Now that the Trial was over, didn't that mean that the System Cities would begin to appear now? Could it be that this Judgment only existed for the sake of not allowing more competing cities to join? Ones that could encroach on the monopoly of the System Cities?

His grandfather had only told him a small bit about System Cities, but from his understanding, they were like Nexuses, but far easier to access for the common adventurer. In fact, the vast majority of the population would end up relying on them to survive.

These System Cities should have existences from outside of Earth's territory, many of whom were from worlds that had already succeeded in their Summoning, or had failed and integrated with other worlds.

Sylas didn't like the implication the slightest bit.

After learning about the fact there were competing ideologies in the system, one from a past era and one from this current one, he had already begun to feel uneasy. When he realized that he had entered some sort of glitch and lost three months in the Trial, this only bolstered his worry. As though that wasn't enough, there was the fact even the Madness Key couldn't tell him where the humans spawned in the villages came from

Everything pointed toward the fact that this was a losing game. Maybe they were never meant to succeed in the first place. There might be people with a vested interest in making sure they never passed the Summoning.

Sylas slipped on a tracksuit, changing in the field and neatly folding his clothes back into his bag. He had no intention of entering the Aether Plane once more in such nice clothing.

"He's a bit of a stickler, isn't he," Mark laughed.

Bloom didn't respond. It seemed that if she wasn't an erupting volcano, she was entirely dormant. Mark was practically having a conversation with himself.

The large man looked at Sylas' floating kunai and poked at them. To his surprise, they were frighteningly stable, not even swaying a bit.

"Don't you feel tired holding them up like this? You should be draining something, no?" Mark asked curiously.

"Not much, no. It's not really much different from talking," Sylas replied, standing to his full height and zipping up his windbreaker.

"Really? Wow," Mark's eyes lit up.

Telekinesis worked on Will and Charisma; the drain was about as much as lecturing. Sure, Sylas couldn't do it endlessly, but several hours wasn't a problem.

"We're moving out!" Lucius' voice echoed. "Stay in your teams. The first order of business is to secure the perimeter. I'll need each group to cut down five trees once we have. Make sure to conserve your Aether!"

Sylas, Mark, and Bloom moved out.

'This was a clever way of building cohesion before battle. At first, he seemed disorganized, but this Lucius knows what he's doing. None of the three candidates the Browns have picked should be weak.'

The world flashed around them and soon they found themselves in a thick forest. However, Sylas quickly realized this wasn't the Amazonian Wilderness.

There was a thin layer of snow on the ground. There were thick trees, but they were all evergreens. And there was a biting chill in the air.

To their backs, the portal was still there and it was an easy jump to the other side. By now, Lucius' intentions were obvious.

He wanted to set up a city to control this access point, allowing the Browns to control the traffic into and out of this area. At the same time, it would be the perfect springboard to Lone Star.

Sylas sensed a surge of Aether and he noticed that it was Mark and Bloom circulating what looked like an Aether Replenishment method. But clearly, they couldn't wait out the time because they also chugged an elixir soon afterward.

Mark tossed one to Sylas who nodded in return. Although Maddened Meditation could do far more for him, Sylas chose to chug nonetheless. Even for him, there wasn't much time to re-

up because the beasts were already here.

[Dire Wolf (FF-)]

[Level: 1]

[Physical: 55]

[Mental: 17]

[Will: 20]

Snow was compressed and flung to the side by their paws. The contrast of dark fur and fluttering white would have been gorgeous in retrospect if they weren't also such ferocious beasts.

Sylas' kunai began to glow with a delicate green light.

[Flying Kunai (3) (Bronze)] [Level: 5] [Ability: Pierce; Evolve] [Increase Strength Effectiveness by <1.5%> for every <0.1> Units of Aether] [Level Up Requirement: <6 Common> Genes] [Durability: 10/10]

If it wasn't for the fact Sylas had to evolve three of them at a time, the beasts he had killed earlier today would have given him far more than this alone.

The consumption of Aether was also exceptional because it took three times the amount to keep them all on the same playing field.

That said his Intelligence was 205, he had enough Aether for 20 complete Aether Units. This wasn't enough to slow him down.

He immediately used two units on each flying kunai, giving them a 30% boost. The true beauty of these kunai was that if they had a limit to the amount of Aether they could absorb

He had yet to find it.

Mark charged out with booming laughter, his shield glowing with a silvery blue light as he bashed it outward.

As though a shock wave had hit the line of dire wolves, their momentum was entirely stifled. They rolled back and into one another's path and it was then that Sylas and Bloom unleashed carnage.

At first, Bloom held back a beat, feeling that she should be ready to intercept any wolves that threatened Sylas' life, but to her surprise, it was entirely unnecessary. None of them could even come close.

After getting his Aether back, his kunai became even more lethal, not just because of Pierce, but also because of <Momentum Shift>.

Back on Earth, the wolves could still dodge his kunai from time to time because he was only using 45 Physical. But now, even when the wolves were fast enough, it simply didn't matter.