RandidlyÆs mind whirred Part of him was grappling with the issue of NeveahÆs decision while another part of himself began gradually to assemble a picture of the Nexus based on what he knew That strange warped baby at the core of that place of death
Randidly released a breath I understand
He sat for a while after that settling his thoughts and drinking his tea He even found it within himself to talk quietly for Sydney for a time making polite conversation Neveah eventually asked if Randidly was staying for dinner to which he had to reply in the negative it was already time for him to go They embraced
He was hugging a lot today
He opened up a portal and moved back to Kharon There the soldiers that followed him from the frontlines waited They had just finished with their own goodbyes These soldiers were put within his Alpha Cosmos Then although he was somewhat loathe to admit he needed her assistance Randidly headed to Donnyton He could do this on his own but he now wanted to be careful to keep everything within official channels
So he met Lyra to the South of Donnyton on a small hill next to an apple orchard She looked extremely grumpy as though she was running a fever and RandidlyÆs request had forced her out of bed She was very clearly suppressing the urge to shiver in the chill wind Randidly couldnÆt prevent a grin from spreading across his face it seemed that his punishment was having the desired effect
Probably to refuse to acknowledge her weakness Lyra didnÆt even bother to complain about it Instead she waved her hand in front of RandidlyÆs eyes He observed carefully as she attached a small bit of Aether architecture to his Class He scrutinized it carefully as it latched onto him watching for any more observation software But it truly just allowed him to see parts of the System that were barred to him before
And once it settled Randidly could sense them running through the world around him the Nexus Ways
The main hub is the biggest one ItÆs really self explanatory Lyra stretched her arm up and gestured vaguely Then she seemed to remember something and pause Ah there is one more thing You are the first person from Expira to be designated by a Village Spirit as worthy to head to the Nexus As such
She gestured and a notification appeared in front of Randidly
Congratulations Due to your accomplishment you have been given a Tier I Nexus Citizenship Coin See your Village Spirit for more details
Chapter 1492
As Lyra had indicated the location of the main terminal was obvious once Randidly started looking The Nexus Ways were like invisible flumes that ran across the surface of Expira and when he stepped into the thickest one he was pulled through to a spacious gleaming stone cavern In the center of that cavern stood two tall stone pillars that reached all the way to the ceiling On the floor between those pillars was a mystical looking Engraving Motes of slight drifted upward from the ground a testament to the residual power present there
Randidly walked forward delighting in the sensation of the cool material of the ground on his bare toes He paused above the Engraving and studied it Despite the fact that he had been doing his best to keep up with the slew of insights that Neveah made and reported to him the Engraving in front of him was completely indecipherable He recognized some pieces that would transfer energy but he couldn’t get any real grasp on the actual function of the thing
Of course the function was rather obvious this was the portal
When Randidly approached his new piece of Aether attached to him prompted him with a question
What is your Destination
A hitherto never before seen menu appeared in front of his gaze There was a space for prior destinations and also a place where you could enter in the coordinates of some random place you wanted to go Randidly wondered idly how far the Nexus Ways stretched Considering the size of each Cohort the coverage must be absolutely massive Probably to the point that his brain wouldn’t be able grapple with the amount of space that this portal could move him Probably Randidly wouldn’t even be able to cope with how far he was traveling simply to the Nexus He was heading toward a scale that persisted past the limits of his imagination
And this was the enemy he had chosen for himself Randidly couldn’t help but grin The refined Grim Chimera stirred in his chest its tails flicking back and forth But Randidly forced himself to relax now wasn’t the time But certainly he could hold his head up high in the face of the Ways His PhilosopherÆs Key held just as much juice as this infrastructure Plus it was a much more convenient size
But I cannot deny I have a soft spot in my heart for ambient motes of light Randidly thought His mind briefly drifted back to the development of his house and floating island but he forced himself to let go Dwelling would only make this journey more difficult
In addition to those other functions there was a rather large selection at the top of the Teleportation Screen Nexus
Randidly clicked it and stepped onto the runic Engraving on the ground He could feel the metal disc that held the Engraving begin to heat as energy churned and bubbled through the runes The pillars on either side of him began to tremble Randidly glanced around as light steadily began to congregate around his person It was like the runes on the ground were sucking it out of the surrounding cavern and concentrating it within the circle So as Randidly watched the surroundings steadily dimmed to monochrome shapes and then toward pure shadow The metal beneath his feet continued to grow hotter and hotter Distantly Randidly could sense that the Engraving was now reaching out and gripping the surrounding space That space was thoroughly squeezed
Congratulations Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 227
When the surroundings faded to pitch black there was a light pop The screen of borrowed light and squeezed space that had been wrapped around him cracked and faded away And a sea of new sensations flooded in to smack wet and stark against Randidly’s senses
The very texture of the air around him seemed unfamiliar
The first thing that he noticed while his eyes adjusted to the returned light was the smell of the surroundings The air smelled of sweat and iron reminding Randidly a lot of his time working in the metal refinery Next to his Grim Intuition came the Aether flooding around him at a density that was at least double that of Expira It was choppy and irregular but it was immediately clear that the Nexus was certainly a place filled with rich energy The people who lived at the core of the System did not want for Aether
Next came the heat and the awareness of how many people were in the surrounding hundred meters Their voices lapped against each other in the surroundings reverberating and mixing into a muddy torrent of words that reached his ears As Randidly’s Grim Intuition rapidly gathered and categorized these sounds he discovered something rather stunning Perhaps someone with a Reaction lower than Randidly’s wouldn’t have noticed it but there was a sliver of blurred noise in the voices Especially to the quieter ones near the edges of her Perception There was a hint of a delay to when a noise was produced and when it became intelligible
And then it hit him There are so many voices that the translation software is having difficulty keeping up
“Sir please move and allow the next arrival ” A voice said interrupting Randidly’s thought process And it also woke him up to his current situation He was standing on a perfect replica of the portal on Expira bearing the same Engraving with the two pillars But each of these pillars were standing alone without a roof And each pillar served as the pillar for two of such portals as the portals chained off to Randidly’s right and left for quite some distance
“First time in the Nexus ” The voice spoke again and pulled Randidly’s attention forward to the speaker He leaned against the edge of a wooden platform in the middle of the path clearly made so he could monitor the situation in the surrounding portals He was wearing an official looking grey uniform with a badge that had the letters NLC on his right breast Around his platform there was a constant flow of bodies heading toward RandidlyÆs left