When Sylas felt his mind fill with information about this poison, he was immediately interested.
Also, the idea of potentially fusing with a creature that would allow him to control the bones in his body for both extra defense and offense was likewise intriguing.
He couldn’t use weapons, but surely the Scorned Wraps wouldn’t count his own bones?
Sylas hesitated when he thought of this. If the Scorned Wraps turned him to ash because of such a thing, it would be too late to regret it. There wouldn’t even be a “him” to regret anything.
‘No need to overthink it. The point of the Scorned Wraps from their introduction is that I must rely on my own body and nothing else. My bones are definitely an extension of that. If something is going wrong, I’ll sense it.’
He was also getting ahead of himself. This lizard only had partial Serpentes Genes in it; it didn’t quite count as one. Plus, it was extremely expensive.
Sylas didn’t like it. He had already gambled on two Skills just now, and he was trying to find a path to sure victory. More gambling wasn’t something that he wanted to do.
He looked at his Coins remaining.
—
[Coins: 6 288 222 (F)]
—
After seeing this, Sylas chose to leave for now. If he could find what he needed for within four million, he would return.
Sylas began to scour the Nexus. He left no stone unturned.
He was mindful that he had a timer he was working with. Of course, that timer wasn’t the 10-day time limit of the Convergence Gate, but rather the 3-day timer of the system’s penalty.
He had already used up over a quarter of the first day between waiting for the City Lord to fall for his trap and everything else, so he had to make the best use of what he had left.
There was a great deal to choose from.
He went through as many options as he could within the two-hour limit that he gave himself.
Most things he was looking for fell into two categories. The first were immediate boosts in strength, and the second were methods of covert operation.
The best plan moving forward seemed to be to find a method to sneak to General Song’s side and then kill him in a blitz attack too strong for him to handle.
However, that was also the most obvious plan and one that General Song would surely be waiting for. If not for the boundaries of the Quicktime Event, if Sylas were General Song, he might even vacate the area. But even if he couldn’t do that, he would surely surround himself with a full detail, and getting to him wouldn’t be easy.
In order to get a method of sneaking in that wouldn’t be detected, Sylas would have to spend upward of ten million, Coins he obviously didn’t have.
Stealth Templates were, rightfully, expensive. Stealth Treasures even more so. And Stealth Skills… well, Sylas didn’t bother with them because he wasn’t compatible.
‘It seems I’ll need a method to lure him out. That would require him feeling like he could lose…’
General Song was ahead in points currently, but that was mostly thanks to the City Lord’s death. Now that Sylas had taken his spot, the city once again had a leader and thus could begin to accumulate points once more.
However, this wasn’t enough. He wanted General Song to feel as though he couldn’t win unless he killed Sylas, and that would require a much larger gap.
Thinking to this point, Sylas changed his strategy.
‘Secure the victory. In which case… it’ll be you.’
—
[Army Flags (FFF) (Treasure Set)]
[Gather your Army’s Will and suppress your enemy beneath your feet]
[For every 500 Will of the Flag bearer, those under the Flag’s banner receive +100 Physical.]
[Minimum Will Requirement: 500]
[Durability: 3/3]
[Note: A Set of 100 Flags and 1 Core Flag designed for use with 10,000 people. Core Flag bearer must have Will at least double that of the average Will of the 100 Flag bearers.]
[Cost: 3,500,100 (F) Coins]
—
This Treasure Set was surprisingly cheap given what it was, and there was a good reason for that.
For one, on a large scale, +100 Physical wasn’t much. That could be easily granted through a series of armors and additional items, which was a huge part of the reason Sylas even had close fights these days.
The more time passed, the more powerful Treasures entered circulation, and the more trouble he would have in this regard.
Second, 500 Will was an incredibly high requirement.
Third, the Treasure couldn’t Level up like others.
Fourth, its Durability was incredibly low. This meant that not only could opponents easily target and destroy the flags given the right situation, but the Flags themselves had to be constantly maintained. They would likely last one or two battles before the entire Set had to be basically reforged, which would easily cost another million in materials, every time, considering the number of them. Let alone the labor involved.
The fifth issue was the largest, and that was that the burden on the person holding the Core Flag was astronomical.
This person had to have Will at least double that of the average of the other Flag bearers for the formation to work. And that was just the minimum bar.
Someone who met that shaky standard could maybe last an hour in battle, and even then they wouldn’t be able to do anything other than stand there.
Even for Sylas, who had an insane Will stat, if not for Madness, he wouldn’t even reach the minimum standard to use this Treasure Set. After all, his Will was only 999, and the minimum requirement to use the other flags was 500.
But for all of these reasons…
The flags were also perfect.
That was because there would be no intelligent enemies here to target them in the first place. They just had to kill more beasts than the other guys, and they didn’t even have to cross the Gate to do that.
When the time came and Sylas felt that General Song could feel his victory slipping away, he would give the latter an opportunity…
And then strike suddenly and swiftly.
As for the key to this, it would depend on just how much he could sharpen his movement Skills in the next day.
And if he was lucky… maybe that Bone-tailed Lizard egg could give him the surprise he needed.
