Chapter 1519 (1/2)

Randidly returned to his penthouse apartments and the first thing he did was walk to the center table and pop a piece of smoked meat in his mouth. Helen had seriously raided his supply, meaning he would likely need to smoke another boar in the next few days if he wanted to keep it around as a snack. But right now, the main goal was to give his body something to do while his mind whirred. Thoughts clicked into place like tumblers, giving him a clearer view of what had occurred today.

First and simplest, even Randidly was surprised how far his body had come since his fight against Kaan Swacc. He had always been strong, overwhelmingly strong compared to most individuals who utilized Aether. But in the past, he would have said that it was still quite difficult to suppress a manifestation as powerful as Helen’s image solely with his physical prowess and some Nether. But now…

And while the growth of his various physical passives was part of it, the real culprit was the recent institution of the Nether in the training camp. As Nether flowed between the various recruits, significance gradually accumulated and was eventually deposited within Randidly’s body. As a result, his Nether began to gradually change. Although he lost some of his own significance in exchange to fuel the process, the reason the process was so valuable was that the significance released seemed to beget more of itself as it spread throughout everyone.

Honestly, it reminded Randidly of information he had learned about the banking industry back while he was in college. Randidly acted as the central bank, lending out his own significance to various individuals to get the process started. Then those individuals utilized that loaned significance to improve their own lives, and by extension, enriched the loaned significance. The more significance they had, the easier it was to generate. This enriched significance was passed on to others, where it continued to circulate to the point that it returned to Randidly, very much more valuable.

In the back of his mind, several new methods for attempting to create a Nether Class began to ferment. He felt like he was very close to achieving a breakthrough on that front.

But the big reason that Randidly was so shocked that he had silently returned to eat a few bites of meat, and the reason that he was briefly distracted enough during the challenge to unleash a full-strength sweep that nearly killed Recruit Clamman, was because this system of significance had somehow triggered his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

Although he had taken the memories of challenges in the past from present individuals and that had boosted his Dreamcatcher all the way to Level 99, he had never been connected to said individuals during the process. With the introduction of the Nether array, and although the array clearly favored recruits over Overseers for reasons Randidly hadn’t quite figured out yet, the connections had finally been present during the process.

A shared moment had been saved.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 100! Congratulations! Your Fate has reached maturity!

Warning, Error-

The next piece of your Fateset has awakened from its slumber! Seek it out to continue to find your Fate.

Randidly cracked his knuckles. For a second, he allowed himself to relish in the completion of this Fatepiece; it had been a long time coming. And hopefully, the cost of its usage would dramatically decrease now that it had been completed. It would let him deviate more meaningfully from the past, without forcing him to endure a vicious headache afterward.

Then he reached within his interspatial ring and removed the blank canvas that he had obtained from the tomb of Yystrix. Each Fatepiece was connected to an important individual or aspect of his life. The Philosopher’s Key was tied to himself while the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night came from his father. Randidly had fought against admitting this for a long time, but Yystrix had carefully shaped him to his current capabilities. Whether he liked it or not, she was the one who had given him the tools to survive in the Nexus.

While within his interspatial ring, the canvas had rolled up into a scroll. To Randidly’s surprise, there was no notification when he retrieved said scroll out of the ring. But as he held it within his hands, the fingertips touching the Fatepiece buzzed with potent energy.

The benefits to my Leveling was a sharp increase in Focus… but a small decrease in Control…. Randidly released a breath and unfurled the scroll. It wasn’t until the blank page was completely open before him that a notification popped into existence in front of his eyes.

Congratulations! You have obtained the third piece of your Fateset, the Visage of Obsession Lvl 1! The Alchemist is differentiated from the common man by one simple truth: he will not stop on his Path until he discovers the key ingredient to create the impossible. Yet even the great Alchemist cannot completely escape the flaws of his mortal coil, at least not without a reagent. The Visage of Obsession is the ever-shifting reflection of the Alchemist’s determination that borders on madness. To a mundane viewer, it is just a painting. Yet to the Alchemist, it is a potent catalyst to cleave the user’s mind from the limitations of a worldly perspective. In the depths of Obsession, reality begins to fragment.

A strong enough desire can warp reality.

Warning: Once usage of the Visage of Obsession begins, its use can only be delayed, never stopped. The user will experience ten trials that will test the limits of his obsession. There will be a cost to passing each trial.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Visage of Obsession has grown to Level 2.

Randidly decisively snapped the scroll shut and snorted to himself. He barely even had time to capture the now-revealed vivid swirls of color on the canvas before he stored it away. It’s a bit late to tell me that the usage can only be delayed, never stopped, when I’m required to look at it directly in order to receive the notification…Also… I wonder what it means by trials…

However, unlike the prior two Fatepieces, this one came with some implicit understanding of its usage, even if that usage didn’t seem immediately useful. Even with the scroll closed and the details of its actual depiction hidden, Randidly sensed that all he needed to do to Level the Fatepiece was to spend time looking at it. As for the trials and the costs for passing them… Randidly wasn’t sure. All he could tell was that the Visage of Obsession was used when he had a problem he couldn’t solve through normal means.

As soon as he had an understanding of the Fatepiece, he thought about his Nether Class issues. But the lack of immediate clarity was enough to make him decide that he should spend some time addressing the current problems in front of him before he committed himself to stare at the painting.