Time blurred
Everything hurt Yet if he stopped moving even for a second he would die When the bludgeoning of force and pain became too much his consciousness had to cede control to his raw instincts sharpened from ten years struggling within the Nexus
Drip
Drip Drip Drip
His tensed muscles buzzed with pain The combination of the anticipation and dripping finally woke him to his surroundings Randidly stood frozen waiting in a timeless shard of readiness When the next attacks came he would be prepared He had to be The force of these attacks was enough to threaten him even through his enormous Stats
A dizzying wave of pain spread from RandidlyÆs temple ignited by the unexpected noise His fuzzy mind pushed the horrid throbbing back desperate to keep focused His experience over the past well indiscernible period had taught him that he couldnÆt afford to spread his attention Like a statue he stood there and waited for the next wind blades to ravage the area Dread seeped through his pained body as lessons carved into his flesh came back with perfect clarity
The third tier of the Grand Pattern descended not only with Wind Blades but also with vicious force spikes that rained from the sky
Drip Drip
RandidlyÆs face twitched at the incessant noise which immediately morphed into a wince as the small movement worsened his headache Randidly began to work at his eyelids which appeared to be glued shut with dried blood Eventually he pried open an eye and blinked at the gloomy ambiance of the surroundings
His vision was fuzzy The surroundings were inscrutable But even through his pain and weariness fogged mind he sensed that the danger had passed The storm above him slowly receded leaving him wounded but alive He tried to shift his position and his joints groaned in protest After a moment of unavoidable leaning Randidly simply collapsed onto the unforgiving ground
He coughed weakly and was surprised when blood dribbled out of his mouth Groaning he rolled onto his back careful not to roll off the thin trail along the edge of the mountain The last thing he needed was to tumble into a gorge in this condition He reached out for his images finding them wan and exhausted even though they could only operate within him on the mountain His self awareness found the turbid Nether rotating listlessly through his body
Jesus basically all of me is wrecked Randidly winced What the hell happened
Congratulations Your Skill Absolute Timing has grown to Level 228
Congratulations Your Skillset is beginning to grow Due to the special characteristics of your Skillset the growth will be done in stages Please continue to accumulate energy and potential within your Skillset to move through the different stages The more energy is gathered the greater the result Please see your Village Spirit for details
You have achieved the first stage Your Skill Yyrwood Body of Yggdrasil has evolved into the Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil Skill Levels will be maintained
Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil After a millennium of stubborn growth and being jostled by chaotic storms the Yyrwood trunk of Yggdrasil has been worn and scarred However the living record of all things runs through that same pitted bark No matter how much force is applied the rippling fabric of eternity dwells below the surface and is not easily altered Until time and space collapse the trunk will endure Vastly increases physical defense Vastly increases the effectiveness of regeneration Your body can efficiently serve as a medium to channel other energies Efficacy of all aspects increases modestly with Skill Level
RandidlyÆs eyes glittered as he looked through the Skill description Before he even finished moving through it he felt all the muscles in his body flex as one as the shift occurred His body stiffened and the lingering wounds ached in protest But as the pressure running through RandidlyÆs body increased all those pains popped and vanished like soap bubbles
After ten seconds his body gradually began to relax leaving his body swimming in comfortable warmth Randidly shook his head he remained exhausted but he had now completely recovered from the damage inflicted by the Grand Pattern As his spare attention increased he took another few seconds to scan his body He looked down at his lower tail half of which had been cut off during his unconscious struggles Turns out that walking this dangerous path provided a lot of benefits But that damned Grand Pattern had enough power to even damage my image physicalization Is it an image or wait what
Randidly blinked down at his tail He felt the change immediately now that he witnessed it The edges of his body wriggled and glittered His attention flicked back to his newly earned Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil Your body can efficiently serve as a medium to channel other energies huh
Image physicalizations had always been an area of growth that had left Randidly rather unimpressed He didnÆt necessarily focus on them but he had constantly refined his images in different ways On the one hand it was clearly a power where images were used to reinforce the body While most of the Nexus considered this to be a dead end path Randidly suspected that he would be able to benefit from following in the footsteps of Elhume and pushing his physical prowess to the limit
On the other hand his image physicalizations’ performance had always been lackluster True he experienced a defense boost for sure with smaller benefits to his power and speed but compared to what he could accomplish with his normal images it was unimpressive The growth in physical boosts had been extremely slow compared to the growth he experienced in the power of his images Perhaps he would have even begun to pull back on his image physicalizations and focus more on the alternative drops of liquid Aether if he hadnÆt been occupied improving his techniques Engraving and Nether Skills
However RandidlyÆs eyes glowed a bright neon green as he suddenly could see his previous mistakes when it came to image physicalizations
In the past he had essentially superimposed his images over his body Now as he attempted to do that again and reinforce himself his new fleshÆ was so conducive to energy that the image force slid within him and began to rotate No longer were the image physicalizations layered on top of him but they smoothly merged with his flesh and strengthened him
Did I just do it wrong the first time Or do you need a particular type of body for this Randidly chewed on his cheek as he watched the smooth flow of image physicalizations through him
As images steadily rose and dwelled within his flesh his Nether Core groaned and began to spin more rapidly to rival 5h3 3n34ty Randidly looked down at his rapidly healing right arm in wonder Even more than the physical aspects of this I suspect the image physicalizations can act as an amplifier for my images now Just like my body conducts the physicalizations the physicalizations conduct the images Will I be able to manifest a bit more of my images while on this dangerous mountain
The rising sound of the wind pulled Randidly gaze upward He couldnÆt resist a chuckle Unfortunately looks like I wonÆt get much of a break
Tsk ing Randidly examined his surroundings He remained on the slope of the mountain the force of the Grand Pattern had scarred the stone It looked like the area had experienced a carpet bombing Craters and meter deep gouges crisscrossed in a visible pattern But of course his eyes went to the more dangerous threat huge ten meter deep holes from the force spikes left Randidly barring his teeth
He had almost passed entirely through the first tier he apparently had kept moving even while unconscious Randidly pressed his lips together He had been able to endure when the second tier of this Grand Pattern had fallen but if the alignment happened again and he had to face the third tier in his current state
Randidly looked upward at the churning grey clouds above him Then he looked behind him at the smashed stone shards and debris that was all that remained of the path that he had taken to get here