The return to Guiz City was without much fanfare. Just like before, Sylas was allowed to directly enter the city and made his way to the military encampment.
There was a reason that most didn’t take his approach to things. Unless a mission was accepted, the associated Hero Points couldn’t be exchanged for. This wasn’t a worthwhile tradeoff.
This was why Licirius and Plinli didn’t think that Sylas would take this route, along with the fact that, from their perspective, Sylas shouldn’t have any idea that they were running the city.
Now they felt that they had been given a convenient reason to target Sylas, and that was exactly why, the moment Sylas returned to the encampment, he found a group waiting to detain him.
The man at the head was the very same Captain he had replaced, a man who went by Captain Bas normally, but now could only be known as Bas.
“Captain Sylas, you have been court-martialed. Accept your detainment.”
Bas stepped forward with a stern expression, but the glee hidden in the depths of his eyes couldn’t be hidden from Sylas. To his surprise, however, not only did Sylas casually hold his wrists out for capture, but it was his very own old team that stepped forward to say something.
“Captain Bas, what is the meaning of this?” Jean spoke up. Though he didn’t dare to block the guards from arresting Sylas, as that would also be against military law, he had to say something.
They had been with Sylas the whole time, and he had only just joined the military. So how could he have possibly done anything worthy of being court-martialed?
Bas was taken aback. Jean was the most dissatisfied with Sylas’ appointment; he expected that Jean would be the last to step out in an attempt to protect him. But this reality only made Bas more unhappy.
“This has been ordered by the City Lord. Stand down.”
Jean was about to say something more when Sylas spoke lightly.
“Stand down. I’m sure the military proceedings will bear out the proper result.”
Bas’ expression became uglier when Jean became obedient. It had only been a day; what had Sylas fed them to garner such obedience?
Sylas was dragged away, and the commotion wasn’t small. A Captain court-martialed on day one of active duty? That had to be some sort of record.
…
Sylas was placed into a cell and made to wait. This part was probably the worst of what he would have to suffer, but his expression didn’t change at all. He knew that they could easily make him wait several days, but he also knew that the system would have a cap.
These alien races didn’t have the capital to act as freely as they wanted, and there would be a limit to how much they could bend the rules. That was only further borne out by the fact they hadn’t taken anything from him. Though, it was hard to say if it was just the fact that the Madness Key couldn’t be taken away. After all, even Sylas couldn’t take it off even if he tried.
Realizing that they would likely make him wait in an attempt to break him, Sylas took a different approach. This was as good a time as any to practice.
There were two things on his mind. The first was his Comprehension and the second was
Sylas believed that his Comprehension was likely what he would need in order to upgrade
‘I can upgrade the Madness Key further. I still have the three Megapiranha corpses…’
He had realized long ago that he could increase the size of the Madness Key by allowing it to absorb excess Genes. But it wouldn’t just grow in size; it would also increase the sensory perception of Madness that Sylas could get from it.
After some thought, Sylas ended up letting the Madness Key absorb three of the six Bronze Dexterity Genes that the Megapiranhas provided.
The Madness Key reached a peak of 20 cubic meters after being loaded up with Common Genes—which was already ridiculously large for a spatial device. However, after that, no matter how many more Common Genes he fed it, it neither grew nor did the concentration of Madness increase.
By that point, it was obvious to him that it needed Bronze Genes, and this was easily proven correct.
Each of the three Bronze Genes helped the Madness Key gain an additional 10 cubic meters for a total of 50 cubic meters. Most buildings wouldn’t even be that height. Sylas could easily fit a dozen two-garage homes into this sort of space and still have space left over. He had already been able to easily fit those half a dozen boats along with over 200 corpses into his spatial device, and now it was even more exaggerated.
‘It seems that it hasn’t reached a limit yet, but Intelligence and Wisdom Genes are too valuable to use on something like this. I’ll have to make a point to capture more Bronze Physical Genes when I get out of here. For now, let’s focus.’
Sylas began a silent meditation on Madness, forgetting the world around him. Ironically, this was the first time in a long while he had the safety and security to practice like this.
Meditating on Madness disallowed him the ability to control it, so it would end up leaking out and affecting his surroundings. If he was in the wilderness, that would certainly bring him trouble.
He surely had to thank Plinli and Licirius this time around.
He sank further and further, and soon he ended up in another daze. He forgot that he was supposed to be meditating on Madness and began having flashbacks of his life until he landed on Cassarae again.
His blood began to rush about, and his heartbeat quickened.
‘She’s so hot…’
If he was in his normal state of mind, he would have already snapped out of it. He had never described a woman like that in his life.
