Chapter 378: Ilk
Sylas took in deep breaths, his eyes flashing like lightning as he seemed prepared for another polar bear to leap at him at any time. But that wasn't what happened.
Instead, the Arctic King Bears all shrunk back, and the roars of the Arctic King Cobras only grew louder.
This situation was certainly unexpected, but Sylas was able to quickly understand. The beasts of this world, at least after the Summoning, didn't have any natural inclination toward or against humans. There were many times that Sylas had noticed this. Even during beast tides, it was relatively easy to blend in.
The only time Sylas hadn't had such an opportunity was when he faced off against the snail, but that snail was also controlling the beasts in the surroundings to target humans, while there was also a team of humans deadset on stopping them from making their way through. The Arctic King Cobras, though, immediately felt that Sylas was one of their own when his Beast Totem appeared, and even the Arctic King Bears had respected the battle between their Emperor and Sylas as though Sylas was likewise the representative of the Arctic King Cobras in their eyes.
That was only further proven by the fact that the Arctic King Cobras began to push forward, shoving the Arctic King Bears back and occupying more of the shore for themselves.
Soon, the situation in the valley had completely reversed, and it was entirely thanks to Sylas. The cobras looked toward him with reverence in their eyes, and Sylas realized then that there was more of a benefit to his Vipermancer Profession than he knew.
He had used his Beast Totem before to easily subdue his Blue Cyclone Horse. But that was done more casually than anything as he wasn't sure if it would work.
But this time, his Beast Totem had clearly subdued these beasts without him having to take in any of them as Contracts.
Until now, Sylas hadn't even thought about taking in another Contract for several reasons. First, he couldn't sign an unlimited number. The limit seemed to be decided by his Beast Totem. The higher Level it was, the more Contracts he could sign.
Of course, Sylas was nowhere near that limit, to the point where he hadn't even bothered to check what that exact limit was. But the fact that he had such a limit made him realize that he couldn't just go around contracting any snake he came across.
The Basilisk King was a Legendary Beast. Well, it had the potential of one. It seemed a shame to pair it up with an inferior creature for temporary gains.
The second reason he never bothered was because the cost to reward ratio wasn't worth it. Right now, he could only fuse with one beast, and his Were For The Invincible Path seemed to imply that he would be able to fuse with more than just one in the future.
Still, he was limited to one for now, so taking in a second beast would mean committing to using it as a real battle pet.
If the snake was strong enough, Sylas wouldn't mind. But if he contracted a beast that was too weak, then he would end up wasting his time trying to keep it alive. That would defeat the entire purpose.
Plus, his telekinesis and mind-splitting abilities already made him uniquely suited to fighting battles against multiple people. A weak beast wouldn't help him, it would only slow him down.
This didn't even mention the fact that evolving these beasts was hard. It had taken him quite an ordeal just to get the Basilisk King to FFF-, and he still had no idea how to help it level up. Now, it seemed that the Basilisk King's next evolution would require the strongest treasure he had ever seen to complete: the Basilisk Skin Armor.
This was all to say that Sylas had never seriously considered another contract... but now he realized that he didn't necessarily need to sign one to benefit from his Vipermancer status.
He didn't even need to ask these creatures, but they were already working for him. They secured the barrier around the lake and now Sylas was almost certain that he wouldn't be bothered.
Realizing this, Sylas took a seat right in the middle of the waters, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath.
First, he would recover. Then, he would enter the Dungeon.
Since it was so perfectly curated for him, how could he not?
An odd sort of peace fell around the lake as though none of the beasts wanted to bother him. Frosty energy came into Sylas' body and was expelled through his nostrils, a calming cycling forming in his body.
He noticed after absorbing the Intelligence Bronze Gene that it was possible to use Aether to speed up his healing as well. Or more accurately, he could use his Aether Pathways to more efficiently guide Aether to his cells and help to quicken the process by proxy.
Now, he was testing that, but he felt that something was missing... until he started to reflect on the insight absorbing the Constitution Common Gene had given him.
When these two insights were layered onto one another, and the Ice-Poison affinity of his Class came into the picture, Sylas' wounds began to heal at a pace that was almost visible to the naked eye, though not quite.
The pace was still slow, but for every ten minutes that passed, there was clear improvement until he felt that he was back to 100%.
'I can definitely get better at this. If I can do this myself, I even bet there's a skill out there that can do the same more efficiently... but it's likely very rare. This is a high-level application of Aether for sure.'
Sylas wouldn't waste time practicing now, especially since he didn't even have any wounds to practice on. But soon, he'd likely have more than enough of a chance.
He dove into the waters, closing in on the Dungeon.
[Frostbane Sylph (FFF+)]
[Level Maximum: 20]
[Entry Limit: 10]
[Recommended: Mental 500; Will 500]
[Description: The Sylphs are masters of the Path of the Mancer, and their arrogance is their calling card. They proclaim themselves to be overlords, and those not of their ilk who dare to step onto their Path will face their wrath]