Sylas' thoughts practically streamed through his mind. Several possibilities came up, but he didn't commit to any one of them. In fact, he suppressed them on purpose.
For this… there was no need to overthink things.
He had already shifted the way he looked at the world. But the point of his shift in mindset wasn't to ignore the words of the Madness Key completely. It was to learn when to learn that mode, that desire for carnage off, and use his brain instead.
But right now, that wasn't necessary.
He didn't have enough information to outthink his opponents. He was not only facing the geniuses of the Skai Galaxy, but they had come ready and prepared.
From Gralith's words, it was clear that this was something that many were actually in the know about. At the very least, the highest echelons of society had at least some rudimentary information about it.
In that case, there was no need to use his brain so much. In fact, he might even benefit more from shutting off his mind entirely.
All he needed right now was absolute power. That was the only thing that could get him the victory he needed.
He came to a stop.
This should be the location, but the target he was looking for wasn't here, and there wasn't a city either.
'Indeed, they can leave cities.'
Sylas just stood there, his senses carefully scanning the region. Much like always, even if the range of his visualization was two kilometers, the amount of it that his Wisdom could focus on at a single time was limited—especially after his Wisdom stat was suppressed by this world.
He shrank the area down, focusing on smaller and smaller regions, trying to pick out anything of interest.
He wasn't completely blind to his own intelligence; he knew that whoever had been looking at him was most likely the Frostbane Sylph. The odds that someone else would sense him first were unlikely, which meant that he was looking for a type of Aether that he was quite intimately familiar with.
But with how low his affinity had become for the Aether while his Class was suppressed, it wasn't a simple matter. Not with so much other Ice Aether swirling around at the same time.
Sylas found that it wasn't until he had once again shrunk his visualization to a hundred-meter radius that he could truly take in everything.
And yet there was still nothing at all.
His eyes narrowed.
Logically, there should be something. The only reason the area would be so clean would be if the Sylph sensed him feel their presence and then acted accordingly.
In which case, he had just walked into a trap.
Sylas was quite calm when he reached this conclusion. He had known that this was a possibility before he even moved. If he had time, then he would consider a different approach.
He didn't.
In that case, he would just have to brute force it.
Sylas unlocked his Glassvolt Comprehension.
For some odd reason, Madness only cost 50 Genes—a total of 100 when the 50% failure rate was accounted for. But his Glassvolt Comprehension was double that, while his Mixed Demonic Arts Comprehension would take an entire 10,000 Silver Genes to unlock.
Something told Sylas that this oddity was definitely worth looking into. His Glassvolt Comprehension was technically a step below the other two.
But there was no time to consider things. If he couldn't sense Frostbane through his Class, then he would just have to do it through his Comprehension.
He used up 200 Silver Genes in an instant, and in that moment, a spark of lightning danced in his eyes. While his Glassvolt Heir Class Skills and Gene Skills were still locked until the Class was unlocked, this… would be enough.
Sylas' head suddenly snapped in a certain direction. His body flashed, lightning filling him to the brim as he accelerated into a bolt. It looked almost as though he had become a streak surging through the air until he came to an abrupt stop.
The location was plain, not carrying the slightest bit of anything special to it. It was just a flat plain of snow as far as the eye could see. There were mountains in the distance, and sparse trees of ice here and there, but other than that…
'Why would they come here to begin with?'
The obvious answer was that they were just passing through, journeying from one location to the next.
But this didn't make sense to Sylas.
If he was correct, this was a game of efficiency. Travelling across long distances where there wasn't anything of note for an entire two-kilometer stretch—no, it was four kilometers—didn't make any sense. Two kilometers was just the radius of his visualization, so he hadn't picked up anything in this huge region.
While at their strength levels, four kilometers was a matter of seconds. One had to also factor in running into dangers, other opponents, and other unexpected twists and turns the Quest might throw at you.
Then there was the fact their stats had all been severely suppressed. If they were playing an efficiency game revolving around City Steles, Sylas was sure that most of them had yet to even be able to unlock much of their previous prowess at all.
That meant that for whoever was watching him to pass through this vast empty space… either the wool was being pulled over his eyes, or there was a very good reason.
'Here I am… thinking too much again…'
Sylas' eyes flashed, his mouth opening and his canines glistening as he unleashed a roar.
[Arctic Howl Mutant] took shape. Because Sylas had personally modified it, it was no longer tied to any one Class… he understood the Runes like the back of his hand.
Sylas raised a fist, a gauntlet of Glass and silver-blue sparking lightning taking shape as he smashed down between his feet.
There was a minor silence as his fist was buried into the snow, and then…
BOOM!