A powerful metal was the first step, but it was one with which Randidly took the utmost care. Of all the portions of this process, the others were mostly outsourced to more talented companions; it was only the refining of the base alloy that would be done solely by him. It was fed with his labor and his blood. The resulting Rust Steel alloy would be completely his.

All it would know was his images. And it would know those images very intimately.

There was value to that isolation. Both in purity and in his later image usage. The eventual Engraving had been mostly designed by Neveah, although she relied heavily on Randidly’s experience with using the arm to create the proliferating shape, with her own private spin that she refused to reveal.

The plans for the assemblage of the arm was left to Wendy. She had only given him the barest details as of yet, but Randidly was quite impressed. It was her genius that fueled the finished product. It was now to be scale-mail with a twist: the size of the scales was varied across the arm. While the main body of the arm now had scales that were larger and more oval, the hand was rigged with scales so small that it would honestly be a hassle to make.

Again, Randidly’s control was only over the metal, the foundation, the base. It was what everything else was built upon. It must be his, totally and completely. So despite the extremely high expenditure of mental energy, Randidly carefully melted the ore, refined it, and then began to mix in the ground bones.

Mix the metal. Pound it into shape. Quench in the hungry, weakening blood of the Stillborn Phoenix. Mix again. Pound into shape again. Quench in the life-giving blood of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Repeat, again and again, until the metal reached the requisite composition.

What did Randidly require from this metal? What was his goal? Honestly, he had no concrete ideas. But again, this was the foundation of everything. So he had faith that he would know what he needed when he saw it.

Skill Levels ticked rapidly upward at a speed that surprised him, but Randidly was aware that the perception of a quick growth in strength was hiding the truth; hours were passing as he completely immersed himself in the refinement of the Rust Steel. During that time, Randidly maintained all three of his images in the surrounding area. He didn’t need to keep the various images in balance like he did when manifesting the three images in his body at the same time, but as hours began to tick past, the drain on his focus was enormous.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Timing (Ru) has grown to Level 136!

Yggdrasil to strengthen the metal. The Stillborn Phoenix both to rip out impurities and also to maintain the heavy layer of Revelation energy that gave Randidly unparalleled insight into the composition of the alloy. The Grim Chimera to sniff toward the elusive scent of necessity surrounding the entire endeavor.

The three desires of his being, reaching for the desired future.

Feeling the importance of the moment, Randidly’s Nether Nebula began to stir. Its energies grew increasingly dense. But just as quickly as it began to gather, Randidly thoroughly suppressed its expansion. He couldn’t afford to reveal his Nether now. Although it was a great source of strength for him, he wasn’t quite ready to reveal that card.

Or to invite Kaan Swacc to attack at this vulnerable moment. His focus couldn’t be allowed to be divided.

Randidly needed this arm to be a source of strength for him, perhaps even for the next few years. He needed to overcome Kaan Swacc before he left the Earth. He needed to achieve the unexpected; he needed to lure out and subdue this foe so that the Earth’s only worry was the Calamities in front of it.

Most of the fights in Randidly’s past had been unavoidable. Either Yystrix had come for him or he had to struggle against the machinations of his fellow Earthlings or the people of Tellus. Randidly had very rarely sought out fights. And perhaps part of the reason that he had avoided intervening in Earth’s business was simply being used to his grand struggles smashing their meaty fists against his door.

The issue of the Special Investigator had taken that luxury away from Randidly. Such a foe had been isolated and abandoned here but possessed the discipline to wait for the perfect chance to strike. Just to make sure the fight happened, Randidly had to arrange circumstances to be just so.

And perhaps it was the huge amount of deep purple Revelation energy wrapped tightly around his body, but Randidly felt like his vision had opened. Gradually, his confusion over how to reliably draw out the Swacc Family representative began to clear. Paths to the future stretched in front of Randidly, intersecting each other and creating new Paths.

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The sensation was incredible. His mind tingled with the possibilities of it. The further ahead he looked, the dimmer his view. But he could see the way he dearly wished to see some of those futures come to pass more than others.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 283!

Perhaps even more importantly, Randidly realized it was his own feet this whole time that had been carrying himself toward the future. It was an obvious thing, but Randidly felt the strangest sense of freedom after thinking it. This whole time, like it or not, through action or inaction, he had control of how the future developed.

Perhaps not so much in the past, when his influence was smaller, but now...

Shaking his head with a hint of regret, Randidly looked forward. He saw the future where Theodora Greyman killed King Phirun and his greatest warriors, rising quickly back to power in Zone 1 on the back of Richter, the Black Rook. Although there was a chance that borrowed Nether power would soon abandon her, of all the people Randidly had seen, Richter was the closest to managing the Nether in his body. It was possible that strength would endure and even grow.

If Randidly allowed that to happen, the Zones would become divided. Theodora Greyman would not release her hold on power gently. No matter who triumphed, a weakened Earth would face the First Calamity.

Of course, Randidly also could see the sharp eyes of Kaan Swacc on those many Paths to the future. It was foolish to think that such a suspicious Special Investigator would have missed Zone 1’s bumbling attempts to utilize Nether. The problem was, how would Kaan Swacc respond?

It depends on their current abilities with Nether… Randidly’s narrowed his eyes. In his heart, his resolve to deal with President Greyman intensified.

Randidly’s current plan of action relied heavily on Kaan Swacc wanting proof that he, Randidly Ghosthound, was a Nether spy. But it was very possible that Kaan would accept that small portion of Earth being turned into a training ground for Nether warriors as an appropriate substitute. Which was all the more reason that Randidly needed to hurry to confront him.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 284!

But for now, focus, Randidly scolded himself. This metal needs to be as close to perfect as possible.

Randidly pulled his gaze from those stretching Paths to the task in front of him. But he now understood that as he selected his own Path, he would guide others toward the future in different ways. Part of it was the effect of him being Randidly Ghosthound, the publicly acknowledged most powerful man on the planet.

But perhaps more important, it was because he had control of his own actions. For the first time in his life, Randidly was beginning to understand what that meant.

Yet those high-minded thoughts gradually dissipated as he continued the process of refining.

Mix the metal. Pound it into shape. Quench in the hungry, weakening blood of the Stillborn Phoenix. Mix again. Pound into shape again. Quench in the life-giving blood of Yggdrasil, the World Tree. Repeat.

Randidly eventually leaned back and frowned at the finished ingot in front of him. With his sharp gaze empowered by the revelation energy, he realized he had thought too shallowly about making this alloy.

He used the same percentages of bone and ore as he had in the past, trusting that the result would be up to his expectations. But while the metal he now held was undoubtedly more powerful than bloodsteel, his image of the Grim Chimera regarded it with disdain. This was not the metal he needed right now.

So, even though he had already been forging for several hours, Randidly went back to the basics and experimented with different ratios of ore and bone. He utilized the method he used in the past, relying on the quenching to eventually filter out the unneeded amounts of the bone, but Randidly quickly realized that this thinking was flawed too.

So he started forcing the percentages and testing the result. Bloodsteel was at about 84% ore, 15% bone, and 1% his blood. So Randidly tested bone content at 10 through 40% in five percent intervals.

At the end, he was surprised to find that while the forging process became more difficult, 40% bone was the most powerful. So Randidly expanded his experiments, reaching all the way up to 80%.

Testing consumed more and more time. Randidly refused to compromise on this, however. Without a pure metal, every other point was moot.

The final ratios ended up being 49% ore, 49% bone, and 2% blood. The materials had to be practically smashed together in order to get them to bond, but the result was extremely impressive. So with his new formula, Randidly got to work.

Twelve hours after he had started the smelting, Randidly sat back and released a breath. A neat stack of ingots sat in front of him, reaching up to his waist. Perhaps due to the increased presence of his blood in the alloy, the color was darker than Randidly had expected. It was a mottled red-orange, truly reminding him of rusted iron and urban decay.

Neveah had already provided the Engraving, so Randidly proceeded into his Alpha Cosmos to speak with Wendy about the final plans for the arm. Only a few minutes later, Randidly returned to his small set-up in the highlands Southwest of the Zones. Night had fallen, but Randidly’s eyes were bright in the darkness.

Sensing his intent, Neveah appeared next to Randidly.

He grinned. “Time to make this arm.”