It took several hours but Randidly eventually found a rather impressively sized silver mine into which he quickly dug Although silver was much less suited to combat and industry it had its own sort of appeal For currency jewelry and for more delicate pieces of technology silver was an acceptable substitute Plus it would serve as a good test to understand how effective RandidlyÆs knew smelting process really was
He had been working with iron and the queer copper found in the mounds so far Silver would help broaden his understanding of how his process impacted the metal
Satisfied Randidly returned to his base almost twenty hours after he had departed One day of his promise to the mollusks down Which would likely give him time to move the forging area farther away from his image training Still that relative peace didnÆt come without cost the Mana drained by the vast forming apparatus Randidly had cobbled together would skyrocket as the distance increased Even with RandidlyÆs ridiculously cheap Skill the number of roots he was manipulating would quickly add up
Feeling rather pleased Randidly took his time returning to his base Yet when he encountered the patrols of his Riders on his way back Randidly stopped dead He blinked several times to confirm that he was currently seeing clearly
Overnight both groups changed Or rather their mounts changed
The mounts were originally a strange combination of a rhinoceros a camel and a spider They had four spindly limbs the hump and lengthened neck of a camel and their joints and forehead were covered with the wickedly dangerous horns of a rhino Their skin was uniformly a dark grey
Today however someone had fiddled with those knobs
The Impenetrable Bulwark Legion now rode on something much much closer to a rhino The legs of their mounts had shortened and thickened In addition the rhinoceros horns had grown increasingly large and long Their skin had become almost pitch black As they moved they left only trampled jungle in their wake
The Unavoidable Pivots perhaps appropriately had chosen to up the spider content of their mounts The legs were the same size but now there were six spindly legs instead of four Long fangs jutted out from the mountÆs mouths The skin had shifted to a hard shell which was a deep navy blue
Ultimately Randidly shook his head and walked past the patrols without a word of comment Better to focus on my own training
Chapter 981
Today we have an extremely special guest participating in our monthly lottery The tall bearded man said with a confident smile As the MC of the event there was some onus on him to inject life into the process of the Lottery But it was clear that at the moment his excitement was genuine Let me introduce you to Naffur Suite Knight Errant of the Order Ducis and acting leader of the most influential Order on Earth
Around Vye people broke out into thunderous applause Some of the mild mannered competitors that she had been standing next to looked up with burning eyes She cast her gaze around slowly while bringing her hands together as one more inconspicuous fish joining the sea of applause
From there the noise rose to an even higher volume Besides the thirty or so people who were on the ground level to participate in the Lottery there were almost two hundred individuals in the upper level looking down toward the participants Even if these people were there for the same reason as Naffur Suite they still perked up when the Order Ducis was present
These prestigious individuals were the representatives of companies and governments from across the Earth A particularly large delegation from Franksburg were all wearing sharp grey uniforms with gold trim Conspicuously absent was any group from Donnyton
Other Orders were here but even they applauded for the Ducis After all they all wished to curry favor with the Order Ducis in order to strengthen their own position amongst the lesser Orders
To Vye it seemed oddly sad Whereas Randidly basically went wherever he wanted Naffur had to stand as representative of the Order Ducis and handle all of the attention that the true leader of the Order Ducis brought The flood of positive emotion must be suffocating Honestly if Vye was standing in NaffurÆs shoes she might have preferred that the recently burned delegation of Donnyton was present The fact that Donnyton had pulled out for the first time since the genesis of the Lottery was rather telling
It seems that whatever challenge occurred between Randidly and Donnyton wasnÆt exaggerated How powerful does one have to be in order to cow an entire town Vye wondered
Her gaze shifted to the extremely young man who stepped forward during the introduction As soon as she saw him Vye clenched her fists and stopped trying to mimic the applause surrounding her
Because Naffur to Vye was a bridge to a life that she had craved for too long A life where she could control her destiny If Vye wanted to pay back all the heavy debts she owed to the people who had helped her get here there wasnÆt a better way than joining the Order Ducis And as the Order Ducis wasnÆt commanded directly by Randidly it would be a way to truly feel free
Of all the Orders the Order Ducis was all the most mysterious But when the monster village was discovered the Order Ducis was the first to intervene When the Danger Zone cleared by Randidly began to spew out ogres the Order Ducis was at the frontlines pushing the monsters away from the vulnerable cities of civilization
The first impression that Vye had of Naffur was that he was young and tired But his eyes gleamed visibly from this distance At his side stood a tall inhuman cockroach coolly regarding the barely disguised disgust on the faces of other groups At his other side was a pre teen boy smiling widely at everyone in the arena
VyeÆs determination receded slowly as she looked at the lonely silhouettes of these three figures Her lip curled upward What is with everyone and possessing glowing eyes The pupil should only reflect
And now The bearded MC for the lottery turned back to the assembled people Remember do your best ThereÆs no punishment for failure
Except being stuck in this city for your whole life bound by chains of relationships and expectation tighter than any physical jail
and the rewards for success are unimaginable LetÆs commence the Lottery I am positive that you all will find Paths to your dreams today There are forms on the table to fill out should you be willing to reveal your Skills and Stats These will be distributed to the representatives during the following cocktail hour Feel free to mingle and introduce yourself as much as you want After the talking is done there will be a series of duels to demonstrate your abilities
The bearded manÆs face twisted into a sardonic smile Although it is not a pretty truth our world has been transformed by the presence of the System Without strength we can accomplish very little Still for those of you who arenÆt gifted currently in martial might the point of the duels is not to see how much you can accomplish now It is to show these influential organizations that you would be an individual worth cultivating To that end
If I may
A mild voice cut through the bubbling excitement of the arena The bearded man turned in surprise to look at Naffur It was the young manÆs cool voice that had cut across him right as he was heading toward the crescendo of his speech If it wasnÆt for VyeÆs experience reading people she would have missed the subtle tightening of the lines around the bearded MCÆs eyes Then the bearded man nodded and gestured for Naffur to go ahead
The young man was thin and pale but he raised his head and spoke confidently to the room As he spoke his spine straightened and his shoulders seemed to spread out behind him like extending wings Vye almost couldnÆt believe her eyes How did his physicality change so drastically in such a short amount of time It was like he was a different person