Delilah was nervous. More nervous than she ever remembered being in her entire life. And it didn’t help that as she stood at the top of the hill above Lucretia’s strange little Engraving school nestled onto the slope, she was completely alone. Her eyes were locked onto the form of Tim standing halfway down the slope, surrounded by the dozens of children who seemed to spend every second of their time in their tents, training.
Yet somehow, Tim’s expression was warm and bright. He belonged there.
As they would be departing tomorrow, the children had taken it upon themselves to give him a proper send-off. Each had prepared a small wooden placard that contained a very personal Engraving. Delilah didn’t really understand the Engraving process itself, but she understood that it was different for each person; everyone essentially developed their own language of Engraving to speak to the world. These gifts from the fellow children were core pieces of their language that would inspire Tim in the future.
After only six months, Tim had become one of these children. If Delilah didn’t keep track of him, she didn’t doubt that he would set up a tent of his very own someday.
Hmph, not that I care about dumb stuff like that. Delilah’s gaze shifted to Annon. Then she narrowed her eyes.
The several months of practicing and training under that woman’s voice had helped Delilah recover some of the confidence that had been obliterated by her conflict with Annon. But even so, she could tell from a single look at him that this amount wouldn’t be enough. She was still quite far from his dense and imposing strength.
Just you wait, Annon. Someday, I’ll…. Delilah grumbled to herself. Then, driven by the need to make sure he understood the threat she posed, Delilah stomped down the hill toward the commotion around Tim. The children saw her approaching and moved easily to the side to clear a path. They exchanged meaningful glances.
It seemed like they were looking forward to this. Delilah scrunched up her brows and chewed on her lip.
Soon, she stopped in front of Annon. Before he could speak and ruin things, she seized the initiative. “Annon! I might not be strong enough now, but someday I’ll crush you! Beating you… that’s my goal. And I’ve never failed to accomplish anything. So… be ready!”
Around them, the group of children fell entirely silent. They became spectators to this confrontation. For his part, Annon looked at Delilah with such serious consideration that she began to cheer up. Heh, it seems like he finally realizes the danger he is in! So maybe he isn’t such an idiot, after all…
Finally, Annon nodded. “Fine. I will await your challenge. And… well, it is difficult to know what the future may bring… but if you truly are able to best me, I will accept your proposal.”
“Proposal? Accept?” Delilah was annoyed. “You cannot refuse! You have no choice but to fight me.”
“No, not that.” Annon waved his hand. “If you truly best me, you will have proved that your Style is pure and powerful. I would have no qualms in taking you as my wife and producing children that will emulate your bravery.”
Delilah stood with her mouth wide open for quite a long time. Somehow, she wasn’t completely able to gather the brain cells to process what Annon had just said to her.
Apparently her confusion was clear on her face because Annon tilted his head to the side and considered Delilah. “There is an age difference, yes, but I suspect it will take you many years to catch up to me, either way. Due to that… you might be currently obsessed with me now, but feelings often change. That’s why we do not need to finalize the details, as of yet. Who knows if your love will persevere through the years.”
Delilah swayed. ….love…?
*****
Randidly couldn’t stop laughing as he looked at the furious expression on Sam’s face. “You don’t need to take this so personally. Harvesting the materials is the easy part; the time and effort spent to actually find their uses-”
Sam waved his hand in irritation. His expression was pinched and severe in the dim light of the workshop. “You don’t need to say that to me. Heh, I’ll bet that I’ve spent almost double as much time experimenting with materials than you have. This is what I do. But still, to have everything appear so ordinary…”
“Maybe I’m not as amazing a fertilizer as you thought,” Randidly replied with a wicked smile.
Sam just snorted. He walked over to the precisely chopped and neatly stacked pile of timber from Randidly’s chime trees, picking up an individual cord of wood that caught his eye and bringing it close to his face, as though the secret he was looking for simply hadn’t yet been viewed from the correct angle. “This wood reeks of your image. You certainly aren’t the problem. Not in this case.”
Shaking his head, Randidly left Sam to his continued obsession and began to stroll throughout the surrounding worktables. They would be finally leaving the Dungeon tomorrow, after almost six and a half months of diligently training within. Most of the valuable preliminary work that had been done within the workshop was already stored in various interspatial objects, but Randidly rather casually moved through the space anyway, checking for anything they had missed.
Honestly, he was somewhat relieved to be getting out of the Dungeon soon. The training he had done within the Dungeon had earned him a staggering 518 PP, which was just short of having him finish off the Monstrosity’s Growth Path all at once. But Randidly did want to spend some more focused time reflecting on his Grim Chimera image, so he could guide the result of the Path.
Spying a small piece of metal hidden under a work table, Randidly made a snatching motion and used Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart to pull the thing out and up to eye level. On the one hand, having no external threats gives me plenty of time to focus. But that focus, in turn, makes it feel like time is flowing by more quickly… Heh, I wonder, if I truly shut myself away from the world, how long could I train without simply going insane…?
...actually, is that a real danger? I should ask Octavius...
But Randidly’s thoughts were jolted to a halt as his eyes registered the object in his hand. He blinked slowly, taking in the worn details of the piece. Then he wound his way back through the empty work tables toward where Sam was still furiously examining the timber. Randidly set the bit of worked metal down on the table with an audible snap. “Sam, what the hell is this?”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Sam glanced over for a brief second before turning back to his precious timber. “It was an early attempt.”
“There are more…?” Randidly asked, torn between irritation and amusement. The object in question was a small figurine, only half a finger’s length tall. But despite the small size, the character was made with remarkable detail. The sort of detail only a master like Sam could make on such a small figure. Randidly used his metallic left arm to push the figurine across the table. “This is clearly me.”
“If it makes you feel better, I only had to make five of you. That one was the prototype.” Suddenly, Sam’s mouth stretched wide and caused the lines across his face to deepen. “You have no idea how many figurines Clarissa made me make for her…”
“So it was Clarissa, huh…?” Randidly’s mouth twitched as he pictured the cheery former librarian. Certainly, this act was in line with her peculiar branch of unpredictability. “Why does she want figurines of me…?”
“Not just you. At least ten of most of the founding figures of Donnyton… several other important figures, too, like Hank, Lucifer, and Tatiana… But that wasn’t even the worst part. She also wanted about ten thousand each of various base monsters. Zombies, giant insects, rapid beasts, etc.” Sam hung his head. “The detail on each didn’t matter, but just the sheer number of them… Well, I developed the Skill Molten Fingertips in order to work through them quickly, and even Leveled it to 61… so I suppose it wasn’t a total waste of my time.”
“...you didn’t answer the question. Why figurines?” Randidly repeated.
Sam shrugged and brought the piece of timber over to knock over the figurine. “She kept talking about creating a ‘tabletop’ experience, but I- huh…?”
When the piece of wood hit the metal figurine there was a dull noise. A noise that was quite unusual considering the materials involved and vaguely melodic. Immediately, Sam’s entire countenance brightened.
Sighing, Randidly left Sam alone for now. He did not wish to spend his final night in the Dungeon listening to him banging on the timber with various metal hammers.
*****
The crimson flows of energy around Helen were so deep and powerful that they scoured deep grooves into the ground around her. The current rolled and lashed out like furious serpents trying to entrap their prey. The color of the air surrounding her had darkened toward dried blood. She had to grit her teeth to withstand the pressure of this depth within her own image, but still, Helen persevered. Just beyond this, she felt the cusp of a grand change.
A flow smashed into the ground particularly close to Helen and threw flecks of stone up toward her face. She didn’t flinch.
Despite the trembling in her muscles, Helen’s razor-sharp will continued to pressure herself deeper into the bloody image around her. This incensed the currents around her; they began to rage with all the ferocity of a hurricane making landfall. She had chosen a rather secluded location for this final attempt while in the Dungeon, but now Helen felt a sliver of pity for the rather modest gathering of trees that had been minding their business here previously.
As the flows of blood raged around her, those trees were blasted to splinters. The ground was cracked and scarred. Helen shivered, keeping herself very still at the core of the whirling forces around her. A spot of blood began to drip down from a small cut made by the earlier flecks of stone.
Gradually, even as her instincts warned her of the danger, Helen forced her eyes to open and looked at the dense maroon coloration of the blood sea whirling around her. Although this was her own image, it wasn’t one that she had necessarily created from scratch. She had some portions that were her own invention, but even Helen had to admit that most of the changes she made were very… shallow, to the sea of blood.
Helen didn’t understand the details, but in their talks, Randidly had theorized that she was tapping into an older image as she progressed. And therefore, she should be extremely careful when exploring the depths of this image.
So Helen sank as deeply into the sea of blood as she dared and opened her eyes. There was a constant rumbling as the currents constantly ripped at the ground around her. The ‘waters’ here were thick and murky. Her awareness was dismal. Yet it was enough. As she peered downward, she sensed a vast… something was sleeping before her. Even as a headache exploded outward from between her brows, Helen kept herself focused on that vague impression. The headache grew worse. Her chest seized. Such was the pressure that her own body wouldn’t allow her to breathe in this place.
If she breathed, some instinct urged her that a terrible accident would happen. Yet still Helen didn’t look away. Crimson veins emerged on her eyeballs. She forced her attention to sharpen.
That thing in the depths stirred. Something within Helen snapped into place.
Congratulations! Your Skill Tides of Blood (Domain) has evolved into the Sea of Flesh and Tragedy (Domain)! Skill Level will be maintained. Effects of the domain will slightly increase per each Skill Level.
Just as soon as she brushed up against that thing, deep in the depths, it was gone. It sank away so quickly that she almost believed that she had imagined it. As it left, it pulled those violent currents with it. Helen was left sitting in a ruined stretched of forest, releasing deep gasps as she struggled to recover her equilibrium. She pressed her eyes shut and endured the headache, allowing the throbbing pain to run its course.
She had accomplished her goal. Yet somehow, doing so only made her more curious about the image she was steadily infiltrating. What awaited at the bottom…?
Still, Helen didn’t linger long in her created clearing. After she recovered, she ate a small meal of dried meat and cheese and checked her reflection in a small mirror. She unwound her hair and rebraided it so that it looked immaculate.
No need to let any of the other people know how difficult the transition had been for her. And yet, while she certainly did feel some satisfaction at the increase in ability she had received, it was somewhat hard to get too excited when she had spent the last six months training with the Ghosthound’s evolving images.
That man has a way of making everyone else’s gains seem… meager. Helen reflected bitterly as she hurried back to the base. Not that she needed to be there tonight, the Riders would be killing the boss soon so they could leave without needing any assistance, but there was some talk of a party.
And nothing cheered Helen up quite like how sour Randidly would be when he was eventually strong-armed into attending a party. After he used her Domain as a punching bag for six months, she deserved the exquisite treat of seeing his brow furrowed in annoyance.
As she was descending into the valley, however, she saw Nathan sitting on a stump and looking down over the gathering below. Although they weren’t great, several of the teachers that Randidly had brought from his Alpha Cosmos had pulled out instruments and were performing an impromptu concert in the middle of the more advanced houses the kids had built.
For a second she hesitated. Although they were peers, she didn’t often speak to Nathan. But there was something focused about his gaze right now that gave her pause. Plus, Helen could sense Randidly wasn’t yet below. No need to rush.
So she approached Nathan. After casting her mind around, she actually thought of a topic of conversation pretty easily. “So? How did the Class making go?”
Nathan shook his head. “Commissioner Arrietti asked to delay until tomorrow. He wants to… center himself in his home. Something about the Dungeon environment… polluting his headspace?”
Helen frowned as she sat next to Nathan on a nearby stump. “...I’m actually surprised that man noticed. Randidly’s image is too prevalent here; makes it slightly stuffy to refine any other image. Maybe he’s not just a glorified punching bag…”
Nathan rolled his eyes. “You are too harsh. He might not be very brave, but he at least is honest. He’s the type of man Kharon needs- hey, stop!”
Helen started ruffling Nathan’s hair with a smile. “What are you, fourteen? Don’t talk like you are a wise old man. It’s slightly creepy.”
But as she smiled, some inner part of Helen sighed and deflated. As she looked down at the joyous celebrating happening below, she couldn’t help but think of the corollary of what Nathan had said: the reason that Kharon needs people like Commissioner Arrietti was because they would soon be losing the man they really needed, Randidly Ghosthound.
And yesterday, Randidly had offered Helen a chance to come with him to the Nexus.
“Just trying to do my part,” Nathan scowled at Helen. She ignored the gaze, although she felt that Nathan had shifted his classification of her to becoming a condescending adult after that display.
“Aren’t we all,” Helen replied without much heart.