Chapter 739 (2/2)

Snickering at his own joke, Kurag walked away. Randidly rolled his eyes and went in a different direction. Immediately, he reached forward and sensed the scope of the caves in from of him with Grasp of the World Seed. Then he frowned.

These caves… were huge.

With a light jump, Randidly rushed forward. Almost casually, he reached to either side of him to casually touch large piles of rubble and reduce them to ash as he moved through the dark caves. Although he couldn’t see, Randidly had grown used to relying on his other senses to keep his balance and sense of perspective.

But still, Randidly was somewhat irked at the return to blackness. So he easily manifested a small tongue of flame above his own head, illuminating the surrounding area. Standing at the far wall of what had once been one of the main caves inside of this way station, Randidly peered down into the space revealed by the collapsed wall.

Randidly whistled softly, the sound echoing downward. He took a step forward and dropped down to land lightly almost thirty meters below. As Randidly landed, his face immediately twisted. This air… this feel… it was familiar, although Randidly couldn’t put his finger on why. Whatever it was, however, immediately set his teeth on edge. There was something strange here. Something that called to him, while he recoiled from it simultaneously.

This energy… For almost five minutes, Randidly stood completely still. It was a scent that burned at his brain. This energy… why was it so difficult for him to place?

His first instinct was that this was the energy of the Creature, but although its poisonous touch was definitely a part of it, that felt wrong. Where else had Randidly taken strange energies from-

A dull roar finally broke the spell the energy of this place had cast over Randidly. But the sound was incredibly distant. In caves like these, a noise like that could-

“Fuck me,” Randidly growled, whipping around. He pinged outward with his Grasp of the World Seed. Because he had been rather confident he wasn’t able to be harmed, he hadn’t been too thorough in his scan. The area in front of Randidly was completely clear, so he hadn’t thought more about it.

He had never felt a need to scan behind him.

Even as he used his sense to expertly navigate through the underground tunnels, Randidly’s senses did the best they could to lock onto the fight that was occurring in a nearby cave system. There were too many moving bodies for plants to have a detailed description through the feeling of tumultuous air vibrations, but there was definitely a mob attacking one figure.

And from the movements… the solo figure was ripping his way through them.

Still, when Randidly burst into the cave he witnessed a giant claw smashing into Kurag from the side. Even was he was slammed to the side, the Earth Golem smashed the two smaller foes that were distracting them before careening into a stalagmite with such force it cracked in half.

Roaring in rage, the large monster ignored the broken bodies of its smaller kin and charged toward Kurag. Randidly couldn’t help but notice that the monster itself carried a wound on its throat that would likely be fatal and still moved with an impressive amount of speed. If it was this strong when it was wounded, it was even more impressive when the fight began.

The fact that Kurag had managed to fight off so many of these was impressive. And also, under Randidly’s more exacting examination, the enemy revealed itself to be Soulless, the desperate remnants of the invasion force the Creature had used. In this portion of the cave, the Creature’s energy signature was much stronger. It seemed that these poor fools lived here.

There was a split second where Randidly considered staying his hand and leaving Kurag to his own devices. After all, Kurag had made it rather clear that he would do just so much if Randidly were to encounter trouble.

The next moment, the Soulless was dead as Randidly’s spear took it in the back of the head. It fell without ever realizing it had died, forever stuck at the moment that it leapt toward a defenseless Kurag. His Crown seemed to burn in the air above his head, although Randidly made sure to suppress its image.

Randidly had no true spear here, so the image he had conjured quickly faded to nothing and the Soulless’ blood fell to the ground. Casually, he walked over to Kurag. The Earth Golem was still, but Randidly knew that it was just a ploy. To what end, Randidly wasn’t sure. And honestly, he was growing tired of these tiny suspicions.

“Thank you,”

Randidly stopped in surprise. Of all the reactions from Kurag, this was one that he hadn’t expected. The old man sat up and gave him a lingering look.

Shrugging, Randidly said. “You are my boss. What else could I do?”