Chapter 1411 (1/2)

Once he had Derek and Tim’s agreement to the Engraving project, things began to accelerate. Randidly basically lectured Delilah into staying on a semi-permanent basis with the Moss’s in order to keep her someplace predictable. Then he worked out a schedule with Tim for his assistance.

At Tim’s current knowledge of Engraving, it would take quite a while until Tim would be of any substantive assistance with creating the Engraving for the floating islands. But since it was Friday night, Randidly whisked Tim off to his Alpha Cosmos and dropped him off with Lucretia for a crash course in the basics of Engraving.

In the meantime, Randidly also traveled through his Alpha Cosmos to pay a visit to Wendy.

Their meeting was a tension-filled tea session in Wendy’s office while both made small talk and sipped at their steaming beverages. The longer this went on, the more Wendy began to sweat and pull at her collar, rambling on about how important her current research was even though she never spoke with enough specificity for Randidly to have any idea what her research entailed.

Not that Randidly minded; his bait was already out there. He just needed to wait for Wendy to bite down on the hook.

Especially after the discussion at the Moss’s regarding the teaching situation in Kharon, Randidly’s would not let this opportunity to enlist Wendy’s brilliance pass. After Tim had run out of things he could remember about the tasks they had been given, Delilah had been quite happy to chime in and list off dozens of dumb things about the current educational system in Kharon.

Most of the information Randidly had heard before, in a more palatable form, from an overview he had been given on the education program. Yet it was more alarming to hear how the children received it.

It would take some time to figure out how accurate Delilah’s statements were, but Randidly had already sent a message to Tatiana to give him the comprehensive version of Kharon’s teaching doctrine. Still, it had firmed his resolve to rebuild the system from scratch. And the mechanisms of Kharon Academy would be central to that effort.

Even if it was just a complex building, that complex building built above a labyrinth would become a symbol. As Randidly had experienced with the thriving image of independence and creativity in Kharon, a symbol was a very powerful thing for motivating people.

Finally, Wendy could stand it no longer and set down a ginger snap cookie. “I… uh… had some spare time before bed… I’ve glanced through those schematics that you passed to me. A little, immature… but the idea is… ah… mildly interesting…”

Wendy was practically squirming in her chair. While grinning from ear to ear mentally, Randidly shook his head sorrowfully and waved his hand. “Yes, well, I thought so too. And we had just approved a significant budget to have it built… so many rare materials were gathered in order to expedite the construction… yet we simply couldn’t find an architect with enough confidence to take the project and nurture it to completion. Such a tragedy.”

Wendy coughed into a napkin. “Yes, well. There are significant flaws with many of your ideas… heh, and human engineers… well, you know…”

“Yes of course. They were simply overwhelmed by the complexity of the project.” Randidly said in mock-sorrow. Then he continued to shake his head. “What I don’t understand is why they wouldn’t be tempted to try it anyway! Considering the growth of the moss spirits around Kharon, they have an almost limitless energy source at their fingertips. The sort of innovations they could make are practically infinite.”

Wendy licked her lips. “Well obviously the energy source isn’t limitless. But considering the growth of the engine in Kharon….unnghhh… certainly, the amount of ambient energy grants whoever is at the helm of such a project vast flexibility… the experiments one could run… but… someone like that would probably need specific Classes in order to take advantage of that opportunity.”

Randidly chewed on his lip while thinking of how to ratchet up the tension on Wendy. “...you know, that makes sense-”

“Give me two Class lighthouses that fit my specifications and I’ll take over the project,” Wendy snapped. Then her hands jumped to cover her mouth as though she was shocked by the suddenness of what she said.

Randidly blinked. Then he began to laugh. “...that was your goal the entire time, huh? So I guess you already knew I was trying to tempt you into helping.”

“Of course. Do you ever come to visit me if you don’t need something?” Wendy said sourly. She picked up the discarded ginger snap and nibbled at the edge of it. Then she put it back down. “But… I’ll admit the project is interesting.”

After thinking about Wendy’s request for a bit, Randidly nodded slowly. He was now just a normal individual within the Alpha Cosmos, but his ‘normal’ abilities still put him head and shoulders above the most powerful individuals in the Alpha Cosmos. In addition, his recent experimentations with physical manifestations of his images seemed to have created a vast underground network of caves that were currently unexplored. Within them, a casual scan had found a few unactivated Class Lighthouses.

“I can show you two lighthouses, but you will be in charge of getting the right Classes from them. Select the first user carefully-” Abruptly, something occurred to Randidly. A grin spread across his face. “Actually, I have another thought…”

After Randidly discussed his idea with Wendy, she agreed to pass word on to the other populations within the Alpha Cosmos. With that confirmation, Randidly returned to Earth and met with Tatiana and Wolfram to discuss the concrete details of the first two floating islands as well as some political issues inherent in the project. Reading the relevant maps sent over by Vye, they identified some valuable and unique areas that they should target in the borderlands before any of the Zones expanded outward and annexed them.

The meeting stretched on much longer than they had anticipated, taking them well past the setting of the sun. Eventually, Randidly had to cease the impromptu strategy meeting in order to return to his Soulskill and pick up Tim from Lucretia’s care. When he dropped Tim back off at his family’s apartment, the kid was mumbling unintelligibly to himself and casually drawing Engravings on a piece of wood. Luckily, Derek wasn’t yet home from his Order Ducis shift and Randidly could flee without trying to explain the reaction.