Sylas stood and waited, circulating his Aether to try and recover from his injuries while keeping an eye on the woman before him. His gaze was sharp, and he didn’t let his guard down for even a single moment.
There were ways to circumvent the system. For example, when he enslaved Lolaleen, he had effectively taken her from Vayu’s team and put her onto his. So he knew that it was possible; it was just that the enslavement contract he used only had one use left, and obviously he had used it. If not, someone with Nosphaleen’s stats would be more than worth it.
He almost regretted that he had wasted it on Lolaleen even though he knew it was thanks to that choice he had made it so far.
Unfortunately… he was watching as Nosphaleen’s panic was becoming more and more obvious. Clearly, she didn’t have a solution to all of this either.
Sylas slowly shook his head. It seemed that this could only end one way.
He was about to make a move when he paused.
‘Maybe?’
When Sylas signed a contract with Brisa he had learned something new. Agreements could be made through the system, agreements where the system would become the arbitrator and witness.
He had thought that Brisa would bring out a contract, but instead he saw a system window instead.
The drawback to such methods was, obviously, the larger the gap in power between two individuals, the easier it was to break a contract. The system wouldn’t be completely fair. Brisa had technically, by extension, been taking a risk by signing a pact with Sylas at all.
The strength gap wasn’t decided by overall stats, but rather Mental stats in particular. In such a situation… Sylas was completely out-matched.
It wasn’t like he could keep Madness activated all the time, and even if he did, the largest boost would be his Will, whereas Will was separate from Mental stats.
Sylas wondered if he should take such a risk at all. Maybe it would be easier to just kill this woman. Plus, the number of Genes she could provide to him should be astronomical.
He hadn’t counted up how many Genes he had gathered up until now, but other than the Sylph corpses, he had wasted all of the Clandestine Ape corpses by turning them into nutrition pills, so that left him with just these Clypsians to benefit from. Of course, there was also the beast Gene Core that Brisa had given him.
If he had Nosphaleen’s corpse, he might be able to hit the quota he needed for his 200 Capacity Gene Crystal in just this one Dungeon.
Of course, there was also the chance she had Silver Genes, in which case her Genes would be “useless”.
It was also possible that he already had enough. He had nine corpses from Vayu’s team, four from Aerwyna’s, and now eight Clypsian corpses, on top of the Level 35 Gene Core.
Logically, he should have enough now.
It was a matter of whether he valued the information she could give him more than the risk of bringing her along and having her escape from his control…
Sylas knew the moment he thought this that his decision was already made.
This information was too valuable.
Sylas tried to trigger the system pact between them, only to be stunned by the result.
‘Failure?’
Sylas was taken aback. It shouldn’t be something that was difficult to do. Was he missing something? Lacking something Brisa had? Or…
‘I see…’
He understood. After their failure, the Clypsians were no longer the alpha creatures of Earth, and as such their place in the system’s hierarchy was knocked down several pegs.
It was likely that Nosphaleen was already incapable of Leveling up with the same ease, and in terms of system pacts, she couldn’t sign them either because the system didn’t see them as equals in the first place, regardless of what her stats were.
‘It seems that I’ll just have to kill her. Even if she has Silver Genes, Extricate should give me some shocking insights nonetheless.’
Sylas shook his head and took a step forward. This time, he wasn’t going to hesitate anymore.
Nosphaleen panicked when she noticed the change; however, the attack came too swiftly.
A surge of pain ripped through her head and she was frozen in place.
Sylas closed the distance by more than half, but then he felt a strong Comprehension suddenly be employed. In that moment, her Charisma skyrocketed and she shook free of his
Sylas had already expected as much. He was already within range.
He struck out with a palm, sending a pulse of telekinesis at her.
She subconsciously blocked from the front, leaving her back to suffer the blow.
‘Her combat knowledge is next to nothing,’ Sylas thought.
Her body came flying toward him, but at that moment, she unleashed a shriek. The scales across the top of her chest and collarbone expanded and her green-blue eyes gained a vertical slit.
Her hair began to whip about with an array of rainbow-like colors, almost like northern lights in the night sky.
All at once, her body was coated in a mysterious energy that seemed a lot like telekinesis but still felt somewhat different. She froze in the air, defying all laws.
At that moment, four circular blades rose from her back and slashed down toward Sylas from all directions, but by that point, Sylas had suddenly come to a stop, his eyes shining so bright they seemed to be emitting lasers.
Holding up a hand, his telekinesis clashed with Nosphaleen’s and the four disk-shaped blades froze in an all-out push and pull of tug-of-war.
Sylas blinked, his mind whirring.
“… How badly do you want to get out of here?” he suddenly said.
Nosphaleen, who had already entered a battle state, didn’t even know what he was talking about. In fact, she was pissed that he had suddenly attacked her like that.
“I would do anything.” Her voice almost came out in a hiss.
“Are you willing to become a beast?”
Sylas’ words caused Nosphaleen’s eyes to open wide.
The moment Nosphaleen had transformed, Sylas had sensed her Serpentes characteristics, even to the point he felt like his Beast Totem would be partially effective on her.
He thought this was good news. She thought she had gotten stronger, not knowing that he could easily suppress her to a state even worse than before because of this.
But then he had another idea.
If Nosphaleen was so close to his Beast Totem working on her completely… how close was she to being a snake?
And if she was truly so eager to leave this place… would she be willing to become something other than a Clypsian?
Sylas couldn’t help but wonder. If he used Extricate on enough of a person’s Genes, or carefully selected them properly, could he change a person’s entire Race?
Could he make this Clypsian a Serpentes and make her his second contracted beast?
The moment Sylas had this thought, he became eager to try it. At the same time, another world was opened up to him.
He didn’t just have to find Legendary Serpentes… he could make them given the right circumstances.
