Chapter 987 (1/2)

Yawning, Randidly got up from one of his rare naps in the Dungeon. Even if he didn’t need the sleep, sometimes it felt quite rejuvenating. He stretched and scratched his lower back as he walked up to the surface and fresh air. Immediately upon exiting the dome, he had to raise his hand and shield his eyes from the hot sun.

After staying here for a bit over five months, the surrounding jungle had been completely devoured by the two antagonistic groups of Riders who were in a cold war of architecture against each other. A few weeks ago, Randidly finally forced them both to do their own improvements to their miniature castles. This, he had assumed, would slow their mad expansion and mean he would no longer waste as much of his time.

This was very incorrect, as it turned out.

The night Randidly had made the declaration they would now be forced to do their own construction, he had felt a weight lifted off his shoulders. The next morning, two square kilometers of jungle had been leveled in their mad dash to gather their resources. And if anything, their building methods had only become more refined without his interference. The ability to utilize the gathered resource was now one of the rewards for which the groups competed.

Randidly shook his head sadly, Honestly, I can’t wait to go back to Earth. At least no one there has any expectation of me participating in these pointless political squabbles… I wonder how much time has passed in Erickson Steel… probably barely a day.

Randidly walked over to the worn stone monument and pressed his hand against it. He closed his eyes and allowed his will to flow down through his fingers and into the cool stone. That pervasive aura of timelessness was like a familiar chair that he settled into quite comfortably. The ambient image it contained was like spring rain, spitting down to fuel his World Tree image.

Over the past month or so, the ambient image in the surrounding air had no longer been enough to fuel Randidly’s training with the World Tree. It had grown too diluted by Randidly’s constant use. So he was forced to proceed out to the monument itself and use it directly in order to achieve any benefit.

This too would eventually lose its usefulness in a few months. But even if Randidly knew that he was rather helpless. If he didn’t use this method, his image wouldn’t improve. Even if he was caching in on a limited resource, he would still do it to continually improve. Part of Randidly’s growth needed to be focused on understanding the threats arrayed against him. He had no space to be gentle with the denizens of this Dungeon and their monuments.

After all, Earth would become a Dungeon itself if Randidly failed to reach a sufficient level of strength.

Every night before engaging in his Engraving training, Randidly had been carefully sharpening his mental state by carefully thinking through possibilities for the future and ethical dilemmas. One of the questions he came up against was whether he could live with the truth that he was killing other individuals to save the world.

Perhaps a normal individual from Earth who had been able to survive the System’s arrival would eventually grow strong enough that he or she could pick their fights and would deem it worth it to consider the ethics of their action. But Randidly was raised by Shal. Who made it very clear that it was only the winners who would have the convenience of discussing philosophy.

I obviously won’t torture someone… but I also won’t shy away from killing in order to protect the Earth. Randidly felt his heart grow heavy. Being a saint confined to a Dungeon would be tragic sort of irony.

Randidly also constantly reminded himself of that strange being and his previous struggles against a Judgement to maintain his tension. To balance those fears, Randidly also reflected on the liberating emotion of being away from Earth with time to discover his own Path forward.

With these two thoughts both grinding at Randidly’s mentality in different ways, he continually pushed himself forward. Because there were so many ways that Randidly needed to improve to truly be a worthy opponent for the System. He couldn’t afford to overlook anything while he had this time to refine himself.

A snort brought Randidly’s focus out of the stone monolith. Turning slowly, Randidly faced the group of three Riders that were looking at him in askance. He rolled his eyes and waved his hand. “It’s not the time to go to the plateau yet. Please, simply patrol the edges of our domain.”

The three nodded. Then the three Riders turned and trotted off across the rather shabby looking plains that were left in the wake of the deforestation. As they went, the central Rider’s mount unleashed a powerful spurt of thick spit that pasted a nearby flower against the ground as if it had been laminated.

Randidly rubbed his head. Since he had no longer provided architecture services, he had been forced to broaden his rewards for the Riders. The unanimous decision from the Riders was to ask for more Riders to be created. So, despite Randidly’s misgivings, he had begun producing more. Now, there were almost a hundred Riders in the Dungeon, spreading their conflicting ideologies.

Strangely, three of the Riders refused to join the two previously created Legions. These became the Legion of the Marching Cadence, who quickly evolved to ride a mount very similar to a camel. These came from Randidly’s intermittent memories of Divvet, who had been something of a stand-in for Shal when Randidly’s master was busy with other things. Above all else, what Randidly remembered about Divvet was his patience.

Although it's possible that this was simply a response from spending so much exhausting training sessions with the short-tempered Shal.

Unlike the other two Legions, the Marching Cadence Legion didn’t care about the rivalry. They instead requested permission to explore the plateau which Randidly had expressly forbidden. Honestly, the constant requests were becoming a headache.

Their attitude is admirable… Randidly shook his head. But there is no point in sending them to antagonize something dangerous before I’m ready to meet it. Still, if in a few months even this monument isn’t enough for the image of timelessness…

After giving the stone monolith a long glance, Randidly returned to the depths of his base. Although usually, he would use this time working on his forging process, Randidly did something out of character today; he went to his kitchen and quickly cut up all of the ingredients that he would need to make breakfast.

After about ten minutes, Randidly had produced an omelet. Which he then ate quickly, cutting off large chunks and tossing them into his mouth.