Sam examined his wife closely. His lips twitched when she used the word vacation as a pretext for some adventure. “...how is this going to be a vacation? You’ve heard the rumors- the crazies are heading down there for training which you know is going to become some sort of tournament, and I heard that the Purity Movement will be gathering to run a demonstration against the Ghosthound. Even worse is the announcement from the Order Ducis that the connection to the Nexus will be cut off; merchants were just getting comfortable enough with the exchange to really feel the sting. This journey will be anything but a vacation. We are walking toward heaps of work.”

Regina pushed up an elegant eyebrow and put her hand on her hip. “So? Are you trying to say you aren’t one of those crazies? That you wouldn’t do anything, even ignore your family, to improve?”

For several seconds, Sam sputtered, trying to get his thoughts in order. He was quite tempted to head South and talk to Randidly, to experience the Nether aura he created, but he stubbornly resisted the urge to admit it. Besides, recently she had been just as quick to absentmindedly miss dinners in favor of her work.

Then he looked at Regina again, the glitter in her eyes, and his expression softened. He looked at her leather toolbelt and her greasy fingers and the fire that animated her, burning through her expression in a way that she had lost in recent years, now returned to its former glory. Despite being one of the greatest healers on Expira, she felt unfilled for a long time; the System took care of most serious diseases, usually reducing all other healing to a matter of available Mana to reuse a Skill over and over again.

Obviously, she could heal more efficiently, but without purpose, she had lost her sense of direction. Even her various friends in Donnyton had privately come over to say a private word to Sam about it. Yet after she had finally pestered Sam to teach her about forging and had begun tinkering in her own workshop-

“Well, fine. I don’t have much choice, do I?” Sam grumbled. He wondered if he could get his hands on any of the rare seashells he had heard whispers about.

Regina laughed and shook her head. “Not really. Alright, let’s leave tomorrow. You tell Sunan to pack up his things. Oh, have you seen him lately? Sometimes, I think if we don’t keep on him, he won’t even eat meals.”

“Nah, the boy’s fine. But I’ve been working for the last few days, so I’m not really sure where he is. Have you-” Sam could only chuckle when Regina gave him a blank look that morphed into one of motherly worry. Likely, she had gotten lost in her work and forgotten.

“Well,” Sam rubbed Regina’s shoulders, feeling the knots of tension curling themselves into small bits of muscle in the fetal position while he touched her. “He’s just twelve, right? How far could he have really gotten?”

From the way she pressed her lips together, Sam understood this hadn’t come across as reassuringly as he had meant it. He cleared his throat. “Everyone knows he’s related to us. He promised to stay in the area around Donnyton. I’ll send him a message; I’m sure he’s fine.”

*****

Randidly raised his arms and spun his fingers, tracing them along the interior of the Nether Storm that hung across the island like a grey drape covered dipped in buzzing bees. He sat in a pillar of pure sunlight streaming down through the clouds, but the rest of the island was submerged in a shadowy half-light. At this point, the difference in environmental significance brought clouds that churned fitfully in the sky overhead. The Nether flows generated a literal storm, which added a new thread of significance to this already morphing area. While Randidly sat in the eye of this literal storm, the rest of the island experienced the near-constant embrace of shade and a soft drizzle.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 693!

Congratulations! Your Skill Left Hand of the Nether Oracle (M) has grown to Level 620!

The storm had naturally split into two different zones on top of one another. One was the outer layer, which covered the beaches and much of the surrounding ocean, including the training barge parked in the shallows. This area had a milder amount of Nether but included varying organic patterns with the energy flow, as Randidly experimented with new methods he pieced together from the Penance and the strange bone charm.

Being within that area was akin to being buffeted constantly in unexpected directions by an unpleasant wind.

The inner area was more static, the core of Randidly’s Nether Core manifested in the physical world. The Nether there was thick and powerful, giving the stones a glossy sheen and the lava a strange blue hue as it slowly bubbled. The deeper vegetation of the tropical island began to twist and stretch upward in curved patterns. In addition, Randidly was somewhat amused to note that the insects now seemed to be actively building their nests within the area of thick Nether. The already large fire ants had doubled in size and now sizzled vaguely with blue flames as they walked, digging out huge mounds of dirt literally the size of houses. A few times monsters had tried to creep up the backside of the island (they had already learned their lesson about approaching the barge) but a group of fifty ants had bitten them to death and carried the bodies back to feed their queen.

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She viewed their tribute with favor and laid more eggs. Soon, the entire interior would likely be under their control.

Shrugging at the ecological shifts, Randidly clapped his hands together. That should be enough Nether for now. Let’s shift to training something else.

Congratulations! Your Skill Motif of the Hungry Deep (P) has grown to Level 699!

Congratulations! Your Skill Right Hand of the Nether Polymath (M) has grown to Level 615!

Randidly flicked his wrist and produced the inverted pyramid of the Hierarchy of Burden. Over the past week, dozens of the Vulpis Squad had agreed to help Randidly bear the electromagnetic radiation so he could focus on other layers. So now several lay curled up like wounded shrimp on the beach, twitching and grimacing. Each could only take one or two, but combined it was enough that he was relatively unaffected as he directly pushed through the second layer.

Randidly pushed himself up and up, taking the horrifying and piercing light radiation within his body.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 39!

His internal organs steamed and squirmed, feeling the greedy rays of light pulling them apart and digging into the soft flesh of his body. There was no hunger or cruelty to the light, just a childlike curiosity that drove it to dig through every vulnerable bit of him. Yet Randidly released a steaming breath from his nose and told himself that he could endure. And so he could, pushing that baleful light to its most searing.

If anything, the pain became a welcome companion, proof that he would improve. That he could use this time to take a few more steps closer to the powerful fighters of the Nexus.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 40!

In a way, Randidly could grow to enjoy the discomfort. The way it felt like it had such intense luminosity that it shined through everything, reducing him from flesh and blood to a simple pane of glass, unable to stop the light. All his other worries vanished; he was just a material to be examined. Or at least, that’s what Randidly told himself as he gritted his teeth and allowed his powerful physical body to adjust slowly to the light.

Tragically, Randidly couldn’t activate the Penance while maintaining the Hierarchy of Burden. Otherwise, he would simply allow his organs to be baked while sinking into oblivion, hopefully waking up before he was orange and wrinkly on the inside. He wistfully imagined such a world while doing his best to keep his movements small.

Of all my Stats, its my physical defense ones that leave the most to be desired, Randidly thought as he examined the small moments of trembling weakness as he endured the light. Endurance is still the base Stat and Uncommon Metabolism is only Uncommon. Serviceable for now, but I’m only 40% through this Fatepiece. I will soon need more of this. Maybe that’s how I should spend my next haul of PP…

If I could get my Endurance to something above Legendary...

Shaking himself so his drifting thoughts would gather, Randidly squeezed the pyramid until the sharp edges cut into his hand. All his soft innards continued to burn and sizzle under the unrelenting attention of that light, but it was manageable. So Randidly’s attention moved up the pyramid into the middle, the sapphire, layer.

He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself forward. He clenched his jaw so hard it popped. His senses were stretched to the limit, searching for a taste of this next challenge while also barely handling the light radiation.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden has grown to Level 41!

In that teetering moment of experimentation, Randidly felt a gulf open up in front of him. The jagged edges of the opening were so shredded that he took a step back. He initially panicked, thinking that some powerful being had somehow drilled into his Alpha Cosmos, but it became clear that it was just the Hierarchy activating. And due to the fact this dangerous rift didn’t rip a hole in the side of the volcano, he knew that only he could be affected by it.

Looking at it, you can start to see how this represents the dangers of reaching the Pinnacle. You generate an image so perfect it warps the world, convincing the surroundings that it is real. Randidly’s head throbbed, that familiar sensation of his mental energy being sucked away. His eyes remained fixed on the rift, a small gash of darkness hovering a few meters in front of him. This is the cost of that. A hole ripped in the very fabric of existence, an emptiness that-

-Randidly abruptly sat up coughing. He pressed his fingers into the dirt and shifted his weight into a more comfortable position. His head throbbed and he groaned as he brought a hand up to rub at the bridge of his nose. Sulfur felt pleasantly cool, almost heavenly so, easing away the tension headache that pounded at his consciousness.

The pain from his mental energy being drained was just as bad as it had been forcefully learning patterns while struggling against Devick. Randidly released a long breath and waited for the surroundings to stop spinning. His expression was grim as he looked down at the Hierarchy of Burden, which he had dropped when he blacked out.

“Did it suck away my mental energy?” Randidly muttered. His voice sounded groggy and distant. He groped for the Hierarchy of Burden with his right hand- and missed.

At that point, Randidly realized it was more than mental energy that the rift had taken. His entire body, with the exception of Sulfur, was unpleasantly cool, like a corpse preserved in a refrigerator rather than a living being. His movements were clumsy, even as his vision stabilized and his thoughts sharpened. And considering he seemed to have been unconscious for at least fifteen minutes, this was after he had already recovered a bit.

“Yea, Uncommon Metabolism just isn’t going to cut it at this rate,” Randidly narrowed his eyes and slapped his hands against his upper arms, trying to invigorate himself. He swayed as he stood and held up the pyramid Fatepiece and looked at the sapphire layer. “So that’s the middle portion of the Hierarchy of Burden… Entropy.”