Chapter 394 (1/2)

As Randidly focused on watching Lucretia’s movements, he was able to make out generally what she was doing, in terms of the runes she was using. The most common base of it was Control, Agility, Vitality, and Intelligence, in that order, as the building blocks of the base of Randidly’s Class. Below that, there were the runes for plant growth, and as a counter, the rune for fire.

Even deeper, as a broader theme, the Shadow Rune, in its IV form, was woven subtly throughout. That annoyed Randidly somewhat, that his Class would only have the Shadow IV rune inside of it, rather than the Shadow I, but even Randidly admitted that the Shadow I rune was far beyond their ability to imitate even in its base form, let alone working it into this complicated orchestra of sigils.

In the blink of an eye, Lucretia had created 10 more layers. Neveah was keeping up with Lucretia’s use of Aether, so they weren’t running low on that. With a small thought, Randidly gathered a small additional amount and began to purify it. His stomach growled. Annoyed, Randidly ignored the sensation.

Now, Randidly could watch as they tried to work his “Class Skills” into the base. It was a slow, steady thing, as they built the 3D shape up, layer by layer, but the two of them had been very secretive in what Skills they planned to give him. Randidly considered this something of a sin, as it was HIS Skill, but they both insisted it would be better as a surprise. So he could only grumble and wait.

Carefully watching the shapes, Randidly actually had no idea what they were aiming for. At first he thought it was something to do with Ash, but… the longer they shaped it… it started to resemble Randidly’s Summon Pestilence Skill. Did they… were they attempting to merge together two Skills, complicating an already worry fraught procedure….?

Randidly’s stomach growled again. Sighing, he reflected that it probably had been since returning to Donnyton that first night since he had eaten anything. Even though his Stats were so much higher, that's no excuse to ignore basic nutrition. He was aware that Mrs. Hamilton was conducting trials to see exactly how hunger and food intake assisted people, but he couldn’t imagine that the System had reduced the effect to zero, it had simply lessened the bad side effects.

And at some point, Randidly was sure they would discover additional foods that would provide positive benefits, but for now… all you needed to do was eat SOMETHING. Which he apparently hadn’t managed…

Problem… Neveah mumbled, as she continued to spin off more strands of Aether and pull them into the weavable form. Lucretia frowned, but she said nothing, instead her eyes simply began to glitter.

Hearing this, Randidly’s focus narrowed back to the weave again, even as another wave of that strange blindness descended, his Soul itself buzzing. When it passed, Lucretia had enough time to lay another 3 layers of the Aether, and it was becoming abundantly clear what the problem was.

Even though they had planned and practiced, apparently Lucretia had underestimated how many layers would be necessary in order to achieve the requisite thickness. In terms of layers, they had put down around 35 already, and from how it appeared, they were only halfway through the process, which would make the final product over twice as large as they had expected.

And this was the version that Neveah had argued was the only safe option, because of its relatively small size…!

Of course, in terms of Classes, it was extremely large, because of who it was for: it would be the Class of Randidly Ghosthound. It could not be some common thing. But to take 70 layers of weaving…

The problem was not to continue weaving in a pattern for the individual Statistics that would make up the vast majority of the layers. Although it was problematic at the outset, once the trick was learned, Lucretia was probably able to continue in that pattern indefinitely.

No, the problem was that a good fourth of each layer to this point had been dedicated to the Skills that Randidly would start with in his Class. That meant that they needed two more prepared Skills. Of course, they had brainstormed a dozen or so Skills, trying to figure out which ones would be the most valuable, before selecting a few very carefully. If this continued, Randidly would be forced to have some of the non-chosen Skills, which struck him as somewhat frustrating.

His stomach rumbled again, heightening his annoyance.

The next Skill that was slowly woven into the Class was a Skill based on what the had gotten from the rabbit and turtle people of Kith Klark. It was a strange combination of the Fleet of Foot Skill, the Herculean Strength Skill, and the Endless Patience. Looking at it, Randidly could tell for sure that this was a created, spliced thing. Although his mind wasn’t as sharp as Lucretia and Neveah’s, he could only look at the thing dubiously as it was woven into the fabric of what he would become.

He spared Neveah a glance. This time, there was nervousness in her soul as her gaze remained locked on the slowly layering weave.

Sighing, Randidly closed his eyes. And at that moment, the buzzing came again, greater and worse than before. It wasn’t to the level of being pain, but it was…. Annoying. It was like the whining of a child in his head, a droning, off putting thing. Randidly growled in response and this time actively tried to push it back and down, silencing the vibrations, but this only seemed to intensify them.

As he felt his control of the rotating Aether slipping, Randidly eased off and just tried to relax, even though at his core, he was wound as tight as a spring. This was not the fucking time to handle some weird mental shit…

“Damnit…!”

Lucretia’s curse brought him back to focus, the buzzing parting like a curtain before his necessity.