But when he located the source of the commotion Randidly froze These were Raid Boss minions
All of them were centaurs moving in formation to repel the attacks of the ogres that charged forward At the back a larger being amongst them clearly commanded the rest with grand gestures and grunts They were actually fairing very well against the ogres There appeared a few injuries among their number but it wasnÆt enough to stop their momentum
Randidly snorted let it never be said that he let a Raid Boss wander past him
Incendiary Eruptions ripped up into the middle of their grouping and made the backline go down screaming Randidly winced as he saw a few die he had some leeway with leveling but he still didnÆt want to kill too many
Luckily the ogres did the rest of the work for him They crushed the front centaurs when they were no longer being harried by the supporting line and smashed their way to the boss It happened so quickly that the Raid Boss itself was just turning to search for the source of the interference and his head was crushed by a club
It was strange that the Raid Bosses gathered up to push into the Danger Zone but Randidly supposed he had seen monsters fighting before He checked the bodies but they only had that thread of the CreatureÆs Aether again Although they may be connected to it it was a tenuous connection
Shrugging Randidly supposed that Raid Bosses were getting more active everywhere The fact that they were pressing into a Danger Zone was a good way to keep their numbers low Unless they actually cleared the Danger Zone which was a disturbing prospect No one knew what the effect of it would be To have Raid Bosses be the first
Lowering his head Randidly began sprinting the rest of the distance back through the borderlands to his small steelworking town Although he had to admit it wasnÆt so small anymore As more refugees showed up there was an even larger population and a similarly rising demand for steel So people came to the town
After having his Baloo illusion reapplied in secret Randidly began working in earnest on updating the runic language he used His production of purchasable drones was such that there was a steady stream of income he was able to use to buy more blueprints With those he was able to make more comparisons between the different models and research more variations on what Randidly had begun to think of as the Ghost sponsored runes
But his breakthrough happened for a completely different reason
About 18 hours after his isolation started Randidly swore bitterly and stood up as another drone overheated His runes that he was creating were undoubtedly effective but that was part of the problem Too much energy was running through the metal it melted about half the time If he had it run at levels where it wouldnÆt melt the output was such that it didnÆt matter that he was using a whole new group of runes He might as well have stuck with the old runes
If only there was a fucking way to get rid of all the heat
Randidly paused frowning
Lucretia Randidly asked after a pause Whatever happened to that spear
Hank refrained from pulling the trigger but only just
What the fuck have you done He growled The barrel of his pistol was locked on EzekielÆs heart The man was glowering furiously at Hank as he stood above the girlÆs body
How many times do I have to fucking say it Ezekiel hissed I just FOUND her Hank Why would I make a scene if I killed her myself
You werenÆt very vocal about your findings until I started walking over this way Hank spat back He had been so caught up in the training with the people of Donnyton He was improving at a visible clip But if it cost the life of this girl if she had died because Hank was too focused on himself to care about what was going on around him
And she was just a girl too a slip of a thing that was probably not even 20 Pretty if only due to her young age Her whole life was ahead of her Even though the System was incredibly dangerous with proper protection she would have grown to a ripe old age
Give me one reason why I shouldnÆt kill you right now Hank said his eyes blazing as he looked at Ezekiel But the longer he looked the more he understood Ezekiel had felt he needed to do this His stats would slowly decrease over time if he didnÆt kill Those stats were something that he worked for To have them slipping away due to a Class
But then Hank crushed all his empathy out of himself He had warned the man and he had still insisted on behaving like this
A moment Mr Howard
Without taking his eyes from the man in front of him Hank sensed the man who had moved to stand next to him He was tall and gaunt and very slow a name floated up to the surface of HankÆs mind Glendel
GlendelÆs smile was sharp as he looked at Ezekiel There is no need to accuse the man without evidence Very soon we will know the details of the girlÆs death And if it should turn out that he did indeed kill her there will be no need to raise your own hand Mr Howard The vengeful ghost will take her own pound of flesh
Even standing near Glendel Hank could feel a chill rising off of the man THere was an air around him that was slightly unnatural Hank had never heard what exactly he did around the Donnyton but he was high ranking
To HankÆs surprise Glendel just kneeled next to the girl His hands gently reached forward and closed her eyes Then he knelt next to her as if praying for fully five minutes During that time Hank took a step backward from Ezekiel and lowered his repeater The other man still glowered at Hank but a lot of the aggression drained away as he waited for Glendel to make his move
Abruptly GlendelÆs eyes shot open And as it happened the air shimmered above the girl Then like a flower blooming a ghost rose pale and translucent Her eyes opened too and there was nothing there Her irises and pupils had become one until her eyes looked like a pale cueball
Did this man kill you Glendel asked gravely
Slowly the specter turned and faced Ezekiel HankÆs hand tightened on his pistol Just as slowly however she shook her head no
Even Glendel seemed surprised Then who
The ghost only pointed West and North
Chapter 555
Henrik wasnÆt in his quarters so Randidly left his new creation with one of HenrikÆs assistants with a note Randidly was filled with confidence in regards to this new Porpoise model that he had designed He suspected that Henrik would miss some of the more deft usages of RandidlyÆs new runes but even the more obvious side effects of his new model would undoubtedly win Randidly enough attention to begin working on more interesting applications of the runic system that Randidly had created
Idly Randidly wondered whether Ghost would be shown the creation Undoubtedly he would Would it be a simple thing to copy his runes After some thought Randidly decided that the details could be copied but the execution of creating them was not something that many would be capable of
Randidly was aware that there were other drone creators working but they were all scientists who were trained towards mass production Their transition to hand making all these different drones was not a smooth process They simply couldnÆt understand why these drones would behave so differently based upon how much attention they received It wasnÆt scientific it was an art form To them this was almost disgust inducing
But it served to make Baloo EricksonÆs accomplishments that much more impressive so Randidly didnÆt mind
After three days of hard work lost in the runes Randidly felt he had calmed down quite a bit and had considered a lot from his previous interactions with Neveah With a placid mind he opened up a communication with Neveah
Neveah I was thinking First thank you I cannot deny that you assuming my identity has freed me up for some things You are also right that people will gossip about things I may or may not have done and there is little I can do about it But that doesnÆt give you a free pass to do whatever you want