Chapter 502 (1/2)

Randidly was a bit troubled by Ezekiel's explanation of the goings on in Zone 1, but not too much. Based on what he said, Randidly would require Citizenship in order to proceed into any place with powerful people, and gaining that was not easy, not without getting a Class from one of the approved villages. That made Randidly wonder whether there were ”unapproved” Villages out there in Zone 1, but he figured that was an ancillary discussion.

Still, Randidly had never minded being anonymous before. He would just need to find a way to make enough of a splash to be chosen as a citizen, but not enough that the Ghost that ran everything was interested in him.

It would be a hard thing to balance, Randidly reflected.

The other reason that the conversation with his father became... strained was that neither of them really knew what to say to the other. FOr so long, they had barely talked. The only contact they had was generally forced, or coincidental. It seemed both of them were extremely reassured when Randidly had turned 18 and had been old enough that Ezekiel didn't need to be a constant part of his life.

Not that he had prior, anyway.

There was a heady relief that they both shared, upon seeing each other at a place where neither had expected, but as that faded away, the emotion they now shared was uncertainty.

What were they to one another? How should they behave?

Once Hank had begrudgingly checked Katie, and discovered that he was, in fact, a woman, he came back over to Randidly and Ezekiel. For a split second, Randidly was worried that the other man had somehow sensed what he was doing, and knew that Randidly was the cause of this, but that wasn't the case; Hank had come over for Ezekiel.

”Did you know?” Hank demanded, his eyes bright.

Ezekiel hesitated, then said ”...yes, but it is not how you think. My Class gives me some... insight into the location of people. I had no such sense of humanity from her.”

After giving Ezekiel a long look, Hank departed, muttering something about hunting. Dinesh offered to accompany him but was denied. The woman named Laurel came over and thanked Dinesh, but assured him that Hank was not the type to get angry and throw himself in harm’s way. If anything, he would hole up somewhere and train furiously to work off his energy, and our best bet was to leave him to it.

IT was Affina that remembered Randidly's previous statement. ”...Randidly, correct? You said you brewed potions?”

”Oh, yea,” Randidly said, his expression brightening. The discussion with Ezekiel had stalled out again, because both men had secrets, and neither had any idea what to ask that wouldn't touch on those secrets. ”Follow me.”

Mostly out of curiosity, the group from Zone 1 followed him. Everyone who was a part of Randidly's Squad left them to it, focused on their own training.

Around the side of the thorn cottage, there was a strange little cart that Randidly led the group to. If he was being honest, he was quite proud of himself, because creating the cart was no easy feat. But when he wasn't fighting, he needed something to fill his time that wasn't just spamming a spell over and over again. SO he had used his PLant Dominance to control wood in unique ways, eventually learning to create a kind of furniture with it.

It was, however, a balancing act, because Randidly could only control the plant while it was alive, and it was only truly useful once it had died. If it died prior to him finishing, there would be left an incomplete product. If it died after, there was a high chance that the plant would absorb some of Randidly's ambient energy and produce strange growths. Some of the growths were useful and turned into peculiar blooms filled with energy. These Randidly harvested. Most were just wart looking bumps on the surface of his furniture.

This took him a week, but it was a flawless mahogany cart, lacquered and polished. It was only so large that it had to be pulled around by hand, like one of those tiny kiosks that sometimes had at malls, but it was more than enough to hold Randidly's new potions.

”Voila,” Randidly said, feeling very self-conscious. There were 12 shelves, each with about 10 tiny bottles on them. Picking up the Strength Elixir, he handed it to Ezekiel.