For a split second as Kaan had been speaking, Randidly had realized that his attempts to hide his ability to use Nether were basically all for naught in front of this foe. For the wrong reasons, it seemed like Kaan had made the right sort of preparations to fight against him. He even threw that fact in his face rather than hiding his preparations.

Which was annoying, but the reveal was more of a mental blow than a true one; Kaan could be prepared for Nether but Randidly doubted he would be prepared for how adept he would be at utilizing it. Already, Randidly had moved far past the abilities of Nether Gatekeepers.

Seemingly satisfied after delivering his last threat, Kaan turned away and gestured for Lyra to follow him. Randidly was interested to note that Lyra followed almost immediately, only casting an almost apologetic glance back toward Randidly before she walked away with Kaan Swacc.

Already Randidly had accomplished his three goals for coming to this Dungeon, so he was fine with them leaving. It disturbed him a little to see Lyra acting so obediently like this, but her hidden warning in the earlier message clearly indicated that things weren’t completely overwhelming for her.

Besides, after being next to the bronze humanoid, Randidly could admit he wasn’t ready to fight against him.

Still, with how smug Kaan seemed after another misunderstanding, Randidly couldn’t help but needle him the tiniest bit. “Ileot Swacc isn’t dead, you know.”

Whatever Randidly had expected after throwing out that tidbit, he hadn’t expected the Special Investigator to ignore him completely. Very soon, the figures of Kaan and Lyra began to grow fuzzy and fade with a strange chiming like a handbell ringing. Even once they were completely disappeared, Randidly waited for several more minutes next to the Dungeon without moving. There was no point in rushing now.

And if Randidly was being honest, his heart was pounding after standing in front of Kaan Swacc. The Special Investigator oozed solidity of image in a way that Randidly hadn’t sensed since Ileot Swacc himself. There were basically not ripples of his image as he moved and used his Skills.

Eventually, Randidly received a message from Neveah and Randidly released a pulse of Nether in the surrounding area. He kept the pulse weak, but it spread out through that crack in the System and gave him a pretty good understanding of the ground around them. Even if Kaan Swacc was a powerful individual from the Xyrt Brigade, Randidly hoped that Nether would be able to detect him nearby.

Which might not be true, considering he was trained to counter Nether foes… Randidly grimaced. But it’s not like I have any other choice… There aren’t any other Skills that I think would be more effective...

When his Nether detected nothing, Randidly gave a return signal. A few minutes later, another Randidly walked out of the Dungeon, this Randidly without Acri and Sulfur. They nodded to each other and then Randidly used the Philosopher’s Key to open a portal back to his island.

Only when they were back on the island did Neveah let her illusion fall away. Or rather, she replaced the illusion Randidly with an illusion of her usual human form. And immediately, she spoke. “It’s hard to confirm without you testing it directly, but for the moment it’s best you don’t head into any Dungeons. The Aether constructs are necessarily very delicate in order to accomplish such a vast dilation of time.”

Randidly grimaced. “So getting me to go to a Dungeon wasn’t about keeping my tracked inside, but about outting my use of Nether?”

“More specifically, I suspect you traveling through the Dungeon threshold will damage it, thereby triggering an alert in the System.” Neveah put her arms behind her back and folded her hands like a professor giving a lecture. “I cannot be sure, but like I said earlier, your idea about warping the Aether to increase the time distortion is feasible but would severely damage the Dungeon in the long run. Which I suspect would cause the same sort of alarm that you heading into the Dungeon with too much ambient Nether around you.

“I suspect we don’t want to find out what causing such an alarm would trigger.”

“How much is too much Nether?” Randidly asked, taking a seat on a wide and flat stone he had brought to the center of the island for just this purpose. Moonlight spirits flitted around gleefully, happy for his return.

Finally, Neveah seemed to hesitate. “...I don’t know. Trace amounts should get you through fine, but your current Nether situation… in fact, I would suspect that any sort of teleportation that the Nexus has constructed would be affected by your current Nether. You are likely very lucky that you obtained the Philosopher’s Key when you did. If you had gone through the Nexus teleport arrays...”

Randidly thanked Neveah and she departed after Randidly promised that he would allow her to come with him in the eventual confrontation against Kaan Swacc. Neveah was rather bitter about the fact that Randidly had been hogging all the boss fights recently. She departed after extracting his promise.

Which left him slightly amused and alone on his stone to consider what to do next.

Lyra’s warning was crucial for avoiding this trap, even though she was also the vehicle by which the hook was delivered to Randidly. Luckily, instead of trying to just think up a way to lure Special Investigator into a scenario that would give Randidly an advantage in a brawl, he had immediately consulted Neveah on what form Kaan Swacc’s trap would take.

It had torn her away from continuing to research the Engravings Yystrix had left, but it had been worth it. Neveah had brought up some very valuable points that had completely changed Randidly’s strategy for dealing with the situation.

Her opinion about a trap inside a Dungeon being unlikely made Randidly willing to gamble a bit to see if he could figure out his second goal for this encounter: would the Special Investigator truly just freely attack the people of Earth in order to bring him anguish?

It was to ascertain this fact that he had come to the Dungeon in the first place and had a disguised Neveah go through before him to flush any watchers out. And Randidly could emphatically now answer that Kaan Swacc did seem to have some sort of honor that would keep him from moving against Randidly.

Alone, he had very quickly begun to assume that Kaan was a sadistic bastard on Earth for vengeance. Randidly had believed that he would stop at nothing to cause Randidly pain, and in fact would enjoy spreading havoc across the Earth.

But after meeting Kaan, it was clear that he was a military man through and through.

Sighing, Randidly shook his head. On the one had it was better that Kaan wouldn’t lash out at the people of Earth, but his military solidity would make him a tough opponent.

Once more, he had time. At least until the Epic Danger Zone manifested itself. Because Randidly didn’t plan on doing anything particularly destabilizing now that he assured himself that the Special Investigator did, in fact, have some morals that guided his behavior.

And during that time, Randidly planned on training. Specifically on a way to beat Kaan Swacc. And the training was a bit dangerous in the long run, but for now…

With a small smile on his face, Randidly produced the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. The reason that he ultimately took the risk of exposing himself to the Special Investigator wasn’t just to determine whether he truly wouldn’t attack without proof of deviant behavior from the people of Earth…

Randidly’s grin widened as he focused on Kaan Swacc and a single chiming moment appeared in the depths of the Fatepiece. Seems like it was pretty easy to accomplish my third goal for today…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 44!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 51!

“Just over halfway, huh…” Randidly said out loud, his mind briefly going to the third piece of his Fateset that he had already obtained from Yystrix’s tomb. If he continued at this rate, he might have access to it after another month or two. Then Randidly shook his head. The third Fatepiece could wait until later.

Randidly burrowed his perception into his current Fatepiece and aligned himself with the chiming moment that it had recorded. There was a swirling sense of blending to the surrounding space and then things started to settle back into definitive lines around him.

At the moment of that frozen moment in the Fatepiece, Randidly was stepping through the portal of the Philosopher’s Key and seeing both the figures of Lyra and Kaan twisting around in shock as he arrived for the second time in five minutes. After seeing him head into the Dungeon, they clearly weren’t prepared to see him walk out from behind them.

This time, however, Randidly took advantage of the opening in a way he hadn’t in the original memory. He raised Acri and used Man Is Proud But the Chimera Takes. He had barely stepped forward onto the sandy ground on the other side of the portal when his body blurred forward and the sand beneath him exploded in a huge cloud of debris. Lyra was sent stumbling backward by the concussive force.

Kaan reacted quickly, but he reacted exactly as Randidly had expected. As Acri zipped forward to impale Kaan, the shiny man threw himself backward. And truly, Randidly was impressed with the speed of his reactions. But Randidly also noticed that he wasn’t relying on his image at all. It was only his Stats and Skills that moved him.

And when it came to those two factors, Randidly was very confident in his significant advantage. Randidly flexed his muscles, conscious of Nether Brawn slowly surging to life in his every movement. Acri made contact with Kaan’s hands that blurred upward to deflect the thrust.

BOOOOOOMMMM!

It was quite enjoyable actually to see Kaan’s face twist into shock as his two hands slapped upward and caught the pyramidal tip of Acri, only to realize that he was inferior in Strength to Randidly. In fact, Randidly had quite a bit of advantage on that front. The two figures were shooting across the sand, Randidly shoving Acri further and further forward despite Kaan’s best efforts.

Of course, even without his image, Kaan was a powerful humanoid trained by the Xyrt Brigade. There was no way that his Skill Levels were low. So the next time his skidding feet found enough of a dune beneath him, his legs flexed and his abruptly twisted Acri and slammed its tip downward.

Even though the plant lance unraveled itself as soon as it felt the Special Investigator’s movements, Acri’s bulk still caught in the sand and flung Randidly forward. Kaan spread his arms wide and released a strange noise from his mouth that caused the air to shimmer and hum. Yet Stillborn Phoenix image appeared above Randidly, devouring the Skill before it could land.

It was a silent cry of hunger from the collapsed star that wished to be born again.

And then, when Kaan prepared for another move, Randidly exploded like a veritable volcano of Nether. The powerful negative energy that he had been cultivating in his Nether Nebula seethed over the surrounding space, instantly cause the air to bend and ripple as the fabric of the System was disturbed. The edge of the area became the bubble and the entire interior that was soaked in his thick Nether became the core.

Kaan’s eyes began to glow a baleful silver color even as Nether set his skin sizzling. “I knew it.”

Randidly felt Kaan’s image surging to the fore in response, but Nether had already seized the initiative in the area. In addition, Randidly instantly pulled back on his Nether, rapidly making it flow through the same pattern that he and Neveah designed to flatten it. So abruptly, all the Nether in the area smashed downward, exerting a heavy binding influence in the surrounding ten meters. Kaan staggered under the force of the sudden suppression.

Randidly had been careful to know Kaan far enough away that Lyra was clear so that he could oppress the Special Investigator and see what he really was capable of. But honestly, this was a bit disapoint-

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 193!

Congratulations! Your Skill Aether Detection has grown to Level 194!

Suddenly Randidly’s Nether was gone. His Aether Detection Skill screamed at him as he felt several strange Aether constructs lock down the surrounding area. In fact, suddenly the surrounding hundred meters appeared to have been cut out of Earth and brought to a strange area. Any other attempts Randidly made to generate Nether saw that energy ripped out of his body without the slightest change in the surroundings.

Kaan showed a wide grin without any teeth toward Randidly. A strange, howling noise seemed to emanate from his body. It was a powerful image that gave Randidly pause, and it was only getting started.

“Got you, traitor.”

In response, Randidly shrugged. Then he exited the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night before Kaan could do anything that would permanently injure his Nether.