Chapter 987 (2/2)

The omelet was fine. The eggs were whipped and salted, making the omelet itself fluffy and flavorful. The monster meat core was tender and cooked throughout. Not the best meal that Randidly had ever had, but it was certainly satisfactory. Randidly had no doubt that the could have set up a ramshackle stand in Tellus with these and made a killing.

Then Randidly cleaned his dished and looked at the second portion of ingredients that he had previously set aside. Cracking his fingers, Randidly walked slowly to stand above them. His emerald eyes glowed dangerously.

I think… it’s finally time I tested the limits of this. Randidly thought. With infinite gentleness, Randidly reached down and dragged a fingertip across one of the eggs he had prepared. Then his eyes narrowed. All Else Succumbs, Yet Time Whirls the Earth.

The air around him bent and twisted as though Randidly had hammered down on the fabric of the world with his knee. The egg he was touching cracked and splattered everywhere, but in slow motion. Suddenly Randidly was spread across two versions of himself. Then four. Then eight. His muscles flexed and spasmed. He bit his lip so hard that a fat chunk of flesh was hacked off. The taste of blood filled all eight of his mouths.

After being cracked by his spasming muscles, bits of that shattered egg continued to float outward slowly. Time twisted and pooled.

Then there were sixteen of him, twisting and mutating and warping through the surrounding timelines. The pain slowly built gradually upward. His muscles were on fire. Randidly was spasming so powerfully that his bones were shaking. Then-

The Grim Chimera raised its head and howled. That tight skin across its skull grew taut, showing the dark outline of its mouth. Its arms spread and multiplied. The limbs wove into each other, slowly constructing something. Randidly’s feet were locked to the ground in the base he had constructed but it felt like he could reach beyond his current location. If he stretched out his fingers and truly wished for it-

With a gasp, Randidly collapsed. His heart was pounding. His right hand was covered in egg. The horrible hammering filled up his awareness. After being stricken by small tremors for so long, he couldn’t stay on his feet. His breath came out of his nose as he kneeled on the ground and attempted to regain control of himself. It took several minutes before his limbs were completely willing to follow orders.

When Randidly stood, his eyes were locked on the steaming omelet that lay on a plate before him. Frowning, Randidly studied the plate carefully. He hadn’t brought any plates into the Dungeon with him. At least no plates this ornate looking. When his hand was well behaved enough to use a fork, he carefully cut off a corner and brought a bit of the omelet to his mouth.

Randidly couldn’t resist a sharp hiss. “Fuck, that’s good.”

The process of eating the delicious omelet was relatively drawn out. He thoroughly enjoyed every inch of the creation he had made by relying on the Grim Chimera’s strange ultimate Skill. As he did so, he reflected on what this experience had taught him.

Wincing, Randidly eventually stumped his way up to the surface and laid himself carefully on the grass. The first thing that Randidly had learned was that despite his general improvement of 10 or so Skill Levels in all of his passive physical boosts, this Skill still reduced him to a quivering mess. Although it was annoying, Randidly resolved himself to put more points into Endurance so he could withstand its use.

It was slightly embarrassing that his Endurance Stat was at a measly 348. That would soon be rectified.

The second thing that Randidly learned was that he was right about the function of the Skill. The Grim Chimera’s ultimate move was an evolution, of a sort. But rather than directly evolving, the Skill forced Randidly’s body to be split into several parallel worlds, seeking a variation where Randidly had the requisite Skills to accomplish the tasks that he was trying to accomplish.

Or at least, that was a passable definition of what the Skill did. The exact mechanism of the Skill still eluded Randidly, especially because the Grim Chimera’s Skill could be used to accomplish so many different things. It could give him anything he reached out for.

In this case, a high Cooking Skill.

Randidly winced. But the problem… this time was much more draining on my body even though my request was relatively simpler. Before, I had wanted to strike down Paolo and Kayle in a single strike. And I managed that while having enough Stamina remaining to walk away from the arena… so why was this more difficult?

But Randidly already had a hypothesis. The pain he experienced was not the pain to make the desired act happen… but it was pain he had to endure while looking for a variation that fit his requirements. Which meant that the cost was likely related just as much to the complexity of the request as to how distant from his current self the required mutation was.

Still, what I don’t get is how the ‘distance’ of the mutation is determined, Randidly thought with a frown. But it does make some sense that it is easier to find a variation of myself with great destructive power, rather than a master chef version…

Shaking his head, Randidly savored the feeling of the sun on his skin and soft grass on his back. Even though Randidly had been pushing himself close to the edge in these several months, this moment reminded him that perhaps he had still been going too easy on himself.

This was, after all, the first time since Randidly had arrived in the Dungeon that Randidly was completely reduced to a blubbering mess from training. Even the small headaches that Randidly developed after working for longer periods on Engraving were relatively small things, in the grand scheme of Randidly’s boundaries.

Randidly smiled up at the sun above him and licked his teeth. Well, that can easily be arranged. I suppose we just need to kick things up a notch here.