Chapter 1718 (1/2)

Randidly was rather surprised that he didn’t need to wait long inside the Web before the target of his image refinement arrived. Only after about ten minutes of meditating within the shaft, Claudette Beigon fluttered downward, riding on a board of ice. She settled next to his floating position on a long cable and nodded toward him.

But even through his current exhaustion, Randidly’s gaze sharpened as he saw how pale she was. “Claudette? Is something wrong? What happened? Did your father…?”

To Randidly’s surprise, she laughed at his concern. Her expression was helpless, with her lips parted several times without speaking any words. She could only shake her head and slap her cheeks to wake herself up. “I… I don’t know what to make of it. But when I was departing from the Estate… I saw the announcements; posters have been plastered up everywhere in the Nexus. Military High Command and NLC have issued a joint decree… Velio Dunn is a wanted man. They are offering a pure Nexus Citizenship Coin for any word that leads to his capture. Dead or alive.”

Randidly literally couldn’t wrap his head around the news. His head throbbed painfully. “...what?”

Claudette gave him a sympathetic smile. “The Swacc Family has now come out and said that the Unitarium revealed was due to Dunn’s plot, framing the Family for stealing from the Engraving Guild. Obviously, that’s polar bear shit, but… the big movers in the Nexus are all pursuing him with genuine force. They aren’t contradicting that story Do you think…”

Claudette gave him an uneasy look. Randidly’s skin prickled as his mind moved in the same direction. She didn’t need to finish her question for Randidly to understand; she wanted to ask whether the sudden pursuit of Velio Dunn had anything to do with them.

And honestly…

Randidly flexed his hands. I definitely could believe that our fight and the capabilities I showed during it were enough to attract the attention of the powers that be in the Nexus… the problem is the scope of the response… both orthodox factions…? … And that the entire Nexus government is solely targeting Velio. Did they find residue from my Nether RItual and assume he was responsible for it…? It seems foolish to assume that our fight didn’t somehow cause this… but is it possible that after I took that burden of that memory… Velio went out and did something unrelated to me…?

Either way, Randidly quickly snapped back to focus. At the very least, they weren’t outwardly targeting him. That was… a good sign. He offered Claudette a hand. “I’ll use my resources to investigate this. In the meantime, I’m still not at my best. Let’s just go ahead and enter time dilation so we have some time to recover and consider. And since you asked… it’s time to show you my Alpha Cosmos.”

For a brief moment, a hint of humor played across Claudette’s lips as she took Randidly’s offered hand. Her fingers were extremely cool against his. “You know, most men don’t rely on setups this elaborate to entice me to touch them. If nothing else, I applaud your industrious methods.”

Randidly chuckled dryly. “Please. Our relationship is strictly professional. Besides, if my… well. I have someone who would be very unhappy to hear you make those jokes. Anyway, you are going to feel a strange force teleporting you. Don’t resist it.”

Claudette tilted her head to the side and studied Randidly. “You…”

Congratulations! Your Skill (Domain) Crossroads of the Alpha Cosmos has grown to Level 301!

Before she could say more, Randidly pulled her to within his Alpha Cosmos and the blonde-haired woman vanished. Randidly patted his stomach and then burped. The physical action did nothing to rid him of the discomfort. Randidly could only make a face in the darkness of the shaft. Heh… I’m still so full from absorbing Tellus that even letting someone into the Alpha Cosmos gives me indigestion.

But at the same time… Randidly began to drift down through the air, allowing gravity and the flow of significance to pull him down toward the depths. The Stillborn Phoenix released a wave of concentrated emotions upward and began to ‘breathe’, absorbing the ambient emotions in the shaft. The wind ruffled Randidly’s longer hair. My Alpha Cosmos might be stuffed, but my Nether Core is certainly rebounding quickly.

Randidly’s Nether Core had stabilized while he was unconsciously recovering, but since he had woken up it had rapidly been releasing thick and silky Nether that flowed through his body and steadily reinforced his veins. His Influence had already reached 48,111; having more planets within his Alpha Cosmos greatly increased his ability to generate Influence, although nothing could compare to the speed of absorbing planets. At this rate, he would soon pass fifty thousand. But since he had already made it to this point without having time to get the Nether methods from Claudette, he vaguely intended for a hundred thousand to be his evolution point.

More Influence meant that there was more ‘volume’ to the Nether coursing through his core, deepening his foundation. As such, Randidly was shocked to find that a grey bubble was naturally forming within that powerful new maelstrom in his Nether Core. The accumulation was extremely slow; probably it would take a few weeks for a complete bubble to condense. In addition, Randidly sensed that his Nether would only generate one natural bubble at a time. But still, the improvement made the experience of fighting against Velio Dunn worth it.

Having those bubbles available was a powerful weapon. Especially since his increasingly powerful image physicalization meant that he was losing drops of liquid Aether as quickly as they formed.