Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1016  Inspectors

Lorienʼs eyes opened wide.

”You… You… what did you just do?”

The blaring warning sirens—a code red of epic proportions—had just come down. And it was clear that it wasnʼt from the system, but rather from the Golden Grove itself. What the hell had Sylas just done?

”I found a shortcut,” Sylas said calmly. ”Nosphaleen, you watch her. Iʼll be here.”

”Yes, master,” Nosphaleen said softly, her icy eyes turning toward Lorien and locking onto her as though nothing else mattered in the world.

As for Sylas, he took a seat on the ground and took out the first Bronze Gene, then pressed it against his chest.

It had been a while since he could do this with a basic Gene because he had long reached his limits. But while the feeling was familiar, it was no less magical. In fact, Sylas somewhat felt that it was more mystical now than ever before.

The Bronze Genes were sinking into his body far further than ever before. If before he was like a nouveau riche getting his first taste of money without quite the knowledge of how to spend it, now he was from old money.

This wasnʼt a matter of the changes to his mind or psyche. It was quite literally his body.

Before, he only had a mutated, weak Gene to rely on that only gave him a baseline of 50 average stat points across his core stats. But now, he had not just one, but two Bronze Gene Classes.

He wasnʼt just taking Bronze Genes—he was practically made for Bronze Genes.

And that showed.

The first Bronze Strength Gene he took made him feel more like he was experiencing a Gold Gene for the first time. He could feel the tendrils of his muscle fibers strengthening into steel cords, how the power weaved through him and one aspect of Strength flowed through the next—from his tendons even down to his bones.

When that intoxicating feeling ended, Sylas rushed to do it again, and then again.

He seemed to forget that the world was falling apart around him, while Lorien didnʼt even know what he was doing. She was a Rune Master as well, but she couldnʼt decipher Gene Runes as Gene Runes. Much like everyone else, she just saw one blob of light after another entering Sylasʼ body, but that was more than enough for her.

It was clear that Sylas had gone and spent money that he wasnʼt supposed to.

An absolute madman. A complete and utter absolute madman.

And he dared to call her bold? What would those money-grubbing merchants even do when they realized they had been stolen from?

The Golden Grove was a fun-loving, kind guild on the surface. But it was impossible to make it in this world if you didnʼt have an edge to you. How else did they protect all of their wealth?

Plus, even if all of that wasnʼt true and they were just the weakest of the weak, what good would all of Sylasʼ talent be in the face of even the weakest C-Grade? Because the Golden Grove certainly had a couple of them.

He hadnʼt even sniffed the E-Grade yet, let alone two tiers above it.

Lorien felt like she was losing her mind. She had spent quite a long time as the main insane asylum patient in her own story. She didnʼt even know how to react to someone that was even crazier than she was.

Sylas clearly didnʼt care about her existential crisis. Instead, he began taking two Genes at once, and then three. The feeling grew overwhelmingly intoxicating to the point that he thought he might lose even his own mind for a while.

If he had had this before he faced off against the All-Seeing Eye, he would have certainly succeeded with much greater ease and without even nearly the same level of injuries.

The Mental Genes felt just as stunning. No, they felt even more so because they were even less intuitive to Sylas. How Wisdom weaved into Intelligence, and how Intelligence looped back to Charisma, and…

How Will truly felt like the foundation of them all.

Sylas tuned out the blaring sirens and the flashing lights, his eyes growing more and more dull as he lost himself in the world that was his own body.

It felt much like the ocean… while there seemed to be so much more to investigate in the stars, just beneath it were things that he couldnʼt even fathom.

His body was like its own universe, one firing synapses after another, painting his insides with a beauty that was hard to put into words.

And then he realized the other reason he could feel it all so clearly. He didnʼt just see the Genes for what they were, but for what they could be, for what they represented now, and what they could represent in the future.

He could see their Potential—the final layer that was Taboo Bond—singing to the depths of his soul.

—

[Madness Control (F) (Gene Skill) —> Madness Control (F) (Gene Class Form)]

[Madness Control (F) (Gene Class Form)] (Progenitor Mastery)

[Your body is your temple, and it listens to no commands other than your own. Now you have grasped a much deeper meaning of this truth. Feeling the very essence of Will and how it directs your body, you extend control from yourself much the same way you exert control over others.]

[Talents: Adaptation]

—

Sylas didnʼt get much more of an explanation than this. The last time he upgraded his Madness Control, he got +20% to not just his stats, but everything—even down to his Skills. In a lot of ways, it worked very similarly to Gogoʼs crown.

But now, it had changed into something he didnʼt quite understand, and his scouting Skill didnʼt want to explain.

Unfortunately, the blaring warning sounds had come to a stop, the red lights converging onto the form of a single figure.

The Golden Grove had many tiers of members. Known for their wealth, they spread their business across dozens of galaxies, making them quite favored amongst the people.

But there was a good reason they had yet to be challenged nor had they been stolen from. And maybe that reason was why they just might be wrapped up in a conspiracy against the Thryskai that Lorien had sniffed out…

There were two umbrellas of members—

Merchants were the first, businessmen who spread money and wealth, bringing the guild untold profits.

And then there was the second.

The Inspectors.

They were feared far and wide. They were the true backbone of the Golden Grove, and one of them had suddenly appeared right here.