Chapter 1027 (1/2)

The final shape of the Engraving that Randidly settled on was a closed eye surrounded by a series of simple waves. The final details of the process him took him several hours; after all, Randidly would be repeating the one pattern thousands of times across his moving city. He needed to know the pattern so well there wouldn’t be any variance.

While it was true that one of the main goals Randidly had for the Engraving was to give the city itself a way to identify threats, but a pattern that included an eye started to have some… troublesome images. When there were no threats present, that open eye would not be the perfect shield that Randidly envisioned. With no distractions, the eye would turn inward toward the city itself.

And an unblinking eye was a very harsh judge.

Obviously, I don’t want any corruption to take root on the Erickson Steel compound, but that kind of intense observation… As Randidly followed the logical progression of the image, he couldn’t help but wince.

So Randidly had to scratch the option of the all-seeing eye for the city. Which was all for the best, considering some of the rather sinister analogs that sprung to mind for that sort of image. It was chosen for its power and clarity, but those only carried the Engraving so hard. Randidly needed something that would work without dangerous side-effects.

If he had to lower the power in order to make it so, it was worth it for the consistency.

Once Randidly had applied the lesson that Lyra was trying to give him to the Engraving, the process had suddenly become much easier. It was like a switch had been flipped. With an included goal in the image, pieces began to click together. The process came more easily to him. Which, in turn, freed up a lot of Randidly’s time to experiment with different patterns.

Although his drawing wasn’t the most anatomically faithful, Randidly tried to develop Engraving patterns based on the other senses: hearing, touch, taste, and smell.

Honestly, the results were comically bad. Randidly found himself guffawing in the dim light of his workshop as he tried to imagine how the city would protect itself if the weapon at its disposal was an insightful sense of taste. Would he need to design some sort of tongue mechanism that would allow the city to function…?

Some were so bad that he burned them to ashes directly with the Ignition Essence. The last thing he needed was for Wendy to stumble across some of his early sketches and mock him relentlessly for it. After Randidly had taken her to the festival, Wendy had mellowed out a lot. Which also meant she felt very comfortable criticizing him.

For every pro, there’s a con...

Despite the lack of early result, Randidly had continued to experiment. He tried combinations of the senses. He tried more senses-adjacent patterns, like lighthouse and tuning forks, to get at the senses without having to depict the rather awkward looking human body part. If anything, these were even worse.

Truly, Randidly didn’t have a single artistic bone in his body. But he didn’t let that rather inconvenient truth stop him.

All the while, Randidly honed his skill in applying desire into the images that he was creating.

Even if you won’t acknowledge it, Lyra, Randidly thought without venom as his azure-glowing finger traced the runes across a practice bracer. The desire to protect is an important part of me. And it’s what this image needs to understand its role in the world. Even if you want more from me… this is what I’m pouring all my effort toward.

For a second, Randidly paused in his Engraving as a tremor ran through his hands. His eyes closed for a split second. You’ll thank me later.

His work did yield some functioning results. The final Engravings weren’t satisfactory in their effects and the Skills that would grow as they did, but they could grow past Level 100. At least in theory. Obviously, Randidly wasn’t willing to spend the time to Level any of the Engravings to prove the point. But while the previous System messages indicated that his Engravings were barred at Level 100, there was no longer any indication that they would stop there.

In fact, there was no indication at all that there was a limit. Which meant that there wasn’t a hard limit on the Engraving’s growth any longer. So it would continue… until Randidly’s craftmanship proved insufficient.

That made Randidly grimace. He didn’t want to know what would happen to the moving city when the Engraving grew to such a point that it destabilized. And perhaps imploded, destroying all the careful machines that Wendy had slaved away to design…

I wonder if there is a way to forcefully limit the growth of the Engraving… Randidly thought idly. But as he consulted his Absolute Timing Skill, he only had two and a half days until he needed to experience his Judgment. And it wasn’t an issue important enough that Randidly would head over to a Dungeon to experiment.

Plus, there was always a chance that it was impossible. Which would mean pursuing it was a complete waste of time.

So Randidly continued to try strange and unusual Engravings. When he ran out of ideas, he drew shapes and then was inspired by what he drew. Ultimately, it was the connection with desire that gave Randidly the clue that caused his focus to shift. After all, what do people generally desire more than anything else?

That which they couldn’t have.

So Randidly took away the Engraving’s sight and imbued the Engraving pattern with every ounce of his vehement urge to protect these people for whom Randidly was responsible. That same furious desire that drove Randidly to torture himself for a year in a Dungeon without any real break. In his heart, Randidly knew that even if he didn’t have his eyes, he would still find a way to serve his state purpose.

Because it was never in his nature to stop because someone said it wasn’t possible. Because from weakness came empathy, and from empathy could come discretion. An eye that was not an eye to look out for threats that might not seem like threats.