Sylas fell into a deep sleep. He wasn't sure how long he was out, but he was hit with wave upon wave of fatigue before the river of dreams was able to take him away.
He dreamt of runes fluttering in the skies like butterflies, coming together to form the most miraculous living creatures, and even soaring above to form the stars themselves.
He woke up many tis during this sleep, but every ti it was for no more than a few seconds before he collapsed again, unable to withstand the backlash of his own fatigue.
By the ti he woke up, the sun was high in the skies, peeking through the wooden boards of his cabin.
Slowly, he pushed himself up, happy to find that his injuries seed to have been healed. However, when he checked the system for the date and ti, he was taken aback.
He was out for three days?
Shock ran through his heart and he imdiately looked toward the Madness Key.
[A key leading to a fortune of Madness. Detects other Madness Disciples and enlightens your path. Contains small spatial world within. Can answer one question in exchange for Genes]
[Curse Status: Glutton. Genes a day to maintain Happiness. Requirents grow by the day. remaining until Hunger increases]
[Curse Status: Cannot be unequipped]
Seeing this, Sylas exhaled a breath of relief. It seed that the Madness Key had automatically taken what it needed from the Genes that were already inside. Another bit of good news was that it asked for 20 Common Genes instead of a Bronze Gene. From what Sylas knew, you could exchange 20 Common Genes for one Bronze Gene, which was why his first Gene Crystal had been able to give him a limit of 20 Common Genes and a single Bronze Gene. But collecting 20 Common Genes was certainly easier than collecting a Bronze Gene. This made things far easier on him.
'Wait…'
Sylas' heart sank again as he checked. As expected, the Madness Key was completely empty. The remainder of the powerful corpses he had had were all gone, including the troll corpses. The Madness Key had fed itself, but it had no sense of propriety. Instead of taking the individual Genes it needed, it swallowed the entire corpse and didn't even regurgitate what it didn't.
The good news was that the Bronze Genes had helped the Madness Key to expand again, and it was larger than even a large estate now. But the bad news was even worse. There was already more space inside than he could even use. What would he even do with all this—?
That was when Sylas recalled sothing. The Madness Key didn't just add space when it expanded like this; it also helped concentrate the essence of Madness on him, allowing him to ditate on it. Before, he couldn't bear to use Bronze Genes to help it elevate again, but now… couldn't he?
Sylas sat down and focused his mind on the Madness Key. In a bout of inspiration, he changed his thod a few seconds afterward and set his visualization onto it, concentrating his entire mind on its form.
Almost instantly, there was a shudder that went through his mind.
Quickly, Sylas stopped, realizing that sothing would happen if he continued. The Madness aura would definitely leak, and if he was focused on the Key, he wouldn't be able to stop it.
Sylas shook his head. There were so many things that were inconvenient when he was under the roof of soone else. He felt frustrated and agitated, but he clenched his teeth, forcing himself to calm down.
He had only touched on the Madness for a short while, but he felt that part of himself so clearly. The part that hated to be controlled. The part that hated it so much he dictated every aspect of his life with the strictest discipline.
Sylas shook his head and stood to his feet. With a step, he had already appeared at his door and opened it. A chilly wind rushed in, and fluttering snowflakes fell from the skies. However, it actually felt quite comfortable against his skin. This level of cold was more like a spring breeze to him now with his current Constitution.
"Sylas?"
Sylas looked up and found a teenager waiting for him in a bundle of heavy fur. He looked almost adorable, with only a bit of his reddened nose and eyes visible.
"Yes?"
"The Mayor asked to wait here for you in case you woke up. I'm in charge of your food! Please co with ."
Sylas blinked in surprise but then nodded. His stomach was practically doing knots in his body; he was truly starving.
What he didn't expect was that his food would be an enormous spread. And what he expected even less was that he would be capable of eating it all on his own.
He had finished off an entire family of eight's Thanksgiving feast, and he felt like he still had room.
The teenage boy watched all of this with wide eyes. At first, he thought it was far too wasteful to prepare so much food for just one person, and yet reality proved him wrong.
Well, it wasn't like they were lacking for food, anyway. The Mayor treated them very well.
The boy didn't know that Sylas saw sothing much different when he saw this spread of food. This was clearly another thod of testing his bottom line. There was no way even the best professional eaters could finish this much food; only soone with elevated stats could do so.
Despite knowing this, Sylas knew that hiding how much he could really eat would only make it seem like he was trying to stand opposed to Lucius.
Just as he was about to leave, Mark ca.
"Sylas, it's good that you're alive," he slapped his shoulder. "You sure can sleep, an entire three days."
Sylas gave so perfunctory replies until Mark spoke of what he ca here for.
"We have a mission for you. Though technically, it's the sa mission everyone has received. We need to do so scouting work and find any potential portals in the vicinity. We're low on manpower, so you'll have to go alone."
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