Chapter 1067 (2/2)

And yet the fucker remains completely distant when I want to talk with him… Randidly thought resentfully. Shaking his head, he stood and stretched his body. Yggdrasil looked up shortly at him as he moved, but then returned to the slow sculpting of the housing structure for Ignition Essence. Still recovering, Zauna and Salazar breathed in unison in the other side of the cramped tent.

...even if its a bit tighter in here now, it’s not such a bad feeling, Randidly reflected. Moving carefully, he stepped around their still forms and left the tent. The gloomy alleyways between the canvas dwellings were uniform and empty, allowing Randidly to quickly slip through them and appear at the edge of the badlands.

When he was walking over, Randidly supposed he was heading over to attempt another training session like he had experienced a few days ago. Where his consciousness became so light that it floated on top of his actions like a bubble in bathwater.

Such a metaphor accurately illustrated how hard it was to maintain, but there were commiserate benefits in terms of grown if he could achieve that balance once more. For a short amount of time, Skill Levels had come so freely that it was shocking. There was something… intrinsic about that mentality that Randidly sought to capture for a second time.

If he could master it, his growth would be positively monstrous.

Yet when Randidly actually arrived at that borderland between two camps, he realized that although training was important, that wasn’t why he had walked to this desolate place. No, it immediately became abundantly clear that the reason that Randidly had walked over to this place in the middle of the night was that this location was where he had twice experienced the pleasure of encountering Vualla.

And the third time was still the charm; she was standing with her pale face tilted upward toward the sky when he arrived.

Her azure hair was usually flowing freely behind her, but now it was tightly bound up into a thick braid. Rather than a waterfall, her hair was suddenly a river of remarkable currents and depths. The sort that could sweep a careless adult away underneath its surface without even a ripple passing across it.

Unlike their previous encounters, they noticed each other almost immediately. After seeing him, Vualla began walking slowly out toward the middle of the no-man’s-land. Randidly accelerated to meet her. Their footsteps were the only sounds in the wide night.

When they arrived, they stood almost exactly one meter apart from one another, simply looking at the other individual. It was clear to Randidly from the places that her gaze lingered that Vualla noticed the changes he had made to his image yesterday and today, refining his physicality after it had been so thoroughly brutalized. A small surge of pride made him raise his chin.

Yet at the same time, Randidly noticed how somber and resigned Vualla’s expression was. The way her hair was pulled tightly back into a braid emphasized the harsh lines of her high cheekbones and made her look five years older. It also revealed messy scar along the left side of her jaw, almost directly below her ear. Likely her wild hair had hidden the old wound previously. Now, Randidly stared at it in wonder, curious about the story behind it.

They were silent.

Randidly’s emerald gaze that had become a dark olive and Vualla’s azure eyes played a delicate game of fencing, all testing thrusts of attention and coy reposites.

Eventually, it became too much for Randidly to take. There was a truth hanging heavy over Vualla’s head that Randidly found himself too curious about to ignore. But he couldn’t get his mouth to ask about it directly. So instead, he asked, “So we aren’t going to start our meeting with a fight today?”

Vualla’s mouth twitched a tiny bit. “You think what we did previously was a fight?”

Randidly grinned and raised a flexing claw. “Well, it would have been a nice warm-up, wouldn’t it?”

But almost as soon as it had appeared, that spark of amusement died in Vualla’s eyes. “...Perhaps. But I don’t… I’m sorry, I suspect that I won’t be the best company tonight.”

“Is something wrong?” Randidly lowered his claw.

Vualla sighed and look upward to the strangely luminous maroon brushstroke clouds above them. They appeared rusty and grey in the dim light of night here. “Yes and no. My… that man you saw me talking to the other night reported me. As he said he would, but I thought that… well, it doesn’t matter now. I’ve been assigned to a special squad that will spearhead an assault against a Nether Gatekeeper in two days. They will light the Beacon of Duty, but I don’t expect many will heed its call. With so few of us going…”

Vualla shook her head.

Randidly’s body was tingling. “What is a Nether Gatekeeper?”

Shrugging, Vualla spoke with a complete lack of interest. “A being of the Nether that possesses actual intelligence. My squad is tasked with drawing its attention so other teams may assault its stronghold and destroy as many Nether Wells as possible. The assignment… it is… likely a death sentence for me.”

Vualla raised her arms up toward the sky. “I just wish… there was a moon here. This place seems so much darker than the world I remember.”