Chapter 741: Offset
[Offset ALL Demerits]
A rush poured through Sylas. It was an interesting feeling, one that he had all but forgotten. It became obvious to him that this Demerit State was worse than what he had assumed.
It had festered and grown within his body, slowly raising the temperature as though he was a frog in boiling water. It wasn't until it was suddenly erased in a single go that he could truly feel the difference.
To his astonishment, this difference was not too dissimilar from being in a State of Expenditure.
But it wasn't really a direct impact on his strength like such a thing should be. Instead, it was more like Sylas was having his connection with the system strained and weakened.
Although it was a less obvious problem, as a result of it Sylas was suffering from a ubiquitous impact across all of his skills, from his Profession all the way to his Rune Mastery itself.
The only reason it wasn't even more obvious than it was happened to be because Earth was a constant subject of subterfuge. So much of its system and its laws were tweaked, rotted, and inwardly destroyed that much of what Sylas had grown used to in this State of Demerit was more commonplace for all the powerhouses of Earth.
It was just that he experienced this on a level that was orders of magnitude greater, especially since he had grown so much stronger since being saddled with these Demerits.
Finally, though... he was free.
Sylas exhaled, basking in the feeling for only a moment before he moved on to the next. He didn't have the time to consider these matters in too much depth.
His body felt much better now than ever before, and that was what was the most important.
The second reward he received, though, was just as odd and shocking. And once again, he found himself in a state of not quite knowing how to react.
[Choice Rewards]
[Gain a Silver Merit]
OR
[Progenitor Flame Quest]
The rewards seemed to be a perfect mirror, but the first... it left Sylas staring at it for a long while.
Something about this just felt... off.
But now that Sylas thought about it, the problem was all too obvious from the very start.
The first reward struck clean a Silver Demerit. All things considered, this was the same value as granting him a Silver Merit.
To put this matter into perspective, Sylas would need to kill a total of 10,000 Quasi King Beasts or a thousand True King Beasts just to gain a single Silver Merit.
This was how valuable it was, and it was also the reason why Sylas was spinning his wheels so much when it came to offsetting these ill effects.
It could be said that though Lucius had fallen hard during the end of his life, compared to any other individual that Sylas had met in this world, Lucius had given him by far the most problems.
And if the Leveling Leaderboard was anything to go by, Lucius was only the middle rank of the three heir candidates, with Astrid suppressing him by far.
Malachi was placed third amongst them. But... Sylas didn't plan on using his Level to measure just how much trouble he could give him.
All things considered, Lucius shouldn't have had any business giving him any sort of issues. Yet in the end, how many times had he almost died because of this one scheme on Lucius' part?
Now, not only was he being given the opportunity to erase that failure, he was even being given the chance to reverse it entirely, turning his previous misfortune into fortune.
It was a no brainer, especially since he didn't like the possibility of the second reward at all. This time, though... Sylas chose to ask the Madness Key.
No matter what, the Demerits had been too much. He had to deal with them regardless of whether he understood the value of a Progenitor Flame Quest or not.
But did he really need Silver Merits?
Probably.
As harmful as a Silver Demerit had been, Sylas had enjoyed a short stint of what it meant to have a Merit surplus. His Merit status was probably one of the main reasons why he had been able to survive the Sylph Dungeon in the first place.
He would have certainly lost his life without the system's opportunity. Back then, he had used up all of his Genes on unlocking Winter's Edge, so he couldn't ask the Madness Key about the Clandestine Ape.
Without the system's hint, the odds of his survival would have been zero, if it wasn't the case that he would face a certain death.
The chance to be in the system's good graces, gather these Blessings, and use them at opportune times couldn't be ignored.
But...
[What is a Progenitor Flame Quest?]
[Progenitor Flame Quests appear when one's Will has reached the Sparked Realm. At that point, it has reached the bare minimum requirements to become a Progenitor Flame but has yet to truly bud into its own.]
[Accepting a Progenitor Flame Quest means signing a contract of equals with the system wherein you must make good on an unknown requirement set in the future.]
[Should you succeed, your Progenitor Flame will successfully form and your Will will reach untold levels.]
'A promise in the future? What does that mean?'
From the implications, it didn't seem like the system would give him this Quest right now. Instead, it was storing it away and triggering it at some unknown time.
Sylas wasn't sure how he felt about this. Unless...
'Is it waiting for the Summoning to be over?'
Now that Sylas thought about it, what good was being a Progenitor to a failed world? In fact,
it was probably impossible to truly ignite a Progenitor Flame unless the world had reached a
certain stage.
These two things went hand in hand.
Should he take it? But if it was so rare, why would it appear like this twice...
Sylas thought for a long while before he made a decision.
[Progenitor Flame Quest Accepted]