The strained silence in the back room at B’s Crossing lasted for almost thirty seconds as the two considered one another.
To Randidly’s relief, she didn’t require as much of an explanation as he thought; when he volunteered that he was a friend of Nrorce, Bethyl laughed and shivered simultaneously, showing that the small goblin had established a firm position in the restaurant. That was all the explanation she needed.
They then sat in an awkward silence. She made so attempts to restart her work on the financial statents in front of her, but it was clear she was too distracted by Randidly’s presence ot focus. anwhile, Randidly would have preferred to leave but didn’t want to go without getting his al. The slls seeping in from the kitchen acted as an anchor, wedging him here for the foreseeable future.
Maybe Nrorce is right about being selfish. His mouth twitched slightly.
Still, the heavy silence was starting to unnerve him, mostly because he had co here for a break, not for additional ntal stress piled on top of the work he was doing for the tournant. So Randidly cleared his throat and attempted to make conversation. He felt profoundly out of his elent. “So, I know that… much of the reason your ingredients are so high quality is because of a young boy. How is he doing? Handling the work alright?”
“Boy?” Bethyl seed genuinely bewildered. Then, slowly, a wry chuckle escaped her mouth. “Is Nrorce still calling her a boy? You must be talking about Randy. No, she’s a girl, even if a bit dirty and rough-and-tumble. She’s doing well. The changes around here have her a little stressed, but…” A cloud passed across the woman’s features. Her eyes flicked to the stacked piles of papers. “Well, we are all making adjustnts as best as we can.”
Randidly nodded slowly. So inner muscle about small talk seed to have been activated in Bethyl, because she began asking Randidly polite questions about the tournant and its processes. Equally polite, he ignored the sense of awkwardness and answered. Still, the interaction felt restful.
What struck him about the exchange was the lack of awe in her face that had characterized his recent interactions. The simple questions were aningless, but they were based in the mont and the two people who were present. Through them, Randidly walked out so of the numb haze of Nether usage that had clouded him.
His headache remained, but the sense of being muffled receded.
Eventually, Nrorce ca into the break room with a massive tray of food. Crispy roast duck over pan-seared noodles forced a groan of pleasure out of Randidly, even before he brought them to his lips. The sweet buns that Nrorce provided for dessert were almost better, lightly and delightful. After a thoroughly satisfying experience, Randidly said goodbye to the two of them and then returned to his island.
He released a breath and conjured the dream. His Nether Core began to spin in anticipation. It was ti to et another batch of users.
Afterward, he collapsed for a long sleep. He woke up to his Nether Core gurgling like an infant who had eaten too much and had troubled digesting solid foods. Rubbing his hand on his collarbone, he straightened and checked the ti.
He had slept for almost nineteen hours. He was quite glad he had told Tatiana to add an extra day break before the next round. But that didn’t an he was free; the long ti period ant that the borrowed Penance needed to be satiated. He slipped into that dreamless darkness, his thoughts evaporating.
When he returned to himself, he had just enough ti to eat, shower again, and ponder Nether before the next batch of tournant matches began. He sat on his comfortable chair above the arena, phasing out the roar of the crowd and once more looking with his Nether awareness to follow the details of the fight. He studied the strange patterns, trying to find similarities between the tis his instincts were incorrect.
His eyes never wavered from the flow of significance, even as the noise of the crowd rose and fell.
Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 902!
Congratulations! Your Skill Philosophy within the Boundless Deluge (M) has grown to Level 828!
…yet he ended the round with no special insight. His accuracy appeared to be increasing, but not aningfully; there were many impressions that still were bewilderingly incorrect. He narrowed his gaze and focused, only to find that the action was already done.
Just like that, only 512 participants remained. An emotionally exhausted Randidly returned to his room and ditated on Nether. Then he heightened his Fatepiece the Hierarchy of Burden, finally reaching the end of his battle against Entropy.
For a few monts, he felt a flash of satisfaction, but he knew he couldn’t proceed to the next layer without assistance from the Vulpis Squad. And they were too wrapped up in the tournant to do much. For now, he still could expose himself to entropy over a long period of ti to grow-
Randidly blinked several tis, finding himself standing at the edge of his floating skyisland. He swayed, the high winds rushing around his body. Clouds drifted past, a few lone wanders hovering over the vast sea. His gaze flicked left to the crouching form of Kharon and then directly forward a few miles, to Tournant Island in the distance. Both were brightly lit up despite the late hour.
He reached up and rubbed his eyes with his palm; he didn’t even rember walking over here; maybe he was more exhausted than he suspected.
Randidly returned to his room to sleep. When Tatiana woke him up several days later, he felt dread and anticipation stirring in his chest, around his strained Nether Core. Dread because the cycle would repeat over and over again for several more tis, despite how drained Randidly felt. Anticipation because while he slept, his subconscious hadn’t stopped tinkering with his thoughts about Nether patterns and the montum of history.
He didn’t have an answer, not yet. But it was the beginning of one.
During the process of dropping from 512 to 256, Randidly tested his theories with an obsessive dedication. Everything flowed through the limited frawork of significance, so he could understand how the entire world functioned with it as its primary signifier. It occurred to him, halfway through the matches, that he essentially was utilizing the Visage of Obsession as the tournant continued, without the sharp downside of being unable to stop. Perhaps after two previous utilizations, his brain had naturally incorporated the thodology into his training.
Still, so of these fights began to grab Randidly’s attention for more practical reasons. With only five hundred individuals remaining, so of Randidly’s acquaintances began to et in hard matches.
Dinesh engaged in a furious match against a beady-eyed man who controlled a horde of rodents until the sheer press of bodies and the strange image utilized by the man overwheld him. The crowd chanted Rat King quite enthusiastically.
The strange Chira woman released a baleful and overwhelmingly destructive image to suppress Clarissa into a surrender. A grey blade bisected a howling maelstrom, rewarding all those present with a light rainfall.
Huang Li sparred against the young man from Tellus who used Randidly’s Breath of the Spear Phantom. It was, perhaps, by about twenty minutes, the longest match of the round. In the end, Randidly couldn’t help but grin as the fellow Illdan moved like a ghost across the arena, eventually cornering Huang Li and shattering his unified image.
Finally, the matches had all been completed. Randidly rose, his mind spinning with possibilities as he returned to his island. However, most of him imdiately was drawn toward the idea of more rest. For a ti he ditated, staving off his emotional exhaustion to not miss any more clues, but then he turned his attention to the daunting prospect of conducting the exit interviews.
After filtering all the pained emotions and significance through his Nether Core, he once more felt like he teetered on the edge of shattering. He gratefully allowed his body’s demands to lead him to his bed.
Several hours later, Randidly opened his eyes to Tatiana sitting on the edge of his bed and studying him. Warm golden light filtered in through the window, revealing it to be morning. After a massive yawn, he complained. “I really wish you didn’t have to keep waking up like this. I’m starting to feel guilty.”
“Are you punishing yourself, for so reason?” Tatiana ignored his words and scrunched her eyebrows together. When Randidly frowned in confusion, she continued. “Others might not be able to tell, but I can feel the mania in you, even while watching the tournant. You are training constantly. Not even training; it feels like you are trying to reforge your entire subconscious through sheer volu of information.”
Randidly’s mouth quirked in a grin as he considered his struggles to unlock the secrets of Nether pattern’s. Tatiana’s observation was actually quite astute. He scratched his head. “No punishnt. Just trying to make the most of my ti here.”
Tatiana’s face betrayed how little she believed him, but she didn’t push it. Together, they went back to Tournant Island and prepared for the next round. The battles to cut down to 128 had a desperate edge that ant that a portion of Randidly’s attention had to remain fixed on the action. The conflicts between images overca the natural Nether currents he ran around the arena, threatening the audience.
Of course, even just the attention of Randidly’s First Authority was enough to eradicate those shockwaves. But it made his pursuit of Nether understanding that much more difficult. His accumulation of information slowed, much to his disappointnt. With that bit of extra attention, he could observe the matches much more closely.
In the end, he was pretty impressed. Most of the warriors that made it this far at least possessed as much power as an average soldier that Randidly had seen working as guards in Military High Command.
The people of the Alpha Cosmos were growing. But that just made him even more aware of how much more they needed to improve to resist the Nexus.
Perhaps the youngest participant that had made it this far, Delilah, had the poor fortune of running up against DiOrtho Vant in this round. The ram demon gave her a platform to manifest her particular images and lash out with her most powerful Skills, but in the end it didn’t matter. Compared to Vant, who had honed his image fighting in the Nexus, Delilah was stuck on Expira and far too young.
Ghost, rolling around in a sleeker motorcycle-body that could fit on the stage, finally lost. The AI couldn’t quite rival its opponent. In the end, its drones were destroyed and it was forced to concede.
anwhile, so of the disguised participants were finally forced to reveal themselves based on the capabilities other competitors. One man from Zone 1 ripped his way out of his armor, revealing that he had so sort of specially made Manatech suit on underneath this whole ti. With this specialty technology activated, he managed to overco one of the lesser warriors from Tellus in a surprise win.
An ominous figure with a heavy image had his cloak blasted away: Randidly was genuinely surprised to find that Drake, Sydney’s right had during her ti leading East End, had decided to participate in the tournant. And made it this far. Once Randidly knew what to look for, he found the familiar notes in the Nether. However, he made a ntal note that sotis, even sensing the connection between them, the patterns could be deceptive in how much significance lay between them.
Drake still no longer spoke, but it was clear that he had ntally recovered from the hellish experience that left him in a coma for so long. When he manifested his bone armor around his body, a towering image of a Death Knight rolled off his form. Over the next few minutes, he leveled the unfortunate Donnyton Classer he fought against.
anwhile, in a reveal that had Randidly rolling his eyes, an anthropomorphic wolf from the Armgrast Empire finally pushed Uncle T. too far. After his clothes ripped, the image fell and revealed the sprawling monstrosity that was Thorn, which quickly constricted around the unlucky foe and choke-held him into submission.
At least you are getting out more, Randidly raised a hand in acknowledgnt as Thorn waved shyly up at him after its victory.
The round ended. Randidly rested, sifted significance, then slept. He had definitely earned himself a break. Because from now on, only the truly powerful survived in the tournant.
Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 910!
His subconscious, however, continued to toy with everything he had witnessed.
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