Chapter 1169 (2/2)
Congratulations! Agility and Strength +40! Synchronicity detected! Your Skill Flowing Momentum has evolved into Ruinous Drive (Ru)! All Skill Levels will be maintained! Followers affected by Ruinous Drive will inflict slightly more damage with all methods of attack and will have a slight chance of ignoring the target’s Resistance! Amount of additional damage increases with Skill Level. Chance to ignore a percentage of Resistance increases with Skill Level. Amount of Resistance ignored increases with Skill Level.
It’s nice to finally be right for once, Randidly thought with a smile. It wasn’t a new Skill, and it was an open question whether Nether Beasts had Resistance for the Skill to ignore, but it was a much more concrete effect than the momentum that the Skill previously provided. Plus it seemed like he could extend this Skill farther than Flowing Momentum, which only affected those physically following Randidly.
With 1300 or so PP remaining, Randidly just accepted the risk of the linking Path and started pouring PP into the Chimera’s Grudge. His lips quirked up in annoyance when he learned that it was a 1000 PP Path, but Randidly still finished it out. It earned him 5 Strength every 100 PP spent.
Congratulations! You have finished the Chimera’s Grudge I Path! The Grim Chimera is a creature that has always been persecuted for its existence. It is a life that-
Warning! Change detected… Recalculating...
Integrating recent developments…
The Grim Chimera is a life that is tainted by Nether. As the Grim Chimera has grown to discover this truth, you can feel naught but helplessness. Despite the obvious danger that they present, there is no way to remove the notes of Nether that have found their home in the Grim Chimera’s body. So you must continue to walk forward even as every step of yours drives that taint deeper into the core of your being. Tread carefully, wanderer.
Congratulations! +20 to all Stats as your body evolves to face adversity! You have learned the Skill Nether Infection ® Lvl 1!
Nether Infection ®: Nether will unpredictably interfere with your attacks, causing vastly increased damage. Warning! Some entities relating to the System will react violently when they realize that you have a Nether Infection! Warning! At some point, the Nether might attempt to take over your body.
“You are full of shit,” Randidly chuckled. There was a curious sort of detached brutality as Randidly cracked his knuckles and prepared to do what he knew he was about to do.
His first response was to examine the newly created Skill in his chest. And certainly, one thing that this Skill did was plant a deep seed of a grudge in his heart for a System. Because Randidly watched the System try to gather up some of the Nether present in his being, bind it together, and then use it like a doping agent. The Skill was practically a syringe that warped Nether, and the hand holding it was the System’s.
As Randidly examined the Skill, Randidly could see the mechanism it would use to operate unpredictably. And he didn’t miss the way that the operation would be recorded by the overlay System. Randidly’s first instinct was to rip the Skill out of his chest, but he remembered Octavius Shrike’s warning.
His second instinct was to head into the Alpha Cosmos where the overlay System was no longer run by the System and rip the damn thing out with prejudice. But Randidly wasn’t sure if Azriel would be able to hide what he had done for when he returned to the real world and was exposed to the original overlay.
So it was Randidly’s third idea that struck his as the most reasonable. And as a nice demonstration of poetic justice.
Randidly’s mouth twisted into a vicious grin. Do you think you can cage and manipulate me, just like you are attempting to do with this Nether? Let’s see what your fucked up overlay System thinks about this, you fuck.
Although his Nether was attuned to his Aether, it didn’t need to be that way. Randidly pulled deeply from his Nether Wells and gathered some raw Nether into his hands. With his Nether Adaption, it barely even felt painful to handle it. But as Randidly dumped the untreated Nether directly over the raw Aether of the Skill, the form of the Skill began to warp and boil.
...but it did not break. To Randidly’s surprise, the Skill was surprisingly resilient. Although it was clear that this resiliency was only because it instinctively drew on Randidly’s ambient Aether in order to heal through the damage done by the Nether.
Snorting, Randidly cut off that flow of Aether and gathered even more Nether into a tight orb of destruction between his palms. Then he doused this new Skill with Nether until the Nether at its core ruptured outward and melted the surrounding Aether to nothing but that grey putty that Yggdrasil had used to try and make an incubator for Ignition Essence. For good measure, Randidly poured more Nether over it. A notification popped up in front of Randidly.
Warning! Due to instability amongst Nether, one of your Skills has been damaged beyond repair! Please see a Village Spirit in order to correct this problem. Warning, a delay may result in sickness or death as Nether spreads throughout your body!
“Ha. Funny joke,” Randidly spat on the ground. “Good riddance, you piece of shit.”