Their attitude is admirable Randidly shook his head But there is no point in sending them to antagonize something dangerous before IÆm ready to meet it Still if in a few months even this monument isnÆt enough for the image of timelessness
After giving the stone monolith a long glance Randidly returned to the depths of his base Although usually he would use this time working on his forging process Randidly did something out of character today he went to his kitchen and quickly cut up all of the ingredients that he would need to make breakfast
After about ten minutes Randidly had produced an omelet Which he then ate quickly cutting off large chunks and tossing them into his mouth
The omelet was fine The eggs were whipped and salted making the omelet itself fluffy and flavorful The monster meat core was tender and cooked throughout Not the best meal that Randidly had ever had but it was certainly satisfactory Randidly had no doubt that the could have set up a ramshackle stand in Tellus with these and made a killing
Then Randidly cleaned his dished and looked at the second portion of ingredients that he had previously set aside Cracking his fingers Randidly walked slowly to stand above them His emerald eyes glowed dangerously
I think itÆs finally time I tested the limits of this Randidly thought With infinite gentleness Randidly reached down and dragged a fingertip across one of the eggs he had prepared Then his eyes narrowed All Else Succumbs Yet Time Whirls the Earth
The air around him bent and twisted as though Randidly had hammered down on the fabric of the world with his knee The egg he was touching cracked and splattered everywhere but in slow motion Suddenly Randidly was spread across two versions of himself Then four Then eight His muscles flexed and spasmed He bit his lip so hard that a fat chunk of flesh was hacked off The taste of blood filled all eight of his mouths
After being cracked by his spasming muscles bits of that shattered egg continued to float outward slowly Time twisted and pooled
Then there were sixteen of him twisting and mutating and warping through the surrounding timelines The pain slowly built gradually upward His muscles were on fire Randidly was spasming so powerfully that his bones were shaking Then
The Grim Chimera raised its head and howled That tight skin across its skull grew taut showing the dark outline of its mouth Its arms spread and multiplied The limbs wove into each other slowly constructing something RandidlyÆs feet were locked to the ground in the base he had constructed but it felt like he could reach beyond his current location If he stretched out his fingers and truly wished for it
With a gasp Randidly collapsed His heart was pounding His right hand was covered in egg The horrible hammering filled up his awareness After being stricken by small tremors for so long he couldnÆt stay on his feet His breath came out of his nose as he kneeled on the ground and attempted to regain control of himself It took several minutes before his limbs were completely willing to follow orders
When Randidly stood his eyes were locked on the steaming omelet that lay on a plate before him Frowning Randidly studied the plate carefully He hadnÆt brought any plates into the Dungeon with him At least no plates this ornate looking When his hand was well behaved enough to use a fork he carefully cut off a corner and brought a bit of the omelet to his mouth
Randidly couldnÆt resist a sharp hiss Fuck thatÆs good
The process of eating the delicious omelet was relatively drawn out He thoroughly enjoyed every inch of the creation he had made by relying on the Grim ChimeraÆs strange ultimate Skill As he did so he reflected on what this experience had taught him
Wincing Randidly eventually stumped his way up to the surface and laid himself carefully on the grass The first thing that Randidly had learned was that despite his general improvement of 10 or so Skill Levels in all of his passive physical boosts this Skill still reduced him to a quivering mess Although it was annoying Randidly resolved himself to put more points into Endurance so he could withstand its use
It was slightly embarrassing that his Endurance Stat was at a measly 348 That would soon be rectified
The second thing that Randidly learned was that he was right about the function of the Skill The Grim ChimeraÆs ultimate move was an evolution of a sort But rather than directly evolving the Skill forced RandidlyÆs body to be split into several parallel worlds seeking a variation where Randidly had the requisite Skills to accomplish the tasks that he was trying to accomplish
Or at least that was a passable definition of what the Skill did The exact mechanism of the Skill still eluded Randidly especially because the Grim ChimeraÆs Skill could be used to accomplish so many different things It could give him anything he reached out for
In this case a high Cooking Skill
Randidly winced But the problem this time was much more draining on my body even though my request was relatively simpler Before I had wanted to strike down Paolo and Kayle in a single strike And I managed that while having enough Stamina remaining to walk away from the arena so why was this more difficult
But Randidly already had a hypothesis The pain he experienced was not the pain to make the desired act happen but it was pain he had to endure while looking for a variation that fit his requirements Which meant that the cost was likely related just as much to the complexity of the request as to how distant from his current self the required mutation was
Still what I donÆt get is how the distanceÆ of the mutation is determined Randidly thought with a frown But it does make some sense that it is easier to find a variation of myself with great destructive power rather than a master chef version
Shaking his head Randidly savored the feeling of the sun on his skin and soft grass on his back Even though Randidly had been pushing himself close to the edge in these several months this moment reminded him that perhaps he had still been going too easy on himself
This was after all the first time since Randidly had arrived in the Dungeon that Randidly was completely reduced to a blubbering mess from training Even the small headaches that Randidly developed after working for longer periods on Engraving were relatively small things in the grand scheme of RandidlyÆs boundaries
Randidly smiled up at the sun above him and licked his teeth Well that can easily be arranged I suppose we just need to kick things up a notch here
Chapter 988
One thing that had become abundantly clear in the following days was that the increased Aether density in the Dungeon was finally having an effect A profound effect
Although RandidlyÆs Riders had initially had no problem wiping out the hordes of monsters in the surrounding area that had recently radically changed Suddenly the Riders were plagued by the unified resistance from varying species of locals The groups had entered into some sort of alliance to resist the Riders During their patrols they now habitually encountered traps that were tailor made for each variety of Rider
Amongst the monsters of the Dungeon it seemed a KingÆ had been born Instantly everything had changed
Randidly hadnÆt taken the threat seriously at first He had given the order for the Legion of the Marching Cadence to investigate what was going on but that was the only proactive step that he had taken Randidly had simply assumed that his Riders would eventually find and eliminate the root of the problem Besides RandidlyÆs main focus was on his training
Riders having more difficulty meant that his Skill Level would grow faster Besides they would quickly learn more advanced teamwork of their own if they were harried by a determined intelligent opponent Randidly wouldnÆt baby his Riders just because they had hit a small snag in their rather childish architecture competition
However it only took a week for seven of his Riders to die Five happened in a large surprise raid where a single patrol had been targeted in the jungle That made Randidly focus on the problem with a razor sharp focus and the heavy weight of a debt of blood owed