Chapter 1097 (2/2)

Grinning, Randidly reached out and began to squeeze the ivory lock.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether’s Caress (M) has grown to Level 88!

Unfortunately, the lock didn’t swiftly disintegrate as Randidly had been hoping. In fact, it felt like he was doing very little. The closest sensation Randidly could compare it to was the feeling of spraying water on a stone in order to wear it down. He would get results eventually, but it would take quite a lot of water…

Grumbling about the typical struggles of his life, Randidly brought his three pseudo-cores spinning into his taloned claw. As they accelerated, Randidly was forced to allow more and more Nether to go pouring out of his Nether Wells and flow into his arm.

Which, unfortunately, had the blade Fate in his chest flaring with agonizing heat.

“Jesus, relax, I’m not going to dose you again,” Randidly said through gritted teeth. He tried his best to convey his lack of aggression to the Fate, although it was becoming difficult as the pain made him strongly consider teaching the Fate a lesson by blasting it with Nether.

However, the Grim Chimera had more than a little sympathy for the blade. It was clear that it wasn’t entirely conscious, and it was completely at Randidly’s mercy. Despite the fact that it wasn’t a person, or perhaps because of it, Randidly couldn’t bring himself to use the Nether against the blade unless it was absolutely necessary.

The Grim Chimera easily remembered the pain of being weak and afraid. In spite of the pain, the Grim Chimera’s image swirled protectively around the blade to keep Nether away from it.

After a few seconds, it seemed that some of Randidly’s emotions reached the blade. Like a pouting child, the heat from the blade faded to a slow-but-still-painful simmer. The Grim Chimera’s patience was almost completely spent, but Randidly gritted his teeth and turned his attention back toward controlling the Nether in his left hand. Despite the constant distraction of the blade’s heat, very quickly the three spinning cores had stabilized.

Instantly, the dark flames of Nether’s Caress grew to double their size. With a renewed determination, Randidly once more pressed his Nether against the ivory lock.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether’s Caress (M) has grown to Level 89!

“Well it’s definitely better,” Randidly sighed. “But it’s still going to take a while… which sort of reminds me… shouldn’t we have heard something from the Nether by now?”

Slowly stabilizing the Nether cores inside of him, Randidly walked out of the shack and looked around. Whereas Zauna and Salazar seemed to be busying themselves with harvesting plants from the farm, Zagnal was still lying underneath the maple tree, looking upward toward the deep blackness around them.

Randidly approached his fellow images first. “No sign of the Nether?”

“...no…” Zauna said shortly.

Salazar brightened and offered Randidly a tomato. “N-no, but I d-d-did find t-these! They a-appear to b-b-be a fleshy, edible sp-sphere.”

Despite Salazar’s usual nonsense and the difficulty Randidly had with opening the trunk, he was still in a good mood. So he was opening his mouth to actually engage Salazar’s nonsense when a voice cut across him.

“Are you daft?”

Randidly twisted and looked at the sitting form of Zagnal. The dragon-man was glaring over at him with undisguised contempt. So much so that Randidly didn’t even bother to answer. He just regarded Zagnal cooly with his emerald eyes.

As Randidly expected, Zagnal quickly spat out a blob of saliva and stood. “Why would the Nether attack now? The Aether Key is at its strongest right when it arrives. They will wait and bide their time until we are weak.”

“Haven’t I been working within the hut for quite some time?” Randidly growled. In fact, he didn’t really know how long it had been; his strange dozing state had seen him lose track of time and he still didn’t have the Absolute Timing Skill. But Randidly felt sure that it had been a significant amount.

“A week has passed, but that’s nothing to this Aether Key,” Zagnal said dismissively. Randidly froze at the revelation of how long he had been meditating, and to his surprise, Zagnal seemed to take great joy in it. “Ha! Weren’t you informed this wasn’t your usual Aether Key? The Nether might not attack early, but they will eventually attack because they are insane creatures of instinct. And the reason Lord Miln is sure that we will die is these greater Aether Keys… the time varies based on attacks from Nether, but they last for around one year.”

Randidly blinked slowly. “We will be here… for a year…?”

Zagnal’s mouth twisted. “Plenty of time for Nether forces to gather and smother us.”