Chapter 645: Help
Sylas listened to Jake's story silently, allowing him to spill everything he could remember before asking more pointed questions.
Unfortunately, he couldn't expect everyone to have a memory as good as his own. There was only so much he could ask Jake before his memories became fuzzy and his answers became much more vague.
However, Sylas had still learned something very important.
All this talk of Star Festivals and tracking the movement of celestial bodies kept occurring for
a reason.
He might not have spent much time studying this stuff in the System City Library, but what he did know for certain was that pyramids, whether Mayan or Egyptian, often acted like calendars for the stars.
'Twin Moon Healers... The Moon is also a celestial body, and now it seems that this couple received a class related to this matter...'
The rest was nothing more than sheer speculation. Too many things were possible because Sylas still knew too little about this world he now called home. He didn't yet have a good grasp of what was functionally possible and what was still in the realm of fantasy. In a world like this one, everything felt like it was a go.
For all he knew, these pyramids were communicating with the stars to provide direct transport to Earth by alien Races.
Or, that could all be science fiction nonsense and that wasn't even possible.
There was only one way to find out.
Sylas looked out of the windows to find that night had fallen.
"Alex. See what you can find out."
Alex nodded and then vanished into his own shadow, disappearing from sight.
As much as Sylas wanted to sneak in personally, he didn't have the stealth skills that Alex had.
'Maybe I can find a Serpentes in the future that can help with that.'
He slotted the matter to the back of his mind and then waited patiently.
It wasn't long before Alex returned. Less than 10 minutes passed.
"There is heavy security around the entrance. There's only one way in-." Alex began.
This was the first time Sylas had heard Alex speak with his mask on, and for a moment, he thought that two people were speaking at once. One was Alex's real voice, and the second sounded almost like a much deeper echo with the same cadence.
It felt like he wasn't facing a human anymore at all, but rather a Demon.
However, Sylas didn't comment on it.
"I managed to slip inside, but the defenses do not lax. Once again, there seems to be something happening in the basement, and there's an odd concentration of silver light beaming down and accumulating from the moon above through the various windows. It feels like Aether, but also not like Aether at the same time. It is difficult to describe it in more detail than that.
"I didn't check any of their Levels because it would dismiss my stealth Skill, but there are several dozen guards just accounting for the depth I made it to, and the worst of them are probably high Level 20s. They only grow more powerful the deeper inside I went."
'Like Aether, but not quite, huh?' Sylas' eyes narrowed as he latched onto the sentence. There were many things that could be, but if he were to describe his Aetherflow, that might be precisely how he broke it down to someone with no knowledge of the topic.
His Aetherflow was a perfect fusion of his Will, Charisma, and Aether. And here, for a Dungeon that emphasized Will so much, it wouldn't be surprising if this was what Alex was referring to.
"Alright. Draw out a layout of what you saw for me. We will move soon."
Alex didn't question it and just borrowed one of Sylas' scrolls and brushes, drawing down a rough sketch of what he had seen.
-
The night was relatively quiet and seemingly uneventful. The merchants had packed up, the square was now mostly lined with tents and those resting for the night.
And it was under these conditions that a sudden howl filled the skies.
ROAR!
It looked like a mass of black beneath the sunlight, the faint golden etchings covering its body looking too faded to even notice under the dense darkness.
Its massive, serpentine body must have been easily over 15 meters from the tip of its nose to
its proud, swinging tail. And deep within the yellows of its irises, a slit that seemed to lead to the abyss of hell hung in thoughts of murder and rampage.
The Basilisk King.
Deep within his carriage, Sylas didn't even move the slightest bit.
He had given all of the Mature Aether from killing the scorpion king to Nosphaleen having used Insight to note that it wasn't enough to get the Basilisk King to Level 30. However, he wasn't worried about the Basilisk King itself in the slightest. With almost 3500 Constitution under the effects of the Beast Totem hanging above Sylas' head...
If it couldn't do this much, it wasn't worthy of its lineage.
The Basilisk King made its presence known and in the eyes of everyone present, it was yet another sand beast. It plowed its way out of the ground, sending a dune falling from the top of its head as it slithered forward.
It bit, ripped, and shredded apart everything in its path. With Strength at over 3000, there wasn't an individual who had appeared yet that could withstand even a single strike. Eldran and Kalren ran out, their eyes filled with panic. It was clear they had no idea that the Basilisk King was related to Sylas, and even if they did, whether that would make them feel better or not wasn't clear.
When the Basilisk King attacked to kill, the answer to that question couldn't have been more obvious.
Eldran found a tail whipping across his body. His spine snapped in two and his eyes widened in horror as he soared through the skies... his last thoughts were realizations that his chances
of survival...
Were zero.
...
Sylas stood calmly within his carriage and stepped out with an almost careless flare.
It seemed it was time to "help" the scholars deal with this situation.
[Author's Note Below!]