At any moment it could reel in that tithe he was owed flooding his body with taxed PP
Yet the reason that RandidlyÆs eyes dilated and his vision went hazy was the significance His Nether Core whirled with power humming with the possibilities of the moment of the branching futures available to him as soon as he spent the PP and fully triggered the Tithe Yet suddenly that resonance had a larger platform through the Nether Ritual he had created within Expira
His Soulskill hummed a potent tune and the Nether Ritual began to sing
Randidly could feel the weight of it as though he really stood on the shifting boat and gripped the rough rope connecting with the haul He tugged lightly standing in this moment of tense potential feeling that in addition to PP there was something extra that would come along with this Tithe
Something significant
Adding Nether to the Alpha Cosmos even if its nowhere near 50% is paying dividends Randidly grinned as he sensed the vital presence of Nether significance coming with the tithe The sun peaked over the horizon the first rays of the day providing rare illumination to the storm cloaked island Beams of light reflected off the drops Only when the light came sideways right across the horizon at dawn did sunlight reach the toiling trainees
His mind spun After all what exactly were Path Points Functionally they provided the ability to advance through Paths earning more Stats and Skills They were the fertilizer that the System provided liberally a reward for drinking more deeply from its addictive nectar and growing in power
But practically PP represented commodified bits of raw image Pieces so small that a thousand of them couldnÆt make anything potent A million thrown in RandidlyÆs face might not even make them sneeze Without a consciousness these bits were nearly harmless The best they could do is create a Level 1 Skill in its weakest form But once that had been planted in someoneÆs individual Aether they could begin to grow Those small chunks of image provided the foundation
From that foundation all sorts of weapons could be honed
What could the Nether equivalent do added to the already deep currents around his Nether Core
Randidly raised his hand watching the elongated shadows his fingers cast in the fresh orange juice light Just like PP formed the foundation for the Aether side he could feel the equivalent from Nether lurking below He chewed his lip softly not yet spending the PP and just sensing the resonance between his own Nether Core and the grand Nether Ritual Likely he had been absorbing such benefits through every PP Tithe up to this point Just the combination of increased fineness of awareness and the growing presence of Nether in the Alpha Cosmos meant that this would be a more meaningful boost
Alright then The sun continued to rise but that movement took it past the gorgeous dawn corridor A stained sky could be seen through the eye of the storm above but once more Randidly sat in shadow The constant drizzle fell around the island a curtain drawn against the outside world LetÆs get started Time to take a Tithe
The entire Alpha Cosmos passed through Randidly leaving gleaming remnants in him as it flowed Time lost meaning as he lived a thousand fractured lives in a million separate forms He simply existed to describe the experience in more detail would have been insufficient to capture it
Eventually the barrage began to slow Or rather than the impressions slowing their arrival became light and fleeting They practically evaporated before he could truly feel them Randidly felt like a massive tree with a thousand birds landing picking mites off between their feathers with sharp beaks then alighting before he could even identify their species or song
His leaves rustled constantly the only sign of their fleeting presence And gradually the rustling began to die down He opened his eyes
Randidly found himself laying looking up at the circle of blue sky Groaning he leaned forward and sat up His head spun a bit but the thickening flow of Nether through his body helped ground him The tide receded leaving his own consciousness polished and strong However he could feel the subtle changes of Nether in his person even before he started coping with the massive dump of PP
He flexed his hands A new impulse rose in his body rising from his still buzzing cells He felt the capability that he had suddenly gained and wanted to exercise it His Nether Core whirled simultaneously unhinged and possessing the most potent force it had ever experienced His chest expanded with a deep breath and the clouds over the island began to seethe
The training individuals shivered as the Nether content in the air began to rise RandidlyÆs eyes glittered He generally kept the influx of Nether into ExpiraÆs atmosphere mild but now he no longer held back All the force that was usually contained in his body exploded out to fill the sky
The patterns branched and spun together carrying vast quantities of Nether Such was the immensity of the flow that the midmorning sky became stained by it darkness crept outward from the storm like a horrid pall of oblivion that wafted up from the island His Nether Core accelerated taking the storm with it on a desperate dance RandidlyÆs delicate senses reached out and began to guide the patterns overlapping them at the edges creating a dense network of smaller patterns that became a larger pattern
Flames of Nether Weight flickered to light across his body And as the next wave of Nether pumped out of him and into the air it carried those hints of fire into the air Grey flames rose into gushing plumes of monochrome fire that rushed through the storm setting everything ablaze The constant drizzle began to spit and hiss not evaporated by impacted and dispersed by the force of the Nether running through the air
Randidly began to laugh pressing those patterns together Power coursed in his veins and with an impossible acuity Randidly began making adjustments to the pattern An instinctive intuition that he had been seeking for so long for Nether now existed within him
Depth and history RandidlyÆs eyes flashed as he guided Nether into the perfect environment He conducted the separate lines toward a crescendo Those things have no intrinsic meaning There are no connections for the disparate moments that have now washed through my body Yet somehow simply having all that extra experience makes working with Nether that much easier
Nether rushed through the air churning more tightly toward the center Clouds were pulled by the currents and covered the eye of the storm Hissing points of friction were created in those spots where two flows ran in the opposite direction Force crackled in the air sending unusually large waves crashing against the beaches and causing the densely tied vegetal entity to shivering
Nether came together tightening to a sharp point in the sky above the volcano And then as though from the void Randidly snapped his fingers and summoned retribution
Congratulations New record detected Your Synechdochence has been set to 112%
Congratulations New record detected Your Synechdochence has been set to 127%
The sky rumbled and cracked the air nearly collapsing against the synergized force of RandidlyÆs Nether Core
Chapter 1927
A dark and hollow crash of thunder cracked across the island forcing a wince from even Raymund Ballast as the force of its arrival shook every being unfortunate enough to be existence below the Ghosthound The foxman waved a hand and deactivated the gravity chamber around him Then he left the Engraved area and looked up toward the central volcano
A massive spearhead hung in the air as though it had been thrust down through the eye of the storm to smite the island from existence
For several long moments RaymundÆs body just ached The glittering weapon of obsidian and razor edged shadows hung in the air above the GhosthoundÆs training area lingering after whatever demonstration had just occurred But even as that manifestation began to fracture and come to pieces the ache had remained The Ghosthound had done something with a vicious brutality that Raymund had rarely witnessed from him