Though Gralith said this, he was only referring to singular Runes. This was far from a singular Rune; it was an entire mesh system of hundreds of them. Getting them to work together like this was a testament not just to Spark Mastery, but Sylas' depth of comprehension of the first layer.
Even so, inwardly, he was still a bit shocked by the prowess of Spark Mastery. It was almost like Sylas' brush was being directed by a mysterious power. Even mistakes that beginners drawing the second layer for the first time should have certainly made, he avoided them seamlessly.
"Now draw the third."
Sylas paused for a moment, slowly settling himself before he began.
This time, he failed.
No, failure wasn't exactly the correct way to describe it. Had he had supporting materials like the blood tattoos the Ravenclaw had, then it would be considered a success. However, without such supporting materials, drawing a Rune beneath Breath Mastery essentially meant failure.
The only reason the likes of Ragnar could use the Scorpion Warlord Armor to begin with was because he had these supporting materials. By extension, though, the reason Sylas' armor was temporary—yet could be used at all—was because he had mastered it to above Breath.
This time, he only managed to draw the third layer to Visualization Mastery.
The odd part was that his momentum in drawing the third layer was no less great than the second. Each piece, stroke, foundation, and individual Rune had come out at Breath and Flesh Mastery at the worst.
But in the end, the mesh didn't come together well enough, causing the overall product to only be at Visualization.
Because of this, the Rune couldn't spontaneously gather Aether on its own, and by extension, Sylas couldn't use it in battle.
Even so… Gralith's eyes narrowed.
Visualization Mastery on the first attempt at the third layer… factoring in the fact Sylas' second layer was so flawed, this was a truly shocking result.
However, Gralith had seen many waves and storms in his life. Although this could certainly be considered as "up there" among them, it was still enough for him to control his emotions well enough.
Though, it also helped that he wasn't a very emotional person to begin with.
"What do you know about the layers?"
This was the second time Gralith had asked this question.
Sylas looked toward him. He didn't believe that Gralith would ask the same question a second time without reason, and he certainly wouldn't just forget that he already had.
This meant he was looking for a different answer.
"I've only speculated that the first layer provides a maximum of +7000 Physical, the second layer doubles that, and the third multiplies that by five. All things considered, there is a potential +70000 in Physical. Though, I'm not sure how this translates to your system calculations, I can only do it based on mine."
"Mm. System stat adjustments vary and are based on galaxy ranks. You have an individualized system because of the Summoning, but soon you will integrate with your galaxy's stat adjustments."
"By the galaxy rank?"
Gralith waved a hand. "This isn't important right now. Have you seen the difference?"
"Well, I noticed that I reached +6000 Physical much earlier than I thought when I reached Essence Mastery, so I'm sure that my numbers are off. With a deeper understanding, I think that once I reach Vitality Mastery, I might experience another +4000 and reach +10,000 Physical. At Spark Mastery, it might even double again to +20,000 even not accounting for the second and third layers."
Sylas already realized that he was naive to think that the leaps through the highest difficulty Masteries to reach would be linear.
"That's closer to the truth, but you are focusing on the wrong things."
Sylas sat in silence, patiently waiting.
"Sure, the Scorpion Warlord Armor provides boosts to stats, but this is akin to the system sometimes not understanding exactly how to measure someone's Will. If one person has an inferior Will, and the other has a Forged Will, but both had 2000 Will, whose Will is stronger?"
The answer was obvious. Sylas once again didn't need to answer.
For a long while now, his Mental stats were often weaker than those he came across. Logically, because of that, he shouldn't be able to read their stats. But he very rarely came across someone whose stats he couldn't read these days.
And usually, when he couldn't, it wasn't because of their Mental, but rather because of relying on a treasure.
"The Scorpion Warlord Armor isn't a legacy of power. If that was all it was, then there would be no reason for the separation between Armors and the Lineage of our organization to begin with. So, I'll ask again, what do you know about the layers?"
Sylas' irises flickered.
"The Tail. The Resilience. And Sacrifice."
Gralith's eyes narrowed.
One would think that after having to press for an answer, Sylas wouldn't be able to so seamlessly summarize the purposes of the three layers of the armor.
And yet, here they were.
"Explain," Gralith pressed.
"The Scorpion Warlord Tail allows one to use any poison in the world and raise its Runes to the same Mastery of the Armor. Thus, so long as you focus on the Armor, any poison you use will be seamlessly powerful.
"The Scorpion Warlord Carapace activates once the second layer is mastered. It makes the boost to Constitution far more effective because it's able to withstand and disperse blows throughout the armor. If I had to speculate, I would think that the boost to Constitution in the second layer is probably much higher than the other Physical stats.
"The Scorpion Warlord Sacrificial Rune is fully formed after the final and third layer is completed. It allows you to grow stronger with injury and sacrifice. Using the blood you shed, the armor feeds on it in order to strengthen itself."
After a long while, Gralith nodded.
"You are right. In part."