Chapter 1801

Chapter 1801

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.

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?