Within the Dungeon and without any pressing external threats, Randidly easily fell into a very productive routine. The days flowed ceaselessly past, giving him the space and leisure to alternate between physically manifesting his images, researching Engraving, expanding plans for Kharon Academy, and simply spending time refining the details of his images.

Interspersed with these activities were clashes against Helen and rather long meetings with Gertrude and Sam. Not that Randidly was complaining about the duo’s enthusiasm for the subject matter, but Gertrude especially sometimes made Randidly regret inviting her into the Dungeon. She seemed to take a great deal of joy in deconstructing his rather haphazard previous plans for the Academy and listing a litany of terrible consequences that would have resulted without her input on the current project.

Truthfully, she also taught Randidly quite a bit about teaching. But it did feel like it was a matter that could have been addressed in a more delicate manner. Randidly didn’t mean to claim he had any idea what he was doing when he arranged for Kharon’s education system. They had just needed something.

On top of his flattened mountain peak, Randidly shook his head and stood. He raised his arms and enjoyed the pleasant sensation of his shoulder and neck popping. The sun was just now peeking above the horizon and it was time to finish with his meditative recovery session. It had been one month since the group had come into the Dungeon, and the benefits were starting to pile up.

There’s nothing better than being able to train for an extended period of time, Randidly reflected as he watched the light of the dawn filtering down into the valley below.

The Riders had basically explored the whole of the Dungeon at this point and were now beginning to gather the more valuable raw materials for later use. Although Sam had dragged his feet in agreeing to throw his support behind the Kharon Academy project, he was delighted to experiment with some of the raw materials in an effort to refine them into an even more powerful form. This experimentation continued to the point that Randidly worried what amount of materials would remain when they left the Dungeon.

Randidly didn’t spend much time observing the thirty-two children that they had brought, but Gertrude seemed extremely pleased with their progress. Apparently Ed Dugg was an excellent teacher, aside from the fact that he often included irrelevant information as important as he taught.

Randidly’s focus was mainly on Tim’s growth. And according to Lucretia, what Tim didn’t possess in talent he made up with hard work.

The Kharon police force was improving quickly, as well. But to be fair, it would be shocking if they didn’t improve with Helen and Ajax lighting a fire under their asses. It was only because everyone around him fell so naturally into training that Randidly had a lot of time to dedicate to his own pursuits.

Specifically, the balancing of his three images.

A month had seen Randidly progress from barely able to balance his images while fighting to being at least able to dodge and lash out at enemies while maintaining his manifested image form. Basic Skill use no longer destabilized his efforts in a split second. The reflection chamber of the Xyrt Brigade was invaluable in this effort. With it, Randidly could get a better grasp of the base balance at any time and would recover more quickly during his training attempts.

Of course, Randidly was also aware that his increasing success rate was also related to the fact that his images were altering the Aether within the Dungeon. He was somewhat helpless in the face of this fact. He could limit the spread of his image by focusing on it, but it made it that much more difficult to keep his images balanced while a portion of his Willpower was keeping his influence under control.

After a few days of reflection, Randidly had decided that it was better to train himself than worry about the environment in the Dungeon. So he shrugged his shoulders and let it happen. Instead, he continued to practice. He hadn’t started activating multiple Skills and images at once, but soon he felt confident he could reach that point.

In his body, Randidly’s three images were gradually settling together in a harmonious form.

Plus, the physical effects of this training were soon making themselves known. Even Randidly was slightly alarmed at how physically powerful he was becoming. Although his Stats didn’t change, every movement of his carried with it the passive hint of his three images. More than a hint, at this point; it seemed the specter of the Grim Chimera cast a long shadow over each of his limbs. His gaze pierced with the horrible cravings of the Stillborn Phoenix. Each beat of his heart sent a golden pulse through Randidly’s veins.

His images were becoming an increasingly large part of his daily life. As such, even a basic attack had the characteristics of a pseudo-Skill. The power he could wield with a simple movement could shatter space if he wasn’t paying close attention.

Which meant that a little bit of his time had to be spent simply moving without any conscious images so that he understood his current capabilities. From there he practiced his passive fighting related Skill. His proficiency steadily increased. Gradually, Randidly felt the usage of ripping through the physical limitation of the Nexus becoming clearer to him.

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Of course, the change to his body wasn’t a unilaterally positive shift. As he had previously noted, the drops of liquid Aether that Randidly had thus far condensed began to unravel as he put more focus on his images becoming physical manifestations. At this point, the amount of liquid Aether that Randidly possessed had fallen to only three drops. He planned on continuing to empower his body with his images, but Randidly didn’t think he should let his amount of liquid Aether ever drop below two drops. At least not until he had a better understanding of where his new power-level fit in the Nexus.

Randidly sighed and shook himself as he began to walk down from his peak. There are two problems with being in the Dungeon, however. The first is that I need to be careful about practicing Nether… the Aether constructs inside the Dungeon seem delicate enough that I don’t even dare to use Nether Ritual. And the second thing… liquid Aether and my images physically affecting me are both fueled by emotion of a certain depth. The process of increasing that is very slow in this peaceful environment…

In one or two more months, I’ll have basically reached the limit of improving my physical form… then it’s just a matter of increasing my proficiency in balancing the images…

But of course, there would always be other things to train. Randidly could direct more of his attention toward his Skill Levels, which was always a steady avenue of self-improvement. He still had a ways to go in his Monstrosity’s Growth Path, but he believed that he could amass several hundred PP while he was within the Dungeon.

Randidly followed the worn path down the mountain, looking around with amusement at the weeping-willow-esque chime trees that lined the area around his peak. They generated a veritable symphony around him, their branches swaying back and forth in something that seemed to resemble joy. At this point, there were about a thousand of these trees on the mountain, and Randidly was currently undecided whether they possessed actual intelligence or simply mimicked it with remarkable efficiency.

The deep green leaves whispered and rung as Randidly walked past them. From within the heavy foliage, Randidly felt the gazes of dozens of raccoon-like creatures that had grown two extra sets of arms and made their home within the chime trees. They used the set of arms nearest to their head to hold some sort of nut to their sharp teeth while they gestured sinisterly with their other pairs.

Randidly would have slaughtered the lot of them if Sam didn’t point out that there was a strange, symbiotic relationship between the raccoons and the trees. And Sam was very interested in letting these chime trees flourish so they could be harvested for their unique raw materials later. His gaze was almost fanatical when Randidly had seen him look up toward the greenery around his peak.

It provided Randidly a strange amount of mental pressure to know that Sam seemed to regard his image as fertilizer for these organisms, but Randidly was curious about them as well. Hopefully, they would continue to evolve as time passed in the Dungeon.

Once he had passed the area dominated by chime trees, Randidly accelerated downward. Below the mountain was the valley, and within the valley was the river that formed the core of the group’s base in the Dungeon. There were a fifty or so rough edged adobe houses right near the river, but since Ed Dugg had whipped the children into construction shape, there were also several respectable-looking houses around a small fountain Ed had made. This was the core of their current Dungeon operation.

Randidly proceeded to the largest of those buildings, opening the heavy wooden door and walking into the food hall. Immediately, the raucous noise within the building ceased. The kids looked up from their boar-bacon and eggs with wide eyes. Their mouths were frozen, midway through shaping a word.

Kharon’s police force had an even more abrupt reaction. They dropped their silverware onto their trays with a loud clatter and immediately straightened as though their spines had universally been inflated into a completely standing position. Not even the slightest slouch was allowed. Randidly knew it was a show of respect, yet his smile toward the police officers was somewhat tired as he swept forward into the low ceiling building.

Suppressing the rumbling of his stomach, Randidly Ghosthound idly waved a hand at the frozen groups. “As you were.”

The children slowly began to whisper amongst each other while eyeing Randidly with obvious anxiety, but at least the police officers sat back down and began to continue eating in something resembling normalcy. Randidly proceeded across the entire hall to the buffet, where he put several generous helpings of fried meat and potatoes onto a tray. Then he walked over and sat down next to Clarissa.

The Weather Witch had a tray of food and two books laid out in front of her at her empty table. She eyed him with a wry smile as he approached. “Certainly, they are well trained.”

Randidly gave her a deadpan look as he sat down across from her and then began to dig into the food. The taste was a little bit bland, but the quality was excellent; he wondered who the cook was. Clarissa chuckled to herself and then began massacring the six muffins that were the only occupants of her tray. Randidly watched the fluffy and buttery pastries disappear and resolved himself to grab a couple when he went back up for seconds.

Gradually, Randidly’s presence in the mess hall was normalized. The volume of conversation in the food hall rose to more typical levels, although it never reached its previous volume. Randidly got himself a second tray of food and continued eating, just throwing the food into the vast abyss that was his stomach. Luckily, Ed prepared food in bulk, so there was enough that Randidly didn’t need to hide the caloric needs of his empowered body.

After Randidly’s third tray of food, Clarissa straightened her posture and gave Randidly a frank look. “Alright, I can recognize when you want to talk about something. No need to continue to delay by forcing yourself to eat. What is it? Watching you gobble so much is just giving me anxiety.”

Randidly sincerely doubted that anything gave Clarissa anxiety. She was the most playful and irreverent person that Randidly knew. It was why he sat with her now, because she didn’t walk on eggshells around him. But she was right, he wanted to discuss something. “How difficult has it been to control the weather, as I’ve requested?”

Clarissa sighed dramatically. “I’ve struggled, but because it was a request from you, I have persevered…”

“Good. Because I want to see how intense your influence can make the weather. How… antagonistic.” Randidly stated.

Clarissa tilted her head to the side. Then she smiled. “Oho. Finally time to start working on the whole reason you brought me into the Dungeon?”

Randidly grinned in response.