Chapter 1476 (2/2)

Randidly scratched his cheek, suddenly understanding what Tatiana must constantly go through with his wild and high-minded ideas. ”You think this would be a good spot to take for the Kharon Academy?”

Tim Moss nodded seriously and pointed up toward the mouth of the waterfall. ”It's flat up there, right? That can be where most of the school buildings are. Or over there, along the ridge.” Tim waved his hand vaguely, not having any actually viable options to point at in particular. ‘Then a town and houses and stuff can be down here at the bottom... well, maybe a bit farther away so they didn't hear the waterfall all the time. But like, it's really cool, right? Waterfalls are cool.”

”Oh, yea,” Randidly said hollowly. His senses were spreading out to cover the surrounding area and getting a gauge for how large the piece of land he would need to take in order to maintain a working waterfall. In addition, he was quickly able to determine how rocky the surrounding area was. Engraving could substitute for quite a lot, but still... ”...It's very cool.”

Encouraged, Tim's expression immediately brightened. ”Plus, I've seen the Niagara Falls before; this is nowhere as big as that. So probably people won't mind if we take it away or something.”

Randidly’s mouth twitched. This area is flooded with monsters that I don’t know if anyone would even notice that it was missing… People who live nearby might even thank us for ripping their neighborhood monster den out. But as Randidly glanced around, he did see a few crumpled and vine-covered signs that human habitation used to be present here. Likely before the System rearranged their world, there appeared to have been a large building at the base of the low hill on which they were standing.

The people who lived or worked in that building had undoubtedly developed a tolerance for the constant thrum of low thunder that echoed out from the waterfall. Randidly’s mouth twitched. Lucky, pre-System Perception bastards…

But that was Randidly simply projecting the sardonic amusement he felt as he considered the viability of using this area of land as the base of Kharon Academy and son developed a headache. It wasn’t the noise of the waterfall that stifled Randidly’s enthusiasm, despite the fact that he had earlier promised Tim that he could help pick the spot to draw him out of his shyness. The genuine reasons that he hesitated were two-fold.

First, space to build the Academy.

Randidly glanced upward at the waterfall in question. For about thirty meters above the ground, the water fell freely from a thin ridge where it geysered horizontally out into the air. But despite its height, the waterfall possessed immense power due to sheer volume of water that squeezed out through the cracked stone and into the air.

The smallish mountain in front of them was just one of a hundred in the surrounding area. None of the surrounding mountains were particularly large, but they pressed so tightly together that Randidly guessed that the source of the waterfall was snowmelt from the more massive Mountains only a short distance away. It probably flowed through the high valleys in the main portion of the mountain range, finally arrived here to crash gleefully down toward sea level.

But the area around the source of the waterfall was rocky and cracked. Most of the ground in the surroundings was sharply inclined. It was possible that they could level the ground to make a firm foundation, but how much space was available for the various classrooms and the auction hall that Randidly wanted to be present in Kharon Academy? They would need to take some of the surrounding mountains as well and have some of the construction be on the surrounding peaks.

Randidly did some mental calculations. A conservative estimate put the resulting landmass at about half of Kharon’s size. Which would certainly be able to house the 10,000 children that currently clogged Kharon’s parts, but it was… a slight wrench in their plans. All the careful drawings and projects that Tatiana had forced Randidly to make would have suddenly been for naught.

The second issue was less pressing, but still frustrated Randidly: with a pool of water and resulting river that deep, where would he put his labyrinth…? The landmass would also need to be thicker than his original estimates. The increased area would help generate enough power to keep it airborne, but still...

“What about you?” Tim asked, finally waking Randidly from his mental calculations. “Have you picked a spot for the other land we are choosing? I can give you some suggestions if you want.”

“I think I have spots picked out, but thank you,” Randidly said wryly, wondering how over the two hours of their tour of the countryside Tim had shifted from a shy pre-teen who could barely look at Randidly to an authoritative patriarch in the field of real estate. But honestly, Randidly appreciated the change. It helped alleviate some of his anxiety that he was shifting too far away from being a human.

Which was useful, just because Randidly was preparing himself to completely ignore that fear and throw most of his energy into a few days of intensive image training. Hearing the news from Vualla had lit a fire in his heart. Once more, he felt confident about his decision to move on to the Nexus.

That was the venue where he could grow most quickly and defend Expira’s future.

This world could get along without him just fine in the meantime. What Randidly needed to be ready for were the bigger threats coming down the pipeline. “I think I’ll just pick that valley of wildflowers we found and then that flat stretch toward the beginning. If we clear out the cactuses, it would be ideal.”

Tim looked at him in shock. “That first place was a desert. You are going to make people live in a desert? Think of how high their air conditioning bill is going to be! Dad always complained about stuff like that when we lived next to the desert.”

Randidly’s face twitched. “I think it will end up working out.”