It took Sylas until the next day to finish. He believed that the reason it was so difficult was for two main reasons.
The first were his Runes. They were small and unimpressive compared to the vastness of the mammoth that he was dealing with. He believed that he could make them larger and carry a greater capacity if he were to use more Aether and more effort, but he felt that the return wasn’t worth it, especially since he was technically still in a dangerous situation. It was in his best interest to stay as close to 100% as possible.
The second reason was the reference he used to make the Runes in the first place.
He had learned a lot about the fundamentals of runes, and one of those teachings was about the different categories and grades of them.
Runes weren’t as straightforward as Levels and had three main facets to them.
All Runes that Sylas could even think about using for now were F-grade. By the same token, all of the Runes that made up the Laws of Earth were likewise F Grade.
The second was Aether. Mature versus Immature Aether, as well as one’s Level, played a role in how powerful the Rune was. Sylas’ Aether was still Immature because he was still Level 0 and still in the process of trying to excavate all of the potential he could from within himself.
The third facet was a vague concept known as complexity.
All F-grade Runes were created equal, but they could be combined and used together. For example, the Ice-Poison Rune had 12 F-grade Runes combined to form it. The poison extraction Rune that Sylas had just created was made up of a third of the Ice-Poison Rune.
Sylas hadn’t learned if there was an upper limit or not, but he was sure that there was likely a limit at some point or another.
Regardless, 12 certainly wasn’t that limit.
All things considered, a Rune with 12 parts was still considered to be lower class. There was a reason that a Level 7 like the Arctic King Cobra could use it.
But then again, what the cobra was doing and what Sylas was doing were two different things entirely.
The cobra was relying on an innate ability that came as naturally as a Gene Talent. Sylas, on the other hand, was forming the Runes himself. The two weren’t even on the same planet.
While the Arctic King Cobra had a far easier time than Sylas did, Sylas could scale and had a far longer path to follow.
This was all to say that Sylas had small tools right now, but the poison he was trying to deal with came from a Level 18. Though he wasn’t quite aware of this just yet, he knew that the man he had fought was a true powerhouse.
Regardless, after so long, he had managed to succeed, and now he had not only to manage to cleanse all of the mammoth corpses, but…
Sylas looked toward the cobra’s corpse. Its venom pouch, which had been radiating an icy steel blue color, was now tainted by veins of green and purple.
Even so, the air that it gave off was several times more lethal than it had been in the past. It even looked as though the venom pouch was struggling to keep it all contained.
By the time Sylas had finished with the first mammoth, it had already been reaching its limit. It could only handle the poison in one and a half.
Sylas wasn’t yet sure how he would make use of this poison sack, but he already knew that at a critical moment, it could very well save his life.
Now that he was more familiar with the Runes, he was also confident enough to cut the rest of the venom pouch out of the cobra’s body and store it away separately. Then, he called the Basilisk King out.
“Go on,” Sylas said, pointing toward the mammoth.
The Basilisk King slithered forward. It was no longer anywhere near as shaken when it was around Sylas.
Sylas still wasn’t sure what it meant, but in the end, he had cleared two trials for the Basilisk King. So much of its pride had returned.
The Basilisk King dove forward, its jaws opening wide as it bit down.
Its teeth seemed much more substantial than normal snakes. Even the Arctic King Cobra had fragile, translucent teeth. But the Basilisk King looked like a true predator.
Even so, it ran into a wall immediately.
The Constitution of the mammoth, even in death, was exceptional.
However, Sylas didn’t show any signs of helping. He just stood there, his arms crossed, and his gaze cool.
The Basilisk King seemed to have had its pride provoked. Its golden slit eyes flashed, and it dove in again and again, relentless in its forward pursuit.
Minutes later, it finally got down to the bone, but that was its next challenge. How should it break through this skull to reach the Gene Core it wanted?
It had to be remembered that the Gene Core was the source of energy a beast had. It was where one could take its Genes, and it was also what could be sacrificed to mature one’s Aether and Level up.
Of course, Sylas always chose to take the Genes instead, and now, the Basilisk King would have to get to it on its own.
With a bloody maw, the Basilisk looked back at Sylas as though to check if he would be helping it. But when it saw Sylas’ stance, it felt a hint of embarrassment and then another hint of rage.
It was the mighty Basilisk King. When had it ever needed to keel over and ask a human for help?
It growled, and a hiss that made one’s blood curdle echoed. The battle cry of the Basilisk King could make one’s soul flee.
Its tail rose high into the air, and it lashed out.