Sylas suddenly appeared by the side of the shrieking Basilisk King. The beast had been swallowed by flames, its scales providing not even the slightest hint of protection.

With a thought, Sylas pulled it into the Hibernation Realm. He hadn't thought that this would happen, but to save the Basilisk King, he had to take the risk.

Luckily, it didn't harm him in the slightest. And the moment the Basilisk King entered, it was already slowly being healed, the flames having been snuffed out.

[Quest "Sorrow of the Basilisk King (Fragmented)" Completed]

[Clearance Level: Fragmented]

[Rewards]

[>Voice of a King (Passive)]

Sylas hadn't expected to clear the Quest so suddenly, but then again, it was a Fragmented Quest. Maybe it wasn't meant to be difficult. The Bronze Casstle Main Quest had certainly been far more difficult. He had almost lost his life several times.

The rewards were also surprising. He had never seen the "Passive" tag on a reward before. He wasn't sure what it was.

And he didn't get to find out before another notification popped up.

[Quest Received]

[Sorrow of the Basilisk King (Common)]

[A King without a Kingdom. The Basilisk is a fallen creature; from where? No one knows. Maybe even They have forgotten Their former glory. You have met a Basilisk whose pride has been shattered and whose Will has been torn asunder. Remind this Basilisk King of who He is.]

[Common Reward Requirements]

[>Awaken the Pride of the Basilisk King]

Sylas blinked. It was the exact same from start to finish. The only difference was that it had swapped "Fragmented" for "Common." Could it be he had to awaken the Basilisk King's pride in stages? Had he only passed the first threshold? How was any of this even measured?

He put this to the side for now and turned his attention back to the Voice of a King reward. There was no item to take, and there didn't seem to be a notification either. In the end, Sylas could only go through his stats to see what might have changed, and what he saw caught him off guard.

[Name: Sylas Grimblade]

[Species: Human (F)]

[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]

[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]

[Level: 0]

[Coins: 7294 (F)]

[Titles: A Flexible Will; System Breaker; Legendary Tamer; Skill Savant (FFF+); Madness Conqueror (FF-); Common Arts Enthusiast (F-); A Patient Stalker (F-)]

[Physical: 98]

>[Strength: 101]

>[Constitution: 91]

>[Dexterity: 100]

>[Speed: 100]

[Mental: 136]

>[Intelligence: 207]

>[Wisdom: 62]

>[Charisma: 142]

[Will: 218]

[Luck: 22]

[Skills: Madness Control (FF+); Basic Scouting (F-); Maddened Enlightenment (FF+); Astral Bind (F+); Momentum Shift (F+); Solidify (F+)]

[Comprehensions: Madness (FFF)]

[Gene State: Inflexible]

[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); Voice of a King (F); (8) Dexterity (F); (6) Constitution (F); (4) Strength (F)]

[Common Genes: (6) Speed (F); (6) Strength (F); (4) Constitution (F); (6) Dexterity (F); (7) Intelligence (F); (3) Wisdom (F); (1) Will (F)]

[Bronze Genes: Basic Aetherflow (F)]

Everything was the exact same until he got to his Fragmented Genes. Right there, Voice of a King sat. He had somehow gotten a Gene Talent without realizing it.

Usually, he would at least feel something when a Gene Talent was assimilated. But this time there was truly nothing at all.

Curious, Sylas activated Voice of a King to see what would happen.

At first, he felt nothing at all. His body was the same, there was no boost to his strength, and it was all almost too normal.

Until he picked up on something.

'My Charisma increased.'

Suddenly, Sylas understood why he felt nothing at all. He had grown used to his Madness increasing his Will and Charisma by several hundred percentage points. The small bump he got from Voice of a King couldn't have been more than 10%, if that. It was no wonder he felt nothing.

Plus, with how flexible his Charisma and Will were after his Genes were altered by the existence of Madness, it was no wonder he didn't feel he was undergoing a metamorphosis when Voice of a King activated.

Disappointing.

That was the word Sylas would use to describe the end result of all of this. There was no other way to do so.

He had essentially gotten a far worse version of his Madness, and it didn't even give a boost to Will either. It seemed that overbearing names didn't translate to power in this world.

Still, Sylas looked toward the Common Quest he had just received. If the Quest was just an upgrade, would that translate to the reward as well?

Even if that was the case, he wasn't sure that he cared. Unless Voice of a King and Madness could stack?

Sylas tried it out but it was too difficult to tell. The boost from Voice of a King was so small that he couldn't see any meaningful difference in the strength of his telekinesis.

He shook his head. Even if Voice of a King ended up being useless, what he got out of strengthening the Basilisk King should be enough.

With that thought, he continued his trek forward.

The red crystals were quite curious to Sylas. He tried analyzing a few with <Basic Scouting>, but he got nothing back.

None of them were loose enough to pick at and take away either. He used his new over 150 Physical telekinesis to try and chip away at them, but he once again came up empty-handed.

In the end, he could only walk to the end of it all and run into the beast he assumed must be the last of this Dungeon.

His gaze couldn't help but sparkle when he saw it. This Dungeon had been easy up until this point, but he didn't expect even the final BOSS to be like this. In fact, it would be the easiest of them all.

[Red Crystal Python (F+)]

[Level: 10]

[Physical: 152]

>[Strength: 132]

>[Constitution: 181]

>[Dexterity: 165]

>[Speed: 130]

[Mental: 125]

>[Intelligence: 165]

>[Wisdom: 121]

>[Charisma: 89]

[Will: 74]

The python roared, spittle flying and air rushing forth with such force that it blew Sylas' hair back.

But he stood there calmly.

It seemed he would finally have a chance to test out his Beast Totem.