Influence +2!

Randidly woke up after twelve hours feeling extremely refreshed. He stretched and yawned, then hopped up from the smoldering remnants of his couch. He walked over to the window and grinned outside, enjoying the sunshine.

The constant aches and discomforts that he had carried with him since he had left the shaft finally were smoothed away by Yggdrasil. His soul, body, images, and Nether Core came into perfect alignment with each other. There was no visible sign of the change, but Randidly could feel the working shift something vital about himself.

Balance was finally achieved.

Reflecting on what exactly that shift meant… Randidly could only scratch his cheek awkwardly as he turned away from the window; he had no clue. But he firmly believed that, should he continue to earnestly train, his efforts would soon be rewarded.

With only ten days left until the final Drill Sergeant Challenge, which was the day before deployment to the frontlines, Randidly threw himself into training. For now, PP was his primary concern. His Soulskill’s Tithe was the most effective improvement he could receive in the short term.

To that end, Randidly’s first order of business was refining his training array even further; his exercise with Weight had proven that he still hadn’t gotten to the bottom of his current physical capabilities. After a sizable breakfast, he immediately went to his personal training array and mobilized his Mana. He tightened the bindings against his body and also created an approximation of the image dispersal of the porcelain automatons that was reverse-engineered from one of their broken corpses.

Randidly couldn’t get the effect of complete dispersal from a single pulse, but he was able to incorporate a constant weakening of images into his training array through a persistent buzz of energy. He sent another few broken dolls to Neveah to see if she could have some better luck reverse-engineering their effects, but for now, his current array was sufficient.

With a wide and wild smile on his face, Randidly Ghosthound stepped into his training array. With a shudder, the Engravings activated. Tight coils of compressed space clamped down over his body and weakened his images.

Night and day Randidly trained, aiming to accumulate PP. He started with his images. He aimed for the Skills that were close to reaching a new threshold and focused his attention on sharpening the details. The musculature and body of the Grim Chimera was reinforced. The ecosystem around the World Tree was slowly filled out. The powerful and mysterious energy released by the Stillborn Phoenix became increasingly ominous.

In the process, he earned quite a few Levels in Conviction of the Smiling Horror, reaching Level 389. Grit of the Ascendant Bane became his second Skill to reach Level 400.

Randidly also spent quite a bit of time working with his new Ruin is Inevitable, Yet This Too Shall Pass Skill. With the newfound focus of the image, it became much easier to connect to the parallel Randidlys and seek out survival information in difficult situations. From there, it required much less energy to activate the adaption portion of the Skill as Randidly already understood what he was targeting. With his concerted effort, that Skill soon reached Level 301.

Upon taking an hour-long break in his training, Randidly checked his PP and grinned; he had reached the needed 1750 PP. He had even exceeded it by a bit. For a moment he was going to utilize it now and at least receive the PP Tithe, but he decided to wait.

On the one hand, he still hadn’t really mastered all of his current abilities yet. A few days would enable him to sort that unfamiliarity and be ready for his next spurt of growth. But also, Randidly would feel better to go to the Challenge without using the Tithe, where he knew he was going to be observed by other forces. Then, if Velio Dunn and his ilk planned an ambush for him later based on observations from that event, his explosive growth in Stats could catch them by surprise.

Influence +4!

All the while, his Influence continued to accumulate.

Cheered by the thought of surprising that fuck Velio Dunn, Randidly bided his time and continued his training as though he hadn’t gathered the required amount of PP. From the individual Skills, Randidly began utilizing three images at once with the multiplicative boost from Weight. His three images spiraled together under the pressure and coalesced into a solid core. The Engravings of the array shined bright as the suppression increased. With this, Randidly truly intended to discover his limits.

Ethereal flames sprung to life across his limbs, pushing his potential upward.

Congratulations! Your Skill Conviction of the Smiling Horror (L) has grown to Level 390!

Which was why on the fifth day of training, Randidly forcibly shattered his training array. The wave of force he unwittingly unleashed damaged all the surrounding training arrays and wounded several recruits in the process. Luckily the two closest to Randidly were DiOrtho and Raymund who both possessed tough bodies, otherwise there might have been actual casualties.

Feeling chagrined, Randidly asked Heiffal and Helen to increased the base difficulty of the recruit’s training even further. Then Randidly simply went back and made an even more powerful training array, utilizing the insights Neveah had gained from studying the broken porcelain automatons. Then, around the training array, he created a variant of the defensive array he had made around his area.

Better safe than sorry, after all.

It was right when Randidly finished the training array that he abruptly remembered the Nether Gatekeeper that he put in the Alpha Cosmos before he had escaped from the shaft. Because he could use some information on the usage of Nether, he immediately swept his senses through the Alpha Cosmos. But to his surprise, the Nether Gatekeeper had vanished.

With a growing frown on his face, Randidly began to use his Nether Sensation to track down the Nether Gatekeeper. As a being of Nether, there were minute energy disturbances that Randidly could track. And it was only due to this investigation that he discovered the strange archways on Expira and the Alpha Cosmos, which opened at sunset and allowed small amounts of people to pass from one world to the other.

He finally tracked down the Nether Gatekeeper at the Frost Dragon Village, but Randidly reasoned that he already had enough on his plate learning to understand his weight and images. For now, letting the Nether Gatekeeper have some free time was fine.

Besides, there was one piece of information from Edraine that was emphasized enough that it reached Randidly through his general distaste for reading through their extensive reports; they had found out why Velio Dunn knew when he went into the shaft.

For whatever reason, someone marked you. Edraine’s message read. This method isn’t available for everyone… it requires the individual to have earned the ‘ire’ of the overlay System in the past. Then it has to be activated manually by a worker with high clearance. From what I can tell, the mark was placed around the time you condensed your Fate.

Because of that mark, basically every high ranking member of the NLC will be able to keep tabs on you if they wish. Be careful.

Randidly gritted his teeth as he read that message. His mind went back to the notifications around condensing his Fate and the communication from Nathaz Eloise, requesting that Randidly come to meet him when he arrived at the Nexus.

Perhaps he really would have to do that, to smash the man to pieces for so casually creating an enormous threat on Randidly’s life.

Still, that news made Randidly double down on his plan to be relatively low key in the short term. He would plan something suitably impressive for the Drill Sergeant Challenge to demonstrate his recruits' abilities, but his own movements would be contained. Until he understood and eliminated this way to track his movements, he needed to be cautious.

Influence +2!

To that end, he wrote a short letter and sent it to Superintendent Xeruth of the Fifth Cohort Rally Station. The letter read: “My elite unit will fight the entirety of the other recruits. Arrange a suitable location.”

*****

On the day before the Drill Sergeant Challenge, Superintendent Xeruth paced back and forth in his office. The curtains were tightly pulled shut and the candles in the room had been left burning for so long that wax dribbled down over the candlesticks and onto the desk. Yet he continued to be driven by his fears into walking the length of his office, over and over again.

Soon there was a knock on the door and the Superintendent twitched. Some of his fugue state was shaken away by the noise. “C-come in.”

The door opened and the familiar form of his son Kallum walked into the room. Although the pale boy was clearly exhausted, he was healthy and safe. After standing frozen for a second and scanning his son, Superintendent Xeruth rushed over and squeezed him in a hug. “Kallum… Kallum…! Thank god you were able to make it away. I hope escaping-”

“Dad, please. I’m an enlisted member of the military now. Don’t treat me like a kid.” Kallum said with a frown as he broke up a hug and took a step backward. “And what do you mean, escape? I just told the Overseers that I wanted to visit my family before being deployed. Because I had finished the assigned training early, they let me go. It’s not a big deal.”

“You… then… the Ghosthound knows that you are here?!?” The Superintendent’s eyes widened.

Kallum shrugged. “Well… I doubt it. The Head Drill Sergeant is too busy training these days to notice anything else. But… what does it matter? Why did you want to see me so urgently?”

Finally, the Superintendent mastered his feelings. His expression became solemn. “Are you… aware of the request the Head Drill Sergeant has made for the Challenge?” When Kallum shook his head, the Superintendent continued. “He has said that his elite squad will take on all of the other recruits at once.”

“What? Huh. Well, I suppose that makes sense, after how the prior challenge went.” Kallum shrugged. “Without a bit of a challenge, how are we as the elite squad supposed to feel any pride in our victory? I don’t understand what your point is.”

Suddenly, Superintendent Xeruth took a closer look at his son. And although the boy was clearly pushed to his physical limits, his eyes were bright and sharp. More than anything else, the Superintendent noticed the twinkle of pride in Xeruth’s eyes every time he talked about being a part of the Head Drill Sergeant’s elite squad.

In a split second, the Superintendent felt like he had aged ten years. His son that he had so long tried to protect… was walking beyond his reach. And from the Superintendent’s perspective, he was confidently striding right into the lion’s den.

“Son… obviously I know how effective the Head Drill Sergeant’s training regimes are…” The Superintendent began slowly. He licked his lips as he gathered his words. “The first three challenges more than demonstrated his capability. In the eyes of the military, he was a clear success. That is why this fourth challenge will be special. Now that everyone understands the threat that the Nether poses, every faction in the Nexus wants to take credit for saving the Fifth Cohort.”

When Kallum’s face didn’t change at all, the Superintendent continued to speak. “There have been thousands of injuries to recruits, requiring substitute troops to be found. The substitutes have largely passed into this batch of recruits without any oversight whatsoever. I have no doubt that many private subordinates of power-players in the Nexus are now amongst the various squads. So not only will the elite squad be facing an overwhelming numerical disadvantage, but they will also be outmatched in terms of experience-”

The Superintendent's eyes bulged. His son smiled smugly at him, not swayed at all by his arguments.

The Superintendent waved his arms desperately. “Why did you choose now to become bullheaded?!?! How much could you truly have improved in three months? These are veterans. There is no need to compete against them just for pride. Your life will be in danger.”

Breathing heavily, the Superintendent watched his son turn away from him. Although he had deeply feared Randidly Ghosthound in the past, it was nothing compared to the raw hatred that he felt for the Head Drill Sergeant now.

“Just watch, dad,” Kallum said as he left Xeruth’s office. “I’ll show you how much three months can mean.”