Of course, Randidly reflected sourly as he examined the notifications that awaited him when he exited his cocoon of Nether and returned to the real world. Isolating myself like that also keeps me away from the prying eyes of the overlay System. And without that, it can’t notice and reward me for making a Pinnacle Tier Skillset… or another Transcendent Skill… which is a wasted opportunity...

But that was less important for the moment than successfully achieving the evolution with Ignition Essence that he had been waiting for. Or, Randidly supposed, he should be thinking of it as revelation energy now.

As soon as Randidly found himself back in that muddy hole on the rain-slicked hill, he glanced around with a strange sort of intensity. Apparently unnerved by what they had seen, the undead badgers had fled from the area. It seemed that what they had seen made them consider their old warren a lost cause. That earned a smirk from Randidly, but that thought disappeared as quickly as it had come, almost as though it had been washed away by the rain.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Grasp of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 287!

Within a second, Randidly once more had a root shelter from which to work in relative dryness. Making himself comfortable, his attention shifted inward and he carefully felt out his new Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold. He called and his energy responded.

To Randidly’s relief, he still felt the sense of Inspiration that was the portion of the image that he wasn’t willing to lose. It was the whole reason that he had forced all these disparate parts together. It was however, worth noting that the inspiration that Randidly felt from this new incarnation was slightly different from the illuminating experience of the past. As was suggested by the name, it was almost… religious. There was a mysticism associated with it that spoke to how little Randidly truly understood about black holes.

Ignition Essence was a bright light that showed Randidly a Path. This… just seemed to confirm that such a Path existed and that it was worth pursuing.

Hopefully there is some literature from before the System hit that can give me more of a solid base in understanding the science of this… or would it be possible for me to physically look for a black hole in the universe…? The Philosopher's Key could probably get me there, but after that… Although my Stats have made me more powerful, based on what I know about black holes, I would still just be devoured…

Floating now in the same Soulspace as his other images, Randidly approached the new arrival: the fist-sized, pitch-black sphere. Suppressed by the other images, the sphere behaved rather amicably even as Randidly focused on it in depth. Slowly, his sense of self began to overlap with the image. First there was a tug, and then Randidly could brush against the absolute torrent of emotions that was swirling in the dense core of that darkness.

First there was a horrible, all-consuming guilt. Beyond that was a howling rage that ripped through the suppressed space with every iota of its ferocity. And then the other emotions came so quickly that even Randidly could barely parse them apart. Fear, self-loathing, hatred, yearning, a small flash of hope… then everything swirled away, pulled in more tightly by the hunger that drove the black hole Randidly now housed.

Randidly released an uneasy breath as he extricated himself from the image. On the one hand, Randidly now had a much better control of the negative emotions he had inherited from Illym. They worked for him, rather than against him. The problem was that the emotions seemed to be transforming into something even more dangerous and wild while being so tightly pressed together.

An emotional diamond, Randidly thought sourly.

But certainly, in the short term Randidly’s power had grown.

Content with the state of his image for the moment, Randidly opened his eyes and experimented with his new Skills. The first that he tried was Piercing Gaze of the Egg. Randidly narrowed his emerald eyes and looked across at the low ridge that the Undead Badgers had hid behind as he activated the Skill. Rather than seeing anything, Randidly could feel the bolt of near-invisible energy that shot outward at his target. It was almost completely transparent, but moved at a quick clip.

BOOOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill Piercing Gaze of the Egg (L) has grown to Level 202!

When the invisible energy hit the stone ground, it exploded in a nova of white light. After the smoke and dust had cleared, Randidly was rather impressed to see that a five-meter chunk of the ridge had been obliterated in the initial blast, with the bolt then proceeding forward and cutting through the stone ground for a good distance.

Having some impact and piercing power means it should be pretty useful, Randidly reflected. Then he tried another Skill: Tide of the Void.

Directly behind the tree that Randidly targeted a smoking and ominous bone talon appeared. Flesh once had covered the talon, but that had all been ripped and torn away. Now it was just a pale imitation of the life it once held. The horrible anger of the Stillborn Phoenix imbued ever pale and malevolent inch of it.

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Just as quickly as it manifested, it rushed toward the tree and tore it to shreds. It’s appearance, movement, and assault was so quick that even Randidly blinked at the sight of it. In terms of shock value, it was the highest of any Skill Randidly had ever possessed. Further experiments, however, revealed that this Skill had a rather glaring caveat with its use.

It could only move which such ruthless speed when it was heading toward Randidly. So Randidly needed to create the talon behind the target to get the full effect. When it moved in other directions, it seemed to be even a little weaker than the Talon of the Restless Immortal that it had replaced. It was an annoying restriction, but Randidly supposed that was mostly due to his own image; a black hole really just pulled things toward itself.

Satisfied, Randidly moved on to the next Skill. But Cosmic Necessity turned out to be a much more complicated Skill to practice.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 199!

Congratulations! Your Skill Cosmic Necessity (M) has grown to Level 200!

Randidly tracked down some Level 50 Two-Headed Bears to use as guinea pigs and learned several things from the experience. One, that Level 50 foes weren’t enough to even put his new Skills through their paces. Randidly needed to spend a bit more tracking down usable test subjects in the future. Two, it appeared that Cosmic Necessity had incorporated all the vicious efficiency with violence that Innate Violence had provided, with an even more honed preternatural ability to predict the moves of the opponent.

It was the third and final discovery of Randidly’s that made him go back and looked at the Skill description.

Cosmic Necessity (M): A skill that vastly boosts ones ability to fight in close range combat. The Skill provides honed instincts based on the universe’s cosmic laws to provide a small amount of predictable ability to the user. Also enhances the user with extremely small boosts to the power and quickness of user’s attacks. In addition, the user can create a certain amount of Cosmic Orbs. Upon detonation of the Orb, user can pull either his or her self or the opponent toward the Orb. Effect is greater on self. Predictive ability greatly increases with Skill Level. Passive bonuses slightly increase with Skill Level. Number of Cosmic Orbs and effect increases with Skill Level.

The Cosmic Orbs Randidly could create really looked like a larger, semi-translucent glass orb around a smaller black orb. But, like the Skill described, Randidly could activate them and provide some extra variation to his own movements. It was hard to judge how effective they were on enemies, however, because the bears Randidly found tumbled helplessly forward when he activated them.

How do you have any self-respect? Randidly lampooned as he shook his head.

In addition, the orbs grew less effective the farther they were away from the target and from Randidly himself. They could also be deployed and used relatively quickly, enabling Randidly to rapidly shift himself a short distance to the side on the fly. Which, combined with the Skill Chimeric Avoidance, almost guaranteed that Randidly would soon recover a reputation as a phantom in spirit, if not in image.

Satisfied, Randidly moved forward with his experiments. Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart was an even more powerful version of gravity manipulation. This, at least, Randidly was very pleased to receive. Specifically, because the increased power and dexterity he could wield with the Skill meant that his metal forging process would take significantly less time. Not that Randidly had much spare time for forging at the moment, but he didn’t doubt he would soon be required to making himself a more advanced metal left arm.

Especially because Neveah was constantly raving about how much she had learned from Yystrix’s Engraving puzzles… His arm and back Engravings would likely soon be upgraded anyway.

Tug of Tragic Silence was another pleasant surprise. When activated, it first pulled at the surrounding space before releasing a large blast of what Randidly could only assume was radiation into the surrounding area. Objects around him immediately began to corrode and disintegrate into tiny, sparkling bits of ash. At a rate that alarmed Randidly at first, before he could see that the effect only spread out ten meters from his body.

Even so, it was somewhat disturbance to watch as the wind blew away a little bit more of the surrounding hill that Randidly had annihilated. Truly, he was an apocalypse for these badgers; their homeland had been obliterated in so many ways in a short span of time.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tug of Tragic Silence (A) has grown to Level 135!

Mostly, Randidly was in awe that the effect of the corrosion was even more powerful than what Nether could accomplish and the Skill Level was only 135. It wasn’t a Skill that could be used near allies, but some time and attention would see it become deadly.

Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix was generally just an upgraded version of the earlier Stigma, keeping his resistance to fire and Nether while also adding a larger resistance to any sort of outside influence on his body. Which left Randidly with just one last Skill to test.

Randidly flexed his hand and activated Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 253!

An inky darkness that floated somewhere between pure black and a deep purple congregated around Randidly’s hand. As Randidly looked down at the energy, there was a change in the surrounding air; he felt like some sort of spiritual artist had gone through the surroundings and outlined everything in glimmering gold lines. To his eyes, everything became specific and distinct.

And his awareness of the surrounding area...

A strange sense of calmness filled Randidly’s chest as he looked at that energy, but for the moment he didn’t bother to look around and consider how it had changed his already prodigiously powerful Grim Intuition. Instead, he simply continued to stare into the depths of the energy.

Because as he watched, tiny motes of emerald and orange light flashed in that swirling energy. The proof that the two flames Randidly possessed hadn’t been totally devoured by the image he had… and in addition, it was a confirmation that the image wasn’t as dangerously bleak as its attitude would indicate.

It was a small thing, but it reassured Randidly that he had made the right decision. Especially after feeling the wild torrent of emotions that the image held… this confirmed that this was his image and not just an image of necessity that was built to house Illym’s emotions. So he stood still for a short time, enjoying that certainty.