Chapter 742: Imminent
There were several main reasons why Sylas chose to do this.
The first was that the rarity of this Quest wasn't decided by the fact it had appeared twice. That would be asinine.
These rewards appeared while Sylas was in a State of Demerit. If anything, the system was looking for reasons and ways to screw him over, and yet it had still been forced to hand out this sort of reward.
The fact it appeared twice wasn't a measure of how insignificant the reward was, but rather instead...
Of just how valuable Professor Fembroise was.
The system was going above and beyond for the sake of this woman, and if what she had been able to do with the Basilisk King was any sort of indication, then maybe it wasn't wrong for doing this either.
The first Quest was triggered only for the sake of killing Sylas for having the audacity to target Professor Fembroise, and the second Quest was basically triggered by the system going as far as to beg him to spare her life.
What did this mean?
It meant that if one of the participants of the Quicktime Event had managed to kill him, they would have received the equivalent of a Silver Merit as well.
The system saw Professor Fembroise's value to Earth as the equivalent of killing a thousand Bronze King Beasts!
It shouldn't even be said that the system was lowering its head to Sylas when it triggered the second Quicktime Event. The system was an emotionless husk that only acted based on a certain set of rules and principles. The fact that its eye had appeared that day and practically almost killed Sylas with a glance showed that clearly.
If Sylas reframed things this way, then since he was dealing with Choice Rewards right now, both choices had to be of about equivalent value.
In that case, the Progenitor Flame Quest was no less difficult to trigger than earning a Silver Merit might be!
Sylas had undergone a shocking ordeal just to make it through and safely return to Casstle Main. Surviving the government, two gangs, a Bronze King Beast that could control an entire army, not to mention the appearance of not just one, but two Dogons...
It could be said that he had bled for every drop of these rewards. And as valuable as a Silver Merit would be... something told Sylas that he didn't want to miss out on this Progenitor Flame Quest.
Sylas wouldn't know just how right he was about this decision for a very long while. That wasn't because of all this analysis, but rather because of one simple reason...
Only one Progenitor Flame Quest would be activated at a time.
The value of a Progenitor Flame Quest was far beyond a Silver Merit. The only reason it was the equivalent of a Silver Merit on Earth was because Earth was a Grade 10 Bronze World. Had the situation been any different, there wouldn't even be a need to speak about it.
And now that Sylas had claimed this Quest for himself, until the day he failed it...
Another one would never appear.
Sylas, though, didn't know any of this just yet. The scope of the Madness Key's answer didn't touch on this. Instead, he was focused on the calming feeling in his heart and a sense of closeness and intimacy he had for the world now.
He almost carelessly drifted off to sleep. If one woke him up right this moment, he wouldn't even be able to point out the exact moment he fell into the embrace of rest and slumber.
And it was during that sleep that the world gently caressed Sylas... and his Rune Mastery seamlessly progressed from Rune Essence to Rune Vitality.
...
Sylas awoke the next morning feeling truly refreshed.
There was silence all around him. Even if the world was on fire right this moment, he would have no idea.
What he didn't know just yet was that this wasn't too far from the truth.
He stood, pulling himself to the side of his bed to begin some stretches. Ever since he learned the value of flexibility, he had gotten himself into the routine of doing this at least once a day, usually twice.
It was in the middle of these stretches that Cassarae burst into his room.
Without a care for the fact he was half-naked, she kicked it closed behind her.
"It's about damn time you woke up."
Sylas stood straight from a bent-over position.
"Have I been asleep for long?" Sylas asked.
With his recovery abilities, he probably wasn't asleep for more than three hours at most. It had to be remembered that thanks to Hibernation Halo, his body had already had the equivalent of a month to recover.
But when he checked the time, not waiting for Cassarae's answer, his eyes couldn't help but narrow.
"Three days?"
"Three days!"
They spoke out at the same time, one confused and the other exasperated.
"Why didn't you wake me up?" Sylas asked.
"Don't bullshit with me, Sylas Brown. Why would I do that?"
"You seem quite anxious, so that seems like the logical thing to do."
Cassarae held up two middle fingers. "That's the last time I do something thoughtful for
you."
"I somehow doubt that."
"You're such an insufferable little prick, do you know that?"
"You're not all sunshine and rainbows either, City Lord."
"City Lady." Cassarae corrected, taking a fierce step forward and pulling on Sylas' Madness
Key again.
But this time, Sylas didn't budge.
Cassarae's Strength might be above his, but could she combat his Strength and telekinesis at
the same time?
"Sexual harassment doesn't look good on you." Sylas said calmly.
To his surprise though, Cassarae didn't miss a beat, standing up to the tips of her toes to steal
a kiss...
The ended up in a fierce bite to his lower lip.
There was nothing sexy about it. She took what she wanted, and then had a piece of revenge.
"You taste like you haven't showered in days." Cassarae said calmly.
"So why does it look like you want round two?" Sylas asked, bringing up two fingers to his bottom lip and drawing the blood away.
He looked at the droplets that fell and shook his head. This woman really was a firecracker.
"Enough chitchat. This City Lady is here to order her subordinates around. We have work to
do?"
"Work? What happened?"
"Well, for one, we've been screwed."
"How so?"
"The Terranova government suddenly appeared in Guiz City. The situation isn't very good
right now. War is imminent."