Chapter 597: Thought
Sylas and Alex appeared in the world of black ice once more. But this time Sylas was swift and decisive. The entire image reflected in his mind and he took a step forward, landing on another crack.
Alex reacted in kind, moving like Sylas did and landing on the node as well.
Soon, the world flashed around them and they found themselves in yet another puzzle world that Sylas almost carelessly solved.
These puzzles were undoubtedly far simpler than what was the overall puzzle. It was almost a shame that Sylas had solved the toughest puzzle for Legacy. But there was no going back now. How could he have planned this out when he was just a kid?
However, he was confident that even with his solution, no one would understand the world of black mirrors better than he did. No one would be able to pick a more efficient path than he did, and if they had to rely on a child to solve the puzzle for them, he bet he would be the fastest in solving these simpler puzzles as well.
Of course, it wasn't lost on Sylas that there was a possibility that Legacy had long since solved the puzzle and just gave it to him as a test. After all, it had to be remembered that Legacy wasn't his only enemy here. There was also the Africor Continental Government. So unless the Constitutional Monarchy was flying blind, or Legacy had given them the solution, they would likely have answers of their own.
Since there was a very real possibility that this was the case...
He would just have to be faster.
The reason he didn't take this possibility very seriously, though, wasn't just the confidence he had in himself, but also the fact they had taken so long to come here.
If they were so confident...
Why wait?
He bet that he would receive that answer very soon.
--
Sylas and Alex moved through a world of overflowing lava. The rhythm of the eruption was perfectly timed by Sylas before they came to a stop at the bottom of the overflowing volcano ahead.
With a calm gaze, Sylas analyzed what he was seeing ahead.
'I see. The puzzle's already ended. I just need the altar.'
He bent down and pressed a hand. As expected, another Ithkuil Symbol appeared. This time, it was "Enlightenment" again. Or more specifically: Awakening.
Sylas drew the symbol and drove it into the hidden altar. At that moment, the volcano seemed to go to sleep, but the world around them erupted.
Pillars of molten fire shot into the skies, but that process seemed to drain the volcano of all the magma it had, leaving the structure itself much safer.
The duo dashed into it, falling into the volcano to find a wide set of doors waiting down at the bottom.
Sylas could feel that the puzzles were getting trickier and more dangerous. This was the first time the altar had been hidden in plain sight like that, and you also had to trust your judgment; otherwise, you would end up hesitating to take the leap.
It was still nowhere near as complex as the world of black ice, but... the more Ithkuil Symbols Sylas collected, the more he felt that there was an even deeper puzzle hidden in plain sight that he wasn't seeing.
The reason he kept thinking "Enlightenment" when the symbol didn't read that at all was because of his Quest. It was known as the Rune Enlightenment Quest.
And for some reason, when he saw these Ithkuil Symbols, there was something that triggered inside of him to be reminded of that Quest.
Normal Ithkuil was precisely designed to target the deepest psychological, innate understandings of humans and translate them into symbols that could be easily digested.
But Ithkuil in the presence of Aether seemed to be even more poignant than that. Every symbol he came across almost stroked his brain in a way no other language could...
After interacting with so many of them by now, Sylas realized what it was.
'If I think in Ithkuil instead of Earth's language... would I be smarter?'
When the thought came to Sylas, he found it difficult to hold himself back and he began to do so slowly.
He was a genius, but he wasn't a computer. Thinking in a language he was only vaguely familiar with wasn't something he could do at the drop of a dime.
But he found that with his Rune Mastery, and the odd compatibility Ithkuil had with it, it was far easier than normal.
Every time he came across an altar, it was like another piece of his mind was enlightened to this language and things progressed more and more smoothly for him until he felt like a solid link between his thoughts and his Aether was formed.
A shudder rippled through Sylas' body as he blinked in surprise.
What was that?
There was no Title, no change to his stats, no sudden system notification.
It was like nothing at all had changed, and yet like everything had.
Just as Sylas was trying to understand what was happening to him, thinking in a fluent Ithkuil as though it was his native tongue, he felt the ripple spread to his visualization.
All of a sudden, the world of vibrant colors around him wasn't just one of colors, but also one of Runes. He didn't even need to activate his Rune Mastery or Enchanted Scribe. It was like he could just naturally see the world in its Runic state.
Sylas stood in that bland stone room in silent shock as though this was the very first time he was seeing the world clearly.
But it wasn't just this.
He couldn't just see the world... he could see the world as it was meant to be... as though no one had ever messed with Earth's Runes.
Sylas was forced to pull himself out of that state when the next Winking Portal appeared.
The two went in and repeated the same routine.
But this time...
They found people on the other side.