371 Unyielding
His decision was quite unexpected, maybe even to him. When he initially started, he didn't think that he would go this route. But the more he thought about it, the more he felt that this was the best route to take.
Slow and Freeze.
Sylas was relying on one thing to make this decision: affinity.
If the Madness Key didn't lie to him, then every single one of these paths could lead to the pinnacle. In fact, every single one of the others in this Mancer's Wand world could as well. It was just a matter of if he could take it there.
What the Madness Key didn't promise him was the ease of doing so.
Sylas had already taken the harder road by boxing himself into taking one of these eight. Or, rather, two of these eight.
However, as he had said in the beginning, there would also be certain things that he would inevitably have to compromise on in the future. Never mind the fact that he didn't believe he was compromising right now at all.
The reason he picked Slow and Freeze were simple: they were the two that embodied the affinity he felt for Ice-Poison the most.
Slow was the most like Poison, it seeped into the Runes and Aether of the world, making them languid and lethargic. If one carelessly used a Skill in its presence, it would show its dominance. Even a Gene Talent might not be safe at all.
Freeze was the most like Ice. It boxed Runes and Aether in, freezing them into their own separate blocks and barring them from the rest of the world.
Of all of these, these two were without a doubt the closest to Ice-Poison, and though they would definitely need stabilizing just like the others would, it would also be far easier to succeed in doing so.
Sylas was happy with his choice and began with slow first.
What he didn't expect was that it would be far more complex than he thought.
The Slow Ice-Poison Rune had 51 Foundations, but there were 382 strokes. This was more than three times that of the number of Strokes that the normal Ice-Poison Rune had.
Freeze was much the same. In fact, they both had an identical number of Foundations and Strokes.
The problem wasn't just the number of Strokes, but also how they were layered. The sequence was much more complex, and sometimes Sylas actually found himself mistaking a single Stroke for what was actually a combined two or three. He had to re-evaluate several times before he came down to the final number.
'Interesting…'
If he had still been at the Rune Enlightenment Realm, or even still the Rune Breath Realm, this would have definitely been a challenge that had him stuck for a while. But now…
'… A few hours should be enough.'
…
Sylas froze some time over a half day later. A BANG! seemed to have gone off in his mind and the pain came in violent waves.
—
[Title: Unyielding Scholar (FFF+)]
[Embryo of chaos, dense in its unpredictability and lofty in its ambition. You are not only sharp, but your Wisdom is no less powerful than your Will]
[Devours Blazing Will]
[+200 Wisdom]
[+200 Will]
[+100% Wisdom]
—
Blood oozed out of Sylas' nose in the real world and he almost collapsed.
—
[Name: Sylas Grimblade]
[Species: Human (F)]
[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]
[Class: Arctic Royal (Fragmented)]
[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]
[Level: 0]
[Coins: 41387 (F)]
[Titles: A Burning Will; System Breaker; Legendary Tamer; Surge of the Die; Baron of Guiz; Unyielding Scholar (FFF+); Skill Savant (FFF+); Madness Conqueror (FF-); Common Arts Enthusiast (F-); A Patient Stalker (F-)]
—
[Physical: 148]
>[Strength: 140]
>[Constitution: 170]
>[Dexterity: 140]
>[Speed: 140]
[Mental: 437]
>[Intelligence: 267]
>[Wisdom: 844]
>[Charisma: 200]
[Will: 803]
[Luck: 22]
—
[Skills: Madness Control (FF+); Basic Scouting (F-); Maddened Enlightenment (FF+); Astral Bind (F+); Momentum Shift (F+); Solidify (F+); Master Scouting (FFF-); Stunning Spike (FF-); Astral Will Fission (FF-); Mirror Step (FF-); Psychedelic Punch (FF-); Master Counter (FFF-)]
[Comprehensions: Madness (FFF)]
—
[Gene State: Rigid]
[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); Voice of a King (F)]
[Common Genes: —]
[Bronze Genes: Basic Aetherflow (F); Enchanted Scribe (F)]
—
The synergy between his Legendary Tamer Title and his new Unyielding Scholar Title showed their full strength. He got +100% Wisdom from both, but he got +100% Will from Legendary Tamer on top +20% from A Burning Will.
The unfortunate thing was that they didn't stack and were instead applied separately. So rather than his +200 Wisdom becoming +800, it instead began +600. However, his original 122 Wisdom still got its own +100% to 244, racking up the total of his current Wisdom.
Sylas coughed and wheezed, his mind buzzing. He had already asked the Madness Key in the past if it was safe to do this… and technically it should be since it was his foundation being excavated and deepened, but that didn't make it hurt any less.
In addition, he would be weak for a period afterward, which was why he had been studying both Runes at the same time before he comprehended them both.
However, now he couldn't help but wonder…
Now what?
Now that he had comprehended the Runes, what did that do for him? His Aether composition didn't seem to have changed, and his Ice-Poison affinity was still Common.
He couldn't help but wonder what he was missing.
'Maybe?'
Sylas decided to wait it out. He used <Maddened Enlightenment> to try and ease his splitting headache, only to be pleasantly surprised to find that it had finally reached Silver Mastery.
His speed in recovering Aether and from mental fatigue had taken an enormous leap forward, especially since with Madness, it could now be at Gold Mastery.
An hour later, Sylas finally felt that he was back up to 100% and began his little experiment.
He expelled all the Aether from his body, then began to use <Maddened Enlightenment> to replace it.
'Nope, still not working…'
The Aether he received in return was the exact same. It seemed that he would have to take a more hands-on approach.
Sylas began to sift through the Aether in the world, rejecting what he didn't want and only accepting those that fit.
Slowly, his Aether Pathways began to freeze over.
A feeling of discomfort overwhelmed him and Sylas felt like his body was about to be poisoned itself.
His pupils constricted.
This Aether was too high-level for his body. He was killing himself.