Chapter 1350 (1/2)

For a split second as Kaan had been speaking, Randidly had realized that his attempts to hide his ability to use Nether were basically all for naught in front of this foe. For the wrong reasons, it seemed like Kaan had made the right sort of preparations to fight against him. He even threw that fact in his face rather than hiding his preparations.

Which was annoying, but the reveal was more of a mental blow than a true one; Kaan could be prepared for Nether but Randidly doubted he would be prepared for how adept he would be at utilizing it. Already, Randidly had moved far past the abilities of Nether Gatekeepers.

Seemingly satisfied after delivering his last threat, Kaan turned away and gestured for Lyra to follow him. Randidly was interested to note that Lyra followed almost immediately, only casting an almost apologetic glance back toward Randidly before she walked away with Kaan Swacc.

Already Randidly had accomplished his three goals for coming to this Dungeon, so he was fine with them leaving. It disturbed him a little to see Lyra acting so obediently like this, but her hidden warning in the earlier message clearly indicated that things weren’t completely overwhelming for her.

Besides, after being next to the bronze humanoid, Randidly could admit he wasn’t ready to fight against him.

Still, with how smug Kaan seemed after another misunderstanding, Randidly couldn’t help but needle him the tiniest bit. “Ileot Swacc isn’t dead, you know.”

Whatever Randidly had expected after throwing out that tidbit, he hadn’t expected the Special Investigator to ignore him completely. Very soon, the figures of Kaan and Lyra began to grow fuzzy and fade with a strange chiming like a handbell ringing. Even once they were completely disappeared, Randidly waited for several more minutes next to the Dungeon without moving. There was no point in rushing now.

And if Randidly was being honest, his heart was pounding after standing in front of Kaan Swacc. The Special Investigator oozed solidity of image in a way that Randidly hadn’t sensed since Ileot Swacc himself. There were basically not ripples of his image as he moved and used his Skills.

Eventually, Randidly received a message from Neveah and Randidly released a pulse of Nether in the surrounding area. He kept the pulse weak, but it spread out through that crack in the System and gave him a pretty good understanding of the ground around them. Even if Kaan Swacc was a powerful individual from the Xyrt Brigade, Randidly hoped that Nether would be able to detect him nearby.

Which might not be true, considering he was trained to counter Nether foes… Randidly grimaced. But it’s not like I have any other choice… There aren’t any other Skills that I think would be more effective...

When his Nether detected nothing, Randidly gave a return signal. A few minutes later, another Randidly walked out of the Dungeon, this Randidly without Acri and Sulfur. They nodded to each other and then Randidly used the Philosopher’s Key to open a portal back to his island.

Only when they were back on the island did Neveah let her illusion fall away. Or rather, she replaced the illusion Randidly with an illusion of her usual human form. And immediately, she spoke. “It’s hard to confirm without you testing it directly, but for the moment it’s best you don’t head into any Dungeons. The Aether constructs are necessarily very delicate in order to accomplish such a vast dilation of time.”

Randidly grimaced. “So getting me to go to a Dungeon wasn’t about keeping my tracked inside, but about outting my use of Nether?”

“More specifically, I suspect you traveling through the Dungeon threshold will damage it, thereby triggering an alert in the System.” Neveah put her arms behind her back and folded her hands like a professor giving a lecture. “I cannot be sure, but like I said earlier, your idea about warping the Aether to increase the time distortion is feasible but would severely damage the Dungeon in the long run. Which I suspect would cause the same sort of alarm that you heading into the Dungeon with too much ambient Nether around you.

“I suspect we don’t want to find out what causing such an alarm would trigger.”

“How much is too much Nether?” Randidly asked, taking a seat on a wide and flat stone he had brought to the center of the island for just this purpose. Moonlight spirits flitted around gleefully, happy for his return.

Finally, Neveah seemed to hesitate. “...I don’t know. Trace amounts should get you through fine, but your current Nether situation… in fact, I would suspect that any sort of teleportation that the Nexus has constructed would be affected by your current Nether. You are likely very lucky that you obtained the Philosopher’s Key when you did. If you had gone through the Nexus teleport arrays...”

Randidly thanked Neveah and she departed after Randidly promised that he would allow her to come with him in the eventual confrontation against Kaan Swacc. Neveah was rather bitter about the fact that Randidly had been hogging all the boss fights recently. She departed after extracting his promise.

Which left him slightly amused and alone on his stone to consider what to do next.

Lyra’s warning was crucial for avoiding this trap, even though she was also the vehicle by which the hook was delivered to Randidly. Luckily, instead of trying to just think up a way to lure Special Investigator into a scenario that would give Randidly an advantage in a brawl, he had immediately consulted Neveah on what form Kaan Swacc’s trap would take.

It had torn her away from continuing to research the Engravings Yystrix had left, but it had been worth it. Neveah had brought up some very valuable points that had completely changed Randidly’s strategy for dealing with the situation.

Her opinion about a trap inside a Dungeon being unlikely made Randidly willing to gamble a bit to see if he could figure out his second goal for this encounter: would the Special Investigator truly just freely attack the people of Earth in order to bring him anguish?

It was to ascertain this fact that he had come to the Dungeon in the first place and had a disguised Neveah go through before him to flush any watchers out. And Randidly could emphatically now answer that Kaan Swacc did seem to have some sort of honor that would keep him from moving against Randidly.

Alone, he had very quickly begun to assume that Kaan was a sadistic bastard on Earth for vengeance. Randidly had believed that he would stop at nothing to cause Randidly pain, and in fact would enjoy spreading havoc across the Earth.

But after meeting Kaan, it was clear that he was a military man through and through.

Sighing, Randidly shook his head. On the one had it was better that Kaan wouldn’t lash out at the people of Earth, but his military solidity would make him a tough opponent.

Once more, he had time. At least until the Epic Danger Zone manifested itself. Because Randidly didn’t plan on doing anything particularly destabilizing now that he assured himself that the Special Investigator did, in fact, have some morals that guided his behavior.