Chapter 18: -1

Sylas never hesitated when he made a decision, but that didn't mean he wouldn't reflect. The fact he felt like he had entered a new world now meant that he had given something up, but he wasn't even sure what the other choice was about.

That feeling of not knowing grated on him, but he didn't have the time to linger on it.

His steps slowed, and he began to scan each and every leaf he came across as though it might be the next one to suddenly pop out with a vicious snake.

Dungeons came in all shapes and sizes. His grandfather had said they likely hadn't documented them all, and unfortunately, this seemed to be among the undocumented ones.

As Sylas continued to walk, his sense of focus riding an edge of adrenaline, his anticipation only grew with every second an enemy didn't appear.

While the cobbled stone path had vanished, the forest itself had still carved out a small, unkept path. It was hard to spot amidst all the foliage, and Sylas guessed that if he had been in the forest itself, he could have easily missed it. But because he had started off on the path, it was easy to continue following it.

'Should I?'

After moving about 50 meters or so, Sylas made the decision to deviate from the path. Not far, but rather three to five meters, offset to the right. He wanted to see where the path was leading to, but he didn't want to dive headfirst into what was coming either.

Every decision he made felt like he had done so blindly. There just didn't seem to be anything better to do. He might very well be trading in one danger for another.

The path might be leading him to danger, but who knew if there were venomous snakes ready to bite at his ankles in all this high grass? If he had the skill to, he would have used the trees as a path instead, but other than some light experience with recreational rock climbing, he wasn't exactly a spry monkey.

He continued to follow the path, and eventually he reached it.

'There's just no way…'

[Little Madness (F)]

[Level: 0]

[Physical: 31]

[Mental: 3]

[Will: 6]

Up ahead, there was a small clearing, the only obvious path leading to it that didn't require leaping over shrubbery or trees, being the very path Sylas was offset from.

In that clearing, a python with scales of orange and black lay in the grass. Though it was curled up, it must have been at least five meters long, while its jaw was lined with countless little spikes.

'31 Physical is one thing, but 3 Mental… Assuming its Wisdom was 0 and its Charisma was likewise low, that would mean that its Intelligence is double mine…'

Wisdom was a measure of one's reasoning ability, knowledge, and other matters related of the sort. These creatures were likely not intelligent in that way just yet.

However, Intelligence was a measure of Aether control and abundance. If Sylas' assumption was correct, he was outclassed by an impossibly large margin. It was possible that the recommendation of 50 Physical was just to offset the disparity in Aether control.

These creatures were naturally granted such abilities in their sleep, but Sylas and others like him could only slowly unlock them over time through Genes and other methods.

Was he just supposed to rush in and throw his life away?

Sylas frowned. There had to be another method.

He turned back and began to slowly comb through the forest, keeping track of where he was, where he had been, and where he was going.

He must have spent half an hour going around, and yet he found nothing. One would have thought that some other creature would have at least jumped out at him, but it seemed that there were no others present.

'Is this a floored dungeon?'

A dungeon separated into several floors usually had this sort of setup. The next floor wouldn't appear until the BOSS of this one was defeated.

But according to his grandfather, such dungeons usually had smaller opponents lingering around. This Slithering Madness Dungeon, though, had none of that.

Sylas wasn't sure whether to be relieved or devastated.

Without smaller enemies to face, he had no way of increasing his strength.

Sylas winced as his toes hit against something. Luckily, he had been walking quite slowly and observing every little thing around him, or he would have face-planted right into the barrier.

He had walked so far that he returned to his original starting area, the very area where the cobblestone path had originally been and disappeared.

'About what I expected…'

If the choice was an important aspect of the dungeon, it wouldn't just let him reverse it without reason.

'What's that?'

Sylas touched the barrier again, this time more than ready to process the ripples. All across it, appearing and disappearing in a flash, snakes of all shapes and sizes performed all kinds of movements. Some seemed to be in battle, some seemed to be intertwined in an odd mating ritual, and some simply rose high, baring their fangs and roaring at Sylas.

It only appeared for a moment, but Sylas felt his heart skip a beat.

He kept touching the barrier again and again, just to see those ripples once more.

His eyes went red, but he didn't have a reflection of himself to see it. It was instead the rushing of his blood and the pain in his eyes that made him pull back, his features pulling into a tight frown.

[Your Will has been influenced]

[-1 Will (Temporary)]

Sylas was surprised by the sudden notification. Just looking at the barrier had done that to him? And what did temporary mean? Would it be a few seconds? Hours? Days?

Will was his strongest stat aside from Dexterity, but he couldn't say that he cared very much that he lost a point. When he had gained one, he didn't feel much different to begin with. And like he had said previously, he felt the fact there was a Will stat was peculiar. How could you even measure that?

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