Chapter 79 (2/2)

Randidly was slightly curious about why Heretic continued to increase, but wasn’t willing to invest his PP into it to find out when there was such an attractive option as Potion Making II. There might not be very many stat points, but it would likely end with Randidly learning a skill that he would use for crafting.

He put the remaining 5 points into Potion Making II and earned a point in Focus.

Right afterwards, Randidly looked up to find himself standing in front of Tessa’s apartment building. Since returning from the dungeon, Randidly’s sense of time had become somewhat fuzzy. The first week out, the arrival of the monster horde had done a lot to help with that, giving a standard time, but since then he had noticed that his lack of normal sleep hours made him commit several… interpersonal oversights.

After all, he had brought Tessa back from the concert two days ago, and hadn’t really bothered to check on her in the intervening day. Randidly didn’t even know when she had to leave for work…

He didn’t know her apartment. Should he just go up…?

Even though it had been so long, in his mind, since he broke up with her, he still felt some lingering feelings. Since he had already struck out on the clues about Sydney and Ace, she was probably the person he was closest too. He wanted her to move to Donnyton, where she would have a larger measure of protection.

Although, depending on the results tonight during the monster horde, perhaps Franksburg would turn out to be a relatively safe place…

Randidly wouldn’t mind some time focusing on Meditation, but there would probably would be more fruitful times to do so. Better to just head up.

Randidly decided to just head up.

What was surprising was the state of the hallways in the building. Trash lined the walls. People lined the walls too, laying on piles of trash, and sometimes bundled up blankets. It seemed that the elevators weren’t working, so Randidly had to climb the stairs, which luckily were clear, but nervous people who wouldn’t meet his gaze hurried past him in every direction.

That was nothing compared to the surprise that awaited Randidly when he left the stairwell and headed into Tessa’ floor. A tall, scarred man with long grey hair pulled up into a ponytail blocked his way and held out his hand.

“Rent.” The man grunted, seeming bored.

Randidly blinked. “...I don’t live here.”

“Then scram.” The man flicked his fingers and turned away. Several other well-muscled men, chuckled, leaning against the walls farther into the floor hallway. Looking around, Randidly thought things were… slightly off with this floor. Besides the strange grouping of thugs, there weren’t any of the other grungy hall tenants that Randidly had seen on the other floors.

Still, Randidly didn’t really care. As he smiled lightly at the guys hanging around, he activated Pollen of the Rafflesia. It was a skill that he hadn’t really worked to improve recently, mostly due to the long amount of time it took to affect the enemies. After all, much faster just to stick a spear down a monsters throat. But while in Franksburg, Randidly supposed he should be more… subtle, in his approach.

Content to stand under their harsh eyes, Randidly just remained in the doorway, waiting for it to take effect.

Apparently Mr. Ponytail had a decent amount of Vitality. Because his bored expression swiftly descended into a frown, his eyes remaining clear. “Why the fuck are you-”

His words were interrupted by the sound of one of the guys vomiting behind him. The man spun, clearly more concerned about this new occurrence than Randidly’s continued presence.

“Come the fuck on, if you knew you were sick, why-”

Another man swayed, and then collapsed, his face pale, his mouth foaming. Another man backed away from Mr. Ponytail, his eyes wide, shaking like a leaf in a storm.

One man began to vomit, spewing more bile over the floor.

Randidly’s smile widened as Mr. Ponytail seemed dumbstruck by this turn of events. It seemed his Intelligence of 96 did a lot to speed up the time it took for these people to fall under the Pollen’s influence.

And to Randidly’s pleasure, he gained a skill level in Pollen of the Rafflesia.