Chapter 1072 (1/2)

Randidly could feel the edge of it. Once he saw it as a grand plant, the pattern immediately became clearer. He could follow around the stem to the vine, vine to the stem, stem to the trunk…

I wish Yggdrasil was here. He would understand the knack of this vein system so much easier...

Randidly’s awareness rushed along, following the vast network of blue veins. He had located a few independent Nether Wells drifting around them, but he could sense that something much more valuable was hidden somewhere, tucked stealthily between two dense discs of Nether. Randidly felt like he weirdly could picture the location that he was searching for, like some part of him already knew that it was definitely here. Yet that weird certainty that the Nether Sensation provided didn’t match up easily to his actual perception of the surrounding area.

So he could only expand his area of scanning, looking for the similar swirling shape of the Nether that he pictured around the Nether Wells. In the few seconds since he had asked the group to wait, he hadn’t been able to locate anything concrete.

Vualla visibly restrained herself from the snapping response she had originally intended to give. Instead, her eyes studied Randidly very carefully for a few extra seconds. “...can you really sense things out here?”

“Yes,” Randidly grinned.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 20!

“Impossible,” Kel’ev spat. Randidly just barred his teeth at the man who had immediately given away their stealthy approach. But it did reassure Randidly that the casual divide that Vualla had created with her memory image wasn’t as easy as she had made it seem.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Acclimation ® has grown to Level 129!

Out of the corner of his eye, Randidly noticed that one blue vein was swirling down toward his finger. Part of him wanted to pull back immediately to escape its attention once more, but they were already revealed, correct? What was the harm in allowing the thing’s approach?

So instead, Randidly ignored the immediate surroundings and continued to follow his perception outward along the pulsing veins.

“So, what can you see?” Vualla asked in a neutral voice.

After a few distracted seconds, Randidly pointed sharply in three directions. One of them was the direction that Kel’ev had indicated that they should go. “Three groups of Nether Beasts. Large ones, heading from those directions. They will get here… in a few minutes.”

“Then we should move,” Kel’ev said harshly. His eyes gleamed with a fanatical light as he spared Randidly a furious glance. “If forces are coming from the direction I indicated, that will mean the Nether Wells over there will be unguarded for the time being. It’s the best chance we’ve got.”

“All you had was a feeling and the honorable designation of being the one who blew our cover,” Vualla narrowed her eyes at Kel’ev. The air was tight with the knowledge that Kel’ev had also earned their place here by reporting Vualla’s movements that night. “So perhaps we wait for confirmation? How many times need I gamble my life on your terms, Kel’ev?”

“Do we have time to wait for this fucking image?” Kel’ev glanced at the other seven soldiers for support. The silent watchers shifted uneasily, their eyes scanning across the Great Rift around them. Randidly understood that it was difficult for them to accept that he could truly sense things in the Nether; after all, no one else really could.

But Randidly never bothered appealing to these people. There was only one person in power on this expedition. To approach anyone else was just a waste. And as he watched Vualla, he continued to frantically search.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 21!

She seemed so lonely and solemn with her hair drawn back into a braid, leaving her face completely uncovered. Her eyes looked at Randidly. Slate grey met forest green.

Perhaps because Vualla had talked about the memory of an image’s origin, but Randidly thought about his previous interactions with Vualla. Her stubborn determination. Her willful certainty. Her casual hubris.

Then, slowly as their gazes remained almost magnetically connected to each other, azure light flowed back into that pair of eyes as Vualla looked at him. Almost helplessly, Vualla shook her head and laughed. Ignoring the surrounding shoulders, she spoke directly to Randidly with the first pinch of genuine emotion she had displayed toward him since he had come to volunteer without informing her. “I’m really glad you are here, Ghosthound… but you know we might die here, right?”

Randidly grinned. “Will it really be us who will die today?”

“Well I’ve already dug the graves,” Vuall retorted. But her eyes were as crystalline blue as the untouched depths of the sea in summer. “Someone will surely be buried here today.”

Seeing something was occurring, Kel’ev stepped forward. “Vualla-”

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 22!

And at that moment that Kel’ev stepped forward, the drifting blue vein that had quested after these strange interlopers alighted on the tip of Randidly’s finger. His entire mind stuttered and froze as information smashed into him.

It was like too much air being forced rapidly into a balloon. Randidly felt himself inflating rapidly beyond the point that he could handle it. His mind and image spasmed painfully under the forceful injection.

Which, of course, was the moment when Randidly felt the main body there, that soothing Willpower bolstering his own strength. Randidly immediately felt bitter, but the main body’s thoughts flowed into Randidly like an apology.