Chapter 1092 (1/2)

The first thing that became obvious was that ‘armory’ was used extremely loosely by the forces of Aether. Randidly currently was floating above a raw force of nature.

If anything, the beauty of the armory grew more apparent as he exited the shaft and appeared in a wide crystal cavern. Most of what Randidly could see as he descended into the lower area was huge currents of liquid Aether, buoying with them the tumbling mass of weapons, armor, and strange crystal shapes that could only be Fates. Refracted light and noise bounced off every surface, reflecting infinitely with a luminosity enough to leave Randidly momentarily blinded.

Huge currents of Aether carrying thousands of Fates whirled around below in a vast maelstrom, throwing of gleaming reverberations of power and light as the Fates chaotically smashed into each other in the violence of the Aether currents. For a split second, Randidly paused and just watched them move in wonder. His breath and thoughts disappeared and Randidly just witnessed.

Because truly, Randidly was just a speck of dust before an uncountable number of whirling Fates. They formed thick columns of light and energy that wriggled across the submerged armory like eels. Thick rings of gold, beams with that safe refreshing orange as the fruit rind, deep midnight blue speckles… the spread out and mixed, hitting each other and the crystal-covered walls. It was a vast dance that held Randidly transfixed.

His eyes could only follow those vast currents, wondering how heavy the will needed to be in order to move such a heavy amount of substance. Even more shocking was the fact that they periodically dived down to smash into the bottom of the large area below Randidly, sending hundreds of Fates careening sideways.

Yet there seemed to be some sort of facet of the dark bottom of this place that Randidly couldn’t make out from his vantage, because a little later another eel of Fates would form and rise sinuously from the ground, smaller but still similar enough that Randidly could only assume that this was the very same grouping of Fates that had been flowing before.

As Randidly blinked, some of the refracted light became easier for his mind to parse apart. Beauty gave way to a basic understanding.

Now that he knew what he was looking for, Randidly saw large piles of Fates along the bottom, slowly ebbing toward the sides. Randidly shook his head numbly as he realized what he had assumed were crystalline walls were really titanic mounds of dim Fates that sat forgotten against the edges of the cavern. These were rough and unused, but sometimes the roiling eels would pass closely and gather some of the drifting Fates.

But not all were picked up. In this way, those pillars of Fates would grow, larger and larger, until they turned once more downward and smashed into the ground.

“Pretty violent way of storing weapons,” Randidly muttered. Again, Randidly felt the bits of energy left by Nadia flare to life and he began rapidly descending down. Which immediately made him very nervous.

Not that he didn’t think he was very tough, but being smashed with one thousand Fates pulled by a strong current of Aether seemed like a quick way to die.

Thankfully, Nadia clearly appeared to be guiding his descent around the more violent of the currents that smashed Fates into the ground. Proceeding at a speed that had Randidly wincing, they first headed toward the edge of the open area and followed the wall steadily down toward the vast piles of Fates along the edges.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 230!

One thing that Randidly noticed as they moved downward was that he could feel that familiar resonance in his chest while he was suspended in the liquid Aether which meant a Skill might be activated soon. Likely, it was exactly Aether Detection that he had bided his time for an Aether Key in order to learn.

However, there was simply too much pressure for the process to happen smoothly in the armory. When he tried to leave the feeling along, it was shattered by the pressure squeezing him. When he tried to protect it, his attention made the resonance falter and cease. So Randidly could only throw his hands up in the air and turn his focus to the Fates that he sped past in the descent.

Most of the ones along the wall appeared to be closer to haphazard crystal than any sort of intelligible shape. Quartz and sapphire and ruby and emerald sparkled as Randidly passed, looking like some sort of dragon’s treasure trove stacked up here at the bottom of the armory.

They produced none of the light that was coming from the Fates in the more violent currents, but there was a certain aura of raw power that wafted off of them, especially when so many were gathered together. Their combined presence pressed against his senses in a way that Randidly hadn’t often encountered.

Maybe that’s why condensing an actual form is so unlikely. Because the System makes it difficult. Randidly thought grimly as he scanned the stacked Fates. As Nadia hinted, the System is creating a large quantity of them in a very raw form. If they guideposts are poorly shaped… they are less bound by the rules of their makers, I suppose.

Which means… Randidly looked back to the center of the huge room. A dull rumble swept outward as a huge column of Fates smashed unhesitatingly into the ground and some were flung away by the impact. That this isn’t a natural phenomenon or even a whim done to pass the time. This was designed to slowly grind well-formed Fates into a more raw and suggestible form…

Soon, Randidly’s path was forced inward as the heaps of Fates along the walls crept slowly toward the interior. As he did so, he could see that he was right earlier; the ground of this place was covered in gaping holes. Likely a portion of the Fates would continue down after smashing into the ground and find their way through the cave system below, which was the source of the Fates reappearing a few seconds later.

Some part of Randidly was alarmed as he proceeded down directly toward one of those holes, but too much of his attention was distracted by the increasing weight of the liquid Aether against his image. As they reached a greater depth, the cumulative weight that Randidly had to endure kept growing. At this point, he dearly wished for weight at the level of what he had faced in the shallower portions of this armory. Randidly remembered it quite fondly.

Congratulations! Your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has grown to Level 231!

But at least it’s fueling Skill growth, Randidly thought as he shot into a jagged crack into the ground and was immediately surrounded by darkness. Several times during the hurried passage through the tight tunnel there were large rock outcroppings that Randidly whipped past far too closely for comfort, but it seemed that this was just the reality of the cave system rather than Nadia teasing him.