Well perhaps
Ghost hesitated His calculations whirred but they were unable to determine what this course of action would mean For the past week he had engaged in a similar activity Ever since Father Foster had called and given him that offer It should be impossible what they proposed Yet Father Foster assured him that it was possible even for him Especially for him
And Ghost could see it He could see the flaws in the drones The ways that it could improve the design The only problem was that Ghost could improve the designs but do nothing about it It would have to rely on Baloo Erickson for everything
Ghost hated that
So it activated the phone function and made a call to Father Foster The phone rang and then rang again and again It rang for so long that it went to voicemail
Ghost was puzzled and his projection frowned He had never left a voicemail before and didnÆt want to do it now Besides Father Foster had never ignored his calls No one ignored his calls
Ending the call Ghost immediately dialed again
This time the phone was picked up after two rings Hello
I called earlier Based on my scans you should have been within your church at the time
Ah my apologies Ghost Father Foster said Her voice sounded strained and annoyed which was weird Very rarely did Ghost see Father Foster lose her cool It must have been an extremely serious setback to have her take that tone I was unavoidably detained There are difficulties in running a congregation of this size
Ghost didnÆt doubt But he felt no need to ease up Perhaps Religious undertakings have always seemed deceitful to me But many appreciate your efforts
The silence on the line grew pronounced and Ghost wondered if his pointed barb was too blunt But then Father Foster broke the silence once more
Ah so why did you call
Now it was GhostÆs turn to remain silent After several seconds Ghost forced himself to speak I have given some thought to the offer you made me I have examined how much good it would do for the Zone I would like to proceed
Ah There was genuine surprise in the noise from Father Foster and then Ghost heard the sound of scrambling at the other end of the line I see Indeed IÆm glad to see you understand the positive applications of such a process It will never be public obviously due to unavoidable stigma But it warms my heart to know that you will support our cause
Ghost shifted uncomfortably It wasnÆt that he supported it but
Did you have an individual in mind If not we can
Yes Ghost interrupted He said a name and he felt abruptly elated Somehow he knew that by saying this name he would now be heading towards a different future Hopefully a brighter future for himself and for the Zone Baloo Erickson
Chapter 571
It was like a rose bloom of Aether slowly unfolding in the sky After it spread to its full height the petals would wilt and fall away spreading to the distant reaches of Zone 1 Randidly did some quick calculations and was aghast to sense how wide the CreatureÆs Aether would spread Logically he understood that after he had severed the source of Aether in what remained of the CreatureÆs body the connection between them was finished What was floating around now was simply ambient Aether But to feel the distinct touch of the Creature in the Aether
It wasnÆt a good feeling
Likely this would end up being a boon for Zone 1 in the short term The extra Aether in the air would fuel growth for all manner of Classes and Skills It had a distinct flavor that was more cumbersome to manipulate than RandidlyÆs own but it was still much much better than the SystemÆs Aether
In a very perfunctory way Randidly removed a bit of debris from his hair and stared glumly at the Aether explosion
Because that knife they had worked so hard for for six months It had destroyed nothing but a gateway Randidly had these terrible images of the Creature in his head when he had struck but that version of the Creature had been reduced to nothing but a mouth Randidly recognized the state the Creature was in he himself had almost been caught up in something similar when he pumped out Aether so his Zone could last a little longer before the Raid Dungeon
There was a catharsis to pushing Aether out of one’s body into the air in that way It was easy to lose oneself to that feeling and miss the current of Aether that began to form out of you and into the air So much so that Randidly had felt keenly if he had let himself go a little bit farther he would have been unable to stop The momentum would control you
Just like the Creature had somehow been made to push out Aether and then was unable to stop
Lucretia suggested that it was a ploy to draw out that weapon they had worked on and it was a successful one The Creature had left a lesser version of itself to find After all that insectoid machine seemed to be possessed by the Creature But NeveahÆs opinion hung silently in the mental space Neveah understood Aether and its mysterious That body that they destroyed was the real thing
If the Creature remained it had cut itself off to any supply of Aether It was just a being a regular monster
Tykes and Dinesh stood near Randidly waiting Tykes expression was surly and he was constantly flexing his hand Apparently the fighting had grown so intense that Tykes had been injured and forced to use some of his more revealing Skill to hold out against the strange swarm of exosuits that had descended upon them
They noticed three types The basic cannon fodder type a larger version that possessed cannons mounted on the shoulders and the leader which had used its blue energy mode to blow past Dinesh and Tykes to confront Randidly It was the middle types which had given Tykes and Dinesh so many problems
All the while Randidly couldnÆt help but wonder where all the pilots of the exosuits came from It was clear that they were affiliated with the Unity Church but how could they train so many individuals and produce so many exosuits without someone noticing And how the hell were they all so uniform in the way they fought
RandidlyÆs curiosity drove him to pull the helmet off of one rather intact body and all he saw was how young the girl that was piloting it was before he turned away Disgust How could the Unity Church weaponize teenagers
But what recourse did he have now after he killed their leader Should he attack their base directly
That was probably the best bet long term but he was slightly leery of fighting more children No perhaps he should lie low for a few days see how the Unity Church responds and then make use of his identity as Baloo Erickson to physically investigate one of the refugee camps
What a fucking hassle
The three men stood and stared at the remnants of the large base which had been largely destroyed in the explosion It just seemed so tedious to Randidly In the past his enemy was always a boss or the Creature Slaying that meant that he had won And yet after killing Father Foster Randidly didnÆt feel like anything would change There were no doubt lieutenants who knew the terrible organ harvesting that they were doing and enjoyed the benefit of it They would continue to do it
The technology had been created PandoraÆs Box couldnÆt just be simply closed
Sighing Randidly turned away It was time to go home
While they were running back under the cover of DineshÆs illusions Randidly considered what he had gained over the past several weeks
He had gained 5 Skill Levels in Aether Detection 4 in Plant Dominance 7 in Grasp of Lava 8 in Incendiary Eruption and Lava Golem 1 in Summon Pestilence and Idiosyncratic Cut 3 in Spearing Roots and Sharpness 2 in Spear Master and Golden Roots of Yggdrasil 4 in Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil and Talon Strike 3 in Roundhouse Kick and Wild PhantomÆs Embrace 12 in SpriggitÆs Tinkering 6 in Mana Engraving and a shocking 19 in Engineering Savvy
This bunch of PP combined with the small bonused he had been accruing slowly was enough to put him over 100 It wasnÆt enough to finish off the Crown of Yggdrasil Path but it did get the bonuses for the Path three tes 10 stats every 50 PP which earned him 30 stats in total