Randidly held up his metal left hand IÆm interested but not now There is already a lot here As he said that he glanced upward at the ring floating above them He mentally took a snapshot at the positively sublime Aether Engraving that generated the lift and sent it to Neveah to study it IÆll need a bit of time to decompress and settle myself So IÆm thinking about training for a few days if IÆm not needed for anything else
Octavius Shrike hesitated He reached up and rubbed his horn Well we should have a debriefing to give you a little more context of what is happening and what we plan on doing but I suppose a few days of training will probably help you clear your head
Then Octavius reached over and put his hand on RandidlyÆs shoulder Mr Ghosthound donÆt blame yourself Sometimes sometimes things just donÆt go your way ThatÆs life You shouldnÆt let your failures burden you
RandidlyÆs mouth twitched Which of us is truly burdened I wonder I really just want to train
Seeing that this conversation seemed to be wrapping up Randidly put his foot upon the small fence at the edge of the ring This is above the Web right We are still in the hollow area of the Nexus
Yes thatÆs correct Ah do you need me to guide you to a training area Octavius asked
Randidly decisively shook his head No but thank you I learn best when IÆm exploring on my own Plus I want to investigate a bit
One last thing Octavius once more reached out and grabbed RandidlyÆs arm right as he was about to jump downward The deeper you go in the Web the more of that dirty Aether flows up The density of it increases exponentially If you go deep enough there are even traces of Nether present So it can also mess with your sense of time Be careful
I will be Randidly said with a sharp smile But then he had leapt over the edge narrowing stepping across two six legged insect people who were scutting up to the armor ring Randidly briefly angled his body at a diagonal so air resistance would naturally slide him further away from the rings before twisting mid air and aiming his head directly down He closed his eyes and felt the passing air on his skin
Randidly rapidly began to accelerate downward the bodies of the fellow Nexus citizens along the rings blurring into obscurity He began to whip past the levels of Bray Street one after another shooting straight downward Randidly couldnÆt help but smile The increased wind ruffled his hair There was something extremely intoxicating about the natural speed generated by gravity
But then RandidlyÆs smile faded Actually this gravity it wasnÆt coming from any enormous body of mass was it Either there was some artificial Engraving at the base of the Nexus that powered it or
Or Randidly was diving headfirst right toward an immense mass of significance that was so mind bogglingly large that it physically pulled everything in the surroundings toward it
With that bucket of cold reality poured over the experience Randidly streaked past the bottommost ring and entered the Web proper Wind whistled past him as he continued to fly steadily downward without recognizing this portion of the Web a testament to how far they had ascended for the meeting After about another thirty seconds Randidly neared the portion that he had traversed with Octavius after their initial arrival Cords across the vast space became increasingly frequent
But as the Stillborn Phoenix enthusiastically began to absorb emotions once more after Yggdrasil hastily moved to purify the chaotic Aether Randidly knew this amount wasnÆt enough So he didnÆt try and slow his descent at all The Stillborn Phoenix had a large appetite He tapped his waist twice and belt Acri happily unfurled itself and sprung into its spear form RandidlyÆs muscles steadily began to swell as he once more began supporting his image physicalizations for his other two images
His grip tightened on his spear as he pointed it downward His heart in his chest was thunderous as it increased the speed at which his scalding blood circulated through his body The Grim Chimera was conjured in the air behind Randidly and barred its teeth Man is Proud But the Chimera Takes
Congratulations Your Skill Man is Proud But the Chimera Takes has grown to Level 295
After a series of brutal confrontations with himself while still on Earth Randidly had pushed the Levels of most of his Grim Chimera Skills up by quite a bit And the biggest improvement was exactly with Man is Proud But the Chimera Takes Combined with his physical Stats RandidlyÆs Skill created an enormous sonic boom that echoed in that Web as he pierced downward sending cables in the surrounding area swaying wildly The flimsy veil of the SystemÆs physical limitation shattered easily around him now that he had almost completely broken its hold
With subtle adjustments of the angle of AcriÆs blade Randidly guided his body to slide back and forth through the interior of the Web weaving at high speeds between the numerous cables that blocked his path Not that the cables were very densely packed but at the speed he was descending he simply covered so much distance in a short amount of time that it was guaranteed that several ended up blocking his path He rode currents of air downward feeling slightly guilty as he blew past others using the Web as a means of transportation
Soon Randidly had reached the depth where they had left the Web for that small residential dome where Edraine had set up her base He continued shooting downward without a thought This amount of emotion still wasnÆt enough
Finally as Octavius had warned the prevalence of wild emotions woven through the Aether sharply increased The Stillborn Phoenix gleefully began to suck them all into itself making Yggdrasil struggle to filter out the System Aether RandidlyÆs veins rapidly began to glow within his body as Yggdrasil surged with more and more power to keep up with the other imageÆs demand
Randidly whipped Acri sideways dispersing his momentum in a blast of air At this point in the Web almost all of the lanterns along the walls were dim or broken There werenÆt really any doors along the outside either leading to habitable locations in the Nexus It was a realm of shadows seething with emotion and freshly processed Aether As Randidly drifted downward and landed against a swaying cord he could truly feel the pull of the significance below Even Randidly with his prodigious self control and Willpower found it difficult to pull his gaze away from that seething mass the tugged his attention downward
When he considered that the dismembered pieces to construct a child were at the core of that significance he shivered
Then he settled down into sitting with his legs folded beneath him while balanced on the cord As he released a breath he also released all the limiters he had placed on his images for the interview RandidlyÆs small section of the Web shook as an absolutely towering version of Yggdrasil stretched upward Its branches twined together and lined themselves with leafy greenery filling the whole hollow spine of the Nexus with life
While those leaves began to glow with emerald light and rapidly cleave the powerful emotions from the Aether the Stillborn Phoenix distorted light around RandidlyÆs left eye and greedily began to feed
Chapter 1497
After staying in that dark hollow for some time with his images acting at full capacity Randidly realized that Octavius had been right There was some very mild time distortion present down here due to the thick Aether which meant that while Randidly spent time here training less time passed above in the Nexus proper
Which just resolved Randidly to go deeper into this well next time but for the moment he was thoroughly benefiting from his time down here Yggdrasil had stabilized in the surrounding area churning rapidly through the raw Aether that was radiating upward from the depths of the Nexus The Glittering Leaves of Yggdrasil had been steadily gaining Skill Levels as it separated the emotion from the energy present Plus once Yggdrasil caught up with the Stillborn PhoenixÆs demand it used some of its extra potency to normalize the chaotic Aether that it was processing anyway