Chapter 962 (2/2)

Before he could continue, Mark appeared nearby, giving Vye a slight nod. Randidly paused in his words, his gaze shifting to the new arrival. Vye almost rolled her eyes in response. I get it, you want my job. Honestly, you can have it. I’m starting to wonder if Erickson Steel is really where I belong.

“...I suppose there isn’t any point in putting it off,” Randidly said with a shake of the head. He forced out a smile, only looking a little worse for wear for whatever experience afflicted him. “Anyway, thanks for your concern. Hopefully, we can talk later..”

“And the boots…?” Vye asked while holding them aloft.

Randidly waved his hand and walked away with Mark. “They won’t be necessary.”

For several seconds, Vye just watched the two of them walk away. Then, as the implications of what just happened sank in, she quickly grew pale.

“Doesn’t this mean…” Vye said slowly. “That I no longer have a reason not to go back to work?!?”

*****

Randidly went into the storeroom where Mark had laid out the latest samples of the most recent Erickson Steel products and then was left alone with the assurance that Mark would be right outside.

Grimacing, Randidly waited until the man was gone before gracefully collapsing into a seat. For the moment, the metal samples would need to wait.

Under the constant flow of energy from his Soulskill, his Class did seem to slowly mend itself back together. It wasn’t the sort of damage that would weaken him directly by taking away Skills or Stats, but it might create deviations in the weave of the Aether he was using to build himself. Over time, such defects would quickly lead to a weakened Class.

As such, Randidly had no intention of gaining a Level until he could give the Class a thorough once over. And that would need to wait until the strange fractures from whatever had just occurred ceased spewing waves of agony like someone with food poisoning.

The strange impressions that Randidly had seen after completing the Perfect Soul Bond Path lingered in his mind. That vast crystal. The mountains covered in light devouring engravings. The being that stirred at the core of the crystal.

I’ve finally found you, Yystrix. My one and only love.

Wait for me.

Even now, the memory of those words set Randidly to shivering. After that, the attention had shifted to Randidly himself. That brief moment of examination by that being was enough to shatter his Class. The weight of that thing’s attention had reached the point that it could kill someone. Just as casually, the attention had caught the scent of its true quarry and followed that trail off into the universe.

Frowning at the table, Randidly considered the sinking feeling of dread that the encounter had left in his heart. Yystrix… that is the name that Lyra used for the Creature. And I did find out from the Creature’s memories that it very carefully was taking all these actions in order to avoid detection from the System.

...Did I spill the beans early? Will this have… consequences…?

...that’s probably a dumb question...

Very likely he did expose the Creature to danger. Which would lead to unpredictable consequences. It would be bad if the Creature came back to Earth seeking retribution, but it would also be bad if whatever monster was living in that crystal could not find the Creature and therefore returned to Earth in order to look for clues within Randidly’s Soulspace.

In addition, there were two small facts that truly filled Randidly with fear.

The first was the way that the notifications appeared. It was very clear that the overlay System knew something was going wrong midway through the Path completion message. Very quickly it reported an error. But then the overlay seemed to have been seized by something and thereafter used to speak directly to Randidly.

What sort of entity could speak directly through the System?

Perhaps even more worrisome…

Why had completing the Perfect Soul Bond Path triggered that sort of result? A result which had included a list of his exact name and Class. Was that a part of the original Path, or something that was just a warning of the deviation that was about to come?

Was it triggered by Randidly himself? Had Octavius Shrike put some limit on the things that he could accomplish, and this Path had somehow transgressed that boundary?

But at Randidly’s core, he had a single worry. And that was that it wasn’t him at all that triggered the strange change in the Path completion. No, his secret fear was that what caused the strange being to move was what he was now connected to.

Did the System know that Neveah had an Aether Crossroad?