Chapter 137: Hike

[1150 GTs bonus]

Sylas jogged through the Brown family compound, his pace light and his breathing even. He had packed with the assumption that he would be staying here for a while, so he had most of what he needed. It turned out that he was right in the most unexpected way.

It was still hard to wrap his mind around everything that had happened, but he thought himself to be a rational person. There was no need to ignore objective truth in favor of a reality that was no longer worth much in the grand scheme.

The world was changing, and if you were smart, you would accept it.

The cool wisp of fall air danced through the colored leaves. An array of reds, yellows, and oranges danced.

Sylas quite liked this sort of environment, and cardio had always been his guilty pleasure. Though, that was probably why the system had judged his Strength to be weak overall.

"I hate you...!"

A huffing breath of annoyance came from behind Sylas and he seemed to remember that he was on this little excursion with his little sister.

The little munchkin had been attached at his hip for the past two days. She hated working out, and yet she had forced herself to come with him both yesterday and today.

Sylas found it adorable, though also quite unfortunate. Because she insisted on tagging along, he couldn't run at the speed he really wanted to go at.

While his Aether was suppressed, his Physical Stats were the same, as were his Mental, Will, and Luck, for that matter.

He had tested it already, and the outcome was both within his expectations and quite intoxicating. It made his experiences in the Trial seem all the more real, and he was likewise all the more confident in his decision to go.

If he was stuck in a world where he was suddenly surrounded by superhumans and a normal man, he would have felt suffocated.

'Maybe it's for the best,' Sylas thought to himself. 'If I ran at the speed I really wanted to, it would be very obvious to anyone that might be monitoring me what my true strength is at. If I want a chance to continue increasing my stats, I'll have to find a more... covert method.'

Sylas slowed his jog until his little sister caught up.

Elara gave him a glare as he rubbed her little head, puffing out her cheeks as though she was a toddler rather than about to go into high school.

"Alright, want a piggyback ride?" Sylas asked.

She pouted her lips, clearly wanting to refuse. But in the end, her weak legs won out and she ended up on Sylas' back.

'This isn't bad,' Sylas thought to himself.

His sister was at most a hundred pounds, and it wasn't nearly enough to strain his current self. But he thought that maybe if he found a way to add a substantial amount of weight to himself, he could see if he could eke out those extra Stat points he was owed.

'Blood restriction should also be a good method. I've seen some studies on their usefulness, I'll have to try it out as well. Unfortunately, it seems that technology has stopped working as intended...'

Over the last few days, there had been some odd occurrences.

For one, though his phone and laptop still worked, and the electric grid was fine, the internet was spotty at best. It seemed to only work at certain times of the day and it was much slower than it had been in the past, and even if just these last two days were taken into account, yesterday's internet was much faster than today's.

Sylas had considered the fact that maybe it was the Browns doing this, but he dismissed it after a while for no other reason than the unlikelihood.

Logically speaking, the Browns would have definitely brought them over for a purpose. They needed them, and alienating them like this would do them no good in the long run.

'As I've thought in the past, there's only two groups of people who would respond to the Brown family's call. Either fools looking for a quick payday, or people who thought it through and felt that something was up.

'You might get such a tactic past the first group, but doing so for the latter would be near impossible. At the same time, the latter is the exact group they don't want to ostracize. Though I assume that soon, they'll start having us do something far more substantial than just laze around at our own pace.'

Sylas continued to move, slowing into a brisk walk. If he jogged as normal now, it would be too obvious that his stats were on another level.

Although he was certain that the Browns likely had a method of telling whether he entered or not, that didn't mean they had to know how strong he was.

His current advantage was the fact he likely read as a Level 0 on their list, even though his stats were beyond most.

As for whether they could tell if he was an FFF+ or not, well... it was likely that they could. But in Sylas' opinion, this wasn't a big deal either.

He had recently come to understand that the grading system was on a curve and it was decided by relative strength.

Being an FFF+ Level 0 meant that amongst Level 0's, he was excellent, but it didn't mean more than that. He might still very well be far weaker than a Level 1.

'A stupid ranking system. I almost have a feeling that it's designed that way specifically to make new worlds like our own, fresh out from the Summoning, overestimate themselves.'

Sylas came to a stop as someone walked into his path.

He was running along a trail in a hiking region. It was still on the Brown family compound, mostly because the estate was truly that large. It was rare for others to come, so the fact that someone had blocked him seemed to mean that they had come for him in specific.