Chapter 1045 (2/2)

Breathe in, breathe out.

In the past, this would likely be a time where Randidly would slip into his growing image verse and feel the movements that he could sense with his Crown, which had now been restructured into the Reign of the Eidolon Crucible. But displayed on the inside of his eyelids Randidly now only found blackness. He wondered idly how Ignition Essence was doing and what Yggdrasil did to pass the time while he was performing missions.

Would his growth here help the main body grow more powerful?

The concept of time writhed and slithered around Randidly like a naughty serpent. The only constant was his own breath and the intermittent pulses of the Aether key grasped tightly in his claw. After focusing on his mental recovery for what felt like days, Randidly soon felt himself returning to his peak.

Well, rather than his peak, it was the rather gritty reality of feeling good in not the best of circumstances. Which, considering where he was, seemed good enough to consider it a victory. So Randidly returned to the rather endless task of refining his image of the Grim Chimera.

And when he did so, Randidly was met with the rather shocking realization that his earlier ‘refinements’ were extremely crude and clumsy. They stuck out like a sore thumb against the rather smooth rest of his image. He had wielded a blunt instrument to repair the damage done by Nether, leaving the finished product extremely rough.

Randidly grimaced as he went about correcting and enhancing the pieces he had added to his image earlier. Well, I suppose that’s a sharp lesson about trying to perform surgery on yourself directly after a battle… the results are pretty abysmal. But I’m not sure whether it’s better to add such stopgaps to an image or simply focus on recovering mental acuity first, leaving those wounds to the image to bleed during the intervening time…

Shaking his head, Randidly stretched and straightened. He glared down at the Aether Key as though it was responsible for his current predicament. Weak pulses of Aether continued to flow outward about once every five minutes or so. In order to pass the time, Randidly stuck his feet into the cool water of the quarry. But although the sensation was enjoyable, it felt… hollow.

Hard to tell if that’s because I don’t have a body or because this place was made off of my rather fuzzy memory… Randidly sighed and closed his eyes once more. Instead of simply focusing on himself or his image, Randidly focused on the Aether Key in his hand.

With the Grim Chimera’s instincts, he could clearly feel the dense Aether that was held within the glass sphere. But it was also clear that much of that energy had already dispersed into the surrounding area. Which, considering it was used to stabilize the space, made Randidly wonder how exactly Aether worked. Why did its presence give Randidly something to affix his image to? If it was just an energy form-

Of course, Randidly knew it wasn’t just energy. It was also shape. But-

Then Randidly froze. Because while his focus was directed at the continually pulsing waves of Aether, there was a subtle stirring in his chest. Something was resonating.

Instantly, the excitement in Randidly’s chest bubbled up and completely destroyed his focus. But now, Randidly stared down at the Aether Key with a hungry intensity. Of course! Even if I can’t get some of the other Skills, if I can get Aether Detection to resonate by holding such a powerful bit of concentrated Aether for a prolonged period of time…

So Randidly took several breaths to calm himself down and focused on the slow beats of Aether that were spreading outward from the sphere in his hand. Of course, the time between the pulses of Aether seemed extremely long to Randidly’s impatient senses. Almost prohibitively slow.

Yet after every pulse, the resonance in his chest would increase by the smallest bit. The energy would clearly trigger something and come back with more vigor than before, only then to slowly fade as the space between pulses stretched.

Randidly frowned while keeping his eyes closed. Focusing like this earlier would have been better when the Aether held within the Aether Key still possessed most of its potency. But even so… with a few more pulses…

The resonance in his chest continued to climb in intensity. Randidly didn’t remember exactly when the resonance had reached a tipping point, but he suspected it was very close-

Randidly’s stomach lurched as he was pulled through teleportation once more. The resonance rapidly faded to nothing. With a quick look, it was clear that the sphere in Randidly’s hand was completely devoid of energy. Randidly released a long stream of curses.

And based on what Zagnal said, I’ll need to handle three defensive missions before I’ll have another chance at an offensive one again. Randidly wanted to rip out his hair. But maybe there will be a way to get access to a spare Aether Key without waiting for another mission… What are they anyway? I would assume its concentrated System Aether but without Aether Detection-

A split second later, Randidly was standing once more in the pentagram of pillars. Zagnal looked up and met his gaze with Randidly, whose face was probably covered in an expression of a man whose fiance died of a heart attack at the alter across from him.

Zagnal patted Randidly shoulder with a commiserating expression. “Not so easy, is it? And it will only get harder from here… but you survived, that’s what’s important. When you’ve recovered, follow me. It’s time to take you to your new lodgings. Now you report to Iellaya.”