The overall impression that Randidly had of this world was confirmed as he hurtled South even if it was just to escape the rain the Frogpeople would eventually invade Earth There were times that the rain was so light you could barely notice but it was constantly raining It was not an environment conducive to mature and considered thinking
Aside from the periodic ravines and strange fast flowing and deep rivers that split the landscape there didn’t seem to be much of value here It was just a dim dank world ruled by these Toad Lords as though this were medieval Europe
Which perhaps was the reason that Nirfik had proposed that Neveah and Randidly simply withdraw and return to their own World Like how in that sort of archaic government the Toad Lords enjoyed the power that they had over the populace with their Feed Therefore they didn’t have much incentive to risk losing that influence and luxury just for some theoretical benefit The Status Quo was more than enough for them especially for those old Toad Lords that had lived like this for quite a while
Especially when Neveah and now Randidly had made the risks of moving against them quite clear
However Randidly couldn’t relax He couldn’t forget that indelible mark left on the Aether that Nirfik had summoned out of its two subordinates After their battle Randidly was completely sure that Nirfik himself couldn’t have managed that alone Nirfik had relied on poison and folded like a used piece of toilet paper when Randidly brought force
Collapsing the entire bubble on him might have taken him by surprise but he had no resilience at all He was a lazy old toad and that was that If he could manage such impeccable control over Aether there was no way that would have happened
Among the Toad Lords there was someone with an immaculate control of Aether Someone with better control of it than Randidly Perhaps not in sheer volume but in detail Randidly could flood this world with Aether but this shadow Toad Lord could make a fist sized bite of Aether that could be used by another and then ripped out of that person’s chest with a will by someone with higher authority
A Toad Lord that rules by threat Randidly thought grimly An almost godlike deity that reigned over the world Exactly because Randidly could flood the world with Aether he had something he could use as a threat against this Toad Lord but that didn’t mean Randidly would have confidence in a direct fight with him
Especially once the Toad Lord knew that Randidly could possible undermine his whole scheme After all wouldnÆt that individual then just want to eliminate Randidly to get rid of the possibility of the threat coming to fruition
Or perhaps this theoretical Toad Lord was just skilled at fiddling around with Aether Perhaps he had very little fighting strength
Randidly continued to dash through the marsh his expression thoughtful
Yea it doesn’t seem like this world would be a Danger Zone if that was the case Randidly thought with a grimace
“Something wrong You seem wrinkly ” Shual said suddenly “More than usual “
Slightly shocked Randidly glanced back toward the Frogperson he was carrying in his root basket Almost immediately the young frog ducked his head in embarrassment and hid his face behind the lip of the basket “Uh sorry I just Well I’ll just be here I guess If you have any more questions “
Randidly thought about responding but it seemed foolish to involve himself overmuch with any individual person Even someone so young as Shual After all those that he touched
luminous sapphire eyes looked at him out of a hunger panged faced “What’s the point Without money me and my brother Our lives mean nothing
“What comes next will be important ” Randidly said gruffly cutting off his train of thought “Especially if we want to avoid war with our two worlds For all that we are powerful a world is a wide place The human who crossed to this place must be stopped before something further can be incited “
While Shual mulled that over Randidly pressed himself even harder to the task of accelerating In his mind he imagined his Yggdrasil being planted with every one of his steps Golden Roots spiraled downward slowly crisscrossing and building a network to siphon energy up from this world and allow Randidly to shoot across the countryside in a flash
As more and more Golden Roots filled the world a grand specter of the trunk of the World Tree began to faintly appear in the sky Its bark glittered and its leaves spread open to the bare sky Likely no one noticed due to the heavy cloud cover but from that specter Randidly was able to draw more and more strength His speed increased further and further until he was going almost 50% faster than he had been previously
It was like that five hours later that Randidly’s almost constant Aether scans finally caught the whiff of a trace of EarthÆs Aether It was a small morsel but it was the first he found Instantly his direction shifted a little bit to the East
Very quickly it was clear that he was making a beeline for another Deep City Shual explained the relevance and history of the place glad to be given relevance once more But it all flowed past RandidlyÆs ears
Gritting his teeth Randidly began to slow People mean trouble Mean innocent lives that might end But when he arrived he was delighted to discover that the trail was already leaving the city And it was fresh
Very fresh
So fresh that Randidly simply grinned and accelerated toward the lagoon Such was the force of his momentum that he could see some people in the shallows look up in confusion at the noise of his passage With the amount of speed that he had he likely sounded like a roaring typhoon
As the Frogpeople’s faces split from confusion into abject horror Randidly leaped cresting a high jump directly over the lagoon and crashing to the ground with a wave of mud and water that soaked the unfortunate Frogpeople that were standing on the other side Just as they were on his prior arrival to a lagoon these people were helplessly washed away by the wave of debris he created
This time Randidly acknowledged that part of the issue was how sudden his arrival was He simply moved too quickly It wasn’t that these Frogpeople weren’t strong his scans indicated that the average Level here was in the Forties He simply took them unawares
Truly a war against this world would be difficult He had seen almost a thousand people in his rapid cross country trek and that was only the average citizens of this world Considering the fact that all of the Toad Lords likely had elites underneath them that could rival a capable group from Earth the frogs would not go quietly into this good night
And with the looming threat of this Architect Toad Lord that Randidly wasnÆt able to find on such short notice
Donnyton Squads would be able to hold the line against foes of this caliber and Randidly didn’t doubt that other Villages had tried their best in order to catch up to that Level But it was a numbers game he had heard in their talks that the current Earth’s population was likely nearing twenty million But most of that was from projections Mrs Hamilton had gathered from their Zone 32
If the refugee survival rate was vastly lower in other Zones it might be closer to five million Or if the population from the newly arrived Zones was much higher than Zone 32 which seemed likely it was possible that they had as many as fifty million Yet that was still a fraction of the population Earth had before
And most people would get a Class but not everyone would grow that way Most simply would get Skills related to their trade and focus on Skill Levels Which would unlock them Paths and further Skills but they wouldn’t experience as much Stat and Attribute growth After all there weren’t many people that could replicate the amount of Skills that Randidly had used in order to gain the stats he needed It simply wasn’t possible for the average person to earn that many Skills without having access to more Aether than was present in the air It would start mild but Randidly remembered Sam talking about passing out from Aether Deprivation