Chapter 1699 (1/2)

There was, Randidly found, a very thin margin of temperature that was hot enough that the blazing metal bands on Nrorce’s gloves superheated the air so quickly that it became plasma, but also before the gloves themselves began to melt. The required temperature range was so high that even Randidly’s powerful body was scalded. But this little amount of pain was nothing to him.

He moved in the darkness with his weaponized torch hands, proceeding at a brisk pace down one of the many underground tunnels. Behind him, the corpses of Absolute Darkness Ants twitched. Acri curled around his waist, gratefully absorbing all of the resulting Experience. Apparently, it had understood some of Randidly’s dilemmas and used the Experience it had earned from the battle in the Fifth Cohort to learn the capability to almost completely siphon off Experience from Randidly, at will.

Without an image, using his blazing palms was the most efficient method of cutting down these Absolute Darkness Ants. Plus, it was a novel experience to weaponize his hands and simply chop them to pieces. The other method Randidly found was simply using his own body from a bulldozer and crushing all these human-sized ants, but that strategy left him covered in sticky ant gore.

Plus, Acri was much more sensitive to the heat radiated from his gloves than he was.

With his hands occupied, his tail took over full time experimenting with Nether. Randidly was a little dubious at first, but the more he used it the more proficient the appendage became. During the eight hours that Randidly assumed the role of an exterminator, his tail became just as capable at creating Nether Arrays as his hands were.

Randidly took a brief, looking down at the light-saber-like energy flaring up around his hands with amusement. After coming to the farm, perhaps I’ve discovered my true calling: An exterminator. Bugs everywhere will learn to fear the Ghosthound…!

Centipedes? No problem!

Giant spiders? Gone in seconds!

A secret race of subterranean worms with carapaces as hard as diamonds? Hah!

Chuckling to himself, Randidly continued to lawnmower his way forward through the complex network of tunnels underneath the warehouse. The only illumination was the burning heat released by his gloves. Honestly, even he had a headache as he thought about clearing out the several million-strong population of these ants. And that was only the ants in the immediate area. If he forced his Grim Intuition to spread outward, he realized that the surface of Nrorce’s world was basically only inhabited by a few farmers. It was the underground where most of the population was; he could detect almost a hundred different varieties of ant in his brief examination.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 310!

But, luckily for Randidly, they really just possessed an insect level of intelligence. So he felt no qualms burning his way downward, slaying the queen, setting fire to the egg sacks, and then slaughtering the several hundred thousand that got in his way. Then he returned to the warehouse and began another thankless task: disposing of all of the spoiled food.

This was a great deal more difficult than Randidly had expected, because he could only use his physical body, not images or Skills, to do it. Even worse, dealing with the rancid organic matter was the first time since his shoes had been burned away by acid, all those years ago in that first Dungeon, that Randidly regretted being barefoot.

The warm feeling of maggots popping beneath his toes… was not something he would soon be able to forget.

Ultimately, he just dumped the stuff down into the caves. It would attract more ants in the short term, but he could easily deal with them. Plus, it would be convenient for Randidly if the ants would feast on this shit so that the air down here would begin to clear out.

Randidly even dropped Acri down into the tunnels when ants began to arrive, to let the Soulseed have some fun.

Then he heated up his gloves again and used plasma to melt away the haphazard Engravings that covered the warehouse floor. Some of the Engraving resisted, drawing their energy from whatever core lay beneath the farmhouse, but they all eventually were wiped away. Only then could Randidly and Neveah begin to cobble together a much more efficient Engraving System, free of any images.

The task was so big that they had only started brainstorming when Nrorce came back and announced it was time for breakfast. Randidly was only too happy to stop and follow Nrorce into his home, where enough friend ham, pheasant eggs, and a cheesy potato casserole to fill several barrels waited for them.

But the true reward for the night’s toil was a breath of clean air.

After eating, Nrorce gave Randidly more tasks around the farm and then wandered back to his kitchen to do the dishes.

Randidly paused then, tapping his fingers against the table as he stared at the goblin’s departing back. The way things were developing… it seemed that Nrorce would allow him to stay here and work for a while. Which made him happy… but also made him hesitate.

Still, Randidly eventually shook his head and banished those thoughts. For now, this is fine.

So his days settled into a new pattern. He worked on the farm in the mornings and then trained with Nether and the Hierarchy of Burden through the afternoon into the evenings. His body gradually became accustomed to simply coping with his significant physical Stats, moving through the various motions. When Acri grew bored with tormenting ant, Randidly practiced his spear forms and savored the simple ache of pushing his body to its limits.

Or at least, as much as he could push without setting Acri on fire.

At nights, he shared a dinner meal with Nrorce and the Randidly continued to clean up the warehouse. After the second night, he and Neveah had come up with the shape, but implementing it proved a bit difficult without an image. An image functioned as an inherent quality control toward Engraving, making it much easier to output an even layer of Mana for a long period of time.

Randidly paused in his Engraving and shook his head. No wonder the original maker just said ‘fuck it’ and added everything on top… getting an Engraving this big to work…. Pah…