Sylas had originally come here with two purposes in mind.
The first was to get the last bits he needed to finish up the evolution of the Serpentes Contract he was creating to complete the Bronze leg of his Path of the Mancer Chain Quest.
The second was to hopefully find a treasure good enough to help Mancer’s Blossom gain a Wood affinity that he could make use of to comprehend a Wood-Ice-Poison Rune.
However, there was a bit of a dilemma here now. Sort of.
The Violet Rose Heart itself seemed to qualify to clear his Quest, but only in part. He would still need to go and find an Ice affinity creature of Level 30 and above to finish it off.
This would be too much of a hassle, especially since his original goal was to complete this leg quickly. He was much too far away from any location he might be able to find such a beast in.
If he wasn’t to find an Lv30 Ice Beast, he would have to either hope he stumbled across a portal that led him to a cold Territory or he would have to literally cross the Africor Continent, heading far north or south. It certainly didn’t help that he was smack dab in the middle of the continent right now.
However, if he followed his original plan, he would be able to deal with it all right here. He already had the prepared Serpentes ready to go; he was just missing this final piece.
So the question was why was he hesitating?
The reason for that was because the quality of the Class he received was obviously dependent on just how good the target was.
All the Quest asked him to do was kill a Level 30 or above creature with the appropriate Paths of the Mancer. That was it.
However, as he had seen from his time with the Arctic King Cobras, the Classes the normal Level 10 Arctic King Cobras gave him, and the Class the Level 12 Arctic Emperor Cobra gave him were like night and day.
The Serpentes he created with his Legendary Path Talents would only be Quasi King creatures at best, and that was only if he went as far as sacrificing these invaluable pieces of True King creatures to them.
How could the Class they gave him, and the Class the Violet Rose Brush gave him, ever compare?
This was Sylas’ dilemma.
Should he chase the perfect Bronze Class? Or should he just accept the Bronze Class he could have right here and now?
It only took him a moment to make a decision.
He would take the latter path, even if it meant sacrificing much of the Violet Rose Heart’s valuable body.
When he made the decision, he didn’t feel much of a loss.
For one, even if he chose a weaker Bronze Class now, there would be nothing holding him back from going all out in the higher Classes still waiting for him.
Second, he was on a time crunch. He had no idea the next time he would run into a creature of ice, but he only had seven months remaining. If he spent months for a Bronze Class, how long would it take on his Silver or higher?
Third, there was no guarantee that raising his wood affinity would fix the imbalance between his ice and wood. In fact, if he used the powerful Violet Rose Heart to complete one half of his Quest, and then couldn’t find an equally as powerful Ice affinity creature to match it, then he might end up with yet another imbalance.
And fourth… His new Bronze Class was only an extra reward that he was seeking out for himself here.
There were still the rewards of the Dynamic Field Dungeon to look forward to.
Sylas collected all of his rewards and stored them away. It would be foolish to take stock of everything here given the state of his injuries and everything else.
He would return to the System City first. Then he would rest, heal his body, and then begin the next steps. Because that would require his full and undivided attention.
**
With a thought, the Ground Boa appeared on the training grounds.
—
[Ground Boa (FFF+)]
[Level: 30]
—
It had grown eight Levels since Sylas first met it, and that had taken no small bit of effort. The amount of resources that Sylas had to collect to get it to this point dwarfed the tens of millions.
He didn’t really feel it in his pockets because he had just used the City Stele’s ability to feel out these locations, and then his Insight Path Talent to find the triggers for the boa’s evolution. But that didn’t change the fact this creature was a huge investment.
It had started with an Earth affinity, but that made it very compatible with wood. Allowing it to gain poison and ice after the fact was relatively easy as well.
The Ground Boa was like the perfect blank slate. It had a sturdy body, its Earth affinity wasn’t overwhelming, and it didn’t have any higher lineages tugging it in certain directions.
That was what made it perfect.
Sylas took out the Beast Core from the Violet Rose Heart and forced it into the boa’s stomach. Then, he pressed a hand to its forehead and began to slowly guide things.
Groundbreaking changes shook the Ground Boa’s body. It was incredibly docile, not daring to lift even a finger. Even if Sylas wanted it to kill itself right here and now, it would do so.
There was an innate sort of respect that these creatures had for Sylas. And even though he had yet to spend the two million Free Experience he got from his other two System Cities, just his presence alone seemed to subdue Serpentes.
He even had a feeling that part of the reason Nosphaleen hadn’t even considered betraying him yet was also because of this.
But no matter how much this Ground Boa respected him, it wouldn’t stop him from doing what he needed to do.
The moment he sensed the Ground Boa break through a threshold, the palm he had placed on its forehead trembled.
The head of the Ground Boa shattered.
