Chapter 1256 (1/2)
Left with no other choice, Randidly was forced to give in to Tatiana’s smug face. He could only shake his head and leave the office while muttering to himself. “They want me to make myself a home now? Do they really think I have nothing but time after being away from Earth for so long…?”
Yet somehow, Randidly couldn’t be mad. He quickly left Kharon proper and landed on solid ground. Then he headed a bit to the North, where he had originally arranged a viewing area for the three platforms. Snorting to himself, Randidly used Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil to pick the three pieces up and move them closer together.
As Randidly looked at the spacious tract of land that had been made by combining the three original pieces of ground and couldn’t help but feel a glimmer of satisfaction in his chest. Not from the land, although he had really taken care to make sure that all three tracts were arranged in ways that were aesthetically pleasing.
No, what pleased Randidly was that these people wanted him to build a home here. Because they sensed that Kharon was his. Likely they didn’t understand how perfectly this mirrored Randidly’s own feelings and meant this only as a show of respect, but it felt good all the same.
So Randidly walked slowly over to the assembled platform, with the currently resting Kharon casting a shadow across him, spread his Grim Intuition slowly outward to examine the space with an even more critical eye. He took in the details of the small grove of trees at one end of three-leaf clover shaped area, the lake at the other end, and the flower-filled meadow in the third area. With a wave of his hand, Randidly used Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil again to pull up a large about of soil and fill in the gaps.
It was slightly awkward, but Randidly only took a few minutes to squeeze additional soil into the cracks so the three islands could be merged into one extremely large island. Then, before Randidly even made the Engraving across the land he released a blast of energy that flowed outward and began to sink into the ground. His hands flexed and the energy seemed to spiral out of him endlessly.
Of course, Randidly didn’t release Aether; he released Nether.
The physical space in the surrounding area shuddered at first from exposure to Nether, but Randidly kept his images flowing outward with the energy. Although the ambient Aether of the System reacted negatively to its presence, Randidly used his image to push away that System Aether and spread his own Aether to encapsulate his island.
It was relatively simple, too. After all, any Aether his missed would fizzle angrily when exposed to Nether, quickly revealing the flaw. Bit by bit, the island and the surrounding space came to be dominated by Randidly’s Aether.
Even though Randidly had plenty of Aether to fuel the process, he still took his time. Because Randidly wanted to use this chance to build a house as a way to work on his Nether Skills. After using Nether Ritual while communicating with Neveah, he realized that he had largely ceased improving his understanding of his Nether Gatekeeper qualities after reaching the point of condensing a Nether Gatekeeper core.
Randidly’s emerald eyes glittered. This is a good chance to figure out how much meaning there is in me building a permanent home…
That brought a smile to Randidly’s face. Well… semi-permanent… it will still float around a traveling city, after all…
His attention didn’t waver as he continued to push more and more Nether into the surrounding area. Some of the trees withered and some fish in the lake thrashed as the Nether began to surrounding them, but as soon as Randidly’s Aether pushed the System Aether out of the area the two energies could coexist peacefully. The withering quickly stopped and the fish gradually calmed back down.
The minerals in the ground warped slightly but otherwise were much more well behaved than the living organisms on the island. Soon, the whole of the area had been submerged in Aether with no aberrant reactions. The energies intermingled freely. With a grin on his face, Randidly activated the Nether Wells in his chest and poured out more and more of the energy of connection and memory to pool in the purified area around his future home.
Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 100!
Randidly could clearly feel the flows of energy in the surrounding area. With light touches he sent them spiraling inward, flowing in just the way that Nether flowed around inside his body. What he wanted to do was closely mirror the movement of Nether in his own person and use the weight of this being his ‘home’ to ground the working.
And as Randidly felt the density of Nether around his island climbing upward, he could feel that it would work. But before he finished assembling the shape, Randidly turned his attention to his Path screen. Hopefully, getting Nether Sensation up to 100 will be enough to earn a Nether related Path…
Honestly, Randidly was initially unsure whether the System could give him straight Nether Paths. It had given him Paths that could acclimate his body to Nether and then later incorporate Nether in a dangerous fashion into his Skills. But as Randidly looked at his Menu screens, his face twisted into a smile. There, sitting at the bottom of his Paths was a new arrival related to Nether.
Friend to Humanity 0/100, Mantle of the Patron 0/500, Aether Convergence II ???, the Bell of Doom Tolls 0/600, The Ashes of Ulaat, Patron of Ash 0/1000, Order Ducis: Font of Guidance ???, Humanity’s Torch 0/500, Bearing of a Teacher ???, Puppet Master 0/100, Pain Immunity I 0/250, Cleaver of the World Tree ???, Weakness of the World Tree 0/500, Experimenter IV 0/1250, Guilty Conscience I 0/100, Peerage of the Baleful Court I 0/600, Hands of the Artisan 0/???, Ashes of Illym, the Above-Average Child 0/5000, The Flame the Burns Memories 0/????, Exodus, the Terror 0/1000, Genesis, the Considered 0/1000, Image Cooperation I 0/100, Body Refinement I 0/???, Chimera’s Struggle II 0/????, Spear Mastery III 0/200, Lesser Nether Core 0/???