Chapter 583: Bolts
What fascinated Sylas the most about this technique was that it didn't work with a unique Aether. It used neutral Aether, and it was also an advanced application of Aether skin.
Sylas had to learn how to apply Aether skin himself by observing others and had never really had systematic training. But looking at the concepts in <Vortex Capture>, he realized that he had quite some room for improvement.
'I should also change the way I view Aether as well. It's not just a separate energy of the world; it is the world. It's the very energy that decides even how much particles vibrate in the air.
'When I expel Aether from a region, I form a vacuum because all the air in the region is Aether and Aether is the air...'
That made Sylas realize something else.
In that case, if space was a vacuum, then there was likely no Aether between planets.
By extension of that conclusion, that must also mean that there was something special about planets, or most accurately, Summoned Worlds, that allowed them to create or store Aether. 'Maybe this is related to what I'll need to help Earth complete the Summoning...'
Sylas' gaze flashed as he remembered something else important.
If the Ninth Summoning failed, a planet wasn't just booted into eternal damnation. Instead, it was forced under the leadership of another world.
Sylas was very curious about how that process worked. Maybe if he could observe it, he would be able to find the answers he needed without paying the Madness Key.
But if he was in that situation, all hope would be lost anyway. So in all likelihood, he would never get such a chance.
'Hold on...'
A flash of inspiration hit Sylas in tidal waves.
'Overlord Races! There has to be some sort of connection...'
Sylas stood in silence, his mind mulling over several things.
Overlord Races were chosen by the system to lead a planet into their new age. Because they were favored by the system, they could level up with ease. All Sylas needed to do to reach Level 1 and beyond was just absorb a Demon or Beast Core. It wasn't difficult at all, though depending on his Class it might take many more than others.
The reason this was important was that it felt so analogous to the situation with worlds.
If Earth failed the Ninth Summoning and became a subordinate to another world, then they would surely lose their Overlord Race status.
By extension, didn't that mean that the favoring of the system was inextricably linked to the successful Summoning of a world?
Sylas had just experienced some of that favoritism and how it might work firsthand with his Symbiote Mount. That partnership perfectly encapsulated the "help" of the system.
He could observe it, feel it, learn from it, and even manipulate it somewhat.
So, if he could find what separated Overlord Races from Subordinate Races and extrapolate that to Summoned Worlds versus Subordinate Worlds...
Would he find the answer he needed?
But the question was... how deep did he need to go?
Did he need to raise Taboo Bond to Lv50 before he could sense it?
Sylas slotted these thoughts to the back of his mind.
All he knew was that right now, Taboo Bond was still far too weak to sense what he needed, and even if he could sense it, he had a feeling that his Rune Mastery would need to be much higher in order to understand it.
F-Grade Gene Runes were so complicated that he couldn't even look at them without getting a splitting headache. Whatever this was... it was certainly even more complex than that.
However, the feeling of having a path was good.
He liked having plans, and flying blind wasn't his style. Now that he knew what he likely had to do, he could take steps toward it.
'Now it's time to prepare.'
Sylas didn't plan on buying anything groundbreaking with the rest of the Coins he had. Instead, he planned to prepare.
He was about to face off against maybe his greatest challenge yet, and for once, he had the benefit of preparing for it in advance rather than being randomly thrown into it.
This was the first time Sylas would have a chance to do this.
The bad news was that he didn't actually have much information about his enemies. But the good news was that...
It wouldn't matter if he was strong enough.
And right now, against the people of Earth, he believed that he had the capital to stand toe to
toe with anyone.
'First order of business... ballista.'
Sylas had run out of ballista bolts, but even before that, he had had to stop using them because they were far too weak. Now he had an opportunity to stock up again.
[Explosive Bolt (F+)]
[Level: 20]
[Ability: Explosive Surge]
[Damage is doubled]
[Limit: 2000 Attack]
[Durability: NA/NA]
[Cost: 2,000]
[Ice Bolt (F+)]
[Level: 20]
[Ability: Ice Surge]
[Ice encasement forms in a 10-meter radius with Defense equivalent to Attack]
[Limit: 2000 Defense]
[Durability: NA/NA]
[Cost: 2,000]
Sylas bought the most of these two bolts.
They were designed to be used with ballistae and scaled as such. Explosive Surge, for example, was meant to scale with the Attack stat of a ballista unit. If a ballista unit had 1000 Attack, the bolt would allow it to exhibit twice that and do 2000 Damage instead.
As for the Ice Bolt, it froze everything within a 10-meter radius within an ice prison that had a Defense that scaled with the Attack of the ballista unit. That meant that if a ballista unit had 1000 Attack, then the ice prison would also have 1000 Defense.
Unless someone could generate 1000 Strength or Attack while frozen in place, it would be impossible to escape, and they might even die from the chill itself.
Sylas didn't hesitate to buy 10,000 of each, plowing through an entire 40 million Coins in a
single sitting.
But these were just meant to be his most basic and frequently used ballista bolts.