Chapter 1568 (2/2)

So, after an extended pause, Randidly resumed his third attempt. Of course, he quickly was forced to stop this one as well. But this time, it wasn’t due to any flaw in his Engraving; the project simply hadn’t developed long enough for those flaws to reveal themselves.

Instead, Randidly was forced to pause and turn his gaze downward to face a particularly belligerent cluster of emotions that was roaring up toward him like an out-of-control freight train. In his new senses that were plugged into the conductive Nether of this depth, it blazed up toward him like an eruption from a maroon volcano.

Seriously? Randidly flicked this wrist to banish the lingering Nether from his fingers and then raised his hand. The veins across his arms began to glow golden. There was no longer any accompanying sound, but Randidly could feel the overwhelming vibrations in every inch of his body as Yggdrasil’s leaves rustled behind him. Can’t you see I’m fucking busy?!?!

Randidly’s hand tightened into a claw. Although he couldn’t see it, an overwhelming aura of holiness blazed from his fingers. Ripples spread out through the Nether-rich air before Randidly even unleashed the Skill. Then he barred his teeth and smashed his claw downward in a vicious strike to meet the landslide of emotions.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Inscrutable Mien of Genesis (M) has grown to Level 301!

There was an awkward sense of weightlessness to Randidly’s strike, as the Skill blazed with bright power enough to send his skin tingling… but when it smashed into the wild emotions, there wasn’t any feedback or noise. His ears could only catch the mournful howls of emotions flowing upward through the spine around him.

There were no crashes, no booms.

Still, his Nether Sensation painted a much more satisfying picture. Like a nuclear weapon detonating in a forest, the initial blast destroyed the structure of the emotional torrent and the heat of Randidly’s Skill incinerated the remaining troublesome survivors. A huge ripple blasted downward in its wake, leaving Randidly completely unharmed.

Of course, Nether Beasts immediately turned their gazes upward due to that ripple. By the dozen, they sniffed at the foreign image and used their Virtue to resist the pull of the significance below. They came with mild curiosity up due to their instincts, but as soon as they were within a hundred meters of Randidly, they seemed to recognize him as some existential threat.

From the murky darkness, the Nether Beasts began to accelerate upward.

Randidly grinned widely. Although he could no longer see them, they seemed to dance across his exposed skin due to the conducive Nether. The thick and damp air of this place pressed against him as though to smother him, but he thrived under that pressure. In fact, the sensation possessed such high fidelity that Randidly made the decision to reach up and rip away the remains of his cotton shirt and leather armor he had been wearing. His bare chest rose and fell in the darkness as he prepared to receive these ‘guests’. He breathed deeply, pulling at their Virtue as he did so.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cursed Appetite of a Wraith (L) has grown to Level 355!

The Grim Chimera was the ultimate thief, stealing even their valuable Virtue from right under their noses. Those small strands congregated rapidly in his chest and filled him with a buzzing sense of lightness.

Unfortunately, just as soon as he absorbed the Virtue, the energy destabilized without a physical medium and fell to simply be more typical Nether. That caused Randidly to frown, but he simply whirled his Nether Nebula faster and condensed the Grim Chimera more fully around him. The Nether Beasts roared in challenge and charged upward. While maintaining his emotional tether holding him in place, Randidly began lashing out and slaughtering them.

The Grim Chimera pierced through the wild emotions of this place and totally bisected unsuspecting Nether Beasts. Very quickly they realized the threat this image presented, but the Grim Chimera’s speed and adaptability meant that it could easily avoid the Nether Beast’s unsophisticated counter-attacks. Truly, it was an apex hunter at this depth.

If he wanted a true challenge from the Nether Beasts, he would need to head deeper.

Occasionally Randidly’s strikes wouldn’t quite kill a Nether Beast and then its Virtue would transform its body and become powerful Stature. These Nether Beasts possessed a much higher base potential than those he first encountered, meaning the transformation significantly narrowed the gap between their powers.

But in this time in the depths of the Nexus, the Grim Chimera hadn’t been idle. It silently cackled, delighted that these Beasts thought themselves sufficient to challenge it. Its glee and determination bled outward from Randidly’s body, staining the surrounding air.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes (L) has grown to Level 303!

Despite his initial joy, the sensation of the battle was strange. Randidly felt like a plague bearer, or even like a lonely personification of death. The roaring Nether Beasts charged upward… and then he, without any discernible noise, silenced them. In his Nether senses, the initially bright cores and barriers around the Nether Beasts glowed as they charged upward, filled with self-righteous fury. Yet beneath his touch, they began to flicker and dim, like summer fireflies before the inevitable chill of fall.

Gradually, the chorus of attacking Nether Beasts fell silent, leaving Randidly floating above that mass of dimming life. And his senses were all tied together in one larger, hyper sense now, so there was no way to close his eyes to the situation in front of him. He simply floated there, observing the way everything around him went dark and silent.

Rather than a fight… he had simply extinguished them.

For almost an hour, Randidly paused in his training and simply watched the cessation of the observable phenomenon below him. Gradually, the turbulent emotions pushed upward again, bringing some variety to his vigil. But still…

The mental acuity could do nothing to help with the black edges of his own soul. As always, the stronger he got, the more poisonous he began to his environment...

In a dark mood, Randidly returned to the spine and began to continue his Engraving.