From the hiltless blade’s poignant memories, Randidly woke up slowly. There was only the finale left, but it was the densest and darkest mass of the memories remaining within the Fate. It would take a bit more time before the Ignition Essence could burn its way through them and release the emotions contained within.

Yet even already, the rippling changes were obvious to him. Ignition Essence had grown incredibly… intense. In terms of images, the flame of Ignition Essence hadn’t darkened, but the golden notes that had previously been present in the flame had steadily darkened to something closer to burnt orange.

Emerald and burnt orange. And the heat spiked sharply upward as this new, hotter flame pressed against a dense, extremely unhappy core of memories. Held in his chest, Randidly’s body continued to struggle to maintain a normal temperature with such a fire raging within him.

Which, as it turned out, was the last of the Skills that Randidly needed to gain.

Congratulations! Your Skill Fire Resistance has grown to Level 289!

For several seconds, Randidly waited for the familiar notification from his Soulskill that would inform him of the amount of PP that he had gained. None came. Then a flash of shock ignited a flare of panic in Randidly’s chest as he suddenly realized perhaps the change to his Soulskill affected his tithe.

Equally as quickly, Randidly began to chuckle. The change happens when the Soulskill Levels up. And that only happens when PP is actually used. So if I want my tithe, I need to first pick the next Path I’ll pick. The last bonus was around 7k, so I bet I’ll get at least that much from this round… with that in mind...

Randidly then brought up his Path screen and considered his options.

Friend to Humanity 0/100, Mantle of the Patron 0/500, Aether Convergence II ???, the Bell of Doom Tolls 0/600, Growth of Yggdrasil III 0/2000, The Ashes of Ulaat, Patron of Ash 0/1000, Order Ducis: Font of Guidance ???, Humanity’s Torch 0/500, Bearing of a Teacher ???, Puppet Master 0/100, Pain Immunity I 0/250, Chimera’s Grudge I ???, Cleaver of the World Tree ???, Weakness of the World Tree 0/500, Experimenter IV 0/1250, Living Engraving 0/500, Leader of the Apocalyptic Crusade ???, Guilty Conscience I 0/100, Peerless Engraving 0/1000, Peerage of the Baleful Court I 0/600, Hands of the Artisan 0/???, Search for the Akashic I 0/200, Ashes of Illym, the Above-Average Child 0/5000, The Flame the Burns Memories 0/????, The Nether Chimera IV 0/1000

Randidly clicked his tongue at the veritable pile of Paths that he had steadily amassed over the course of his time in the System. Truly, Randidly was a character that was designed to abuse the Path System. When he started out, he had so many more Skills than most which enabled him to grow stronger more quickly than his peers. Now, with his Alpha Cosmos, he continued to generate PP at a rate that none could match.

It was honestly impressive that System kept spitting out Paths for him. But he supposed that this was a System that others had used for thousands of years, so he reassured himself that this amount was still not major enough to be noticed.

Of course, that made Randidly briefly think about what the Skill Levels of these thousand-year-old monsters would be. Shaking his head, Randidly returned his focus to the Paths.

Some of them he had available for quite a while, from even before he went to Tellus the first time. However, Randidly’s first reaction was to grin at his Path lists as a long-held burden had been surgically removed from his screen; no longer were either the Heretic or System Transgressor Path present.

Although the first was a cause to be celebrated, the second left Randidly somewhat confused. Had his record been ‘wiped clean’, as it were, by his Heretic punishment? That was certainly the best outcome, but it certainly would be something that Randidly kept his eye on as he moved forward. Regardless of his Path options, Randidly wouldn’t easily violate the rules that Octavius stressed during their brief talk. Because he believed that was the reason that Randidly earned the System Transgressor Path. And Randidly didn’t want more attention than he already had.

After all, attracting the focus of only Ileot Swacc had already earned him more than enough trouble.

As usual, the decision of what Paths he should follow had Randidly grimacing. Still, he was able to weed out a lot of the more superfluous or weak Paths in order to narrow down his choices to a manageable… ten.

Growth of Yggdrasil III 0/2000, The Ashes of Ulaat, Patron of Ash 0/1000, Cleaver of the World Tree ???, Living Engraving 0/500, Peerless Engraving 0/1000, Search for the Akashic I 0/200, Ashes of Illym, the Above-Average Child 0/5000, The Flame the Burns Memories 0/????, The Nether Chimera IV 0/1000

Honestly, not that much more manageable, Randidly sighed. Then he focused his attention on the choices he hadn’t eliminated initially to try and shave the list down even further.

Growth of Yggdrasil, Cleaver of the World Tre, Living Engraving, Peerless Engraving, and Search for the Akashic weren’t eliminated because Randidly knew that some portion of his PP was going to be spent on improving Yggdrasil. The problem was that there were just too many avenues to go about it. And Randidly intended these actions to help him finalize the Skillset.

The most direct way was to take Search for the Akashic, but of course, that was a chained series of Paths that started at 200. Likely the actually valuable options would only be further down the Path, at IV and V. And also, the chained path Living Engraving seemed oddly tempting if he truly wanted to create a record that could contain all things. Because, in essence, such a record would be alive.

Of course, Randidly knew that the Living Engraving was probably based on his earlier efforts to improve his Levelable Engraving he had done for Kharon. So ultimately, he set that one aside. Likely the benefit wasn’t what he wanted. In addition, he also removed Cleaver of the World Tree. That would likely focus on creating an offensive Skill Yggdrasil, which wasn’t how Randidly wanted to finish off the Skillset.

Instead, Peerless Engraving might be a better precursor to working Engraving into Yggdrasil organically. But again, it was a Path based on his earlier efforts to perfect his application of Mana; it could lead him to god knows where and devour a fair chunk of his PP along the way. Although he likely had quite a lot coming, he wouldn’t have an infinite amount. At the amount of PP he was spending, finishing Paths would become quite slow when he couldn’t rely on the tithe from his Soulskill.

The Paths that he finished now would be the ones he would have for the frontlines.

Setting that mess of options aside from now, Randidly focused on the two other options, the Ashes. He now possessed Ulaat, the Patron of Ash, and Illym, the Above-Average Child. Both would probably bring him power, but both might have unintended repercussions for his images. Especially because he hadn’t yet cut to the heart of Illym, Randidly set both of those aside.

Ulaat had brought Randidly enough trouble for one lifetime. Until he had enough time to furiously observe his Soulskill, Randidly wouldn’t finish that Path.

The final two options were new arrivals to Randidly’s Path list. The Flame that Burns Memories and the Nether Chimera were Paths that likely had been created due to recent changes in Randidly’s images. In addition, the Nether Chimera appeared to be an evolution of the Nether Adaptation Path, which is why it bore the numeral IV despite him never seeing it before.

For the same reasons that Randidly decided to stay away from the Ashes Paths, he was hesitant about a Path titled the Flame that Burns Memories. Certainly, there was obvious power in that. But there was also the obvious drawback that what he received might require him to actually burn away memories in order to access that power.

Perhaps someday Randidly would wish to burn away his memories, but that day was not today. Over time, Randidly had learned that so much of images was the weight of familiarity and experience. Without memories, those images became light. That was the reason that he was slowly digesting the power of the hiltless blade, even when it was clearly a Fate of someone extremely powerful.

Shaking his head, Randidly considered the even more condensed list of Paths that he felt confident in starting with.

Growth of Yggdrasil III 0/2000, Peerless Engraving 0/1000, Search for the Akashic I 0/200, The Nether Chimera IV 0/1000

Four options. Three that represented different Paths toward refining his Yggdrasil image, and one that focused on his Grim Chimera. Honestly though, Randidly did plan on holding back on Growth of Yggdrasil until he had nailed down it as a Skillset, rather than just a grouping of Skills. That way they could grow together.

And if Randidly wanted to finish carving the Akashic so that Path would go more smoothly… That linked Path could wait. Perhaps Peerless Engraving would help for the work he was doing on the image, but that also could wait until he understood his situation better. Especially because the Path might just help him work with Mana.

So he finally settled on finishing the Nether Chimera Path first. Or at least starting it, and then checking how much PP he received.

For the short term, at least, Randidly was here on the frontlines and encountering Nether quite frequently. In addition, the experience of condensing a Fate would be accomplished through a Nether Ritual. As such, the more familiar he was with Nether the better.

That was even ignoring Nether’s new role in Randidly’s Alpha Cosmos…

Randidly cracked his knuckles and then added his 300 PP into the Nether Chimera Path. Every 25 PP, he earned 1 Endurance and 1 Resistance. After adding 300 PP, the long-awaited notification arrived.

Through trial and fire, the bond between you and your Soulskill has become ever tighter. Your flesh is the substance of the Soulskill, and the strength gathered by your Soulskill fuels your growth. With the introduction of Nether, your Soulskill has begun to walk an ever more narrow Path. You are balanced perfectly to transform into something truly unique.

Unknown error, the automatic scan of your Soulskill failed. System present, but information flow has ceased. Please contact your Village Spirit for more information.

Congratulations! PP from your Alpha Cosmos flows into you! Some has been absorbed by your local System, but the vast majority of the tithe still belongs to you. You have gained 12,001 PP!

Randidly released a low whistle. “Twelve thousand, huh… that’s certainly a lot…”

Then he scratched his chin as he finished off his Nether Chimera Path. “...well, one thing at a time.”

Congratulations! You have completed the Nether Chimera IV Path! Your body and image have become increasingly steeped in Nether. You should be warped beyond recognition. Yet you seem to possess the peculiar trait of welcoming both of the energies into your body. You have become a dangerous example of what one could be by utilizing Nether.

Congratulations! Nether related Skills become more effective for each Skill Level they possess. All Grim Chimera Skills now have notes of Nether in them! Grim Chimera Skills grow more powerful per Skill Level. The strength of your body grows at an unusual rate. +10 to all Physical Stats.