Chapter 866 Full
While Sylas was with Gralith, although he spent most of his time on the Rune Inheritance, he also had Gralith teach him about the basics of Rune Mastery as well.
Sylas was in an odd position where he was maybe the most powerful Rune Master in the entire galaxy, at least in the F-Grade, and yet he knew less than some toddlers just getting into training.
He had all the talent in the world, but what he lacked the most was foundation. And unfortunately, that was one thing that he couldn't gain from Gralith in just a few days.
That didn't mean that he couldn't try, though.
What Sylas did end up learning was that there were so many different forms and applications of Rune Mastery that it was probably impossible for a single person to learn them all. The use of Blood Essence was probably one of the largest umbrellas there was, though.
Sylas' Body Refinement method relied on these concepts as well, but as he said, this was just one of the many.
Back when Sylas was first learning the Scorpion Warlord Armor, what allowed him to break through initially and successfully form it to Breath Mastery was the Blood Essence of a scorpion beast.
All of these things worked on a simple concept, and that was using the impetus and catalyst of a Blood Essence, carrying certain strengths and weaknesses, to build half the bridge to the conclusion you wanted.
Using the Blood Essence of an Ice-affinity beast would make it easier to draw Ice Runes, and so on and so forth.
In this case, what seemed to be this Dogon Blood Essence had a great concentration of energy that didn't quite seem to have an affinity. But if Sylas just observed what happened to the giants after he took it out, the result was obvious enough.
Not only was this Blood Essence used to link their Wills, but it made their bodies stronger, sturdier, and capable of withstanding Rune Tattoos.
The Will linkage was most likely just a byproduct. However, the changes to the body… those were very much real.
Sylas was actually tempted to try and take it into himself. But when he thought about the potential implications, he threw the idea away and didn't think about it again.
Technically speaking, much like Genes and Gene Talents, absorbing Blood Essence should just be another method of strengthening oneself. But there was a reason there were Body Refinement Methods, and it wasn't just a matter of swallowing Blood Essence.
Setting aside the difficulty in gathering Blood Essence to start with, the type and method were extremely important. Sylas went out of his way to target the Dustspark Dungeon because it aligned with his goals and paths. Just randomly absorbing any old Blood Essence without an idea of what path you were trying to go down was a fool's errand.
Not only might it regress what progress he had made, it might end up crippling him.
However, Sylas was a Rune Master. He wasn't as limited as others in what he could do.
He might not want to absorb this Blood Essence, especially for fear of what control that might give the Dogons over him, but that didn't mean that it couldn't be useful in other ways.
Sylas began to go from corpse to corpse, separating out their Blood Essence and storing it away in the Madness Key.
In the end, he managed to gather exactly 37 droplets.
After this, he stopped fighting against the pull of the system and was teleported out.
…
Appearing at the top of the stairs of the temple, Sylas exhaled a slow breath.
The ground beneath him suddenly began to rumble.
'Hm?'
Sylas flipped over a palm and the partial key appeared in his hands again. The temple began to rapidly shrink, as did the oppressive attack on his Will.
Soon, Sylas was floating in the air, and the temple was nowhere to be seen, having been… sucked into the partial key?
Sylas stood in confusion.
The temple was no longer here. Although it seemed to have shrunk, there was no part of it remaining, and he couldn't sense it even after probing the key. It was as though the entire thing had vanished into motes of light and energy that were absorbed by the object in his palm.
'What happened?'
Sylas only just had this thought when he felt something stir within him.
His pupils constricted.
'A Class?'
It was an odd feeling, like something was budding inside of him—or rather, trying to—but it wasn't quite there yet. The feeling made Sylas feel oddly… full for the first time in a long while.
Ever since he awakened his Dual Class Constitution, Sylas' body had become like a bottomless pit. It didn't matter how many improvements he made, how many stats he gained, or how many Limits he shattered, his body seemed to always want more.
But right now, he was like a man sitting at a buffet, and though he wasn't quite on his last plate, he could see the path toward ending the night with a bloated stomach and an unbuckled belt.
'Odd…'
Although things were described like this, Sylas knew that he was nowhere near being satisfied. This Class was like a drop in the bucket, and Sylas wasn't even sure if he wanted it.
This key was nothing more than an opportunity to gain the Class. But if it didn't play well off of his current Class, Sylas wouldn't just take any Class.
Especially if it couldn't become Legendary.
There was also something else about this Class that made Sylas pause.
He looked down toward the ground and didn't spot them immediately, but his thoughts were drifting to the Twin Moon Healers.
It had to be remembered that he initially found the golden coin related to the Lost City of Gold from them. And they claimed that their Class came from an odd trial world as well, presumably a Dungeon not too different from this one.
Sylas only allowed himself to fall into his thoughts for a short while before he shot into the distance. He had more temples to clear.