Genetic Ascension

Chapter 555: Another Challenge of Will [Bonus]

Sylas couldnʼt use Treasures, and he wasnʼt even sure if he could have a second Profession. His Dual Class Constitution didnʼt come with such an allowance, and he already had three Legendary Paths which technically counted as three separate Professions already.

Though it would help Cassarae quite a bit if he became a Blacksmith of some sort, it wouldnʼt add to his strength much. Well, it certainly would to some extent, but it just wasnʼt the most efficient use of his time, not while these Scorned Wraps were still around.

The reason he was so interested in this was because of the scorpion statue that still rested in his Madness Key.

He had been studying off and on these last few days, but he hadnʼt made any progress at all.

Although he had already forcefully memorized all the Runes, he didnʼt understand them the way he should.

By now, if he had the resources Ragnar had had, he could definitely already start inscribing the Runes onto his body. But he still hadnʼt figured out what those resources were, nor did he understand how Ragnar had figured them out either.

The main issue was that he didnʼt understand the Runes.

Rune Enlightenment should have already allowed him a vague understanding of any Rune he laid eyes on, let alone the fact his Rune Soul was three tiers above that.

But he still felt stonewalled.

Now, he had found a breakthrough in an unexpected place.

ʼThe most complicated part of the statue is... the entire statue. Studying just one Rune isnʼt enough because it works on a Rune Mesh System. Every part links into another and they rely on one another. Itʼs hard even to figure out which Runes I should inscribe first, and which ones I should leave for the future.

ʼAnd because I donʼt understand them, manifesting them mid-battle would take up far too much stamina, not to mention take too much time.

ʼThereʼs almost certainly systematic guidance or a method that Ragnar picked up somewhere, or else itʼs impossible for him to have made any progress at all.

ʼBut... if I change my approach to how I see these Runes, and start analyzing them from a growth and regression perspective...ʼ

With a thought, the statue appeared in the middle of the maze.

Sylasʼ mind felt overloaded almost instantly.

The Rune Mesh was formed from almost 10,000 Foundations. That was a hundred times what was possible in the F-Grade.

He was trying to do an analysis of the Rune Mesh that allowed him to backtrack, almost like reversing the age of a plant and watching it return to a seed in the ground.

Before, he had been trying to analyze the statue like he did any other Rune, not realizing that he was missing fundamental concepts that only appeared above Rune Soul.

Normally, he wouldnʼt be able to do this. But he was still technically in his Woodland Territory. His abilities shouldnʼt work in a Dungeon, but who asked the Dynamic Field Dungeon to influence it? As a result, the Dungeon had a perpetual connection to the outside that let Sylasʼ Warlord influence remain.

Thanks to this, his sense of Runes was at a Quasi Rune Spark level, and his ability to sense the organic flow of the Runes was exceptional.

Unfortunately, his Wisdom was far too lacking. The moment he began the analysis, he felt a splitting headache, and the seemingly normal statue began to feel like a blazing inferno in his eyes.

What Sylas didnʼt notice was that the moment the statue appeared, the surrounding maze also stopped moving entirely... almost as though it was scared off by something.

Sylas continued to strain. If not for the breakthrough his Wisdom had a couple of days ago, he would have already collapsed. Veins popped across his forehead and a searing burn began to harm his eyes almost as though he was staring at the sun for too long.

Slowly but surely, the blazing fire reflecting in his eyes began to shrink and the Runes blinked out of existence one after another. From 10,000 lit Foundations, it dropped to 9,000, and from 9,000 to 8,000.

The more the fire shrunk, the more concentrated the burn became until Sylasʼ irises practically became white. If things continued like this, he might truly go blind.

But that same stubbornness he had felt when he thought about taking a break in the Rune Breath came back.

It wasnʼt just false pride. Every time he ran into a wall like this related to Runes, he felt as though someone was looking over his shoulder, sneering.

He could feel their arrogance, he could feel their casual disregard, he could feel... that they were the exact same sort of person he was.

And that was the last sort of person he wanted to lose to.

Sylas unleashed a roar and blood spurted out from his nose. The same would have happened to his eyes, but the burning intent coming from the statue turned the crimson into a foggy mess that evaporated into the air.

Deep within Sylas, his dormant Will churned and a tangible intent covered his eyes in a sheen of green.

All of a sudden, as though he had put on a pair of sunglasses, the sun before him wasnʼt nearly so blazing.

He made a final push, shrinking the burning flame down from 2,000 Foundations to 1,000, and then from 1,000 to 500.

The smaller the net grew, and the closer he came to finding the core Runes, the more difficult it grew. But reaching 1,000 had been a tall mountain to climb, and now that he was approaching 100, that burning intent was only growing fiercer and fiercer.

It felt like his Will and that of an unknown existence were continuously clashing. And deep inside, he comprehended something.

These flames, this spark, this tangible Will that was clashing against his own... this was the Spark, this was the special spurt of energy that differentiated Rune Soul, Rune Essence, and Rune Spark even further beyond.

He shattered through a barrier, and he knew in that moment he had reached Rune Essence. At the same exact moment, the blazing intent shrunk down to just 100 Foundations.

BOOM!

An explosion sounded off in Sylasʼ mind, and the statue before him shattered into countless pieces. The destruction almost sent him flying backward.

But he was so focused on the crystal hidden within it that he didnʼt even notice the lacerations that cut into him from all sides.