Chapter 148: Suppressed

[1600 PSs bonus]

It was very intuitive to do it with his own hands, but the back and forward motion of the chainsaw was harder to grasp with his telekinesis.

It was slow to start, and more than once the chain went too slack to cut anything.

However, after a few seconds, Sylas quickly got the hang of it, and his speed became even faster. Soon, however, he ran into another problem.

'Interesting... it should be the bottleneck for the amount of weight my telekinesis can move.'

The friction of such an action was exceptionally high. At some point, Sylas tried to move too fast, and the friction reached a state that was equivalent to trying to lift a heavy weight. Right now, his telekinesis could still only lift around a few dozen pounds at most before the Physical he could exhibit weakened.

Sylas could break past the limit with Basic Aetherflow, but for obvious reasons, it wasn't worthwhile to do such a thing here. But at the same time, he obviously couldn't touch the chain.

He slowed down the movement of the chains, maintaining a speed that was just enough that his telekinesis' Physical didn't fall beneath 45.

'Fascinating...'

Sylas found himself lost in the intricacies of his telekinesis. There were so many odd tidbits and quirks that he hadn't noticed before, at least not until he was put in this novel situation.

Technically, the hand chainsaw was one object, but his telekinesis was acting on it at two separate points.

Could his telekinesis overlap?

Sylas tried, but they ended up canceling each other out.

'Makes sense... my influence is already there once, unless I shrink one the other can't take action. But if they're acting on separate regions, it works... could that work on my kunai?'

Sylas continued to cut the tree, paying attention to the minor changes. Unwittingly, his telekinesis was becoming more and more refined.

'No, that won't work. If I tried, it would throw the balance off...'

The first time Sylas used his telekinesis to control an arrow, he distinctly remembered that it felt so much more comfortable than controlling a regular dagger. When he controlled his kunai for the first time, he had the same feeling.

This meant one very obvious thing: the aerodynamics of an object could help or hinder him.

For example, if he was controlling an ax, he had to be mindful of the pivot point. If he just shuttled it through the air, it would lose much of its effectiveness. He would have to first move it to a proper location and then imagine it rotating with its handle as the pivot point.

Taking a step back, if he tried to apply two different control points on his kunai, it would actually ruin the fluidity of its movement through the air and throw off its balance instead.

Ironically, if he wanted to apply two or more control points, it would be best if he used regular weapons rather than ones meant for flight.

There was something else as well.

Controlling one object from two points seemed to take more intention and focus than controlling two objects from one point. This could be seen from how it took him a while to get a hang of using the hand chainsaw.

'It requires more visualization. Even if it worked, the tradeoff might not be worth it depending...'

Sylas was so lost in thought that he almost didn't realize that he had cut through the entire tree.

"Incoming," he called out. He had cut out a notch ahead of time, so they knew exactly what direction it would be falling in.

After a loud BOOM! he moved on to the next tree, his thoughts still churning.

The problem he was the most intrigued by was the weight limit. Why was it that his telekinesis wasn't scaling as much with his Will and Charisma as much as he thought it should? In fact, it required unlocking a Gene Talent.

'I remember that Charisma is a stat that varies based on species. So does that mean its effectiveness is likewise decided by natural ability?'

Sylas imagined the baby of some foreign species born on another planet capable of using their telekinesis on objects multiple times their weight from birth.

Was this really the case? Or was he missing something else?

So long as the object was beneath his peak threshold, no matter how light it was, his cap was always 45 Physical. It didn't seem to make sense. Why could he control a feather and an ax with the same—

Sylas paused, his eyes flashing with a blinding light.

'Gravity.'

He suddenly understood something.

When you dropped two objects from the same height in a vacuum, they would hit the ground at the same time no matter what—assuming they were on the same planet. Could it be, then, that his telekinesis was akin to a universal constant? Except this time, rather than being decided by a planet or other celestial body, it was based on himself?

Sylas felt like he had just grasped onto something profound, but much like his Flow of Battle state, it felt like he was grasping at clouds. It was right there but it slipped through his fingers again and again.

He frowned.

[The Flow of Battle (Silver) (Quest)]

[The Laws have sensed your Flow of Battle more than once. However, suppressed by a Comprehension much deeper and profound, it has been unable to shine its way through.]

[The Pugilists, Warriors and Berserkers of the past lament this tragedy and seek to give you an opportunity.]

[Find your Flow of Battle and conquer it]

A familiar Quest screen appeared before him, and he read it carefully once more.

'Suppressed...'

This could really only mean one thing. Comprehending Madness somehow restrained his other Comprehensions.

Sylas had already noticed that he was a bit of an anomaly. In the Slithering Madness Dungeon, he comprehended Madness from the barriers earlier than he should have. This was why when the special event was triggered and he redid the Dungeon, he breezed through it.