Chapter 1674 (2/2)

Meanwhile, Todd, Bennio, and Eileen watched with rapt attention at this ‘high-stakes’ confrontation.

Randidly shook himself lightly and swung his metal fist through the air. His movement activated Ripple and a cushion of air manifested around his fist. His gaze swept across Bennio, who appeared to be moving in slow motion, and he aimed to throw a blow that would pass a few centimeters away from the boy’s head. The wind pressure and natural energy of Ripple of Amenonuhoko should be more than enough-

As Randidly swung his fist, the carpet experienced its greatest stall since their initial launch. They lost almost a half meter of height in the next second, meaning that suddenly the trajectory of Randidly’s careful attack would miss by too much distance. He effortlessly adjusted his fist for the new interception point, but the movement gathered more natural wind energy around the blow. And in the next instant, the carpet ascended back up to a position halfway between the drop and its previous height.

Randidly grimaced. I can’t… miss in my punch, can I?I don’t need these kids to underestimate me more than they already do, right?

Bennio’s expression was only now shifting toward surprise in response to the carpet’s erratic movements. And at that instant, the knuckle of Randidly’s metal hand brushed against his cheekbone.

Tap.

Crack! Crash! CRASH CRASH CRASH!

Randidly thought his blow was relatively light, but he realized his baseline understanding might be a bit off as he felt the kid’s cheekbone fracture from the brush. Then the teenager's body tumbled through the air more quickly than could be captured with a human eye, the gyroscopic projectile burrowing his way through the canopy of one tree and then demolishing the subsequent three tree trunks as he lost altitude.

Bennio’s body dug a long trough in the dirt before it came to a stop.

Randidly coughed awkwardly and extended a powerful pulse of Yggdrasil’s life energy through to the injured teengaer. Luckily, it didn’t seem like the kid’s muscles were just for show. He was knocked unconscious, but he didn’t have any serious internal bleeding and his Health was still above twenty percent. A quick pulse of energy pushed him back up to acceptable levels.

Coughing again, Randidly turned to look at the stunned Todd. “Ah… it appears I luckily landed a counter. Must have been because he was mid-air.”

“Wow… do you know boxing?” Todd asked. But even as he spoke, the kid expertly inserted another wave of energy into the carpet and they zipped forward in a drunken line through the sky.

Much to Randidly’s relief, Todd seemed to accept the lucky punch theory of what happened and was too consumed with the steering of the carpet to comment further. He flew around the dormitory island and then landed in the shadow of his own building, which even to Randidly’s eyes looked rather hastily slapped together. The dormitory was squat and square, standing only four floors tall and squeezing in a sardine quantity of rooms within its confines. The outer walls were painted an unappetizing yellow and although the walls were interspersed with windows along each floor, the glass openings were tiny and bland looking.

Todd shook Randidly’s hand seriously when they got off the carpet. “Thanks for today… if Eileen beat me up, she could slap me with some demerits. But there is something I definitely need to buy at the under-Auction. Anyway, meet me tomorrow at 8:30, alright? I have class.”

Then Todd went into the building. Randidly looked after the kid with his thick glasses for several seconds, while also feeling how many orphans similar to him were packed into the dormitory. He expanded his senses and observed the half dozen other similar dormitories that were on this more lower-class Kharon Academy housing.

Randidly sent a message to Tatiana and then pulled out his Philosopher’s Key. He teleported directly to the entrance to the Kharon Academy Labyrinth; he planned on investigating his Nether Core before he had to guard Todd again tomorrow morning.

As Randidly put his Scrawl Mark and the doors of the first test rumbled open in front of him, he thought again of that on the fly adjustment from Todd. Randidly had heard of philosophies centered around the concept of ‘there is no such thing as a mistake’, but had always thought it was a rather foolish and overly pithy way of phrasing it.

Of course, there were mistakes. But Todd’s actions showed Randidly that perhaps he wasn’t as good at recognizing mistakes as he thought. A flawed design could still work. Organic beings didn’t come without flaws, and the more advanced Nether Rituals Randidly had seen quite resembled organisms.

...although the variances in speed and elevation on that carpet could have given someone motion sickness Randidly thought with a grin as he began the second test of the Kharon Labyrinth, which was a complex and shifting logic puzzle where you had to shift various squares and rectangles in a grid, with the goal of sliding the golden square out of the opening. With Randidly’s powerful Intelligence, he simulated thousands of shifts and completed the puzzle at the lowest requirement of ten movements, not bothering to aim for the record board.

It was on the third test that Randidly realized that right on the threshold into each test, students had carved their names into the snow to mark their accomplishment. Some had several tally marks, indicating they had arrived multiple times. Seeing well over a thousand names going down the stone threshold and across the floor, Randidly smiled.

The third test was reaction time, requiring the tester to chase after glowing balls of light and touch as many as they could within the time limit.

Randidly passed easily and continued deeper. He also passed the fourth test, which required manifestation of an image of requisite strength, and then the fifth, which required the student to endure an image for a certain amount of time. Each time he advanced, the number of student names dwindled.

Thirteen individuals had reached the sixth test, which was literally a shifting maze where most of the previous tests were incorporated. Four individuals made it to the seventh test, which utilized an ingenious Engraving to challenge the Willpower and heart of the challengers. After he passed the test, he paused for a few minutes to study it; this was definitely Neveah’s handiwork.

Then Randidly proceeded through the final doorway and arrived at his true Nether Core. Thick significance pooled in the area, rolling over him and nurturing his body. He shook his head almost sadly when he noticed no one had passed Neveah’s final test. At least not yet.

Then he focused on his Nether.