Chapter 567: Peafowl [Bonus]
The moment Sylas got the idea, he couldn't shake it off. He didn't need to find some beast that was extremely strong. He just needed to find a beast that could do what he needed it to do.
A beast that could fly, one that hopefully had at least a small bit of Serpentes blood or potential in it, and one that was weaker than FFF-.
With his requirements being so low, actually finding such a creature was far easier than Sylas could have ever expected, especially with the City Stele's ability by his side.
Sylas found what he was looking for and left the city without a word, rushing off with a shocking amount of speed now that his stats were no longer suppressed.
...
Four hours later, Sylas had arrived at his destination. The sun was high in the skies, beading down with a great amount of force.
Thankfully, there was also a decent amount of shade in the region as well, making things easier to deal with.
For Sylas, temperature was rarely a problem anymore. His Ice affinity made cold temperatures useless against him, and in the heat, his Aether itself kept him cool. Right now, his focus was the creatures ahead of him.
Peacocks.
They were gorgeous creatures, with necks of vibrant blue and tails of green and gold.
Most of them were of normal size, being barely a meter or so tall. However, there were others that had mutated a great deal, reaching upward of two meters tall.
[Blue-Green Peafowl (F+)]
[Level: 11]
This was the strongest of them. A male that stood taller than even Sylas, but didn't have the impressive stats to back it up.
Most creatures in the Summoning were like this. It was just that Sylas often targeted the most powerful of them because they were the only ones that could give him a proper return on his investment in time. He couldn't remember the last time he had cared to target such a weak creature.
But now... it was the perfect time.
Sylas rushed forward and caught the male peacock by his long neck. His hand wasn't nearly large enough to wrap all the way around, but it didn't have to be.
The peacock unleashed a rain of sounds that were more akin to a cat's meows than such a large creature's howl.
This pack of peacocks wasn't a Mount pack, but it didn't matter to Sylas considering the feather could do that for him. What was most important were his base requirements.
Unfortunately, he couldn't find a creature as convenient as the Bone-Tailed Lizard that hid such a lineage. However, the genes of birds were quite close to reptiles. If there was a chance in the future where Taboo Bond deepened much more considerably, maybe he would find a chance to make this peacock a Serpentes. But for now...
The screeches of the peacock's peahen mates filled the air as they charged for Sylas in an attempt to protect their husband. But Sylas just summoned the Basilisk King and the Bone- Tailed Lizard, giving them the chance to finally fight an easy battle.
Their stats were more than enough to overwhelm this pack of peafowls.
Sylas calmly took the Frostbane Feather out.
Here, everything would be decided by his Brand Grade. He was meant to leave a Brand on the Frostbane Feather that would force the creature to accept him as its master after the fusion process was finished.
Honestly speaking, the process was laughably easy. Even if he hadn't had Rune Essence, it would have gone smoothly.
The so-called Brand was already inside of the feather. He was supposed to infuse his Will into it and piece it together like a puzzle while the creature was fusing with the feather.
This was difficult for those without tangible Wills or Rune Mastery. But for Sylas, not only was he able to forge the Perfect Brand with ease, but his Will actually made the Aether flow smoother.
When he sensed the changes occurring inside the peacock's body, Sylas even realized that his Extricate Path Talent could help along the process and even shift and change it somewhat.
Unfortunately, without Insight, there wasn't much he could do. He didn't have an intuition for bird creatures that he would for Serpentes. But, he was still able to help the Treasure save a great deal of energy.
'I see... most of the feather's strength would be used up as it peels back the layers from Gene to Blood Essence. But if I open up the path for it, it will manage to keep more than 80% of its energy, when before it would have had less than 20% left. I wonder what will happen now...' The Treasure's FFF- Grade estimate was likely based on how much energy it would end up wasting. But if it ended up keeping much of that energy...
Large, sweeping changes began to take hold of the peacock as its aura skyrocketed.
Soon, its colors began to change. From a blue-green palette, it became an icy blue, its long, slender neck being painted in a silvery sky blue and its tail feather opening up to reflect a deep, crystalline light.
The beast was already beautiful, but at a moment like this one, it was truly one of a kind. Nature had its way of displaying its might in the most gorgeous of ways, and this case was
truly not much different.
However...
'It's going to die...'
Sylas realized the problem quite quickly.
Sometimes, not all things were meant to be circumvented. His Brand was exceptionally powerful, resulting in the peacock not even being able to resist, so that was good. Even with it growing so much more powerful, and at a quick pace at that, it was still tightly bound to
Sylas.
However, the energy was too much given the foundation of the peacock. If this continued, it would freeze to death.
The current state of the peacock was akin to Sylas back when he attempted to integrate stronger Ice-Poison Runes into his body when his affinity was too low.
In this case, however, the peacock was too far from a State of Wealth to accept this upswell of
energy.
'It seems that it's time...'
Sylas took out the Symbiote.