Chapter 237: Free

[Time to Success: 00:00:09]

Sylas watched the timer like a hawk, feeling like he was walking on a tightrope right now.

[Time to Success: 00:00:01]

SHOOOM! A rush of air and golden light spread out, and Sylas felt incredibly light all of a sudden.

[City Conquered]

[Do you want to displace city?] [Yes][No]

Sylas realized that he could just establish a new city right here. There were certainly penalties for displacing the city, but he didn't particularly care. He had no intention of starting up a city. He couldn't afford to be locked down to a single area right now, and even if he could, it wasn't yet time to shed pretenses with the Grimblade family. When he moved his intention toward "yes," he received a pleasant surprise.

[Yes Selected]

[You are not a City Lord. Do you want to keep this Fragmented City Stele? Or would you like to sacrifice it for <???> Free Experience?]

The system seemed to be calculating something, and it suddenly spit out a number. The question marks shifted and changed, being rearranged like fluttering runes until they solidified.

<10,000>

Sylas suddenly understood. This Free Experience... could he use it on his Vipermancer Profession? That was a huge amount of Experience. As far as he knew, the only missions that would allow him to collect that much was...

[>Modify Hibernation Realm into Laboratory: 10,000 Experience]

There were no other rewards that even came close to that total. And it seemed that because it was called Free Experience, he could arrange them as he saw fit. Realizing this, Sylas immediately chose to sacrifice the City Stele. Keeping it would do him no good, and in all likelihood, if he did, he might have to hand it over to Lucius. Although he had already gained quite a bit, especially from the pig demon corpses he had yet to scavenge through, that didn't mean he liked the idea of others benefiting from his struggle. He felt a swell rush through his body, then felt a change.

[10,000 Free Experience Earned]

Sylas didn't wait. He immediately began to allocate the experience as he rushed out with Archibald over his shoulder.

[Taboo Bond]

[Level: 4]

[Experience: 0/10,000]

[Path Talent: Extricate Lv4]

[Extricate (Path Talent)]

[>Extricate <F-Rank Silver> Genes]

First, he allocated 150 Experience to Taboo Bond just to check if the Free Experience worked as he expected. He also wanted to see if every Level up really did give him the right to go after stronger Genes. As expected, he could now Extricate Silver Genes. However, he was shocked to see the Leveling requirement to hit the next milestone. But in the end, he calmed down. He had yet to even see a Silver Gene. Even if he could upgrade to Extricating Gold Genes, it was worthless. However, the benefits of One Kind For Me and Were-for-the-Invincible would be more immediately useful.

[One Kind For Me]

[Level: 5]

[Experience: 0/1600]

[Path Talent: Beast Totem Lv5; Insight Lv5]

[Beast Totem (Path Talent)]

[>Suppress <F-rank> Serpentes Beasts by <60%>]

[>Forms Hibernation Realm where recovery increases by <1600%>]

[>Increase Fusion speed by <500%>]

[>Buff Contracts by <100%>]

[Insight (Path Talent)]

[>Observe Gene Sequence of Contract]

[>Sense Evolution Triggers]

[>Comprehend Contract]

[Were-for-the-Invincible]

[Level: 5]

[Experience: 0/1600]

[Path Talent: Fuse Lv5]

[Fuse (Path Talent)]

[>Fuse with your Contract and gain <100%> of their stats]

[>Fuse with <1> Contract at a time]

[>Fusion process takes <1 minute> to complete]

[>Fusion lasts <240 seconds>]

Sylas' gaze flashed when he saw this. It seemed that the immediate benefits truly were more. He had only spent 890 Experience and had gained so much. So, he spent another 3200.

[One Kind For Me]

[Level: 6]

[Experience: 0/3200]

[Path Talent: Beast Totem Lv6; Insight Lv6]

[Beast Totem (Path Talent)]

[>Suppress <F-rank> Serpentes Beasts by <70%>]

[>Forms Hibernation Realm where recovery increases by <3200%>]

[>Increase Fusion speed by <600%>]

[>Buff Contracts by <120%>]

[Insight (Path Talent)]

[Were-for-the-Invincible]

[Level: 6]

[Experience: 0/3200]

[Path Talent: Fuse Lv6]

[Fuse (Path Talent)]

[>Fuse with <1> Contract at a time]

[>Fusion process takes <30 seconds> to complete]

[>Fusion lasts <8 minutes>]

Now, with the synergy of these two talents, he could finish fusing with the Basilisk King in just five seconds. Now, he only had 5910 Free Experience left. It wasn't enough to buff both of them, but only one.

If he chose Were-for-the-Invincible, he would likely increase the Fusion period to 16 minutes and cut down the Fusion speed to as low as two to three seconds.

'Wait... looking at this screen, there's something I didn't consider. Were-for-the-Invincible and One Kind For Me are two Paths that I picked specifically for their synergy. Until now, I've only used the synergy to speed up the Fusion. But looking at the Beast Totem's ability... When I fuse with the Basilisk King, could it be that I could use it to buff myself?'

The fusion ability came from his Were ability, and the Beast Totem came from his One Kind For Me ability. In the past, he chose them purely for synergy, believing that they could build off one another, and he had been satisfied with the results until now. But had he been too conservative with his thoughts?

In the end, Sylas chose to buff One Kind For Me one more time for two reasons.

First, the backlash on his body the last time he fused made him realize that he couldn't do it lightly. In addition, whenever he was heavily injured, it didn't work and became a useless ability.

Second, his next target was going to be the Arctic Cobras where having his Beast Totem would be endlessly useful. In addition, in case he was right about his Beast Totem working on himself after a successful Fusion, then the benefits of a 140% buff would be off the charts for him, especially if it occurred on top of the boost to his stats given through the fusion itself.

The moment Sylas made the decision, his visualization picked up on something that made him come to a grinding halt. Ignoring Archibald's protests, he ducked and rolled, his reaction speed much faster now that his visualization range had hit 30 meters.

BANG!

The ground he had just been standing on exploded.