[600 GTs bonus chapter]

[Flying Kunai (Bronze)]

[Level: 10]

[Ability: Pierce; Evolve]

[Increase Strength Effectiveness by <2%> for every <0.1> Units of Aether]

[Level Up Requirement: <1 Bronze> Genes]

[Durability: 7/10]

—

[Flying Kunai (Bronze)]

[Level: 10]

[Ability: Pierce; Evolve; Flame Damage]

[Increase Strength Effectiveness by <2%> for every <0.1> Units of Aether]

[Level Up Requirement: <1 Bronze> Genes]

[Damage increased by 5%]

[Durability: 6/10]

—

[Flying Kunai (Bronze)]

[Level: 10]

[Ability: Pierce; Evolve; Dark Damage]

[Increase Strength Effectiveness by <2%> for every <0.1> Units of Aether]

[Level Up Requirement: <1 Bronze> Genes]

[Damage increased by 5%; Damage increased by 10% in the night]

[Durability: 6/10]

—

As Sylas continued, he used the excess Common Genes he collected to upgrade his kunai. But the problem was the Durability.

It seemed that for a long time, they had been at 10. But the moment they started to dip downward, they did so quickly. Sylas still had no idea how to fix them other than rely on someone with a Blacksmithing Profession of some sort. But not just anyone could fix a weapon of the Legendary Path like this one.

Once Durability dipped down to half, the Treasure's stats would begin to take a hit as well. So it seemed that his kunai might not last for very long.

He also noticed that the kunai with attributes added to them were worse off than the one without attributes. It seemed that maybe this was a double-edged sword that he needed to consider.

Sylas hesitated, but in the end, he decided to only use his kunai if the situation warranted it. He had plenty of ballista bolts in his Madness Key, and they were designed for flight as well, so they were likewise easy to control.

Of course, the problem with using them was that they weren't nearly as agile as his kunai, so if he wanted to change their direction in the air, he would either need to use <Momentum Shift> or take a long, curved path.

Unfortunately, his telekinesis could now exert more than 200 Physical, while the cap of <Momentum Shift> was only 200. So, there would definitely be some tradeoffs.

Sylas was a bit lost in thought as he moved. Since there was nothing around, once they got to the expanse of the Arctic Circle, Sylas realized that he wasn't completely helpless in this situation.

After some thought, he summoned the Basilisk King.

It was a bit awkward, but after some adjustments, he wrapped the Basilisk King's body around himself.

The Basilisk King was quite large, and had a body over five meters long. It had some heft to it as well, but since Sylas could blast it into a wall with a fist over a month ago, by now this weight wasn't much to him.

Plus, it was the Dire Wolf carrying most of the weight. He just had to keep himself balanced, something the Basilisk King would help him with.

He began to slowly communicate with the Basilisk King. He transmitted two things. The first was a search pattern he wanted the Basilisk King to use, not to mention an admonishment to remain cautious and avoid beasts where possible. And the second was to protect him.

Sylas realized that he had to get more used to relying on the Basilisk King for other things. Fusing wasn't the only thing the Basilisk King was useful for. And, unless he let the Basilisk King out more often, how would he finish the pride Quest?

With that, Sylas' mind turned inward and he began to look toward one of the rewards he had exchanged for in the Nexus.

[Introduction to Rune, Rune Patterns, and Rune Geometry (Secrets)]

The Basilisk King watched Sylas enter a state of meditation, its slit eyes flickering as its tongue weaved in and out. Its impression of Sylas by this point had changed somewhat, not due to the time they had spent together because that wasn't much… but because Sylas had helped it to awaken to more of itself.

At the very least, while it wasn't chummy with this human, the urge to bite his head off wasn't there anymore.

[Favorability: 3/10]

In the end, it rested its head on the top of Sylas', its golden gaze scanning the region with a murderous light.

Why did this human have to always summon it in such cold places? It didn't like this weather at all.

…

Sylas' mind appeared on a road. Ahead of him, there were several doors.

After a quick look around, he decided that there wasn't much to see here and he might as well just open the first door. As far as he could see, there were nine total. So he would just take this one step at a time.

The moment he opened the door, a rush of information came to his mind.

Rune Sight…

The term was foreign to Sylas, but he came to understand it soon thanks to this flood of information.

Rune Sight was a state of being able to feel and see the Runes of the world. This actually didn't refer to being able to see them all, but at least some of them. In fact, the threshold was just being able to see a single one.

Runes were divided into Tiers, from Fragmented to Legendary. Of course, this was further divided into the F-Grade, the E-Grade, and beyond.

This was the first that Sylas had heard of the E-Grade, but this introductory course didn't mention anything beyond it.

Further, Runes were the language of the universe, and Aether was their fuel. Everything in the world was dictated through them. Skills, for example, were circulation methods that used Aether pathways as a replacement for Runes. This allowed communication with the Runes in the environment that elicited certain reactions.

A lot of this fundamental information was stuffed into Sylas' mind and quickly digested. Much of it were things he had already personally deduced, but this information consolidated it and made it more tangible to his mind.

Then, his vision cleared and a world appeared before him.