[Arctic King Cobra (FFF)]

[Level: 7]

[Physical: 220]

[Mental: 291]

[Will: 253]

The creature was truly beautiful. It had alternating scales of pearly white and blue, and steely, slit sapphire eyes. When its hood opened up, a pattern of embroidery could be seen as if it had been branded with a sky-blue Rune.

Sylas was quite familiar with the hobby of snake breeding. Opening batches of eggs and checking what unique patterns you could get from selective breeding was something that he also liked to do. Though he mostly chose function over form, trying to research venom, he was familiar with the process nonetheless.

This mutated cobra race, though, was on another level. He had truly never seen a snake so beautiful, but it was also hard to match this level of beauty when this snake was quite literally emitting motes of light.

Its power was also truly exceptional. It was only Level 7, but those stats were off the chart. Just standing here, Sylas felt a great deal of pressure.

This beast was clearly on the same level as the mammoth race and the snail he had seen before. But they also seemed to have an extra aura, a hidden strength that Sylas couldn't quite grasp.

Was that the Path of the Mancer? It felt like this beast was more dangerous than even its already outrageous stats seemed to suggest. If not for Madness, he wouldn't even have the right to sense its stats at all with how high its Mental was.

Without hesitation, Sylas jumped off the back of the Dire Wolf and activated his Beast Totem in an instant.

This was only a Level 7 Arctic King Cobra and wasn't enough to clear his Quest, but it was a good foundation. Now that he had <Master Scouting>, it was even more worthwhile than normal to take his time and feel out this race of creatures.

The Arctic King Cobra hissed before it suddenly trembled.

A pair of slit, golden eyes appeared behind Sylas and the hood of the cobra slammed closed as it backed away. However, realizing that it wouldn't be able to make much of an escape in this situation, it put on a brave front. Then, as though it had been provoked by something, it lashed out.

Its tail whipped and a scythe of crystalline blue took shape.

Immediately, Sylas saw through several things.

One, because of the distance between this location and the Portal, the Aether was concentrated enough for Skills to work, but not concentrated enough for Skills to display their usual level of power.

And, second…

[Chilling Scythe (F+) (Skill)] (Weakened)

[Damage: 100 (-80%)]

[Special Damage: 20/sec for 5 seconds]

[Attribute: Ice-Poison]

Sylas saw this screen in his periphery the moment the Aether circulated, and he realized that <Master Scouting> didn't just allow him to document Skills after they had been cast, but at least with the influence of Madness, he could analyze a Skill the moment it was triggered instead of after it was already cast.

This was huge.

So long as he had the reaction speed to take this into consideration, this could very well save his life at a critical moment.

He activated <Solidify> with a thought. He wasn't in a rush to kill this beast, he wanted to feel out all of its trump cards to get a solid understanding.

The scythe collided with his shield and it immediately spread in a wide net of ice. Blue runes lit up like a curse mark of sorts and he could sense that his shield was now experiencing more damage every second.

'Attribute Ice-Poison… There's strong, lingering damage as a result…'

Only after the five seconds were up did the runes fade away, but in that time, the cobra had already sent out another three Chilling Scythes. This was clearly its most confident base attack.

However, it seemed shocked to see that it wasn't working at all.

Sylas' Beast Totem weakened even its Skills. As such, what should have been 100 Damage plus an additional 100 Damage spread over five seconds had instead become 30 Damage. While his Beast Totem didn't seem to affect the Ice-Poison Damage, this was still huge.

Even after four consecutive attacks, it wasn't until several more seconds passed that the corrosive Damage of the Ice-Poison finally caused <Solidify> to crumble.

'This is very convenient, but I can also see how it could become a crutch…'

Sylas didn't think that this was a completely positive thing. If one day his scouting didn't work, or if he couldn't calculate fast enough, then he might end up screwing himself over.

However, he couldn't deny that now that he didn't have to just cross his fingers and hope for the best that things were far easier to handle.

'I'll have to press it a bit. I won't learn anything if it just uses the same attack again and again.'

Three ballista bolts appeared high in the skies and suddenly drilled down toward the cobra in three separate directions. At the same time, Sylas summoned another Solidify, watching sharply.

The Arctic King Cobra roared and a pair of ice-covered fangs flashed. At that moment, a cone of frosty poison surged out from it forming a dome of blue runes. The moment the ballista bolts came in contact with them, they froze over and the sky-blue curse marks began to ripple over their bodies.

The arrows continued forward, but their speed was quickly plummeting.

Just as they were about to get within range to pierce the cobra's body, they crumbled into a rain of blue ash. It was also in that very instant that the cursed blue Runes had completely saturated their bodies.

[Arctic Howl (FF-) (Skill)]

[Defense: 600 (-80%)]

[Attribute: Ice-Poison]

Sylas continued to fight with the cobra, weaving in and out and pulling out its trump cards one after another. There didn't seem to be anything to worry about, just as he truly got the intention to kill it…

[Arctic King's Domain (FFF-) (Skill)]

Sylas' hair stood on end as a violent whirlwind of Aether poured in from the surroundings.