Chapter 174: Ch150-Leap Forward

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Ch150-Leap Forward

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[Chloromancy] came with a certain amount of ingrained knowledge, that mixed itself seamlessly into what Sylver already knew about the plant magic he was familiar with.

As Sylver watched the plants slowly crawl and weave their way up towards the ceiling, he knew how big he could make each individual vine, he knew how much water each one needed to grow to the size he wanted, and he even knew the exact amount of water to remove to make it harden to act as a wall.

With the briefest thought, the information Sylver got from [Advanced Water Manipulation] and [Advanced Earth Manipulation] was used to inform him as to which plant would do well in this specific moist dirt, and which wouldn’t.  

On a certain level, Sylver was impressed beyond words.

There wasn’t a single mage in existence who didn’t wish for a “get smarter” spell. Some downright wasted their lives trying to find it, or create it.

Luckily for Sylver, he was too proud to even consider such a thing.

And by the time he learned he wasn’t anywhere near as smart as he thought he was, he had already accomplished enough that he no longer saw his lack of intelligence as a problem.

It also helped that he never particularly cared about surpassing his peers, and focused solely on defeating Nyx. Sylver was an idiot compared to her, but it was better to be the dumbest person among a group of geniuses than it was to be a genius among a group of idiots.

In magic, there were no shortcuts.

Not for mages at least.

It was the reason Sylver didn’t respect sorcerers but treated witches and wizards almost as equals.

Power that was earned and power that was given were two vastly different things.

Muscles trained slowly, carefully, consistently, over many many years, were superior to inflated and reinforced meat in every single way, shape, and form.

The same thing was true for magic, a spell cast by a mage that spent 10 years perfecting it, was incomparable to a “spell” a sorcerer or a warlock used.

Sylver relaxed the grimace forming on his face, and instead focused on an aspect that worried him more than it pissed him off.

Because if the system could integrate information so perfectly that Sylver just barely managed to tell apart what he knew and what the system let him know, what if it went the other way?

Would he be able to tell if the system took away something from his mind?

With the [Chloromancy] trait it was like reading an old journal, and finding that someone added a sentence in an empty spot. The handwriting was identical, the ink color matched, there was nothing about the sentence to point to, to call it a forgery.

Other than the fact that Sylver knew himself well enough to know there were certain details he would never concern himself with. He knew enough about plant magic to utilize it in the ways he wanted, but [Chloromancy] filled in the gaps that at best increased the efficiency by less than 1%. It simply wasn’t worth the amount of time it required to learn.

Tiny tweaks to Sylver’s already relatively perfect frameworks. Sylver snapped his fingers and watched as the various weeds started to dehydrate and turned a sickly grey-brown color. They twisted and turned, exactly as he knew they would, and in less than a minute, Sylver’s previously missing kitchen wall was almost as good as new.

With just a bit of mana, Sylver scorched the thin wooden wall, and cooked the dried-up vines, until they matched the rest of the house.

“How well do you know me?” Sylver tapped out at Ria, while he checked the wall for structural weaknesses. It wasn’t a load-bearing wall, but if Sylver did something, he preferred to do it right.

“I think I understand the broad strokes, so to speak. If you’re worried about what you did to that shirtless man, I don’t have much to say. I dislike the idea of violence, but if you allowed him to do whatever he wanted, it would have never ended. Although I don’t understand why you didn’t just fight him directly, why call a guard and blow your house up?” Ria asked, as Sylver leaned on the wall with his shoulder, and was genuinely surprised at how solid the thing was.

“It hadn’t occurred to me to ask if the guards would protect me from other Flowers. I assumed they would, but as you heard, I assumed wrong. As for the house, I hoped to just suffocate him, drag him out, and beat him, but when Spring saw that the gas didn’t have any effect on him, he ignited it instead,” Sylver explained, as Ria moved in that spiraling motion she did whenever she needed a second to figure out how to phrase something in a specific way.

“Why did you ask about how well I know you? Are you planning on asking me to do something I wouldn’t want to do but will do because I trust you?” Ria asked.

Going by her soul she wasn’t pleased with the fact that Sylver wasn’t breaking Chrys out this very second, and was instead messing around with a wall, while he waited for his date with Rouge.

“If there ever comes a point where you feel I’m doing something I normally wouldn’t do, or I’m about to do something you think I normally wouldn’t do, I’d like it if you pointed it out to me. And questioned me, if I couldn’t explain why I’m doing what I’m doing,” Sylver explained, and lost the feeling in the tips of his fingers, as Ria tightened around his arm a little too hard.

“You’re losing your mind. Just like doctor Abel, I knew-”

“I’m not losing my mind, I’m just… Look, if something I’m doing doesn’t make sense to you, please tell me,” Sylver said, and reinforced the muscles in his bicep to stop Ria from bruising it again.

“Because you’re losing your mind. Or because you know you’re going to lose your mind,” Ria said, while Sylver ran both hands over his bald scalp, and did the best he could to sound calm and confident via tapping his fingers against his palm.

“He can’t lose his mind; he hasn’t had it for a very long time. He’s been in a state of controlled insanity for longer than he’s been actually sane,” Spring explained, and half lied.

The truth of the matter was that Sylver was objectively speaking insane.

At least, according to all the mind mages that attempted to get into his head, and then killed themselves the moment Sylver flashed them with one of the many many grimoires filled with “forbidden” knowledge.

Sylver didn’t think he was insane, but that’s exactly what an insane person would think.

Then again, he had to be at least a little insane, considering all that he knew.

Most of it was, if not harmless, at least not the kind of knowledge that a properly prepared mage couldn’t handle.

But some of it was…

Deep in the part of Sylver’s mind that dealt with things he didn’t want to think about.

“Controlled insanity” had a nice ring to it, even if Sylver didn’t like the idea of being considered insane by someone who would be working with him.

“Without going into specifics, I have reason to believe something is trying to… change me,” Sylver explained and felt Ria tighten even more around his arm, to the point he had to pull at her through his robe, to stop her from damaging the muscle.

“Like what? You mentioned you’re brain dead, so how can something affect you?” Ria asked.

Sylver did his best to think around the thought without actually thinking about it.

“This is one of those rare moments where I need you to just do as I ask. I need you to trust that I have a very good reason for not explaining myself,” Sylver explained without really explaining.

Ria didn’t say anything while Sylver continued to inspect the wall, and found it good enough for however many days he stayed here. He could always hire someone to fix it for him, but this was good practice.

“Alright… You haven’t given me any reason not to, so I trust you. If I ever feel like something’s wrong with you, I’ll do my best to make sure, and let you know. Can you give me any hints as to what to look out for?” Ria asked. 

Sylver thought the question over as he walked into his house, and inspected the kitchen wall from the inside.

“Just… I don’t know. I honestly don’t know; what I’m warning you about shouldn’t be possible. I only asked you, because you might be the only person who would be able to notice it. There are too many things I don’t know, I’m just trying to set up at least a couple of contingencies,” Sylver explained, without getting the feeling Ria had understood what he was trying to say.

It would have been weirder if she did, considering Sylver didn’t know what he was trying to say.

In the eyes of the system and the three bastards that forced him into becoming a [Swamp Lord], Sylver was the equivalent of a child trying to fight off a powerful mage’s curse. And not only could the child not see or feel mana, but it also couldn’t do anything, even if it could.

Like a 5-year-old attempting to defeat a 30-year-old man, there simply wasn’t a whole lot the 5-year-old could do.

Except the power gap was likely much much bigger, Sylver simply chose not to worry about it too much, given that there was fuck all that he could do about it at the moment.

Well…

Almost fuck all…

[Mutating Override] wasn’t exactly a god-slaying sword, but it wasn’t nothing. In the right hands, even a toothpick could kill.

Sylver smiled to himself as he reached up with his hand to touch the blood that was leaking out of his nose, as his legs gave out and he toppled to the floor.

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“9 hours,” Spring whispered calmly before Sylver had even had a chance to properly wake up.

His mana spread out and informed him of his surroundings, he was inside his home, laying on the couch, while someone wearing something that blocked his mana’s ability to perceive it, wiped their hands on one of the kitchen towels.

“Why does your blood smell like burnt cherries?” Rouge asked, as she threw the towel onto the kitchen table, and started to walk towards Sylver. His robe pushed him into an upright position, as he pulled the two blood-soaked scraps of paper that had been stuffed up his nose.

“Why are you here?” Sylver asked as Rouge jumped down onto the couch next to him before he had a chance to stand up.

“I asked first,” Rouge said, as she stared Sylver right in the eye as he tried to blink away the black spots.

It took him a couple of seconds to gather enough bearings to figure out what had happened and what was going on.

Apparently, those system bastards really didn’t like the direction in which Sylver was heading.

“I uh… the uh… the…” Sylver felt like he was about to pass out again, but the feeling receded before he could react.

“Are you alright?” Rouge asked as she placed the back of her hand against Sylver’s forehead. “You’re ice cold,” she said.

“I’m fine, could you get me some water please,” Sylver asked, and gestured towards the kitchen. 

He saw that Rouge was about to say “the sink’s missing,” but she seemed to understand that Sylver was politely asking her to give him a minute.

Sylver rubbed his eyes and found that he’d cried blood while he slept, and the front of his robe was sticky with blood, courtesy of the fact that his belly button had been torn open. He sealed up his belly button with darkness, and simply manipulated the blood back into his eyelids and sealed them up to deal with later.

Rouge came back with a plastic bottle of water in her hands. Sylver took it from her as she sat down next to him but just held onto it for the moment. With his eyes closed, Sylver increased his heart rate to an appropriate tempo and gradually increased his internal temperature to a comfortable temperature.

“It’s Chrysanthemum. She’s done this before. She says something you don’t want to hear, and then you think about it for so long that you’re either too distracted by it and die in an accident, or you simply pass out from the stress. Forget whatever she told you, every other word out of her mouth is a lie,” Rouge explained, as she placed a hand on Sylver’s face to make him look at her.

“What?” Sylver asked, still slightly shaken up from being blasted with magic that he couldn’t perceive.

“She doesn’t even know what she said. It’s like guessing a password, she simply guessed the correct combination of syllables to make you lose your mind,” Rouge explained.

“I am not losing my mind!” Sylver said, at a slightly louder volume than he had intended.

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“It’s fine, it happens. She does this from time to time, it’s almost a rite of passage,” Rouge said, as she stroked Sylver’s arm to calm him down, and kept her voice just above a whisper.

Sylver stared at the woman, and for a split second nearly lost it.

“Please leave,” Sylver said calmly. 

Rouge cocked her head to the side slightly, but didn’t move off the couch, and didn’t take her hands off Sylver’s arm.

“Don’t do this,” Spring warned through tightly clenched teeth.

The fabric that made up Sylver’s robe shriveled up for a moment, before it returned to its regular appearance.

“Chrysanthemum didn’t do anything… One of my perks, the one that gave me these eyes, has a certain cost. I thought I had more time, but I waited too long. I need to be alone for a while, I’m sorry,” Sylver said and had to suppress a smile at Spring’s genius suggestion. 

“I’d love to have dinner with you, and I would love what would come after, but if my blood smells like burnt cherries, that means even touching me is dangerous, let alone letting me touch you,” Sylver explained, and Rouge yanked her arms away, so quickly he might as well have been on fire.

Rouge slid away from Sylver, and for a moment her face was twisted in an ugly grimace.

“I’ll call a healer,” Rouge offered, as she stood up from the couch, and step by step backed away from Sylver.

“I don’t need a healer; I’ll be fine in a few days. Can we maybe reschedule for a week from now? Fixing my skin is fairly easy, but fixing my… fluids, is going to take at least a week,” Sylver explained with an uncomfortable look on his face, as he stared down towards the floor and placed his hands onto his knees.

“Sure, sounds great, I’ll-”

Sylver didn’t get to hear the rest of Rouge’s slightly panicked reply, as she was illuminated by a bright blue light, and then disappeared.

His robe helped him lift his legs onto the couch, and Sylver lay down and closed his eyes.

“1 week from now, brilliant. Isn’t the party at Demor’s house in 3 days?” Spring asked, as Sylver gently nodded his head, and allowed himself a small smile.

“I just want to hurry up and get everything over with at this point. I’m tired, you’re tired, I can’t save Chrys until I get the book, I have no idea how I’m going to transport her through the gate without killing her, and I’m tired,” Sylver complained via small gestures with his hand, hidden within the folds of his robe.

“You said tired twice,” Ria noted.

“Because I’m very tired of having to pretend to be someone I’m not, and just being here gives me a migraine,” Sylver explained, as Ria nodded along.

“I see… Just before you passed out, I-”

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[Physical Endurance [E] (IV) Proficiency increased to 24%!]

“1 day, 3 hours, on the dot,” Spring said, as Sylver lifted his head from the moist couch cushion. His whole body was soaked in blood, on account of the fact that he’d been sweating blood.

“I made notes… And Spring said I shouldn’t tell you what’s in the notes until you ask me about them… but… I have notes…” Ria explained, slowly, carefully, almost as if she was waiting to see if Sylver would pass out again.

“I’m not going to ask about them right now… But I want you to know that you can’t imagine how happy I am to hear that. It isn’t a priority right now, but please make as many notes as you can, on everything,” Sylver tapped out as a giant smile spread on his face.

The smile remained even as Sylver had to dispose of his blood-soaked couch, had to spend nearly an hour scrubbing himself clean from all the encrusted blood, and he very likely looked terrifying as he gathered up all the discarded blood, and absorbed it back into his body.

Sylver was smiling ear to ear as he cleaned his robe, and put it back on before he spent the rest of the “night” just walking around the Flower area, and took in the view.

He was careful not to think about it, and instead focused on something completely unrelated to what he wasn’t thinking about.

Total Level: 125

[Koschei-5]

[Necromancer-100]

[Swamp Lord-20]

CON: 150

DEX: 100

STR: 100

INT: 258

WIS: 224

AP: 15

Health: 1,500/1,500

Stamina: 750/750

MP: 10,031/10,320

Health Regen: 17.50/M

Stamina Regen: 13.50/M

MP Regen: 5,201.28/M

Let’s see now… I have 15 points to distribute…

Sylver very gently nudged Ria, hidden inside of his robe’s sleeve, as he, one by one, added 5 points to constitution, 5 points to dexterity, and 5 points to strength. He waited nearly a minute between each point, and each time felt a reaction from Ria’s soul, without having to tell her that he was adding another point.

Sylver breathed a little easier, his feet felt a little lighter, and the people around him felt a little slower.

CON: 155

DEX: 105

STR: 105

INT: 258

WIS: 224

AP: 0

Health: 1,550/1,550

Stamina: 755/755

MP: 10,099/10,320

Health Regen: 18.08/M

Stamina Regen: 13.95/M

MP Regen: 5,201.28/M

The purpose of distributing his points in such a way was obvious…

Sylver was going to perform a ritual in the future, and those extra five points worth of health, dexterity, and strength were going to make performing the ritual easier.

That was the only reason he had spread his points out so evenly.

One day turned into two days, and two days turned into three days.

Sylver had a tough time recalling what he had done for 2 whole days, but he assumed he just walked around with a grin plastered on his face, and checked, rechecked, and prepared the weapons he would likely be using to save Chrys.

He didn’t like this realm. It wasn’t the worst he’d ever been to, but it was within the top 5.

Except…

Ria alone made coming here worth it. Even the fact that Sylver lost his eye, tongue, arm, and leg, was an acceptable price to pay for Ria. 

As Sylver arrived at Kass’s office and followed the man to where they were going to meet whoever Sylver was supposed to escort into Demor’s house, he did his best to stay perfectly calm.

Thankfully Sylver was still very much in control of himself, even if he did feel like laughing maniacally.

Kass kept the explanation short and brief.

Put on the red suit, put on the red mask, escort the red-haired elf woman to Demor’s house, distract Lady Demor so the redhead has time to snoop around the restricted area, and come back here.

If he weren’t in such a great mood, Sylver would have pointed out that the terms of his deal with Kass didn’t include anything about distracting anyone. 

Now, Rouge repulsed Sylver because she spoke of Chrys as if she wasn’t a person, but Lady Demor didn’t have such a problem. And going by the way Kass spoke of her, there wasn’t going to be a whole lot of talking involved.

Sylver might not have had a chance to fuck his way up the social ladder, but this wasn’t too bad either.

In a few hours, his end of the deal would be completed, and all that would be left was waiting to find out the location of the book from Kass, actually getting the book, saving Chrys, and going home.

Easy.

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