Randidly took the next week to focus on pushing the Hierarchy of Burden to Level 43, but each session ended with him passed out and near-useless for a half-hour after the effort. The real problem was that the pale light radiation’s heat covered a lot of the early signs that he was succumbing to the Entropy generated by an image reaching the Pinnacle. The burning heat covered the loss of sensation, so the only warning was the rapid appearance of a headache before darkness took him unawares.

The only option Randidly could think of to prevent this was to train up some of the Vulpis Squad to take a portion of the second layer, but as he considered this option he could only watch the twitching soldiers on the beach with an aggrieved expression. It would take quite a while before they were ready for that.

For now, he was on his own.

So Randidly could only sigh, shake his head, scowl, and move on to other training methods. However, the problem of his body losing sensation reaffirmed his desire to improve his Endurance and Uncommon Metabolism Stats. So he focused on an area he believed would get him some quick Skill Levels: improving some of the lagging Skills in his three images. First he would refine the images broadly, then he would work on the individual moves until they were honed to a razor’s edge.

Randidly left his churning storm on that island and floated to the area on the dark side of the moon where he had left the Sea of Dreams.

Compared to the Path of Blood that Randidly had walked, the most recent creation of the mountain master glittered with color and light. It was an extended cut of the northern lights woven into a lake, a shifting, gleaming, wondrously immersive experience that drowned you with hue and vibrancy. Looking at the fickle flashes of gold, ruby, and turquoise, Randidly thought that the beauty of the path would be even more overwhelming when you were submerged within it.

However, he hesitated at the edge, glancing around at the colors. The bobbed and combined and split, purple becoming red blue meeting yellow and becoming orange green and splitting to purple and eye-catching canary. An organic, fickle, spinning arrangement that could drive someone mad, if they watched for long enough.

Randidly had more practical concerns; he scratched his chin. “Do I just… wade into it?”

The colors didn’t answer him. They were too busy splitting and combining in an orgy of energy and light. Shrugging, Randidly threw away his hesitations and hopped forward into the Sea of Dreams.

*****

Alana Donal folded her arms across her chest as she looked at the two pig-faced men that sat in the small booth along the converted highway. A single thrust of her spear could demolish the plywood structure and shatter the road. One of the men had ratty black hair and the other had wispy blonde hair, but otherwise, they looked almost like twins. Down to the cruel twist at the corners of their mouth and their beady eyes.

Eyes that kept flicking back to the Lizakh behind her. Seeing their attention, she knew why they were causing trouble for their group.

She worked the muscles of her jaw, trying not to lose her temper. She regretted all those times in the past that she had complained that she was recognized everywhere she went; they had this problem precisely because these two imbeciles didn’t realize they were flexing their pathetic authority on Alana Donal. “I wasn’t aware that the inter-Zone freeway was subject to gates and tolls.”

“As I keep saying, little missy,” Wispy Blonde drawled out his vowels in a condescending way, so exaggerated that it earned a titter from Ratty Black. “There is no toll. Just a suggested donation to use this portion of the highway, as the local government has been working tirelessly to prevent both monsters and bandits from harrying travelers along its length. Do you expect us to work for free?”

“That’s exactly what I expect,” Alana hissed out the words. Behind her, the group of five Lizakh warriors she led South shifted uneasily. Not because they were worried about getting onto this road but because they had seen the consequences when someone angered Alana.

“Look, I can understand that you don’t understand basic economic theory, missy-” With another aggrieved sigh, Wispy Blonde hefted a metaphorical can of gasoline and prepared to dump it on Alana’s temper.

Alana felt so wrathful she didn’t even dare speak; these weaklings might simply be killed by her emotional exhale. What I understand is that the World Council provided funds to create a road built with special materials to increase movement speed and Stamina Regeneration and small municipalities needed to provide assurances they would keep the thoroughfare clean. If you had not, the World Council would have just built the road a few miles in ANY direction and cut you shits out of the loop. The traffic from the road is the payment.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

And if they knew what you did here-

The last member of the seven (and a half) person party, Hank Howard, stepped forward. Perhaps he had noticed the steam beginning to rise from Alana’s shoulders. “Naw look, those fellas up there walked right on through. What’s so special about them then?”

Hank pointed to two young men that had gone through the rickety gate only two minutes before their group. From their sharp and pristine blazers, it was clear that they belonged to East Providence Academy, the largest of Zone 1’s universities that had sprung up in the wake of Kharon Academy’s success. Even now, the two shoved each other and laughed, the picture of idyllic comradery and adventure as they trekked down the highway.

For a brief moment, Ratty Black’s eyes flicked to the Lizakh and then back to Hank. Alana started grinding her teeth when the bastard had the nerve to use a more respectful tone with Hank. “Now, its a matter of schedules. I don’t mean to be a stickler for rules, but they slipped in right before the time limit. Your group… unfortunately did not. Right now, the road is closed. As we said, for your own safety.”

Alana didn’t need the road. So she stepped off of it and gestured sharply with her chin for the Lizakh to follow. She might have even left it at that, too, not believing these two were worth more of her time, had Wispy Blonde not opened his mouth again. “I wouldn’t just traipse through the wild, missy. Bandits have been spotted. I wouldn’t want someone as pretty as you to get hurt.”

“Glowing Revelation,” Alana forced out the Skill through gritted her teeth. A valkyrie helmet manifested on her head and two pearly white wings flexed and spread from that helmet. In an impressive image beyond time, those wings spread and beat gently, throwing pearly feathers into the surrounding few meters. The feathers drifted around her like a cloud’s tears, light and insubstantial. But above her head, the sun’s rays grew thick and overwhelming.

The temperature ticked steadily upward.

In the small wooden booth, the two ugly pig men dropped their jaws. She raised her arms, grabbing those thickening beams of solar power and shaped them into a massive spear of heat and light. Her hands seized the shaft of that massive weapon and she drove it forward with a baleful will. The area outside of the paved road was a hilly forest, but all the terrain was as transient as sand as Alana took that massive sunlight spear, edged with all the force of her image, and dug a route forward.

The two unfortunate Academy students yelped and scrambled sideways, seeming to think they were under attack by some passing monster. They generated two small Mana Shields that Alana popped in passing. Their blazers now ruffled and singed, they tumbled sideways out of harm's way.

She took great care in focusing and affixing her image to the ground, too, stretching forward for almost three miles. Glowing Revelation gave bonuses to all physical Stats and also left the recipients feeling invigorated. The road funded by the World Council provided relevant boosts, but it was a mass-produced, sprawling thing. And now suddenly this stretch of it would have to compete with a new pathway carved from Alana’s image and spite.

Alana released a huffing breath and allowed her image to fade. The sunlight waned, returning to normal levels. She pursed her lips as she looked out at the passage she had created; there were a few problems with it. Mostly it continued to sizzle and burn unnaturally, as though embers had been buried into the ground. Perhaps even more obnoxious was the fact that these burns appeared to take on three repeated images: a thick tree, a hazy circle, and a sitting humanoid with two tails.

My Soulskill at work. Alana shook her head slightly. Then she turned again, ignoring the two small men in their fragile structure. “Let’s go.”

She had furiously power walked off a small portion of her ire by the time Hank caught back up with her. “Leavin’ jus like that? Reckon’d we could at least stay an’ knock a few heads together, send a message that this sorta shit won’t fly.”

Alana shook her head. “There’s no point. This is the problem- this is why we need to have a summit and talk about the autonomy of small municipalities. For every sweaty dictator I’ve punished while wandering, five more have sprung up clamoring about their right to self-govern. And what right do I have to interfere, but my spear being stronger than theirs? If we want positive change, we need a unified body of law that prevents them from discriminating based on humanity.”

Hank clicked his tongue. “Gonna be hard to even get to the ‘Purity’ question. Zone 7 and 11 will never go for one system of law; they don’t want outside interference in their lands. An’ with how fractal the independent cities are-”

The two stopped speaking as the Lizakh warriors fell into place around them with their weapons raised. A dozen armed individuals sidled out of the remnant charred treeline, instantly slowing as their ill-will turned the bonuses of Glowing Revelations against them. They wore the heavy, powersuit style armor that was popular now in Zone 1. The armor simply required the user to supply Mana to create a series of energy plates that did an excellent job at defending the user. They also carried heavy Mana rifles, poorly maintained and grimy from exposure to the elements.

All mass-produced, all very cheap and difficult to trace. Alana’s eyes narrowed as she looked at the group that so obviously had been dressed to resemble bandits. They were frog people, from one of the Danger Zones near Donnyton. Seeing some of them here was quite a surprise. Considering their sudden appearance along this road, Alana regretted not taking the time to head to the nearby municipal headquarters and kick over the anthill. I smell a fucking rat.

“Hand over all your valuables. Or die,” The largest of the armored frog people croaked.

Hank stepped forward and patted Alana’s shoulder. “If ya move, I know yur gonna burn down the whole area. So why not let me handle this?”