Congratulations! You have completed the Animal Handling I Path! You have begun to develop a relationship with the animals you are raising due to proximity and kindness. Some consider the connection between owner and livestock to be no other than a transactional one. However, your experience allows you a deeper influence over them. Despite the fact that you will someday slaughter them for their parts, you treat them with respect during their lives. For that, they are happy.

Congratulations! Stamina +100. Congratulations! You have learned the Skill Rugged Ranching (R)!

Rugged Ranching (R): The ability to raise healthy and high-quality livestock in strange and harsh environments. Gives you an innate sense of the quality of the livestock and helps you assist them in adapting to their current environment. Effect decreases with distance. You have an intuitive sense of their needs and location. Slightly boosts their rate of growth and the quality of their bodies. There is an extremely small chance the animals will rapidly adapt and evolve into a new species. Specificity of location and effect increases with Skill Level. Chance of rapid evolution slightly increases with Skill Level.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances (M) has grown to Level 279!

In a way, going through the Path was indeed very distracting for Randidly. At the same time, it was not distracting in the way he wanted, although he was slightly intrigued by the possibilities of Rugged Ranching in the Second Cohort. No, the Path completion became distracting because he could suddenly feel the way Paths work.

From a huge pool of sky-blue energy swirling within him, grains flew out and began to arrange themselves into a particular pattern. He watched it form, growing larger and more complete with every PP he put into the path. It wasn’t a Nether Ritual and it wasn’t an Engraving, either. The shape was fascinating. Due to how small the Path was, it quickly had assumed a profound shape and activated.

The energy and pattern began to burn, generating all the benefits that he received, which he saw as a silver radiance settling across his body. The Path was short, so the energy-light from it was extremely dim. The benefit sprinkled on him was lost almost immediately amongst the burning inferno that was his own energetic body. Yet there was something intriguing about the way the energy transitioned.

That is how Paths work. Individuals generate raw, natural energy and Paths take it and process it into very specific, rigid forms, Randidly pursed his lips. Theoretically, it would be much more efficient to keep it in its raw state and use it as needed. However… even for the current me, that would be an exhausting usage… But what the hell was that pattern it used…?

Congratulations! Your Skill Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances (M) has grown to Level 333!

Randidly refocused; further experimentation and observation could wait until later.

As his new Skill continued to rapidly tick up, there was an interesting struggle to remain overwhelming. First, he gained Skill Levels and could gather more information. He could see the light and energy in a larger and larger space. Had it not been for how long he had worked with patterns in the past, he might have been almost completely submerged in everything he now saw. On the other hand, he was rapidly adjusting. For now, he teetered on remaining somewhat overwhelmed.

But as with all Levels, Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances began slowing its rise. Randidly took another breath, settling into the new awareness of energy even in just the act of breathing. He returned his attention to his Path screen, now possible to view without feeling queasy, and blazed through a few more related Paths.

Congratulations! You have completed the Cultivator of Nature Path! You have developed the base tools to depart the beaten Path on your way to the Pinnacle and sculpt the environment into a more hospitable form around you. The worst sort of areas become treasured environments under your hands. Although this slows your journey, you leave a legacy of warmth and development behind you.

There is value in taking the time to leave a gift for those who will follow you. Many will benefit from the adjustments you have made.

Congratulations! Discretion of the Apostate Moirae +50! Your ability to recognize the truth in nature is slightly increased. Your understanding of ecosystems increases. Congratulations! The effects of your Skill Farmer’s Hearth is intensifying! Continue through the related Paths to cause a Skill Evolution.

Congratulations! You have completed the Fierce Farming II Path! You have gone beyond simply inhospitable environments and sought out some of the wildest and most stubborn wildlife you could find. Interacting with these elements comes with an inherent risk, yet you do not balk. Gradually, through repeated effort, you have brought them around to being domesticated. The process has taught you much about the way life finds a way, no matter the situation.

Although the wildlife resisted your efforts at first, you are more than powerful enough to handle their stubbornness and struggles. Your domineering atmosphere accelerates the timeline for domesticating any sort of crop. The force of your will intimidates even the most dangerous predators.

Congratulations! Discretion of the Apostate Moirae +100! You continue to develop an affinity for the natural world. You will have minor premonitions about major changes coming in the surrounding space.

Congratulations! Your Skill Farmer’s Hearth has evolved into Determined Farmer’s Cradle (A)! Area covered by the Skill is vastly expanded. The plants and animals under its influence will retain some of their fierce wildness, increasing the quality of their life. All aspects of their bodies and minds improved. Animals nearby will sense your lively influence and be drawn over by their curiosity!

Congratulations! You have completed the Dangerous Animal Handling II Path! As you expand your range of influence, you have encountered various powerful creatures in an environment that should have killed everyone many times over. Yet you do not falter; the force of your person is enough to bring all of the wildlife to heel before you. Gradually, you have brought more and more species within your sphere of influence. The diversity and health of these animals is a positive reflection of the influence you now possess.

Congratulations! Discretion of the Apostate Moirae and Exquisite Piety +50! Effects of Rugged Ranching are greatly strengthened! Please continue to proceed through related Paths to trigger a Skill Evolution!

Congratulations! You have completed the Primordial Agriculturist III Path! You’ve stumbled across a true remnant of the past in your travels; the environment where you have set up your farmstead is beset by wild forces on every side. A cataclysm lurks within every corner. The star shedding light upon your farm releases dangerously concentrated UV light. Beyond that, the moon looming above your land is the collapsing body of a partial Shallah, Pine. Truly, you are squeezed by the uncaring natural forces surging all around you.

Yet you do not fear. You stand with bare feet upon your chosen plot and choose to build, despite the dangers. For that, you are rewarded. No Path began as a wide and clear thoroughfare. Trailblazers needed to exist, hacking back the creeping grip of the natural world.

Congratulations! Discretion of the Apostate Moirae +150! Congratulations! Your Skills Determined Farmer’s Cradle and Rugged Ranching are merging into a single Skill! Calculating… determining influences… resonating with images…

Congratulations! You have gained the Skill Heritage of the Bountiful Origin Beast (T)!

Heritage of the Bountiful Origin Beast (T): In a lot of ways, individuals are completely unaware of the Path their ancestors took to overcome the dangers of their lives. The forces that acted upon them, the enemies that attempted to kill them, the friends they made along the way… all these are drowned underneath the seething mists of time. However, you have dug into the truth of the Nexus and discovered some facts about yourself. Humanity was a creature of Elhume, using the lives of the Patron of the Deep, the greatest champion of the Origin Beasts, to animate their potential. The medium of your Nether Core was the bones of an ancient Origin Beast, on which the current Nexus is built. Within yourself, you have awakened an ancient power with awareness from whence it came.

Not only do you release the signature energy of the Origin Beasts to nurture life, but you also have begun to recover their unique knack for recognizing the correct sort of individuals to help thrive. The efficiency of using your natural energy has vastly increased. All creatures react positively to your energy. The area covered by your influence has vastly increased. Within this sphere, there are layers of differing effects.

In your immediate area, all things thrive. Growth is abundant and rapid. In the area beyond that, most living things are attracted. Feed and aromatic flowers multiply and spread. In the area beyond that, wild mutations occur frequently. In the area beyond that, all living things feel a strange sense of natural contentment when they interact with the world.

Randidly took another breath as he observed the rather large final Path. By the end, the cost had risen to five thousand PP to finish the Primordial Agriculturist Path, which essentially depleted all the saved-up PP he had been maintaining since the Alpha Cosmos Tithe. However, he could also feel a part of him settling into a new and yet somehow comfortable role.

He raised his head and looked out at the world. Works extremely well with the Skill provided by the Pantheon. They framed the world as threads of energy… and this awakening of my influence from Origin Beasts let me embrace that more naturally. I’m a part of this wide tapestry.

He reached up and cracked his neck and then stood. The world was still a gleaming neon wonderland, but Randidly could accept that. Perhaps it wasn’t even a shift in awareness, Randidly mused as he walked out to the farm. Within the ground, he could feel the burning embers of each planted carrot seed. The rising apple trees seemed like bright, proud spears of energy. The land walruses released a warm green-blue light as they hooted and rolled around.

Perhaps it was better to consider the shift one that allowed him to appreciate the wonder of what happened all around him.

Congratulations! Your Skill Tapestry of Ten Thousand Radiances (M) has grown to Level 399!

Congratulations! Your Skill Heritage of the Bountiful Origin Beast (T) has grown to Level 2!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Heritage of the Bountiful Origin Beast (T) has grown to Level 50!

Pulses of white light periodically spread out from Randidly’s body and radiated out into the surroundings. He observed these waves of pure light sinking into the nearby energy threads and biting out small bits of dimness. With each pulse, the energy of each living thing in the environment was strengthened.

The pulses weakened with each purification until they dissipated. But as the nearby plants required less reinforcement, the pulses traveled further and began to establish the various zones described in the Skill.

At this rate, it will take a while to adjust the environment to its ideal state, Randidly scratched his chin. Then he shrugged. Well, I wasn’t in a hurry. I’ll give myself a day to recover and adjust, three days of shaping up the farm to incorporate all of the shifts… then its time I visit the third core of negative emotion. I’ve let these pieces of myself lay and rust for too long.