Gralith had told Sylas quite plainly not to attempt to fuse with the Unique Gene of the Scorpion Warlord Armor until he felt like he had reached the absolute limit of what was possible for the Armor itself.
That made sense. The stronger his Armor, the more perfect the Rune. But Sylas still felt that there was something peculiar about his and Gralith’s last interaction.
Obviously, his words had enraged Gralith. But the reason behind that fury might not necessarily be what it seemed like on the surface. In fact, the mere fact Gralith didn’t rescind his discipleship despite the fact he had yet to actually become one officially spoke for itself.
Gralith didn’t seem to be angry with Sylas, but with something else. And he didn’t seem to be reprimanding Sylas, but instead warning him.
As for what he was warning Sylas about, Sylas wasn’t entirely sure at the time… but the closer to perfection his Scorpion Warlord came, the more he realized that it would be impossible to reach 100%…
And the more he understood that it wouldn’t be his fault.
Technically speaking, only the system could possibly reach 100% Mastery of any Rune. But after Sylas heard this, he didn’t really believe it.
The system must have been created by someone. It wasn’t a natural part of the universe. If there was someone who could create something that could reach 100%, then it was only natural that the person in question had been capable of it too.
The real deciding factor here was the gap between Sylas’ real skills and the F-Grade Runes that he was dealing with right now.
Alone, Sylas certainly couldn’t. But with the support of the UniForm boosting his mental capabilities, helping him to decipher it step by step and then incorporating that into his own Mastery and comprehension, it seemed only natural for one to flow to the next.
And that was why it made so little sense that Sylas wasn’t able to push past 91% Mastery, as though there was a permanent roadblock sitting right on the path that wouldn’t allow him to go any further.
It didn’t take him very long at all to realize what it was.
At first, he assumed that it was because his self-created Poison wasn’t of 100 Foundations, but instead just 99. He hadn’t had reliance on the UniForm back then, so the leap from 99 to 100 felt impossible.
But after he thought of several possible configurations for the 100th Foundation of his Rune, he realized that there was a very big elephant in the room right now…
That wasn’t the answer.
And the elephant…
It was none other than the [Earth Escape] skill.
It was ironic. That skill had just saved Sylas’ life. It was undoubtedly powerful, helping him to avoid the rage of a C-tier existence, even to the point he was able to heal himself moments later.
Sylas wasn’t capable of dealing with C-Grade Aether, let alone heal himself from it. The only reason he was standing here now was because the C-Grade Aether never reached him—because he sacrificed the parts of his body that would have suffered from it, cutting off its chance to influence the rest of his body.
But it was because Sylas had experienced that that he truly felt the truest essence of the Scorpion Warlord Armor… and when he compared it to [Earth Escape], as powerful as the skill was, it felt hollow… empty… meaningless.
There was another secret of the Scorpion Warlord Armor, he was sure of it. But right now, that secret—Sylas felt that it would be impossible for him to unearth unless he actually went to the Beast Warlord Sanctum.
Could he sit here and waste his days away to figure it out?
Yes.
Actually, he was quite confident that if he used three days on this, he could find the answer on his own. Well… with the help of the UniForm and its boosting effects on his comprehension of the Mesh of Reality.
But he couldn’t afford to do that, not just yet.
However, Sylas… was nothing short of an absolute monster right now. This was the reason he felt that it was best he turn attention elsewhere.
With the First Layer Mastered to Spark, the boost in his Physical went from +10,000, granted to him by Vitality Mastery, all the way up to +25,000.
With the Second Layer, this boost became +50,000.
With the Third Layer, this boost leapt all the way up to +250,000.
The concept of six-digit stats wasn’t even something Sylas could quite compute properly. Wrapping his mind around it felt like he was staring into the abyss of a Fairy Tale…
And then you had to consider that these were just the stats for 85% Mastery.
For every additional percent, Sylas gained another +50,000, until he got to 90%, which gave a +100,000 boost.
Right now, Sylas’ Physical stats with the full Scorpion Warlord Armor activated were nothing short of ridiculous. He was granted a total of +650,000 for each one of his Physical Stats at 91% Mastery.
And none of that even spoke about the other abilities at all, especially after he completed the 100th Rune of his Glassvolt Throne Poison and fused it into his Tail.
All of a sudden, his armor solidified and became akin to emerald plates sparking with dancing streaks of lightning across his body.
The power it granted was intoxicating, and yet it still somehow felt so very hollow, as though the Effectiveness of those stats would be absolutely pitiful.
And yet, pitiful or not… if someone with over 650,000 Physical Stats punched you in the face, would you still even have a head left to make fun of them?
Sylas had decided to go all in on this path. At least for this week, his focus would become singular…
How could he become the best Combatant Rune Master he could? How could he maximize his Scorpion Warlord Armor?