Randidly returned to his penthouse apartments and the first thing he did was walk to the center table and pop a piece of smoked meat in his mouth. Helen had seriously raided his supply, meaning he would likely need to smoke another boar in the next few days if he wanted to keep it around as a snack. But right now, the main goal was to give his body something to do while his mind whirred. Thoughts clicked into place like tumblers, giving him a clearer view of what had occurred today.

First and simplest, even Randidly was surprised how far his body had come since his fight against Kaan Swacc. He had always been strong, overwhelmingly strong compared to most individuals who utilized Aether. But in the past, he would have said that it was still quite difficult to suppress a manifestation as powerful as Helen’s image solely with his physical prowess and some Nether. But now…

And while the growth of his various physical passives was part of it, the real culprit was the recent institution of the Nether in the training camp. As Nether flowed between the various recruits, significance gradually accumulated and was eventually deposited within Randidly’s body. As a result, his Nether began to gradually change. Although he lost some of his own significance in exchange to fuel the process, the reason the process was so valuable was that the significance released seemed to beget more of itself as it spread throughout everyone.

Honestly, it reminded Randidly of information he had learned about the banking industry back while he was in college. Randidly acted as the central bank, lending out his own significance to various individuals to get the process started. Then those individuals utilized that loaned significance to improve their own lives, and by extension, enriched the loaned significance. The more significance they had, the easier it was to generate. This enriched significance was passed on to others, where it continued to circulate to the point that it returned to Randidly, very much more valuable.

In the back of his mind, several new methods for attempting to create a Nether Class began to ferment. He felt like he was very close to achieving a breakthrough on that front.

But the big reason that Randidly was so shocked that he had silently returned to eat a few bites of meat, and the reason that he was briefly distracted enough during the challenge to unleash a full-strength sweep that nearly killed Recruit Clamman, was because this system of significance had somehow triggered his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

Although he had taken the memories of challenges in the past from present individuals and that had boosted his Dreamcatcher all the way to Level 99, he had never been connected to said individuals during the process. With the introduction of the Nether array, and although the array clearly favored recruits over Overseers for reasons Randidly hadn’t quite figured out yet, the connections had finally been present during the process.

A shared moment had been saved.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 100! Congratulations! Your Fate has reached maturity!

Warning, Error-

The next piece of your Fateset has awakened from its slumber! Seek it out to continue to find your Fate.

Randidly cracked his knuckles. For a second, he allowed himself to relish in the completion of this Fatepiece; it had been a long time coming. And hopefully, the cost of its usage would dramatically decrease now that it had been completed. It would let him deviate more meaningfully from the past, without forcing him to endure a vicious headache afterward.

Then he reached within his interspatial ring and removed the blank canvas that he had obtained from the tomb of Yystrix. Each Fatepiece was connected to an important individual or aspect of his life. The Philosopher’s Key was tied to himself while the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night came from his father. Randidly had fought against admitting this for a long time, but Yystrix had carefully shaped him to his current capabilities. Whether he liked it or not, she was the one who had given him the tools to survive in the Nexus.

While within his interspatial ring, the canvas had rolled up into a scroll. To Randidly’s surprise, there was no notification when he retrieved said scroll out of the ring. But as he held it within his hands, the fingertips touching the Fatepiece buzzed with potent energy.

The benefits to my Leveling was a sharp increase in Focus… but a small decrease in Control…. Randidly released a breath and unfurled the scroll. It wasn’t until the blank page was completely open before him that a notification popped into existence in front of his eyes.

Congratulations! You have obtained the third piece of your Fateset, the Visage of Obsession Lvl 1! The Alchemist is differentiated from the common man by one simple truth: he will not stop on his Path until he discovers the key ingredient to create the impossible. Yet even the great Alchemist cannot completely escape the flaws of his mortal coil, at least not without a reagent. The Visage of Obsession is the ever-shifting reflection of the Alchemist’s determination that borders on madness. To a mundane viewer, it is just a painting. Yet to the Alchemist, it is a potent catalyst to cleave the user’s mind from the limitations of a worldly perspective. In the depths of Obsession, reality begins to fragment.

A strong enough desire can warp reality.

Warning: Once usage of the Visage of Obsession begins, its use can only be delayed, never stopped. The user will experience ten trials that will test the limits of his obsession. There will be a cost to passing each trial.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Visage of Obsession has grown to Level 2.

Randidly decisively snapped the scroll shut and snorted to himself. He barely even had time to capture the now-revealed vivid swirls of color on the canvas before he stored it away. It’s a bit late to tell me that the usage can only be delayed, never stopped, when I’m required to look at it directly in order to receive the notification… Also… I wonder what it means by trials…

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

However, unlike the prior two Fatepieces, this one came with some implicit understanding of its usage, even if that usage didn’t seem immediately useful. Even with the scroll closed and the details of its actual depiction hidden, Randidly sensed that all he needed to do to Level the Fatepiece was to spend time looking at it. As for the trials and the costs for passing them… Randidly wasn’t sure. All he could tell was that the Visage of Obsession was used when he had a problem he couldn’t solve through normal means.

As soon as he had an understanding of the Fatepiece, he thought about his Nether Class issues. But the lack of immediate clarity was enough to make him decide that he should spend some time addressing the current problems in front of him before he committed himself to stare at the painting.

First, tomorrow was the first scrimmage battle between Drill Sergeants. To his own surprise, Randidly found that… despite the current plan to exhaust the recruits before the match and make them lose, he felt an impulse to change his strategy. His memories of the few other Drill Sergeants that he had met meant… Randidly really didn’t want to lose.

In addition, there was the impending meeting with Commandant Wick… who would no doubt have opinions on the outcome of the skirmish.

But Randidly shook his head decisively as he put another piece of roast hog into his mouth. The whole point of the Darkstar Coin demonstration and this first skirmish was to light a fire in the hearts of the recruits. Hopefully, this display would spark some enthusiasm toward physical training. It wasn’t enough just to follow the program. They needed to push themselves.

Of course, Randidly didn’t think they would approach his Nether Brawn; he could easily overpower a Nether Gatekeeper at this point. He had left the System limit far behind, making him likely to be one of the most physically powerful individuals in the Nexus. And Randidly wasn’t going to force the recruits to take his Path to break through the System limit. But getting them closer would help them survive. And make it vastly easier to handle a Nether Gatekeeper.

For now, Randidly could only wait to see whether the Darkstar Coin would have the desired effect. Heiffal would observe the recruits over the next several hours and report back whether there was any noticeable change.

In the meantime, Randidly wondered if he should prepare anything for Commandant Wick’s visit. Either as an extra indication of his competency or as a way to distract Commandant Wick from his true capabilities. Specifically, he wondered if he should think of a scapegoat for the Engravings that Neveah created. He somehow doubted Commandant Wick wouldn’t have questions regarding this individual. In that regard, Randidly sent a question to Lady Iellaya, asking for her advice.

The fact that Commandant Wick had requested the meeting rather informally meant that Randidly felt less of an impetus to do either. But Randidly knew himself well enough to know that this was partly his own desire to continue his training, rather than preparing for this social interaction. Shaking his head at his own bad habits, Randidly walked to his window and looked out over the training area.

A storm was brewing to the East, driven partly by Randidly continuing to apply the gas to growth in the recruits' gardens but also in response to the recruits' emotions after the earlier demonstration. Their introspection and gloom became ambient with the advent of their understanding of emotions as images, even if they hadn’t quite realized it. So the heavy cloud cover was a partial reflection of their current mood.

Which was fine; if they were content after watching Randidly crush five Overseers that had been repeatedly thrashing them for the past week, he would be concerned for their futures as soldiers.

Randidly let his eyes unfocus as he looked out at the clouds and instead peered toward the flows of Nether that had become part of the fabric of the training area. The dark energy glided from individual to individual right now with a feather-light touch, passing so peacefully through them that none seemed to notice it running through them. Randidly wondered whether they understood exactly how much the fabric of their physical body was being altered by hosting, even if briefly, Nether.

Although the truth is, I don’t really understand the long term effects either…

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 322!

What was interesting about the current flow was that it wasn’t returning to Randidly in the same cycle as it had for the past several hours. He could see significance building below as the Nether spun through everyone and then back on itself, but it didn’t yet return to Randidly. The more Randidly observed this, the more he realized that this was a characteristic of Nether, rather than some defect of the system he had created.

The Nether below was building to something within the hearts of the recruits and returning to Randidly would somehow spoil it. Or perhaps it was better to say if he harvested it too early, it wouldn’t be ripe. So the Nether had shifted organically, becoming something akin to an echo chamber for whatever significance the recruits would eventually subscribe to the event they had just witnessed.

Randidly rubbed his chin. If I make a Nether Class, the ability to organically change would need to be a part of it. Having a rigid structure like a Class wouldn’t work; in fact, perhaps the whole concept of Levels wouldn’t quite capture the growth of Nether…

Before Randidly could consider that concept too deeply, he received a reply from Lady Iellaya: Do what you think is best. But know that Commandant Wick is famously unimpressed with demonstrations and even more famously critical of a subordinate that doesn’t understand the importance of impressing his superiors.

Randidly read that message several times. It didn’t seem to become any more helpful on repeated perusals. Basically, Commandant Wick was the ‘damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ type. Which left Randidly shaking his head once more and walking back to the smoked meat on the table.

As he popped another piece into his mouth, he raised his head and peered almost directly upward into the sky. Revelation energy flared to life around his eyes as he peered as far as his insight would allow into the future. For the first minute, he peered forward at what he should prepare for Commandant Wick, but after that, he shifted his attention. Because while tomorrow was the Drill Sergeant Skirmish and then the visit from Commandant Wick, the day after that was the day that Vualla would be deployed to the Fifth Cohort.

Congratulations! Your Skill Revelation of the Atramentous Threshold (T) has grown to Level 333!

Which meant that soon he could attempt to safely contact Vualla again, but also that she would be exposed to danger. Randidly pressed his lips together. But then a thought occurred to him.

He reached into his Alpha Cosmos and contacted his hitherto idle Riders. He had vague plans on making them help with the training, but he already had enough assistance with that, due to Heiffal’s soldiers. Meanwhile…

Perhaps Vualla could make use of them. They had some experience fighting the weaker Nether Beasts, after all.