Sylas' eyes snapped open.
What he expected to see wasn't what he did. The world around him was a sea of blackness except for the stars in the far-off distance. He almost felt like he could reach out and touch the points of light as though they were right in front of him, and yet logic told him that they should be impossibly far away.
'… Dammit.'
Sylas had been really hoping that he would wake up in time, but it didn't seem like he had. If not for the shift in environment, he might have slept for several days more.
He hadn't had even an ounce of rest since the Lost City of Greed descended in the first place. It was days upon days of continuous battles, and while his body was no longer that of a normal human that needed sleep every day, it wasn't to the point that he could push himself so far without sleep or food for so long.
Having been on high alert for so long, and then bringing his body to the point of activating Palms of Fate not just once, but twice, giving it just six hours of sleep at the end of it all felt like far too little even if sleep counted far more for the current Sylas now than ever before.
Even knowing he was awake now, he still felt somewhat lethargic, his body not quite feeling as sharp as it should and his mind lagging just the slightest bit.
Slowly, he began to force himself away, his Aether circulating.
The good news about being so injured that Palms of Fate activated was that it would begin to heal you the moment it did.
The bad news was that because of Earth's state of dormancy, there was hardly any energy left to heal him at all.
'Fusion isn't available… just where am I?'
—
[Name: Sylas Grimblade]
[Species: Human Simioid (F)]
[Affiliation: Legacy 9996; Grimblade Lineage]
…
[Level: 0]
[Physical: 0.118]
[Strength: 0.105]
[Constitution: 0.135]
[Dexterity: 0.125]
[Speed: 0.105]
[Mental: 7.403]
[Intelligence: 1.905]
[Wisdom: 1.303]
[Charisma: 19]
[Will: 19]
[Luck: 2.133]
—
'Hm?' Sylas' eyes narrowed. 'Level 0? What happened to my stats? Are these adjustments for the wider system…?'
Sylas had never been able to see the stats of those off Earth, so if his stats changed, he wouldn't be too surprised. But the oddity here was that he had fallen to Level 0 as well.
'This should be part of the Quest, in all likelihood. Is it a reset for everyone involved? An acute reset…'
Sylas' eyes narrowed.
This seemed to level the playing field. But in reality, for him, this was the worst sort of reset. A lot of his improvements were based on unique opportunities that he had earned, unique opportunities that couldn't be so easily replicated.
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If he was up against a whole host of talents that were born with far better foundations than himself, the odds that he could replicate his success on Earth were low.
'It doesn't seem like a complete reset, though… many of my stats here are just divided by a factor of a thousand, while others have changed completely. There seems to be an odd mixture of the two…'
It was weird.
From Sylas' understanding, the stats on Earth were decided by a percentile system. At the start, those that were given a 1 in any given stat were in the bottom 10% of the population, and those that were given a 9 were in the top 10% of the population.
Anyone given a 10 in a given stat was above the 1% of the 1%, placing them amongst the most elite of the talents of Earth in that category.
Sylas wasn't exactly sure of the math the system used to extend that as they began to break past 10 stat points and move further beyond, but what he did know was that stats were certainly not linear. So a flat division of 1000 to reset his stats to the Skai Galaxy realms could only be one of two things…
Impossible or a shocking coincidence.
Sylas doubted it was the latter. Plus, Earth had yet to complete its Summoning.
He had been off-world many times before, and he knew that this alone was far from causing the system to adjust his stats.
That only left one real possibility… this was an oddity of the Progenitor Quest.
But it made sense the more he thought about it… not the numbers, those were still ridiculous to him. Rather, it was the reset itself.
If you wanted to prove yourself in a Progenitor Quest, wouldn't you have to prove that you could, well… be a Progenitor?
One time might be a fluke.
But what about a second?
This was a challenge for a World to choose its hero, its champion of the future. How could it bank on one lucky run?
When Sylas settled down and adjusted all of his thoughts, he found that he was still drifting aimlessly.
'In that case… sleep.'
Since he was going to be given such a chance, he might as well sleep some more.
Although he had mentioned how Earth hadn't been able to heal him, his body was feeling much better than it should be given Earth's situation nonetheless.
That told him one important thing… maybe he was drifting here to level the playing field.
They might have reset his stats… but they were also giving him a chance to heal.
Sylas drifted off to sleep again, not even sparing the fact he had an extra Affiliation tagged to his name at all. Right now wasn't the time to think about Legacy.
His only goal right now was to claim a victory for Earth.
All across this vast expanse of darkness, others began to awaken, but their situations were much different. The only one so heavily injured was Sylas himself and a few heroes of Earth that found themselves dragged into this situation.
It could be said that for the most part…
Everyone was waiting on Sylas Grimblade.
And then, many days later, the man woke up, his eyes sharpening as he saw a familiar screen before him.