Sylas stood on a mountain, his claws dripping with blood. Even after going on a killing spree, he still hadn't crossed 400 Silver Genes. It was obvious to him from the start that the best method of gathering Silver Genes definitely wasn't randomly killing beasts.
Even if he came across a beast with Silver Genes, it would likely be extremely powerful, and the return on investment wouldn't be worth it. The battle would take a while and he could end up heavily injured. That also wouldn't be in line with his plans for speed.
On the way here, Sylas had just conveniently killed several, but that only confirmed what he already knew.
What he was really looking for was one of two things. Either a target or the reason his enemies had been able to zoom right by his Gene quantity.
Given how things were going, he would probably be able to answer both questions at the same time.
He ended up finding the former first.
In the distance, there was a city with walls formed of square blocks of snow. Right at this moment, they were already building a second, larger wall, while a much smaller group worked on making the inner walls taller.
—
[Ace (F)]
[Level: 3]
[Physical: 0.7]
[Mental: 0.92]
[Will: 1.2]
—
At the helm, directing and protecting those building the outer wall, was a bearman with the head of a white-furred polar bear and the body of a burly man standing at over two meters tall.
Rather than being a brute, though, this bearman wielded the staff of a mage and was actually the one quickly forming and compressing the blocks of ice and snow that were building the walls.
The Runes this bearman was using were quite interesting as well. They seemed to pull in the Ice Aether from the air, strengthening the walls further over time.
'This is Frostbane.'
Sylas' eyes narrowed as he looked back toward the Quest Leaderboard.
—
[3. Aurion Stormveil - 31,110]
—
Already an 8000 Silver Gene difference since the last time he checked, and steam only seemed to be picking up. But what was more important than that was the fact that Sylas had seen this name before.
This was the young man on the flying ship outside of the Frostbane Dungeon.
Was this his city? Had he chosen the City Stele, then? Could it be that he had made a mistake in choosing the Gene Elixir? Was the best path of this Quest to choose the city?
Thinking back, this was highly likely.
On the one hand, you needed a Gene Elixir; otherwise, trading the Silver Genes in exchange for unlocks would be impossible. It was because Sylas had his Soft Gene Elixir that he could do this.
Thanks to this, he only needed to use double the mentioned amount rather than not being able to unlock anything, or being forced to deal with even lower percentages.
Essentially, while he said he needed 50,000 Genes right now, he actually needed 100,000 to make things work properly.
But if everyone chose the City Stele… didn't that also mean that he was the only one who had unlocked things until now?
Everything had been stripped ahead of time, which likely also encompassed their Gene States.
'Interesting. This doesn't seem like his city, I can't sense him. Did he find a method to leave already? Are the restrictions on Cities not the same here as they are in the outside world? Or could he have subsidiary cities already?'
There was only one way to find out.
There was no time for caution and reconnaissance. He only had time for swift victories.
The entire city was reflected in Sylas' mind, and with a stomp, he shot forward.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He crossed the distance in the blink of an eye.
Sylas landed in the snow with such force that tidal waves of it rippled out in all directions, obscuring vision and making it difficult to even see properly.
With a step, his body flashed forward. Quick and efficient, his claws became like blades.
Sylas was too used to punching and kicking everything. Being able to truly rely on sharpness for the first time in his journey, it just felt so…
Freeing.
Everything was sliced and diced in front of him. Throats were split open, intestines pooled outside, blood flowed in rivers.
The bearman tried to lock onto the enemy several times, but with the heavy snow fluttering through the air, it felt impossible.
By the time there were any signs of the snow settling down, Sylas had already killed over 80% of the workers, his claws glistening with crimson and his Scorpion Warlord Armor shimmering with a deathly might.
In the whiteness, the reflective dark violet particularly stood out.
The bearman waved a staff, its orb of blue glowing.
The shapes of the walls changed, the runes on them linking toward each other as several holes appeared.
The Ice Aether that had been accumulating in them was forcefully squeezed together, forming orbs of crystalline blue that pulsed with the concentrated energy.
And then…
SHUUUU!
The makeshift cannons of Aether all came together, beams of blue cutting across the air and aiming for Sylas.
Without his Glassvolt Heir Class activated, Sylas didn't have the Ice Aether affinity to ignore such an attack. The attack of each one was easily approaching 10.
It was unfortunate, though, that Sylas' Constitution, and thus his Defense, was currently double that.
Sylas punched out and one of the beams vanished.
He took a step and punched out again.
His tail flickered, and large amounts of the shattered energy entered it as Frostbane Poison began to pool within. Concentrating the Aether into powerful Frostbane Runes, Sylas quickly realized something…
Why was he trying so hard? This was almost too much.
Almost.
Sylas' Scorpion Tail flickered, and he returned the beams.
The bearman couldn't react before he was swallowed up, and the entire city was split in two down the middle.
From a vibrant village with great promise, it collapsed.