Today IÆll show my father that IÆm no longer that weak little girl who just watches the world pass her by
After that hanging moment of squeezing Claudette stumbled forward Her fancy shoes sank into warm sand almost causing her to topple over Only after a strained sway did she recover her balance She released a breath her expression turning bitter as she looked around at the gorgeous pink sand beach dyed further by the sun sinking below the sea on the horizon The sound of waves crashing against the beach and softly rushed away felt so familiar The few clouds that lingered in the wide blue sky were painted orange and maroon
Here of all places
Champagne A cheery shirtless man with a tray of drinks walked up to the trio Claudette blinked to see that almost a dozen other servers were eyeing the man with envy after all they were the only guests that had arrived so far To the Alymian natives that her father had trained nothing was more important than being a good host
Without a word Claudette took two glasses and chugged the first one A warm bubbly feeling took up residence in her stomach
Neshamah watched the display carefully taking a glass but not drinking from it Is this a good idea Since we are in Alymian and our Stats are suppressed back to base levels youÆll actually be able to get drunk
But when the competition actually starts our power will be restored She put the empty glass back on the smiling waiterÆs tray but only sipped the second Claudette shook out her hair so it glittered in a river of molten gold down her back I need at least this much if IÆm going to make it to the competition without tearing someoneÆs head off
The trio drifted to one of the long tables of food and picked at small plates for the next hour when the rest of the guests began to arrive Perhaps it was the several flutes of champagne that she had imbibed but Claudette needed to raise a hand to cover her mouth as more and more people began to arrive about half having fallen prey to the sudden lack of power and precarious footing combination just as Yust had
I have no doubt that father planned it this way Claudette thought almost wistfully as she saw the usually perfect elite of the Nexus looking disheveled A powerful Pinnacle Seeker with gold horns growing out of his head still had particles of sand stuck behind his ears as he stomped toward the food tables and began to devour whole steaks holding them above his head and letting them slide down his throat with no perceptible swallowing A few early arriving women wearing NLC badges watched the man and tittered even though two of the three had also arrived with sand in their green hair
As the time approached the hour and a half mark past when the party was supposed to begin individuals began to arrive more quickly And finally the first of the three targets of the group walked into the pavilion
Kyl MacDuul a squat retired Military High Command Commandant was unfortunately not one of the arrivals that had fallen His beady eyes immediately scanned the crowd alighting briefly on Claudette as though to confirm she was present and then looking around Finding neither her father nor his competitors his expression settled on disinterest He waddled forward previously arrived Military High Command members moving to his side to greet him
The second arrival was the old monster of Tier III Citizenship Tyune had waxy grey skin and the slender body of a preteen He looked around in much of the same way but didnÆt even acknowledge Claudette He moved to a corner and refused all the trays brought to him by the servers He produced two small needed and appeared to be knitting an extremely small set of clothes
The bloodthirsty Moonlight Blade arrived last followed by a single servant The tall wolfman grinned around at the gathering his tongue lolling out of his mouth Finally his eyes settled on Claudette remaining there for much longer than the other two His hunger was obvious as he looked at her
Would that sort of man keep me safe father ClaudetteÆs eyes blazed Do you really have the gall to look me in the eye and say this is all for me
Chapter 1854
A single drop of rain fell silently landing on his cheek His long eyelashes stirred
Memories flashed across his mind at that moment A sudden epiphany A perfect environment The accumulation The instincts to carry him forward The manifestation of one of his core desires becoming a power that he could wield
An overwhelming desire forged into a concrete existence
Randidly yawned expansively and sat up His mind was bleary as he dragged himself up to wakefulness he had places to be today Or rather the soft rain that began to fall on his skin handled the lionÆs share of the waking up part leaving him to fuzzily stretch and crack his back
The rain began to intensify quickening the process Randidly came back to himself laying in the bottom of a massive crater while water pooled in the small circular hollows that dotted the area around him These hollows were ubiquitous except for the area immediately around him that portion was completely smooth With another yawn he reached up and rubbed his eyes
Then he pressed his fingers to the ground and tossed himself up into a standing position In every direction the massive crater stretched nearly as far as Randidly could see Part of it was the fact he was at the bottom of the crater but he also had to wince as he looked around at the area he had completely terraformed
His Nether Core shifted portions flared while others withdrew Significance seethed through those gaps a hint of what he had accomplished by intuition in those moments early this morning Compared to his discovery of a method for rapidly gathering natural energy his second breakthrough in the past three days had even more of a ridiculous effect The flat and unmarred ground beneath him glittered
But even setting aside I did it Randidly clenched his hands as he looked at his Synechdochence line in his Nether Sphere Attributes
Synechdochence 105%
Randidly calmed down his excitement and admitted to himself something he had realized earlier in his training Synechdochence was an easy Attribute to fleece Theoretically it was possible for Randidly to wield force greater than the actual power of his Nether Core after he had streamlined his methods And in practice he had done it once to be recognized by the System But it required obscene amounts of natural energy and his own significance using the Moirae of Ripples Skillset to create a perfectly synergistic environment around him With those prerequisites Randidly wielded a pinch of Nether and could break the balance of equivalent exchange albeit briefly
Now to do it while fighting Randidly shook his head helplessly It was completely unrealistic He continued to improve but the closer he moved toward perfect understanding of the environment the more factors he discovered that prevented him from reaching that state An asymptote existed there making the training meaningful but the progress arduous and slow
Still this new evolution Randidly grinned to himself Then he slapped his cheeks and looked at his Status screen
Level 63 (89%)
Health(/R per hour) 13815/13815 (9627)
Mana(/R per hour) 13262/13262 (3313)
Stam(/R per min) 9696/9696 (3317)
Uncommon Metabolism (Un) 1342
End 1107
Primordial Nether Juju 1492
Dreadful Alacrity 1677
Reaction 1537
Resistance 1331
Randidly nodded Without the storm to support it I can probably wield almost 90% of my Weight away from my body For basic combat that should be enough
Compared to the Nether that Neshamah seems to have access to I might be almost unstoppable with this
Then Randidly pulled out his Philosopher’s Key and opened a portal He paused before went through the opening for the first time his Motif of the Hungry Deep had grown to the point that he could see the ripples of interference thrown off by his Fatepiece It only took a moment for those reverberations to vanish but that only made him look at the key with more respect How the hell is the portal it opened so efficient If I can study it