When those tiny motes of darkness gathered into an oily liquid that radiated palpable power, Randidly closed his eyes. His focus went inward, toward the almost uneasy heaviness that suffused the part of him that was filled to the brim with Nether. The part of him that couldn’t proceed any further down this path.

Time slipped away as he followed the inspiration he had seen from that strange, hovering darkness above him and began to push the density of energy inside of his body steadily up toward the tipping point.

It wasn’t a complicated thought; energy could be marked by emotions and images. Or rather that prolonged exposure to those things would mark energy. It wasn’t even a thought that came as a sudden bolt of shock out of a clear sky to Randidly. Since his earliest arrival in the System, he had learned that the System’s Aether was naturally more rigid and uncompromising than the ‘pure’ Aether that he would eventually possess. That had always just been a fact of life. One that gave Randidly one of his many advantages against individuals who grew up normally in the System.

He had never really thought deeply about why this was; it had just seemed like a consequence of that Aether having existed for a long time. Over time, the Aether aged. Time was a powerful force over all things.

But Randidly had never considered what the benefits were that having energy marked by those images might have.

Having seen that strange image of darkness slowly seep into the energy that it had gathered to itself brought Randidly and epiphany in that regard. This stiff and unhelpful Aether wasn’t just a side effect of the passage of time, in a way, it was exactly the point. The only problem was that the System attempted to recycle Aether through continuously, putting those who came later at a severe disadvantage to the earlier Cohorts. Latecomers would need to find images and Paths already present in the shaped Aether in order to advance, whereas Randidly could create his own.

Perhaps the System even understood the problem and created the role of Patrons in order to alleviate some of those difficulties.

Still, none of that mattered now. Ignition Essence seemed to burn like a bonfire in his chest, urging him forward toward this transformation. The emerald and orange tongues of flame danced like revelers in a grand wheel of exultation. Randidly became so wrapped up in impressing his own image upon the energy that he let all the distractions fall away. He started with his Nether Cores, seeking to push his density up to that next level.

Unexpectedly, he spent quite a bit of time simply failing to accomplish anything. The Nether was pressed in close and closer in his chest to form a rumbling obsidian sphere, but his emotions didn’t bind the Nether together like Randidly figured it should. Gradually, that Nether forced itself back outward. Yet Randidly had no way of knowing what he was doing wrong. So he stubbornly continued to attempt the process. Gradually, the strength of his emotions ramped upward. With increasing force, Randidly attempted to force all the emotions into a box.

In a way, it worked. Gradually, the core of Nether he attempted to create became denser and denser. Yet the emotions didn’t seem to be enough. The energy persistently wiggled out of his grasp.

After about twenty attempts, Randidly began to chuckle; he had been an idiot. Using emotions was the binding of Aether. Of course, it would be ineffective to use as a way condense Nether.

Which was a useful realization to have, but then it left Randidly with a larger question. What bound Nether together…?

It didn’t take Randidly long to stumble upon the answer once he started experimenting with everything he could think of. In the end, it was his exposure to the Nether Prince was invaluable for helping him understand the process. Very soon, he found that what he needed to possess in order to draw Nether together was significance.

Significance. Something slightly different than meaning, something ethereal and personal. Nether was the energy of memory and connection. So to lend significance to those things made them permanent and important. It granted them a life beyond the fact that they had once happened in the past.

Slowly, beads of dense Nether energy swirled inward, gradually joining into a core that rumbled ominously even as it formed. Randidly was eventually forced to keep his focus away from the core itself, but it possessed the curious, singular property of devouring attention that was given to it too directly. During the process, Randidly almost lost track of what he was thinking about as he focused instead on the significance; he had been teleported into the memory. He saw himself in the past, lost and desperate, wandering through the Dungeon alone.

He had chosen the moment when Randidly had returned to the safe room in the Dungeon, only to find Shal sitting there in the healing pool. The first time that they had met. It was a day that his life had changed.

Faster and faster, the Nether in Randidly’s chest spiraled inward. In a second, all of the Nether in his body was sucked away into that inconspicuous core that had formed and his Nether Wells had to surge to life to provide more energy for the transformation. Gradually, Randidly’s breathing quickened.

On that day, Randidly had started down the path of the spear. It was the day that he had begun to advance without regrets. Without that moment, none of this would have been possible. Without that strange, contrived intersection of fate that had been orchestrated by the Creature, the Randidly of today would never exist.

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The Nether Wells produced more and more Nether to fuel the transformation. The core didn’t grow any larger, but it seemed to move throughout Randidly. It left the portion of his inner space that he had dedicated to the flows of Nether and affixed itself deep in Randidly’s physical body. Distantly, he could feel the way it also began to become a stabilizing influence for the admittedly chaotic remnants of Nether that had been present in the Alpha Cosmos.

The new Nether Core became the center of Randidly’s body… and then began to gleam with cosmic light.

Nether fire forced itself through Randidly’s arteries. As his body trembled, even Randidly’s consciousness within the memory paused. The veins on his arms and legs slowly darkened to black as Nether permeated into his physical make-up in a way that he had thus far avoided. On an extremely basic level, Randidly’s Nether and Aether were being integrated in an instinctual way. Nether was working its way deeper as its meaning in Randidly’s life became vital. His skin began to itch and burn as the very substance of his body began to change.

Just like his life had changed when he met Shal. Such changes held ramifications that would always remain significant.

“Extraordinary… So you do not have a class? Or a level? That would make things difficult. Normally I would not mind helping you some secure some kills in the area, so you can find your feet, but…”

“Yes, they are basic vigor crystals. They can be refined into Health and Mana potions. But although they are in a Lvl 35 dungeon, they are just the basic kind- put next to a safe room to help truly desperate individuals. I would say even a master Alchemist could only create potions that restore 100 Health or Mana from them.”

“Wonderful, wonderful! You have saved me many days in this terrible room. I shall repay you immediately- are you ready to leave the dungeon?”

That moment when Randidly had pressed his hand against the door to the Dungeon and gotten rejected by the System hung heavy in Randidly’s heart. It had been his only hope that was quickly extinguished by reality. Yet Shal had just laughed and beckoned him forward while Randidly was despairing.

“No, no, no, there are no more avenues of retreat. But you can always move forward.”

A new core formed in Randidly’s heart that was buoyed in power by the significance of those early memories of Shal. A ripple ran through Randidly’s body. More and more Nether began to flow outward, causing all the other cores that Randidly had created to slowly orbit around this new core.

A Ritual formed organically in Randidly’s chest as these cores arranged themselves in a natural pattern. The connections between them became stronger. Vast clouds of Nether flowed into that pattern and escaped as spun threads of dense energy. That dense energy transformed his inner world.

Breathing softly, Randidly allowed a new balance between Nether and Aether to be achieved in his chest. Gradually, his body acclimated to the change and the weight of the new energy Randidly possessed settled down into place, reinforcing the new equilibrium. The Nether Ritual continued to hum busily.

And since Randidly was already focused on this wondrous transformation that he could create, Randidly’s attention immediately shifted to what he could do with Aether. This time, the powerful emotions that he had gradually cultivated to try and pin down the Nether were allowed to move freely through his Aether energy.

Immediately, the Aether began to slowly gather. Righteous fury against the System, warmth and compassion for those of Kharon and the Order Ducis that followed him, a strange budding vulnerability toward Vualla’s existence… With great difficulty, Randidly released the control he held over his emotions and allowed them to freely spread out through his inner world.

Very quickly after that, however, Randidly could only grimace. The two processes were clearly different. While Nether required a certain amount of significance for each sharp step of improvement, Aether required that he slowly refine the energy with emotion over a longer period of time. A snap-change would not occur as it had with Randidly’s Nether core. It would take time and concerted effort in order to refine Aether into its liquid form.

And honestly, Randidly was short of both time and effort at this point.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Timing (Ru) has grown to Level 111!

Randidly was pleased to check and find that only nine minutes had passed since he had fallen into a brief recovery coma, but that was still nine minutes on a battlefield that was fraught with danger. Especially after that last attack, Vualla…

In fact, Randidly might have forced himself out of the strange trance he now found himself in if he hadn’t sensed that Vualla had come near him to check on him before quickly departing. It was enough to know that she was at least well enough to move.

But how much longer should Randidly spend like this, creating liquid Aether?

For a few more minutes, Randidly set that question to the side and dedicated every bit of his still shaky Willpower toward the task at hand. With all of his attention continuing to feed emotion into an area rich in pure Aether, the process sped up. Gradually, he could feel the Aether change as his continued focus on emotion affected the Aether in a vital way. It shifted to become his Aether, marked forever by that image and emotion. And as it did so, the chaotic flow of the Aether changed before his eyes.

It condensed. It spiraled inward. It gradually began to move toward a shimmering, liquid drop.

It will take almost seven minutes to finish a single drop while I”m giving it my all… Randidly hesitated. ...so I will only make two. One to help me physically and mentally recover so I can return to the battlefield, and one to be an attack to help me fight beyond my actual power. Any more than that…

...plus, that completely ignores the mental toll I can already feel. Making two at a time right now might be my limit...

Fourteen minutes was already a lot. Yet Randidly had no choice. He had seen the effects that Ileot could manage when he utilized liquid Aether against the Nether; Randidly could use those same principles to help with the fight, if necessary.

If he waited any longer than fourteen minutes… Randidly shivered. He didn’t want to leave Vualla alone for too long right now. The confidence of Lord Miln, the darkness in the sky, and the strange grey flower that had bloomed within Lady Iellaya’s potential all made him extremely wary.

The faster he could be at her side, the better.