The Legend of Randidly Ghosthound

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 435!

Randidly grimaced as the force spike slammed onto his right shoulder, shredding flesh and crunching bone. The crushing and sudden weight was enough to blast through his defenses. He stumbled to the side in the aftermath with a mind clouded with pain, barely cognizant of the three follow-up force spikes that punched through his maelstrom of natural energy. However, just as quickly as Randidly fell, he straightened and his body began to recover.

The sound of his flesh growing over jagged bone was a noise that was becoming all too familiar.

Even if the natural force could pulverize his body, its deadliness was only slightly higher than the wind blades in the Third Step. It wouldn’t overwhelm him in a single strike. And the force spikes followed the lightning ‘never strikes the same place twice’ adage which meant he could endure it.

Besides, I think I’m starting to understand the pattern. Randidly coughed out some phlegm and then continued the slogging journey up the slope. Around him, thousands of shades continued to mimick his energy storm to varying degrees of success. The surrounding area was a riotous circs of overlapping limbs and abrupt death.

So long as they could keep the constant barrage of wind blades at bay, they simply needed to focus on dodging force spikes. But what they lacked in the ability to utilize his Skills, they made up for with their ability to die and reform. The next time they stepped forward, they altered their path to avoid their previous end.

The end result was an enormous, ghastly convoy that pushed through the mist with Randidly at the center. The strange gathering relied on him as the basis for their continued intelligence through iterations, but they paid him back in direct visual experience with the Grand Pattern. Time continued to flow weirdly, his Absolute Timing recording only seconds for what felt like days of unending slog up the mountain. But Randidly didn’t mind; his entire attention was consumed by the process.

And he steadily grew. The beginnings of exhaust curled behind his eyes, but mental weariness was practically an old friend at this point.

Congratulations! Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 461!

Thin golden flows continued to bleed off from the massive amount of potent energy slumbering beneath the mountain and merge into Randidly’s bare feet. In response, the maelstrom of natural force grew stronger and stronger, stretching out to cover an even larger area with its potent new fuel. Steam continued to waft off of him as he served as the conduit to so much force. He couldn’t be sure, but Randidly felt like his storm stretched twenty meters in every direction, housing more and more shades that he picked up along the way.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tides of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 533!

Influence +74!

Congratulations! Your Skill Philosophy within the Boundless Deluge (M) has grown to Level 435!

With such a massive and complex storm of energy currents. Randidly worked tirelessly to add his insights into the Grand Pattern to the actual functioning to make the process more automated. Rather than grinding away at wind blades or triple wind blades and then stealing the remnant energy, he began to experiment with exterior bulges of force that would snap out around the wind blades and gobble them up directly. Taking the entire deadly edge and incorporating the entirety of the force helped Randidly-

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Congratulations! Your Skill Dodge has grown to Level 359!

Randidly sidestepped, following his tingling instincts. The next moment another four holes were torn in his storm, leaving the whole thing teetering on collapsing. Luckily, he could unleash a pulse of fresh energy that Randidly had absorbed from below, quickly filling in most of the holes and keeping the whole operation from falling to pieces.

The wind howled above him, muffled by mist to the point that it sounded akin to the moan of a giant.

“Damnit, if only I had a way to counter the force spikes directly,” Randidly groused, watching a nearby specter being blasted to pieces by the invisible and hard to predict attacks. But he could only shake his head. Theoretically, he had some ideas about how to make folded natural energy bombs that would detonate to counter the spikes when they struck.

However, he set aside those plans for two reasons. First, including tightly folded bundles of force within the network of energy flows inherently weakened his own storm. Not to the point of being unable to persist, but it was a step in a dangerous direction. Even more worryingly, his predictions had exact in order for the two explosions to cancel each other out. If he missed, an even larger hole would be ripped in his defensive array.

I’m starting to get the general pattern, but there are either minute variables I’m missing or the force spikes incorporate natural randomness. Randidly looked at his left arm, which ended at the elbow, and smiled bitterly. Which is why you-

“Stop looking so gloomy.” The spectral woman commented, still staying near Randidly as the whole ground moved up the slope. Her steps looked as sharp as a chef’s knife as she shimmied diagonally to avoid force spikes. “What have you got to be sad about? We are the ones dying over and over again, not you. Damn, just what the hell is your body made of, anyway…”

Randidly chuckled, trying to ignore the tension in his chest. “You’re right. Mostly, I’m just muscles and stubbornness. I wouldn’t recommend my methods though. They usually end up landing me in trouble.”

“Probably why you are here, with me,” The woman winked.

That cheered him up for a little while, but soon he grew sour and examined his left arm again. A few hours ago, according to Randidly’s inner sense of time, he had moved sideways to avoid a force spike. Unfortunately, it was a bit closer than he had expected; Sulfur had absorbed the entire burst of force. His forearm had snapped off and disintegrated in the blast, leaving him with only the upper arm.

Randidly’s heart had dropped out of his chest and the entire storm had very nearly halted while that thrill of panic seized his entire attention.

However, Sulfur’s core flesh ran along the entirety of his arm. A chunk had been destroyed by the sudden strike, but the remainder now was nearly blinding with the amount of accumulated force stored within the true heart of Sulfur. The transformation continued to percolate, leaving Randidly wondering what would eventually emerge.

Congratulations! Your Skill Philosophy within the Boundless Deluge (M) has grown to Level 436!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

More force spikes arrived, hitting the space directly in front of and to Randidly’s right and left. He paused in his steps, letting everything blast harmlessly past him. He reflexively felt some anxiety to see that a force spike would drill through the talkative woman, but she remained unharmed; the Grand Pattern she faced was what she faced during her life, not what Randidly had to contend with now.

Randidly narrowed his eyes. Stay focused. The force spikes are coming faster and faster. As long as I advance all the way, I’ll find the answers at the summit. In this, I think, the woman isn’t wrong. Pushing forward is my best bet.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting Tide of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 536!

Influence +99!

…

Congratulations! Your Skill Dodge has grown to Level 370!

Congratulations! Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 475!

…

BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM

Even Randidly’s powerful body was starting to ache underneath the constant abuse and strain of serving as the core of such a powerful storm. He must have moved past some threshold because the force spikes began to drum repeated around him. Most he could only feel distantly through the mist, but an increasing amount shredded his storm. For the first time since he had created it, the size began to shrink; he simply couldn’t support the massive size without hemorrhaging energy.

The large size made him too big of a target.

Congratulations! Your Skill Cutting TIde of Amenonuhoko (T) has grown to Level 545!

Congratulations! Your Skill Philosophy within the Boundless Deluge (M) has grown to Level 450!

Randidly slowed his advance, shutting away the constant noise of the solid mountain slope being crunched over and over again. The cacophony was like a dump truck’s worth of gravel being dumped on a tin roof. Then he also shut off physical sensations, ignoring the small stone shards that careened from the impact points and embedded themselves in his skin. His focus didn’t break even when a force spike glanced off his back and ripped away several layers of skin to reveal the musculature beneath.

Congratulations! Your Skill Chimeric Impunity (M) has grown to Level 449!

Congratulations! Your Skill Marred Yet Reliable Foundation of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 512!

Streamline the flows. Condense more power into a tighter area. Use the Nether method of weaving the force together to make the bonds tighter. Reduce the size. It’s unfortunate, but as long as I return to my original size, perhaps seven meters in diameter, I’ll be able to support those shades that came with me from the beginning.

The rest of you… well, thank you for your service.

Randidly’s heart pounded and the energy began to churn. His eyes flashed open and he began to take even steps forward. He couldn’t slow now. Nether spun outward and anchored the shift as he adjusted his maelstrom on the fly. Wild and woven energy floes rampaged outward and then were twisted and tucked back into the pattern. The wind blades cut into its flaws and made the process messy, but the golden energy Randidly absorbed through the soles of his feet was enough to stabilize back at his original size.

Congratulations! Your Skill Philosophy of the Boundless Deluge (M) has grown to Level 451!

Congratulations! Your Skill Aureate Arteries of Yggdrasil (T) has grown to Level 480!

The force spikes continued to bombard the area, but now Randidly’s storm rebounded quickly. He licked his lips and lowered his shoulders. But next to him, the spectral hand of the woman patted him on the back.

“You really take things too seriously. Isn’t it fun, to improve? Raise your head and enjoy the view! Let’s conquer this damned summit and have a grand party!”

Influence +101!

There was a brief hitch in Randidly’s step. Then he followed her advice and raised his head. His senses receded somewhat from the convoluted loops of natural energy he manipulated and he simply looked upward. The mist in front of him churned and writhed. Near-constant force spikes drilled down through the restrictive barrier, leaving the mist impediment looking like swiss cheese. And through those holes, Randidly occasionally caught a glimpse-

“Sunlight,” He said to himself. And not just any sort of sunlight, but a well of power that mirrored all that pure golden radiance he absorbed from the base of the mountain. A hint of the deep power of this place, sitting both deep in the ground and in the sky.

Despite himself, Randidly smiled. His feet carried him forward, dragging the rest of him and his cloak-like storm upward. “The summit, huh.”

…

But eventually, even his feet paused.

In front of Randidly, the mist parted and revealed a wide stone path around the edge of the mountain. He raised his head and laughed, the sound echoing behind him on the slope. Despite the barrage he had endured from the force spikes, he had made it; he had completely passed through the Third Step.

He could barely move his arms and his feet were numb. But he had made it.

Yet just as quickly as he experienced the clean joy of triumph, he also sensed something was wrong with the situation. The conducive fake Nether immediately stopped at the edge of the mist. The pathway that Randidly could see was another transition area, untouched by the Grand Pattern. He turned around and found all the specters relying on his Nether looking at him with expressions of fondness.

Like the woman, the longer the other shades had stayed near him, the more their features had returned. So an eclectic mix of humanoids, beast people, aliens, demons, and minotaurs bowed in thanks for what he had given them. They stood within the coiling strands of mist, just outside of the reach of the sun’s rays.

Randidly’s mouth is dry as something finally occurred to him. “You… can’t move on to the next Step.”

“Of course not.” The woman remained cheerful, even at the end. As her features returned, her hair had turned silver and luminous. Or perhaps that was just the effect of being a specter. “Our Path is to struggle here due to our prior failures. You’ve been a big help, though. I can’t ever remember actually reaching the limit of the Third Step before.”

You can’t remember anything at all,damnit, Randidly bit his lip. His chest was tight. The parting was unexpected and sudden. They didn’t know each other with any sort of depth, but they had worked together toward a goal. Had it not been for the remnants here, Randidly’s ascent would have been much more difficult.

But he knew that the nameless woman would scold him if he let any of his sadness show. So he offered them a wide smile and a half bow. “Thanks for your assistance. I’ll take it from here.”

“Wave at me from the summit, Randidly Ghosthound.” The woman’s features began to fade as though she had released her grip on the Nether foundation he provided. Her face became smooth and blank, even as her voice still echoed. “I’ll be waiting.”

Randidly turned away to hide the ache in his heart and walked out of the mist. Immediately, the bombardments stopped and his natural energy melted away. The physical restrictions slowly started to grow. But he didn’t dwell on those things. He simply walked forward, moving until the natural curve of the path blocked off his view of the path he had taken to get here.

After about ten minutes, he couldn’t help himself. He stopped and turned around, hoping that he had made a mistake. But he found exactly what he expected; he had traveled so far that he could see nothing around the bend of the mountain. His convoy had vanished, fading back into the realm of memories. He could only look down off the cliff and see the churning mist below, the lingering sign of the strange, shared experience he had in the Third Step.

Randidly wiped away a tear and refocused. Alright, this time I have twenty-four hours before the shift from 30% restriction to 40% is completed. In that time, it’s time to consolidate my understanding. I’m not sure what’s waiting in the Fourth Step, but I gave my word. I’m making it to the fucking summit.

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