Over the past several days, Randidly had gained some small amount of Levels in things. But he had quite a bit of PP left over from before he obtained a Class, and that gave him the sizable amount of exactly 100.

Ultimately, Randidly’s attention focused on five choices: Path of Control 0/200, The Phantom’s Embrace 0/150, Fighting Proficiency III 0/???, Intermediate Soul Bond 0/125, the First Legend 0/???

What he needed now was a consistent source of strength. With his Class, he could grow more quickly than he had previously, but that didn’t mean that he could set aside these lucrative seeming Paths. Of them, Intermediate Soul Bond was likely the weakest, but Randidly still couldn’t help but be tempted by the possibility that it would do something to help Neveah, who continued to slumber.

Yet…

With a heavy heart, Randidly removed that option. Next, Randidly was able to remove Fighting Proficiency as an option, for although it was likely a Skill Path, and one that would provide a big boost to Stamina, it was probably a worse reward than he would receive for the Phantom Embrace Path.

Which left him with the Path of Control, the Phantom’s Embrace, and the First Legend.

The Path of Control had been with Randidly so long that it was starting to get annoying. Perhaps he had been spoiled so far because he had access to such a large amount of PP, but not being able to pursue some of the interesting sounding Paths was really starting to irk him. Plus, Control was a Stat that Randidly relied on a lot, both in its ancillary role as a way to make his attacks more delicate, but also by giving him a greater amount of control over his Spells.

On the other hand, Phantom’s Embrace was his greatest physical Skill, and an upgrade there would be extremely valuable. In addition, physical Stats that he would likely obtain from it would be extremely useful and would improve Randidly’s survivability. Thus far, he hadn’t encountered many things that could threaten him, simply due to his high Stats, but if that changed moving forward…

Death only needed to come once, even in the System. Then everything was over, and there was no way to make up that loss.

A middle ground between those two options was the reward Path, the First Legend. From Randidly’s experience with the previous reward Path, it would be extremely lucrative. But from Randidly’s other experience with the System, he knew that as things progressed, the rewards might get higher, but also the time between them would get larger. It was entirely possible that this Path would be something that required a very high amount of PP, perhaps something like 500.

Then his current PP would only be worth 1/5th of the total, and he might spend the entire time within the Raid Dungeon without able to finish a Path. But even so, if the rewards were high enough…

One of the downsides of being the first group to go into the Raid Dungeon is that they really didn’t have any idea how long it would take to clear. In terms of scaling, it was hard to imagine that it wouldn’t be higher than the Level 39 Dungeon that Donnyton possessed, that a skilled party could clear in a little over 3 weeks. Randidly believed that he could shove the number down, in terms of raw Stat and Skill Levels, but this was another tier higher, and would likely increase by a large amount.

It was possible that he would spend an entire month struggling through the Raid Dungeon, even with his higher ability. That was a slightly disturbing thought because over the past few days, Randidly was feeling the absence of Neveah with increasing sensitivity. Even before they had formed the Soul Bond, and they were both two things strangely attached to the Aether Crossroads, they had supported each other. He never had to wonder whether there would be at least one person who had his back.

Now…

Randidly gritted his teeth, resisting a sudden impulse to surrender his previous reasoning and just select Intermediate Soul Bond. No, of them all…

Randidly was supposed to be the reinforcements in this foray into the Dungeon. Although he could stand at the front with them all, and would probably handle more damage than most people, he needed to be ready at any point to bail them out. And the most effective way to do that was to rely on his Plant Dominance to forcibly support those who fought in front of him.

Path of Control it is.

Randidly dumped his 100 PP into it Path of Control, earning 1 Control and 10 Mana every 10 PP. He also received notifications from his Soul Skill, which gave him a certain amount of relief.

The world of your Soul Skill turns! The denizens of your inner world evolve. Time has passed, and the peace between the original races and the monster peoples has grown even stronger. Even the staunchest supporters of the war are changing their tune as the lure of coin draws them towards trade.

Again, the Weave is being created, with the Weavers doing their best to piece together portions of the past that have been forgotten. For they fear that as the monster threat has left, more sinister forces among the four races begin to simmer, as greed and corruption spread among the upper echelons of the Spriggit and Earth Golem peoples.

The Monster King has disappeared, the body of his mount found, drained of life. There are whispers among the monsters about foul play, but the Monster King was the most powerful warrior that they have seen in this world since the great Earth Golem Emperor. They know not who might have conspired against him...

The Spriggit Thief has grown from a young girl into a woman, bearing the Progenitor’s weapons, acting as a Ranger throughout the land. She assists those who need it and arbitrates disputes. But as more and more energy rises out of the strange core of this land, a new threat is emerging. Mutations of normal races, warped by powerful emotions and the addictive energy that flows from the strange cracks in the earth.

This Ranger has taken it upon herself to find and seal these cracks, preventing the spread of mutation. But the road is a lonely one, and sinister forces begin to experiment with ways to use this power for their own twisted ends...

It has been seven cycles since this world’s creation. Would you like to add anything to the world? (Warning, the added qualities will be taken from a Skill. A single Skill Level will be consumed in the taking. Other side-effects are unknown).

After chewing on his lip for a minute, Randidly added both the Touch from Beyond and Four Shaded Domain to the Soulskill. The former because he was curious how it would influence it, and the latter because Randidly assumed he only had that Skill due to the Soul Skill, so paying it back for what was given would do no real harm.

The Touch from Beyond descended into the Soulskill and spread into several large clumps, sinking in the ground in certain places, creating mineral deposits of some strange, unusual mineral. Randidly suspected that if it was based on the same principle that the Skill was, it would be highly dense and valuable. When the Spriggits found it, they would be frothing at the mouth to obtain it…

Randidly rubbed his head. Perhaps that… wasn’t the best choice then… another reason to go to war…

Meanwhile, the other Skill split into four large clumps and fell through the populations, sinking into four individuals, empowering them in some small way. What interested Randidly most of all these happenings was that the Spriggits didn’t receive one of those split blessings, but theirs appeared to go to a monster boy, curled up in a small crib. He was based on a variant of a duck, and his wings flapped weakly as the force of energy inserted into his body.

Sighing, Randidly pulled his perception away. The way the Soul Skill moved was interesting to watch, and it gave him a chance to gather more Progenitor’s Influence, but for now, it was just a distraction. But as he put the rest of his PP into the Path he had chosen, the next notification he received made him frown.

Congratulations! You have received the Blessing of Cleaning Rain. Wisdom +7, Free Stats +10! You have learned the Skill Child of the Rain (Un) Lvl 1.

Child of the Rain: Receive small bonuses to vision and stealth while it's raining. Gain a slight boost to Agility. These effects grow with Skill Level.

Randidly tapped his lip. A small bonus, most likely, but one that would be useful enough in a raining scenario. The problem was that the boost he received from the Blessing seemed to have shrunk somewhat, even though he had gotten a Skill out of it. It was a strange trade and one that didn’t really make much sense to Randidly.

How had him getting a Class pushed him towards receiving Skills from his Soul Skill…? After all, he only had a few Skill Slots remaining. This Child of the Rain took up one of his remaining 10 spots…

Sighing, Randidly shook his head. There wasn’t much time left. Then his eyes flashed emerald in the darkness.

It was time to see how some of his new Skills worked before he took them into the Raid Dungeon.