Chapter 254 (1/2)

Randidly walked back through the darkening streets, rubbing his neck. Azriel had insisted they train for two days straight, so there was only one more day remaining before his match with Ciel. During this time he wanted to do a lot more with Engraving, so he was forced to refuse to stay any longer and just leave, Azriel aiming a frosty glance at his back.

Paradoxically, Azriel had not a single ounce of chill. Randidly had always thought his will and Endurance was strong, but now… He realized that he had just never truly been broken down to his most base state. The only explanation that Randidly could think of was that Azriel had a stronger will and work ethic than Shal and Marco Polo, who had given him some breaks largely because THEY were tired or bored.

Azriel had no such reactions. She was always ready to go again. It was a strange combination of aggravating and encouraging. But it did mean that it had been a long two days.

What was perhaps most annoying is that no matter how the the tournament matches turned out, there was a very close deadline for Randidly finishing his preparations for what comes after. At this point, he wasn’t sure exactly what he would plan to do, but there was much he could do in preparation for that, giving himself more options when the time for the decision arrived.

Most pressing was his research on Engraving. Raising his strength for the tournament had been previously the highest importance, but at this point, there would only be marginal gains in his strength. That didn’t mean that he wouldn’t use every second he could, but it was worth mentioning that there were other things to do. If Randidly’s speculations were correct, the Shadow IV rune would give him the edge he needed to escape the aftermath of the tournament, buying him some time so he could evade the Engraving Guild and the larger Styles. There were some implicit and overt threats hanging around, and Randidly didn't’ want to give them time to consider which to carry through with.

So Randidly returned to the inn, and headed up towards his room, planning on spending the next several hours pouring over the second volume of the Encyclopedia set. But on his way up, a figure was coming down; Claptrap.

“Heya Claptrap. How’s business?” Randidly asked lightly, trying to keep the wariness out of his voice. He had given Claptrap several ideas the past few weeks, which enabled Claptrap to expand his business to a huge degree. But there was an unintended side effect; Claptrap generally nattered on for an hour anytime their paths crossed, filled with questions about the origins of the ideas, and how to expand.

“Fine.” Claptrap’s eyes flashed strangely, and he seemed extremely preoccupied, to the point that he simply grunted his answer, nodded to Randidly, and continued down, out of the inn.

Breathing out a sigh of relief, Randidly ascended to his room and pulled out the encyclopedia. After a few minutes spent making himself comfortable and giving himself pen and paper, he began to read, making notes where he didn’t understand a concept, or wanted to summarize a longer page.

For hours his eyes followed the lines, as he pushed his concentration to the limits, looking for clues in the words. In a way, he was successful, for Randidly found himself making connections about the art of Engraving in his mind. But in another, he was becoming increasingly confused. Most of the problem stemmed from the fact that the encyclopedia seemed to have been penned by several different authors.

Based on his earlier assumptions, these authors were all from different worlds in the 5th Cohort. Because while their methods were similar, the conclusions they came to was very different. But once Randidly recognized that issues, he was able to slowly parse apart what they were saying. The only problem then, was figuring out which of the systems described by the author would most closely resemble his own Aether channels…

While this was going on, Randidly was intermittently summoning Root Spiders, grinding his skills up, and activating Golden Roots of Yggdrasil and Meditation. These skills didn’t improve by much, because Randidly wasn’t devoting very much of his attention to perfecting them, but they would slowly increase in proficiency.

Small gains, one level at a time.

After about 6 hours, he set aside the encyclopedia, finally finished with the 2nd volume. Then Randidly organized his notes, as much as he could, and stood, stretching. A small pain had formed behind his eyes after the extended period of studying, even with his high stats and bonuses towards concentration, which demonstrated how pointlessly intricate and demanding Engraving was.

Randidly supposed that the only reason he had been able to learn it so easily was his initial high mana pool. After all, based on what he had learned by this point, his initial methods was pointlessly wasteful when it came to mana expenditure. Mana was still spent by Randidly while Engraving, except in more subtle ways, shaping the rune from the inside out, rather than grinding away as he had previously.

Cracking his neck, Randidly considered heading to the roof for some additional physical training, but dismissed that. It was too time consuming, and would be much less efficient than spending time with Azriel. Better to focus now on things he could do alone.