Chapter 519 (2/2)

“It’s my fault for making a poor joke. Ha, I can’t remember the last time someone called me “striking”... you are a strange mix of things, Mr. Baloo Erickson.”

Smiling, Randidly said, “You can call me-”

Then he stopped. Instantly, his high Intelligence and Reaction both rose and started firing on all cylinders. He was about to say Rand, but that was too close to his real identity. And it wasn’t like his name was common enough for it to slip by in conversation. So, he went back to the original inspiration for his fake name, with his Stats being so high that Tatiana likely didn’t even notice the hitch in his speech.

“Viking. Or V. It’s a nickname.” Inwardly, Randidly burned red with shame. Did he really just ask an attractive woman to call him Viking?

“...Viking…” She gave him a frank look. “You don’t exactly, uh…”

Randidly looked down at the belly conjured by the illusion. He was about to say something when he realized that the corners of Tatiana’s eyes were crinkled up with humor. He cleared his throat.

“Well, it’s not raiding season, so I might have let myself go. A bit.” Randidly said matter of factly.

Tatiana burst out laughing.

Afterward, both agreed to keep in touch while they were in the area, and went their separate ways. To Randidly’s surprise, Tatiana went farther West, out past the edge of town. Shrugging, he went inside his little shed; he supposed it didn’t matter where he did his scans. So he settled down and gathered Aether to himself.

To start, he repeated his previous huge expenditure, spreading his reach over all of the Zone. As his Mana burned out quickly, Plant Dominance extended rapidly outwards. It wasn’t something that most people would detect. He didn’t use it to move the plants, but Randidly couldn’t discount the possibility that his use of the Skill would cause a ripple to spread outwards, the moment the Skill touched the plants. Still, he believed it was worth it. He needed information.

Again, the time after the scan was about two hours of sifting through information. This time, he ferreted out the Creature’s touch rather quickly. Its particular brand of Aether stuck out among the others. Randidly’s gaze sharpened. It was even more widely dispersed now. What did it mean?

The rest of the night, Randidly sent directed pulses of Aether to sense certain areas of Zone 1. He started with the military and political headquarters while staying away from the West Providence, where Ghost was working out of. To his surprise, Randidly wasn’t able to detect anything in any of the military or government locations that he checked.

That was interesting. So the Creature had no direct hand in the UHF, for all that meant. That was basically a puppet for Ghost anyway. Randidly was tempted to move directly onto scanning Ghost’s area, but he was still wary. Best to wait another day, when he had more Mana and wasn’t already exhausted. There was no real hurry, as far as Randidly knew, although it was difficult to remain comfortable when an enemy he had clashed with so many times was lurking around him.

Sighing, Randidly leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. One thing at a time, he could only do one thing at a time. Focus on that task, sharpen his mind to it. Only with 100% of his will behind it would he get the best results.

The spear can only move forward.

Abruptly, Randidly chuckled. It had been a while since he had thought about Shal, and his advice. But reflecting upon it, there was a lot that could be gained from using the principles he had learned from Shal, and Aemont. Especially now, when he was attempting to formulate a Skill. There was a particular resistance to it as if his Aether knew this had already occurred, and it was unwilling to move in the same shape. Forcing it didn’t solve the issue, so Randidly was interested in softer methods.

So, for the rest of the night, Randidly produced the Diary of the Spear Phantom and read from it. By the end of the night, his eyes were glowing with a bright emerald light.