Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 312!

Congratulations! Your Skill Experienced Creator’s Ingenuity (A) has grown to Level 180!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Architecture of the Primordial Ways (M) has grown to Level 312!

At first, Randidly was somewhat worried that his exhausted state after expending all that emotional energy would mean that the final Engraving would be less than satisfactory. But whether it was due to the mental clarity of the Visage of Obsession or because all of his distracting frustrations he had been carrying were removed, he performed perfectly during the Engraving. The movements of his fingers across the Black Gold arm were smooth. The flow of Mana from fingertip to metal was clean.

Each runic sigil was sharp and distinct. The edges were perfectly luminous. Randidly couldn’t actually see the result, but his senses were telling him that the result was near ideal. As he finished the arm, he pulled back and silently clicked his tongue in satisfaction. Even if the gesture made no noise, he appreciated the physical sensation of impact within his mouth.

These Skill Level notifications are a useless distraction, but it’s true that it feels like there’s been an overall change in the way I Engrave… the continued practice for a Nether Core has bourne fruit. This Black Gold arm… hum, perhaps that name isn’t accurate any longer…? Should I call it Black Blood metal…? Or Blood Gold… or Blood-Black Brass…?

Well, it doesn’t matter. With a flourish, Randidly added the final line of injected Mana to the arm in front of him. It flashed brightly as the energy flowed through the entire piece of equipment. Underneath Randidly’s careful scrutiny, the arm demonstrated that there were no flaws; the energy flowed through the Engraving without any leakage. Finally, Randidly allowed satisfaction to take root in his heart. The arm floating in front of him was like a torch in the isolated Nether of his bubble, yet didn’t suffer at all due to the environment. He had completely succeeded.

He reached out and pressed his fingers against the equipment, viewing its Stats.

The Ghosthand Baptized by the Abyss (M) Level 99: A profoundly warped left arm of Randidly Ghosthound. The design, workmanship, and execution of this arm have approached the limits of mortal hands. In addition, many powerful energies in the environment have pushed the material beyond the realms of the physical. This piece of equipment has vast potential, but it remains to be seen how that will affect the limb.

Aether and Nether are able to mix freely within the limb. Slight boost to the usage of both Aether and Nether when channeling through this limb.

Vitality and Endurance +100. Agility +30 and Control +50.

Specter of the Ghosthound ???. Breath from the Depths ???. Emotional Resonance ???.

But as Randidly began to frown at the aspects of his equipment, more notifications popped up in front of him.

Warning! Error detected. Due to interference, unable to completely examine the chosen equipment. Please proceed to the nearest Village Spirit for additional details.

Warning! Failing to seek assistance from a Village Spirit may result in sickness and death.

That familiar refrain earned a strong eyebrow twitch from Randidly. Like Hell I’m going to go out and talk to a Village Spirit after all this time, even if I wasn’t stuck in here… but seriously, the fucking significance below also interferes with me seeing the details…? But more importantly, I don’t love that Breath from the Depths… Does that mean the arm is somehow influenced by the pull of significance below…? But the term ‘breath’…

If Randidly were completely unwilling to take on the risk of the unknown attribute, it might be safest to simply destroy the arm, or at the very least, store it within his interspatial ring for the foreseeable future. He had been influenced by too many entities in the Nexus to react very positively when a surprise like this came up. But the term ‘breath’ made him hesitate. Perhaps he was overreacting.

Breath was passive. It wasn’t domineering or controlling. It was simply an exhale; an influence, sure, but one likely generated by proximity. Considering the fact that Randidly was already to escape from this place… his main worry was that the aspect would somehow make it even more difficult to escape from this place.

Yet Randidly also knew that having his arm back would raise the efficiency of his training. And he could start incorporating more of his typical combat training into his routine down here. While he was armless, he generally avoided any sort of meaningful combat training so as not to develop bad habits for when he had both limbs. For that reason, he knew his dubious Skill growth (with the repeating Skill Levels) was slower than it needed to be.

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Assuming that the Skill growth was real, just masked by the significance here, he would have a pile of PP waiting for him when he escaped. The bigger that pile was, the closer he would be to receiving his Alpha Cosmos Tithe. Power in the Nexus was mostly based on Aether images and Randidly was now investing heavily in finally obtaining concrete power with his usage of Nether, but that didn’t mean that the original milestones of power stopped being effective.

When Randidly gathered enough Stats, he would create a mound that could even let him drag down the most powerful individuals in the Nexus. He trusted that. Even now, further Stat points would push him further toward the realm of impossibility. With the System limit broken and in his rear-view mirror, there was no reason not to keep pushing forward. His Aether Crossroads would supply him with enough energy to develop beyond all recognition.

With the time advantage these arrogant individuals had over him, he wasn’t going to refuse any benefit he could accrue.

Randidly released a breath. The emotional radiation from the arm continued to give him an extremely detailed look at the curves of the limb. But as he sensed those emotions now, a thought occurred to Randidly. Actually, if the arm throws off this much emotion constantly… haaaah….

Accepting the unknown attribute was a risk, but Randidly reached out and seized the armored wrist in front of him. He brought the arm around and blew another breath out through his nose. His right hand went to the heavy shoulder of the limb. His blind eyes narrowed. His hand tightened on the joint, which ended in a short spike to grip onto the flesh of Randidly’s body while the Engraving bonded with him.

He shook his head slightly as his acute senses traced the edges of that spike. If only this process was a bit more comfortable…

Without any further hesitation, he shoved the joint against the remnant flesh of his shoulder. The spike broke through his skin, drawing a silent hiss from Randidly. Then his Aether stirred as he activated the Engravings present. To Randidly’s senses, emotion began to move with the Mana, creating an even brighter illumination within the Nether Ritual. Those violent emotions rapidly drove the heat of the metal upward.

Randidly grimaced as the energized metal began to sizzle against the skin of his shoulder. Then his chest rumbled as he felt the lines of energy digging their way outward from his equipment into his body. The already scarred flesh of his shoulder once more was invaded by Engravings and Randidly had to force himself to relax to allow the bonding to occur. All the previous markings on his shoulder had to be seared away to make room for the new ones.

But, as expected, the experience wasn’t a pleasant one.

Congratulations! Your Skill Stigma of the Stillborn Phoenix (L) has grown to Level 306!

The cleansing and marking didn’t take long, however. Soon, the pain rapidly began to fade. And in that vacated stretch of sensation, the tingling feedback from his new limb began to arrive. With a ghost of the smile on his face, Randidly raised his armored left arm. His new knuckles were thick and angular, while the fingertips tapered down to the normal human size.

It was a hand that could carve an Engraving, punch through a stone wall… or wring the life out of the throat of an enemy.

Someday, Velio Dunn. Randidly glanced upward at the emotions that swam upward. When I’ve had my decade… don’t you fucking worry. I’ll come back for my revenge. You’ll get your duel.

Congratulations! Your Skill Absolute Timing (Ru) has grown to Level 172!

Currently, Randidly had experienced three months within the depths of the Nexus. He wondered how much time had passed in the outside world.

After shaking his head to rid himself of distractions, Randidly raised his hand and swiped it through the air. The Nether Ritual parted, allowing the thick Nether in the surroundings to come flooding back. He planned to study the marks he left on this location’s Nether by this forging, but as his aura spread out, he could only grimace.

Three violent blasts of emotions that were heading up on the other side of the shaft curved around and headed to his position, as though they were curious about the radiation his arm released.

His worst fears were confirmed; the ambient emotions of his arm acted as a draw, pulling everything toward him. With a long face, Randidly prepared to blast away these offending emotions.

As he did so, Randidly wondered if there would be a way to tone down his arm a little.

*****

For a while, Helen was silent as she looked at Vualla sitting on the rock, rubbing her cheek. Finally, she opened her mouth. “Should we punish them for this? It might not have been conscious, but he definitely mobilized an image against you.”

“No… this much is alright,” Vualla said with a sigh. She slapped her cheek lightly. The spot still stung slightly from where she had been so thoroughly smashed. Training these two recruits certainly wasn’t resulting in the sort of growth she had experienced while in the Xyrt Brigade training facility, but it broadened her horizons. Vualla hopped up to her feet and shook herself. “Besides, isn’t this exactly what we wanted? Guiding him to this Path. Heh. I guess that fox is finally desperate.”

Truly, that punch that Raymund had used had been sublime, if Vualla did say so herself. But she was somewhat biased because that punch was originally hers.

And that Vulpine had somehow stolen it and used it against her.

“But…” Helen pursed her lips but didn’t push it further.

Vualla waved a hand. “Believe me, I’m mad. But it’s not that important in the grand scheme of things. I’ll have my revenge on that bastard… because this time, I won’t be surprised by his abilities. And when I finally capture them… hehehe… being without images might be shit otherwise, but nothing replaces the feeling of beating someone to a pulp with just your own fists, am I right?”