Chapter 635: How Complex?
Sylas picked up his brush, but didn't begin to draw immediately. His mind recalled the vigorous strokes of the man, his memory replaying it again and again, but there was an eerie calmness to him that remained even so, as though he was still looking for something he was missing.
It was just one Foundation, but in a rare showing, it was the only one of all of the Foundations that used all ten Strokes of the Scorpion Warlord Rune Language. The others usually only used three or so, and grasping the essence of this ten-Stroke Rune felt like an enormous jump in difficulty.
The man knew this. He was actually supposed to start with a simpler Foundation, but he had changed his mind.
Unlike the eye, this man didn't have to follow the rules of the Inheritance Crystal at all. As he observed Sylas, the glow in his eyes hidden behind the shadows only grew fiercer.
Sylas, though, remained lost in thought.
'It feels like if it appears in all of the Runes of the first layer, it should be part of what links them together. But... why does this Foundation feel so... sacrificial? If it was meant to link them together, why would it feel so independent? Why does it almost feel like it's ready to be lost at any time?'
The more Sylas thought, the more his aura seemed to embody that of a scorpion... a creature willing to abandon even its own limbs to survive a life and death situation.
The thought came to Sylas randomly as though it was whispered right into his very ears. It didn't feel eerie, but rather only natural.
The Scorpion Warlord. The Sacrificial Warlord. A savage warrior willing to cut off its own nose not to spite its face... but rather that of its enemy.
The sharpness in Sylas' aura grew with a shocking immediacy and then his arm shook.
Ink sprinkled into the air but the droplets seemed frozen compared to the speed of Sylas' arm. SHU! SHU! SHU! SHU! SHU!
Sylas finished the Foundation even faster than the man did and the paper began to corrode immediately. A mysterious power spread out in a ripple, and the man watched this scene in complete silence.
He was capable of doing what Sylas had as well... the reason he didn't was because he was already making things difficult on Sylas, so he didn't want to go too far.
What he didn't expect was that he had somehow still underestimated the young man before him.
Rune Mastery was often seen as a macro matter, from Rune Sight, to Rune Breath, up to the final three of Rune Essence, Rune Vitality and Rune Spark.
But there was a micro version of Rune Mastery as well.
Successfully drawing a Rune could be considered to have reached the Sight Mastery of the Rune. At this stage, a Rune would work just fine. But in layman's terms, it would only be about 10% perfected.
The Visualization Mastery of a Rune would be 20%, and the Enlightenment Mastery of a Rune would be 30%.
Don't be fooled by the percentages. These were comparing what a normal fallible creature could do in comparison to existences like the system and the wider laws of the universe.
No matter how robotic Sylas was, just reaching 10% perfection was already considered to be a truly shocking matter.
But just now... Sylas had drawn this Foundation with Flesh Mastery of a Rune.
40% perfection.
What exactly did it mean to have reached this stage? It meant that the Rune could begin to gather Aether on its own, acting much more like Runes did in the real world.
Usually, when Sylas drew a Rune, he had to supply it with Aether of his own. This was why his 70 Foundation Runes were so weak when in reality, they should be able to solo practically the whole of Earth on its own.
However, upon reaching the Flesh Mastery of a Rune, that glorious 40% threshold, a Rune would gain some capacity to gather Aether on its own like it would in the wild. As such, this not only took pressure off of Sylas, but...
It made the Rune far more powerful.
Of course, this was only a Foundation.
Drawing a Foundation to Flesh Mastery was far easier than doing the same for an entire Rune.
But Sylas managed to reach this level, nonetheless, the very first time he had even the slightest modicum of guidance.
The man stared at Sylas for a long while. Even after Sylas had finished analyzing his work and deciding what he could improve, the man continued to stare at him.
The two didn't make a sound, staring at the table across from one another. And yet, neither one felt awkward in the slightest. It could be said that these two men had personalities that were quite alike.
"Would you like to become my disciple?" the man finally spoke.
"What does that mean?" Sylas asked.
He wasn't from this man's culture. Earth had teacher-student relationships, but there never had to be such a formal question. This man seemed to be speaking about an apprenticeship of some sort, but wasn't he already here? Was there a need?
"You will uphold my mantle in the future, and I will pass on everything that I know to you. You will receive my Rune Mastery Emblem, and when you step out into the world, everyone will know that you are under my protection."
The words made Sylas recall the matters of the Rune Master Guild. Would that help him with that situation?
But he still had too many questions.
He had come to his Inheritance Crystal expecting hostility and danger, but he had-mostly- received nothing but kindness. Even the eye, though it had been infuriated, seemed to have
reasons that made sense to Sylas, at least.
But this kindness didn't make sense to Sylas.
If Nosphaleen's words were to be taken at face value, then the Dogons were traitors, and this statue had been placed where it was by someone who supported them in their treachery.
Of course, he wouldn't take the biased words of Nosphaleen seriously if he didn't have to. It was just that he had personally experienced many oddities as well surrounding this statue.
But now... he wasn't so sure.
Just how complex was the history of Earth?