Octavius closed the door behind them and led the way through the darkened street to a three story apartment building The mist lay thickly along the ground here almost up to RandidlyÆs knees They proceeded quickly inside and immediately Randidly felt the difference There was some sort of energy field around the building that kept out the tainted Aether Although the Stillborn Phoenix whined that it was still hungry Randidly walked up to the third floor
And there was Edraine studying a map on the far wall She smiled at him when he entered Finally made it eh Well met Randidly Ghosthound Welcome to the Nexus Is it everything that you thought it would be
Randidly had two reactions to seeing Edraine The first was a quivering sense of deja vu she certainly looked almost exactly like an older version of Vualla Her hair had greyed out and there was a large scar across her left eye but otherwise they looked so similar that it was uncanny But Randidly supposed that this wasnÆt actually singular experience many individuals over the course of their budding relationships had met their partnerÆs parents and were slightly disturbed by how deep the resemblance ran
But the second reaction RandidlyÆs palms began to get sweaty That strange confusion and fear that Randidly had felt growing along the underside of his heart since he had arrived at the Nexus all that was instantly swept away by the raw aura of power that was wafting off of the Edraine in front of him
She was smiling lightly at Randidly but Randidly felt that massive image crouching behind her ready to surge to the fore at a moment’s notice It was a headless simulacrum sculpted with porcelain and pewter It was a streamlined perfect tool of destruction If Edraine willed it she could blast away a huge chunk of the undercity with a single movent The potent silence of her image was almost unnerving
RandidlyÆs smile curled upward until he returned EdraineÆs grin That sickly feeling that Randidly had felt when he had arrived had been disappointment The Nexus was built at a scale beyond his imagination on some interstellar foundation but everyone he had encountered felt so weak He had come here to grow strong and as he saw more and more of the sprawling Nexus he had worried that it wouldnÆt be as easy as he hoped
But EdraineÆs image blew all those feelings away Although they might be deeply hidden the Nexus was filled with individuals like her Their ability might be kept tight compact and overwhelming but they were present The truly powerful had gathered here These individuals were so powerful that Randidly wouldnÆt even know how to begin fighting against them
Randidly licked his lips The Nexus heh ItÆs certainly immense
Edraine chuckled It certainly is But we donÆt have much time to work A very special opportunity came up and I wonder if you would be interested in doing some more work for the Nexus Military Council This time not as a frontline Commander but as a Drill Sergeant
Chapter 1494
It will only take up a few hours of your day to be a Drill Sergeant Edraine continued to speak as Randidly pondered the suggestion It will leave you plenty of time for your own training Especially if you have subordinates you can reliably use to oversee the base level training of the recruits Most importantly this is an emergency mission with the reward of one Tier 1 Nexus Citizenship coin for completion That enough makes it an attractive offer but also talks between the military council the Xyrt Brigade and the NLC have stalled out Everyone wants their own representative in this position and not someone who professes loyalty to one of the others At this point the entire program will need to be delayed if they donÆt select someone by the end of the week Which gives us an opportunity
What is the NLC Randidly wondered out loud picturing the vicious punch the uniform worker had slammed into the over muscled humanoid The casual use of violence did not earn the organization any points in RandidlyÆs book Also even if they need to pick someone why would they pick me
The Nexus Labor Collective Octavius interjected They are a technically unofficial body but since the Nexus Council never bothered to make a legitimate civil service for its many pieces of infrastructure it was able to take over that role In the past the teleporter system and Aether valves were basically left unguarded the NLC rose to ensure that the powerful couldnÆt so easily abuse the System Or at least the powerful without any shred of legitimacy
Edraine cleared her throat As to your other question In this case what is important is that Octavius here is a former member of the NLC They plan to select a hundred and one drill sergeants with most being given control over ten thousand recruits after they cull the chaff applicants that are flooding in So when you come with his recommendation as well as with a successful track record of repelling the Nether attack on the frontlines you should get the support of two factions and slide into one of those spots You are a compromise candidate with enough experience to be credibly competent So are you interested
Randidly flexed his fingers Almost idly he took in the surrounding room There was no furniture but the wooden table in the center of the room but the walls were covered with maps and graphs The immense Nexus was shown in cross section with lines to the important places within the supercity There was notations about the NexusÆ Aether expenditures compared to the amount of energy it generated There was even an entire wall dedicated to the different factions and how many powerful individuals each definitely had and was suspected to have
This was clearly the home base of a group that had plans for the Nexus From sensing the images of the surrounding two individuals it was clear that they shared his goal too Randidly just had to decide what his role would be in the whole machine
His mind continued to whirr even as Revelation energy crept into his right eye Purple black energy danced across his cornea He saw the branching lines he might take stretching out before him Truthfully a part of him just dearly wished to hole up down here in the Undercity and train for a while The Grim Chimera was just a little bit away from a qualitative transformation The Stillborn Phoenix would undoubtedly begin to grow if he could go deeper and absorb more of those ambient emotions perhaps using YggdrasilÆs natural filtration to keep out the unwanted energy
Congratulations Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold has grown to Level 329
But he didnÆt forget the disappointment he felt upon initially arriving at the Nexus Everyone he saw during his brief meandering walk had been weak It was only when Octavius was able to guide him through the maze like Nexus to a very specific location that he was able to encounter Edraine
The powerful were present here but the Nexus was so large that it was very easy to miss What Randidly needed was a way to connect with and encounter these powerful people At first blush becoming a drill sergeant definitely seemed to be an excellent opportunity to do so But before he agreed Randidly asked the other large question that hovered in his mind But why does the Nexus need so many drill sergeants right now DonÆt they usually just throw people into the fire and train those that survived
Edraine and Octavius shared a glance It was Octavius that eventually spoke leaning against the table in the center of the room YouÆve heard about NetherÆs attack on the Fifth Cohort correct From the reports sent back by the initial Xyrt Brigade deployment the Nether taint has spread much farther than we had expected Some suspect that almost half of the Fifth Cohort has been compromised Although they are elite the Xyrt Brigade cannot be everywhere and all the frontline deployments have seen an increase in Nether Raids No serious attacks but enough of a mobilization of Nether forces to make the military council unwilling to redeploy a serious amount of troops to a Cohort So the Nexus is doing something rather unprecedented A draft pulling from all the old Cohorts