Shakily, Sylas pushed himself up and pulled out a Healing Elixir from Joel's items and downed it. He had quite a few of these, and they were designed to be used by Level 8's to 10's, so it couldn't be too bad.

A soothing feeling rushed through his body, and Sylas felt that his body was quickly repairing itself, but it would still take several hours. Unfortunately, it seemed that even these Elixirs weren't designed to be instant heals. Much like the others, they scaled with Constitution and only increased his natural healing rate.

Luckily, his Constitution had had a great improvement recently.

Sylas tried to fuse with the Basilisk King to improve it further and try again, but unfortunately, it seemed that he was too injured to do it. The situation seemed to be the same as back when the Basilisk King was too injured to fuse with him.

'It would be hard to use this as a trump card in battle if a severe injury can hinder it…'

Sylas shook his head.

Since he was injured, he chose to keep a low profile.

At the moment, he was still in the deserts of Lone Star, and the sun had not yet risen. It was a few hours from dawn.

The government officials were still occupied by the portal, trying to stop the beasts from overrunning the city, but it was hard to tell if they would call for help or not. If helicopters began scouring the region, he would be quickly found out.

He had taken the risk to improve out here in the middle of nowhere because he didn't really have a safe haven to go to.

On the one hand, the government was after him, and on the other, he couldn't fully trust Bloom and her brother.

'I should start making my way back…'

Sylas stood and began to walk. He had kept his wits about him, so he knew exactly where to go. He wasn't worried about going the wrong way anymore.

'I should also already be in Lone Star, so the likelihood of running into a roadblock is low. But considering the breakout of the portal, maybe I shouldn't bank on that.'

His body felt a bit weak, but he found that the more he moved, the better it got.

Soon, he saw that it wasn't because his healing was going by so much faster, but rather because his Aether was subconsciously moving on its own.

'Oh?'

His Aether was supplementing his inner organs by supporting them and stopping them from rattling around, lessening the pain.

Realizing this, Sylas understood that he had benefited greatly. It was impossible for him to run into a situation where his Aether control was so poor again, and even if he did, he felt that he would be able to adjust quickly.

Sylas made his way forward, sprinting at his best Speed once he got the hang of it.

He couldn't help but wonder why it was his Aether couldn't do more. Like, why couldn't he use his Aether to run faster?

But any attempt he made didn't end well.

'I see. Normally, Aether is kind of like oxygen. Alone, it can't do much. It's all the other supplementary existences in the body that allow it to be so important.

'If I want Aether to do something more, I would need a Skill. Or…'

Sylas tapped into Enchanted Scholar and began to scan the runes before him. He suddenly found something interesting and latched onto it. He solidified the rune with his telekinesis, and then he poured Aether into it.

In that moment, the wind resistance around him plummeted and his Speed increased.

No, his Speed remained the same; it was just that it could exert more of its abilities.

'It seems that the Speed value might be a calculation based on running in a void, or maybe some other arbitrary constant. If you change those constants, your stats would likewise change.'

Unfortunately, Sylas couldn't keep it up. He felt the mental fatigue setting in already, and though he could have likely pushed it for several more minutes, he didn't.

He was out of the range of the portal now, so all the Aether he had came from within him and was already starting to fail to work properly. Once he got too far away, it would all crumble apart. But now he had an inkling of how to use this new ability of his.

It also seemed that he might be able to use it without Aether around as well, at least somewhat. He could only seem to activate the runes with Aether, but he had only been experimenting for a small while. Who was to say that there wasn't another way?

'A blockade.'

Before Sylas could investigate further, he picked up something in the distance.

It wasn't exactly a blockade like he initially thought, which was a relief. But it was still a patrolling unit. It seemed that they were trying to keep order.

But the sight was a bit comical.

They were policemen and women, but their uniforms were unbuttoned and they were wearing shorts like it was the middle of summer and not the dead of night.

That was when Sylas remembered. The portal was connected to the middle of a volcano; the heat it was emitting must be excruciating.

He had been in the dead of that heat for almost an entire day, so to him, the outside world gave him a relieving cooling sensation. But to everyone else, it must be that the city was hitting record temperatures.

'This is going to stress the population for sure. This will be difficult for the government to handle. I wonder if this was their intention all along…'

Sylas acted normal and even took out his jogging mask. The policemen looked at him as though he was some sort of freak, but they ultimately didn't stop him. Instead, they just documented his appearance.

This made Sylas frown inwardly, but there was nothing he could do about it.

However, this definitely put a timer on his movements.