Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1693 Time [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to The FallofAllThings :)]

In all the time Sylas had spent in the libraries, he actually hadnʼt wasted a single Merit. The libraries were the one thing in the guild that were free. The only restriction was taht without being at a certain level of Rune Mastery, you couldnʼt enter higher level libraries.

However, as someone who was now a Spark Master of the E-Grade, Sylas was able to enter higher level libraries than he had. He had just chosen not to.

As much time as it had taken him to go through all of the F-grade libraries, it would have taken even more time to go through the E-Grade ones.

For the time being, he chose that this wasnʼt the best use of his time and chose a different approach instead.

There was one thing that Fanelei was correct about. This Cryst Emperor would be an extreme problem. Though Sylas had improved his Combat Matrix Index by a ridiculous margin, there was still not even a 10% chance of winning.

If he was lucky, this Cryst Emperor had only just entered the E-tier. If he was unlucky, they might already be on the verge of the D-tier. In either case, but especially the latter, their stats would be impossibly far beyond his own, as would be his Skills, Comprehensions, and other matters.

Even on the conservative side, Sylas should probably be preparing for someone who could acutely burst with around a billion or so stats of power. If he was especially unlucky, it might even be double that.

And none of this even considered what protections this Cryst Emperor would have, nor what the end result of killing him would be.

This person was obviously very vital to the Seeing Eye Guild. Sylas wouldnʼt be foolish enough to think that he could just kill and run away without there being any sort of danger beyond the initial battle.

That would be the pinnacle of foolishness.

He needed more.

But as with all things, Sylas had long planned things out. After he left the libraries, he had already located his next target and transported himself directly there.

Finally, he would have to use some Merits.

Sylas looked around and then walked to a counter. After exchanging around 10 or so Merits for a single pod, he entered a glass encasement just large enough for a single person to sit and recline comfortably.

He closed his eyes and the world spun around him. When he entered again, he was standing in a room of large white stone slabs, a perfect cube with not a single exit.

Reaching out, he tapped at the air right in front of him and a screen appeared.

The 10 Merits he had paid were just for the sake of using this pod for a weekʼs of time. This was one of the resources that didnʼt scale with oneʼs Merits.

What would really cost here, though, were the things on this list. Each one represented a Path of Rune Mastery, each one carrying their own simulations to teach and test.

This was probably the most valuable resource in the guild. However, not everyone could just join and use it at a whim like Sylas could. Even the 10 Merits it took to use it for a week was something that others might need several hard working days to gather, and even then that wouldnʼt cover the actual simulation cost.

Once again, Sylas did what he always did.

He read the entire list and every description.

For as long as he could remember, he had always taken this approach. Even back when he first became a Vipermancer, this was the path he took. When he had been deciding which Legendary Paths to take, he had even gone as far as to reach every single one of the Common, Bronze, Silver, and Gold Paths before reading the ten available Legendary Paths.

It was the approach that always worked for him so he wasnʼt going to change now.

After a few minutes, he nodded. The list of names and descriptions here was even longer than the category lists of the library.

Something about that felt off.

Why would there be more Rune Mastery Paths available than fundamental research about Runes? Just logically that didnʼt compute.

After he reached the end of the list, though, Sylas had a pretty good understanding of why.

This list of Rune Mastery Paths could be separated into groups as well. Many overlapped, and quite a few were only minor variations from others.

If Sylas had to guess, there was perhaps a reward for creating your own Rune Mastery Path, and the regulations were quite lax, so everyone who had an opportunity created one.

But this wasnʼt something those of the same tier level did. This was probably the action of higher level Rune Masters of the Guild working backward.

Since Sylas was trying to learn from F-Grade Rune Mastery Paths, the situation was especially bad because practically everyone in the guild was beyond the F-tier.

However, because he had read the entire list, Sylas was able to narrow it down.

From this list of millions, each one was branching away from what were ultimately just twelve main Rune Mastery Paths. They were of the top priority.

There was a second tier under that that had substantial enough changes that it made sense to give them a glance as well. But even then, there were only 53 of those.

Beyond that, the rest would be a waste of his time. He could deduce them all from this near 70 number.

However, what Sylas wanted out of this wasnʼt a chance to learn Rune Mastery Paths. He already had his own, and he had no plans of contributing it to the guild either.

What he wanted to know was how to use his new Profession.

While he could just trade for techniques and Skills... he preferred to do things this way. It would kill two birds with one stone.

If his Rune Mastery had so many gaps in it, how many gaps did he still have yet to fill in his Rune Mastery Path?