Chapter 729 (1/2)

In the darkness of the room, Randidly slowly toiled.

After slowly gathering enough Stamina, Randidly’s hand flexed, crushing the pebble into powder. His expression remained neutral, even as his Stamina ran out before he could completely crush the stone. All he could do is try again. So he breathed in and then breathed out. Stamina slowly filtered back into his body.

After a few minutes, his hand flexed again. The stone was crushed to dust.

So it had continued for several hours as Randidly moved slowly toward his plant to produce a sustainable source of light for himself in the suppression room. Oddly, the activity was soothing. Although each effort seemed gargantuan and the effect was small, Randidly was slowly creating something in the darkness. That seemed to have a certain charm that brought a smile to his face, despite the Stamina cost to even facial expressions.

Which was good, because Randidly’s time in his Soulskill left him with a sour taste in his mouth.

The reason for the strange pains that Randidly felt was clear; the terrible destructive mindset of the Ashen Image had infected his Soulskill. That Alta Bounty character that Lucretia stuck beside was certainly the most egregious, but Randidly had taken the time to travel to different lands and speak with people from all walks of life.

War-torn regions, peaceful small villages, reclusive mountain communities… Randidly visited them all.

Despite the differences between them, one thing was the same. They all seemed to acknowledge that their world was dying. And, because the people in his Soulskill believed it, it was slowly coming to be so.

Randidly had thought of several ways to reinvigorate the energy of the world to withstand the strain due to technological advancement, but that missed the point. It would simply push away the problem.

Randidly had done that for far too long. What he needed was to find a way to combat that mindset directly. And in terms of mindset, the way to get at that was to use an image.

Simply put, Randidly had none. It was the same problem that he was struggling with in regards to his plant Skills. He didn’t understand how this terrible destructiveness fit into the cycle that he had relied on until now to advance. So in the moments between crushing pebbles, Randidly reflected on his life.

Unwilling to let anything pass, Randidly started with his oldest memories. He thought about his relationship with Sydney and his parents. Then his awkward time in high school. The college application process where he chased Sydney. Meeting Ace. The bright days where their trio was perfect and balanced.

The dark days as Sydney slowly weakened in her battle against cancer.

All of those memories flashed past in the blink of an eye. Then, because he had little else to do, Randidly considered them again, going deeper.

He thought about throwing a baseball against that old oak in his backyard. He thought about the car ride with his father to see his mother in the hospital. He thought about being ditched by his prom date. He thought about staring at the back of Sydney’s head in freshman psych class. He thought about the long looks Ace gave him when Randidly was unable to reveal Sydney’s secret, and Ace was unwilling to ask.

Another moment passed. Randidly crushed another pebble.

Overall, Randidly quickly realized that heading into his Soulskill gave him to reflect, but there was something missing there. Even the practicing of images was ultimately hollow. In the Soulskill, his own images were empowered. Upon coming back, Randidly quickly realized that his practice there had helped fine tune what he had, but ultimately, time in the Soulskill couldn’t strengthen his images. They had to be forged in reality.

So after staying for a few weeks and traveling, Randidly had departed. At the time, he had offered to bring Lucretia with him.

Unsurprisingly, she declined him. She believed that it was her fate to watch the conflagration that was Alta Bounty.

But Randidly had established a mental contact with Lucretia. That way he could receive her assistance with the array to destroy the suppression in this jail. It was simply creating an inverse of most runes, but they did need to be done in a specific order to ensure that the wrong portions of the suppression were knocked out first, and his jailers wouldn’t be immediately alerted.

Stealth at that point was nearly impossible, but Randidly wasn’t overly concerned with remaining entirely under the radar. He just didn’t want to kick open the jail doors and find a Propagator waiting for him.

His face expressionless, Randidly crushed another pebble.