Chapter 365: Shake the Foundations
Sylas returned to the library. He knew that he couldn't delay Lucius' order for long, or else it would cause trouble for him. If he forced Lucius to use the means he had in his arsenal, it
wouldn't end well for either of them.
So, he had to be fast.
He had already documented all of the books and organized them. Now, he just had to find what he was looking for. What he hadn't expected, though, was to get a useful clue from Merchant Guatum.
Merchant Guatum's record ability was interesting because how well it worked was entirely dependent on the level of information he was targeting. And, his progress was incredibly slow because his experience gathering was dependent on gathering higher quality information and successfully selling it.
It could be said, then, that Selvian had benefited from Sylas in more ways than just one. Obviously, the library was one of Selvian's next stops after Sylas was gone. But what he didn't expect was that Sylas would realize this as well.
Sylas, however, didn't want the Merchant to record the books here. He could already read them all for free.
What he wanted the Merchant to do was to use his ability to scan the high-priority areas he had noted and pick out the books that his profession noted were more difficult to scan or impossible to scan.
This way, Sylas could immediately dismiss all of the worthless books and focus on all of the most important ones.
What Sylas didn't know, however, was that after he asked Selvian to do this, the man struck down the thoughts hidden in his heart. Sylas was far too dangerous a man to provoke. It was best to just follow what he said to perfection for now. Only in the future, when he was much stronger, would he consider anything else.
It made sense for Selvian himself to think of using his ability in this way. After all, it was his own ability, and he had been trying to think up ways to maximize it for months already.
But Sylas had not only deduced what his ability was from a few on-the-shelf items, but he had even further deduced how he could maximize it to help Casstle Main, all before he then deduced how to maximize it to help himself.
All of this happened within the span of a few minutes, and it left Selvian trembling. Wouldn't this man see through him the moment he had thoughts of betrayal?
...
Sylas dismissed Selvian, setting him off to do the tasks they had spoken about earlier. If everything went well, most of Casstle Main's troubles would be dealt with soon. He would just have to trust Cassarae to hold down the fort while he was gone, and she was more than capable of it.
If not for the fact that she was being targeted by a System City, Casstle Main would likely have found a method of holding onto their top ten spot like The Enclave had.
Now, he had leveled the playing field for her again, so there was nothing to worry about.
He took a seat in one of the few seating areas, and there were about two dozen or so books before him. These were the books that both potentially filled his needs and had the requisite quality according to Selvian.
There was nothing else to do but to read. Sylas thought it might take him at least a week or two, but the moment he began, he realized that he had still underestimated himself.
His memory had always been excellent, but with the additional Wisdom stats and his visualization, it was something else.
He was able to concentrate his visualization onto the pages themselves and get an immediate snapshot as though he had just taken a picture with his mind. Because of this, he finished reading what was a textbook-sized tome in just 10 minutes or so. He went through the entire pile of books in just a few hours.
After he was finished, he sat back and digested them slowly. Taking a snapshot of a page still wasn't as good as reading it line by line. At best, he could get a feel for it.
But when he went back over it, he found that his depth of understanding was greater because he had an overview.
He opened his eyes and read the books again. This time, he did it line by line, but it flew by extremely quickly because his mind already had a foggy sense of what was coming.
It took him almost triple the time to finish all the books this time, but the result was that he had imprinted every sentence perfectly.
Sylas took a breath and put down the last book.
[Rune Enlightenment (Silver) (Chain Quest)]
[The people of Earth have a deep and storied history. In its past, much of its language encompassed the secrets of this path and embodied the hope of nations.]
[Fallen and forgotten, the ebbs and flows of time have suppressed this storied heritage. As an Earthling who has rekindled that flame, you share part of this responsibility.]
[Rise up and claim your Rune Enlightenment.]
[Fragmented Requirement Cleared]
[Common Requirement]
[>Use entry into System City's Library to find information about Lost Civilizations and clues
about an Ancient Dungeon.]
[Common Requirement Cleared]
[Bronze Requirement]
[>Deduce the location of Ancient Dungeon.]
[Bronze Requirement Cleared]
[Silver Requirement]
[>Clear Dungeon: The Mountain of Giza]
Sylas closed his eyes for a long while, seemingly ignoring the notifications. All the information swimming about in his head slowly formed a single realization. When his eyes opened again, the storm that had been hidden within them had calmed. 'The Mountain of Giza... The Pyramid of Giza... The Africor Continent... How convenient.' He knew exactly where to find a portal to the Africor Continent. Didn't that bouncer lookalike have a dialect from that Continent? And weren't they near Lucius' city?
Sylas stood. He knew that the Africor Continent was enormous. Even if he had a portal to the continent, that didn't necessarily mean he would have one to what was olden-day Egypt. But
it was a good start.
Still, that much was the furthest from his mind.
'Is this really a Silver Grade Quest...?'
Legacy has been trying to tease apart this mystery for decades... Something told him that
there was nothing simple about this matter at all.
What Sylas didn't know just yet was how right he was. This Quest would house a secret capable
of shaking the very foundations of Earth.