On Earth time continued to trudge forward. Day turned to night and then night to day. All the while, the threat of the first Calamity's arrival hung heavy on most people's minds.

Randidly gritted his teeth and used his will to lash once more against the swirling energy in his palm. It was precariously balanced only a hair from what he needed. His heart thumped loudly in his ears as he continually upped the stress his body was under with another mental lash. Time and time again the warm flush of heat flowing from his heart invigorated the Aether swirling in his palm, driving it closer and closer together.

A low hiss escaped Randidly’s mouth as the energies finally came together with a sense of culmination. The groaning creak of the vast Yggdrasil shifting mixed with the bright and capricious fire of Ignition Essence. The twisted body of the Grim Chimera prowled back and forth in that small drop of liquid Aether, its eyes scanning the surrounding area. His images became the glue that held the emotions in place, which concentrated the energy.

His body creaking from the tense hour of focus, Randidly carefully raised the drop of liquid energy to eye level. Finally finished. Woooo, this was a lot.

With a thought, the finished drop of liquid Aether floated within Randidly’s chest and settled there next to two other. Randidly wiped away the sweat from his forehead and looked around at his office. Now that he had finished the emergency preparations that he wanted for meeting the powerful warriors from other worlds, he could safely focus on other issues once more.

In the last three days, Randidly had soldiered on through most of the reports that Tatiana had prepared. Basically, he had reached the current limits of Kharon’s intelligence, knowing altogether too much useless information about political movements in the past ten months. Still, nothing of note stuck out to him. Even after he had read everything and allowed a few days for the disparate information to rattle around in his head.

“Although would I really recognize something even if it was there?” Randidly wondered aloud as he climbed out the window and adroitly swung himself up to the roof. Aside from Randidly himself, the roof was a perfectly clear area that provided a lovely view of the city.

Smoke was rising over Kharon, populating the clear blue sky with grey pillars that stretched upward in drifting columns. Humming to himself, Randidly began to stretch and limber up on the roof. Although he utilized quite a bit of his mental energy to condense another drop of liquid Aether, he still had some to spare. And training with his Skills was basically the only activity that Randidly did in the past few days that let him work off some of the immense stress that he was under as he struggled to create solutions for some of the worst problems that he sensed developing on Earth.

Not that I mind, Randidly thought to himself as he began to move through some basic spear exercises. This is the price of being king. There is a lot that Kharon still needs to do before it’s where I want it to revisit the Zones… and I have to be the one to lead that change. No one else has the clout or the vision.

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 223!

Congratulations! Your Skill Sharpness has grown to Level 149!

As Randidly gradually accelerated to moving faster and faster, the tension in his mind began to drift away. The physical movements consumed his focus. Aether flowed clearly through him, swirling around the three drops of liquid Aether and then spreading out to the surrounding air. Even though he was just training with his spear, the physical exertion caused Randidly to function as a diffusion engine that threw out Aether bearing his distinct mark over the skies onto Kharon.

Randidly had been hesitant at first to release so much Aether that was indelibly shaped by his images, but he was somewhat helpless to find that his efforts to become more efficient at refining liquid Aether meant that he also began to almost instinctively shape his Aether to be more predisposed to his images. He could forcefully stop himself from altering his Aether from its pure form, but it would also mean that Randidly would need to work that much harder next time he tried to condense liquid Aether. Somehow, it was tied together into a process that Randidly hadn’t quite understood.

Randidly’s still human right arm and metallic left arm moved perfectly in tandem as he performed the spear forms. The lines of light along the replacement limb danced as Randidly forced his body to spin and twist as he manipulated the training spear. His breath came in deep and smooth allotments, his body barely breaking a sweat as he continued to accelerate through the familiar motions taught to him by Shal all those years ago. Yet even if he wasn’t straining, his body continued to buzz with energy.

If not for two facts, Randidly likely would have accepted the difficulty condensing liquid Aether and undone the mark he was increasingly placing on his released energy. The first reassuring fact was that as Randidly almost subconsciously shaped the energy released, he could feel how much easier it was for him to now create a detailed image. The experience of marking Aether seemed to be part of a broader mental experience of exerting his will on the world. Getting into the habit made exerting his will with an image that much easier.

It was a gradual thing, but his power was growing.

And the second fact was that while he did mark Aether as his own, the Aether that he released was still extremely malleable for the people of Kharon. It did not approach the crusted and brittle Aether that the System spewed out for people using Villages.

So Randidly didn’t let it bother him as Aether flowed through him and dispersed through the surrounding area. It was with some amusement that Randidly realized that the process was helped along immensely by the moss spirits. They floated through the air and carried Randidly’s Aether with them, distributing it evenly through the surrounding districts.

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The Aether seeped slowly down into the city around him as Randidly moved, nurturing the growing images of the people who lived here. The air became rich with energy due to Randidly’s presence.

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 224!

Still Randidly continued to accelerate, throwing off more and more energy as his speed pushed the limits of what the human body could handle. His limbs were a blur, borrowing some of the esoteric principles he had seen Vualla utilize to create an image of power just from physical movements.

His spar yesterday with Helen was a reminder not to forget the basics. Although he had rather easily won, that was by relying on his images. While he had been away, the one area that Helen had managed to quickly catch back up in was pure spear use.

Although honestly, Randidly was right more concerned with the roof beneath his feet holding up than he was with his own body giving out on him. But it seemed like city hall had been built solidly to withstand attacks, so a little training on the roof should be harmlessly enough. The building seemed to be swaying slightly, but it was nothing too drastic.

As Randidly moved through a complex series of thrusts with the training spear that created the illusion of a blooming bouquet of sharp petaled flowers, he chuckled to himself. Would really be unfortunate if I demolish city hall just from some light exercises though…

From the base exercises with the spear, Randidly eventually moved on to spear movements that incorporated moves inspired by his three images. To be frank, Randidly had largely lost any sort of comprehensive spear fighting method since he had gained his images. Although the Grim Chimera was composed of a series of spear moves, Randidly had treated these much more like individuals Skills than a pure Style as was emphasized on Tellus. The unity of his fighting method was gradually lost.

Meanwhile, Helen had shown him that it was possible to preserve that unity. It simply required effort and focus.

Now, with city hall lightly shaking beneath him, Randidly thrust and swept and dodged and jabbed while steadily working the principles of his images into the simple movements of the spear. There were times where he would be stumped for a short amount of time, but Randidly did not lose his patience. He gracefully gathered his images within his body and perfectly performed the moves.

If there wasn’t an answer in his mind, Randidly trusted that he would find one within the images and the moves.

The World Tree became a spear style that was powerful and full of life. The Ignition Essence became moves that were unpredictable and flawless. And the Grim Chimera… between those powerful spear Skills that Randidly already possessed, a dominant style of a predator slowly came into being. His spear moved ceaselessly, proceeding through each move with deadly grace.

Notification after notification appeared, signaling that the System rewarded Randidly for his focused efforts. His method was rather forceful, but it appeared clearly to be correct.

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 225

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 226!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 248!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Spear Mastery has grown to Level 301!

As Randidly slowed down, he was surprised to find that his body was steaming. Almost the entirety of the rooftop was shrouded in the thick mist as his overheated body met the cool air. When he ceased moving, the surrounding area went very still and silent, as though everything nearby had been suppressed by Randidly’s movements in the past several hours. No noise penetrated into the depths of the mist.

Which, due to the emergence of mist and ghastly images Randidly now found swirling around him, everything probably had been suppressed by his activities. Awkwardly, Randidly could only scratch his chin and be glad that the mist obscured his form standing smoky-armed on top of city hall.

Still, no matter the… side-effects, it had been an extremely fruitful training session. Not only had Randidly largely rid himself of the mental stress from looking at reports for several days, but he had also finally cashed in on his Spear Mastery potential that he had left by the wayside for the past two or so years. All in all, it was an extremely satisfying day.

A twinge through Randidly’s Grim Intuition had him look over toward the stairwell to the roof. Standing there was Tatiana, her arms folded across her chest. The mist had dissipated to the point that it was only a light fog in the surrounding area. “Are you finished? We had to send some of the weaker employees home early. Your energy… is a bit much for people to withstand.”

Randidly winced. “Sorry. Next time I’ll train somewhere where it will be less distracting.”

“Honestly, it was a nice break. We’ve all been working ourselves to the bone recently. This is your town, Randidly,” Tatiana waved at him in a friendly manner and turned to head back down the stairs. “If we are so weak that we can’t be near you… likely it’s us that should be forced to leave Kharon.”

Randidly watched Tatiana go with a frown. Because it was something that he had never really considered before, but Tatiana was probably right to point out the issue. Looking down at his hands, Randidly sighed. One goal of Kharon was to create a town that had enough strength to help the Earth develop in the right direction. Randidly had never really considered the problem of making sure the town was able to endure the pressure of staying near him.

Idly, Randidly remembered the way that the forging the metal for his replacement arm had left a deep mark on the image of that wild area within the Alpha Cosmos. The people of Kharon had to endure that with every day that they spent by his side. They would be forever marked by swimming in the energy that Randidly produced.

But while it was likely somewhat difficult, there were also benefits. The dense energy that Randidly released into the air would mean the people here would develop that much more quickly.

Lightly, Randidly picked up his Philosopher’s Key and tasted the karma in the air. Doing so immediately reminded him of a meeting that he had today, so Randidly hastily stored his key away and loped across the nearby rooftops toward a bathhouse.

As he traversed through Kharon’s upper level, Randidly was pleased to note that people had expanded their use of the moss spirits immensely. Although Randidly only produced about fifty platforms that the moss spirits could grip a day, the people that bought those platforms used them tirelessly.

A floating ‘street’ just a little bit above the line of the rooftops was now mirroring the street below in a lot of places, filled with glowing emerald platforms carrying supplies without cluttering up the thoroughfares that were increasingly crowded as the population of Kharon shot upward. Around the edges of these floating supply caravans, individuals streaked past on sleeker platforms shaped like surfboards.

It was a good feeling to know that some of the preparations for Kharon’s arrival at the Zones was proceeding without a hitch.

Very quickly, Randidly snuck into the Order Ducis private baths and cleaned himself off and then returned to city hall. Today, he finally had a meeting with Antonio to talk about how the group from Chicago was settling into Kharon.