Sylas reached out, grabbing at the object. With a burst, its protective shielding shattered apart, and golden light sprinkled out, falling to the ground like embers.
Left behind, resting in Sylas’ palm, there was a key. Or, rather, a portion of one.
There were no rewards, no items to take advantage of, just this broken key.
Odd. Itzam definitely said that there would be rewards, but there was nothing to be had.
Sylas looked at the key for a long while. A pressure fell from above, but he dismissed it. He knew what it was, as he had been in plenty of Dungeons until now. That was the teleportation function of the system. It was trying to give him the chance to leave this place.
But Sylas wasn’t quite ready for that just yet.
If there was no reward, he was just going to have to find his own.
Sylas took a step and leapt across the platforms before kneeling at the starting position. He ran a hand along the edge, feeling out for something.
The bumps and changes glided across the roughness of his palms, but despite his calloused hands, he seemed to make out every peak and crevice with ease.
’Fascinating…’
Sylas left his position and went over to the next platform. He repeated the process again and again until he ran out of platforms to look through.
’It’s not complete…’
A flash came to Sylas’ eyes as he came to a realization. He leapt off the side of a platform and into the water.
’Indeed, it is here…’
Sylas dove deeper and then started running his hands across the bodies of the platforms. The water wasn’t very deep, maybe six feet or so. It was enough for Sylas to submerge himself if he ducked, but not to the point there was an endless amount of material to analyze and observe.
In the end, Sylas ended up spending more time than he wanted before bringing himself out of the water. He was in a rush, but he also knew that this was too important.
Although he could rely on his Blade Aura to sever the connection ahead of time, it wasn’t something he could rely on for the same reason he didn’t want to bring out his Scorpion Warlord Armor too early. The drain was too heavy.
Even if he only used Blade Aura as a Will Ability, it was a significant drain on his Will. If he used it as a Gene Talent, it would fatigue his body. If he used it in its most powerful state and activated both at once… Well, the result didn’t need to be explained.
However, if he could understand this formation, and shatter it ahead of time, or disrupt it, then it would be far easier.
’This is the last piece…’ he thought to himself as he walked to the body of Itzam.
Sylas should have known. Of course, the last piece of the puzzle would be in the bodies of the individuals linked to all of this in the first place.
He looked at the tattoos but couldn’t find anything interesting. These tattoos weren’t real Runes at all.
’Of course not. If they were, I wouldn’t have taken so long to think to come back here. But these tattoos definitely acted when the formation was active. Why would they, and yet have nothing to do with the formation itself…?’
Sylas pressed a hand against Itzam’s body and fell deep into his thoughts until he felt something stir.
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