In a way, digesting all that negative emotion was extremely difficult for Randidly. The process put a great deal of strain on Randidly’s still wild emotional force. Even with the energy he had absorbed from self-pity, it took more than Randidly had to cope with the sudden surge of envy through his body.

All the emotions he had avoided digging into for so long came roaring back.

He had grown up wishing for more than he had. All of those feelings, empowered by the mirrored emotions from those within the Alpha Cosmos, truly grew into a threatening storm of negativity.

But once he understood it was his already, the emotional force wasn’t antagonistic, he could relax and simply let the currents within him gradually align this newly acknowledged energy. It wasn’t an invasion, but the way he was. He could simply remain and weather the destructive explosion. No matter what happened, all that clashing emotional force was his.

He woke up back in his storeroom after several hours. Tremors rocked his body, from pockets of pent-up emotion bubbling to the surface. Randidly pressed his eyes shut and tried to focus on his breathing. He squeezed tears out of his eyes, unsure for whom they were even shed.

I did hate her. If she is alive… I still do. He leaned forward and pressed his fists into the ground. I think the truth is… neither of my parents were ready to be parents. They were just people with a kid.

Acri cooed at his waist, consoling him and telling Randidly it didn’t betray him. He forced a smile on his face and stroked the spear’s head with his thumb. “Don’t worry buddy, it’s fine. I get it. Those parts of me were me too.”

He took another hour to gather himself up and confirm he wouldn’t just start trembling randomly. At this point, his emotional affect had grown into a massive sea of violence. The Grey Creature could no longer squeeze him with emotional turmoil because it was almost constantly having to refine all this emotional force and return it to a cohesive whole.

Still, he acknowledged that his precarious stoicism might collapse if one of the land walruses rolled onto its back and made a heartwarming face at him.

The small smile from that thought didn’t last long. If anything, it just made him more aware of a brewing headache. Randidly huffed out a breath and then pressed his lips together. He wasn’t sure if it was the next emotional core reaching out and influencing him, Rage, or whether he was just tired and irritated after the surprise emotional uprising. To calm himself down, he got up and walked around the farm.

As he was making his rounds by the land walrus paddock, thankfully devoid of anything but the smell of walrus shit, Demetrius walked up next to him. “Have you recovered, Nether King Hungry Eye?”

Randidly twitched from the name, but released a sigh. “Yes, I’m better. Anything happen while I was busy?”

“The merchant returned. He bought most of the carrots and Ara Fruits. He said he would pass back through with other seeds, to see if the mild environment here will hold for a while. A good harvest now could make the farm a great deal of money”

To the promise of a return with more seeds, Randidly felt the slightest bit of anticipation. Since there really wasn’t anything else in the surroundings, he wouldn’t mind expanding the farm and increasing their yield. Plus he wanted to make his own meals and take a bit of a mental break. He patched up the massive Nether Ritual maintaining the weather and then planted more carrots.

When night fell, Randidly returned to his room and laid down on the ground. The Grey Creature finally had roughly processed all the emotional force and it surged through his body. It came through him in pulses, rising from his toes all the way to the top of his head. Soon, the beating of his heart and the rotation of his Nether Core synced up with the process.

He was a great system of interlocking energies, flowing together. The points at which they brushed up against one another began to hum with heat and force. The friction of their passage seared him, as his emotions sank through and reinforced his image physicalizations. Randidly felt his muscles tensing and releasing, as heat and emotion seeped into every part of him.

Randidly blinked when a notification popped up in front of him.

Recalculating…

Detecting synchronized energies within your body! Aether and Nether exist in harmony. Significance and the recently surging emotion have thoroughly mixed. Calculating possibilities…

Congratulations! The Path “Energy Harmonization I” has been created! This is the first Path of its type ever created within the Nexus-

Error, connection to the overlay System has been severed. Trying emergency communication measures-

Efforts stifled by the Pantheon. Communications will no longer be sent out regarding the developments of Randidly Ghosthound.

Congratulations! You have opened the possibility of integrating Aether and Nether completely into a single organism. Warning, consequences of such an integration are unknown. However, Energy Harmonization I Path is specifically designed by the Pantheon to determine the feasibility of such a plan. Please finish the Path for more information on development possibilities.

For a long time, Randidly studied the words. He had never received such a blatant invitation by the System to take a Path. Very obviously, this one hadn’t come from the original System, but the Pantheon. So he reached into the Alpha Cosmos and contacted Lucretia. To his surprise, he soon felt the presence of Neveah.

Yes, they’ve been working hard to create this Path for you. Neveah said, thankfully not commenting on the lingering storm of emotion he was still pushing through. Mostly, they’ve been noticing that as the percentage of Aether and Nether in the Alpha Cosmos near equal, the more efficient both energies become. Extrapolating on that, the ideal would be to integrate your Nether Core with your Class… but they need more information for that. Hence a Path.

Randidly pressed his lips together. An increase in efficacy for the energy? Really?

The two are synergistic when coming from the same source, Neveah confirmed. More than even I would have expected. It helps that you function as a processing plant for both before releasing everything into the atmosphere.

…so a Path to check how feasible it would be to unite my two energies, Randidly mused he looked at his Path screen and grimaced. A Path that costs twenty thousand PP. And what, is it supposed to transform me into a genuine Shallah? Wouldn’t that be what I would become if both energies were unified?

You wouldn’t be a Shallah, Neveah responded immediately. For the same reason that Pine was falling to pieces until Elhume and Yystrix created the Nexus to delay his decay. Shallah would be perfect. Maybe it would be more like an older model of engine just running with the newest fuel. Higher efficiency, but not a cataclysmic change of life force. Besides, you can afford the PP cost. You aren’t saving up for anything in particular.

Randidly reached up and rubbed at his face. Using advanced fuel in an engine can sometimes burn it out.

Which is why we test it with a single Path. Neveah’s mental tone grew abruptly grave. Look Randidly, I’ve been doing some thinking. I know you haven’t encountered anyone truly powerful within those memories of the Second Cohort… but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. And think about this: Elhume’s body has been trapped in crystallized energy. Yet he still maintains a stranglehold on the Nexus, thousand of years later. If you encounter him there, that will be him in his most preliminary, and from what we know about how the Nexus later develops, pure-hearted form.

While Randidly mulled that over, Neveah continued to send her thoughts. To defeat the monster that has persisted to today, who slaughters dissension and hides the Path to the Pinnacle, we are going to need something singular. A way to combine the energies might be exactly that.

Randidly grimaced, but couldn’t disagree with what she was saying. He had seen what Elhume had built while climbing through the Sonara. He was now pushing through the secret upper layer, a dream Elhume had about how the world could have been different. None of it was raw power, but he couldn’t deny it proved Elhume’s capability.

“So, just one Path,” Randidly sighed out loud to himself before sending his thoughts back to Neveah. It does cost twenty thousand PP. Does it least give out some good rewards?

Do you even need more Stats, Neveah laughed at him. Besides, you have quite a bit of PP just laying around- wait, what’s this secret thought I sense you trying to squirrel away. Did you really intend to launch yourself through a series of Farming related Paths.

Randidly licked his lips. Well, I don’t like your tone when you think that. But right now this farm is the foundation within the memory; establishing influence in Malloon-

Justify it however you want. By now, Neveah was mentally cackling. I’m just glad you’ve finally stopped to do something that makes you happy. Have fun, Randidly.

Grumbling to himself, Randidly opened up the Path screen and began to pour PP into this new Energy Harmonization I Path.