Chapter 370 (1/2)

For the next week, Randidly isolated himself, turning his attention inward. The actual administration was being taken care of by others, and during that time, he could finally focus and work on the problems that loomed most prominently in Donnyton’s future.

Randidly had not been idle for the week; instead, he had taken advantage of Mrs. Hamilton's generous offer to move a bunch of her Class based experiments a bit ahead of schedule. Therefore, he had been able to see dozens of individuals receive Classes. Very carefully, he observed their changes, and the structures of Aether that were erected within them, and conducted interviews to determine what sort of Class they received.

The results were basically what he had expected. A more powerful, more specific Class were better, with more well defined Aether as a base for them. With Lucretia's help, and the reference of the encyclopedia of Mana Engraving, they were even able to determine the critical mechanisms of the Class structure within these individuals.

Within a person's Soul Space, the Class was basically a small tree that was transplanted into an individual, with a belt spreading out to surround the Soul Space. These ”belts” functioned as a limiter on the ability of the Soul space to grow, but it did provide focus and support for those Skills that were within its purview. Which explained why, when Randidly returned to Earth, his Skill level lead over most people wasn't as monstrous as he expected. Those people who had classes received some benefit from them that improve the speed of leveling certain Skills.

In addition to limiting the space, those base belts appeared to also contain within them the Skills that Classes obtained as well. A sort of balance to the Skill limit imposed upon the person. It then appeared that when a person gathered experience and their level increased, the 'trunk' of the tree began to grow slowly upward, guiding the absorption of the energy. Then, the trunk consumption was what was important to understand in order to have level up gains. Although they weren't exactly the same, studying the Mana Engraving runes did a lot to allow Randidly to recognize different parts of the trunk in the people who obtained Classes, giving him a fraction of insight into what level up gains they would have.

Of course this was only a week's worth of experience, and although he had become passable at identifying what stats would be emphasized, Randidly had no ability to actually predict which of the different stats would be emphasized, which was slightly concerning. They didn't appear to shift based on an intricate weaving pattern that could be found in the core of the trunk, partially hidden from his view. Other than that… he was unable to think of any ideas where the pattern might be coming from.

More positively, he was becoming increasingly adept at examining the Classes of others.The higher his Aether Skills went, the more he could see, but it was far from enough to actually parse it apart.

This face gave Randidly a headache, but there was nothing really to do. The only way to see what was occurring within the Skill would be to... effectively dissect someone. And not just themselves, but also the Aether construct within them. Sure, Randidly was training in order to create that sort of Aether construct, but by its nature, the farther it grew, the more difficult it would be to weave it back together once it was pulled apart. Even if Randidly were to dissect someone who was level 1, there was always the chance that his interference would reduce their Class to a shabby alternative of what it had once been, which filled him with too much guilt to ignore.

Still, Lucretia poured over the information that they did have, conferring with Neveah, trying to figure out how it could work together in such a simple way, when the energies arrayed within were so volatile.

Hopefully they would be able to reach a conclusion within another week...

Which meant that whoever won the contest would probably be the guinea pig by which they judged the success of their research. They really didn't have any other methods. Already, there was guilty creeping into the edges of his awareness, crusting and settling.

Shaking his head, Randidly breathed in, and then breathed out, allowing his mind to turn away from the issues of Aether. Carefully, he stopped channeling his Mana, controlling the 16 Root Avatars to fight each other. Although it had started slow, he was really starting to feel an improvement in his Skills with the strange training method. It was hard to split his mind, and then allow it to flow into a very reactive, unconscious state. Honestly, it took him several tries every day, to get the right sort of balance for what he was attempting. But once he had it, it would progressively eating away at his Mana, his Spear Mastery creeping upwards, but his Root Control going up in surprising spurts of motion.

It was a welcome change of pace, a strange mental/physical hybrid that he enjoyed, but he would prefer if he could participate in a more thorough improvement of his spells. There just wasn't enough time. Deciphering the encyclopedias took long enough, but then he also had to participate in physical training designed by Mrs. Hamilton, in order to reestablish his physical limits once more, and then he needed to take the information provided to him by Sam's Engraving experiments, Neveah's intimidating intuition, and Lucretia carefully couched hypotheses.

Because while the two women would seem to have a better understanding of the mysteries of Aether, he was the one with the Skill that could manipulate it. And neither Neveah's nor Lucretia' influence was enough to ACTUALLY influence him, it would just make clear some of the steps that were the necessary.

Which was reassuring in Lucretia's case, but also disappointing, considering the stakes to what they were trying to accomplish. Creating a Class, and having the methods to create the Class, would essentially eliminate one of the large differences between what Randidly carried in his chest and a Village. Once that gap narrowed, he would feel much more comfortable breaking away from the System, and having his own interaction with people he could support. A threat, such as the one posed by the Raid Dungeon, would no longer be enough to sway him.