Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1325: Begin (2)

It looked as though streams of ancient lettering, drawn into the skies in fiery reds and flickering flames, were rushing into Sylas’ eyes.

His head tilted back, a guttural roar from the depths of his throat coming out in pulsing waves.

The Aether Pathways of his Runeweaver Eyes became more deeply entrenched, more complex, more rooted into the depths of his very soul.

This time, it was even easier than before, the limitation of his origins as a member of an F-Grade Race being far less prevalent now. It felt like his body was far more of a blank slate for the eyes to entrench their truest vision upon.

However, the original owners of these eyes seemed to have their own Will as well.

Sylas could feel it, and it felt oh so very familiar…

That set of twelve eyes, a pair of six, growling at him with menace that seemed to want to tear him apart entirely.

That was when Sylas understood where these eyes came from, what beast they originated from.

The Scorpion Warlord.

No, that was incorrect. The Warlord couldn’t elicit this sort of menace, this sort of pressure against his Will of all things, as a mere D-tier.

These were the eyes of the Scorpion Emperor.

Sylas had seen these eyes twice.

The first time was in the depths of Earth when he decided to give up his chances at the perfect foundation to shoot right up to Level 50. He had embodied the Sacrificial Will of the Scorpion Warlord at the time, and that was the first time he saw those eyes.

And then there was this second time… this time, it was when he faced off against the Scorpion Emperor in earnest, when it tried to kill him from the inside out, manifesting its Will from inside the depths of his body.

And now it was here once again.

Sylas had no idea how Gralith had gotten his hands on such a thing. This wasn’t just a normal pair of eyes. These eyes, even at the mere D-tier, were probably more valuable than any other Treasure in the entire Sector by a substantial margin.

In Sylas’ opinion, even Andromeda couldn’t match up to the value of these eyes, and now they were being sacrificed at the altar of evolving his own pupils.

Sylas hadn’t been specific about what he needed. He only really needed the eyes to be around Bronze Grade or so in nature. Of course, that meant that whatever Unique Genes were tied to them likewise had to be Bronze Grade.

Asking for eyes powerful to be a D-Grade Bronze Gene was practically like asking for the world. Such a thing was almost more valuable than an F-Grade Legendary Gene.

But these eyes… they were even more valuable than that.

And not by a small measure in the slightest.

Thinking about how close Gralith’s Armor felt to the Emperor Armor rather than the Warlord Armor, bits and pieces of thoughts and information began to coalesce in Sylas’ mind, but before he could finish them, the last streams of complex Runes snapped into the gaze, and a pair of beaming lights radiated out from him in a roar of their own.

Sylas felt as though his eyes suddenly carried all the power in the world, but the other changes to his body had yet to cease—not in the slightest.

Without hesitation, Sylas pulled out Andromeda. The evolution to his eyes wasn’t even technically completed yet, and he couldn’t even see anything but a bright, blurry chasm of red-gold, but he didn’t have the luxury to wait.

Hooking himself up to Andromeda, he controlled the metallic arms and lengths to pierce toward the stacks of Aether Stones in the vicinity.

The little girl had told him to ask for help, and he did. But there was a limit to everything. According to her clues, he would need Gralith to guide him in completing this Evolution perfectly, but Sylas couldn’t do it.

These next steps… they had to be taken by him.

‘Stubborn bastard.’

Sylas didn’t reply, his mind already having entered an unprecedented state of focus. As his new eyes continued to change his brain, the weight of his Charisma’s change felt less and less heavy, the violence of his improved Mental stats calming considerably.

Raw Template…

The clue he needed was in the name.

The two existed as a Template for his body, a path toward not only perfecting his Gene Classes with the sheer speed he had managed to form them with, but also adapting the body so that it fit with greater precision.

Sylas understood all the Layers of his body, even down to Race Quintessence and beyond. He had access to things others couldn’t fathom thanks to Taboo Bond.

Maybe the little girl was right in assuming that Gralith had more experience than him and would be of great help. But when it came to adjusting the body of F-tiers and guiding things to fit and slot in their proper place, there was no one better suited than Sylas himself.

Well, maybe other than those who also had access to some sort of Taboo Bond Legendary Profession as well, of which he was sure there were at least some.

That was why instead of asking for Gralith’s help, Sylas asked for energy… the energy he would need to power Andromeda.

It wasn’t just because of Taboo Bond and Andromeda that Sylas was so confident, though… there were two other reasons.

The first was that with his eyes evolving now, he had bought himself more time. There was no need to worry about the original seven-hour mark.

The second…

Was his brand-new Perfected Rune Spark Mastery.

No matter how complex all of the changes to his body were, they were ultimately built on a foundation of F-Grade Runes. Complex ones? Yes. But ones that were well within his abilities to comprehend nonetheless.

And ones he had every intention of comprehending.

Begin.

Sylas threw everything he had at it.

What he didn’t know was that while he was locked away in probably one of the most secure and safest regions of the Sanctum, the fallout from his actions in the hub was bubbling up, leading to a clash between Warlords and the implication of a little senior sister he had yet to meet.