The why was very fuzzy but Randidly could clearly sense how she wished to strike back at the System while keeping her own involvement a secret
When he couldn’t figure out what the memories meant the first time Randidly watched them again and again He had a fast forward function effectively and when he reached the end he could restart the flood but that was it
The first things he began noticing as he went through the memories over and over again Neveah peering over his metaphysical shoulder were the insights into Aether Manipulation Multiple times Randidly could see the Creature as she shaped Aether to accomplish oddly specific tasks Unlike his assumptions She relied heavily on trial and error but she seemed to possess an unerring intuition in regards to Aether and after a few tries she would create the desired result
These he filed away for study later because it would greatly benefit his own Skills For now however that information was less valuable
The next arc that he began to notice was his own He could sense that the Creature he faced was but a single of thousands of incarnations spread throughout the Cohort to experiment He could feel how the Creature moved through every part of his growth providing him with Skills to overcome obstacles and then acting as a constant obstacle that drove him beyond his limits
It was somewhat sickening feeling the Creature’s amusement as he struggled against her and her sparks of delight when he succeeded He felt her curiosity towards him and what he was doing but his slow growth within values that were normal for the System in her opinion made her conclude he wouldn’t be a weapon she could use
Strangely the Creature was thankful for Randidly’s actions in a lot of ways as it had formed the idea of putting a Village in a Dungeon in a failed Zone through his antics That information she had even felt important enough to spread it to her other incarnations should their own attempts fail For that one successful outcome she deemed Randidly to be useful
Randidly shivered everytime he passed through that memory
The one bright note of satisfaction for Randidly during the stream of memories was the moment when the Creature realized what he had done sneaking Tellumurite into the soul of her incarnation It quickly grew blurry from there but she felt true fear a deep dread at that moment
Such was the strength of emotion that the more Randidly felt that memory the more his amusement waned It made him remember that the Creature was a sadistic sociopath but beyond her there was something even more monstrous the System itself The Creature would not be this way if not molded by the System although he wasn’t sure of the exact nature of how that had happened
As these memories were just from the incarnation watching Randidly there was no way to know But there was more information here
Specifically the Creature was oddly fascinated by the human’s Classes Not in an impressed way but in an almost dumbfounded way Most races she knew from her previous memories in her true body had very little difference among the Classes that they had access to much in the way Shal’s world was primarily variations on Spearmen
There were certainly those that had Classes relating to different weapons or elements but there were generally only a dozen or so archetypes and then variations on those
Humans on the other hand seemed to delight in having different unique Classes even when they were relatively less powerful than the archetypes Of course there were 1% of Classes that were so absurdly powerful that it likely made up for it but the Creature found this variety to be exceedingly strange
She speculated it had something to do with the innate creativity of humans and how their culture before the System seemed obsessed with arbitrary definitions and making things up But she also could see how it was the result of something much more deeply secreted away It was likely caused by the same thing that allowed Randidly to subtly warp the System around him changing the rules in new and interesting ways
Either way from her communications with other incarnations the human Zones had yielded 5 positive results already This was incomparable to most worlds where she could waste her time and find nothing
These communications with other incarnations were often the messiest memories and required repeated careful study but the deeper Randidly went the worse his mood became Because it was clear that there were humans that had capitulated to the Creature and submitted themselves to her experimentation
It was a somewhat sobering realization Although they wouldn’t know that Randidly had defeated this incarnation perhaps the others knew of him and they might have their own perfected tools ready to fight against him to sacrifice the Earth for her greater cause
Closing his eyes to the memories for a second Randidly sighed He had pulled up a bit of the weeds but if he wanted to keep his Earth safe he would need to go after the entire root system And that would mean killing more humans those foolish enough to sell their species out to a fickle god
Chapter 471
After sorting the bodies and pouring Health Potions down the throats of the seriously injured Drake dismissed his armor and sat for a while surrounded by the unconscious bodies wiping the blood from his sword He continued to wipe and polish in small circles and it was only after he could see his reflection in the blade that he realized that this was Lucifer’s method Without even thinking be had picked it up and mimicked him capturing some of the man’s fastidiousness in regards to swords
Torn between amusement and disgust Drake stowed his sword and looked around him at the remnants of the battlefield Unlike Lucifer or Thea Drake had not split the ground with his power It was a small blessing that at least he wouldn’t need to replace the floor of the training arena Unlike Alana or Annie the ground was splattered with blood making it clear that his blows had wounded but not debilitated the enemies instantly Unlike Clarissa Ptolemy or the Ghosthound the victim’s bodies weren’t marked by burns or smudges where magic discharged on their armor and skin
Not that the Ghosthound needed to rely on his spells but the stronger Drake got the more he grew to realize that Skills using Mana were much much more fearsome than a common strike empowered with Stamina
But the bodies around Drake showed the telltale sign of being physically overpowered During his time in the Raid Dungeon he had carefully refined his technique In terms of raw power Drake might even be considered almost the same as he had been before he had entered into the Raid Dungeon But this came with about a dozen caveats that explained the difference between these two results
Before the Raid Dungeon he would attack with vicious wild swings seeking to use his superior Strength to overpower his opponent Afterward his attacks mostly consisted of short brutal blows to incapacitate and allow Drake to move quickly to a more relevant threat Against monsters Drake would usually utilize about 5 of those blows and then unleash a wild swing to finish off the stunned or struggling opponents Against humans the brutal blows were more than enough to put the guards of East End on the ground More than enough because oftentimes such strikes would also break their spirits along with their bones In one particular case Drake had kicked out and broke a young man’s shin bone As the battle raged on around him the young man began to cry unable to move
Although he said nothing Drake made note of this guard’s behavior Not that it would likely matter but
Very poignantly Drake recalled a time early in the Raid Dungeon where a strike from a centaur had shattered his bone helmet partially blinding him and stunning him After he stumbled back barely regaining his balance Drake’s first impulse was to swing wildly while retreating blowing through his Stamina in a wild gambit to find someplace safe to recover But then he had recalled that he was one of two people holding this wing of the battle lines and his partner Ptolemy would swiftly be overwhelmed if he gave ground