Chapter 2487: Slow Is Smooth, Smooth is Fast

The second challenge appeared before Caelren had even recovered from the first, an incomplete Rune materializing before him with several of its supporting Strokes already beginning to destabilize.

He frowned, but forced himself to focus. His first defeat had come before he understood what was happening, and although that was difficult to accept, he hadn’t seen enough to draw any meaningful conclusions. His Ancestor had sent him here to investigate Sylas’ limits, not to waste time wondering how he had lost a single challenge. If Sylas was arrogant enough to keep challenging him, that was fine.

Caelren’s Will surged forward, priming the first Stroke even as he began drawing it. Before the movement had finished, his Will was already preparing the second, and by the time the second Stroke began taking shape, the third had been primed as well.

This was the foundation of his Rune Path, a method that allowed him to overlap Will Priming and Rune Creation so that there was almost no delay between successive Strokes.

Ordinary Rune Creators used Will Priming to prepare the Mesh of Reality for an entire Rune, but Caelren had taken the concept a step further. By reducing the process to individual Strokes, he could identify weaknesses that most Rune Masters would never notice, and his control over the smallest components of a Rune allowed him to eliminate wasted movements before they could accumulate.

In terms of the speed at which he could construct a Rune, there were very few geniuses of his generation who could match him.

Unfortunately, before he could complete the puzzle, another notification appeared.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

Caelren’s brows furrowed as he looked toward Sylas, only to discover something that made his expression grow even more confused.

The human hadn’t been moving particularly quickly at all.

In fact, from what little Caelren had managed to observe, Sylas’ individual Strokes were considerably slower than his own. He seemed to take his time with each movement, allowing the Runes to settle before continuing, and yet he had somehow completed the puzzle first.

’His comprehension must be superior.’

That was reasonable enough. Speed meant nothing if someone could identify a solution before his opponent even understood the problem, and Caelren had never believed that his Rune Path made him invincible.

He simply needed to observe more.

The third challenge involved repairing a dying formation, and this time, Caelren immediately began analyzing its structure before the challenge had even fully settled. His Will moved through the damaged Runes, identifying the necessary repairs and preparing the Strokes that would allow him to complete them in the shortest possible time.

He was faster than before, pushing his coordination to a level that would have impressed even the elders of his Clan.

But then he glanced toward Sylas.

The human was still drawing at the same unhurried pace, each Stroke taking nearly twice as long as Caelren’s own. There was no sign of urgency in his movements, and from what Caelren could see, Sylas wasn’t even attempting to compete in speed.

Then the formation was repaired.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

Caelren stared.

Something was wrong.

It wasn’t simply that Sylas had greater comprehension, because Caelren had already begun understanding the puzzles almost as quickly as they appeared. His own Rune Path allowed him to recognize inefficiencies at an extraordinarily fine level, and he could see that Sylas wasn’t relying upon some mysterious technique that bypassed Rune Creation altogether.

He was drawing Runes, just like everyone else. So why was he finishing first?

Another challenge began, and Caelren increased his speed once more. His Will Priming pushed further ahead, preparing two Strokes before the first had even completed, and his movements became so fluid that the individual actions almost seemed to merge together.

Sylas, meanwhile, slowed down.

Caelren’s pupils constricted when he noticed that the human was now taking nearly three times as long to complete each Stroke.

Yet the result didn’t change.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

The challenges continued, and with every defeat, Caelren became increasingly desperate to understand what was happening.

He began paying less attention to his own solutions and more to Sylas’ movements, searching for the inefficiencies that his Rune Path should have allowed him to identify.

But the more closely he observed, the stranger the situation became.

Sylas wasn’t simply drawing his Runes slowly. He was allowing each Stroke to influence the surrounding Mesh of Reality before deciding how to proceed, and the changes produced by those Strokes were already preparing the conditions necessary for what came next.

It wasn’t just the next Stroke, either.

Sometimes a single Stroke would alter the environment in such a way that several subsequent Runes could form without requiring another independent act of Will Priming. Other times, Sylas would pause before completing a Rune, allowing its incomplete structure to prepare an entire region of the Mesh for the formations that would follow.

Caelren’s heart skipped a beat.

He had always believed that his method of priming individual Strokes was the pinnacle of efficiency. By preparing the next movement while completing the previous one, he had eliminated the delays that plagued conventional Rune Creators.

But what if those delays weren’t actually wasted time? What if the process of allowing a Rune to settle was itself preparing the conditions for something greater?

Caelren looked back at his own formation, and for the first time, he saw something that made his expression turn ugly.

His Will was constantly moving ahead of his Runes, preparing Strokes according to conditions that hadn’t fully manifested yet. As a result, every minor deviation forced him to make adjustments, and those adjustments accumulated until he was spending an enormous portion of his attention correcting problems that his own speed had created.

Sylas didn’t suffer from that problem.

His Runes naturally prepared the environment for one another, and because he allowed those relationships to develop before continuing, each successive Stroke required less effort than the last.

By the end of the next challenge, Sylas was drawing his individual Strokes nearly ten times slower than Caelren.

And he still finished first.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

Caelren’s hands began to tremble.

’Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.’

His Ancestor’s words returned to him, and for the first time, he understood why the old man had chosen to remind him of that particular lesson.

The Poise Heaven represented Dexterity, not Speed.

Dexterity was control, coordination, and the ability to accomplish something with the greatest possible precision. Speed could emerge from those qualities, but pursuing speed itself wasn’t the same as mastering them.

Caelren had been so proud of becoming the third fastest descendant to return to the Nethum Clan that he had allowed that achievement to define his understanding of what made him talented.

But there had been countless Nethum descendants who returned far later than their peers and still became extraordinary figures within the Clan. Some had even deliberately prolonged their journeys, choosing to strengthen their foundations rather than seize the first opportunity to return home.

Caelren had always considered them inferior in at least one respect. Now he understood why his Ancestor had warned him.

Another challenge appeared, but this time, Caelren didn’t immediately begin drawing. Instead, he attempted to slow his Will Priming, allowing the first Stroke to settle before preparing the second.

It should have been simple, but the process felt so unnatural that his entire Rune Path seemed to resist him.

His comprehension had been built around overlapping those movements. Every advancement he had made reinforced the belief that preparing the next Stroke as quickly as possible represented superior control.

If that belief was wrong, then what had he actually spent all these years perfecting?

Crack.

Caelren froze as a faint fracture appeared within his Rune Seed.

He hurried to stabilize it, but before he could gather his thoughts, another notification appeared.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

Sylas had finished again.

Caelren looked toward the human, his expression growing increasingly desperate as he watched another puzzle take shape.

He wanted to believe that Sylas was simply more lucky, that the difference between them was something he could eventually overcome through greater effort. But his own comprehension refused to accept such a convenient explanation.

He could see exactly what Sylas was doing. That was the problem.

There was nothing particularly mysterious about it, no incomprehensible Rune Path that rendered his own obsolete through sheer superiority. Sylas had simply understood something that Caelren had neglected despite possessing every advantage necessary to discover it himself.

His obsession with speed had prevented him from understanding efficiency properly.

And worse, the very method he had developed to eliminate inefficiencies had become the greatest inefficiency of them all.

Another crack appeared within his Rune Seed, and Caelren staggered as his Will began slipping beyond his control.

"No..."

He attempted to return to his original method, hoping that the familiarity would stabilize his foundation, but the moment he began priming his next Stroke, he could see the wasted effort involved.

He couldn’t ignore it anymore.

Every movement reminded him of what he had misunderstood, and every attempt to correct himself only exposed another portion of his foundation that depended upon the same flawed principle.

Caelren’s Rune Seed began to collapse.

"Wait! I understand now! I can—"

The next challenge ended.

—

[Challenge Complete]

[You Have Lost]

—

Crack!

The fracture spread through the center of his Rune Seed, splitting apart the foundation that had supported his comprehension since he first stepped onto his Path.

Caelren coughed out a mouthful of blood, his legs giving way as the last remnants of his Will struggled to maintain their connection to the Mesh of Reality.

He had understood the lesson. Unfortunately, understanding it didn’t mean he could survive having everything he believed in overturned.

His Rune Seed shattered.

For a brief moment, Caelren remained conscious, staring toward Sylas with an expression that carried more disbelief than hatred.

Then his eyes lost their light.

The Creation Tower’s formation descended, enveloping the young genius’ corpse before transporting it back to the Nethum Clan.