Randidly glanced over at Lady Iellaya after being so summarily dismissed from the interview hall. Her expression was tight and her skin was pale. But there wasn’t a twitch from the feathers along her arms; she had no will to fight against this pronouncement. It was clear that she considered the issue decided, then and there.

Toying with the idea of releasing a combination of images to change their impression, Randidly slowly stood. But as he looked at the disinterested expressions of the people on this panel, some deep part of Randidly reminded him that there were legitimate reasons for avoiding social contact sometimes. His instincts weren’t entirely detrimental to him. These were all capable individuals, of the sort that Randidly had wanted to interact with. Even just meeting them like this spurred him to train harder and reach their capabilities.

But none here were without an agenda of their own. Their careful machinations wheeled and clicked behind their every action. Walking too deeply amongst the powerful individuals would mean less and less time that Randidly could spend on improving himself; he would constantly need to dedicate some energy to staying on his toes. So, he turned away from this Path when he was rejected. Perhaps this is for the best. Just a few months… in just a few months, I bet I’ll make significant enough progress…

I still want to focus on perfecting the Grim Chimera, but that’s just as a foundation for activating three images at once. When all of my images reach the Pinnacle…

Randidly walked out of the room. Octavius Shrike was waiting there beyond the doors and either he had been listening into the ‘interview’ or the result was clear from Randidly’s expression. Either way, he turned without speaking and led Randidly back through the winding halls of the military base to a more civilian area.

With a casual swipe, he opened up the Nexus Ways after they were safely clear of the military wards and led Randidly through a portal. They popped out into a busy area and Randidly looked around with interest. Seeing a nearby ledge, Randidly walked over to it and looked down. Then, his eyebrows rising, he looked up.

They were standing on one of the highest of a series of floating circular rings, the interior of which was lined with shops. Each ring was at least the size of several city blocks. People hopped up and down around the outside of this strange chain, while Randidly could see the familiar walls of the Nexus’s hollow spine around them. The level that Randidly and Octavius were on seemed to feature a variety of armors. Randidly patted Sulfur, to reassure it that it was not being replaced as shopowners enthusiastically waved him over to take a look.

Octavius looked at Randidly, sighed, and then turned to stare out of the edge of their ring. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as peaceful as it initially seemed. Whole groups of people crawled over the railing as they ascended from below or lightly stepped off in front of them to drop down to another location. A group of size gelatinous humanoids with eyeballs visibly floating in the suspension of their bodies were shouting boisterously as they clambered upward, clearly new to the Nexus. Two tall figures wearing cloaks that covered all the details of their features moved silently, intent on their path toward a shield shop near to where Randidly and Octavius were standing. A constant throng streamed by them, giving the area an extremely cloistered feeling despite how far the rings were from the outer walls.

“This is Bray Street,” Octavius eventually said. It seemed like Randidly’s failure to obtain the job hit him like a giant, emotional hammer strike. That realization made Randidly somewhat uncomfortable. But gradually, as though each of the surrounding people carried away a tiny handful of the Overseer’s sorrow as they passed, Octavius’ expression improved. “All thirty-six rings are considered the ‘street’. Now, I wouldn’t recommend actually buying anything here; the prices are reprehensible. But it will give you a good idea of the standard of materials and equipment available in the Nexus.”

Then Octavius cleared his throat. He was once more regaining his serious expression. “If you want, I can give you a tour of the other important Nexus landmarks below the surface; until we have enough citizenship tokens to get you to Tier I, you cannot see the surface. But the Grand Colosseum, the Suspension Chamber, and the Altar of Sacrifice are all definitely worth seeing-”

Randidly held up his metal left hand. “I’m interested, but not now. There is already… a lot here.” As he said that, he glanced upward at the ring floating above them. He mentally took a snapshot at the positively sublime Aether Engraving that generated the lift and sent it to Neveah to study it. “I’ll need a bit of time to decompress and settle myself. So I’m thinking about training for a few days… if I’m not needed for anything else?”

Octavius Shrike hesitated. He reached up and rubbed his horn. “Well… we should have a debriefing to give you a little more context of what is happening and what we plan on doing… but I suppose a few days of training will probably help you clear your head.”

Then Octavius reached over and put his hand on Randidly’s shoulder. “Mr. Ghosthound… don’t blame yourself. Sometimes… sometimes things just don’t go your way. That’s life. You shouldn’t let your failures burden you.”

Randidly’s mouth twitched. Which of us is truly burdened, I wonder…? I really just want to train…

Seeing that this conversation seemed to be wrapping up, Randidly put his foot upon the small fence at the edge of the ring. “This is above the Web, right? We are still in the hollow area of the Nexus.”

“Yes, that’s correct. Ah, do you need me to guide you to a training area…?” Octavius asked.

Randidly decisively shook his head. “No, but thank you. I learn best when I’m exploring on my own. Plus, I want to investigate a bit.”

“One last thing,” Octavius once more reached out and grabbed Randidly’s arm, right as he was about to jump downward. “The deeper you go in the Web, the more of that dirty Aether flows up. The density of it increases exponentially. If you go deep enough, there are even traces of Nether present. So it can also mess with your sense of time. Be careful.”

“I will be,” Randidly said with a sharp smile. But then he had leapt over the edge, narrowing stepping across two six-legged insect people who were scutting up to the armor ring. Randidly briefly angled his body at a diagonal so air resistance would naturally slide him further away from the rings before twisting mid-air and aiming his head directly down. He closed his eyes and felt the passing air on his skin.

Randidly rapidly began to accelerate downward, the bodies of the fellow Nexus citizens along the rings blurring into obscurity. He began to whip past the levels of Bray Street, one after another, shooting straight downward. Randidly couldn’t help but smile. The increased wind ruffled his hair. There was something extremely intoxicating about the natural speed generated by gravity-

But then Randidly’s smile faded. Actually, this gravity… it wasn’t coming from any enormous body of mass, was it? Either there was some artificial Engraving at the base of the Nexus that powered it, or…

Or Randidly was diving headfirst right toward an immense mass of significance that was so mind-bogglingly large that it physically pulled everything in the surroundings toward it.

With that bucket of cold reality poured over the experience, Randidly streaked past the bottommost ring and entered the Web proper. Wind whistled past him as he continued to fly steadily downward without recognizing this portion of the Web, a testament to how far they had ascended for the meeting. After about another thirty seconds, Randidly neared the portion that he had traversed with Octavius after their initial arrival. Cords across the vast space became increasingly frequent.

But as the Stillborn Phoenix enthusiastically began to absorb emotions once more, after Yggdrasil hastily moved to purify the chaotic Aether, Randidly knew this amount wasn’t enough. So he didn’t try and slow his descent at all. The Stillborn Phoenix had a large appetite. He tapped his waist twice and belt-Acri happily unfurled itself and sprung into its spear form. Randidly’s muscles steadily began to swell as he once more began supporting his image physicalizations for his other two images.

His grip tightened on his spear as he pointed it downward. His heart in his chest was thunderous as it increased the speed at which his scalding blood circulated through his body. The Grim Chimera was conjured in the air behind Randidly and barred its teeth. Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes.

Congratulations! Your Skill Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes (L) has grown to Level 295!

After a series of brutal confrontations with himself while still on Earth, Randidly had pushed the Levels of most of his Grim Chimera Skills up by quite a bit. And the biggest improvement was exactly with Man is Proud, But the Chimera Takes. Combined with his physical Stats, Randidly’s Skill created an enormous sonic boom that echoed in that Web as he pierced downward, sending cables in the surrounding area swaying wildly. The flimsy veil of the System’s physical limitation shattered easily around him, now that he had almost completely broken its hold.

With subtle adjustments of the angle of Acri’s blade, Randidly guided his body to slide back and forth through the interior of the Web, weaving at high speeds between the numerous cables that blocked his path. Not that the cables were very densely packed, but at the speed he was descending, he simply covered so much distance in a short amount of time that it was guaranteed that several ended up blocking his path. He rode currents of air downward, feeling slightly guilty as he blew past others using the Web as a means of transportation.

Soon, Randidly had reached the depth where they had left the Web for that small residential dome where Edraine had set up her base. He continued shooting downward without a thought. This amount of emotion still wasn’t enough.

Finally, as Octavius had warned, the prevalence of wild emotions woven through the Aether sharply increased. The Stillborn Phoenix gleefully began to suck them all into itself, making Yggdrasil struggle to filter out the System Aether. Randidly’s veins rapidly began to glow within his body as Yggdrasil surged with more and more power to keep up with the other image’s demand.

Randidly whipped Acri sideways, dispersing his momentum in a blast of air. At this point in the Web, almost all of the lanterns along the walls were dim or broken. There weren’t really any doors along the outside, either, leading to habitable locations in the Nexus. It was a realm of shadows, seething with emotion and freshly processed Aether. As Randidly drifted downward and landed against a swaying cord, he could truly feel the pull of the significance below. Even Randidly, with his prodigious self-control and Willpower, found it difficult to pull his gaze away from that seething mass the tugged his attention downward.

When he considered that the dismembered pieces to construct a child were at the core of that significance, he shivered.

Then he settled down into sitting with his legs folded beneath him while balanced on the cord. As he released a breath, he also released all the limiters he had placed on his images for the interview. Randidly’s small section of the Web shook as an absolutely towering version of Yggdrasil stretched upward. Its branches twined together and lined themselves with leafy greenery, filling the whole hollow spine of the Nexus with life.

While those leaves began to glow with emerald light and rapidly cleave the powerful emotions from the Aether, the Stillborn Phoenix distorted light around Randidly’s left eye and greedily began to feed.