Chapter 237 (2/2)
Randidly believed that the levels in Weather Affinity were due to the fact he had spent the last day moving, creating rain clouds and feeling the soft, relaxing drops of rain spread across his skin while he Engraved. During his frustrating failures, he had considered the sky a lot. Although Shal’s world was somewhat different from his own, there didn’t seem to be any strange weather patterns. Clouds, sun, breeze… it all was the same. A strange fact, when Randidly thought about it, but likely a good one.
It just seemed statistically unlikely that two such climates would exist. Admittedly, it was hard to say whether his Vitality and Endurance had risen to the point where he could survive in other, more extreme climates, but he was likely close.
All in all, he had earned a fair amount of PP. Unfortunately, he hadn’t made any real headway on the Shadow IV rune. It was simply a few orders too advanced for his current self. So after he had spent his remaining PP and earned another Blessing of the Murderous Cold, Randidly finally addressed the issue he had been avoiding by working on his Engraving.
Should he go meet Azriel again?
On the one hand, he wanted to. She, while Shal was off doing god knows what, would give him some pointers and direction. She seemed to be genuinely working to help him, which still left Randidly feeling slightly suspicious, but he was willing to accept it, based on her actions thus far.
On the other hand, Randidly’s encounter with the Engraving Guild reminded him that his power was only suitable to face those at a similar age to him. With a powerful Vitality, there were monsters out there that were probably hundreds of years old, just constantly grinding their skill level…
In terms of sincerity, he knew he had some breathing room with the larger Styles as long as the tournament continued. The question was how long after that he would have to wait after the tournament ended before he could transfer back to his home Cohort. Based on the inquiries he had made earlier in the day, it actually wasn’t that expensive, the only problem was a village needed to build a Grand Teleportal in order to move between Cohorts. And the closest one was at the abandoned village that formed the core of the Qtal region…
Even being optimistic, Randidly knew that he would need to travel 48 hours at reasonable speed in order to arrive at the portal. Which, when pursued by annoyed upper tier experts from Deardun, was a little…
Probably a little too far, especially as his efforts to prepare an avenue of stealth through the Shadow IV rune failed. It was also hard to discern how effective such a measure would be. After all, these powerful individuals were clearly beyond his ability to deal with in terms of combat, and especially spear use. But their supporting stats, their detection skills?
It was possible that they were prepared with sharp reflexes for a direct fight, but magic would buy Randidly some precious time. But all of this was conjecture. He supposed he could ask Divveltian, but…
Sighing, Randidly stood. Divveltian had taken Shal’s departure rather hard, and was wandering about the city, coming in and out of their inn, muttering to himself. He seemed intent on finding Shal, but he wouldn’t speak of why it was so pressing. Randidly even had thoughts of breaching the subject of an Aether Donation with him, but this new Divveltian made him wary.
There was also Dian to worry about. Bertarn wasn’t the type to lie, and his stories about that impulse to reach out and seize a foreign power gave Randidly pause. His initial reaction was to believe that the Creature was beginning to move, but somehow this felt different. Less… powerful, less insidious. More of the temptations of a common street prostitute than the seductive way the creature had wormed herself into Randidly previously.
Besides, he didn’t seem to be the target. If anything… Based on what Bertarn said, it was anyone BUT him that was targeted…
Was it truly Dian, reaching out to the rest of the competition? But it seemed an incredibly inefficient way to target him.
“Of what are you thinking? Your anxiety is quite clear on your face. If you were like this in a battle, it would be simple to destroy you.”
Randidly blinked and turned to find Azriel and her bone white hair standing behind him on the wall, peering at him.
“How…. how did you-”
“Your female spear attendant. I accosted her and Bertarn while they were on a date. She told me to look for the wandering cloud.” Azriel pointed up to the small grey cloud still raining down on them.
“So,” She continued, her eyes burning. “Why are you avoiding me?”