369 Missing
Sylas, of course, didn't know what any of this meant. Rune Breath was already described as something that separated the talented from the talentless, but it was still only a matter of a few seconds for him to grasp. So, he had no appreciation for the difficulty.
Rune Soul wasn't just one level above Rune Breath, it was two. Rune Breath was preceded by Rune Flesh.
Rune Flesh was a state of being able to incorporate Runes into one's very body. Of course, there would be limits, but it was essentially known as the state where one no longer needed to use Aether as a medium in order to use Runes. This meant that even in regions where Aether wasn't dense, Sylas would still be able to make use of Runes, and observe them clearly.
Rune Flesh was actually something that Sylas had personally experienced before. It was precisely what happened every time a Gene was absorbed!
Extricate made this experience all the more potent and allowed one to benefit from the comprehension of said Genes as well, while the system streamlined the process.
Rune Soul was an even more powerful version of this. It allowed one to incorporate Runes right into their very soul. There was no simple one-to-one comparison for it… at least not on current Earth.
Sylas could vaguely feel these changes, but he was quickly distracted by the world around him. He made a note to ask the Madness Key about such things later… but right now, there was only one place that was of interest to him.
The world of ice-blue seemed to, ironically, gain color in Sylas' eyes. It was as though it had gained true life.
Everywhere Sylas looked, there was one Rune after another. He saw several iterations of what he thought was the Ice-Poison Rune, but many of them were weaker than the Ice-Poison Rune he was familiar with, and there were several that were stronger than the Rune he was familiar with.
'All of them are Ice-Poison? Are they bits and pieces of a whole? Something else?'
Sylas never thought that there were multiple iterations of the Ice-Poison Rune because he had already seen it in two completely different states. One was from the much weaker venom sack of the Arctic Emperor Cobra's son, and the other was from the Arctic Emperor Cobra itself.
The Ice-Poison Runes on both venom sacks were the exact same.
'Were they, though…?'
Sylas frowned for a moment and then backed out of the Mancer Wand's world. He quickly took out one of the corpses of the Arctic King Cobras that remained in his Madness Key and cut out the venom sack.
He didn't need to be nearly as careful as he had been in the past as he was immune, so the process was quick. Soon, he was observing the venom sack closely.
'Another…'
Sylas began to cut out venom sack after venom sack, but the result was the same.
'They really are the same, I knew I wouldn't make a mistake like that. But why does the Arctic Emperor Cobra's feel so different?'
A realization came over Sylas.
Aether.
The maturity and strength of one's Aether could influence and change Runes as well. The Arctic Emperor Cobra was on the verge of an evolution, so even though it had the same Rune, its presence, power, and aura were entirely different.
Sylas entered the Mancer Wand's world again. So what was this place?
'Building blocks…' Sylas thought after a long while. 'If I had to bet, if I captured an Arctic King Bear right now, they might have a slightly different Rune than the Arctic King Cobras had. They had access to the same building blocks, but they took a different path.
'In that case, does that mean that if I want to grasp Ice-Poison to the Silver Grade I need to…' Sylas looked around him. '... Comprehend it all?'
The gap between Sylas and what it would take to do something like this was tremendous. It felt like everywhere he looked there was a new Rune to look at, or a slightly different twist on one he had already seen.
The Ice-Poison Rune he had learned had much more concentration in its piercing power. It was actually much more Poison than it was Ice… or rather, more like venom.
However, here, he saw Ice-Poison Runes that were far more overbearing, ones where a single touch could freeze you down to your very cells themselves. There were some that needed to be more airborne so that they could be inhaled, and were as such far more Poison-like in nature.
'No…'
Sylas changed his mind again. He didn't believe that he needed to understand all of these just to reach the Silver Grade. It actually felt like the world was endless and there were a seemingly infinite number of variations and changes amongst these Runes.
He re-centered himself, remembering that this world wasn't about teaching him what to do, but was rather here to help him find his own Path of the Mancer. If he got lost in trying to comprehend everything, he would just shoot himself in the foot.
Of course, he would still use this world as a cheat to grasp the 50 Foundation Rune he needed to complete his Quest, but that didn't mean that he should choose randomly.
If he was going to learn one, he should learn one using the Path he wanted.
The deeper he went into the world, the more complex the Runes became until he started seeing his first few Runes that were well beyond 30 Foundations in size.
He saw a few that were 40, and then he began to see the sparse scattering of 50 Foundation Runes.
Although these Runes only felt slightly more complicated than the 20 and 30 Foundation Runes he had been seeing before, for some reason, Sylas felt that they were touching on much more profound concepts nonetheless.
There seemed to be a clear divide between Runes below 40 Foundations and ones above 40. As he went deeper, he didn't even see a single 60 Foundation Rune.
'Something feels… missing…'
Sylas looked back toward the Runes he had skipped over.
'I see…'
A subtle hint of an understanding came over Sylas.
'If I want to access these stronger Runes, it means that I'm already abandoning the Path of Ice-Poison and accepting that I will need to take in another affinity in the near future… If I go back to the weaker ones, then I can continue along with my Ice-Poison Path…'
Sylas didn't need to think, he had already made his decision. He needed something stronger.
The words of the Madness Key was the song that kept driving him stronger.
Become Strong.