That resonance with the Village Aether made Lyra powerful but it also meant that she could only display her power within the Village Once he left it
Randidly sighed looking at Lyra You swear we will die by the Calamity How can I trust you or the Creature if all you do is offer me threats and ultimatums
Lyra said nothing her eyes glittering Randidly shook his head slowly He turned and walked back out the door He sensed her fold her arms but she said nothing as he left Donnyton was his baby in a way the same way that Randidly would never forget the people who had come to Donnyton in the beginning and became their core
Now he was being forced away because he refused to do something as drastic as try and destroy Lyra and he refused to be within her sphere of influence if she would choose to trust the Creature on this point He also knew that she was aware how personally Randidly was taking this decision and she was vindictive enough to enjoy the pain she was inflicting
And that bit of sadism made Randidly hate her
At the door Randidly stopped If you betray this town I will not show restraint
Ah yes the first and last recourse of men to lose their temper Be well doggy Lyra said her tone sarcastic
Randidly left feeling ready to kill something
Chapter 480
Randidly watched the sunset over Donnyton his expression neutral He had arranged for people to meet him here at twilight but for now he had some time to think
The more he considered how his attempt with Lyra had gone the more that Randidly could only shake his head helplessly That girl just wormed her way under his skin And he couldn’t exactly blame Lyra for that he did the same thing to her When they were with each other they just couldn’t help regressing to the versions of themselves they were when they met He couldn’t take her seriously and she couldn’t stop teasing him long enough to have a real conversation
And just like he held it against her that she was barely more than a child she held it against him that he couldn’t see anything deeper than her age
Still Randidly didn’t mind the final result Something had broken between Lyra and himself which was dangerous if they both remained here acting in the same sphere of influence butting heads But if they were apart Space would make these differences smaller Randidly believed
And he realized that he was looking forward to it somewhat Having the freedom to leave Donnyton and exploring the new border areas in their Zone When 6 months had passed and they were connected to the wider world he could then range even farther pushing the boundaries of their world finding and fighting the most powerful monsters that this world could throw against them Not in the attempt to protect Donnyton any longer but to push his strength up as quickly as possible He now had a Class and a new Soul Skill and Randidly didn’t doubt the combination of growth he would receive from these two things would eventually raise him to a tier all of his own
But it became obvious after his time in the Raid Dungeon that his Levels took significantly more experience than other Classers’ Levels And it only seemed that effect was increasing as time went on It was likely a function of the size and scope of his Class but Randidly would need more and more fuel it seemed to raise it upwards
A point there for the System that its Classes were efficient but
Randidly grinned He had some ideas of how to work on providing Classes for people that wouldn’t be connected to the System
Dinesh and that haircutting woman Tanya were the first to arrive winding their way up the path to the outlook where Randidly stood He glanced at them when they arrived taking note of Tanya who was panting as she made it to the top
It was something of a wonder to see her simply because she seemed so nostalgic in a way She had barely experienced a week’s worth of the System and hadn’t even raised most of her Stats to above 15 as of yet Randidly was slightly dubious of her inclusion of his new group but Dinesh vouched for her and Randidly could tell that the man felt responsible for her
After all it was only due to his interference that she was brought to Donnyton to stay rather than being sent to Franksburg Although she was clearly going to be a liability in the border areas especially at the beginning Randidly reflected that he couldn’t very well do experiments regarding Class creation without NCCers so it was a necessary evil
Tanya seemed to be very often defaulting to a nervous titter during the few times he had been around her but she seemed kind and genuine and was basically 5 days old This was important only because it meant she treated him like a normal person rather than some fleeting incarnation of a god
“Oh wow it’s beautiful ” Tanya said huffing “But I HATE hiking “
Dinesh’s face shifted to a very strange expression Randidly simply chuckled She would learn very quickly to endure it Randidly expected even if she never grew to like it In Donnyton she might have been able to rest on her laurels making a living cutting hair and grinding other odd Skills in her spare time She likely would have gotten a unique if uninteresting Class in that manner It might very well be that Dinesh’s sense of responsibility would end up punishing Tanya as she was forced to adapt to situations far beyond her ability to handle alone
In a way Randidly was curious as to how she would handle it
The next individual to walk up the hill towards Randidly and his growing group was Nathan The boy had a backpack that was clearly very recently salvaged from the border areas because the plastic Power Ranger outside was crisp and bright
The view struck Randidly as somewhat strange because he had grown so used to interspatial rings that a more typical variety of pack was somewhat disconcerting Even more eye catching was the pot that he was carrying which contained a small seemingly fresh planting of Arbor Even this new planting shook its limbs excitedly when it caught sight of Randidly with whatever strange senses trees possessed Randidly smiled
After steadying himself Nathan placed the pot on the ground “A gift from Kiersty for wherever you go “
Randidly shook his head “I expect we will move around a lot I don’t “
Pointing to the trunk of the small planting Nathan said “That’s what the spiderlings are for “
Inwardly Randidly wondered whether the spiderlings who were individually about the size of a ladybug would be able to defend an Arbor planting but said nothing Although Kiersty was a child and extremely warped by the presence of a cult around Arbor it seemed that she wouldn’t endanger Arbor at all so he decided to let it pass Besides it wasn’t impossible to plant it in a central location that they could stay near providing assistance if it was necessary
Then next group members to come up the hill were familiar to Randidly in a very distant way and only because he had spent some time reacquainting himself with them The first the short Hispanic man was Karlito who had owned a small restaurant in Franksburg all that time ago when Randidly went to visit When it became clear that Donnyton needed talented cooks and a growing demand for high end food he immigrated to Donnyton bringing his wife Bruya
Randidly had never officially met Bruya before but he had seen her around the kitchen a few times when he worked for Karlito But to find out that the two were married was something of a revelation to Randidly He had always assumed she was some sort of accountant who was constantly disapproving of how much money Karlito spent on ingredients in the like
Her disapproving glares took on a whole new light with this information
Where Karlito was short and slight she was large and fight She was the same height as Randidly although he reasoned that she wore rather sizable wedges to make up the little difference in height between them And she was about twice as girthy as Randidly and about three times that of Karlito
There were two reasons for bringing them along on this journey to the border areas One for each of the people