Sylas crossed through the wilderness. Soon, he could see Casstle Main in the distance, and the village didn’t look much different than how he had left it, but that was to be expected as well. After all, he had just spent the last few days weeding out all the immediate threats in the region.
Now, it was about time to deal with some at-home issues. Though… he would likely have to be delicate with how he went about it.
Once again, Sylas was subject to strict checks. It didn’t seem to matter how close he was to the City Lady, as they called her, or not. It was a very naked show of authority, but it also didn’t faze Sylas in the slightest.
Very soon, not much of this would matter.
He was already capable of conquering Casstle Main on his own several times over. Well… Cassarae was a bit of a wild card because she would gain a boost as the City Lord and her path seemed to be particularly odd, but regardless, there shouldn’t be any suspense in a battle between him and her.
The only thing that really needed to be managed was the people.
…
Sylas was eventually let in after lying about his spatial device once again. The more he observed the matter, the more he wondered if people could even see his Madness Key.
‘No, it feels like they can see it, but for some reason, they dismiss it as something that might be important, almost as though they’re incapable of seeing through it at all.’
When Sylas was arrested, he remembered that none of his things were taken. He couldn’t help but wonder now if that was thanks to the Madness Key. If they had confiscated his spoils, how would he prove that he had accomplished the mission?
Shaking the thought off, Sylas entered Cassarae’s office to find that there was a gloominess between her brows. He doubted that much had changed since he had left; it was just that the mood was different the last time around since he had been gone for so long. This time, he had been gone for less than a week, and the heaviness of her situation had settled in again.
Still, it took Sylas knocking on her desk before she finally looked up from whatever stat-filled paperwork she was laboring over.
“Call the people you trust most here, we have stuff to do.”
Cassarae frowned. “… What’s wrong with you?”
She only spoke after a long while, as though she was trying to feel Sylas out. He felt different in a way that she couldn’t describe in a few words, and almost… foreign? But not so at the same time? It was hard to grasp.
“We don’t have time to waste.” Was Sylas’ only reply.
Taking a breath, Cassarae shook her head. “I don’t have anyone here that I trust other than my parents.”
“Then we’ll just have to start with them, then, no?”
Cassarae gave Sylas a look before shifting her gaze to the door.
“You guys are probably already here. Come in.”
Paul and Geraldene cleared their throats and walked in as though they hadn’t been caught eavesdropping again.
Sylas greeted them and began to bring out the things that he had collected. While the middle-aged couple was confused about what they were seeing, Cassarae’s eyes had long since widened.
“Syl… what… what the fuck did you do? Rob a bank? No way, you didn’t rob the System City, did you?”
“No. I just used a convenient loophole to conquer a few of your greatest threats.”
Cassarae’s mouth went dry. Even when she sent her militiamen out on missions themselves, they wouldn’t come back with even a small portion of them.
There were so many beast skins, so many Gene Cores, so many Demon Cores… there was just…
Too much. Way too much.
There were thousands of Genes just from the Demon Cores alone, over 30,000 F Coins, and that didn’t mention the fact that Demon Cores often spawned extra treasures as well.
Demon Cores were what one gained from killing Demons and claiming their villages. Sylas had already opened several. Back during the gnoll village attack on Casstle Main, he had gained a few dozen F Coins and several Common Genes from the endeavor.
But those Demon Cores and these ones were on an entirely different level, whether you were speaking about quantity or quality.
The Gene Cores came from beasts, and they weren’t Sylas’ main focus on the expedition. Mostly, these were just beasts that stood in the way of him and his team as they moved from village to village, and from target to target.
Still, there were easily almost a hundred of them. These obviously represented even more Genes, but even more so than that, the beast skins were so invaluable…
Maya had never been able to work with materials from such powerful beasts. She was already able to create magnificent creations with the inferior materials she had been given. So… what could she do now?
Sylas’ gains in these few days just showed the kind of power organizations and those hidden families had. He only had 10 people working under him, but they had gained this much in half a week. What kind of scale was the government working on? What about the Grimblades? It was no wonder their Levels increased so quickly.
However, after all the shock, Cassarae doused a bucket of cold water over her own head.
She sighed. “We don’t have any Gene Elixirs. This…”
The feeling up inside of her was one she absolutely abhorred. It was the feeling of being useless. Sylas had put in so much effort, only for her to cause them to fall flat at the final stage.
However, what she didn’t expect…
“That’s fine.” Sylas replied, taking out a spatial device from the Madness Key. This spatial device was none other than Alex’s. He had never returned it.
The Silver Grade treasure that Alex had could be said to be the most valuable thing on him. However, there were other things such as Healing Elixirs and… Gene Elixirs.
