Chapter 469 (2/2)

Randidly had no doubt that he could track him down and rip out the foolish kid’s throat, but he wasn’t sure that he could assign the Champion status to someone else. What if his act killed the Champion position permanently?

There was also the fact that he was planning on murdering a kid who was just a teenager, which made Randidly sullen and bitter, more than anything. No, right now was not the time to make any decisions. Better to head back to Donnyton as quickly as possible, check in on Neveah, inform Mrs. Hamilton and Co. what he had learned in the Raid Dungeon.

In addition…

Memories.

It looked like Star Crossing was throwing together a celebration, but Randidly blew past their council, with only the barest excuses. He wasn’t in the mood.

When they returned to Donnyton, he immediately launched himself at full speed in the air, throwing himself out of the teleporter area and into the treeline. Instantly, he accelerated as fast as he possibly could, not caring about how he physically tore through the terrain with the force of his passage. Instead, he simply made a beeline North and East, shooting towards Neveah.

As soon as he had arrived back on Earth, he had felt the energy he had gained from growing in Levels coiling and growing, then slamming into the strangely suspended form of Neveah’s soul. Even now, Aether flowed into her, revitalizing her in some necessary way. Whatever changes that Randidly had caused in Neveah due to gaining a Class, this burst of energy catalyzed it, and they continued at hyper speed.

Fueled by the flood of energy, he could feel her body reforming, forcefully now, rather than the gradual process it had been before.

So many things had changed in the Raid Dungeon, and Randidly hadn’t even dipped his toe in understanding everything he knew now. Those memories… would have to wait, no matter how curious he was. Without Neveah, the Raid Dungeon had been a constant struggle. Her presence at his side would make similar challenges appear like child’s play.

He arrived at the crevasse she had fallen into and was surprised to find someone else there, cooking a meal of fish over a small fire. The man, seeing Randidly, blinked and leaped to his feet. Immediately, Randidly’s eyes refocused, and he recognized the man: it was the friend of Kayle and Paolo, Dinesh. The slender Indian man blinked for a few seconds, then bowed hurriedly.

Randidly opened his mouth to ask why he was here, but the ground rumbled. Through their bond, Randidly could feel that Neveah was stirring, the short, sharp twitches of someone who was about to wake.

Instead of speaking, Randidly blew past him, heading to the edge of the hole. Below, he could see twisting and cracking bones, and a thick mist made from condensed Aether. The mist seemed to pulse with Neveah’s breath, moving slowly, rising and falling, rising and falling.

Neveah? Randidly thought towards her along the lines of their bond.

There was stillness, and then the rumbling intensified. The pull of Aether grew until it seemed that Neveah’s transformation began to occur so quickly it lost sight of itself. Cracks rang out of the ground, bits of bone and rock ground to dust as the different sections below pulsed and shifted, seeking a final resting place.

“Is this… good?” Dinesh asked, his face pale.

Randidly said nothing.

After 15 minutes of the constantly increasing cracking noises, there was a crescendo, a low rumbling happening concurrently with high, sharp cracks. Then there was silence. Within the crevasse, there was only stillness. Then, a handmade entirely of bone reached out and dragged a body behind it.

Randidly chuckled as Neveah, slowly and ponderously clambered out of her resting place, even while Dinesh became increasingly nervous. She had certainly lost quite a bit of her size, but Randidly didn’t mind that so much. He could already sense how the changes would make her more powerful overall, even if she didn’t retain the same overwhelming momentum that she could have previously.

Neveah had shifted from being a thick worm on the ground to a more humanoid form about 2.5 meters tall. But in terms of humanoid, it was much closer to a lizardman than a human. Her legs were thick and powerful, soft grey flesh covered in a thick armor of bones. The torso was elongated, and from the back there was a powerful tail, extending perhaps three times the length of the torso itself.

Her arms were relatively thinner, but they were tipped with gleaming daggers of bone. From her back stretched two wings, made entirely of bone, and Randidly doubted that they possessed the requisite lift for flight, but they undoubtedly be a powerful weapon in a close range fight.

Perhaps the most stunning change, or lack of one, was Neveah’s face. Because instead of a humanoid face, she retained the same face of the bone wyrm, possessing cold black eyes over a circular maw of a mouth that was lined with sharp teeth.

“Ran...d…. I…. back….” Neveah said, her mouth twisting in glee. Dinesh excused himself and fled the area rapidly.