Chapter 1032 (1/2)

Vye frowned down at the motes of green light that were floating out of the ground. As though drawn by a weak magnet, they began to drift toward her. “Why isn’t anyone more worried about these? Does anyone know what these are?”

Aldo, the man who mimicked Randidly Ghosthound in all of the weird ways that didn’t seem that important, opened his mouth and bit down on one of the floating green lights. After chewing thoughtfully for a second, he said hesitantly. “It certainly seems to taste like the Ghosthound, but I’m not sure about the origin…”

You, sir, are an idiot. Vye thought with a sigh. She glanced around at the surrounding people who regarded the lights with little more than bemusement as the floated upward. Although I guess its not like we haven’t seen plenty of strange things, but really? To have no reaction at all? If this was poison, the entire Order would be fucked.

The “entire” Order Ducis had been standing around at the East gate of the Erickson Steel compound for about five minutes when the motes of light began to float upward from the ground in unsteady waves. These bits of soft light seemed to seep directly up out of the ground and drift through the air like motes of dust riding the air. Even though it was almost noon, the lights were bright enough to catch the eye. Certainly, they weren’t natural.

But when green lights started to rise out of the ground, it was pretty clear that most people assumed it had something to do with Randidly Ghosthound. Perhaps because of that, Vye was torn between curiosity and a strange dread toward the many motes of light that floated upward around their group's feet.

After she had received her sub-Class from Randidly Ghosthound, she felt… different. Mostly in good ways, but her growth had suddenly accelerated so much that she didn’t trust the sensation. Some part of her worried that she couldn't accomplish her dream if she relied on someone else’s help like this.

But finding something like this is exactly why I applied to join the Order, right? Vye grimaced at two motes of light that floated upward and merged into one larger bit of light before rising another meter and slowly dispersing into nothing. Don’t sabotage yourself now that it’s actually happening.

When she used the Rituals, the resulting pain in her hand was now much less pronounced. In addition, it felt like the shape and extent of the Rituals was much easier to control. Plus, she already had the new Ritual, Consume, and had gained two Levels in the sub-Class. It was immediately clear that this would be of tremendous benefit to her growth.

“Relax, and don’t worry about avoiding the lights,” Naffur said lightly. Although he had frowned just as much as everyone else when they had emerged from the ground, his face eased up after a few minutes. “I’d heard that Randidly was working on the final touches for the training area this morning… and this is related to that. No need to avoid them any longer, those of you who have some extra energy. Don’t worry; you’ll need it later. Randidly Ghosthound will be arriving soon.”

That made everyone among the applicants for the Order Ducis share a worried glance. Vye coughed into her hand and hoped that whatever Randidly Ghosthound had cooked up for them wouldn’t be so brutal that she would feel guilty for what she had caused. Yet somehow Vye sensed that it was a fool’s hope she held in her chest.

Now that Naffur had given the affirmation that the strange phenomenon wasn’t dangerous, Vye stretched out her hand and allowed several motes to soak into her fingers. The motes of light themselves were similar in appearance to fireflies but were a slightly darker shade of green than the yellow-green of the insects. They were, in fact, almost forest green.

As the motes touched Vye’s hand, she felt a sudden rush of warmth fill her fingers. And that warmth-

“It’s the same feeling as his fire,” Vye muttered to herself as she stretched out her bandaged left hand and allowed some of the small motes to drift upward into her hand. Although most of the pain had gone, there was still a rather constant dull ache. Very quickly, that warmth began to wash away the lingering pain in her hand.

Although admittedly, part of that persistent pain might be because she had become more comfortable using the Rituals through her hand after the resulting pain had diminished and had overdone practicing a bit…

For the next two minutes, most of the Order Ducis participated in their own private experiments with the motes of light. As it turned out, the lights began to dim and dissipated after rising about three meters off of the ground, so rather than a natural phenomenon, many people began to suspect that it was radiation from something else.

If individuals were near, the motes drifted over toward them. But otherwise, they simply rose off the ground and dimmed to the point of invisibility. Whatever energy had created them quickly ran out.

The mood took on an even more relaxed tone after Naffur’s statement indicated that the lights were related to the construction of Randidly Ghosthound’s new project. So although the phenomenon was strange, everyone quickly accepted it as par for the course for Randidly Ghosthound.

As his followers, they simply needed to accept this sort of thing would happen quite a bit around him.

Besides, for the Order Ducis applicants, this lull between training was a time where they didn’t need to do anything. It was a long-awaited period of rest. Combined with the rejuvenating properties of the motes of forest green light, many people began to doze and ignore the lights continued mild attraction to their bodies.

Which, Vye believed, was a mistake. Because those people, therefore, didn’t notice that the number of motes of light that was seeping out of the ground was gradually increasing.

But just as Vye was noticing the shift in density among the lights, Randidly Ghosthound appeared. His eyes were somewhat hollowed and he seemed profoundly exhausted, but he seemed to step out of the very ground and arrive before the grouping of them. For several seconds, the Order Ducis applicants who were paying attention seemed frozen in surprise. Many people continued to doze without even noticing his arrival.

“Ahem,” Then, with a deliberately soft noise, Ajax coughed. That familiar nudge had everyone who had endured his training leaping to their feet and preparing for the next threat.

When they noticed that Randidly Ghosthound stood before them, no one dared relax entirely.