Don Beigon stood at the Beigon Estate’s observation tower and looked down across his precious ho 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 ti, because they would be forcefully repelled back to the bottom every twenty-four hours. anwhile, 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.
anwhile, the third entrance was rather perfunctory. There were no special requirents 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 co to Don Beigon unprepared or without the proper paynt.
They knew his reputation too well.
The third entrance let the applicants co 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 flas in different shades that curled and blood like a adow of flowers. The arrivals stood as a boat in a sea of fla, 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, soone had co and sohow 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 sll the work of Commandant Wick here, utilizing so 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 erald eyes. Word will get out about this. No matter who is truly responsible, you will be blad. You must take responsibility. But… I just cannot tell whether you are a pawn or sothing 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 ets. 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 lted, 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 tal still slled 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 eting with Commandant Wick, two and a half days since Claudette had sent him a ssage that said, ‘Well now you’ve certainly gotten my dad’s attention off of and onto you. Thanks.’
During that ti, Nrorce’s usual mutterings had beco increasingly bitter. Even worse, he occasionally disappeared for whole days at a ti, locked within the deepest room of the slightly sunken cabin. And even after Nrorce ca 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 requirents 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 volu of tasks suddenly thrown on his plate ant 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 so help, the goblin had simply grunted. For the current bitter old goblin, that was practically a ringing endorsent.
“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 co 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 experinting with Nether Arrays the entire ti, but now he could devote more of his attention to the task. The weave of Nether he utilized beca more and more streamlined; with the sa amount of Nether, he could cover a planet about 30% larger. At the sa ti, the accumulation of Influence in Randidly’s body began to start to have so 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, sothing profound was shifting within his Nether Core. In its depths, that accumulated Influence circulated through the triplicate markings of significance that ford 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 refinent and passed it onto Randidly. Most helpful of all were so mory 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.
anwhile, the shards of image light in the stomach of the Grim Chira grew increasingly active and bright as he added several more of the Nesai howorlds to his Alpha Cosmos. The process was always extrely painful, but the worst part was that each addition to the Alpha Cosmos seed to take longer than in the past.
Drenched in sweat, Randidly grimaced down at where the howorld 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 , 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 Nesai. 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 refinent 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 humd 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 extrely unfamiliar sight greeted him by the orchard. From sowhere, 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 testant to how genuine Helen’s joy was that it was actually Nrorce that noticed Randidly’s presence first. The goblin’s expression imdiately 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 beco 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 homade als 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 Nesai. I get it… but that’s also why you are Mr. Seriouspants. Honestly, its a pretty accurate nickna. Tatiana laughed for ten full minutes when I told her.”
Randidly’s eyebrows twitched.
“Oh, one more thing. Nrorce said he’s making sothing 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 al was the best one that Randidly had eaten since his arrival on the farm. It seed like Nrorce’s daughter had pretty good taste.
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