Chapter 1360 (2/2)

Based on what Randidly knew of the Special Investigator wouldn’t normally lie. So when he said that Aether Mines were made by the Nexus’s finest minds, that was probably the truth. And he had also implied that it had left several of the affected parties permanently crippled.

Obviously Neveah would be willing to head into the Dungeon if there was no other choice, but what Neveah was suggesting was that there were other options that might be much easier. And it wasn’t that Randidly hadn’t thought about relying on the Alpha Cosmos; obviously his ‘body’ was much larger than Kaan Swacc understood. Which was probably why Mrs. Hamilton had been reduced to a quivering mess and Randidly just felt an annoying buzzing, even after absorbing the entirety of the Aether Mines. As his body was a world, it could endure more.

But just like Neveah, Randidly didn’t want to just throw them into the Alpha Cosmos unless it was absolutely necessary. He could try and get an answer from the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night what would happen, but he already had a pretty sizable headache after blowing an Aether Mine up in his own face. For now, he would try and conserve his mental energy and recover.

“There’s always something…” Randidly forced out a shaky breath and looked around him at the crack riddled cavern.

So for the moment, Randidly’s focus turned to find out if it was possible to continue with his normal training with the Aether Mine’s present in his body. He activated each image in turn. First the Grim Chimera, then Yggdrasil, and then the Stillborn Phoenix. Aside from the Stillborn Phoenix trying to absorb the Aether Mines and Randidly hastily stopping it, there was no reactions from the Aether Mines. Although they responded strongly to foreign Aether, they ignored images.

Seeing that, Randidly considered allowing the mines to be absorbed by the Stillborn Phoenix. But somehow, Randidly suspected that the same quantity that allowed them to ignore image would mean that rather than being suppressed, being suck into a black hole would just detonate them in Randidly’s body. And he was not in any hurry to experience that again.

Perhaps most annoyingly, the Aether Mines still reacted to activating the Skills associated with those images. So although Randidly could theoretically train his images with the Aether Mines present, if he Leveled his Skills, it would become significantly more uncomfortable to manage all the Aether Mines swimming through his body.

“And this is the sensation after only one of the Danger Zones is cleared…” Randidly sighed. Then, since he was waiting around for his headache to dissipate anyway, Randidly began gathering all the Aether Mines that were within him to a smaller space. Precisely one fourth smaller, concentrated in the center of his chest.

Thump. Thump.

Randidly’s heart began to pound more heavily as the increased pressure on the Aether Mines made them release waves of painful polarity at an increased frequency. Gritting his teeth, Randidly continued pressing until he could simulate what having opened all four Danger Zones would feel like. Growling, Randidly smashed his fists against the ground and shattered the crystals beneath him. Hairline cracks skittered outward in every direction.

“Fucking shit,” Randidly hissed. Even though everything was concentrated in his chest, the pain was agonizing. Agonizing for him, someone who could now swim through lava without anything but some minor burns.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart rate steadily began to rise as the pain plateaued… and then continued to gnaw at Randidly’s focus while remaining steady in intensity. Pressing his eyes closed, Randidly did his best to ignore the pain. It did not make him optimistic about his chances of simply ignoring the Aether Mines.

But even if this amount of pain was debilitating, Randidly supposed that after the fourth Danger Zone was cleared, Kaan Swacc would act against him anyway, so he never would need to endure underneath this density of Aether Mines. When the Special Investigator moved, there would be no point in holding back any longer.

But Randidly still maintained it the concentrated field of Aether Mines. Because now there was an edge of madness in his eyes as he experienced pain in a way that he hadn’t in quite a long time. Not since his image had been corroded by Nether on the frontlines had Randidly felt this much pain. It set his whole body on fire. His mulish stubbornness reared hits head.

“Heh. Did you think this much pain would break me…?” Randidly muttered to himself. His arms and legs were twitching now, even though the pain wasn’t concentrated there. But a growing need to explode into motion swept through Randidly. Especially because it quickly became clear that this was not helping his mental strength recover. His body shuddered.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMPTHUMP. THUMPTHUMPTHUMP.

His heart continued to accelerate. His blood was practically being shot out of the arteries, rushing through to his limbs before circulating back toward his core. The pain continued to rip at his Willpower. The trembling was growing worse as his cardiovascular system started pushing at the limits of his physical Vitality.

Honestly, if a normal human’s heartbeat this quickly, Randidly wouldn’t be surprised if their body would explode. There was so much power running through his limbs at the moment-

“FUCKING SHIT!” Randidly roared, lifting and smashing his fists back into the ground in one last unpredictable muscle spasm. His muscles were on fire with the intensity of the movement, combining the twitches with his fury.

What Randidly didn’t expect was that the stone and crystal beneath him was pulped to dust just by the air pressure his fists released. And then the physical force rampaged downward, opening a sinkhole beneath Randidly.

The ground beneath him collapsed with such suddenness that even the battle-hardened Randidly yelped and tumbled downward in shock. A split second later, roots twisted outward and formed a platform on which Randidly could stand. The rocks holding the roots in place shattered, but the roots rapidly extended deeper into the surrounding ground and built a support structure that could hold Randidly’s weight.

Then he solemnly looked downward at the collapsed cave beneath him. The ground had disintegrated twenty meters in every direction, but the real strangeness of the result was that even Randidly’s sharp eyes couldn’t see the bottom of the hole he had opened.

As far as he could tell, that impact of his fists had practically dug a shaft directly downward about a hundred meters from his starting point. And the reverberations had destroyed the crystals in the surrounding area, allowing everything to collapse inward and create the huge hole he now stared into.

His heartbeat began to slow. Without Randidly concentrating on it, the Aether Mines flowed apart and the pain faded to an annoying buzzing. Randidly rubbed his chin as he looked downward. A strange light was suddenly present in his emerald eyes.

“That power… Was it really that easy the whole time…?” Randidly muttered to himself. “I guess I forgot… that the truth was… I am a human being…”