With a small smile Randidly turned to Azriel I suppose youÆll be fine here
Quite so Azriel smirked If I withhold first aid from him wonÆt he just bleed out Go on IÆll take care of things
DonÆt ignore me Lazareth spat Randidly shifted his gaze to the wounded man Although Azriel had exaggerated the state of his wounds Lazareth was definitely not in a good state Anger wafted off of him like a pungent smell Just like he had been hoping to surprise Randidly with this quick switch of tactics he had been blindsided by RandidlyÆs sudden attack and was now paying for it
Am I a hypocrite Randidly wondered Just a month ago he had calmly allowed his Riders to kill a minor threat out of fear and preoccupation But now that this man was before him Randidly felt his determination to kill waning Setting aside the damage it might do to my anchoring here in the Alpha Cosmos IÆve always wondered what I should have done or said to Alta to prevent what happened Maybe this is just my chance
Guilt responsibility grief I canÆt really even tell which is which anymore
RandidlyÆs smile as he gazed at Lazareth was sad DonÆt destroy the old world before you have the strength to build a new one Lazareth IÆm sure we will meet again
Then Randidly turned and walked away I always thought I had finally found what kind of Crown I wore what sort of man I was But perhaps the truth isnÆt so simple
Chapter 996
The world spun and training continued Even as the benefits accruing to Randidly slowly decreased his determination didnÆt waver His mentality seemed to split in half one part of him sharpened while the other broadened and deepened Tension and healing spiraled together in harmony
It had been eleven months since Randidly had arrived in the Dungeon Time and haste seemed to have receded slightly What was left were determination and Willpower
Randidly had told the mayor of the mollusks that the knowledge that doomed humanity was perspective but at that moment he was extremely thankful for perspective Perspective became image and image was the weapon that began to animate every single movement that Randidly executed Slowly but surely he was becoming the master of his images
Someday but not quite yet
Perhaps the true reason that he was preparing to move on from training was that Randidly sensed that his images had reached the cusp of something Randidly had tried several times to create a clone based on the image as the Masters on Tellus could but that was still beyond him However he could now reliably become an incarnation of the image greatly boosting its power and effect
So for the last several weeks the time he spent on images waned This wasnÆt something that he could grasp simply by wishing hard enough
With some time freed up from refining his images Randidly had also done a much more thorough examination of his damaged Class As he had prevented any more experience from fueling its flawed growth all had remained as it had been after he arrived But he was able to see the specific places where his images and thoughts had been scattered by the attack from that strange being He could slowly detail the parts of himself that had been irreparably ruptured by that casual glance
It wasnÆt truly a fruitful way to spend time but at least Randidly would be able to directly treat the problem areas when he had NathanÆs assistance
His training of his combat Skills had also hit a plateau but this was one that Randidly had seen a long way off At this point RandidlyÆs Skill Levels were so high that it was difficult to force them any higher in a short amount of time Training was important but it didnÆt possess any sort of necessity that would drag out Skill Levels So Randidly did the only thing he could he accepted that he was as strong as he could be without a very long training session
And after being isolated in the Dungeon for so long Randidly was comfortable considering a few months to be a short amount of time Although Randidly believed he had been able to balance the relaxation in his mindset somewhat he didnÆt want to risk it without definitive need
It was only in the field of Engraving that Randidly continued to experience noticeable improvement His flair for runes improved as well as his proficiency in containing energy with elegant runic sigils Studying his Sigil of an Approaching Fate was invaluable in this regard RandidlyÆs understanding of meaning and syntax within the system of Engraving finally hit the level where he didnÆt need Lucretia to polish the finer points of his designs
But perhaps the project that made Randidly the most excited was the moving city that he had delivered to Wendy to design She had resisted mightily at first but ultimately the temptation that Randidly offered was too sweet to resist Rather casually he had simply delivered to her the accumulated resources he had gathered by ruthlessly harvesting the Dungeon for almost a year The mountain of metal ingots gemstones precious plants and magical materials was too large of a bribe for her small stature to withstand
Plus Randidly had gleefully taken the mollusks into his Soulskill and given them to her to distract them from their current decline into petty squabbles Although they were a low level their innate understanding of clockwork would make them invaluable additions to the project It also didnÆt hurt that their small bodies would help them work on the finer pieces of the grand design freeing Wendy up to focus on larger issues
As Randidly had slowly run out of steam in his training he had a new hobby that he enjoyed quite frequently thinking He thought about the System about how it was constructed about Classes Fates and Calamities
In particular Randidly reflected on why there was a limit on the amount of Skills that someone could earn Of course this wasnÆt a hard limit it worked more based on a series of coincidental rules that conveniently fit together to form a cap on Skill use
The main culprit was the fact that Skills and Paths demanded Aether to form and grow When the ambient energy in the air wasnÆt enough to sustain the Level of Skills that you possessed people began to suffer from Aether Deprivation The only reliable way to acquire more Aether was to accept a Class Once a Class was constructedÆ in an individualÆs Soulspace it would take up room where Skills could have been made
Yet the more Randidly thought about this the stranger it seemed Not that there would be a limit on Skills but that a Class would take up so much room in someoneÆs Soulspace that the number of additional Skills they could learn would be reduced to a discrete number Which was even more suspicious because Randidly knew first hand that different quality Skills had different sizes Yet why could the System provide a number
Finally RandidlyÆs fervent of the SystemÆs Aether and his own damaged Class began to provide tangible benefits by examining his Class he discovered the function of a very specific arrangement of Aether at the base At first Randidly was somewhat appalled at having included it in his Class but some research on Classless individuals in his Soulskill revealed everyone had this construct
And everyone he scanned who had a Class had this at its base The construct was one of the core portions of the SystemÆs grip on the people it slowly indoctrinated
Once Randidly identified the construct it was another thing altogether to investigate it This was a tiresome process where Randidly basically just did various activities and checked whether it would react But it was undoubtedly effective It turned out that one of the main functions of this construct was to serve as a cover to test an individualÆs image densityÆ
When Randidly realized this he performed some additional tests in the Alpha Cosmos To his horror it wasnÆt just a function of Classes People who hadnÆt yet received a Class also were affected by this construct it was just in a rather reduced state It seemed designed to activate once a Class was earned
Knowing that the System desires images I think I can see whatÆs going on here Randidly thought Skills are premade images What the System wants is a strong image It doesnÆt want people to have a bunch of Skills and improve by simply improving their versatility it much prefers a world slowly focusing their Aether in a specific direction