Chapter 715 (1/2)

Randidly touched his heart lightly with a wince. That Chillip burger he had bought from a C Corporation pop up appeared to be giving him heartburn. Heedless, he meandered around the streets of Hastam. It had only been two hours or so since he had fought Helen, but he still felt that strange heaviness on his heart.

Part of it was the strange moment he had shared with Azriel in the participant’s hallway. But also…

Randidly reached under his shirt and removed a small cloth packet that hung around his neck. Within, he could feel the thin parts of energy that he could always sense associated with plants. The tiny seeds were an impulse purchase from a small stand not an hour ago. The stand had advertised that the grains that would grow from these seeds were the finest in the world.

Randidly had just wanted to know if he had perhaps finally found the answer to the Ashen Image that had altered so many things about himself.

Looking down at his ash-stained hands, Randidly could only smile bitterly. It was true that Randidly now could choose whether his plants would eventually be flooded with the deadly cold or the overwhelming heat after losing the touch of his Mana. The cold Mana didn’t result in the plants exploding in a rain of fire as the hot did, but they simply withered and turned into slimy grey ash. Ultimately, not much different.

Randidly also attempted to use his insights into using images like lite-versions of Skills, but that was also impossible in the short term. Even as Randidly tried to recapture the feeling of using the image of Frigid Ash, Extinguishing Storm, Randidly was only able to reproduce a tiny speck of its power. It was a balancing act, and he was probably in the wrong space emotionally to get a true knack for it.

Complicating it even further was the fact that his normal Skills didn’t have a true image associated with them. To put it more concretely, Randidly could have an image of a general, simple effect like the cold. But to have an image for the specific action of flooding Mana into plants to control them…?

It was mental gymnastics of a sort he hadn’t encountered before. Although that didn’t stop Randidly from becoming frustrated by his failures.

Some part of Randidly knew that the best option was to find a way to take his mind off things. Perhaps by meditating, or throwing himself in training. Some part of Randidly was looking for something that he knew he wouldn’t find out alone in the city at night. Yet his feet continued to carry him forward, as though humming along with a completely different tune.

Randidly chuckled, his mood dark. Strangely, it reminded him of some of his memories from before the System. Times spent in strange places, where his very human need for something more than what he had driven him to walk into the unknown.

Randidly remembered very clearly one night visiting his grandparents, he was so profoundly lonely that he had walked to the beach. The irony of the choice was not lost on him, but he went anyway, clambering over a fence to get there. With only the sound of the surf for the company, he walked slowly out into the ocean, praying for a sign.

And when he stepped on the cool sand by the water's edge, he found it. When he stepped, the ground lit up around his feet. They were small, these pinpricks of light, but they quickly became everything.

Later, Randidly would find out it was a weird function of the local algae that they glowed in response to pressure. But that night, the truth wasn’t so complicated. Randidly had desperately needed an answer, and the universe had been there for him.

Randidly hoped this night would be half as fruitful.

“Mr. Ghouthound? How strange to encounter you here. Perhaps a word, if you have a moment?”