Sylas slowly stood.
When he looked up to meet Gogo's eyes, things were still fine. But when he swept his gaze toward the others, they shied away.
No, it wasn't just shying away, it was like they were on the verge of collapse.
Sylas blinked, focusing his mind. After a while, he naturally put a film of Will over his eyes. Only then did the Serpentes in the region finally stop quivering.
Whatever happened, it wasn't just his Will that had changed, his Charisma had also stepped into a completely new tier. Even when he wasn't actively using his Will, it was as though a forcefield of might was constantly hanging around him.
And, because of his Runeweaver Profession, even while suppressed by this Quest World, his eyes had the natural ability to allow his Will to manifest in the world.
When this was matched with his new comprehensions of the Beast Totem that not so coincidentally also took the form of a pair of eyes… it was like one ability after another was stacking on top of one another, forming a foundation that was shockingly sturdy and building toward the very same point.
Sylas clenched his fist. He didn't check his stats, he knew that they hadn't changed at all. And yet, the number on the screen seemed to hardly matter anymore.
At the very least, right this moment, there was no need to even consider the drain on his Will that his Scorpion Warlord Armor triggered.
"Where do you think you're going?" Sylas asked.
He raised a finger and struck it down at the air. As though a ripple had shaken the Mesh of Reality, a finger of radiant green split the skies an entire kilometer and a half away.
BANG!
A man was knocked down to the ground. No, it was more like their entire being was rocked, their chest collapsing and their bones snapping out in all directions, piercing out through their skin.
Phyrex Guiz coughed up a mouthful of blood, staring up to the skies in despair.
He had come here to deal with Sylas, but when he saw waves of serpent beasts rushing in this direction, he thought that there might be an opportunity to take advantage of.
Never did he think that this grandiose scene would all be under Sylas' control.
The man he wanted to kill… was actually so far beyond him?
And what was that just now? How could someone of the F-Grade attack from more than a kilometer away and with such power and force? Even an E-Grade might not be capable of such a thing.
Beneath the C-Grade, everyone was far too constrained by the world around. True world-defying, world-ending strength was only available to those above the D-Grade.
So… Why did it feel like he was fighting a God already?
A power pinned Phyrex down, but it didn't seem to matter at all. His Will was already crushed. Even if he could fight, he didn't have the heart or power to.
Could it be that Sylas had truly reached number one on the Dungeon Leaderboard with his own strength and not some petty tricks?
A shadow suddenly appeared above Phyrex's head and he barely registered that it was Sylas.
With a simple reach down, Phyrex's neck was sucked into Sylas' palm.
Blood spilled down the Lightning Sylph's mouth, pooling over his jaw and dribbling down Sylas' hand and wrist toward the ground.
'Phyrex Guiz…' Sylas thought, calmly reading the man's name. Unlike Stormveil… this name he very much recognized.
"Nosphaleen."
There was a flicker and a familiar figure appeared by Sylas. But this time, rather than her usual greeting, she found herself staring at her master for a long while.
"Get everything you can out of him. His Will doesn't seem to have much left to it, so be gentle."
Sylas didn't receive the response he expected, so he looked over… only to find Nosphaleen looking at him with a fiery light of lust in her eyes.
"Nosphaleen."
Startled, the Clypsian was shaken awake by the pulse in Sylas' voice.
"Ah, yes. Right away, master."
She hurried off to do as she was told.
'… Interesting…' Sylas thought.
Just now, that wasn't his Charisma. Or, rather, it wasn't because of his Charisma alone.
It seemed that the Mesmeryx had quite a big weakness he had to handle.
Their Charisma was especially effective, but their defenses against those with Charisma stronger than their own were weak. If he didn't shore up this weakness, Nosphaleen would be useless against opponents with strong Charisma.
Sylas stored this at the back of his mind and then looked toward the hoard of Serpentes.
"I need to know the locations of several things. Those of you that have the information I need, make yourself known."
Sylas spoke in Ancient Ithkuil, his voice laced with his intentions. Even without this language, though, his ability to communicate with Serpentes would be unhindered. This just made it even smoother.
What surprised Sylas very quickly, though, was their responses…
No, not their responses, but rather the range they fell into.
Just how far had these Serpentes come from?
Seeing some of them shivering in the cold, and the sheer power some of them had, Sylas realized that he had accidentally called forth from a much larger region than he expected.
"… Good."
Sylas' eyes flashed. Just from his rudimentary understanding, these Serpentes had come from at least 1000 kilometers away.
On the one hand, this meant that he was out cold for much longer than he expected and he had wasted another 4 hours of this first day.
On the other hand…
He now had a general map of such an enormous radius, and also confirmation that he could do this again.
He filtered out the responses one after another until he found exactly what he wanted.
"Is that so?" Sylas nodded. "Nosphaleen, it's time to go."
"I've gotten everything!"
"Good."
With a swirl of light, Sylas enveloped Gogo and Nosphaleen, sending them back to the Hibernation Realm.
His goal?
A Bronze City Stele.
Earth was a Bronze World, right? In that case, maybe this would be enough.
The question was… was the challenge of a Bronze City Stele at the same level on this world as it would be back on Earth?
And in that case… was he strong enough to clear it?
There was a flash in Sylas' gaze.
He would make certain he was no matter what.
Phyrex's name vanished from the leaderboard.