Sylas felt his heart skip a beat when the man turned and looked right in his direction. However, he didn't put the telescope down.

As expected, the man frowned when he didn't see anything. There were too many trees between the two of them, and though the man was strong, he obviously wasn't omnipotent. That said, he would certainly be on high alert now.

According to Sylas' mission, the base requirement was to find the location of the portal. He would receive bonuses for finding where the portal went.

The Grimblades didn't just order him around, but were also willing to pay him in coins for missions he completed, and the remuneration wasn't bad at all. Finding the location of a portal was worth 500 coins, which was already a decent 5% of his current wealth. However, he could receive 1000 coins for finding what the portal was connected to.

This told Sylas one very important thing: there wasn't a direct one-to-one relationship between the landscape of the Aether Plane and Earth. For all he knew, this portal wasn't connected to The United Coalition of Terranova at all, but rather one of the other continents.

There was no doubt that this would throw the world into chaos, especially if they began connecting. But it was also an opportunity, especially now that technology was quickly falling.

Who would dare to get into an airplane these days? Even steamboats wouldn't be reliable at a certain level. In that case, the only way to connect the world would be the Aether Plane.

Sylas took a breath. He didn't have time to laze around or wait for the opportunity to be safe.

He had a nine-month timer looming over his head, and the pressure Lucius had given him was like a guillotine all to itself. The only way to make up for the three months of time he had lost was by taking risks.

With that thought, Sylas moved, dashing forward and weaving in and out of the trees.

He wasn't being foolish. He had several things that were to his advantage.

For one, the man could not move freely, while he could. His task was to protect the portal from the wave of beasts, while Sylas only wanted to snatch some corpses, and if he was lucky, get a good guess at what city was on the other side.

Second, the man couldn't easily call for help.

While he seemed to be alone, Sylas was smart enough to know that he definitely had backup. It was just that they were likely to be on the other side of the portal and located at different cardinal points with the forest to defend the portal from all sides.

The man was strong, and that made Sylas apprehensive. But it was precisely because he was so strong that he was holding down the fort alone.

The third was the most important point. Sylas had no intention of clashing with him directly.

At that moment, Sylas' body was suddenly covered in black scales and a tail extended from his back. His speed skyrocketed, and he became a black blur weaving through the trees.

—

[Name: Sylas Grimblade]

[Species: Human (F)]

[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]

[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]

[Level: 0]

[Coins: 18433 (F)]

[Titles: A Flexible Will; System Breaker; Legendary Tamer; BOSS Slayer; Skill Savant (FFF+); Madness Conqueror (FF-); Common Arts Enthusiast (F-); A Patient Stalker (F-)]

—

[Physical: 204]

>[Strength: 229]

>[Constitution: 238]

>[Dexterity: 174]

>[Speed: 176]

[Mental: 146]

>[Intelligence: 286]

>[Wisdom: 77]

>[Charisma: 248]

[Will: 392]

[Luck: 22]

—

His fusion process now only took two minutes, but Beast Totem increased that speed by 400%. That meant that now, he could complete his fusion in 24 seconds.

On top of that, he also gained 80% of the Basilisk King's stats now instead of just 50%, and instead of just maintaining it for 30 seconds, he could maintain it for an entire two minutes.

That was enough time.

BANG!

Sylas rocketed through the clearing.

The man's gaze sharpened as he noticed Sylas in the first moment. He looked like a club bouncer, wearing a black dress shirt and sleek black slacks. Even his shoes were dress shoes.

However, none of this seemed to impede him in the slightest.

A golden chain rattled on his neck as he held out a palm toward Sylas, but the instant it took shape, Sylas' telekinesis rammed into the quickly forming Skill.

He didn't manage to dispel it entirely, but it delayed the deployment, giving him more time to react.

Before the man could finish casting his Skill, Sylas' hand had already pressed down on a mammoth corpse and sucked it into the Madness Key. It was at least 50% larger than the youth he had killed before, but there was no time to check its stats.

The bouncer's eyes widened.

Who in this world had a spatial device large enough to accommodate such a huge beast? If he had had such a thing, how could he just let it lie there?

His expression flickered and his Skill finally completed.

A purple spear took shape in the air, pulsing with veins of green as it bolted forward.

Sylas felt his hair stand on end and he knew immediately that his normal shield could not block this.

But right now, he didn't just have access to his own Skills, but that of the Basilisk King as well.

—

[Basilisk King]

[Status: Heavily Injured; Mentally Fragile]

[Loyalty: 1/10]

—

[Skills]

[>King's Bind]

[>King's Shift]

[>King's Shield]

[>Voice of a King]

—

[Gene Talents]

[>Voice of a King (Dormant)]

—

[King's Bind (FF+) (Skill)]

[The gaze of a Basilisk King is supreme. Freeze, mere mortal]

[Cost: 1 Aether Unit per second]

[Limit: Decided by every 10% gap in average of Will and Charisma]

—

[King's Shift (FF+) (Skill)]

[Laws of the world do not bind the Basilisk King. Bend to my whims, be suppressed beneath my Will]

[Cost: 1 Aether Unit]

[Limit: 400 Physical]

—

[King's Shield (FF+) (Skill)]

[You are unworthy to even touch the Basilisk King. My defenses are unmatched]

[Cost: 1 Aether Unit]

[Defense: 400]

—

'King's Shield,' Sylas thought.