After chuckling again, Kaan Swacc turned away and rapidly vanished. Rather than actually checking in Randidly’s response, Randidly suspected that the Special Investigator’s true goal in coming here was to make sure Randidly understood precisely what the shape of the trap was. So that Randidly would have to knowingly decide to trigger it, if that ended up being his decision.

Professional soldier he might be, but he’s treating this as a game. He takes the time to enjoy the sport of a task when he can, Randidly reflected.

There seemed to be general confusion amongst the troops of the task force in regards to the sudden series of events, but Mrs. Hamilton graciously stepped forward and said that the enemy that appeared was the mastermind plotting against Earth. In addition, she elaborated that she and Randidly had neutralized the Aether mines for the moment, so there was no reason to worry about further damage.

But she did give Randidly a long look before the task force trooped off, indicating that she would eventually expect an investigation. Warlord also gave Randidly a look, but he seemed deeply tired. Besides, his gazes were just as often for Kayle and Paolo as they were for Randidly. It seemed that Zone 11 had an eye-opening experience in the Danger Zone.

When he met Mrs. Hamilton’s gaze, Randidly gave her a grave nod. Certainly, he didn’t mind giving more context to what had happened in the future. But at the moment, it didn’t seem like it was an appropriate time. He flexed his hands to try and rid himself with that uncomfortable sensation of buzzing.

Randidly hadn’t intended to hide the truth anyway. Not when there were quite a few individuals who he had established Aether connections with amongst the various task forces who could be similarly afflicted. Unless he wanted them to walk into the trap, he would need to spread the word of this newest gambit from the Special Investigator.

Saying he intended to study the array further, Randidly remained behind as the task force crunched their way back through the Broken Caverns. With his thick and rich Aether, it was extremely simple to lure all the Aether Mines to within his own body. They happily rushed to fill his Soulspace, whereupon they set up shop and began releasing rather constant shocks to Randidly’s body.

Twitches ran through his body as he struggled to get the reaction of the Aether Mines under control. At Neveah’s suggestion, Randidly tried to create a working of Aether to bind the Aether Mines in one spot, but that only made the energy shocks more agonizing. When a certain number were grouped in a group, they formed an array that released a much stronger jolt. Randidly sighed and just let the Aether Mines spread throughout his body.

When they reached an equilibrium, the pain was actually manageable. Just an intermittent stinging, one that likely wouldn’t even affect Randidly’s focus. Annoying, but still…

Randidly produced his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night with the intent to start experimenting. He was a little worried that he wouldn’t have a moment to relive yet with the Aether Mines present, but luckily it seemed that meeting Kaan Swacc for even that brief conversation was meaningful enough to allow the moment to be captured. Or perhaps the Dreamcatcher also took Randidly’s opinion under advisement when it came to what moments it should keep…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 53!

…

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece Dreamcatcher of the Long Night has grown to Level 61!

“About damn time it actually responded to a theory I had,” Randidly whistled. So part of its function was that it would follow his desires and record certain moments in his memories. Ostensibly to give Randidly a tool to protect himself from nightmares…

That earned him no response, so Randidly shook his head. The frustrating truth was that while Randidly had discovered a lot about how the Fatepiece functioned, he was still struggling to even catch the faintest clue as to why it worked.

Yet his Fatepiece could wait. With the appropriate moment located, Randidly slid into his Dreamcatcher of the Long Night. He sat through Kaan’s short monologue for a second time and then, when Kaan left, immediately used Nether to neutralize the Aether Mines. There was about a five-second span that Randidly was rather shocked that Kaan hadn’t lied about how effective Nether was against the Aether Mines. Then the familiar Nether suppression slammed down around Randidly and he willingly exited that experiment.

No need to waste his time and energy on a fight right now.

On his next attempt, Randidly toyed around with Aether Mines, seeing if he could figure out which portion of the Aether construct Kaan used to detect their destruction. But what he ended up doing was detonating an Aether Mine in his own face, leaving him dazed and twitching for almost ten minutes from the shock it released.

It wasn’t electricity, per se, but perhaps something that could accurately be described as polarity. It released either a positivity and negativity of energy that made even someone with the powerful physical body of Randidly uncomfortable. It didn’t inflict damage, but only pain.

Enough pain that when it was concentrated, Randidly’s body spasmed uncontrollably. In fact, Randidly was glad that he had sent people away before he had made the attempt to experiment; his wild twitches as he recovered from his costly mistake were enough to sunder the ground and rip open great chasms in the already fragile caverns around him. He sensed that there were local monsters in the area, but they quickly fled deeper into the caves as he became a buzzing natural disaster.

His movements gradually stabilized as he recovered from the detonation his tampering had caused. On his next attempt, he contacted the Neveah within the projection and had her experiment a bit. But his headache, despite his increased Skill Level, grew too onerous too quickly for the Neveah within the projection to discover anything useful.

On his next attempt, he made a very disturbing discovery: Neveah couldn’t share his senses while he was within the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night.

It makes a certain amount of sense. You are ‘dreaming’ while you are within your Fatepiece. Neveah replied when Randidly explained his frustrations. And from just inspecting your situation, I’ll echo my projection; we need a significant amount of time studying those to figure out a way to disarm them.

Perhaps you should go into a Dungeon then… Randidly rubbed his chin.

But Neveah quickly shut that option down. No. Do you think this problem is a simple one? This was a weapon aimed at the factions within the Nexus. How long would it take for me to become more adept with Aether than them? Besides isn’t there already an easy solution? You have the Alpha Cosmos. Just throw the mines in there.

Randidly rolled his eyes at how unwilling Neveah was to leave her studying of the Creature’s Engravings. She wouldn’t be away from the Engravings for long in the real world, but to Neveah’s Perception, it might take months to figure out the Aether Mines. But that didn’t mean her point wasn’t a good one. These Aether Mines, if they were what Kaan Swacc claimed, weren’t easy to deal with.

Based on what Randidly knew of the Special Investigator wouldn’t normally lie. So when he said that Aether Mines were made by the Nexus’s finest minds, that was probably the truth. And he had also implied that it had left several of the affected parties permanently crippled.

Obviously Neveah would be willing to head into the Dungeon if there was no other choice, but what Neveah was suggesting was that there were other options that might be much easier. And it wasn’t that Randidly hadn’t thought about relying on the Alpha Cosmos; obviously his ‘body’ was much larger than Kaan Swacc understood. Which was probably why Mrs. Hamilton had been reduced to a quivering mess and Randidly just felt an annoying buzzing, even after absorbing the entirety of the Aether Mines. As his body was a world, it could endure more.

But just like Neveah, Randidly didn’t want to just throw them into the Alpha Cosmos unless it was absolutely necessary. He could try and get an answer from the Dreamcatcher of the Long Night what would happen, but he already had a pretty sizable headache after blowing an Aether Mine up in his own face. For now, he would try and conserve his mental energy and recover.

“There’s always something…” Randidly forced out a shaky breath and looked around him at the crack riddled cavern.

So for the moment, Randidly’s focus turned to find out if it was possible to continue with his normal training with the Aether Mine’s present in his body. He activated each image in turn. First the Grim Chimera, then Yggdrasil, and then the Stillborn Phoenix. Aside from the Stillborn Phoenix trying to absorb the Aether Mines and Randidly hastily stopping it, there was no reactions from the Aether Mines. Although they responded strongly to foreign Aether, they ignored images.

Seeing that, Randidly considered allowing the mines to be absorbed by the Stillborn Phoenix. But somehow, Randidly suspected that the same quantity that allowed them to ignore image would mean that rather than being suppressed, being suck into a black hole would just detonate them in Randidly’s body. And he was not in any hurry to experience that again.

Perhaps most annoyingly, the Aether Mines still reacted to activating the Skills associated with those images. So although Randidly could theoretically train his images with the Aether Mines present, if he Leveled his Skills, it would become significantly more uncomfortable to manage all the Aether Mines swimming through his body.

“And this is the sensation after only one of the Danger Zones is cleared…” Randidly sighed. Then, since he was waiting around for his headache to dissipate anyway, Randidly began gathering all the Aether Mines that were within him to a smaller space. Precisely one fourth smaller, concentrated in the center of his chest.

Thump. Thump.

Randidly’s heart began to pound more heavily as the increased pressure on the Aether Mines made them release waves of painful polarity at an increased frequency. Gritting his teeth, Randidly continued pressing until he could simulate what having opened all four Danger Zones would feel like. Growling, Randidly smashed his fists against the ground and shattered the crystals beneath him. Hairline cracks skittered outward in every direction.

“Fucking shit,” Randidly hissed. Even though everything was concentrated in his chest, the pain was agonizing. Agonizing for him, someone who could now swim through lava without anything but some minor burns.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart rate steadily began to rise as the pain plateaued… and then continued to gnaw at Randidly’s focus while remaining steady in intensity. Pressing his eyes closed, Randidly did his best to ignore the pain. It did not make him optimistic about his chances of simply ignoring the Aether Mines.

But even if this amount of pain was debilitating, Randidly supposed that after the fourth Danger Zone was cleared, Kaan Swacc would act against him anyway, so he never would need to endure underneath this density of Aether Mines. When the Special Investigator moved, there would be no point in holding back any longer.

But Randidly still maintained it the concentrated field of Aether Mines. Because now there was an edge of madness in his eyes as he experienced pain in a way that he hadn’t in quite a long time. Not since his image had been corroded by Nether on the frontlines had Randidly felt this much pain. It set his whole body on fire. His mulish stubbornness reared hits head.

“Heh. Did you think this much pain would break me…?” Randidly muttered to himself. His arms and legs were twitching now, even though the pain wasn’t concentrated there. But a growing need to explode into motion swept through Randidly. Especially because it quickly became clear that this was not helping his mental strength recover. His body shuddered.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMPTHUMP. THUMPTHUMPTHUMP.

His heart continued to accelerate. His blood was practically being shot out of the arteries, rushing through to his limbs before circulating back toward his core. The pain continued to rip at his Willpower. The trembling was growing worse as his cardiovascular system started pushing at the limits of his physical Vitality.

Honestly, if a normal human’s heartbeat this quickly, Randidly wouldn’t be surprised if their body would explode. There was so much power running through his limbs at the moment-

“FUCKING SHIT!” Randidly roared, lifting and smashing his fists back into the ground in one last unpredictable muscle spasm. His muscles were on fire with the intensity of the movement, combining the twitches with his fury.

What Randidly didn’t expect was that the stone and crystal beneath him was pulped to dust just by the air pressure his fists released. And then the physical force rampaged downward, opening a sinkhole beneath Randidly.

The ground beneath him collapsed with such suddenness that even the battle-hardened Randidly yelped and tumbled downward in shock. A split second later, roots twisted outward and formed a platform on which Randidly could stand. The rocks holding the roots in place shattered, but the roots rapidly extended deeper into the surrounding ground and built a support structure that could hold Randidly’s weight.

Then he solemnly looked downward at the collapsed cave beneath him. The ground had disintegrated twenty meters in every direction, but the real strangeness of the result was that even Randidly’s sharp eyes couldn’t see the bottom of the hole he had opened.

As far as he could tell, that impact of his fists had practically dug a shaft directly downward about a hundred meters from his starting point. And the reverberations had destroyed the crystals in the surrounding area, allowing everything to collapse inward and create the huge hole he now stared into.

His heartbeat began to slow. Without Randidly concentrating on it, the Aether Mines flowed apart and the pain faded to an annoying buzzing. Randidly rubbed his chin as he looked downward. A strange light was suddenly present in his emerald eyes.

“That power… Was it really that easy the whole time…?” Randidly muttered to himself. “I guess I forgot… that the truth was… I am a human being…”