Chapter 2139

Chapter 2139

Randidly swayed, looking at the floating cube held aloft by the humanoid form woven from thorny roots. His body already hummed with acceptance, Aether settling into place as he prepared to take the Fatepiece back into himself and activate it. Yet he also hesitated at the unexpected situation.

“You brought this to me?” Randidly’s voice came out as a growl, from several hours of disuse. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Considering you are the one who won the melee... it would be more appropriate if I would give you a prize, warrior.”

Of all the reactions, Randidly hadn’t expected the root avatar to begin to laugh.

“A prize... well, I do indeed crave your approval, my liege.” The bottom half of the avatar’s jaw moved in an approximation of speaking, even if no vocal cords existed. The longer Randidly observed him, the more he felt an odd sense of sickness spreading through his body. As the being hesitated, he felt an uncomfortable truth coming.

“However... a prize won’t be necessary. As for why I bring this to you... it is because we are alike, the cube and I. Tools and remnants. Destined to perish.”

He heard it in the distance, resonating through the Nether in the area. The doom Randidly had accepted into his body in exchange for power: ash stalked closer with a hungry mouth and cruel fingers.

Randidly’s heart sank as he looked down at the bits of charcoal fluttering away from its legs. By the time he noticed the avatar turning to ash, in spite of the presence of his Mana in the avatar’s body, it was too late. Within the next few seconds, most of its body disintegrated. He frowned and flooded the roots with more Mana. Yet Nether rolled over his Mana, annihilating his attempts to stabilize the creature.

You made this choice. This is the sort of leader you’ve become.

“What do you mean?” Randidly demanded, speaking half to himself and half to the root avatar.

But he also knew he was addressing the same part of himself that had provided this Fatepiece. These tools didn’t simply spring from nothing. Significance began to swirl faster around the duo. And as soon as Randidly wondered why so suddenly the Fatepiece had appeared, another part came forward with an answer.

You’ve finally conquered the emotional blindspots you’ve ignored for so long. Maybe now you can finally handle what this Fatepiece says about you.

The root avatar’s jaw shredded itself and floated away, but didn’t prevent it from speaking. “We are the churned bodies, the repeated patterns, the discarded and forgotten servants left in the wake of the Ghosthound. Fertilizer, required by the Lord of the Baleful would to grow his waxing kingdom. But know... we do not hate you. We know you have always needed us. That is enough.

“To be useful to you... was our greatest honor.”

The root avatar vanished. It hadn’t even left a name in its wake. Feeling quite cold, Randidly reached out and touched the floating cube.

Congratulations! You have advanced your Fateset, the Paradox of the Alchemist! You have obtained your fifth Fatepiece, The Codex Hexahedron Lvl 1!

Codex Hexahedron: Although both ingenuity and fistful of madness are necessary elements for a successful Alchemist, there is one area which cannot be overlooked: expansive knowledge. Despite the genius of the alchemist, any sort of successful endeavor is ultimately determined by the surety of their foundation in the esoteric formulae. Thousands of years worth of experiments, hundreds of lives worth of effort, and a half dozen savants weaving together the disparate insights are required to gather together the requisite understanding so the Paradox of the Alchemist could even have a shred of possibility.

You have plundered worlds and absorbed them almost casually into yourself. Perhaps it wasn’t your original intention, but your hunger has gathered the sweat, toil, and history of hundreds of civilizations. The Dungeons and Danger Zones have added to that library of knowledge, enriching it further. Drawing in the dangerous subconscious of your worlds has afflicted you with deep emotional flaws, but overcoming them has revealed equal riches, beyond even the emotional power at your disposal.

Humming to himself, Randidly exerted his will against the Fatepiece. The cube buzzed and the cubes extended further apart until it covered about the size of a basketball. Randidly activated Hallucination of the Bloodless Heart and scooped up a handful of dirt. He brought that dirt into the middle of the floating rubix cube and squeezed, following his instincts.

The Codex Hexahedron buzzed softly. Then, without any input from Randidly, flat planes of cubes began to rotate. As the Fatepiece examined the dirt, invisible hands continued to adjust themselves and zero in on accurate information.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 2!

Eventually, the cube ceased its motions; it had dug up all the available information to Randidly, considering his Fatepiece Level.

The dirt he examined was, in fact, thoroughly dirt. Pulped granite, with a few pinches of gypsum and some trace elements that didn’t correspond to anything he had seen on Expira.

Randidly grimaced. Great, now I have insight into dirt. But still, it’s a bit strange that I cannot examine its significance to learn a bit about the history-

No sooner did the thought appear than the Fatepiece rumbled again. Little bolts of ruby energy flickered around the floating squares as the inner illumination pulsed. Randidly felt an obstruction resisting his desire, but now that he noticed the block, he brought the whole of his Discretion of the Apostate Moirae to bear upon it.

The impediment cracked and disintegrated before his concentrated effort; with Randidly’s Stats, bulldozing his way through the early levels of any System creation was child’s play.

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 3!

...

Congratulations! Your Fatepiece the Codex Hexahedron has grown to Level 7!

The relatively sedate rotation of cubes on a plane was replaced by whirlwind motion as Randidly’s powerful Nether senses struggled to take advantage of the particular boost given to him by the knowledge hidden within the Codex Hexahedron. After a headache-inducing flood of unintelligible rock-truth, Randidly gradually received a picture of how the dirt beneath his feet had been formed.

He sighed and released his examination. The cube clicked several times as the rotations slowed until the object settled into the rigid superstructure of spaced silver cubes with a burning inner light, now a lovely turquoise. However, that light dimmed and all the cubes settled together with a satisfying click.

“Where did all the knowledge contained in this come from, I wonder?” Randidly muttered to himself. The inert cube didn’t answer.

He tsk’d at his own behavior and stored it away in his Soulspace; he could experiment more on it later. He raised his hand and cracked his neck. “Okay, a quick nap, and then I just need a score more Skill Levels-”

Randidly’s head whipped around, following a rapid flow of significance flowing back toward Malloon. The current wasn’t large and domineering enough to be an inflection point within the memory, but something important was definitely about to happen.

With a tired sigh, Randidly kicked off the ground. He would be late to the party, but only by a few minutes.