Before he could enter into his private room Foreman Davey spotted him and walked over to chat for a while They didnÆt talk about anything important but Davey did give Randidly a pretty good idea of the rising and falling value of different materials and metals
Oh by the way Davey said as he was about to leave You must have really done something to impress people because IÆve been instructed to get you anything you need to help your research Plus there is a charity dinner this weekend you are invited to No need to give me an answer now just think about it
In the smelting area Randidly breathed in the smell of hot metal and smiled There really was just something about the air in these blast furnaces that he enjoyed Then he began to forge metal This time he didnÆt use the weak materials
The steel was refined and refined again Then the impurities were extracted and extracted again Only then did Randidly grind up a significant amount of Raid Boss bones to mix into the metal In addition a drop of RandidlyÆs own blood went into the metal
He took his time during the forging process Part of it was proof of concept but the other part was to work out the details of how much bone metal and blood should be a part of the finished product to make it as strong as possible To this end Randidly made as many as ten iterations which he compared against each other He was rather perplexed and pleased that there were three that he simply couldnÆt test under normal conditions
They were all so strong he couldnÆt affect them easily and he had left Acri at the farming compound to help deal with any wandering Raid Bosses Randidly shook his head sorrowfully It was obnoxious that a piece of metal could make him feel weak but at least the person who made that metal was him
With that accomplished Randidly made himself about a hundred ingots of something he considered mid tier That is stronger than Erickson Steel but nowhere near the stuff he had made for his own uses Then he returned to the drone making facility
Apparently Foreman Davey wasnÆt lying about giving him everything Henrik had pulled some strings and now Randidly had access to every single blueprint that Ghost had in its database Immediately Randidly immersed himself in it As a show of good faith Randidly also produced five more Pterodactyls which was more than enough for Henrik to hop with glee
With the demands on him satisfied Randidly turned to another goal to make the drones that others could use to protect the various cities in Zone 1 To that end Randidly carefully began designs for three drones One to locate and identify threats one to take care of small scale problems and another that could be used to stamp out locations that were filled to the brim with Raid Bosses
They were called Hunter Seeker Stalker Reaper and Reaver Crusher
Chapter 561
Levels were strange Randidly decided during one of his breaks in the labor of preparing these drones for launch As he worked he would get slowly better at something That was simply the accumulation of experience Accumulating experience also meant that he would receive Skill Levels
Individually these Skill Levels were small things but when Randidly received two or three in both SpriggitÆs Tinkering and Engineering Savvy there was a noticeable difference The System sped up the process of learning by a great deal Which was convenient but disturbing
Ultimately Randidly shook his head and put the thought aside After all there was much work to be done But he couldnÆt escape the nagging feeling that he was very quickly reaching a point where his advantages were accumulating far beyond what was possible for normal people to equal After all without his high Intelligence this task would be far more difficult
Because he had higher Stats he could Level Skills more quickly Because he had a Soul Skill and a lot of Skills Leveling he could quickly earn more Stats There was a hard limit on Skills he would reach eventually but until then he was accelerating towards something A flaw in the System
An event horizon where his growth grew self propagating
Well in theory At the moment Randidly was nowhere near there But it was strange that the System should function that way Perhaps that was what the Calamity was in practice Randidly reflected as he began adjusting a runic engraving An entity that had gathered so much power that it ceased to function by the normal rules that bound the rest of them
Randidly recalled the dream state where he had followed ShalÆs father through the battlefield and fought against enemies there He remembered the final opponent one who was so physically superior it seemed hopeless to fight against Although now Randidly knew that the monster at the time was only a Level 70 caliber creature Randidly knew that there would be further monsters beyond that
That was what he faced That was what his goal was To grow to become strong enough to wound that
Randidly looked down at the engraving pen and the warm metal he was working with To grow he needed to push boundaries Making these blueprints and then struggling to create working prototypes from them had done a lot to fuel his growth He had earned 43 Skill Levels in the past week that he had spent locked up slaving away over his babies
Time and time again he had reached a snag in the design In retrospect his original plans were breathtakingly optimistic Even with RandidlyÆs runes there were numerous heat problems The energy conversion runes were powerful but couldnÆt be in the same spot as other runes So the layout of each of his original three needed to be altered
But not by much
SpriggitÆs Tinkering and Engineering Savvy had been the engine for that growth and as they grew more pronounced slowly Mana Engraving began to tick upwards as his plans grew more sophisticated Even Clockwork Mastery grew a bit likely due to the intricate pieces How long would it take another to reach the requisite Level of Skill to be able to construct similar drones Perhaps a year
Perhaps less The ambient Aether in the air was thickening Part of it was himself slowly leaking the excess that flowed through his body But that was a gradual process No this was happening quickly Aether was pouring with increasing density out of the Danger Zones Which meant that the monsters within Danger Zones were being enriched
That made Randidly frown So many plates to juggle The growth he had achieved here was great for pushing his PP upwards and moving down different Paths but it hadnÆt ultimately achieved the goal of finishing his Skill That was stuck at a little above 90% Randidly could sense But it was no use rushing
Still Randidly had spent a lot of time over the past two months doing activities other than training He didnÆt regret it but now he felt the pressure building After all Randidly had no doubt that the System was willing to push the strength of its Danger Zones up to the point that people couldnÆt overcome them No doubt the monsters would begin coming out in waves then
Randidly sighed as his thinking caused another board to overheat and melt He tossed the metal aside casually At the level he was hoping the drones would be operated he could not make the runic boards thick As such mistakes were common even as his Mana Engraving Skill reached Level 119 It was by far his highest non combat Skill Well the Yggdrasil Skills were close but he didnÆt count those
Those were more like a part of himself than a Skill he actually used
Choices Broadly Randidly had the choice to do anything he wanted He also had enemies The flood of Raid Bosses the Creature the Calamity Danger Zones likely the Unity Church But he could only deal with one at a time and the solutions to facing these varied threats werenÆt clear Becoming more powerful would help but he needed more than that He needed to prepare
For that he needed information
Ah that party that Henrik talked about was tonight That was one way to gather information Randidly supposed Good thing he had spent the last week without talking to anyone That would help him stomach so much socialization Also he should see if he could find some more presentable clothes