Chapter 1360 (1/2)

After chuckling again, Kaan Swacc turned away and rapidly vanished. Rather than actually checking in Randidly’s response, Randidly suspected that the Special Investigator’s true goal in coming here was to make sure Randidly understood precisely what the shape of the trap was. So that Randidly would have to knowingly decide to trigger it, if that ended up being his decision.

Professional soldier he might be, but he’s treating this as a game. He takes the time to enjoy the sport of a task when he can, Randidly reflected.

There seemed to be general confusion amongst the troops of the task force in regards to the sudden series of events, but Mrs. Hamilton graciously stepped forward and said that the enemy that appeared was the mastermind plotting against Earth. In addition, she elaborated that she and Randidly had neutralized the Aether mines for the moment, so there was no reason to worry about further damage.

But she did give Randidly a long look before the task force trooped off, indicating that she would eventually expect an investigation. Warlord also gave Randidly a look, but he seemed deeply tired. Besides, his gazes were just as often for Kayle and Paolo as they were for Randidly. It seemed that Zone 11 had an eye-opening experience in the Danger Zone.

When he met Mrs. Hamilton’s gaze, Randidly gave her a grave nod. Certainly, he didn’t mind giving more context to what had happened in the future. But at the moment, it didn’t seem like it was an appropriate time. He flexed his hands to try and rid himself with that uncomfortable sensation of buzzing.

Randidly hadn’t intended to hide the truth anyway. Not when there were quite a few individuals who he had established Aether connections with amongst the various task forces who could be similarly afflicted. Unless he wanted them to walk into the trap, he would need to spread the word of this newest gambit from the Special Investigator.

Saying he intended to study the array further, Randidly remained behind as the task force crunched their way back through the Broken Caverns. With his thick and rich Aether, it was extremely simple to lure all the Aether Mines to within his own body. They happily rushed to fill his Soulspace, whereupon they set up shop and began releasing rather constant shocks to Randidly’s body.

Twitches ran through his body as he struggled to get the reaction of the Aether Mines under control. At Neveah’s suggestion, Randidly tried to create a working of Aether to bind the Aether Mines in one spot, but that only made the energy shocks more agonizing. When a certain number were grouped in a group, they formed an array that released a much stronger jolt. Randidly sighed and just let the Aether Mines spread throughout his body.

When they reached an equilibrium, the pain was actually manageable. Just an intermittent stinging, one that likely wouldn’t even affect Randidly’s focus. Annoying, but still…

Randidly produced his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night with the intent to start experimenting. He was a little worried that he wouldn’t have a moment to relive yet with the Aether Mines present, but luckily it seemed that meeting Kaan Swacc for even that brief conversation was meaningful enough to allow the moment to be captured. Or perhaps the Dreamcatcher also took Randidly’s opinion under advisement when it came to what moments it should keep…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 53!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 61!

“About damn time it actually responded to a theory I had,” Randidly whistled. So part of its function was that it would follow his desires and record certain moments in his memories. Ostensibly to give Randidly a tool to protect himself from nightmares…

That earned him no response, so Randidly shook his head. The frustrating truth was that while Randidly had discovered a lot about how the Fatepiece functioned, he was still struggling to even catch the faintest clue as to why it worked.

Yet his Fatepiece could wait. With the appropriate moment located, Randidly slid into his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. He sat through Kaan’s short monologue for a second time and then, when Kaan left, immediately used Nether to neutralize the Aether Mines. There was about a five-second span that Randidly was rather shocked that Kaan hadn’t lied about how effective Nether was against the Aether Mines. Then the familiar Nether suppression slammed down around Randidly and he willingly exited that experiment.

No need to waste his time and energy on a fight right now.

On his next attempt, Randidly toyed around with Aether Mines, seeing if he could figure out which portion of the Aether construct Kaan used to detect their destruction. But what he ended up doing was detonating an Aether Mine in his own face, leaving him dazed and twitching for almost ten minutes from the shock it released.

It wasn’t electricity, per se, but perhaps something that could accurately be described as polarity. It released either a positivity and negativity of energy that made even someone with the powerful physical body of Randidly uncomfortable. It didn’t inflict damage, but only pain.

Enough pain that when it was concentrated, Randidly’s body spasmed uncontrollably. In fact, Randidly was glad that he had sent people away before he had made the attempt to experiment; his wild twitches as he recovered from his costly mistake were enough to sunder the ground and rip open great chasms in the already fragile caverns around him. He sensed that there were local monsters in the area, but they quickly fled deeper into the caves as he became a buzzing natural disaster.

His movements gradually stabilized as he recovered from the detonation his tampering had caused. On his next attempt, he contacted the Neveah within the projection and had her experiment a bit. But his headache, despite his increased Skill Level, grew too onerous too quickly for the Neveah within the projection to discover anything useful.

On his next attempt, he made a very disturbing discovery: Neveah couldn’t share his senses while he was within the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

It makes a certain amount of sense. You are ‘dreaming’ while you are within your Fatepiece. Neveah replied when Randidly explained his frustrations. And from just inspecting your situation, I’ll echo my projection; we need a significant amount of time studying those to figure out a way to disarm them.

Perhaps you should go into a Dungeon then… Randidly rubbed his chin.

But Neveah quickly shut that option down. No. Do you think this problem is a simple one? This was a weapon aimed at the factions within the Nexus. How long would it take for me to become more adept with Aether than them? Besides isn’t there already an easy solution? You have the Alpha Cosmos. Just throw the mines in there.

Randidly rolled his eyes at how unwilling Neveah was to leave her studying of the Creature’s Engravings. She wouldn’t be away from the Engravings for long in the real world, but to Neveah’s Perception, it might take months to figure out the Aether Mines. But that didn’t mean her point wasn’t a good one. These Aether Mines, if they were what Kaan Swacc claimed, weren’t easy to deal with.