Chapter 655: Why Not?
When he read that the Mancer Scape was virtual, he was somewhat disappointed. After all, he thought he needed to kill real creatures in order for his Quest rewards to trigger.
But this wasn't the same.
Although it was known as a "virtual" world, the Mancer Scape used very real Blood Essence. One would truly lose their lives if they weren't careful.
One of the reasons the Mancer Scape was so valuable was because its Rune Laws were incredibly unique and functioned very similarly to the Split Realm Dungeon Sylas had just been in.
When you killed a creature inside, their Mature Aether would come to you just the same, but this wasn't all. You would also naturally gain their Blood Essence.
This world was so invaluable because it was a shortcut to improving one's affinity. If you targeted beasts of your own Path of the Mancer, you could increase your affinity by leaps and bounds, not to mention lay a foundation for future Grades.
Right now, Sylas' affinities seemed quite high. He even had a Gold Grade affinity to rely on. That was incredibly shocking.
But useless the moment he stepped foot out of the F-Grade.
What Sylas hadn't known until just now was that his affinities were very surface level.
There was a difference between him, someone who gained affinities through an F-Grade Class, and someone born to a higher Grade Race who might naturally be in tune with Ice or anything of the like.
If Sylas entered the E-Grade without an improvement to his Class, his Ice, Poison, and Wood affinities wouldn't even be Common Grade.
By comparison, a Sylph, as a part of an E-Grade Race, could have a Class far worse than Sylas right now, and still come out with a higher affinity purely because their Race Grade was
superior.
The complexities of Genes were multi-layered, so the strengths of people and their talents or potentials were all equally as complex.
This Mancer Scape, however, gave an opportunity to change that and unlock a Legendary Class.
Sylas wasn't a fool, so he could see the writing on the wall.
In order to unlock his Bronze Class, he had to kill a Level 30 Beast... now, he had to kill a Level 40 one in order to unlock his Silver Class.
If he took a step back, he had to kill a Level 10 beast to unlock a Fragmented Class, and a Level 20 one to unlock a Common one...
Then wouldn't that mean that he had to kill a Level 50 creature to unlock a Gold Class?
But wasn't Level 50 the limit of F-Grade already?
Sylas had already felt the vast differences between the F-Grade and E-Grade... it was only in passing, but the old man at the bonfire felt to him like an impossible-to-scale existence.
If he needed to kill an E-Grade beast to unlock a Legendary Class... it would simply be impossible. Honestly, the gap was so large that Sylas wasn't sure if Leveling up would help him all that much. It felt like there was a qualitative difference between the two.
Sylas had been trying to not think about this problem. He hadn't even found a Level 40 creature that followed his Path of the Mancer yet, let alone a Level 50 one.
But now it seemed that a solution had fallen into his lap.
If he could target an E-Grade Serpentes beast, he just might have a chance at bridging the gap between the Grades with his Vipermancer Profession.
This Gateway Treasure should give him the ability to refine what he needed from the Mancer Scape and target the exact beast he needed. If that was true, then now he just might have a legitimate way of clearing this impossible Quest.
Sylas clenched the token and then carefully put it away. This Split Realm Dungeon was truly giving him exactly what he needed. He wasn't sure if this was on purpose or not, but it felt like a guiding hand was trying to help him.
The feeling was so strong that it was hard to ignore.
'This Split Realm Dungeon... it feels like a warning more than anything else... The Thryskai...'
If a Split Realm Dungeon was a slice of history, then maybe this wasn't about the system at all. After all, the system hated Sylas right now. The Demerits he was facing were still extremely heavy.
Maybe, then...
This was Earth itself helping him.
Sylas pressed a hand to his chest, feeling a flicker of something deep within. He knew what it
was subconsciously.
His Sparking Will... the starting embers of his Progenitor Flame.
"I understand."
These were the only two words Sylas said, but they seemed to be enough for those flickering embers to burn just the slightest bit stronger.
[Temporal Lock Point (Gold) (Gateway Treasure)]
[Exchange 10,000 F-Grade Gold Aether Stones to set Temporal Lock on a region]
[Durability: 999/999]
Sylas took a deep breath.
He was sure that this was expensive, surely so. But if he somehow managed to find this number of Aether Stones at this level of quality, then all of his problems would be solved.
Not only would he be able to leave to handle the Mancer Scape opportunity with ease, but he also hadn't forgotten his rewards from his Quicktime Event. The only reason he hadn't gone to that intergalactic market was precisely because of worries about time dilation.
But with this...
'10,000 F-Grade Gold Aether Stones...'
Sylas didn't know the exact ranks of Aether Stones. Until now, he had just been using any he came across without much care.
'I see... all the ones I've seen until now have been Common...'
It seemed that taking advantage of this wouldn't be as easy as he hoped.
'No. Maybe if I dig deeper into the Aether Stone mine, I'll find higher quality stones. I just haven't had the time to spare to it. But I will have to now. And if not...'
Sylas hadn't forgotten that he was deep in Africor Continent Territory. He didn't know where their monarchs were now, but that hardly mattered. One way or another, he would likely be fighting his way out.
In that case, if there was an opportunity to rob them...
Why wouldn't he take it?
Sylas looked up with a shine in his eyes as he saw what was likely the final treasure he would
receive here.