Veritable rivers of natural energy flowed back and forth, smashing into each other and redirecting their flows in complex patterns that even Randidly struggled to keep straight. The problem was that the energy was not Aether or Nether; one thing that these two important energies had in common was that they were sticky and this energy was not sticky.

That is, they clung to each other. That’s why they could be used to form structures, images for Aether and connections for Nether. Once they were set, their stickiness would hold them together.

But the natural energy that churned above the solemn grey mountain behaved like fluttery, light snow. You could apply pressure and attempt to pack it together into a snowball, but as soon as you released the projectile it would disintegrate into a miniature flurry. With such chaotic behavior, it was almost impossible to keep track of all the force.

Which allowed Randidly to gather together an obscene amount of force very quickly, but it left him lurching when he unleashed it and his opponent just watched.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 493!

“You- Shit!” Randidly swore. He possessed the reaction time to intervene, but he was so caught off guard by this pale individual’s lack of concern that he didn’t take advantage of the small window he had to lessen the force of that avalanche of natural energy he unleashed. All the force that he had gathered with Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko smashed into the figure and left a mangled spray of gore on the ground.

Remnant limbs tumbled mid-air, almost in slow motion, leaking blood. Then everything hit the ground, pulped flesh and mangled joints, seemingly all at once.

For several seconds, Randidly just floated there, letting the wind smash against his body. Then he floated back down to the ground until he stood over the ‘corpse’ of the tester. He frowned down at the bright crimson blood, the hunks of flesh, the pale bones. “You were definitely strong enough to block an attack like that. So why…?”

There was no answer. Because no one remained to even understand Randidly’s strange sense of loss. Death had arrived so suddenly. The tester had heavily implied it would be a fight to the death, but the anticlimactic conclusion left him disturbed.

Not that it was the sudden death that swayed him, especially since this individual was a stranger. He had seen so many people die, both suddenly and slowly, since he came to the Nexus and walked across the dangerous battlefields that were becoming increasingly common here. Even the personal responsibility wasn’t the source of his anxiety. Instead, what left Randidly staring down at the shredded remains of this unnamed man was the sense of helplessness.

Randidly had wielded the force that had killed him, yet he had not expected or meant to. The ripples running through his heart right now were curiously similar to those he felt after Helen died. He had trained so hard to obtain this power, but in the end, that power hadn’t mattered.

Yet what did I want to happen, for me to lose? To triumph was always the plan. Just the simplicity was a bit of a shock.

He shook himself and sucked in a deep breath. Then he wondered whether he would be punished for killing this man. As he looked up at the rugged mountain in front of him and the swirling grey clouds, somehow he doubted that the people who ran this place would care at all. And honestly, that made Randidly feel even worse about his death.

He sharpened his gaze and looked up at the mountain that loomed above him. So far as his Grim Intuition could tell, this space was rather isolated; beyond the heavy granite mountain that towered over him, nothing else existed. But the space did stretch upward, through at least three layers of increasingly complex wind that hugged the towering edifice of stone. Based on the fact that as he stared upward, his gaze was stopped dead halfway up the mountain by a thick layer of wind and cloud, Randidly expected that even more lurked in this place.

Sighing, Randidly shook his head. “Although the real problem is that now I have no idea what to do next…”

He sent a message to the contact that had told him which teleportation terminal to use to arrive but had received no response after five minutes of waiting next to the bloody stone. Randidly could only grimace and follow the lines of the wind that lashed back and forth above the rock outcroppings. He saw a weird trench that led down to the left and basically no other way to proceed-

Randidly paused, his eyes catching the slow ooze of blood he had created. For a second he was disgusted at his own morbidity, but then his own curiosity overcame that. Because despite the precise information given to him by his bare feet, there must be a slight slope to the ground.

Randidly hopped up and down, stomping his feet. Gradually, his expression turned to puzzlement. There is some sort of illusion here. And strong enough to even fool me. Perhaps this is also part of the test…?

As the blood continued to flow, it quickened, forming a small but extremely visible stream that flowed off to the right between the folds of two rock outcroppings. Randidly followed and saw that there was also a worn path tucked away there that climbed around the nearest ridge and appeared to ascend up the mountainside.

Randidly examined the winds once again. As the now-deceased tester had indicated, the wind moved in a version of the Grand Pattern imbued with dangerous violence. Of course, without the flashing tiles and Neveah in his head making up a tune, it was much more difficult to casually walk forward without getting hit. But honestly, Randidly’s high Grim Intuition and Reaction meant that he could brute force most of the issue, as long as he sacrificed a little grace.

But even if my body can easily handle the price of failure in the first and second layers, that third layer… if I don’t improve my understanding of the Grand Pattern, this training camp will be difficult. One last time, Randidly glanced over at the spray of blood and gore on the stone. His expression softened. Based on the fact that this man simply allowed himself to be beaten… my Nether Core wasn’t wrong when it sensed something sinister hanging over this place.

Yet he had come here to grow strong. And he would not grow by just loitering until someone remembered he was supposed to arrive.

Randidly cracked the knuckles on his right hand and then walked forward to the worn path. He flared each of his images in turn, but as he did so, he found something ominous lock onto him until he released the image. As he had sensed when he had absorbed force from the winds, there seemed to be a certain consciousness to the Grand Pattern above his head. Intelligence was the wrong word to describe it, but it definitely gave off the vibe of being territorial.

And Randidly’s instincts informed him that he wasn’t strong enough to start a pissing contest with the Grand Pattern and live to tell the tale. So, he would be walking the old-fashioned way.

The ground beneath his feet rapidly sloped upward. The path was thin, perhaps only wide enough for his two feet, as it ascended from the windless ground level into the first layer. The wind circled him gleefully, sometimes sending blades to make sure he was paying attention. But Dreadful Alacrity was made for sharp movements like this and he practically breezed through the first portion.

After circling about half the mountain and rising to halfway through the first layer, Randidly felt like a mountain goat. The path practically leaned up against the heavy stone of the mountain, leaving him with very little room to maneuver to avoid the blades of wind. His quickness remained the same, but his space sharply decreased. Sulfur was only to happy to absorb repeated blasts of wind force, but the upper layers would make that prospect much more precarious.

Honestly, Randidly could just ignore the path and climb directly upward the side of the mountain, but he believed that this low-stakes area would be good practice for what waited further up on the mountain. So he continued to restrain himself and aimed to move without being touched by the increasingly common blades of wind.

Whoosh!

Cutting blades of wind sliced past and cut small flecks of rock from the mountain directly in front of him. Several more ripped forward to dismember Randidly, but he stepped smartly sideways out of their way and swayed on the edge of the path. When the danger passed, he walked forward with his eyes closed, allowing his senses to spread out and fill the swirling grey air at the base of the mountain.

The difficulty is steadily increasing, Randidly thought to himself. Time to take this seriously.

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 351!

Once he settled on the task, it was easy to allow the details of the uneven track and the monotonous grey of rock and sky to slide away. The only thing he couldn’t ignore completely was the wind; somehow, that noise remained constant in even his deepest concentrations. However, Randidly didn’t mind. The wind was a constant reminder of the churning force around him. Although his rhythmic and smooth steps kept him out of harm’s way, for now, he shouldn’t ever forget the danger that lurked behind every corner.

For about ten more minutes Randidly continued, pausing and allowing the raining wind blades to batter the path ahead of him in some instances and then hurrying forward in others. He was hit by a few more at the beginning, but he swiftly got used to the pattern. Even without Neveah’s song, his work with Nether gave him plenty of insight into massive systems.

Of course, it was that tingle of insight that eventually made him stop short and open his eyes. He had advanced from the lower foothills to a thicker path that ended in a sheer drop on his left as he spiraled around and up the mountain. He grinned at the wind that danced above him. “Something big is coming, huh…?”

Congratulations! Your Skill Grand Perspective (R) has grown to Level 352!

Some massive alignment was grinding into place above him. Although he couldn’t use the image, the Grey Creature Glimpses Providence could still activate and give him some insight. For a brief amount of time, force from the second layer above was going to descend and ravage the lowest layer. Randidly licked his lips, anticipating the extra sense of danger; that was the reason he had come here. Because he was starting to stall out on self-motivated growth.

To continue to improve, he needed some pressure.

However, that thought made Randidly look around at the barren and stony surroundings. “Except, this was supposed to be a training camp with one hundred individuals. The meeting place was the Upper Summit room. Do I really need to climb all the way to the top of this damn mountain to participate? Why the hell did you need to send a tester if that’s the case?!?”

The wind continued to howl like a wolf pack that scented blood. Randidly watched as the complex flows shifted and the heavier and more dangerous portions of the storm began to rapidly descend. Somehow, the previous layers spun off into nothing in the surroundings. But as he looked upward, his face grew increasingly pale. Because as the moment of collapse neared, Randidly could see the broader shape of this infinite storm that hung above the mountain, at least at the surface level.

There were several patterns moving in constant motion. This brief moment of understanding let him witness four or five. When two aligned, a portion of the storm would briefly have the space to collapse downward and scour the base of the mountain. The hungry wind would devour any flaws that it found.

Yet suddenly, Randidly could feel two such patterns nearing alignment. The constant screech of the wind continued to rise. He couldn’t even help it, a smile began to creep across his face. Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen anyone; they know something that I don’t about what’s coming.

Crash!

About twenty meters above Randidly, a particularly violent combination of natural energy hammered at the edge of a shale outcropping. The ancient stone collapsed downward and began to slide directly for Randidly’s tiny path.

Randidly pursed his lips and stepped forward, ignoring his previous plan to train himself here. When the blades of wind came for him as he moved beyond the safe area of the Grand Pattern, he raised his left hand to smash them to the side. Sulfur hummed with relish, but Randidly again felt that sentience within the storm fixate on him.

Not to lean down and oppress him, but Randidly sensed a strange sense of curiosity appeared to be leaking down through the storm. Randidly wasn’t sure whether to be happy or sad that the monstrous storm appeared to have noticed him.

He quickened his step and moved out of the way just as the shattered hunk of shale slammed into the footpath and cracked the edges. After a long moment of stone grinding on stone, the massive boulder tipped over the edge and began tumbling down across the rest of the slope. In its wake, the second layer of wind arrived just over Randidly’s head.

Suddenly, the wind crooned and whispered: it was coming for him.

Which Randidly was already well aware, because the sharpened blades of wind cut deep troughs into the mountainside above him. Before the second layer of wind, the mountain had all the structural integrity of soggy bread. With the curiosity of the storm driving it, those powerful blasts of wind began to curve inexorably toward him, leaving markings like an invisible giant dragging its fingertips on its way to scoop Randidly up.

I could steal natural energy and fight against the wind directly, but something tells me that will earn even more of this strange force’s attention. Randidly bounced on the balls of his feet as the net of dangerous wind spun closer. Plus, following the pattern will help me understand it more quickly than fighting against it. So, after a brief rockslide interlude, right back to the training plan.

The noise of the wind was deafening in his ears, demanding his attention as it made its grand entrance. Blades of wind cut sideways at Randidly’s knees and feet, but he danced forward and then leaned back to above a blast of wind that smacked into the stone face of the mountain, flinging away a wave of dust and pebbles that bounced off Randidly’s face.

Then he lowered his stance and accelerated as horrible spikes of wind tore giant holes in the path behind him.

Suddenly, something occurred to Randidly. With the wind like this, the path wouldn’t have survived for me to use it if it was naturally occurring. So it had been prepared ahead of time. Maybe not for me, but- and that’s also why it feels like the Grand Pattern is studying me so closely. I’ve walked into something. A trial, carefully crafted for someone else.

The only question is… what sort of path is this?