Chapter 1345 (2/2)

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 199!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 200!

Randidly tracked down some Level 50 Two-Headed Bears to use as guinea pigs and learned several things from the experience. One, that Level 50 foes weren’t enough to even put his new Skills through their paces. Randidly needed to spend a bit more tracking down usable test subjects in the future. Two, it appeared that Cosmic Necessity had incorporated all the vicious efficiency with violence that Innate Violence had provided, with an even more honed preternatural ability to predict the moves of the opponent.

It was the third and final discovery of Randidly’s that made him go back and looked at the Skill description.

Cosmic Necessity (M): A skill that vastly boosts ones ability to fight in close range combat. The Skill provides honed instincts based on the universe’s cosmic laws to provide a small amount of predictable ability to the user. Also enhances the user with extremely small boosts to the power and quickness of user’s attacks. In addition, the user can create a certain amount of Cosmic Orbs. Upon detonation of the Orb, user can pull either his or her self or the opponent toward the Orb. Effect is greater on self. Predictive ability greatly increases with Skill Level. Passive bonuses slightly increase with Skill Level. Number of Cosmic Orbs and effect increases with Skill Level.

The Cosmic Orbs Randidly could create really looked like a larger, semi-translucent glass orb around a smaller black orb. But, like the Skill described, Randidly could activate them and provide some extra variation to his own movements. It was hard to judge how effective they were on enemies, however, because the bears Randidly found tumbled helplessly forward when he activated them.

How do you have any self-respect? Randidly lampooned as he shook his head.

In addition, the orbs grew less effective the farther they were away from the target and from Randidly himself. They could also be deployed and used relatively quickly, enabling Randidly to rapidly shift himself a short distance to the side on the fly. Which, combined with the Skill Chimeric Avoidance, almost guaranteed that Randidly would soon recover a reputation as a phantom in spirit, if not in image.

Satisfied, Randidly moved forward with his experiments. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart was an even more powerful version of gravity manipulation. This, at least, Randidly was very pleased to receive. Specifically, because the increased power and dexterity he could wield with the Skill meant that his metal forging process would take significantly less time. Not that Randidly had much spare time for forging at the moment, but he didn’t doubt he would soon be required to making himself a more advanced metal left arm.

Especially because Neveah was constantly raving about how much she had learned from Yystrix’s Engraving puzzles… His arm and back Engravings would likely soon be upgraded anyway.

Tug of Tragic Silence was another pleasant surprise. When activated, it first pulled at the surrounding space before releasing a large blast of what Randidly could only assume was radiation into the surrounding area. Objects around him immediately began to corrode and disintegrate into tiny, sparkling bits of ash. At a rate that alarmed Randidly at first, before he could see that the effect only spread out ten meters from his body.

Even so, it was somewhat disturbance to watch as the wind blew away a little bit more of the surrounding hill that Randidly had annihilated. Truly, he was an apocalypse for these badgers; their homeland had been obliterated in so many ways in a short span of time.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 135!

Mostly, Randidly was in awe that the effect of the corrosion was even more powerful than what Nether could accomplish and the Skill Level was only 135. It wasn’t a Skill that could be used near allies, but some time and attention would see it become deadly.

Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix was generally just an upgraded version of the earlier Stigma, keeping his resistance to fire and Nether while also adding a larger resistance to any sort of outside influence on his body. Which left Randidly with just one last Skill to test.

Randidly flexed his hand and activated Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 253!

An inky darkness that floated somewhere between pure black and a deep purple congregated around Randidly’s hand. As Randidly looked down at the energy, there was a change in the surrounding air; he felt like some sort of spiritual artist had gone through the surroundings and outlined everything in glimmering gold lines. To his eyes, everything became specific and distinct.

And his awareness of the surrounding area...

A strange sense of calmness filled Randidly’s chest as he looked at that energy, but for the moment he didn’t bother to look around and consider how it had changed his already prodigiously powerful Grim Intuition. Instead, he simply continued to stare into the depths of the energy.

Because as he watched, tiny motes of emerald and orange light flashed in that swirling energy. The proof that the two flames Randidly possessed hadn’t been totally devoured by the image he had… and in addition, it was a confirmation that the image wasn’t as dangerously bleak as its attitude would indicate.

It was a small thing, but it reassured Randidly that he had made the right decision. Especially after feeling the wild torrent of emotions that the image held… this confirmed that this was his image and not just an image of necessity that was built to house Illym’s emotions. So he stood still for a short time, enjoying that certainty.