Sylas methodically hunted down the Big Madness Minions. He hadn't forgotten about studying the barrier, but he wanted to make sure that Floor Three was cleared of everything but the BOSS first.
So long as he was cautious, with the support of Madness, his life was never truly in danger. Of course, it also helped that his Speed was greater than these particular minions.
Soon, he reached his Genetic Limit of nine Fragmented Strength Genes, and his Grimblade Lineage kicked in again.
[Name: Sylas Grimblade]
[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]
[Titles: A Flexible Will; Skill Savant; A Patient Stalker; Middle Madness Slayer (Dormant); Little Madness Slayer (Dormant)]
[Skills: Maddened Meditation (F); Little Madness (F); Middle Madness (F)]
[Comprehensions: Madness (F)]
[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); (8) Dexterity (F); (4) Constitution (F); (2) Strength (F)]
[Common Genes: (3) Speed (F); (1) Strength (F)]
[Gene Talents: Blade Aura (Mutated - Weakened)(-); Sudden Burst (Dormant)(F)]
Sylas needed to defeat six Madness Minions to create a Common Speed Gene. But he only needed to defeat four Big Madness Minions to reach this point. It seemed that he could continue loading up his Fragmented Genes to make another Common Gene.
So that was what he did.
Unfortunately, he soon ran out of Big Madness Minions and only managed to reach nine Fragmented Strength Genes, raising his Strength to 34.
At this strength, he was already beginning to feel some pain through his makeshift bandages, but they were still holding up better than he thought.
The current Sylas was shirtless, his original linen shirt having been carved up into thin slices that wrapped his knuckles, palms, and wrists. This covered all his bases for now.
He could inflict a surprising amount of damage when he used his high Speed in conjunction with his Strength. He had realized long ago that these stats had a lot more to them than what was shown on the surface, so it wasn't surprising that the line between Strength and Speed could be blurred depending on action.
It was especially easy to get used to these things when your opponents were all pretty much just live punching bags.
'It's time to check the barrier…'
Sylas stood before the barrier.
'This coming BOSS likely won't end up killing itself while it's rampaging. If the pattern of the previous Floors is followed, this is likely to be a Strength-based BOSS, and its Constitution won't lag too far behind. If I want to beat it, I'll have to be the one that does the damage. But…'
Sylas looked down at his fists. The blood-covered rags that coated them looked quite fierce, but they lacked a real punch.
'The BOSS's Strength would probably be around 80 to 100, somewhere in that ballpark. Its Constitution will probably be its second-highest stat at around 50, leaving it with Speed and Dexterity around 20 to 30.'
These were just estimations Sylas had made based on the previous BOSS matchups, as well as the minion fights. He had already checked the BOSS, and its Physical was 50 on the dot, just like he expected. That meant it had 200 total stats to spread between Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Speed. So that was what Sylas had based his assumptions on.
These estimations were probably similar for Middle Madness, just with Strength and Dexterity as its main Physical stats and a lower overall Physical. This was why its Speed had overwhelmed its Constitution.
Obviously, that wouldn't work this time around.
'If worse comes to worst, I'll hope to force its heart to give out like that Madness Minion. But it'll be hard…'
That BOSS also happened to have a Will that was much higher than Middle Madness' had been.
Sylas touched the barrier.
Flashing forms of moving snakes occupied his mind again. This time, he basked in it, not cutting it off for the sake of battle.
Maddened Meditation activated naturally as he was enraptured by the movement.
He remembered what happened the first time he really looked at these images. He felt like there was a disconnect between what was happening and the actions he could copy. They had the bodies of snakes and he, obviously, had the body of a human. How could he imitate them?
Did he want to imitate them?
A third of the images were clearly images of snakes mating, their tails intertwining and their minds sunken into the throes of passion. It was usually very difficult to read the expressions of animals, their actions themselves were better tells of what they were feeling. But for some reason, it felt so clear to him.
Was he meant to have a partner to complete this ritual of sorts?
Sylas didn't know how he felt about that.
This Madness was very important to him, but he didn't want to find a partner just because it would make him more powerful. Plus, he was a virgin. Was he supposed to casually give that up as well?
What was his virginity to the plight of Earth, though?
Sylas found himself laughing at himself, something he rarely seemed to do. The only one who could make him smile was that little munchkin of a sister of his. She was always so amusing in her own quirky ways. Being a 26-year-old virgin was definitely something she would make fun of him for. If she really knew what that meant, that is.
'Well, she's 13 years old already. Who knows what those snotty-nosed kids are corrupting my little sister with…'
Sylas shook his head in lament. Kids these days.
It wasn't as though he needed help in that department, anyway. He was a decently attractive man, successful, tall…
Then again, he did still live at home by choice. That wasn't exactly a nice opener. He also liked to walk everywhere and didn't have his own car. He also focused on work… a lot.
'You'd think it was Cassarae reprimanding me again…'