Sylas looked around. “I’m being forced to wait? Interesting…”
He was starting to understand why his words had been so effective against Vayu. It seemed that he had stumbled into some good luck after all.
He looked around, hoping that there would be rewards of some sort. Usually, there would be more to gain from a Dungeon than just whatever the final rewards were. But unfortunately, though he had finally had some good luck, it wasn’t that exaggerated.
There was nothing here at all. Well… other than the barrier.
“The barrier…”
Sylas looked at it, activating Enchanted Scholar. These days, it was too easy to use this Gene Talent. Usually, it would have some strain on his Wisdom, but between Rune Soul lowering the requirements, and Unyielding Scholar boosting his Wisdom to ridiculous levels, he didn’t even feel it much.
He had kept it active all through those nine steps, actively using Rune Soul to disperse his targets, yet he didn’t feel any fatigue at all.
“Another fascinating application of Rune Mastery…”
Sylas carefully touched the barrier. It looked ethereal, but it was as hard as aged ice compressed beneath millions of years worth of snowfall.
Clearly, this barrier was relying on Ice-Poison Runes, or rather, Frostbane Runes? But it was so much more powerful than what Sylas was capable of despite the fact it should have been the weaker Rune. After all, Sylas could control two Runes with 11 more Foundations than what was found here.
Then there were those spirit wolves. That was definitely another application of Ice-Poison Runes, but Sylas couldn’t even fathom completing something so intricate. He didn’t even understand how you could turn Runes into something that felt so… real.
Logically, it should be possible. After all, Runes were the foundation of the world, its fundamental laws. Since life sprung from the world, Runes should have the innate ability to grant life.
But he couldn’t see how one could make the leap from one to the other nonetheless. It was too complicated for even him to wrap his head around.
If he had to guess, it was likely the system doing the heavy lifting again. It was more than likely that whoever created those wolves had a Class Skill that did it for them.
“Interesting. This sort of Rune configuration… if I deploy
“I focused too much on making each individual Rune powerful, but not enough on making each Rune play off against one another well. These Runes work like a circuit, and there’s a flow of energy between them, and they’re designed for better Aether control over the whole.
“If I take the circuit analogy to an extreme, some of the Runes are placed in series in order to rapidly increase strength, and some are placed in parallel in order to increase sustainability. The combination of the two finds a balance across the whole Skill in order to create something more powerful…”
Of course, it was more complicated than this, and seemed to also be related to geometry, both in regard to the individual Runes and that of the overall Skill.
For example, triangles were still the strongest shape, but not every Rune would allow you to place three side by side like that. Plus, the Skills would be in 3D, adding another layer of complexity.
Just as Sylas was about to check if his hypotheses were correct, his gaze flashed as another group appeared.
He looked up to find that it was Aerwyna. She was one of the three that he had never heard speak before. Being far more dainty than the giant Brisa, she didn’t have the height of a fashion model, but she definitely had the face of one.
Her eyes were striking blue, and when she saw Sylas, she couldn’t help but be surprised as well. He had actually gotten here first?
FLASH! FLASH!
Soon afterward, Vayu and Brisa seemed to appear at the exact same time.
Everyone’s expression changed at once. The fact that Sylas was here ruined all of their plans again. That was because the moment all four were present—
POP!
Their bubbles shattered and the four were transported once again.
The world was identical to the worlds of the iced steps. Snow fell from the skies, a chilling land of ice and blue runes was beneath their feet, and a perpetual white fog formed the barriers of the world’s edge.
Still, the first thing Sylas noticed wasn’t the fact that Vayu and his team had appeared across from him, but it was rather the fact that there were several spawn points for wolves as well.
“Why would there need to be spawning wolves if this is a head-to-head battle?”
There was a possibility that it was just for an added layer of chaos, but Sylas didn’t feel that this was the most likely choice. There was already supposed to be a 10v10 battle, why would they need more chaos?
“Point system?”
Sylas looked toward Vayu’s team and realized two things. First, they were all scanning the area as though they were looking for something, and second…
They were tired.
“There’s no reason for them to be so tired with their strength unless… they rushed here?”
Suddenly, it all clicked for Sylas at once.
He took the initiative, moving first.
“This must be a point-based victory. The point shouldn’t be to kill your opponent, instead it’s more like capture the flag where your opponent is a hindrance.”
The moment Sylas realized this was the moment he also realized that he had already all but won. His visualization had a 30 meter range that could cover almost half of this “arena”. He could easily claim a large number of points while they were still waiting for the wolves to spawn.
But he didn’t choose to do so.
That was because for the sake of his Gene Talent and to deal with the inevitable next rounds, he needed at least one of them to die… and there was no better time than when they were both tired and distracted.
