Chapter 754 (1/2)

When Randidly finished, the torch was extinguished. But even though he was faced with blackness when he opened his eyes, Randidly only laughed. The runes were perfect. With the vision, he had been able to construct the inverses of those that constituted the prison easily. They were shallow and weak things, but they weakened the prison immensely.

Well, perhaps not immensely. But it was enough.

For the first time in three weeks, Randidly pressed himself upward. With a gangly sort of clumsiness, he stood.

The runes really hadn’t had much of an effect, but it had shifted the multiplier for exertions from 100x to 80x and the reduction on regeneration from .1 to .2. But of the two of those, the additional regeneration was really what gave Randidly the edge. Previously, he had been able to regenerate well enough, it was just that every movement drained him so much faster than he could regeneration. Any movement that required effort bottomed Randidly out within a few seconds.

But now…

After stretching his arms to the ceiling like a lazy cat, Randidly collapsed backward as his Stamina hit zero. Still, he beamed at the ceiling. This was more than enough to make things easier.

Randidly gave himself a few minutes to regenerate back up to a respectable amount of Stamina and then got to his feet with much more grace. He quickly walked over to the hammock and sat down on top of it. Then, after he had gathered himself for a few seconds, he twisted himself and lay back down into it.

In a strange sort of irony, he had returned to the same position he had begun his stay in the prison in. But there could be no comparison; Randidly’s perspective had been irrevocably changed.

After laying on cold and bumpy stone for three weeks, a hammock was the epitome of comfort.

With his newfound comfort, Randidly savored the feeling of actually relaxing. He stopped himself after a few minutes, however, and got back to work. From the control hammock, Randidly created his mass image of the prison once more. With how high Randidly’s intelligence was, he didn’t need to light the place again to create it correctly.

Then he added another layer to the runes weakening the room.

Exertions went down to 70x and regeneration up to .3.

With that, Randidly could breathe much easier. But still, if he was going to take a chance like he was considering, he needed to work quickly. This place was without the overlay System, which gave him a rare chance to act without incurring anymore Heretic Levels. And considering that he wanted to remaking his Class and his Soulskill…

These were definitely actions that would incur the ire of the overlay System. The question was whether he had enough time for them. If the prison warden came down while he was working on himself… Well, wouldn’t they just assume that he was bound by the runes of the room and that was why he wasn’t moving around? They likely wouldn’t even notice the opposing runes unless they shut down the room, at which point all would go to hell anyway.

To make himself feel better, Randidly took some time to use the image Mana Engraving again, pressing extra hard. That way, the exertions got down to 50x and the regeneration was now at one half of his usual.

Either way, Randidly would only take the chance to improve one between his Class and Soulskill. Anymore was tempting fate. As to which…

His Class required images and identity, which Randidly believed he had a few ideas for. After his experience the prior time, Randidly believed he would be able to use Aether to hold the superstructure up, knock down the extra scaffolding around the outside, and then build himself up until his Class reached the Level that he was. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he were to lose Levels, but just the loss of Attributes and Stats were obnoxious.

The System would likely even help. It was designed to do that. But this time, Randidly would be the only source. And he couldn’t change up the influences too much, or else the new Class would be too structurally different.

In terms of his Soulskill shifting… that was a bit more difficult. Remaking those was usually done in a self-righteous burst. Besides, Randidly had briefly checked in on his Soulskill right after finishing the first layer of engraving.

The people of his inner world were currently embroiled in a panic because the alterations to his images caused widespread earthquake and ground instability in the lands. Perhaps now wasn’t the time to force the issue of recreating the world and relocating everyone. And besides, Randidly suspected that Soulskills were much less taboo to mess with than Classes. Changing Soulskills happened.

Changing Classes didn’t.

“So, let’s remake a Class,” Randidly whispered. Mentally, he reached out and touched Neveah, seeing if she wanted to participate. To his surprise, she declined, because she was apparently assisting Nathan as he remade Dozer’s Class at Level 49.

“Well, shit,” Randidly muttered. If Nathan could manage Level 49, he sure as hell could handle Level 35. After all, Nathan's Aether source was him. And likely Nathan's images were influencing him currently. So Randidly closed his eyes and reached deeply into his Aether Spring.

Then he reached even deeper until the Aether at his fingertips had that pure, fiery-ice feeling that meant it was pure. With all of his newly sharpened Willpower from being trapped in the prison for three weeks, Randidly pulled.

In the hammock, Randidly’s body spasmed slightly as the icy-hot energy flooded through his veins and filled the air. Gasping, Randidly’s eyes opened to reveal orbs of violet. His breath came out as steam. Thin lines of static ran across his arms and chest. There was too much available power, even for his strengthened body to handle. His muscles and veins bulged under the strain.

Even so, Randidly ignored it and pulled all that vicious energy deep within himself. In a vicious spiral, it followed down to arrive at his Class.

As he had previously noticed, the one leg of his Class, Progenitor of the Four-Shaded Evolution, had long stopped being able to keep up with the other legs of the Class. But it was only at Level 35 that its weakness began to be a hard limit that prevented him from improving further. With the energy following after him, Randidly swirled around his Class.

One Class, five individual and separate legs. Each of the legs followed the pattern set by the Class to form a spin on its unique image.

Randidly continued to spin, forming a vortex of Aether. Already his body was reaching its limit. He needed to contain the energy here as much as possible. Pushing himself to the limit, he drew more and more Aether down to the area of his Class. Exposed to the Aether, the Class itself began to tremble and crack.