Chapter 1440 (2/2)

Yet, driven by strange impulses, there are moments when you turn and look back across the sloping Path that led you to this point. You cannot help but wonder if you could truly return to where you started any longer.

Your very presence might well be enough to destroy that peaceful life you once held. All evolution comes with a price.

Congratulations! Nether Brawn +50, Health Regeneration +50! Congratulations, your Skill Monstrosity’s Appalling Physicality (A) has evolved into Abomination’s Grim Vigor (M)! Skill Levels will be maintained.

For a second, Randidly stiffened in the darkness. With the silvery mist of his island around him, his muscle fibers tightened and flex in a very particular pattern. Then they seemed to spin together more tightly into a new form. They coiled beneath his skin like waking vipers. If someone were to see Randidly’s form at the moment, they would clearly see the thick cables of muscle moving across his body.

Randidly was forced to bite his lip to suppress the accelerating beat of his heart. At the moment, Mareen and her crew were hard at work constructing his house for him only a few dozen meters away. The sort satisfying physical test of his new Skill would likely be too disturbing to perform here.

So Randidly pulled out his Philosopher’s Key and opened another portal that took him ever further South of the Orchard, nearing the edge of Zone 1’s original lands. There he released a deep growl that seemed to emerge from his very core. The noise even resonated with the Nether Nebula that was spinning in his chest. Heartbeat, growl, and Nether Nebula hummed in harmony with each other. As his heart began to pound more quickly and blood rushed through his body, Randidly felt his shadow lengthening behind him, even though the only source of light was the soft touch of the stars.

Randidly’s joints popped pleasantly as his muscles flexed again and shifted to a new form. After breaking past the physical limitations of the System, he had always felt while moving that he was wielding something just slightly too large for him to manage. Despite all of the practice fights Randidly had engaged in against Helen in the Dungeon, he couldn’t shake that feeling of squandered power when he moved.

Only now, as his new Abomination’s Grim Vigor spread throughout his body did Randidly achieve a sense of comfort and capability that he had been reaching for. His fingers flexed. A satisfied smile spread across his face as he looked down at his hands. His long shadow stretching behind him moved independently of his body, raising its head and silently laughing. That silent laughter was a challenge to the universe, a gauntlet thrown down.

Do you dare try and kill me now?

Almost without any effort, Randidly’s heart began to pound more quickly and his body transformed. His black hair turned into a brilliant emerald color. His left eye faded to black and then was completely blotted out from the world as if an abyss had taken up residence in his eye socket. Light in the surrounding area bled into that sudden vacuum. Two segmented bone tails flicked back and forth, a long one at his waist and a shorter one from the base of his neck.

Inside of Randidly’s body, those new braided muscle fibers tightened around his bones to an almost painful degree. In a way, it was a naked threat to his skeletal system: continue to improve or you will be crushed to powder.

But as quickly as the domineering mood seized him, it was pushed away. Randidly released a breath and began to calm his heart. Not because he didn’t want to experiment further, but because someone was making a beeline toward his location. Mildly surprised that someone would head directly toward him when he was releasing such a dense image, Randidly prepared himself to receive a guest.

Rather casually, Randidly had teleported himself next to a small pond hidden below a ravine. Otherwise, it was rather devoid of vegetation or animal life. It was a very isolated location. So he stood in the shallow darkness of the area, watching as Thea Glasshammer stomped forward to face Randidly.

Despite the fact that Thea’s image was so unstable and slightly violent that Randidly knew he shouldn’t joke, the corners of Randidly’s mouth quirked up subconsciously as he saw her. “Is even a Nemesis coming to complain that their loss in the tournament was unfair?”

“I…” Thea's face went a blotchy red and Randidly’s expression softened. She really was so young. Perhaps just over twenty. And aside from the Path he had taken and Lyra’s own strange existence, he had to admit that Thea Glasshammer likely had one of the most difficult roads in order to get to this point.

“Just… just tell me the truth…” Thea eventually managed, stopping only a few meters away from Randidly. Her shoulders rose and fell with her erratic breathing. Her eyes couldn’t decide whether they wanted to stare at him or flit around the surroundings. “Why… why is it only around other people that Chrysanthemum seems alive? Does she… has what I have become truly made her hate me so…? I just can’t…. Everything was supposed to be…”

Then a Nemesis began to cry, fat, ugly sobs that shook her whole body. Randidly sighed and shook his head. Time slowly passed as the sobs softened into intermittent sniffles. Only when Thea had some control of herself did Randidly speak. “I… can only theorize. It’s hard to know for sure… but are you sure you want to hear my opinion? Even if it’s worse than your current situation?”

“What could be worse than this?” Thea asked with a gesture toward herself.