Chapter 723 (2/2)

It was not a solution in the short term.

Randidly’s sense of timing informed him that six hours had passed, so he stopped that train of thought and closed his eyes. For several seconds, he allowed himself to be completely immersed in the feeling of the cool rock against the skin of his neck.

Then the five seconds had passed, and Randidly’s eyes snapped open. His face instantly twisted into a frown. Unfortunately, this portion of his day wasn’t much more fruitful. Now was generally the time that he practiced Mana Engraving to slowly deconstruct his prison, but he encountered a problem.

Randidly needed to be able to see what he was doing to check his work.

Perhaps it was an overstatement to say that he needed to see what was going on. But with both the restriction on his movement and the lack of any sight, Randidly was swiftly running into a brick wall with the Engraving. If he was to make a single rune on the ground, it was fine. His senses for Mana were much less finely tuned than Aether, but he could still detect them with a decent amount of specificity.

The problem was that Randidly was creating a complicated series of interlocking runes in order to destabilize the array surrounding this room and allow him to escape. Without careful construction, it simply wouldn’t work.

Randidly considered just using his hands to measure the distances exactly. His fingers were extremely deft, and with the amount of Stats he had, it was very possible to do just that. But doing that wasted Randidly’s valuable Stamina. He was already barely scraping his way through the Engraving as it was. If he added an extra 30% expenditure to check the distances…

Ultimately, the eyes were simply an incomparably convenient tool for something like this. And it was a sense that Randidly never would have guessed he would need for the Engraving. It gave Randidly a headache. It seemed like he had come in this room with a firm goal in mind, but every day he found more problems ended up cropping up. At this rate, even if he solved all of the problems, would he have enough time remaining to finish his escape…?

Well, that wasn’t a thought that was fruitful to entertain. So Randidly turned his attention to ways to create light. Using Grasp of the World Seed on one of the small seeds he possessed was the easy answer. It would create light that the could use to check his work. The light would be relatively brief as the plant was consumed by fire, but it was controllable. The problem was that he only had so many more seeds.

Another option was the ideal solution, which was to create light by a powerful image of light. That had met with… precisely no progress.

Randidly couldn’t get around the fact that when he opened his eyes, his brain told him it was dark. All his belief in the image of light vanished. Besides, he didn’t even know what the room looked like illuminated. Still, Randidly had attempted it for a few hours. He had a sinking suspicion that the room was well illuminated while his eyes were closed and he could concentrate on the image, but he had no way of proving it.

The final method… would be to create a sustainable fuel source. Randidly had his wool shirt and leather pants for tinder, but he would actually need something to burn. He considered trying his blood, but that seemed to be untenable.

No, the best answer was to use the seeds he possessed to grow actual plants. With the System, they would grow to a great size in a day or two. Then, Randidly would have a more consistent way of making fire. But to cause something to grow in the area…

Randidly was on top of a rock island. Although water wasn’t a problem, soil…

But as Randidly considered it further, his expression turned thoughtful. After all, what was soil but tiny rocks, moisture, and plant matter? If he broke all those pebbles he gathered, he would likely have a fair amount. Water could be brought in… well, maybe blood would have to suffice for that. Without a cup, transporting the water would be a bit…

As for the plant matter…

Randidly closed his eyes. Exactly two hours later, his eyes snapped open, and a fruit fell out of his open hand.

Something of a waste, but… I suppose these will have to do, Randidly thought with a smile.

His mind indicated four hours had passed. Instantly, Randidly let go of his thoughts for five seconds, then came back to himself focused on a new task: reaching his Soulskill. So he began the frustrating process of exploring the Aether that constituted himself. It was slow work, but it was one more task that he needed-

Randidly blinked. Then he grinned.

He had found it.