Unlike the other beasts, it didn't attack Sylas immediately. It loomed tall and proud, as though disdaining his presence. And then, its Will pressed down.

Sylas looked up indifferently. His hair rustled slightly as though a breeze had just passed by, but he felt nothing else at all.

After feeling the attack of the lesser minion, Sylas had already grasped how to counter it. His Madness gave him full control over himself. That was precisely what it pursued: absolute freedom at the cost of a perfect understanding of oneself.

The most protected portion of Sylas' body was his mind. The earlier slip-up that almost lost him his head was just a poor application of his Madness Comprehension.

It wouldn't happen again.

The snake that fancied itself a king was immediately enraged by Sylas' indifference. Sylas could feel the fury emitting from it, almost as though they were palpable waves.

A tail whip shot out with extreme Speed, closing the distance between it and Sylas' head in an instant.

Sylas took a step back and ducked, but his heart skipped a beat when he felt a rush of Aether.

The tail changed its momentum instantaneously, going from a sideways motion to mirror the downward stroke of a sledgehammer.

Sylas, who had already bent down to duck, suddenly found himself cornered.

It didn't make any sense. That sort of movement broke all laws of common sense.

Sylas already knew that Sudden Burst wouldn't be fast enough. If he tried, his torso might make it, but his legs would be crushed. By then, he'd only be able to wait for death.

His mind moved with an inhuman swiftness, and he could practically feel his heart pumping. This feeling…

He loved it.

BANG.

Sylas activated Madness, Blade Aura, and <Madness Control> all at once. At the same time, he pulled on his spatial treasure, taking out the carcass of the elite Spitting Cobra and blocking overhead. He crossed his arms, shielding his head, and as a final measure, he pushed out his telekinesis in a wild stream, doing everything he could to slow the blow.

A tremendous pressure descended on him with a might that drove one of his knees to the ground.

He gritted his teeth, moving the instant he felt the pressure alleviate.

He rolled to the side, the roar of the basilisk like the sounds of victory in his mind. However, he snapped out of that frame of mind instantly. The rage of the basilisk was a tonic that filled him with pleasure, but it was also a reminder that it was very much still alive.

Sylas jumped into battle, his movements far more agile. He advanced and retreated smoothly, pulling at the air with <Maddened Enlightenment> to quickly replenish his Aether stores.

'This snake is slow, but its attack speed is much better. That Skill also allows it to change the direction of its attack on a dime without losing any Strength or momentum.'

Sylas could no longer confidently dodge until he was getting well out of the range of the basilisk's attack. The only path to victory seemed to be his daggers, but if he used them to kill this basilisk, then what about the next BOSS? And the one after that?

He hadn't had enough money to buy more than the half dozen he had brought, and now one was already destroyed. This BOSS had over 80 Constitution. One attack might take out as much as three Durability, and if he wasn't using the Pierce daggers, it would be hard to even injure this beast.

Sylas dodged out of a swinging tail, trying to figure something out. The beast was just too large. The only way he could kill it with fists and kicks would be by assaulting its head directly, but how could he do that with any sort of ease if it was meters above his head?

ROAR!

The basilisk was completely furious. Its prey was so slippery that it couldn't get a proper hit. When had its dignity as a King of Snakes ever been challenged in this way?

Its eyes flashed with a bright red and Sylas felt the gathering of Aether.

The beast came to a sudden halt and loomed even taller, a mighty presence descending and suffocating Sylas from all sides.

Sylas felt his body slow for a moment. This was definitely the same Skill the minion had used, but on a completely different level.

He broke free of it with a slight push of his intention, accelerating out of the way even faster.

'A Skill… but why does it feel so much like teleki—'

Sylas' eyes opened wide, as though he had just realized that he had overlooked something.

He was obsessed with using his telekinesis on everything else, but why had he never tried to use it on his Aether?

He knew why, of course… it was because it didn't seem to make sense to. He couldn't project Aether out of his body anyway, he could only circulate it within himself and activate a Skill based on that. In fact, it wasn't even technically him actively circulating his Aether in the first place.

It was much more like a video game, as though the system felt he was too stupid to do it on his own, so he had to move his intention toward a particular Skill like he was pressing a button on a keyboard, and then it would do it for him.

It was said that Intelligence decided how well your Aether flowed. These were the words his grandfather had told him. But until this point, it seemed that Intelligence's main function was actually just to decide how much Aether you had.

Even if there was a part to play in controlling the energy, Sylas had long ago realized just how much these stats overlapped. And when he thought to that point…

How could Will and Charisma, two stats designed to decide how well you could impact the outside world, not be related to your Aether control as well?