Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1167: Rewards (4)

[Chaotic Simioid (???) (Raw Template)]

[We can sense you, chasing after us, the Master Race of the world. Humans, the blankest slate of them all, appear everywhere and anywhere, often thrown by the wayside as the Race least likely to accomplish anything. Obsessed with what is new and fresh, the people of the world often forget the greatest Strength of Humans…

[Adaptation.

[You have joined our Path and seek out its limits. Strong and powerful is your fate, you take one step after another, surging forward with every intention to step beyond, to claim what ascends beyond Primal Lord and achieve the state of Chaos Lord. But you are far from this stage and will likely never reach it.

[You have long reached your limits, but you have now been graced by the benevolence of your forefathers and those that came before them.

[Accept this Embryo and take your chances. Become the enemy of the world, assumed to be a Demon, born to be a Human.]

—

With a plop, an egg landed in Sylas’s palm. He read the cryptic description, feeling about the same as he usually did when he ended up with something in hand that was far more powerful than what his Scouting Skill could look into…

Mostly useless.

Was Chaos Lord the Legendary Title of his current Primal Lord Gene Class? But then what was a Chaotic Simioid? Was it supposed to reflect the name of his Species like that?

His species and his Gene Class were linked in many ways, but it still felt a bit odd for this… Raw Template? To carry such a name, only speak of Race, but then draw connections to a Class at the same time. It felt like it was skirting around the issue rather than explaining it thoroughly.

“How much?” Sylas asked.

“You can’t afford it.”

Sylas fell into silence, feeling that this answer was about what he was expecting. But his intention remained on the little girl, waiting for the answer he had asked for.

She rolled her eyes.

“It’ll take ten Legendary Genes.”

“So ten Gold E-Grade Genes or ten Bronze D-Grade Genes.”

“As if that’s any easier to get. If you run into an E-Grade with that many Gold Genes or a D-Grade like that, I’d advise you run with your tail tucked between your legs.”

Sylas didn’t reply, looking at the black egg in his palm.

All things considered, it should have been easy to overlook and ignore. It was bland in color, simple in form, and yet… the more he stared at it, the more fascinating he found it to be. It was almost like… despite its static form, it was still constantly changing, morphing, evolving into something new.

And yet, whenever he tried to grasp what that something new was, all his perception could see was a simple black egg.

“Can this be stored within the Madness Key?”

“Yes, it can.”

“… So it’s not living…” Sylas thought to himself out loud.

The little girl didn’t say anything, but she still couldn’t help but roll her eyes again.

“What should I do with it? Swallow it? Store it away? Feed it something?” Sylas tried to be more specific.

“Pay up.”

Sylas handed over some Silver Genes. Clearly, keeping this more specific instead of wanting a holistic overview helped. Rather than letting the egg just lay uselessly, this would likely help him out a huge deal.

“Swallow it.”

Sylas looked at the egg and just did as he was told. The moment he did, it felt like a bomb had gone off in his stomach, the second such experience he had had today.

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‘Raw Template…’

The moment the little girl said to swallow it, Sylas had some understanding of what it meant.

A Template was a Treasure that allowed you to accomplish something you would otherwise need a special Skill, Profession, Class, or maybe even Race to do normally without it. It essentially triggered something on its own, usually in exchange for energy of some sort, in an easy and usually portable fashion.

So what would a Raw Template be?

Well, if he was swallowing the egg… it was safe to say that it was rerouting his body to be capable of something that he wouldn’t otherwise be capable of.

And if the description was anything to go by… it was going to allow him to reach Chaos Lord. Or, more accurately, it was going to lay out the foundation he needed to allow it to happen.

Which was why, when Sylas took out his next reward, he didn’t hesitate to swallow it either.

—

[Glassborn Cryst Emperor (???) (Raw Template)]

[The Throne of Glass is a heavy responsibility to bear. Split into two routes, one forces one to take on the burden of your ancestors while the other forces you to look into the mirror, facing your weaknesses and taking on the world all on your own.

[Both paths are inherently burdensome, one carrying a weight of guilt and the other of pride, and yet likewise coming with the same fear of imminent failure.

[You have chosen the Path of the Glassborn Cryst Emperor. Taking the route of selfishness, you seek to conquer the world all on your own, your predecessors becoming your stepping stone…

[If your counterpart fails, they fall back into the arms of those that came before them, those that formed the foundation of their journey and lifted them up.

[If you fail, you fall into an abyss of nothingness. There will be nothing to catch you, nothing to coddle you, nothing to nurse you back to health. Your mind will become your prison.

[But this is the choice you have made, Emperor.]

—

The eggs surged within Sylas’s body and he felt like his talent was deepening by a substantial margin. Slowly, his foundations improved, and from a middling D-Grade Race, he began to improve to above average, and then above that…

Until he stood at the very edges of what the pinnacle of D-Grade Races had to offer.

And then… he felt the Glassborn Cryst Emperor Egg interact with his True Pride Seed.