The formation of William Oh and Loth's Party is a decisive alliance in William Oh's ascent through The Tower. It begins not with a grand oath or shared history, but with a wounded Climber in a wheelchair and a rare Saboteur who has calculated exactly what kind of companion he needs. Their partnership converts injury into mobility, isolation into organization, and two unusual specialists into a functional Party whose later progress depends on both human adaptability and nonhuman expertise.

Circumstances and First Proposal

The alliance takes shape after William Oh returns wounded and finds Loth waiting beside a wheelchair on the road to the Exchange Hall. Loth had correctly surmised that William Oh would be unable to walk the entire distance, noting that the Exchange Hall kept wheelchairs available because injured Climbers were a familiar sight. The meeting therefore begins as an act of practical assistance, but it immediately reveals Loth's characteristic habit of anticipating circumstances rather than merely reacting to them.

Loth identifies himself as probably the only Saboteur William Oh knows, emphasizing that the archetype is rare among humans. His rarity is not simply a label. It explains why his abilities and working methods do not fit the ordinary image of a frontline Climber: he approaches obstacles through traps, information, creatures, and engineered advantages. William Oh, meanwhile, is physically compromised and has only one hand, making the offer of help materially important even before the Party is formed.

Loth then states his objective directly. He has been looking for a human lackey who can lubricate social interactions with other humans and serve as a reliable Scout. The proposal assigns William Oh two connected functions: he is valuable as a social intermediary because Loth is not human, and he is valuable in the field because he can scout. The language is blunt and transactional, but the transaction also acknowledges a genuine complementarity. Loth needs access to human society; William Oh needs a capable partner who can compensate for his vulnerabilities.

Formation and Complementary Roles

William Oh answers by joking that Loth should join his Party instead, even attempting to steer the wheelchair before remembering that he has only one hand and resigning himself to being pushed. The exchange captures the partnership's tone: practical dependence is immediately filtered through humor, and neither participant pretends that the arrangement is an equal exchange in every physical circumstance. Loth counters that his Party is better because it is run by a kobold, presenting the existing structure around him as another reason his organization has unusual advantages.

The System formally confirms the decision with the message that a Party has been formed and that Loth the Luminary has joined the Party. Loth's recorded identity is a Hive-wielding Saboteur at Level 5. His primary abilities are Master of the Vivarium and Trap Savant, and he has nine of seventeen Charges with no free points. These details give the alliance a mechanical foundation: Loth is not merely an eccentric companion, but a specialized character whose build is suited to controlling environments and turning preparation into power.

His vivarium is already an active part of that specialization. During the search for the kaith supply line, a bucket-sized barrel of soil topped with food scraps proves to contain dozens of insect species, all of which Loth controls with ease. The barrel is therefore more than baggage or a container of provisions. It is a mobile ecosystem and a reserve of tactical possibilities, allowing Loth to carry a network of small nonhuman agents into spaces where ordinary weapons or human labor would be less effective.

The Partnership in Operation

Loth's value appears in movement as well as combat. While scouting the branching caves, he marks every turn with an arrow made from the luminescent juices of crushed glowbugs. The marks prevent the divided groups from becoming completely lost in the pitch-black tunnels and turn his insects into instruments of navigation. His contribution is simultaneously biological, logistical, and informational: the creatures under his control help the Party understand and remember the environment.

He also repeatedly supplies the physical support William Oh needs during dangerous traversal. When William Oh lands hard on a ledge after crossing a gap and fears slipping into the emptiness below, Loth throws him a rope and instructs him to hold it against the wall. The rope changes the crossing from a solitary feat of desperate climbing into a coordinated action. William Oh still has to find a grip and haul himself up, but Loth's preparation gives that effort a margin of survival.

The Party's mobility soon becomes almost reckless. Minutes after its formation, William Oh and Loth hurtle down the hard-packed roads, weaving through passersby at an unsafe speed before skidding to a halt outside the Exchange Hall. The scene makes their alliance visible as a moving system: William Oh handles the wheelchair and its handbrake, while Loth's presence makes the improvised vehicle possible. Their speed is dangerous, but it is also a sign that injury has not permanently removed William Oh from the climb.

Their progress is governed by the rules of The Tower as much as by personal ability. The fastest route to another Floor is to follow the wake of a Bus and help clear its Key Site, since Climbers who participate without sabotaging the others can receive passage. William Oh and Loth cannot immediately exploit that shortcut because they are still in Miasma Acclimation, and Loth warns that entering a higher Floor below the current Floor's maximum level would be foolish. Their partnership therefore includes restraint and planning, not only daring: Loth's judgment prevents speed from becoming premature exposure.

Consequences and Narrative Significance

The alliance changes William Oh's position within the climbing economy. Earlier, Jason Salazar had been considered as a possible reliable team member and a useful hype man because of his skill with words, but that possibility depended on uncertain personal growth. Loth's offer is different. It is explicit, immediate, and grounded in a clearly defined exchange of capabilities. William Oh gains a partner who can perform tasks beyond ordinary human specialization, while Loth gains the human interface and Scout he has been seeking.

The Party also reshapes how William Oh is perceived. Even before the formal alliance, stories about him circulate: Jason Salazar tells a dramatic account of a man supposedly born on the Hundredth Floor and empowered by lethal Miasma, while tavern rumors claim that William Oh can become lightning, that his severed hand became a cursed talisman, or that he once ate a lightning bolt. A clerk at the Exchange Hall even notes that five other people claiming to be William Oh have attempted to steal his quest reward, although the System identifies the wounded claimant as the correct one and rates his performance as exceptional. Loth's partnership thus forms at the moment when William Oh's identity is becoming a public and contested resource.

The rumors exaggerate William Oh, but they also reflect real changes in his capabilities and reputation. A stranger later praises his fighting as equivalent to a Level 9 Climber and his running as equivalent to a Level 40 Climber, despite William Oh's stated Level 6. Against that background, Loth's practical assistance and specialized build help convert exceptional but unstable individual performance into a repeatable team method. The partnership does not erase William Oh's injuries, debts, risks, or dependence on the System; it gives those liabilities a structure within which they can be managed.

In narrative terms, the Party's formation is a threshold crossing from improvised survival toward organized ascent. William Oh has already learned that thirst, wounds, equipment, money, and Floor rules can reduce heroic ambition to a question of whether a person remains alive. Loth brings a different answer to the same problem: carry the right tools, understand the environment, control available life-forms, mark the route, and engineer the escape. Together they embody a networked form of climbing in which a person, a wheelchair, a rope, a barrel of insects, glowbug markings, and the System's formal recognition all participate in making progress possible.