Randidly’s mouth twitched in amusement as he glanced sideways. Another week had passed and now the Overseers and Randidly were finalizing their plans for the second challenge against the other Drill Sergeants, which would mark the halfway point of their stay on the Fifth Cohort Rally Station. They had already sent over the details of the challenge to the Superintendent, but now they were doing some last-minute strategizing for the various squads.

Or rather, the Overseers were. Randidly was having a hard time keeping his eyes away from Helen, who flushed red every time he glanced over at her. He wouldn’t have been surprised if steam began coming out of her ears.

Heiffal nodded sagely at something one of the other Overseers said. “...We will go with your suggestion. And I think that’s just about it. Even if the other Drill Sergeants have really managed to train up their recruits since last time, I think our preparations are more than enough. Especially considering the fact that three of the recruits have begun incorporating your images, Randidly.”

“And they’ve been… so enthusiastic in their absorption of the images as well,” Randidly said lightly. Helen lowered her face toward the table to hide the shift in coloration as her skin flushed. His lips twitched; the other Overseers could sense that something else was going on behind Randidly’s slight jabs, but they didn’t know the details.

Helen had been the one to deliver the image object to Charlotte Wick’s. She had been the one who had gone through all the drawers, finding the hidden drawings the recruit had made. She was the one who had been so shocked that she had immediately run and told Randidly. And then later, when he visited Helen’s room...

As the silence slowly turned awkward, Randidly twisted his lips and spoke; he didn’t want things to become too strained. “That should be enough then right? Give the recruits two hours of rest before we form up for one last hour-long physical training session. Then we will head over.”

Muareth rapped her legs against the table. “What about Vant and Ballast? Will they be participating in the challenge?”

Randidly glanced at Helen again, this time for a legitimate reason. But of course, Helen didn’t know that and her face turned as red as a tomato. This is like the boy who cried wolf. This time, I legitimately want your input… But considering how much significance is stagnating around the two of them…

Sighing internally, Randidly shook his head. “They will skip the challenge. We need them to get over their issues before coming back to the group. Anyways, let’s end here for today. Helen, stick around. We should talk about our two miscreant recruits. It’s time to take off the kid gloves.”

Helen was so upset that she kept her head hung low and STILL didn’t even glance over at the aromatic roast boar sitting on the table. And when every other Overseer had filed out of the room and returned to their duties, Helen looked sharply up at Randidly. “Let’s not talk about this at all, alright? I don’t fuckign know why I did it. And I fucking regret it. So stop… stop being such a dick about it, okay?!?!”

Perhaps because of how raw Helen’s voice was, Randidly carefully controlled his voice and decided to let one little detail of the Charlotte situation go. Because it hadn’t been the discovery of the drawings that had Randidly had stumbled across that led to this strange imbalance of emotional power; Helen had come forward rather directly and informed Randidly about it. It was only later, by coincidence, that Randidly had discovered that Helen had taken a particular picture, drawn in rough strokes and showing her with her spear raised and ready to strike, and hung it on her wall.

That was why Helen couldn’t bear to meet Randidly’s eyes.

Nodding slowly, Randidly said. Unless she brought it again, he would let it go. “Sure. So, how have those two been doing?”

Helen released a wide sigh. Her whole demeanor changed in front of Randidly’s eyes. She pulled her shoulders back and her image of crimson tides began to swim lazily through the surroundings. Overseer Helen was back. “Well, they are definitely improving their bodies. But they still have enough spare energy to think about useless things. Especially that Vant; the fuck has a battery hidden somewhere on his body, I swear. I agree that we need to up the intensity.”

Randidly pursed his lips. “That means I’ll need to be involved a bit. I can manage that. And if we finally break them down… you’ve read Wendy’s reports? Do you… really think this is a good idea?”

Helen shrugged. “Honestly? No. But Muareth consulted with Lucretia and this is what she recommended. They will perform a kidnapping on the crown princess of the Shelly Kingdom and then escape for 24 hours without using their images at all. We hope… the situation becomes complex enough that they will be nudged toward their own desires.”

“Is twenty-four hours long enough for them to change?” Randidly asked slowly. Not that he thought there was much danger in allowing the recruits into his Soulskill; they likely wouldn’t even realize that the location they went to was special. To them, it would just be a strange world within the extremely wide Nexus. The teleportation wouldn’t make them think twice.

Helen tilted her head to the side and gave Randidly a confident smile. “It was about twenty-four hours after I met you that I asked to be your spear attendant. Trust me. This Crown Princess is an absolute delight. She’s just the type that Raymund Ballast needs to meet.”

“Fine. And if that fails… I’ll work them over myself.” Randidly said with a small smile. Helen’s smile grew, a subtle mirror of his own. They both had grown up in the shadow of the Tellus teaching style; when repetition didn’t work, brutality was the usual tool for forcing a student out of a rut.

After bowing, Helen left. Randidly glanced briefly at his Soulskill menu. He had managed to earn himself another 861 PP in the past six weeks, centering primarily around his Grim Chimera Skills and physical passives. Plus, Randidly had earned a rather large chunk a week ago in the Skill the Torch of Fast and Slow Silences. During the tournament amongst the recruits, his presence gave them a huge boost.

They had likely accumulated fragmented insights by being within the sphere of his energy, but his presence had triggered all those insights to come together into a tangible form. He filled the silences with opportunities and the recruits had largely seized them and improved. Aside, of course, from the two troublemakers who were having such difficulty with fusing their wills with their images.

The Soulskill Tithe would arrive after he spent 1750 more PP. So this chunk put him halfway to that goal. Randidly allowed the ghost of a smile to dance across his face, then closed the menu. Both of the Inscrutable Mien of Yggdrasil and the Implacable Price of Exodus had reached their limits; his improvements for both stalled out. So for now, he sat and continued to meditate on All Things Succumb, Yet Time Whirls the Earth.

For the very silly reason that this was one of the last instances of the word ‘Earth’ that the System didn’t automatically translate to Expira, Randidly was slightly hesitant to try and force a change. In addition, the effect was already quite powerful. If Randidly thought about a desired goal, the Skill would separate his fate and move through those parallel possibilities until he found a self where he could accomplish the desired task. Then, for a few seconds, he would possess the power of that alternate self.

Honestly, Randidly had to assume that the Skill was based upon some Nether principles, because he hadn’t ever seen a similar effect-

Randidly paused. Then his eyes widened. The alternates…!

Hopping to his feet with a touch, Randidly went to his window. His eyes were blank as he looked out at the flows of significance connecting all the recruits resting below. Very quickly, the flows of Nether moved through their bodies and mixed between each other. The recruits had mostly grown used to the subtle reinforcement and barely noticed.

But now that Randidly was looking he could see possibilities floating around the flows. Without knowing exactly what he was doing, Randidly wished and pushed against the flows… and with a strange meta-physical tremor, the entire system of Nether snapped into a new position. After several strange eddies of Nether circled around for a few moments, the energy settled onto a new path. The flows were now pointing in different positions, with energy flowing to new places for new reasons.

“There are multiple different pathways. And… I think they can be layered. That’s why Neshamah’s Nether...” Randidly whispered to himself. He pressed again. And then again.

Some of the recruits paused in their rest and frowned. The sensation wasn’t exactly painful, but the rapid series of shifts was… strange to experience. Like a noise of which you couldn’t determine the source. Meanwhile, Randidly’s eyes glowed as he realized that some of the pressure he had been enduring was alleviated further by his significance flowing along new pathways.

At the moment, Randidly could only find about four different natural Nether configurations. But even that was enough. He took several deep breaths and watched the Nether flows for almost two hours. After carefully studying one of the new ones, Randidly closed his eyes and attempted to directly control the way Nether was moving. He gritted his teeth and tried to maintain both the original flow and the new one, on top of each other. The flows would move amongst one another, but not hinder the other at all.

Two independent systems would be stacked on top of each other.

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 329!

Congratulations! Your Skill Nether Sensation (L) has grown to Level 330!

Very quickly, friction began to emerge between the Nether flows. With a sigh, Randidly released his grip on the Nether. But he couldn’t help a smile from blooming across his face. He wasn’t currently in the mindset to work on this, but he had finally identified the beginnings of improving his Nether.

Besides, Randidly had to leave soon for the inter-Drill Sergeant Challenge. Patting his chest to calm himself down, Randidly walked toward the door, where Heiffal had gathered up the recruits below. It was time to head out.

But as he neared the door, Randidly paused lightly. Even without Randidly turning to look over, Sulfur began to buzz with annoyance. With a wry smile on his face, Randidly left. Okay, okay, no rush on the armor. There shouldn’t be any problems at this challenge anyway…

Randidly Ghosthound’s face transformed into a glower as he adopted his Head Drill Sergeant persona. He carefully studied the faces of his recruits and then turned away without comment. This time, he had obtained the location of their challenge, so he marched directly there, heading down through the tunnels to the wide underground training facilities. Then Randidly walked up to the observation platform and pushed open the door.

Randidly’s eyes swept through the gathered Drill Sergeants. With a smirk on his face, his images blasted outward. But after a single aggressive step into the room, Randidly stopped dead.

As soon as his images hit a certain man standing in the back next to Lay’mel Tuuellethe, those images were completely devoured. There wasn’t even a hint of struggle; they just disappeared. The person in question was a tall, muscular man with bare arms that were covered in tattoos. He had a massive sword on his back that was covered in glowing runes.

The man grinned at Randidly as soon as he arrived. His eyes began to glow a pale blue. Then he reached up behind his back, as though to draw his sword.