Chapter 905 (2/2)

“And I have to say,” Lucretia added. “Oftentimes those of the cohort that already knew well enough how to use the spear and mimicked remembered images would die early. Because it was never about learning a Style; it was about killing.

“Those imitators simply weren’t powerful enough. They became a reflection of what wasn’t theirs, and their images suffered for it. Although the victor of these battles would often by somewhat limited in their strength, the clarity and density of their image of killing was beyond reproach.”

Randidly considered that. “...so rather than guiding us forward, we are treated more like monkeys at typewriters seeking Shakespeare, huh…”

“Shakespeare?” Lucretia asked.

Randidly shook his head. “A reference from my world. But I wonder, are you saying that images aren’t the goal? That there is a specific task, and the System is looking for the appropriate image for the job?”

Lucretia shrugged. Very quickly, she was becoming absorbed in the small runic experiment that she was tinkering with on the table.

There, Randidly paused. One thing that the System wanted to avoid was contamination from the previous Cohort’s Skills. Which was why likely the motivation for setting up the System so that people from the upper cohorts cannot descend. In addition, the System was assisted by an overlay System, which provided numerical representations of the Stats that they were given.

It was one thing to feel yourself growing more powerful as you train. It was quite another to be shown the satisfying numerical progression of your own Stats. It was very easy to fall into the trap of pursuing that growth as a goal. If one did that, it would be easy to get drawn in by the temptation of tripling your own Stats.

Which was why it was so confusing for the System to emphasize Stats like this. If the System’s goal was what Randidly thought it was, the System was shooting itself in the foot.

Because that was a purposeful trap that the System seemed to set with Stats. Early Stat growth was refreshing and rewarding. Yet as the Levels of the foes you face grew, stats became harder and harder to rely on in order to triumph. The same went for Skill Levels, although Randidly suspected that this was a relatively weaker association. Because, after all, Skill Levels essentially just gave you a way of adding extra Stats to certain specific actions.

Thinking very reductively, giving Stats and drawing attention to them was akin to teaching everyone how to punch very hard and telling people how hard they could punch. Some would learn different ways of punching, but ultimately everything was still a boxing match.

Over time, the System would provide increasingly competent boxers as hurdles for these individuals swept up in its influence. To the point that it was impossible for someone who relied on boxing to win. If they didn’t cheat, that is.

And it was clear that this happened in Cohort 5 as well. Aemont had fought against the Propagators to no avail. They were a hurdle that couldn’t be cleared with Stats and Skill Levels. He had done as much as said so during the strange dream Randidly had experienced after finishing the Ashes Path associated with Aemont.

So he had been faced with the ultimate choice that the System presents those whose lives it seizes; evolve or die.

Then… is that moment of clarity what the System is after? To guide you down a Path with a dead end to force you to jump ship while your life was on the line?

Because the scaffolding for evolving beyond yourself was always in place. The System just never told people about it. It lectures on Stats, Skills, and finally Classes, but those are all just ways to convince the people under the System that they are in a box.

They are crutches you rely on… so that the System can rip them away and you can be overwhelmed with fear.

But no one is in a box. Because the System also gives people space to create images. And with those images, it’s possible to warp the entire world around you. Randidly could clearly feel it in the fight against the Nemesai. Without images, they had to accept his vision of the world. Ash, Emerald Fire, the World Tree, and the lustful Phantom became the truths of that battlefield.

Images had the capability of becoming truths. They ruled the surroundings. In effect, Randidly’s ease of fighting opponents thus far could be explained by him cheating; he didn’t fight the way everyone else did.

It was like the world had agreed beforehand to a series of rules that were extremely favorable to Randidly before the fight had even begun. And no one would say anything as Randidly brought increasingly elaborate weapons to the boxing matches. Until the boar-head sacrificed his life to display comparable power.

However, Randidly felt very little lingering pleasure from the battle against the Nemesai. It was clear to him that his advantage was so absolute that he should have been able to prevent Thea, the Serpent, and the Obsidian man from escaping. But he just hadn’t understood exactly how much of an advantage he had for most of the battle.

Until the strange boar-head man countered Randidly with his own images. With that sense of restriction, Randidly had another realization. When there were two images that fought for dominance over a space, the way to spread your image’s influence was by relying on the Skills that evidenced them.

But when the opponent had no images… that meant you could use that image to do anything. Skills no longer bound it.

As long as it was within the purview of the image, there were no bounds to what could be accomplished with an image.

Suddenly, Randidly was very much looking forward to the Donnyton challenge.