Chapter 914 Head
Sylas stood shoulder to shoulder with Cassarae, looking ahead to the Bronze Stele.
'Once again, a Bronze Stele that hasn't been used…'
By now, there was an open secret floating around that both Cassarae and Sylas seemed to be unaware of. Even with all the things happening, the Grimblades still hadn't used their Bronze Stele. Why was that?
On the surface, it was because they had yet to choose an heir, but with how things were spiraling out of control, why would they not choose one sooner rather than later? It made little sense for them to wait so long, especially when the candidate they should choose should have been obvious.
What was more ridiculous was that their choice was obvious. If they had to make a quick decision, the person to choose was Astrid by a mile. It didn't even make sense to pick one of the other two, especially since one was dead and the other was the puppet of the last.
Maybe they knew that, maybe they didn't. But even if they hadn't known that Malachi was Astrid's puppet, the gap between them was obvious enough that it shouldn't have mattered regardless.
And yet, even now, they hadn't used their best City Stele.
Now, he was seeing this pattern repeated.
If he thought about it, he hadn't seen a Bronze City Stele in the Africor Continent either. Though, he hadn't thought about it much back then because they had sacrificed a great deal to pick up and move before he could come.
Right now, though, there was no avoiding that fact. Even Terranova, which was mostly under control of alien forces, had chosen not to.
—
[What are the benefits to waiting to use a higher Grade City Stele during the Summoning?]
[Every City Stele has a chance to become the Core Empire of a world upon leveling up to a great enough extent. Using a higher Grade City Stele too soon, especially before Prime Locations are revealed, can handicap its chances.
[In order to become the Core Empire of a World, one not only needs an adequate flow of Aether, but also a density of Progenitor Aura. Without a line to the Heart Flame of a World, a City Stele has no chance to become the Core Empire of a World.
[The only exceptions to these are Ancient Cities, challenges formed from the stream of time's past and already have perfect placement.]
—
Reading this last sentence, Sylas' mind immediately shifted to the City of Glass.
Was that a so-called Ancient City? That must be what it was.
Although the Madness Key hadn't explicitly stated it, he was pretty sure he understood what was going on here.
Until the Aether Plane fully integrated with Earth, it would be impossible to know exactly where these "Prime Locations" were. If you put a great deal of effort into a city, and suddenly had to move it because you chose the wrong spot, it would be a huge waste of resources.
Your city might downgrade several levels, you would have to rebuild and upgrade buildings, and that wasn't even remotely cost-effective.
As though these matters weren't difficult enough to handle… Earth was in an even worse off position.
Because the coordinates had been scrambled, there was even a chance that their Ancient Cities weren't even in prime locations anymore.
'Is the Lost City of Gold also an Ancient City?' Sylas couldn't help but wonder. But he hadn't seen a real city there either, just a Dungeon. And, he had already made use of the map, so that probably wasn't it either unless it was dual-purpose.
Sylas shook his head. With a wave of the hand, he stored the Bronze Stele away. It seemed that now he had two of these.
On the market on the outside, these Bronze City Stele were almost certainly of exceptional value, probably even more than Metarock. Just one of these would sell for an obscene amount of money.
In fact, they probably wouldn't be using F-Coins at all. They would probably be using D-Coins.
And that was probably only because this was the limit of the Skai Galaxy.
Then again, in higher, stronger galaxies, they would likely not scramble and scrap over Bronze Cities so much.
This was all to say that a Bronze City Stele wasn't just a normal Treasure. There was a reason why the challenges to awaken them were so shockingly steep.
A Bronze City Stele could follow not just a person, but generations of a family for life. Everyone would pour their blood, sweat, and tears into it, slowly helping it rise through the world until they became a Dynasty.
Well… Dynasties were truly much too far away.
As for whether Sylas would sell these off or not… he was hesitant to even think about it.
He had a feeling that such things were only so valuable because they rarely if ever formed.
'Time will tell.'
He took Cassarae's hand. "Let's go. We have one more place to go."
"You're holding my hand now?"
"Check your status screen again, look at your last name, and then decide if you want to ask me that question again."
"Fuck you, Sylas BROWN. Why don't you tell me which Grimblade I married?"
"Their Head."
Cassarae's mouth opened to rebut, but she found herself in a daze again. Why did he always have such perfect answers? It pissed her off a little bit and made her feel things she didn't want to feel at the same time. It was almost like he had her cast under a spell.
"—Wait, you haven't cast anything weird on me, have you?" Cassarae's eyes narrowed with skepticism.
Sylas raised an eyebrow and looked down at her as he stepped into the air.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
Cassarae squealed as her waist was taken into his arm.
"… So you really want to be a Grimblade now?"
"I don't care what my name is so long as I get to choose it."
It was a simple answer, but it carried the overbearingness Cassarae liked so much.
Since he was the Head now, why not be a Grimblade?