Still all of that was for later For now he needed to grow familiar with his new home
Randidly spread his arms wide savoring the feeling of the thick humidity that filled this place His fingers rubbed against his sweaty palms As he did so Randidly released thin pulses of Aether that mapped out the surrounding area in his mind His first goal would be to establish a base somewhere while he figured out his specific game plan for improving himself
Very soon he found an appropriate location next to the largest of the nearby mounds In addition to the mound a tall stone monolith with vague facial features stood directly in front of the mound like a guardian The ground around the mound was completely clear of grass There were about five meters of space between it and the thick greenery of the surrounding jungle The howls and squawks of the surrounding area were surprisingly muted here It was a place that seemed isolated from the surrounding chaos and strife
Yet it wasnÆt the mound that was the source of that feeling it was the monolith Rather solemnly Randidly walked closer to the monolith and dragged his fingers across the stone that had been worn smooth by wind and rain There were slight indentations at the base that might have once been carvings but now they were just differences in texture that even RandidlyÆs extremely sensitive fingers were barely able to detect
All these Dungeons were once worlds Randidly thought with a sigh ItÆs easy to forget that That if we fail to triumph over the System Earth will just be recycled and used as fertilizer for other possible images Will humans become the denizens of a Dungeon someday in the eighth cohort
RandidlyÆs eyes narrowed Not if I can help it ThatÆs why IÆm here
As a sign of respect for those that had been conquered and devoured by the System Randidly kissed his knuckles and pressed his palm against the stone monument Just as he was about to remove his hand his gaze sharpened
It was faint but Randidly was immediately shocked he hadnÆt noticed it before This whole area was suffused with an ancient image that was why plants werenÆt growing in the surrounding area The passage of time had eroded the image to the point it was just an air of solemnity but it continued even though the meticulously carved statue had been worn smooth RandidlyÆs gaze drifted upward to the stone in front of him
It was now but a tall pillar The hints of facial features were so slight that they would only be noticed by the peripheral of your vision Yet the feel of it felt cool and refreshing to Randidly The flow of water out of a spring it pooled in this small area
It was a valuable image Randidly abruptly realized The World Tree especially would benefit from exposure to this image that seemed so timeless Yet the reality of the situation twisted RandidlyÆs face into a horrible grimace as he proceeded past the monolith and began to clear out the interior of the mound
This image was so strong that it has persisted within the time accelerated world of the Dungeon During its heyday could I have stood against an image like this
And yet this world became Dungeon fodder Which means it was only able to defeat the first Calamity Ultimately it was consumed by its own darkness
In the face of that grim reminder of the very real danger that faced Earth Randidly began to work in silence The mound itself was about ten meters tall and about twenty meters in diameter As Randidly dug deeper into the structure it was swiftly apparent that this wasnÆt a natural phenomenon
The mound was essentially dozens of incrementally larger domes stacked on top of one another Seeing the way that the copper ore had managed to corrode and emerge from within the inner portion of the domes Randidly had been operating under the impression that there were valuables stored within the dome that transformed the surrounding materials into copper So he dug deeper hoping to find the source of the strange ore
Despite his hopes the domes revealed no reward for digging through them aside from a significant amount of the copper ore Instead what Randidly found at the center was somewhat more disturbing a disc of stone that was heavily reinforced with runic engravings
Scratching his head Randidly released a sigh I really wanted simply build a base here Yet suddenly this has become quite complicated If this area around this monolith is covered with engravings it would be safer to move elsewhere
Yet he didnÆt yet pack up and leave for another mound one without this strange monolith Because from what Randidly could see the runic engravings he could sense were just there to maintain the integrity of a drawing that was carved into the stone disc Perhaps a worthy pursuit in most cases but what he found on the non engraved portion of the stone disc made Randidly frown
Rather clearly the drawing left there was an arrow
Based on its direction it pointed East toward a thick stretch of jungle and beyond that to the plateau Randidly cautiously moved closer to the disc examining it carefully Although the engraving on the stone disc was rather clumsy to RandidlyÆs eyes the maker had clearly wanted to keep the stone in place at all costs As the runes clearly still had power it seemed likely that it still pointed unerringly toward its objective
Even after frequent scans Randidly could discover nothing strange about the stone disc It was exactly what it claimed to be Cautiously Randidly approached
With infinite care Randidly rapped the knuckles of his metal arm against the stone disc Nothing happened Frowning Randidly proceeded to dig down a meter into the ground beneath the disc Very soon he discovered that the stone was attached to a metal pillar Although Randidly dug around it and cleared the surrounding ground it still stood firm
For several seconds Randidly regarded the strange arrow atop the metal poll still determinedly pointing to the East Then Randidly shook his head and began to sort out the rest of his new base As he had cleared out the ground and found no addition engravings it was likely that this area was safe for him to use In addition he still believed that the image hanging around the stone monolith would be extremely useful to him if he submerged himself in it for a time
Although he was confused by the presence of the strange arrow Randidly thoroughly scanned it and couldnÆt find any trace of runes that would make it more than a peculiar compass So he instead focused his attention on the structure around him
The fact that this mound was a series of domes was somewhat awkward for Randidly because he had broken through each of the layers to get here Therefore the overall structural stability was somewhat diminished In addition Randidly would need to clear out the inner domes to make room to work on forging and his images His space requirements were rather high
In an ideal world Randidly would only need to maintain a single dome over his base But time had been quite cruel to the outer domes They had slowly been broken down by the elements It was only after you went a few domes inward that the entire dome would be mostly intact So Randidly carefully cleared out domes from the inside out looking for the first signs of instability
Ultimately that instability came too quickly Although the domes were quite thin the instability started showing up when Randidly had only opened up about eight meters of space for Randidly to work with His mouth twisted RandidlyÆs entrance had been altogether too rough
Therefore he had no choice but to dig downward And since he was clearing out a large space anyway
Randidly figured he might as well take some time to add some of the trappings of modern civilization to his year long home
Chapter 976
After six hours of pouring through the ground with Infinite Fingers of Yggdrasil Randidly had cleared out an area that was roughly the size of a city block and was divided into three sections Lit by emerald fire his base seemed the perfect lair for an evil demon to plot its terrible plan to destroy the world