Chapter 1616 (2/2)

Willpower: 1852

Intelligence: 1278

Wisdom: 1080

Fidelity of the Ascendent Moirae (P): 2392

Focus: 1365

Nether Sphere

Fang of the Primeval Betrayal (Ru)

Weight: 411

Connections: 1,261,697,311

Scope: 12,609

Influence: 4009/???

“And as for the Skills I’ve gained…” Randidly’s grin became feral as he looked through his expanded Skill list after today’s festivities. Some of the abilities that he gained by blazing through so many Paths were extremely useful. The passive Skills, especially, could be developed to the point that they would provide quite a bit of benefit to Randidly.

But Randidly’s eyes were harsh and calculating as he examined his new Skills. There is a cost to increasing the potential of the Grim Chimera in this manner… if all the Skills I sacrifice to its hunger are mediocre, won’t there be only a mediocre effect? Only if the Skills are powerful will the result be worth taking the time to do this.

And as for the first sacrifice… heh. Nexus, did you really think I’d let you show me how to mix images? When you even admit that the Skill dampens the original Skill? I’ve already proven I can do this without your poisonous assistance.

Within Randidly’s Soulspace, the familiar form of the Grim Chimera appeared. Its two tails flicked back and forth, an ethereal tail at the top of his spine and a heavily armored tail at his waist both moving with two very different versions of sinuous grace. Black armor stretched downward into a belt and then reinforced the joints in the Grim Chimera’s legs. While his left arm was covered in dark grey armor, the right arm was ethereal. The Grim Chimera raised his head and chuckled, releasing tremors throughout the Soulspace. In the next instant, he vanished.

As the Grim Chimera reappeared, Randidly gritted his teeth and endured the reverberations as his new Skill Image Amalgamation was shattered into pieces. The Grim Chimera opened his mouth and began to feed. Even if he prepared for it, the Skill was still a part of him now; destroying it was somewhat painful.

But Randidly steeled himself and allowed the Grim Chimera to run wild.

Body and Mind Symbiosis, Domineering Impunity, Ancient Nether Fetish, Memory Erasure, Tempo of the Emerald Waltz… all of the high potential Skills that Randidly had obtained along with his boost of Stats were taken by the Grim Chimera in the brutal ‘feast’ inside Randidly’s Soulspace. Each loss planted a resounding ache in Randidly’s chest that was steadily growing, but he didn’t make a sound through the entire process.

Randidly could feel each image as a fistful of sizzling sparks of potential that the Grim Chimera gulped down. Individually, the Grim Chimera was more than powerful enough to snuff such sparks out. Yet as they steadily gathered inside of it… hissing and popping and jumping as they interacted with one another...

And when all the new Skills had their Aether structure shattered and incorporated by the Grim Chimera, the image began to prowl amongst the unused Skills that lurked in Randidly’s Soulspace. The pressure in his chest had grown, but not beyond acceptable levels. Even those Skills that were born of his Class weren’t safe. In the face of the Grim Chimera’s hunger, nothing was sacred.

Iron Skin, Counter, Spray Holy Sap, Reckoning of the Bleak Dawn, Farming, Acid Resistance, Sewing… the potential of each of these Skill itself was small. Maybe only a single spark in the whole of the Skill; most of them were common Skills, after all. And getting rid of the Skills with Levels required some return of the PP that Randidly earned, but it only amounted to a few hundred in all, even as he devoured almost twenty Skills.

In this manner, the bundle of sparks that the Grim Chimera was carrying began to change.

Randidly studied the Grim Chimera with narrowed eyes as he continued to endure the recoil from the widespread Skill destruction. If it was any of the other images, this method wouldn’t work. The Stillborn Phoenix’s maw is too wide to even notice the potential it consumes. Meanwhile, Yggdrasil’s energy is too focused on growth; it might sabotage itself by allowing strange images to fester within it.

But the Grim Chimera… the Grim Chimera is the balance between the forces of life and death. Its main goal is to survive.

So survive. And show me that you were worth this investment. Tsk, some of those new Skills were actually pretty interesting...

Randidly could feel it now, a ball of strange energy pulsing erratically in the belly of the Grim Chimera. With the addition of the common Skills, all that shattered and raw potential was nearing a boiling point. So Randidly’s image quivered and sank to the deepest parts of his psyche so it could digest the image bits it had consumed.

In the meantime, Randidly refocused on the world around him just as everything seemed to fall to pieces.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

RUUUUUMMMMMMMMMMMMBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEE!

Faster even than he had anticipated, the Aether defenses in the sky snapped. Very quickly, the surrounding space fractured. Just as Randidly was mobilizing his non-Grim Chimera images to rise and protect the surrounding space, the Aether defenses that were shattered snapped back together in a new formation. Shimmering, geometric walls appeared around the surrounding space.

Randidly pursed his lips as he glanced around. Seems like Commandant Wick had a backup plan. He allowed the break to happen to relieve some pressure and then separated the shattered space into ‘rooms’, which will make the Aether protections more difficult to shatter… but it also makes movement dicey…

Randidly glanced around at the light being refracted through the strange walls. Honestly, it resembled being suddenly teleported to the inside of a crystal. The edges were foggy and slightly opaque, but Randidly could sense the thin flows of Aether and Nether intersecting in those walls, creating a bridge to another nearby space.

But right now, Randidly had other concerns. Because he could also sense that the way space was folded would severely hamper any sort of observational Aether mechanisms in the area. Which meant he could get some exercise without any watchers knowing the new state of his body.

Randidly grinned around toward the spot where the flies were currently buzzing. “Come on out.”

The first figure Randidly saw was a chubby and broad-shouldered man built like a barrel of butter. But behind him was the familiar and sour face of Lay’mel Tuuellethe. The whole group stunk of the Swacc Family. He could see the cruel violence in their eyes.

Randidly’s smile widened. The perfect guinea pigs.