Chapter 271 (2/2)

It was at that point that the emotions finally seemed to break, and calmness returned to Randidly’s inner world. With a sigh, he leaned back, laying out on the ground, just letting the raindrops hit him. That was… profoundly unenjoyable. But Randidly drew a lot of benefits from it, he knew.

However, now that he was done…

Randidly once more began to Engrave. All he had was an old dagger he stored away in his ring, so that became the template. At first Randidly thought it would be more difficult to Engrave on the relatively smaller dagger, but it somehow seemed like the shape of his Engraving naturally changed. It was almostas though the Engraving had to be a certain size, relative to the weapon.

This smaller size made the intricate and dense, although simple, patterns of this rune easier, as the strokes were quick, and it was easier to hold an even amount of mana for that time.

And he succeeded. Randidly inspected his new dagger.

Basic Steel Dagger Lvl 13: Serviceable steel dagger made by a competent smith. Vit +1, Str +1.

Engraving of the Devourer 39% ©: An ancient, cruel rune that can suck away the essence of life from others, at the cost of the user’s soul. The absorbed energy is raw and rough.

Randidly was a little annoyed at his relatively poor showing on such a simple pattern, but was more pleased that he had succeeded, and his hypothesis was right. But then his face twisted a bit. It was just ironic to him, that after being called a Heretic for so long, he had finally become one…

Which, he supposed, was just the way of the world.

Putting that out of his mind, Randidly turned and made another dagger, this one based on the rune on the other side of the spear. To his chagrin, he succeeded again, basically making him one of the fastest learning Heretics in existence.

Basic Steel Dagger Lvl 13: Serviceable steel dagger made by a competent smith. Vit +1, Agi +1.

Engraving of the Inquisitor 47% (Un): A desperate rune that consumes the user’s life to extract meaning from the world. A portion of this is lost to the void, and the world becomes a little darker.

That certainly… was not a very encouraging explanation. The world became just a little darker, huh….?

After brooding for almost an hour over these strange daggers, Randidly came to a decision. Against his better judgement, it might be worth it to use them… on Shal, to try and figure out what he was struggling against in his dreams. Specifically the Engraving of the Inquisitor…

Still, best use the spear; it didn’t show signs of Randidly’s shoddy workmanship.

****

“WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!” Shal bellowed, all semblance of control lost, gasping for breath, looking at the shade of Aemont standing in front of him. “What the fuck was that!”

But Aemont remained silent, only raising his spear. Shal gritted his teeth.

This unending spar stretched on and on… but Shal had been slowly getting better. He could see it now, the way his Style was morphing into something different than Aemont’s, the Phantom Viper, something quick and brutal and vicious.

Yet Aemont continued to show how his own Style was superior, by putting hole after hole in Shal’s. Which Shal then corrected and attempted again. And again, and again.

Until Shal finally landed a blow on the upgraded version of Aemont, and saw a vision, a memory. Of the 2nd gift of Lucretia, and the tragedy surrounding it.