Chapter 1346 (1/2)

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 254!

But speaking of decisions… Tearing his gaze away from his new energy, Randidly sighed and cracked his neck. With another curt gesture of his finger, Randidly recreated his root dwelling again. Even finally breaking through with Ignition Essence, it will take some time before I both understand my new powers and can use them effectively in a fight… time that I could have by going into a Dungeon to train for a month… or even a week…

Randidly looked up at the sky. It was murky with clouds, but night had long fallen behind the slate grey veil. Likely within twenty-four hours, Randidly would need to face Kaan Swacc. But for a few seconds, he supposed this didn’t need to be their definitive clash. His new image would give him a plausible explanation for why some of the signs for Nether could be seen around him, thereby delaying the reveal of Nether. But the more he thought about it, the more he realized the opposite might be true.

Having those signs now might make Kaan weary for the future, despite other explanations…

Yet that dread came back, stronger than ever when Randidly started to consider the details of a trip into a Dungeon. It gripped his heart and coiled around his stomach. Such was the vehemence of the rejection that Randidly raised his head and released a hair-raising, keening cry that seemed to emerge from his core. It came from his new Stillborn Phoenix, resonating Illym’s emotions with his current frustration to an extremely high degree.

In that prolonged moment of synchronization, the feeling of newness that came with this image began to dissipate.

A tremor seemed to go through the surrounding space even without Randidly conjuring his image. The noise and emotions were enough. For a split second while he continued to release the cry, the rain seemed to bend inward surrounding him, drenching his root shelter. But then Randidly ran out of breath and the world returned to normal.

“Damnit, where the hell is this dread coming from?!? Even if I can tell there’s something bothering me, I’m going to go into a Dungeon anyway if I can’t see-” Randidly began, but then all at once, he could see. Or at least, he could see an inkling of what was bothering him. The faintest hint of golden lines spread outward, isolating and labeling everything Randidly had seen and thought today. The shadow of his new Skill seemed to beckon him forward.

Once again, Randidly conjured Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold. The dark energy danced across his hands and gleamed. Slowly but surely, that profound sense of having everything in his life outlined returned to Randidly. And it wasn't just the surrounding area, although that gave him an almost crystal clear view of his immediate vicinity. So too that energy flowed into the past.

The Stillborn Phoenix was a creature nourished by Nether. At its core, it was a being of craving and connection. In that darkness swirled a long memory that slowly recorded every single detail that it had absorbed from the outside world. Nothing was excluded from the collection of experiences. That was an unexpected harvest of truly incorporating Illym’s essence into his image, which had existed as a Fate for a thousand years. So before the experience of Illym, some patterns began to emerge.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 255

What Randidly found was not an illuminated answer, but the mysterious revelation of a question that would guide him forward on the right Path. Suddenly, some details of Randidly’s talk with Lyra began to stand out to him. In his mind, he saw the almost shudder-inducing straightness of Lyra’s back as she bent at the waist to apologize to him. It made it seem like her body was wooden or mechanical.

Like a puppet.

Randidly’s eyes narrowed. Not that I think it was wrong that Lyra would apologize to me after the way things turned out… and after Yystrix’s death. I could tell she was sincere by looking at her eyes. That look was its own sort of message. But it was her body that was the strangest part of the whole setup. And now that I think about it, some of the other things that she said…

As if summoned by the Revelation energy in Randidly’s hand, Lyra’s voice manifested in his ear. “He instituted a gag order on all other Village Spirits, largely binding them to be silent for the next week or so.”

All other Village Spirits...

Randidly had responded by asking her why she could speak and Lyra had stated it was due to his foresight in giving her a Class. Which, because it was actually her that pushed for the Class, was a compliment aimed toward herself that Randidly expected from her. But perhaps more importantly than that, Lyra had finished her sentence by saying that the System had no control over people with Classes. Even at the time, Randidly had reflected that statement wasn’t true but hadn’t interrupted Lyra because it hadn’t seemed relevant.

But what if she had made such a statement precisely to draw his attention to the fact that Kaan Swacc had instituted a gag order on only the other Village Spirits. And how flimsy a protection a Class really was before the System, when Randidly had already discovered the apparatus present in Classes that would monitor an individual’s development.

The hairs on the back of Randidly’s neck began to rise. If Lyra was behaving like a puppet and it was only the other Village Spirits that were required to be silent, it was very likely that she had approached him under the Special Investigator’s orders. What was even more disturbing was that Randidly would never have learned about the attack if not for Lyra showing up. If Kaan Swacc really could control the Village Spirits, he could have done this without Randidly ever catching wind of the attack beforehand.

Of course, there was a chance Randidly was overthinking it. But his Skill was telling him that wasn’t the case. Lyra wouldn’t have made such inane and strange statements usually; it was to draw his attention to the problematic nature of the message she had been ordered to give to him.

Which meant that this attack wasn’t really about weakening the Earth’s fighting force.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (P) has grown to Level 256!

Randidly went through the whole conversation with Lyra one more time, illuminated by the Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold. Two further statements stuck out to Randidly.