Randidly’s Nether Gatekeeper core had resembled a nebula when he left the frontlines and returned to Earth. There was a dense core at the center of the nebula, surrounded by a disk of more sparsely populated energy that spread out over Randidly’s Soulspace. Slowly, that energy was brought inward, a strange gravity transforming the outer portion into the dense core portion while additional Nether energy was pulled out of his Nether Wells to replace the outer portion at a rapid pace. In this way, the Nether nebula gradually expanded while also becoming increasingly heavy.

With the assistance of the formation that gathered Nether and made it simpler to increase Nether’s density, the area covered by the outer portion of the nebula had shot rapidly upward in the last few days. Especially so after Randidly used the principles he had seen at the frontlines to improve the function of the formation.

Since then, Randidly made a few small tweaks that further streamlined the process of Nether gathering. Around the swirling core, Randidly’s Soulspace became a sea of Nether currents that helped bolster his already significant Strength.

Congratulations, your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 113!

Of course, the really important changes were what was occurring at the core of that sea of Nether. Because that core had begun to rapidly condense even further than it had been previously. And as the core condensed, the pull that it exerted in the surrounding area became immense.

The final result was an abrupt contraction of his Nether sea as the core and the nebula grew smaller and more dense very rapidly. Continually cracking and recovering, most of the impurities and extra space of the core were eliminated; all that was left was weight. That weight pulled on the other portions of the core, gradually cracking flaws and slowly reinforcing itself.

The cause of the abrupt change was the same thing that the Grim Chimera had noticed while it had gone to the stadium. As Randidly and others interacted, even if just slightly, connections were formed. If those connections were important, all that added weight of meaning would slowly gather in his Nether core, transforming it.

While the Grim Chimera had experienced this to a lesser degree, what really accelerated the change was Randidly’s ongoing struggle to accept even his own justifications for letting so many people die. He spent quite a bit of time thinking about it over the last few hours. From what he had heard from Tatiana, others were also considering what Randidly’s actions meant for New Earth.

The result was that the connections and events of the past day were becoming more and more meaningful to the world and to Randidly. And although he didn’t quite understand the details of how it happened, Randidly’s ability to utilize Nether was jumping upward as a result.

He was still within the spectrum of the Nether Gatekeeper tier, but he was starting to understand that the semi-intelligent beasts of Nether Gatekeepers he had encountered in the past had not been even close to the pinnacle of their strength.

Randidly stretched his jaw as he looked up at the star-filled sky. I suppose that Aether needs to affix itself in space, creating a detailed and coherent image to grow more powerful. Meanwhile, Nether is mainly concerned with the passage of time… as time passes, these connections and moments of importance become more plentiful and the Nether density naturally increases… Without how extreme my recent circumstances were, there would be no way that I could have reached the density of a Nether Gatekeeper so quickly…

For several hours, Randidly carefully rotated the Nether in his body. The faster he moved the energy, the more quickly Nether could be pulled inward and collapse slight flaws in his Nether core. The heart of his energy grew heavier and heavier as those flaws were healed. Yet as the speed of rotation increased, Randidly endured a strange pain. It seemed like all the tumultuous emotions he had endured on this night were highlighted even further.

As he forcefully evolved the power of his Nether, he could not escape the pain that had brought him here. The importance became all-consuming. Doubt and fear pulled at Randidly’s emotions. In the eyes of the world, the image of Randidly Ghosthound had been forever altered. Randidly bitterly wondered if he would be forced to make this decision again in the future.

Yet he continued to whirl his Nether, almost ambivalent to the tempering of emotions that he experienced.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 114!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 129!

When the sun finally rose, Randidly stopped the strange emotional torture. His Nether slowly settled into his chest. He could feel that the progress forward was becoming more difficult, but he could still improve further before reaching his limit.

It seemed he had a habit of creating especially meaningful connections with people. Lucretia would tell him that he created Karma far too haphazardly with people. Yet that had never been his intention…!

A few small noises below drew Randidly’s attention. Kharon’s activities had never really calmed since its arrival at the Ogre Gorge, but as morning arrived the bustle exploded to new heights. Bodies and crates of supplied wormed through each other's way with seemingly no logic to them. To equip the flow of ogres to Earth for survival in the mountain ranges, Kharon was operating at full capacity to produce hoes, shovels, hand axes, and pickaxes made with superior metal. To make a new home, the rugged mountain range would need to be shaped into something a bit more hospitable.

The merchants of Kharon were salivating. They met with individual families and provided as many tools as they needed in exchange for a portion of the mineral rights for the area that the family would claim. Randidly was slightly worried about whether the practices were predatory, but he knew that Tatiana would have thought of that issue and addressed it.

Besides, the ogres were not an easy people to bully.

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Yet Randidly could only watch for so long before he was pulled away from the mesmerizing flow of people. It was an uncomfortable thing, but Randidly wanted to make a few visits today. There were a few entities on Earth that deserved his attention before he started profoundly focusing on his two current goals: figuring out what the Creature was up to and preparing for his own birthday party.

So Randidly removed his Philosopher’s Key from his belt and slid it into the air. The tightly wound strings of karma thrummed lightly as he searched for several minutes before finally finding his desired target. Then he pressed the key forward and opened up a door to cross the distance to his first visit.

When Randidly stepped through the portal he was greeted by the sound of waves. The smell of salt and dead fish was thick in the air as Randidly glanced up and down the rather deserted beach on which he found himself. Froth pooled on the sand as waves pulled themselves back and crashed down once more. There was an elderly couple quite a bit of distance down the beach next to a salt-soaked pier, but after waving casually without much worry toward the suddenly present Randidly, they returned to the task of hauling their nets up onto the dock.

As another wave splashed against the shore, the ground began to rumble. The shaking was currently low enough that it was hidden by the noise of the sea, but every second that passed meant that Randidly could feel the reverberations more strongly through the bottoms of his bare feet.

Before the couple detected the change, Randidly rolled his eyes and stomped his foot once with enough force to send a tremor back down. “Don’t worry, just let me come to you… I feel like you will cause a scene otherwise.”

Immediately the rumbling stopped. Then, while the couple turned and watched him in bemusement, Randidly stripped himself to a pair of loose pants and waded out into the salty ocean water until it rose to cover his head. Then he twisted his body and dove forward, savoring the sensation of the cool water running across his bare torso. When he was satisfied, he unleashed a few weak strokes to drive him deeper along the bottom of the sea. Kelp and curious fish watched him pass while they drifted along with the current.

Once Randidly had created some distance from the shore and surface of the water, he became much more serious about his swimming. As his arms pumped, huge volumes of water were used as springboards to shoot himself forward like a torpedo. The water in his wake trembled from the force of his strokes. Fish in the surrounding area quickly scattered.

Seems like Nether Brawn packs some serious punch, Randidly noticed as he left a trail of flattened seaweed in his wake while zipping along the descending slope of the sea. The further he went, the higher the water pressure became. However, it would still be quite a bit before Randidly’s Nether infused body would feel any strain from this sort of pressure.

Such a presence was practically reassuring. All of the flecks of Nether-induced strength and aura that Randidly generally kept bottled up for other’s safety finally started reasserting themselves. To the point that Randidly found the pressure he released more than overpowered the weight of the water above him. His speed began to increase as he experimented with how to use that pressure.

Even with the rapid pace Randidly kept up, it still took him almost fifteen minutes to reach his destination. And as he swam closer, he could help but release a mouthful of bubbles into the surrounding water as he laughed. Sensing its creator’s approach, a veritable onslaught of seaweed blasted out of the ground as Thorn excitedly went in for a hug.

Randidly continued to laugh freely as the slimy tendrils of seaweed that were simply drifting around Thorn’s main body quickly wrapped him up and reeled him in like a foolish fish. Although it seemed most of Thorn’s body had been converted to seaweed, Randidly didn’t miss that beneath the floating green exterior each plant protrusion was lined with sharp spines.

Thorn was still just as deadly as previous incarnations. Just this one also could exist in the near-infinite sea.

Thorn’s main body hadn’t changed much since apparently developing gills, aside from its size. The shuddering, green and pink flesh core was now almost as large as a house as it floated here near the edge of the sea. Several strange muscles pulsed and twisted as Thorn manipulated both the ropes of seaweed as thick as tree trunks shooting off into the distance and also the roots that spread out from its floating position and dug into the ground nearby.

It hung there like a slimy, ominous heart, with the thick veins stretching out in every direction.

As Randidly looked further around, his smile widened. Nearby, there was a deep tunnel in the ground that had been obviously excavated quite recently. Randidly once again laughed. “Did you really intend to just dig yourself up to see me…?”

A strand of mental communication blossomed between the two as Thorn happily agreed with Randidly’s assessment. Feeling helpless, Randidly could only shake his head at the plant’s enthusiasm.

Then Thorn, through a confusing slew of images and sensations, began to joyously explain how it had been spending its time since it had seen Randidly last. It talked about working on the coast, preventing people from the Toad World from landing. It talked about painfully shifting itself to live in the sea after drinking copious amounts of blood in order to be more proactive in its task.

Of course, Neveah’s direct intervention into the Toad World rapidly lowered the need for Thorn to assist, so it had turned its attention to exploring the largest Zone currently on Earth: the sea Zone. Especially since every day recently saw the ocean rapidly expanding, Thorn’s seaweed could spread even farther afield. Generally, it avoided killing the monsters it encountered, so Thorn conveyed how it had become an almost seawide entity. It bragged about some fish made use of its seaweed strands to hunt other fish.

“That’s honestly amazing,” Randidly communicated back as he parsed apart the image. Thorn likely couldn’t hear the words Randidly spoke into the deep water, but it likely could understand the emotions he conveyed. And then, shyly, Thorn asked Randidly to play.

He considered saying no, but in the end, he couldn’t deny Thorn. Although what Thorn had accomplished was amazing, Randidly had peered through the memories that Thorn had shared; he knew how lonely his Soulseed had been since Decklan had left. And since that was one of the reasons he came…

So Randidly played with Thorn for almost six hours. After Thorn created a more convenient algae body that could travel with him, the duo shot across the ocean floor with enough speed that Level 50 Raid Bosses were knocked senseless just by the slipstream they left in their wake. Thorn was an endless source of enthusiasm, conveying to its creator all that it had learned while exploring the mysterious bottom of the sea. He took Randidly to deep trenches and to see strange, glowing types of monsters that didn’t come anywhere near the surface. And such was the depth there that even Randidly felt a little pressure in his chest from the intense weight of the water around him.

Thorn even took Randidly to a crack in the Earth’s crust were gouts of silver flame roared upward even at the frigid floor of the ocean, sending a cascading rush of bubbles toward the sky. The sight was oddly beautiful and alien, like the pressure from the water had completely pressed against the concept of space until it had created its own miniature Domain.

Randidly made a mental note to investigate the phenomenon further when he had time.

With their powerful bodies, they crisscrossed the ocean floor without a care; for now, sharing the joy of this strange exploration with each other was enough.

But eventually, Randidly turned to Thorn. After wavering for a moment, he reached out and pressed the warm skin of his human hand against Thorn’s avatar “This has really been amazing. But I think it’s time to talk about something. You… could you sense it when Decklan died?”