Chapter 1586 (1/2)

Tatiana stood at the window with her arms folded behind her back. The sunlight was warm on her skin. Gertrude Collins sipped her tea, set the cup down, fussed with her hair, and then picked the teacup back up. Then, as though the dean of the soon-to-be-opened Kharon Academy wasn’t aware of her actions, she put the teacup back down absentmindedly.

Meanwhile, Tatiana studied the world outside of her window. There had been a minor earthquake a few hours ago. Obviously, it hadn’t affected Kharon itself much, as the legs naturally soaked up much of the reverberations, but the miners who were inside the excavation site nearby needed to rapidly evacuate and return to the Wandering City.

Those tremors in the ground had passed, but the subtle changes in the air had not. Sunlight continued shining down, but Tatiana couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something… different in the atmosphere. Still, that same feeling assured her that the change was a positive one, so her examination of the sky was done only to satisfy her curiosity.

Even in this world filled to the brim with Classes and Skills, Tatiana found knowledge to be the most reliable weapon.

While Tatiana mused, Gertrude continued to fidget. The young woman eventually raised her gaze and bit her lip. “Do you… truly think it’s alright to leave that Ancient Fang in the final chamber of the labyrinth as is? I believe the Ghosthound wanted the process of descending through those trials to be akin to a pilgrimage. The fang is interesting, especially for youths, but… perhaps other items should have been left there, to add to the mystique of the location.”

Tatiana tilted her head to the side, still facing the window. “I believe the difficulty to reach that final sanctuary will be more than enough to make any one place special importance upon that room. As more children make it there, they will be able to carve their names on the walls and gradually create a treasure that is all their own. And besides that…”

Birds chirped merrily outside of the Town Hall window, hinting at the long-awaited return of spring. Tatiana narrowed her eyes as she looked at the sky. Truly, she was vexed by how mundane everything current seemed, despite her instincts.

Then Tatiana released a long sigh, but afterward the corner of her mouth quirked upward. “...I just have a feeling we won’t need to worry about the ancient fang. Though… isn’t it intriguing? That the System notification told us that buried on Expira were the partial remnants of an ancient beast relating to a deep secret in the Nexus? We’ve been here digging for days and all we’ve managed to excavate is a single fang; the other remnants are too enormous. I believe that we will soon discover that these remnants are more impressive than we can even imagine…”

Gertrude Collins frowned as she considered that. Before either could speak again, there was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” Tatiana said, still facing the window. The door opened and an aide walked into the room. Gertrude straightened her posture and took another sip of her tea.

The aide glanced at Gertrude but quickly bowed toward Tatiana. “The report you requested is ready, Madam.”

Tatiana waved a hand. “No need to hide it, it’s not anything serious. What did they say?”

The aide nodded, “The leadership in the other Zones reported that they located similar archways across all of Expira after the earthquakes. They are relatively few and far between, but their location means it is impossible that they were somehow unearthed by seismic shifts; there are examples on top of mountains or on previously deserted islands. Miss Vye says she senses something will happen soon, so she’s going to linger a bit around them to investigate.”

“Thanks, James,” Tatiana said quietly as she stared upward toward the blue sky. Something was definitely different today than it had been only a few hours ago. Her intuition connected to Randidly assured her it was the case.

*****

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Visage of Obsession has grown to Level 100!

In the depths of the shaft, Randidly wheezed and sat sharply upward. Coughing and hacking, he barely could control his body. His muscles were alternatively spasming and so stiff they refused to move.

He blinked rapidly, which was a mistake because his eyes immediately fed him a slew of information that his brain wasn’t used to receiving. So he pressed his eyes shut to cut off a growing headache. Still coughing, Randidly was hyper-aware of the noise his body made as it moved after having it be completely silenced for quite a while. He could hear the beat of his heart, the gurgle of his blood, and the slimy squelching noises of his stomach. Somehow, the whole process was sickening.

And the nausea didn’t help alleviate his headache.

Pressing his eyes closed, Randidly tried to keep his breathing steady as he once more acclimated himself to the unfiltered sensations of being alive. Holy shit, this is rough… this is worse than some of the terrible hangovers I used to get after a night out with Ace and Sydney… ugh… and these noises that my body makes…

What a haphazard and shitty Fatepiece…

Still, the feelings of discomfort and unfamiliarity that Randidly felt from his body were soon washed away as a wave of invigorating Nether surged into his Soulspace. He barely suppressed a gasp as a feeling akin to lowering oneself into a piping hot bath came over Randidly. His body relaxed and some of the internal confusion was wiped away. Perhaps most importantly, that warm flow of significance between himself and his Nether Core surrounded him with a film of energy that made the pull of the Aether Refinery below irrelevant.