Chapter 1698 (1/2)

“You hoed the Western field…”

Randidly was lying sprawled in the grass while he gave his glove a break to cool. The words made him look over at the long-eared figure of Nrorce who ambled over toward him with mild eyes. Randidly tilted his head to the side, not really understanding what the goblin had said; he had so busy continuing his experiments with Nether that it took a few seconds for the words to reach him. “What?”

Nrorce had his small arms behind his back, his mouth steadily stretching into a scowl aimed at Randidly. “The! WESTERN! Field! I told you to work on the Eastern one! Are you deaf as well as poor?!?”

The goblin picked up Randidly’s discarded hoe and arched his body back. His javelin release was perfect, flinging the weapon at such speeds toward Randidly that it whistled through the air. Feeling slightly awkward, Randidly allowed the wooden tool to bounce off his chest and land in the dirt. His cheeks flushed. Did I really…?

“Ah… well… I just wanted to be thorough. I’ll head over to the Eastern field now…” Randidly coughed and pushed himself to his feet. The Engraved metal plates in his gloves were still steaming, but the worst of the heat had already dissipated. If he hadn’t been so fixated on Nether, he likely would have already moved around through the fields without even realizing his mistake. He might have even finished before Nrorce had noticed that anything was wrong.

Randidly suppressed the desire to display an aggrieved expression. Sometimes… I suppose I can get a bit distracted…

Suddenly, Neveah was there and chuckling. Sometimes?

“One more thing,” Nrorce was still scowling, but most of the antagonism left his face when Randidly got to his feet. He reached up and tugged on his ears. “That girl had to go; there was some attack in the Nexus. She has to deal with the fallout. And considering that you haven’t even don't the initial work I asked of you… hmph. Work hard, youth.”

“An attack?” That sharpened Randidly’s attention. “Was it the Nether King? Did he return to the Nexus?”

“What? Oh, the girl mentioned you are affiliated with the military.” Nrorce shook his head. “No, it wasn’t the Nether this time. They claim its the work of rebel organizations that hate the Nexus. The sort of fools that think they can change the world with destabilization and chaos. But this time they hit one of the bigger factions in the Nexus, the Swacc Family. Kicked up a real hornet’s nest. Heh, they probably won’t live long enough to regret that choice.”

As Nrorce grumbled to himself and waddled back toward his house, Randidly stared after the goblin with several emotions warring across his features. But finally, he displayed a wide grin and chuckled. Despite his earlier mistake, he was suddenly feeling quite refreshed. Oh? I guess I’m not the only one to seek trouble with the Swacc Family? Heh, hopefully, this keeps them too busy to send more assassins after me…

With his steps quite a bit bouncier, Randidly proceeded to the Eastern field and finally finished the original task given to him by the goblin chef. He took his time to work the land, partially because he was toying with Nether and partially to keep his gloves from becoming dangerously heated again. All in all, it was a very good day for Randidly.

The smell of the soil, the warmth of the sun, the feeling of dirt between his toes, the calls of the pheasants, the rumbles of the bears, the scents of vegetables… the entire environment felt stable and relaxing.

Randidly let out a sigh as the sun began to set, looking out across the hills. Maybe it’s a good thing that I forgot my money today. This… when everything is over, I think I’d want something like this.

As the blue sky shifted toward pink and mauve and navy, Randidly sat at the edge of the field and inspected the refined Nether Array beneath the farm. His tail continued to draw small Nether Arrays in the air, trying to capture the principles he was able to identify through his earlier epiphany. His impressions were gradually being refined through experimentation.

Congratulations! Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath (M) has grown to Level 247!

Even with a concrete example in front of him, the process was slow going. Randidly’s experience with normal physics seemed to mislead him as often as it helped. But the mental challenge was fulfilling. More and more, Randidly could envision the shape he would use to incorporate more worlds into his Alpha Cosmos. One step at a time, he was closing in on his goal.

When night had fully arrived and dominated the sky, Nrorce found Randidly again. The goblin tsk’d immediately; his eyes took in Randidly’s sitting position Randidly could practically hear the goblin inwardly complain about how lazy Randidly was. Maybe the goblin just had something against him sitting on the ground, lest he contaminate his plants with his humanoid sweat. But the goblin held his tongue about the display and instead asked a question. “Do you know anything about Engraving?”

That perked Randidly up. “Yes, actually. I would say I’m pretty good.”

“Peh. Youths always boast,” Nrorce shook his head. Then he turned away and waved for Randidly to follow. So he hopped to his feet and proceeded after the goblin toward the central house.

They didn’t actually enter the dwelling but proceeded into a tunnel a few meters to the side of the house. Nrorce heaved open a heavy iron door and led Randidly down into darkness. The goblin closed the door behind them, activating another Engraving array on the doors to seal them off from the outside world. But as they proceeded deeper, Randidly began to stiffen. And not even just because he had to hunch over so his head didn’t scrape the ceiling; The air was thick with an unpleasant scent. But more important…

Randidly frowned. “This… the ambient energy down here…”