Sylas felt a thrumming sense of excitement within him. It was an emotion that he couldn’t remember ever feeling so clearly before. But in the end, he was still human.
Not long ago, he had fallen into an abyss, feeling as though nothing he did would ever be good enough. His foundation was too weak—not due to any fault of his own, but because circumstances kept slapping against him without giving him the chance to make up for any weaknesses he might have had.
It wasn’t just that his parents hadn’t given him as good of a foundation as others, but even if they had, because he shouldered the responsibility of Earth, he had had no choice but to suffer in silence, improving beyond Level 0 long before he was ready.
Maybe he would be able to make up for that in the future, or maybe it would be a regret he would never be able to reconcile. Considering Gralith’s words on the topic, it was more likely than not that the truth would lie in the latter rather than in the optimistic hues of the former.
This was the weight that he had been carrying on his shoulders.
In order to protect those he wanted to protect, he had to Be Strong. But he simply didn’t have the time, so he continuously had to overextend himself, ironically making it even harder for him to grow powerful.
But now… now there was a real chance.
To gain five million average stat points just from Rune Mastery alone—just what sort of ridiculous concept was that? Moments ago, he couldn’t even wrap his head around six-digit stats, and now he was staring down the barrel of seven-figure ones.
Of course, Sylas knew of all the troubles he would face in this regard.
The reason that these few had such strong Combat Matrix Indexes wasn’t just because of Talent either. If it was just Talent, Sylas’ would be off the charts already.
They had lineages, Unique Genes, bloodlines, and all sorts of advantages that helped them.
Right now, Sylas’ Combat Matrix Index, at his best, would probably be around 680,000 or so. This was just an estimate because he tended to absolutely crush enemies that were even remotely near him in stats thanks to his Will and crude Rune deployment.
But of that number, the vast majority was made up by what? Wasn’t it a lineage handed to him by the Beast Warlord Sanctum?
This was the importance of Foundation.
Taking a step back, if a Thryskai was suddenly given all of Sylas’ comprehension talent and was able to keep all of their Unique Genes, just how much unfathomably better would their Skai Eyes make them than Sylas?
It would most definitely be a huge leap forward.
Who knew what sort of special bloodlines and abilities these three had that made their Combat Matrix Index so ridiculous?
And that led Sylas right back to square one… but this time with far more optimism.
That was because this was no longer a gap he felt was impossible to bridge.
Sure, his Unique Genes and bloodlines would be far weaker than theirs… for now.
But he still had Temporal Delay and Astral Stutter, he still had Unravelling Pupils and Weaving Irises, and he still had, most important of all…
A Rune Spark Mastery backed by Enlightening Will and a Charisma that seemed to be evolving as well.
Who cared if their talent was so much better? Would they ever be able to match his Spark Mastery?
Sylas’ eyes flashed with menace.
There were probably geniuses out there—geniuses beyond this Sector—that could reach Rune Spark just like he could. And if they could, just what sort of Unique Genes and bloodlines would they have to rely on as well?
Would their Combat Matrix Indexes be in the eight digits? Nine? More?
It didn’t matter to Sylas anymore. He would just have to be better than them too.
And that started with what he had right here.
If he could create his own 100 Foundation Poison Rune, who was to say that he couldn’t create his own 100 Foundation Combat Rune? Or Talisman Rune? Or maybe he could start crafting his own Mesh Networks?
All he needed was a foundation—a foundation that he hadn’t had until now, a foundation that could be laid right here, starting today.
Sylas no longer held himself back. He wasn’t looking for just efficiency anymore; he was picking up every little thing he could. At some point, after he had cleared all the Combatant Rune Master Runes and Rune variations that the Golden Grove had for the F-Grade, he even began to dip his toes into other paths.
He realized just how much Weapon Combatant Runes overlapped with Blacksmith Runes, how much Talisman Combatant Runes overlapped with Formation Master Runes, how much Beast Combatant Runes overlapped with Beast Master Runes, how much Healing Runes and Poison Runes overlapped with Alchemy Runes…
The world of Runes was quickly becoming less and less of an anomaly to him, and the more he grasped, the faster other insights came.
The foundation he built was growing deeper and deeper, and he felt that his senses in the UniForm were only accelerating.
At the same time, the more of an instinct he grew for Runes, the more subtle changes began to appear in Temporal Delay and Astral Stutter.
The Runes of the Golden Grove weren’t powerful in Sylas’ opinion, but they were strong enough, and widely variable enough, that they touched on so many nooks and crannies of Rune Mastery, Sylas felt that he was in some sort of wonderland.
He was finding that he wasn’t just doing this for the sake of discipline anymore.
In his life, he couldn’t really name things he loved… he had people he loved, but the things he did for him? What were those, exactly?
Until now, the only thing he could name was control, no matter what aspect that came in.
But right now, he could well and truly say…
He loved Runes.
Another subtle change was tweaked in the depths of Sylas’ soul.
This time, it came not from his Progenitor Flame Abilities, but from his Rune Spark Mastery.
