It was something of a relief for Randidly to head into the back of the restaurant and use his Philosopher’s Key to teleport away from the awe-struck stares of the individuals both inside and outside the restaurant.

The people had been extremely polite. But each individual insisted on walking up to Randidly and shaking his hand, telling him briefly about how they had come to live in Kharon. Their stories were diverse: some were refugees from fallen Bubble Cities, others were specialists in metalworking who had come for employment, while others had been rescued in the early days when the Wildlands were slowly expanding and Kharon pioneered a way. Some were even orphans, electing to stay in Kharon after attending the Academy for a few years.

Each was so, so thankful for everything he had done. Their eyes were serious and their words were almost always the same, as they radiated their heartfelt emotions.

“Thank you, Mr. Ghosthound.”

“Thank you so much.”

“Sir Ghosthound, truly, thank you.”

“I owe you and your city so much.”

“I’m so proud to be a citizen of Kharon.”

“Thank you.”

Most of the other patrons were unwilling to leave once they realized that he was truly the famous Randidly Ghosthound, meaning that after the handshakes there was an uneasily stiff atmosphere as those at nearby tables did their best not to watch him too obviously. In turn, Randidly did his best to ignore it, and thankfully he could listen honestly to Commissioner Arrietti’s enthusiastic sales pitch for the food here.

The two had only met on a few occasions in the past, but the Commissioner did possess an extremely intimate knowledge of the menu; it seemed like he ate here on a regular basis. The owner, Selene herself, came out and announced that everything was on the house.

Randidly informed her very seriously that he ate quite a lot of food. She laughed and told him that she would be honored if he ate here until he was sated.

Randidly, who hadn’t been filled up by twelve trays of food yesterday and had again become more ravenous after a long night of working with Nether, simply grinned. Well, at least this saves me the trouble of bothering Tatiana for money… but oh, didn’t the Commissioner offer to pay for my meal?

Tsk, tsk, the way those two look at each other… heh, he’s definitely going to secretly offer again to pay after seeing how much I can eat.

So Randidly began to order.

Almost an hour and two or three of every dish on the menu later, a mountain of licked-clean plates was sitting on the table in front of Randidly. He leaned back and burped contentedly, his tail undulating in obvious pleasure.

At this point, people had begun to break off and drift away at the edges of the gathered crowd. But Randidly could feel that these individuals were suddenly free radicals in the ambient spirit of Kharon. When he closed his eyes, he could feel them burning brightly in the previously dim areas of Kharon, carrying word of his presence and spreading it like a rapacious disease through the population.

Just as quickly as a few individuals left Selene’s, a wave of bodies began to gather and flow back toward the location.

So Randidly stood, thanked Selene warmly, and walked into the back area to open a portal. He liked the invigorating effect his presence had on Kharon, but he still felt somewhat awkward feeling how deeply thankful these people were toward him.

Besides, he had to report for today’s lessons.

As Todd walked out of his cramped dormitory with a glum expression, Randidly was happy to see that he very obviously hadn’t heard that the Ghosthound was in town or connected it with Randidly himself. But then Randidly examined the kid again and noticed three copper bands snapped into place around his left wrist. “Is something wrong?”

Todd gestured to the bands with a morose expression. “These are demerits for the under-Auction, three thousand in coin weight that I have to add on top of any bids. They ambushed me when I went down for breakfast… damnit!”

In a very out of character expression, Todd walked over and punch a tree. The bark cracked a bit, but it was obvious that he hadn’t put very many of his Stats toward his physical abilities. Randidly walked over and crouched next to the kid. “Can you get rid of them? The demerits?”

“No, the duel was in front of a lot of witnesses. That’s why they did it in the mess hall.” Todd’s expression was bitter. “My Scrawl is good, you’ve seen it. But even with it, I won’t be able to handle as much coin weight as I need to win the item that I want. Urgggghhh…..!”

Randidly tilted his head to the side. “What’s the item you want? And don’t give up hope yet; you can get a credit for coin weight by donating lots for the auction, right? I know we agreed on me protecting you in exchange for your tutelage, but I few should be able to take out a few items that we could offer for auction.”

“Huh… well… do you…” Todd’s expression became very dubious as he examined Randidly slightly rough-looking training garments.

Randidly couldn’t help but raise a hand to rub the back of his neck. Do I truly look so untrustworthy…? Apparently, most of this city belongs to me, so…

“And I was hoping we could spend a bit more time training with Scrawl today,” Randidly continued in an attempt to convince the boy. “These items would be compensation for your extra time and effort. And who knows, maybe you could gain some Skill Levels when you teach me.”

“That’s true… we saw earlier how effortlessly I helped you become competent.” Todd rubbed his chin, his dark mood quickly forgotten. “Perhaps I could even use a mirror to teach myself…? No, it cannot be that simple, could it…?”

Randidly rolled his eyes, then thought of something. “Oh, one more thing. I’m meeting a friend for dinner. As I need to be guarding you during that time… would you mind coming to dinner with me?”

“Hum… well, I’ll accept because you have a lot of potential. But we need to get ice cream after,” Todd announced officiously.

Randidly grinned. “Ice cream after sounds perfect.”

*****

Garrett stood on one of the public trolleys, casually holding one of the upper handles to steady himself. None of the other distracted passengers in the public transportation knew that he was a disgraced former applicant to the Order Ducis. But when the trolly followed the whipping path of the moss spirits, he apparently put too much pressure on the handle and it ripped.

The sudden lack of support caught Garrett by surprise and he stumbled a half step forward into a woman holding a cup of coffee. The sudden contact jolted her hand, spraying Garrett’s face and chest with the luke-warm liquid.

The woman was mortified. “OH! Oh, I’m so sorry!”

Garrett forced a calm seeming smile onto his face. “Don’t worry about it, these are my work clothes anyway. But man, sometimes these trolleys, right?”

The woman laughed nervously, still staring at the growing stain on Garrett’s white shirt. He kept his expression easy and light, even though he was inwardly cursing the Order Ducis’ Hexwitch; anytime he wanted to travel through Kharon, he was dogged by horrible luck. He pictured her cackling somewhere, feeling her Skill periodically activate and trouble him.

A few minutes later Garrett got off on his stop, hopping down from the trolley and landing on one of the industrial skyislands dedicated to the production of skybikes. He wound his way through various workshops, keeping a careful eye on the ground after he had earlier stepped on a jagged bit of rusted metal when he left his hideout.

He quickly arrived at a deserted portion of the island and pulled open an ancient garage next to a scrapyard. He closed the door behind him and snapped his fingers, creating a floating orb of light to illuminate the small room.

There, sitting in the middle of the garage, was the Darksteel Bomb.

More than a bomb, it looked like an extremely large pinecone. Eighty black plates of Darksteel were layered on top of each other, the different layers spreading out like the petals of a flower. When detonated, this pinecone would launch those eighty dinner-plate-sized flower petals in every direction, ripping through and damaging every image they encountered.

Further, a tube of finely ground Darksteel was included in the core. After the explosion, minuscule grains of Darksteel would spread out across all areas afflicted by the blast, effectively salting the ground to the spirit of Kharon.

Just by being near it, Garrett felt curiously fuzzy. He also knew that this feeling was the Darksteel inflicting serious damage on his ability to perceive and create images. He knew that prolonged exposure would make it very difficult to display much of his previous power.

But at the thought of the past, Garrett’s expression darkened further. It had not been in his plan to leave his hideout today; he was supposed to remain here and lay low until he moved the Darksteel bomb right before the Kharon Academy Auction. But a hint of gossip had lured him out of this abandoned scrap yard.

Everyone was whispering about it: Randidly Ghosthound was back. He had breakfast this morning at Selene’s. Basically everyone was now wandering around, hoping that they would stumble across the legendary founder of the city and somehow become fast friends. Young women blushed and imagined a whirlwind romance that would end with them as the Lady of Kharon.

Garrett had gritted his teeth and resisted the urge to spit all day, listening to this drivel. Perhaps he couldn’t deny that he was also hoping for a chance meeting in his wanderings, but such an event would have gone very differently than the fairy-tail tripe on which most of the population happily fed.

He reached out and gently caressed the Darksteel Bomb. “They don’t know you like I do, right Randidly? You are not the hero you make yourself out to be. You hurt women. You cannot control your own strength. You possess the power to save so many… but you just horde resources for yourself.”

His hands began to tremble. “I’ll show you the cost of being selfish. You cannot simply turn your back on your own planet like this.“