Chapter 1098 (1/2)

Like I’m gonna fucking gonna waste a year of time here, The Grim Chimera immediately growled. With a flinty light in his eyes, he ignored the rest of Zagnal’s tirade and got to work.

The first thing Randidly did was return to his shack and confirm the truth of what Zagnal had been saying. His Aether Detection Skill focused in on every flow and ebb of the Aether around them. With a patience that the Grim Chimera rarely showed, he carefully monitored the situation of the Aether Key and the energy flowing out of it. He carefully monitored the amount flowing out of the Aether Key and the tightly bound chunk of Aether he still felt within it.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 170!

Hours passed with agonizing slowness. Even though he felt his Perception stretched to its limits, it wasn’t enough. He still couldn’t make out any change in the quantity of Aether contained in the Aether Key. His face twisted in a scowl.

It’s an answer. If I can’t fucking tell any difference after this long, it’s going to last a long time. And it’s hard to know if I”m going to be away for what I think is a year or a year in real-time. If what I heard about Aether warping the perception of time is true...

The second thing Randidly did was rip the careful but ungainly arrangement of Aether he had added that helped maintain the vulnerable energy once it was exposed to the influence of the Great Rift. If he was already going to be stuck here for almost a year, Randidly wanted no other forces extending that time limit. It was one thing to be away from the battlefront for a year, but to also be away from Earth for that length of time…

The First Calamity isn’t something I should need to help with anyway, but still… Randidly’s bone spear lashed out in the middle of the shack, gleaming with the baleful flames of Nether. The air in the surrounding area warped and rippled, but quickly recovered; the Aether in the surrounding area was simply too dense.

But at least that proves I can actually use my own Nether to deplete the Aether here if I have to. Randidly’s eyes burned emerald as he turned his gaze on the Aether Key. But his mouth twisted. But I doubt it would be smart to attack the Aether Key directly. The Engravings that cover it are clearly powerful… it was specifically designed to be sent into the Great Rift; there is no way the forces of Aether would send it out alone if it had no direct defenses against attacks. Which means the safe plan is slowly depleting it.

Randidly released a breath and did his best to force himself to calm down. Despite that terrible urgency in his chest, the cautious way was the best method. A year felt like a long time, especially considering all the other factors that were in play. But it wouldn’t be that long, not so long as he kept working at shortening it.

Without relying on Nether this time, Randidly reached out toward the steady flow of energy that was coming out of the Aether Key and began to try and seize it. It was an extremely difficult thing to manipulate directly. The familiar icy coldness and burning heat of Aether flowed unwillingly through his fingers like water. He could force it to flow in certain directions, but he could not control its movements. However, the difficulty didn’t make Randidly give up. If anything, he bent over his task with even more determination.

After an extended struggle against the Aether, he felt the familiar resonance in his chest. With renewed vigor, Randidly continued. Very soon the notification popped up.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Manipulation has grown to Level 199!

Well, that Skill Level is certainly much higher than it was previously, Randidly looked at the notification with relish. What has the main body been doing that made Aether Manipulation rise so quickly…?

Randidly could guess the details, but the specifics really didn’t matter for his current purposes. All that mattered was that it was one more confirmation the main body had his own struggle and that he had not just given up and was waiting for his images to return to him.

That thought gave Randidly pause. Does that mean the main body is severely weakened because all of the images were taken out of him…? It might be why he can only really work with the Aether based Skills… nothing else has enough punch to make a dent without an image behind it.

But Randidly’s focus quickly returned to the present. It wasn’t like there was a hard time limit on what he wanted to do, but the Grim Chimera’s impatience urged him forward.

The third thing Randidly did was speak quietly to Zauna and Salazar. Around Salazar’s frequent digressions and Zauna’s one-word answers, Randidly was able to basically flesh out the information that Zagnal had so harshly flaunted in Randidly’s face.

It confirmed his worst fears. They were using a ‘strategic’ grade Aether Key whereas most missions usually involved ‘tactical’ grade. And this difference would mean that their experience would be vastly different. Even worse, Zauna confirmed that the time limit for the mission was measured in real-time, not in the time that they would experience.

Tactical grade Aether Keys were genuinely used to destabilize the strange formations that the Nether used to gather momentum for attacks. Meanwhile, the strategic grade Aether Keys were often used as a smokescreen for large scale operations. When a sufficient number were deployed at key locations, essentially all of the Nether’s available information was blocked off. Nether could send forces around the outskirts to attack, but most of the frontline was screened off.

Of course, the Nether could overwhelm these Aether Keys. But why would they? Considering the presence in the Great Rift, the Aether Keys would eventually be depleted without the main forces even raising a finger. Because in the history of this long war between Aether and Nether, a year was a pittance.

Yet neither side would miss this chance to mass their forces for the confrontation that was to come.