A month ago if someone had told Randidly he would come to Zone 1 to help others get jobs he probably would have looked blankly at you Now Randidly had the inklings of a plan
One point that he had considered in his plan to become an influential drone maker was the fact that he would need a feasible way for him to obtain the steel he would want to work with Erickson Steel had already gained some traction as a high quality product and Randidly had his own experimental steels that he would use on his drones But would the fact that he was supposedly smelting the steel and also constructing the drones raise any flags
Not that he currently understood the process of drone creation but from the talk he had heard from Foreman Davey it wasnÆt proceeding very quickly at all Randidly was willing to push that but only a little bit If Randidly had a supplier of Erickson Steel that would be one last astonishing thing about him It wouldnÆt be too strange to groom a successor to his Steel Smelting SKills right
However Randidly knew that this was much easier said than done He had thousands of advantages over Jude that allowed him to make Erickson Steel so casually But it was a line of thought worth pursuing If nothing else it would push the man towards PP generation which would be a boon for his family in the long run
After letting the work of the day fall away Randidly relaxed and reached out with Plant Dominance Methodically he continued to scan Zone 1 This time he was much more thorough in the past as the Zone was constantly expandingÆ adding higher Leveled Zones to the edges But after about three hours of this Randidly was left with a grimace
It seemed that the more specific his scan was the less he could detect from the CreatureÆs Aether This last round of very specific targeted scans yielded nothing He had even moved through West Providence with great care Perhaps it was the lack of plants in that scientific and military installation but he found nothing
Yet his Zone wide scans always caught a whiff of it And if it wasnÆt his imagination that whiff was growing stronger and more distinct each time What was even more confusing was that it seemed subtly different than the CreatureÆs Aether that he was used to
Randidly had been aware that this was a different incarnation or clone or something a construct of Aether with sentience But he didnÆt really consider what that might mean Could this version of the Creature not even be aware of him Or if it was could it not understand the experiments it had done on him
LucretiaÆs perusal of the CreatureÆs fragmented memories added some things but not enough to receive a definitive answer There was at some point a split but it wasnÆt clear when the incarnations were separated out from each other Then after that there was some communication but mostly it was from the incarnations to the motherÆ It didnÆt appear that there was significant communication between the different incarnations
The split seemed to be after the Creature transported him into the dungeon on ShalÆs world But beyond that
It was almost more unnerving to not know whether the Creature that was operating here viewed him as a threat or understood him as intimately as the other Creature had To be sure Randidly felt confident that he understood the CreatureÆs goals And that was enough for him to act against its interests
For the rest of the night Randidly deeply pondered the problem of recreating As the Sun Stills He needed a spark an image that would help drive him forward There just wasnÆt enough leftover from his fight against Drak in ShalÆs world
It would be a long and fruitless night but Randidly didnÆt worry about it overmuch He just needed a shred of a path forward If he had that slight whiff he would be able to brute force the rest
After all a spear can only advance And part of using a spear was waiting for that opportunity
The squad leader raised his watch to his mouth No response from GhostÆs observers
None Came the reply over the radio Which can be interpreted as approval Operation is a go Remember the most important goal is to secure the Elixirs Of secondary important is securing the child He shouldnÆt be powerful but there are two dangerous individuals the African American and an Indian man The rest appear to be more support and crafting based Classes
Copy the squad leader said sitting back He didnÆt yet give the order to move in both because of how dangerous the monsters were here and because he believed that they could move while one of the dangerous ones left their base of operations From their observations they regularly left to patrol the nearby area and even head into the danger zone that the cabin was built on top of
Today luck was with them As the three squads acting in concert watched both the dangerous individuals headed into the danger zone leaving the cabin relatively unprotected They waited 10 minutes for safety The large woman and a Hispanic man were standing at an outdoor fire stirring a pot There was a woman painting near the entrance to the Danger Zone trying to capture the aura of the energy that was roiling off of it
The squad leader flashed a hand signal and then waited one more minute for word to spread Then they moved as one These men were all veterans of the first expedition into the borderlands A lot of them had been heavily wounded in fighting in those first few weeks and had bounced back to form a special squad They knew their business
Things began to go wrong very quickly
Chapter 531
The first thing that occurred was relatively innocuous but it made the squad leaderÆs skin crawl Abruptly they found themselves back where they started with a no trespassing sign standing between them and the cabin Below that sign there was a smaller sign that said beware of dog
Illusions as we thought His watch chirped And the drones are seeing the same thing you do it looks like the Skill doesnÆt work on you individually but on the world itself Troublesome But they canÆt bend space You must have moved forward Continue with the operation
So they pushed forward passing the no trespassing sign Then a mist sprung up from the ground making it almost impossible to proceed But the watch rang out proceed so the squad leader gritted his teeth and continued forward The rest of the squad continued with him arrayed around him in formation
The next obstacle they encountered was a wall of interconnected roots and vines that blocked their path and extended up a dozen meters into the air Looking up it was almost impossible to imagine a way over such a barrier In his heart the squad leader felt a sense of foreboding and considered leading his squad backward
Unfortunately one of his technical soldiers spoke up
Ares Leader I have a Skill called true eye that has been shooting up like crazy in this mist ItÆs all been an illusion IÆve gotten almost 12 Levels on it and a headache to boot But this this is real I canÆt see through it at all
The squad leader paused you could see through this shit the entire time and you didnÆt say anything
The soldier in question awkwardly coughed into his hand The squad leader sighed
Fine then if its real it will burn Everybody get out your plasma rifles Fire on my mark
There was the soft shuffling of fatigues as all of the squad members got into position
Fire
The bolts of plasma buzzed forward indiscriminately The squad leader supposed they could have arranged for a more thorough strike but he was still pretty suspicious of this wall of plant life that had appeared out of nowhere This was not a natural thing But he had a job to do so he was going to bulldoze his way forward anyway he needed to
However as the plasma sizzled through the air the wall moved
Where the bolts of plasma were heading it simply opened up the vines moving and stretching The projectiles harmlessly passed through it with only a smell of burned greenery to show for it Slowly the squad leader lowered his rifle and solemnly regarded the wall