despite effectively having been declared dead. Her intended departure is not framed as simple abandonment; it is an advancement route made possible by a prior contractual obligation and the strange administrative conditions surrounding her status. Loth asks Carrie about her plans, and Carrie says she will join some grinders before returning to the Second Floor to feed Summer Relics until the creature grows enough for them to advance to the Fourth Floor. She admits that she was less useful than she wanted to be during the preceding period, but her plan remains oriented toward becoming more effective within the party's future.

This mixture of departure, specialization, and return keeps Will's Party from becoming a static roster. Members move between floors, contracts, training arrangements, and recovery periods. William Oh's own level gains, Loth's minion network, Brianna's transportation contract, Carrie's planned grinding, and Jason's uncertain maturation all point toward an organization defined by continued preparation. Its unity is less a matter of permanent proximity than of shared advancement and mutual usefulness.

Narrative Role and Significance

Will's Party embodies the book's movement from isolated survival to organized agency. William Oh repeatedly acts alone when necessity demands it, but the consequences of his progress create obligations that cannot be managed alone: Loth must be rescued, contracts must be negotiated, routes must be marked, rumors must be cultivated or endured, and specialized abilities must be combined without destroying their distinct purposes. The party is the structure that makes William Oh's ascent sustainable while also exposing him to new vulnerabilities.

Its most distinctive feature is that material and symbolic networks grow together. A rope can save William Oh from a chasm; glowbug markings can preserve a route; a barrel of insects can turn an under-equipped expedition into a successful scouting operation; a health potion can become leverage over Loth's captors; and an official recognition can turn kobolds into accelerated minions. At the same time, Jason's stories, the tavern myths, the quest clerk's confusion, and the copycats transform William Oh's name into a resource and a liability. Will's Party is consequently not only a combat team. It is an assemblage of people, creatures, objects, System rules, contracts, and stories whose combined effects determine how far William Oh can climb and what kind of danger follows him upward.