Her reflection had a smile on its face She didn’t hate that about him
Why do you smile desert flower
Helen cleanly turned around punched Teliph in the gut watched as his expression twisted into shock and he doubled over and then sauntered away
Randidly found Shal sitting around a small fire meditating His master did not look up when he arrived so Randidly sat down and began to meditate as well Ever since he woke up he felt wonderfully refreshed and he wanted to hold onto this feeling for a while So he didn’t supplement the meditation with Root Control but just sat there allowing the energy within him to slowly gather At the same time as he meditated Randidly revelled in the warm energies flowing up into him from the ground beneath him In that moment he truly felt in tune with the natural world
The silence between them lasted a while until Shal slowly opened his eyes You have overcome your fear No at the very least turned to face it Heh You are a much quicker learner than I was
Almost sighing Randidly nodded It would be hard for him to come to terms with the killing But it was both something that was sometimes necessary and something that he would prefer not to do especially if it was just for power Even though without that power he and the people he cared about might also die But the logic could not find an answer There wasn’t an answer He would need to face every situation as they came and find his answer
And of that Randidly was not a afraid
But before you fight with the name of the Spear Phantom Style you must answer What is the value of a life Shal’s tone remained low and harsh and his eyes seemed to bore into Randidly
Randidly took a breath and then thought for several seconds about it Then he said A life is worthy of respect My own life is invaluable to me as every life is to the person it belongs to To take it away is a grave disservice and a heavy burden and
Haha Enough Shal said shaking his head You are foolish but at least you understand it is much more than you can handle to bear the weight of another’s life No need to bore me to sleep with platitudes We leave in an hour Prepare
And just like that it was over with Shal turning away and going to speak with the woman Artisan who came out of the prison and Marco After some discussion it seemed the woman was ready to go her own way and bowed to both Shal and Randidly before leaving
As they gathered supplies Randidly found himself face to face with Helen Their eyes met Randidly flushed then opened his mouth to say something but Helen stone faced walked past him whispering Don’t you say a fucking word
After Randidly had recovered from his jaw dropping he shook his head and smiled He supposed that was for a best It wasn’t until after that he had realized how much he had needed that as an outlet to relax and release aggression In a way it wasn’t personal he supposed so it would be silly to expect it to be anything else
Besides he didn’t feel feelings he thought just a powerful animal attraction to her body So it would be pointless to push the issue Better to just let it pass
After they packed they loped forward running to Qtal They were going to stay in Qtal for a short period before proceeding to the Northern Region capital Deardun in a few days Which would give Randidly time to give Claptrap some of the Engravings he had been working on during his time in the Prison and probably experiment with a few related things
They made good time and arrived at Qtal in a few hours Guided by a strange instinct Divvit led the way moving towards his boat as if by sixth sense They swiftly came upon it only to find that it had somehow been taken over by a merchant who had gaudy decorations and torches everywhere making it look like a walking funhouse
As if not the least bothered by the fact that someone else was in his home Divvet walked onto the boat and stomped his feet twice
The one who dares lay claim to this boat come raise your Tassle so I might sink it into the depths of the sea Divvet’s words echoed and several figures appeared on nearby boats whispering to each other But no one came from this boat’s interior Divvet’s face darkened
So they almost wordlessly began to toss all the shit that someone had taken great care to set up on the boat right into the sea There were even some valuable seeming equipment and materials But under Divvet’s furious eye no one dared to take any of it for themselves There seemed to be some dishonor associated with what was happening here so Randidly simply followed the lead of others and threw everything into the sea
Such was the value of the items that some people from nearby boats dived into the water and began to grab some of them but Divvet sneered down at them and began dumping more stuff down onto those people
If they fucking want this trash let’s help them drown in it Divvet said and the spear attendants jumped to it with alacrity Mostly Helen began to throw heavy items down at the swimmers very effectively At one point she seemed to knock a flailing woman unconscious who then had to be rescued by another swimmer
Rather pleased with the situation Divvet gave Helen a pat on the back
Shal beckoned Randidly over as the game continued with enthusiasm This is one of the rare times I shall say this but rest Once the fights start in Deardun they will not stop for a week You must prepare provisions and materials to last you at least that long Be thorough The competition is difficult to survive
With that rather confusing tidbit Randidly walked down into his old cabin which was filled with barrels After moving them all up to the deck he settled into the small wooden room and began to breath Then he grimaced
It was strange being here His Golden Roots of Yggdrasil couldn’t reach up through the water so he felt oddly tired all of the time Still it seemed that Deardun was on the continent so at least there wouldn’t be that problem during the tournament
Randidly carefully removed his last remaining bracer that was Engraved with a Shadow Rune with over 60% efficacy He looked at it for a long time frowning It was true that he knew that there would be problems with the Engraving Guilds but that the small time nature of the things that he was doing would probably mean their response would be too slow to catch him before he went back to his own Cohort
But the Shadow Rune was possibly different Some of the effects from it
And this was even the most basic version of the Shadow Rune So Randidly made the decision not to share his ability to produce the Shadow Rune with Claptrap It was likely for the best Besides considering the new varieties of Runes that Randidly had obtained he didn’t think that Claptrap would have any complaints
Randidly began to consider 4 specific ones The Gazelle which added Agility and Perception The Ox which gave Vitality and Endurance The Dolphin which produced Intelligence and Control And The Preying Mantis which would assist in Willpower and Focus With these 4 in addition to Bear Fish and Dragonfly he could cover a lot of types of stats at once
But before he actually began to Engrave Randidly read some of the technical guide left to him by the Willow Tree Spear Style matriarch The knowledge was pointlessly obtuse it seemed to Randidly but he pressed forward feeling absurdly like he was studying He had been able to read some during his time in prison and as he pressed forward then he was able to finish the first volume of the set
He didn’t feel any different but he definitely knew a lot more about how to layer energy in deep curves and how it assisted the efficacy of the Engraving Then after he finished Randidly snapped the book shut and checked the time It had almost been 24 hours since he used Inspire so he would have access to his mana once again soon So he walked up towards the deck to Engrave After all the soft rain of the Weeping Cloud was part of his process now It was a part of what was necessary
Chapter 172
Randidly got up to the deck and went to the far side keeping as much space between him and the crazy ones throwing armor at people swimming in the water Around 30 minutes later as they continued dumping items something inside of him relaxed and mana began to pool within him once more After a time he wiggled his fingers and felt the 1000 mana leave him for Weeping Cloud