Sylas' eyes opened to a road of gold. It seed to consu his vision, making it hard for him to see anything at all in his periphery until he forcefully ripped himself away.
He frowned and then looked around at the rest of the world, only to find that it was equally as gold. The skies, the trees, the grass by the roadside.
There was an almost painful beauty to the world, almost like it was perfect to the point of imperfection, beautiful to the point of ugliness. It didn't carry the sa sort of asymtry or slight faults that a world probably should have.
Every leaf was the exact sa, every blade of grass angled in the sa way, even the rays of the sun felt almost artificial.
Sylas began to get a headache staring at the world, almost like he had an urge to fix it, to rearrange things. He didn't like what he was seeing at all.
…
"Oh, seems like I was a step late."
In the outside world, the Auran ca to a stop three or so ters from gean with a smile on his face. Though he was obviously talking to gean, his head had tilted up to the skies as he observed sothing flash onto the screen above.
In that mont, the enormous golden tree had a few branches flex and aim themselves downward, tapping at the air and causing golden ripples to spread out.
These ripples beca screens of light, which soon solidified into the pictures of a familiar man.
Sylas.
The image reflected Sylas staring at the world around him with a tight frown on his face, looking from blade of grass to tree leaf to ray of sun, unable to decipher and settle into exactly what he was seeing.
"Unfortunate. It seems like he's struggling already," the Auran said lightly.
gean frowned and looked away from the young man toward the screen. Seeing Sylas just standing there, she began to feel so worry. But then she noticed sothing, and her eyes flickered.
This was a very common thing for newcors to the Golden Grove, especially when their talent was severely lacking. Even if Sylas had a rare dual Will affinity, that didn't an that they were particularly strong, and given the Galaxy he ca from, the odds of his foundation being anything decent were highly unlikely.
But there was still a difference between Sylas and those people.
Those people… their eyes were always stuck on the road. Sylas was clearly looking elsewhere, though, as though he was distressed about sothing completely different from what normal people were distressed about when entering the road.
It was just that… gean didn't know where that difference stemd from or what it represented.
"You know, Miss gean, you should really consider speaking to your grandfather. I know my own and yours haven't always seen eye to eye, but the asset that your grandfather is can't be understated. Digging himself into a bigger and bigger hole every ti like this can't be good for the health of your family, and it certainly isn't good for the guild overall."
"Zayeus, how about you do a favor and shove it?!" gean snapped, her temper flaring. "I'm trying to watch sothing, and you're interrupting ."
Zayeus only smiled lightly. "As you wish. I'm more than willing to allow my future wife to be a little willful."
gean ignored the words as though she hadn't heard them at all. She had heard them so many tis by now that she might as well have had a permanent filter in her ears for them.
To the side, Lorien didn't even dare to look at any one of these two. Her eyes would have even been glued to the floor if not for the fact she had only just tied herself to Sylas' success and failure. She couldn't afford a loss right now… no, she couldn't afford him to lose.
She had to try her best not to turn to gean and ask a laundry list of questions. Sylas could get away with it because he was useful to her… but who was she?
Lorien clenched her teeth. She had to grow stronger no matter what.
…
Sylas' frown only deepened with every passing mont, his frustration growing.
It felt like sothing was latching onto not just his Will, but his Demonic Will in particular. He hadn't calculated for this—how could he have known that Demonic Will would have this sort of impact?
The Golden Grove world was essentially like the Rune Secret Realm but with a much heavier emphasis on Will rather than Will comprehension. In fact, it was very similar to the Lost City of Greed in that it tested his urges.
The further you walked along the road, the greater the impulse of money and riches would beco. If you walked too fast, you would fall harder and faster. But if you walked too slow, then you would eventually be consud nonetheless.
The trick was to find the perfect pace forward for yourself, not chasing after sothing that was too great for you, or limiting yourself to what was small and insignificant out of fear, cowardice, or inadequacy.
Along the way, there would eventually be so actual Runic challenges, most involving sums of money, directing traffic, streamlining cashflow… but in Rune form.
It was quite a cleverly constructed challenge, one that Sylas knew he could blow by with ease.
The Runes that challenged his money savvy were just designed to force him to find their most efficient routes. As a Rune Spark Master, it was an absolute joke. He could not only clear this Realm, but do it in record ti. It was just a matter of how fast he wanted to go.
Luckily, he had already seen the entire list so he already understood exactly how much to hold back.
What he didn't expect was that the mont he stepped into this place, he would realize that the truth of this realm was far deeper than he imagined.
Suddenly, the confusion and frustration on Sylas' face vanished.
'I see…'
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