Apprentice’s Leather Bracer Lvl 25 Leather armor worked by an Apprentice but made with poor materials Vit +2 Health +25 Rain Engraved I
Engraving of Dragonfly 61% The wind seems to move with the wearer aiding in both attack and defense speed Wearer gains Aspect of Dragonfly II
Aspect of Dragonfly II Reaction +2 Agility +5
Rain Engraved I The Engraver is developing his own personal process of Engraving and benefits begin to accrue within the armor Mana +5 Focus +1
More than anything however Helen’s reaction to the armor was one of fear The Engraving guilds probably wouldn’t mind extremely cheap knockoffs where the user only received 1 or 2 extra points from an engraving It would annoy them and they would move to deal with it but it would be a leisurely thing
But this equipment his engraving added 2 Reaction 5 Agility 1 Focus and 5 Mana A person might not notice when equipment had an extra one or two points of something but when it neared 10 Anyone would be interested in it even if it wasn’t in the Attributes that they relied on most frequently After all all of the attributes were tied into each other and unless the circumstances were extremely contrived all were useful in battle
Still the Ghosthound stood in front of her a childish grin on his face as he looked at her It seemed he was waiting for more of a response so she said it is quite impressive but do you not worry about the engraving guilds They do not take kindly to others performing their services
His green eyes flashing the Ghosthound just laughed and turned away My path is always forward I won’t worry about it until the obstacle is before me I’ve got enough on my plate as it is Good impressive good
He left humming to himself and Helen sat very still for a while Then she looked up and smiled enjoying the feel of the soft rain It really made her feel relaxed for the first time in a long time Perhaps it was a good thing that she had ended up here
Chapter 147
The days began to run together for Randidly except for one time period the afternoons when he read the diary of the man who would become the Spear Phantom It was slow going because the words seemed to flicker and burn Before his clash with Dian Randidly would have been rather confused about it but now it was clear to him that there was an extremely powerful Battle Intent suffusing the entire book And it was an intent thick with death The first page described the Phantom Thrust in detail and Randidly was chilled by his reading
You are an instrument and the thrust is a natural extension of something much larger than you You are not the message of death but you are the final reminder Know this you bear the spear but in Death’s eyes the victim is already dead You must thrust and remind them of their final and ultimate failure
When Randidly was away from the book although this first passage was extremely strange it wasn’t so bad to think about But with the book in hand the air seemed to howl with the fury and resentment of deceased souls The cold hand of death settled on his shoulders as he read
By the end of reading that first passage Randidly always had a pounding headache and Shal would take away the book
You are too weak to continue further But now you see the image it takes to be strong
There was always a stiffness in Shal’s voice and Randidly had almost asked what his relationship with his father was and what happened to him But the words never made it past his lips He wasn’t sure if it was the set of Shal’s shoulders or Randidly’s own keep to himself personality but he never asked Instead he just nodded and rubbed his head
It was true though the fact that the image was so strong even now was a testament to its overwhelming power It wasn’t just that the image was clear or focused but the entire thing was filled with an unbelievable amount of detail The texture the sound the visions they all were burned in Randidly’s retinas and hung in the air after the book was taken away seeming to linger That was the level of a powerhouse even in this power focused world
It was that level of image that he needed to reach In a way it was natural for Randidly to base his image off of that But whereas Shal’s father had chosen Death Randidly chose Time as the ultimate source of the image Which seemed to make finding a concrete image much more difficult but hopefully Randidly would be able to manage it
In addition Randidly borrowed from the name the system had given his skill the Inevitable Phantom Arrives So when he focused on recovering after reading from the book Randidly conjured images He placed himself on a giant clock Smaller clocks hovered around and below him ticking
Then those clocks stilled and fell silent and the giant clock began to chime shuddering into motion The howling became audible then as a ghastly presence began to swirl far behind him Slowly but surely the giant clock chimes became more ominous and attention began to focus inward on the spear in his hand as it slid forward And as it began to advance that howling grew more vicious and a hungry spectre raced forward at first a tiny speck in the distance but then growing far larger than a man or a car or even a building
Until all that the victim could see was the open maw and the noise was a harmony between the final chime of the clock and the howling of the spectre It took some time but Randidly could feel the Aether in his chest moving as he pictured it Perhaps this would cause the strength of the move to rise another level
So Randidly demonstrated the new image to Shal What followed was the longest and most brutal beating that Randidly had ever received Although he had always known that Shal was strong and fast he hadn’t truly known HOW strong and fast Most of the time Shal was just trying to move just a bit faster with just a bit more strength than Randidly forcing him to his limits and then beating him into the ground
Of course it was always violent because Shal wanted him to realize how dangerous it was to play when fighting When you fought you aimed to kill Or you made a mistake and died So Randidly had grown used to beatings
But this
There were several points when Randidly honestly believed he was about to die He wavered on the edge close to using spells but although his health was brought below 100 and most of his bones were broken Shal made no move to capitalize This wasn’t the normal training Randidly realized It was a lesson that Shal was carving into his body with pain
At the end Shal stood over Randidly with his arms folded Your move is already too slow idiot disciple You are yet weak don’t overcomplicate things If you have spare time to think of extra things we perhaps need more training such as this
Then he walked away Needless to say Randidly admitted that it was perhaps a little unrealistic to try and raise the strength of his image all at once like that Better to focus on one thing and to improve it slowly So Randidly removed most of the images but kept the numerous ticking clocks and also the looming phantom But he lessened the size until it was about the size of person
He made the body look human with half of the face bone and on an instinct the other half feminine As he examined the face his chest tightened Sitting in his inward world looking at the image he had for that skill Randidly looked into a very familiar half face
Sydney He whispered The ghastly spectre smiled Randidly raised his hand and banished the image deconstructing it True Sydney was likely dead but that didn’t mean he wanted her image to haunt him Instead when Randidly created the image for the second time he still stuck with a feminine face but chose his mother
And as he looked at the finished product he felt the change Where it hadn’t been there before the inevitable dread the image caused in the viewer’s chest had grown The air was filled with helplessness Just like Randidly was helpless to prevent his mother from drinking and pilling herself into the arms of men his entire childhood
The more he brooded on it the stronger the swirl of helplessness around his spear became So although it infuriated him to no end to see her and to be partially reliant on her Randidly left the image of the spectre with his mother’s face It was about time she did something for him