As Sylas moved closer to the pair of portals in the distance, he pulled up the notifications that he had ignored previously.
—
[Den Establishment Challenge Complete]
—
[Den Constitution]
>[7 Sperm Whales]
>[1 Dusky Shark]
>[2 Bottlenose Dolphins]
—
[Genes Incorporated. Mutation Lottery Solidified]
—
‘Interesting…’ Sylas hadn’t expected that the animals he sacrificed to the Den would be used to decide what potential mutations might appear in the future. If he had known, he might have put more thought into which ones he targeted.
After some thought, though, Sylas shook his head. There really wasn’t enough time for him to do that. He was already quite fast, only picking the nearest target and focusing on them. And yet, it had still taken him more than half a day.
If he wanted to take such an approach, he would either have to have a far smaller area to scout, or he would have to be far more powerful than the target creatures. Unfortunately, in this case, he had neither benefit.
By the sixth target onward, the battles had become far easier, but there had still been too many variables to deal with. The dolphin pods were just one example. It was far from the only group battle that Sylas had fought.
Sylas could only hope that the mutations didn’t weaken the overall product. All in all, he didn’t believe that it would be too bad. After all, they were all FFF+ creatures. Regardless, the product would at least be at that level. The Den was sure to be invaluable.
‘I should slow down a bit…’ Sylas took a breath. He shouldn’t be far from being able to see the island on the horizon, and that would also mean that he wasn’t far from more danger.
The good news was that the government was unlikely to have patrols here. The bad news was that this was almost certainly because it was far too dangerous.
With the existence of not just one, but two portals, there was definitely a large population of beasts in the region. There was also the question of the underwater portal to consider as well.
If there was a portal that had opened up at the bottom of the ocean, it would almost certainly lead to some violent current nearer the surface.
Even if the portal was large, that ocean was so vast that it was impossible for it to be drained in a short time. The main issue, then, was what changes that might cause to the surface of the water.
If the other side of the underwater portal was more water, then maybe an equilibrium could be reached depending on the size of the body of water on the other side. But…
Just standing here, Sylas could already feel the strong churning of the water. The storm above was already bad enough, but the waves definitely felt far worse here.
Sylas had spent all of the last day using up and replenishing his Aether. He wasn’t just physically fatigued, but mentally fatigued as well. He knew that he wasn’t in the best state to tackle this challenge, but there also wasn’t exactly somewhere he could go to relax in a situation like this one.
With a breath, he stepped forward and then shot ahead. He was shrouded in scales by his third step and his Speed accelerated.
Since there was no easy way forward, he might as well take the blitz method.
What Sylas didn’t expect was that he wouldn’t run into any obstruction at all. Maybe he was too fast, maybe the beasts were scared off by his appearance or strength, but whatever the reason, he quickly found himself closing in on the shore.
He didn’t allow his surprise to slow his steps. In fact, he became more alert just in case.
But once again, nothing happened even as his feet finally touched down on the ground once again. Sylas let out a light sigh. He hadn’t realized just how much he missed solid ground until this moment. Well… it was a mushy sort of grainy, rock-infested beach. But, it was far better than being rocked from side to side on the ocean all day.
In a few moments, Sylas also realized that his strength on real land should be even greater than it had been on the ocean. If he made two points of improvement in the water, then it was three here.
Sylas exhaled.
Though this was technically an “island,” in reality, it was an entire borough of York City. York City was so large that even one of its five boroughs was enough to compete with a medium-sized city.
There was still a distance to go from this location to the portal, but the rest of the journey was exceptionally easy.
Sylas’ thoughts were proved correct. The city was basically empty.
It should be the case that all the people had either been evacuated or incorporated into the City Lord’s city.
As for the lack of beasts, there should be two explanations.
The first was that the city was dealing with the beast waves on their side. The second was that this borough was a metal forest. There might be a zoo or two, but other than that, there wouldn’t be many beasts here that could evolve under the influence of the Aether.
Thanks to this, the rest of Sylas’ journey was even easier. He could feel that the portal was getting closer, so he chose to have a rest.
He had no way to confirm if it was really Cassarae, so going in while not being 100% was foolish.
He randomly chose a skyscraper and broke in. Since there was no one to stop him, he chose a penthouse he certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford in the past and relaxed.
After filling his belly, showering in some contradictorily scalding cold water, he went to bed.
The next morning, he was refreshed and ready. That was the best sleep he had had in a long while.
He closed the distance on the portal, but before he could near it, a growl made his eyes narrow.
