Until now, Sylas still didn't feel like Alex had lied. But that didn't make him feel at ease. "What is the relationship between those hidden families, Legacy, and the government?" "Which government?"
Sylas took a breath when he heard this. As expected, it was easy for him to think of the "government" as a monolith when he was here, but there were still several countries in the world.
The world seemed together, sharing the same language, being of one race, having similar enough cultures... but if they were truly together what was the point in separating themselves into countries in the first place? Wouldn't it have made more sense to just make the entirety of Earth a single nation?
Now, Alex had pretty much confirmed that.
From now on, it seemed he had to think of the "government" as the Terranova Government, because the United Coalition of Terranova was the only government he had interacted with until now. Who knew if they had the same goals as the other governments or not?
"Well, you could say that the reason the governments feign civility on the surface is because they fear the influence of Legacy which exists everywhere. As for the families, they are... unique wildcards. They have histories far shorter than Legacy, but they also represent the inevitability of every Summoning-that being heroes who rise up as wild cards, kinda like you, Psycho Syl.
"The ancestors of those families were all elites of the last Summoning that managed to break free of the hold of the governments and Legacy, at least in part. Though, if I'm going to be honest, my analysis is that they just managed to reach a threshold of strength where it was no longer worthwhile for the big wigs to take action as the losses would outweigh the gains.
"I guess right now there's a delicate balance. Everyone got screwed over with the sudden change to the Trial length so now they're just hurrying to scrounge for resources and putting more effort into scouting out the Aether Plane as there hadn't been enough time to do so."
Sylas understood a lot, especially from the last leg of Alex's words.
If the Trial hadn't ended early, these powerful organizations would have definitely mapped out the entire Aether Plane. When the Trial came to an end, not only would they have far more powerful warriors, but they would immediately be able to target the most valuable regions of the Aether Plane and likely use the abilities of a City Lord to open up worlds directly to those locations.
However, the benefit of opening up a portal was only available to those that founded cities while the Trial was ongoing. Now that they had lost this chance, a lot of their plans had been thrown askew.
But more important than that...
It was clear from Alex's words that they had no idea that Sylas was the one who was responsible for this change.
"What caused the Trial to end so abruptly?" Sylas asked as though he didn't know the answer. Alex shrugged. "Fuck if I know. But if I had to guess, it's probably trouble. System Cities have never appeared so early before, and now we have far less power to confront their machinations. If I had to bet, I'd say it had something to do with them, but it's hard to tell... the system isn't exactly an arbitrator of fairness, but it doesn't allow people to skirt its rules so easily either..."
Sylas nodded slowly, then suddenly switched gears.
"The Luck stat. What does it do?"
Sylas was very hesitant to ask the Madness Key pointed questions about the system because he felt that those things could very easily encroach on taboos. But Alex was probably the best to ask about this.
"Luck?" Alex blinked. "Well, it's hard to say. In the beginning, everyone thought that it was as it said. After all, so much of the system is based on percentage chances, random spawns and things of the like. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Luck is hard to describe as anything other than a sixth sense that can sometimes manifest as better odds of success, but not always."
Sylas nodded again. His Luck stat's increase had come with a great number of vague feelings and it was also the reason his visualization was so sharp now.
Although his visualization had always been there, especially after he began actively using it to bolster the effectiveness of his telekinesis, it wasn't until his Luck became 22 that it burst with vibrant colors and began to act like an extra set of eyes.
Before that, it wasn't nearly so clear.
"How do you hide your name from the system?" Sylas asked.
But to his surprise, this time, Alex burst into a fit of laughter. It wasn't until he caught a particularly strong whiff of the foul stench in the cave that he began coughing instead.
"Damn, that shit's disgusting. We really should leave. I'm dying here."
"Answer the question."
"Fine, fine." Alex held up his hands. "I was only laughing because your question is meaningless now. You were out so you probably don't know but... hiding your name is definitely not a luxury you have anymore."
Sylas frowned, not understanding what that meant. But soon, Alex squeezed out the information through a fit of laughter.
After learning what happened when he was out, Sylas fell into silence. This... really was a problem. But it seemed that it was one that he couldn't get out of regardless of what he did, so there was no point in worrying about it any longer.
Alex watched Sylas' expression and seemed to find it only natural that he didn't react much to this information. Most others would shit their pants when they found out that the entire world was looking for them, but Sylas didn't seem to give a damn.
It was as though his reaction would be much the same regardless of what challenge he faced.
After he had gotten over his fear of facing death...
There truly wasn't anything left that could move him from his baseline so easily.
Sylas looked up and met Alex's gaze once more. This time, he couldn't refrain from asking the question. Alex's actions were too peculiar. This would be his last question.
"Why are you so eager to give me the answers I want?"