Then he retreated with his minions Randidly chuckled One thing that he had been able to internalize from his time pretending to be himself is how effective it was sometimes to just do what you want For Randidly it was something of a nice change of pace
Chapter 557
Well itÆs not that I donÆt know of what Great Paths are Lucretia said slowly But I must admit that I havenÆt gained one myself They are written of in my world but only in legends Also they are generally unavailable to people before they reached Level 50 and condense their fate I suppose since your own images were never separated it is possible the Level 50 distinction has no meaning
So what is it Randidly said aloud He was sitting in the dimly lit room alone with Kenneth He performed several scans of the boy and he was still baffled as to how the CreatureÆs Aether was so strongly attached to him It was somewhat baffling As the resident physician was out Randidly could only wait for her to return and give him a more thorough examination So he turned his attention to other matters
I can only suspect based on the rumors But it is something you should not do now Everything I have heard agrees that a person can only have one Great Path in their lifetime Those who take it of course gain great power They are hard to unlock and contain rewards commiserate with that difficulty If IÆm being frank Lucretia paused I believe it is what the maker of the System is looking for Our philosophers noted that once a Great Path appears others occasionally appear with the same path with the same benefits Only it is no longer a great path To create one is to have a truly unique blend of images and strengths within the System
Randidly closed his eyes According to your theory then choosing a Great Path is to confirm my submission in terms of power to the SystemÆs judgment
Likely The CreatureÆs memories touch on it but only indirectly It always thought of Great Paths in terms of how well they would be received About whether they were sufficient
Any guesses how mine would fare Randidly asked
not well Lucretia responded with quite a bit of amusement in her thought
Randidly didnÆt take the judgment personally After all according to these hypotheses Great Paths were usually done by people who had survived for a much longer time in the Sytem and achieved Level 50 Although Randidly was powerful he didnÆt believe that he was so powerful that he could defeat everyone on ShalÆs planet for instance THere were people there that had spent their whole lives training under the System
It was clear that their Aether was much staler than the ambient Aether currently on Earth which would lead to slower growth But those people had the benefit of time
Lucretia Randidly said abruptly changing the topic Do peopleÆs lifespans change with the System
Lucretia thought about this for a while it is hard to say Mostly it has been too long since the System arrived in my world to tell But I will say that it is not uncommon to live to be 500 in my world Certain powerful individuals have been rumored to reach 1000 years
Randidly considered that then shivered If he had 1000 years how high could he raise his Skill Levels They become more difficult to raise and also less effective but still a Level 500 Skill Level would be a terrifying thing What sort of Paths would one receive at Level
RandidlyÆs thoughts were interrupted by a chirp from his watch Henrik was calling him Grimacing Randidly got up and prepared to return to the compound He had relied on his new citizenship in order to avoid trouble so Randidly felt like he should repay the alacrity with which the man had reported his new drone
Within 10 minutes Randidly stood before a red eyed Henrik
This The manÆs breathing was heavy The Porpoise was a disassembled mess on the ground in front of them What are these
Henrik pointed Specifically he pointed at two instances of the same rune that Randidly had created to dodge most of the problems he was encountering The inspiration was simple if the spear could transform Aether into meaning and vice versa how hard would it be to make a similar transition between two other forces
In this case Randidly made the transfer between heat and electricity The runes were in areas of high density runic activity and when the metal would heat due to the energy flowing through the metal these runes would turn that heat into electricity This electricity would flow through a sister rune that was created to expend the electricity In this case it created an ionized shield to add additional protection to the Porpoises armor
Now this was by no means a simple task mechanically to transform heat into energy In fact it was near impossible in a compact series of machinery But the ability of the System to simplify processes was a godsend in this case It took quite a bit of studying and experimentation but Randidly was able to intuit the inner process of the transition on the spear and bastardize it to work with much simpler inputs and outputs
It was almost less work than it sounded most of the runes on the spear were associated with carefully encapsulating Aether and Meaning Heat and electricity was childÆs play in comparison
Runes I had to do a lot of work to make the details work and they are honestly pretty inefficient Randidly said downplaying the research and resources he had relied upon to create such a tiny thin But they function well as a heat sink even now With some more time and funding
Yes yes yes yes anything For the first time since he had met the other fastidious man Randidly heard Henrik laugh It was honestly slightly off putting It sounded strangely like goat burps Bababababa With this The scale of the drones we can make Ah If you donÆt mind would you allow me to watch the process of engraving YouÆll be compensated for the process of course
Shrugging Randidly acquiesced His technique in Mana Engraving was not something that someone could casually copy In addition to his high Control and Focus and the stability that his large Mana pool provided RandidlyÆs Mana Engraving Skill had reached 115 in the past few days if Henrik could watch and replicate it Randidly would eat his non existent shoe
Much to RandidlyÆs chagrin he failed the first time he attempted it Gritting his teeth he did it again this time successfully All the while Henrik was scribbling notes furiously Afterward he thanked Randidly and gave him access to several higher tiered plans for free Unfortunately most of these Randidly had obtained by destroying the drones in the attack on the organ harvesting plant But Randidly could say that so he could only smile and accept
Besides these plans werenÆt warped by heat like the real metal copies he had obtained were There werenÆt any areas of difference that Randidly could notice but having the full plans at his disposal was a good thing
Afterward Randidly immediately began work on a flying combat drone Because he was able to basically ignore the heat problem that had plagued him previously Randidly designed a whole new model based on combining the Skylark with a ground based upgrade on the Porpoise called the Armored Turtle The Armored Turtles selling point was two low bore railguns mounted on a swivel on its back
With the heat dissipation Randidly could double the size of these guns without many problems Increased propulsion was necessary but also easily within his abilities without the problem of heat After he created it the real question for Randidly was actually whether to give this over to GhostÆs control
To ascertain the deadliness of the larger rail guns he tested the shot on himself The shot left him with small burns in the area of impact but also with a bleeding would This made RandidlyÆs expression grim The drone he created would likely have suspect accuracy as it was a flying railgun and it also possessed a limited ammunition cache But its long range and high penetrative power would still make it dangerous
Besides Randidly didnÆt doubt that they would try and slap the larger rail gun on ground mounted drones to increase the accuracy
There was one bright spot the railgun was good against armor but not against energy based shields Even RandidlyÆs positively anemic Mana Shield stopped the projectile dead That was likely a function of his Intelligence stat but it also meant that most people from Zone 32 would be safe