Sylas ended up spending an entire hour and a half in Olivia's gym. However, in the end, he was completely and utterly spent with hardly the strength to even lift a finger.
Gasping for breath, he realized just how much potential this kind of workout would have.
He didn't just have to continuously load on the weight; there were other paths to take, and this one might arguably be the very best.
He didn't just need stronger muscles; he needed functional muscles. This was what he had learned after seeing the benefits of unleashing the potential of his flexibility and his tendons. Slowing down every minor action to such a degree enlightened ways to use his body that he had simply never seen before, even when he absorbed Genes through the use of Extricate. No... maybe it was more like this helped highlight what he had seen before already.
He didn't get much of a strength boost from all of that because he had yet to place himself in a State of Wealth. But he knew that his control over his body had definitely increased once again.
His list of comprehensions had increased.
[Dormant Comprehensions]
[>Boxing (FFF+)]
[>Taekwondo (FFF+)]
[>Muay Thai (FFF+)]
[>...]
[>Mixed Martial Arts (F+)]
[>...]
[>Blazing Will (-)]
Mixed Martial Arts had actually improved to F+, and that should be solely related to the workout he had just done.
"Great job, Einstein. Now how are we supposed to escape the city?"
Sylas looked over from his collapsed position. He had pushed his body so hard that there were little pockets of burst blood exposed beneath his skin. One would have thought that he had absolutely ripped them all to shreds.
If you combined such an intense workout with Sylas' level of Will, this was bound to be the result.
Olivia was right in a sense. Considering the situation, he had truly pushed himself far too much.
But he wasn't worried, nor would he make such a seemingly stupid decision without contingencies.
He could use the prepared meat in his Madness Key or use a Healing Potion. With his Constitution, recovering in another few dozen minutes wouldn't be a problem.
However... he had another plan.
[Silver Slot Machine (Temporary Treasure)]
[Does the Luck of the Gods shine down on you? Or are your hopes and dreams destined to be covered in shallow mud?]
[Time to Activation: 00:00:01]
[Tickets Earned: 462]
[DING!]
[Silver Slot Machine Ready]
Olivia's eyes widened as a floating slot machine suddenly appeared above the seemingly half- dead Sylas.
This time, he wouldn't make the same mistake. He would check to see what kind of Silver Grade treasures he could get first. Then, if he felt that he had gotten an adequate amount of gains... only then would he try to see what would happen if he upgraded to Gold.
At times like this, it would have been nice to have the necklace Cassarae lost, but this was fine enough.
With his intention, he spun the wheel for the first time.
He got nothing.
He spun it a second time and got nothing once more. In fact, even after over 20 spins, he still received absolutely nothing.
This was enough of a wake-up call to Sylas. It seemed that benefitting from these high-tier slot machines wasn't easy at all. But luckily, on his 27th spin, there was finally a change.
The first thing he got in return made his eyes light up. Although he didn't say as much to jinx it, even if this was the only reward he got from this slot machine, he wouldn't even be angry about it.
[Transmutation Beast Skin (Silver) (Permanent Template)]
[Exchange 10 Units of Aether or 1 Aether Stone to Transmute any single Silver Gene Beast into a Nutrition Pill. Aether or Aether Stone requirements increase with every Silver Gene added]
[Cooldown: N/A]
Sylas was as elated as he could be given his personality. This was exactly what he was looking for, a convenient and easy way to feed his body.
The slot machine flashed and a beautiful beast skin appeared before Sylas. It was absolutely massive, stretching for dozens of meters, or so Sylas guessed. Olivia's basement wasn't nearly large enough to accommodate its true size.
Luckily, the Transmutation Beast Skin was able to shrink down. Sylas assumed its enormous size, and its size-changing capabilities, were designed to accommodate beasts of various
shapes and sizes.
Even more luckily than that, unlike the other Legendary Path treasures Sylas had seen, this one didn't require him to upgrade it. But that was probably because of the type of treasure it was, that being a Template, or rather, a Permanent Template.
Like Alex had told Sylas, a Template was something used to accomplish something only a Profession of a specific type should be capable of. In this case, a Permanent Template should just be like any other Template with the exception that it could be used continuously.
This Transmutation Beast Skin had a cooldown, of course. But it was unlikely to be a big issue for now considering Sylas would only use it for Bronze Genes at the moment... mostly because he had yet to see a single Silver Gene, and even if he had, the odds that he could defeat such a creature were slim to none.
Sylas didn't wait to benefit from his new treasure. After all, his body needed to recover right here and now.
He used his telekinesis to lay it out, his body still too aching to move. Then, he brought out a few beasts he kept stored in his Madness Key and triggered the Transmutation.
The result, however... was less than satisfactory.
'It's good, but...' Sylas frowned after popping the earthy-toned pills into his mouth. '... It fills
me up somewhat, but this wasn't what I was expecting.'
That was when it hit Sylas. He had targeted the Bronze Gene creatures first, but they were beasts he had long since extracted the Genes out of.
The description of the treasure should have mentioned Genes on purpose. That was where the true power of the Transmutation Beast Skin lay.
Sylas unfurled the beast skin once again. One side of it had a beautiful mat of silver-black fur, but the other side was as smooth as well-moisturized skin. On this latter side, there was a complex network of Runes drawn into it that looked almost like a medieval magic circle.
Placing down a Common Gene beast, Sylas triggered the beast skin with his Aether again.
The first activation didn't even use up a single unit of Aether. This time, though, he actually used more than 10 Units. The beast skin didn't stop until it had taken a full 22 Units of Aether from him, almost draining him dry.
'I see. It's because there's no Aether here, so it can't supplement itself with the Aether in the environment. It would be much easier in an Aether-rich region... If I'm right, if I was in an Aether-rich environment, these Common Genes wouldn't even take a fraction of an Aether
Unit either...'
The beast in the center burst into a rain of blood and flesh that was quickly further condensed until its red hue became a condensed array of Runes that covered the pill that remained. From a simple earthy brown pill, what was left instead was an aromatic pill that shimmered with the colored characteristics of the dead beast.
And this time when Sylas swallowed it, he almost released a moan of pleasure.
It felt like his entire body was being massaged by the hands of countless Goddesses.