Randidly was actually interrupted from his review by something he would never have expected it was a message from Shal’s world
It was a message from Helen
Hello
It has been some time hasn’t it I’ve killed many people since we last met Even now my spear is wet with their blood
I’ll get someone to dry it
Anyway I’m not great at this It’s probably stupid but someone needed to tell you and Shal is busy and everyone else refused If they hadn’t been fucking guilting me for almost a month I wouldn’t just send you something out of the blue
Well whatever
I’ve been on the frontlines so I’ve been pretty busy But it’s done wonders for my stress levels
So you might have noticed we weren’t able to contact you for the past several months That was due to escalated conflict levels between us and another world We won
Because of the sudden attack though a lot of the young talent for the different Styles stopped suppressing themselves and gained Levels to fight against the threats Because of that it is almost impossible to hold the under 25 portion of the Inter School tournament
So they are redoing the preliminaries in most places If however you are still under Level 25 in one year’s time you have a free ticket to come back and participate in the tournament
Just so you know if you come back I’m going to challenge you to a fight I’ll crush you and not apologize Just thinking about your face after you lost looking sad
Well whatever you do you have time
Helen
Chewing his lip he regarded the letter surprised how much his stomach squirmed as he read it Not in a bad way but not in a good way either It was a mix of guilt and curiosity mostly With a little bit of arousal thrown on top for spice He had after all left rather abruptly from Shal’s world and when he couldn’t send a message back through forgotten almost immediately about it
There were pressing matters here after all but still
One year huh
Randidly’s eyes flashed That would be 6 months after they connected to the greater world Hopefully Randidly could identify and handle any of the Creature’s experiments in the other Zones Then feeling more secure he could head to Shal’s world
Seeing Helen and Shal were motivations sure but Randidly had matured somewhat since his previous trek to that world and now he had a more concrete goal figure out what they knew about the Calamity there It was a distant possibility but it was the only avenue he knew that could get him information on what had occurred and what would occur on Earth
Even if Randidly was confident in himself he didn’t want to fight something like that without information On that front at least Lyra had a point He needed to figure out a plan if he was truly going to challenge something like this
Octavius Shrike looked down at the report his face drawn into a scowl He had promised the woman during the Transcendence that he would wait to report certain inflammatory details of the Earth but some of these readings
Aether Levels were far too high and someone on the planet had reached Heretic Level 19 If this situation progressed it wasn’t something that he could afford to withhold information about Although his superiors very rarely busied themselves with occurrences in the new Cohort there were certain things that they were very particular about And if the bottom line of those activities was adjusted
It’s too much of a risk Octavius muttered to himself And apologizing silently to the human woman to whom he had made a promise Octavius submitted the report
Far away within Randidly’s body Lucretia’s eyes flicked open a small smile on her mouth
Well well She whispered keeping her voice down so as not to tip Randidly off Not that it would really matter Randidly had inherited some of her ability to sense the lines of Karma due to their connection but it was much like her ability to manipulate Aether they acted through each other
Besides this was her domain
You opened up the Class creation and allowed others to interfere in the process which is a small thing Lucretia said slowly pushing her lavender hair behind her ear But then you also go back on a promise regarding Randidly exposing us to what feels like great danger
Her smile was the toothy grin of the shark I wonder how else you will be forced to betray us dear Octavius In some ways betrayal is the most reassuring gift of all
After chuckling Lucretia returned to her experiments almost shutting herself off completely from the outside world With her gaze focused inward content time slowly started to blur and slip endlessly past
Chapter 482
Hank Howard regarded the three individuals in front of him feeling a headache arriving with a vengeance As an official Sheriff and as a Tier Three citizen of their Zone he ostensibly had the authority to settle their dispute However when he saw that the injured party had a probationary citizenship card and the other two were Tier Two citizens his jaw clenched tight
In terms of citizenship he outranked them by official decree of Ghost the AI that controlled most of Zone 1 However he received that ranking early on after the System arrived before the hierarchy had truly established itself These Tier 2 citizens would likely know that and that since then he had been basically excommunicated from any true avenues of influence He was a Tier 3 citizen in name only
Although Ghost had never adjusted a citizenship ranking downward many had made the joke that Hank Howard would be the first Then they paused and usually wondered whether his brother another Tier 3 citizen had something to do with his current ranking
The woman’s cold words brought Hank back to the present I was here the whole time I saw everything This fool drove his vehicle in front of the area that Jay was practicing some Skills It’s his own fault his car is damaged
That’s not what happened The kid bellowed fuming And he was a kid really A 15 year old with a shock of orange hair on his head probably driving mommy or daddy’s Manatech car Still as the kid’s fury mounted Hank’s eyes narrowed as he tasted the air You jumped in front of me while I was driving You said if I didn’t give you the car you’d destroy it
He might be young and a probationary citizen but he had a Class already and something with some heft
That was shocking in and of itself The probationary citizenship was only created 6 months ago when the edges of their Zone opened up So he had enough potential that some Village gave him a Class
But his opponents were Dungeon Divers and from the look of it good ones The group was standing on the side of a road leading into a nearby C Class city and were starting to draw a bit of a crowd of lookie loos Still trying to keep his cool Hank raised his hands in a placating gesture Alright guys be civil how about we just
Pah The man who caused the whole thing said unfolding his arms Then to Hank’s surprise he turned and spat on Hank’s shoes What does it even fucking matter what happened We are Tier 2 citizens you little shit
In a smooth motion that was so fast that people with less than 150 Perception and Reaction couldn’t even react to it Hank Howard drew his Colt revolver and put a bullet through the man’s mouth Something had snapped and Hank was done playing nice
He had chosen his shot carefully and the bullet hit the man in the cheek while he was turning so it burrowed into one cheek through his shit slurping tongue and then out the other side spraying blood everywhere Hank had empowered the bullet with his Mana Reinforcement giving it a bit of extra oomph in case this guy spec’d defense Stats but it seemed he needn’t have worried
That crack of the gun was loud and sharp and Hank loved it that moment of harsh reverberations That’s why he still used the revolver even when there was much more efficient plasma weaponry on the market They just didn’t have the same renaissance feel of an old style pistol