Don Beigon stood at the Beigon Estate’s observation tower and looked down across his precious home with a frown.

There were three entrances to the Beigon Estate, which any party could approach depending on their tier of citizenship within the Nexus. Obviously, the Tier 1 Citizenship entrance was the most grueling, requiring individuals to use their physique and Willpower to reach the top in a certain amount of time, because they would be forcefully repelled back to the bottom every twenty-four hours. Meanwhile, the Tier 2 Citizenship entrance was just a long path, requiring all individuals to travel both a certain distance and spend at least a half-hour on that path, to make sure all those who approached had firm resolve.

Don Beigon didn’t believe that people should be able to make casual trips to see his kingdom. They had to earn the privilege.

Meanwhile, the third entrance was rather perfunctory. There were no special requirements to using it. Obviously, individuals who had managed to accumulate Tier 3 Citizenship were powerful in their own right. They did not need to frivolously visit Don Beigon. Or perhaps more accurately, they would not dare come to Don Beigon unprepared or without the proper payment.

They knew his reputation too well.

The third entrance let the applicants come directly out into the open Courtyard of the Sun. They would arrive on a breezy marble platform and could spin around to look at the riot of orange, red, and yellow that blazed in every direction. Specially Engraved arrays released tongues of flames in different shades that curled and bloomed like a meadow of flowers. The arrivals stood as a boat in a sea of flame, properly understanding the power and majesty of the Beigons.

The only downside was the heat of such a display, but powerful individuals could easily ignore that point.

However… Don Beigon’s mouth twitched.

During the night, someone had come and somehow spliced soil onto that arrival platform. Now, blue and white lilies fluttered in the hot breezes, protected by an image that had been forcefully inserted into the Beigon Estate. The presence of these flowers was a direct challenge to the Don’s image.

Even worse, the words read: I will never give up on my love for you, Claudette.

Normally, the natural array of the Beigon Estate would steadily overwhelm this transgressor and burn these annoyingly colored flowers to ash. But the Don could smell the work of Commandant Wick here, utilizing some strange principle he no doubt learned from fighting against the Nether King to fool the Don’s image. The Beigon Estate didn’t even recognize the intrusion.

The cool colored flowers taunted the fiery blossoms.

Randidly Ghosthound… Don Beigon reached up and rubbed his chin. His jaw clenched as he thought about that boy’s clear emerald eyes. Word will get out about this. No matter who is truly responsible, you will be blamed. You must take responsibility. But… I just cannot tell whether you are a pawn or something even more dangerous…

“Fellador,” Don Beigon said suddenly. There was a rustling behind him and a pale-skinned humanoid appeared in a kneeling position with his face covered in a tight wrapping of black linen.

“Don. Your orders?” Despite how thin the humanoid wrapped in black cloth was, his voice was low and rumbling.

“Find and track Randidly Ghosthound. Inspect where he goes and who he talks to. And… make trouble for those people he meets. Light trouble. Nothing deadly. But I want the boy bothered.” Don Beigon eyes glittered. Fellador didn’t bother to respond. He simply bowed his head and vanished.

*****

Helen sniffed the leather gloves with a gloomy expression. “What the hell is this…?”

Randidly paused then forced a chuckle as he took the gloves from Helen. There were bits of melted, calcified, and worn black crust all over the gloves. Even he felt slightly squeamish when he looked at the gory surface. “...those are actually mine. Why don’t you take this pair of gloves?”

Those tiny bits on the gloves were the stubborn remains of Randidly’s stint as an exterminator. And the leather and metal still smelled like a weird mixture between burnt hair and baked ant. The clean gloves Helen accepted with a little more willingness, but she still hissed out a breath when she latched the material and the Engravings activated. She waved her arms with a frown on her face. “Shit. What a weird feeling. Are you sure this is a good idea?”

Randidly nodded. “You are having trouble exploring your Depths of Horror Domain, yea? Well working in an area where all images are suppressed will definitely increase your sensitivity. And control, slightly.”

“No, not that,” Helen shook her head. “You said… the individual who owns this farm is… slightly surly?”

“Yea, well,” Randidly reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. It had been three days since Randidly had returned from his meeting with Commandant Wick, two and a half days since Claudette had sent him a message that said, ‘Well now you’ve certainly gotten my dad’s attention off of me and onto you. Thanks.’

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During that time, Nrorce’s usual mutterings had become increasingly bitter. Even worse, he occasionally disappeared for whole days at a time, locked within the deepest room of the slightly sunken cabin. And even after Nrorce came out, it would take several hours before the goblin could shake off his lethargy enough to cook food.

Rather than addressing his own problems, the blue-skinned goblin had taken to berating Randidly with his spare energy. His requirements for his daily work had rapidly increased in complexity. Which did give Randidly a much better understanding of how the farm functioned, as he hauled enormous bags of seed and rotated the crop type, but the sheer volume of tasks suddenly thrown on his plate meant that Randidly couldn’t accomplish them in the day without completely vaporizing the suppressive Engravings on the gloves.

It was… a peculiar sort of powerlessness.

When Randidly had asked Nrorce if he could call in some help, the goblin had simply grunted. For the current bitter old goblin, that was practically a ringing endorsement.

“Nrorce won’t say much if we keep working,” Randidly cleared his throat and led the way through the hall of white lightning. Helen bore the radiation well, following smoothly after him with only a few minor twitches. Then he gave her the tour of the farm and started her to work. Randidly’s Grim Intuition detected Nrorce’s observation, but since the goblin didn’t come out to introduce himself, Randidly didn’t force the issue.

Influence +35!

With Helen’s assistance, his workload vastly decreased. She was quick, capable, and didn’t have as overwhelmingly powerful passive Skills as Randidly. So she actually worked at a faster speed than he did.

Randidly’s tail had been carefully experimenting with Nether Arrays the entire time, but now he could devote more of his attention to the task. The weave of Nether he utilized became more and more streamlined; with the same amount of Nether, he could cover a planet about 30% larger. At the same time, the accumulation of Influence in Randidly’s body began to start to have some far-reaching effects. And the only reason that he noticed was the speed at which Randidly was now gathering Influence. The change was becoming a palpable one.

As his Influence grew, something profound was shifting within his Nether Core. In its depths, that accumulated Influence circulated through the triplicate markings of significance that formed the base of the Nether Core. His foundation was continually reinforced. The passage of energy deepened those lines, strengthening the base of his Nether Core.

Of course, the effect was small. But a small increase in Randidly’s innate Nether density did a lot to aid his efforts.

Days rapidly passed. Helen and Randidly developed an unspoken understanding of how they would split up each day’s tasks. Octavius Shrike managed to obtain more valuable data regarding image refinement and passed it onto Randidly. Most helpful of all were some memory crystals that contained before and after remnants of the recipient image and the thoughts of the image refiner during the process. With concrete examples of how image refining should be done, Randidly deepened his understanding of the process and used his insights to strengthen his own images.

Meanwhile, the shards of image light in the stomach of the Grim Chimera grew increasingly active and bright as he added several more of the Nemesai homeworlds to his Alpha Cosmos. The process was always extremely painful, but the worst part was that each addition to the Alpha Cosmos seemed to take longer than in the past.

Drenched in sweat, Randidly grimaced down at where the homeworld of the Jade Prince and Obsidian Duke once sat. It took him a strained six hours to absorb the planet. I’m closing in on a limit… is it due to my individual power? Or the power of my body…? But… with the current me, I cannot eat planets indefinitely…

Randidly produced the Philosopher’s Key and returned to Nrorce’s farm. Ultimately, that was fine; he had fulfilled his promise to the Nemesai. He currently had incorporated all of their worlds into his Alpha Cosmos and could provide them with Aether. In the process, his Influence had skyrocketed to a little over 35,000.

The combination of image training and refinement of Nether Arrays around his farm worked ended up spurring a lot of unexpected growth. Perhaps his fighting capabilities hadn’t shifted much, but this was all setting the stage for his image evolution.

Randidly hummed to himself and stretched as he walked onto the sunny farm. The familiar scents and sounds were calming-

Randidly paused. Then he narrowed his eyes because an extremely unfamiliar sight greeted him by the orchard. From somewhere, Nrorce had found two porch chairs. Helen and the blue-skinned goblin were reclining in the sun, both with a glass of lemonade in hand. Randidly’s jaw dropped; it was all he could do not to rub at his eyes when he heard the two of them laughing uproariously.

It was a testament to how genuine Helen’s joy was that it was actually Nrorce that noticed Randidly’s presence first. The goblin’s expression immediately turned serious and he pushed himself off of his chair. “Hmph, well Mr. Seriouspants is back. Alright, alright, back to work then.”

Why the hell are you making it seem like us working to the bone is my fault?!? Randidly’s jaw worked soundlessly.

Helen giggled. After the goblin wandered over to the herb room, Randidly walked over to Helen and shook his head. “What did you say to him? And when did I become the serious one?”

“I just asked him how he was doing… and told him that I was looking forward to eating one of the fantastic homemade meals I had heard so much about.” Helen gave Randidly a sidelong glance. “And to be blunt… you’ve known this fellow was upset for days, but you never bothered to ask what was wrong?”

“I…” Randidly stopped speaking and sighed.

Helen shrugged. “You are working hard and paying your debts to the Nemesai. I get it… but that’s also why you are Mr. Seriouspants. Honestly, its a pretty accurate nickname. Tatiana laughed for ten full minutes when I told her.”

Randidly’s eyebrows twitched.

“Oh, one more thing. Nrorce said he’s making something special for dinner,” Helen waved a hand as she picked up a shovel and moved back to work. “His daughter’s favorite.”

And truly, that meal was the best one that Randidly had eaten since his arrival on the farm. It seemed like Nrorce’s daughter had pretty good taste.