Chapter 1090 (1/2)

“Youngster, my apologies, but my vision isn’t what it used to be.” The old woman said cheerily as she turned around and smiled at him. “I didn’t even notice you. Please, come join this old woman next to the fire and talk awhile.”

Randidly opened his mouth to reply but could only release a groan. It had taken a full hour of standing and enduring the waves of force the old man produced before the old woman had deigned to take notice of his swaying presence. During that time, Randidly was reduced to an extremely groggy state from the constant assaults.

They weren’t necessarily mental attacks, but without a body, Randidly needed to rely on his mental strength in order to resist the mind-boggling pressure. It was like image, but not. It was an expression of image without an image. It was made possible by these individuals believing in something that had no existence. Randidly supposed it was somewhat similar to the myth that those who were extremely powerful with a sword or spear could transform any item they held into that weapon and display fearsome combat prowess.

To an exhausted Randidly, it seemed like this was a realm of image that was beyond the Tellus understanding. It transcended giving sentience to image and allowed these two to give weight to nothing.

The Grim Chimera was salivating. And it seemed the foolish gamble had paid off. Now, if only I can get my body to behave...

So Randidly staggered up next to the old woman and did his best not to collapse onto the stump next to her. It was only by relying on the healing from his cores, the defense from his bubbles, and Chimeric Avoidance that he had been able to manage to endure to this point, and it had been a close thing.

Over the hour, Chimeric Avoidance Leveled up six times, which was a testament to how grueling a trial it had been.

For the old man’s part, he huffed in annoyance as Randidly approached and walked away with his arms folded behind his back toward slender tent that seemed in danger of toppling into the Armory below. The old man entered into the tent and didn’t look back. It seemed, for better or worse, Randidly had chosen his poison.

Chuckling, the old woman said. “Now where are my manners? My name is Nadia. Would you like some tea?”

“Yes,” Randidly managed to croak. He pressed his eyes closed and opened up a bit more of a flow of Nether from his Nether Wells. It was somewhat frightening to do so next to such a capable old woman, but Randidly didn’t have much choice. Otherwise, he would just pass out. And somehow he sensed that such an action would be considered a failure.

Besides, after learning that Nether principles were a part of the System, Randidly had a bit more confidence in being able to explain away the Nether.

To Randidly’s surprise, he sensed that to prepare the tea Nadia simply took another long drag from her pipe and blew out smoke into the palm of her hand. When he opened his eyes to confirm, a grey cup filled with grey tea was swirling on her palm. She offered it to Randidly with a small smile. With some misgivings, Randidly took the cup.

The substance might have been smoke, but the object felt smooth and cool to Randidly’s overly large claw. He tilted the teacup to the side and watched as the smoke-tea sloshed around, as a liquid normally would. Randidly stared down at it, wondering what the consequences would be for drinking another person’s image. For the first time, Randidly hesitated. Perhaps talking to these two will end up being more trouble than it was worth…

Apparently, his misgivings were clear on his face, because Nadia chuckled again. “Relax. There is some of my power in it, but none of my grip. And for an image like you, it will be incredibly beneficial to ingest. Consider it a gift.”

So Randidly took a sip of the tea and carefully scrutinized the flow of warmth that flowed into him. But his eyes quickly widened as Randidly realized it was an extremely familiar feeling. This is the same sort of thing that I receive from the Eidolon Crucible. It really is just more potency and weight to an image… And so much strength is concentrated...

Satisfied, Randidly gulped down the rest. As soon as the cup was empty, it dispersed into smoke once more, flowing around Randidly’s sharp talons and dissipating into the air. With that extra strength reinforcing him, Randidly turned to Nadia with a renewed self-control.

“Although you are but an image, you possess three stars,” Nadia said musingly. “And you are solid enough to survive Kailm’s trial. Interesting. I’ve never seen an image with stars, you know. And I’ve been alive for quite some time. Your kind simply dies too quickly to be that tempered by Nether. Considering how you are essentially suicide soldiers, your growth is nothing short of a miracle.”

Randidly remained silent during Nadia’s musings.

She tapped her cheek. “Plus, you have been given the chance to obtain two Fates as weapons. Fascinating. It will be difficult for your insubstantial body to endure while in the liquid Nether, even with my blessing. Harder still for you to not be corrupted by the Fate you choose, as it possesses physical form and you do not. I would recommend you turn back.”

“You sound like the guard that told me not to approach you,” Randidly said slowly. “But… I believe it will be worth it to make an attempt.”

Even if its just the Skill Levels and the image weight I got from the tea, it was probably worth the hour of misery…

Hell, just seeing the way you can shape smoke and fire with your images would have made this trip worth it. That’s a goal I can pursue.

“Fine then, you would know your limits better than I,” Nadia said with a smile that seemed to imply that the exact opposite was the case. “One more question: why did you pick me? You started walking forward quite aggressively, just the way Kailm likes. Yet then you paused. What changed your mind?”

Randidly saw no reason to lie. “It was your… game? The squirrels and the tree. Once I realized that I could either approach or wait to earn your approval, I judged by with whom I was most aligned. My image… the image that I am… is heavily based upon ash. So I chose based on your ability to manipulate smoke.”