Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1432: The Champion Arena.

The pain was unbearable.

It seemed that there was a reason it was called a Crucible. The integration process was quite literally searing the changes into the body, burning away former impurities or clashing aspects, and reforging them in a new light.

It was like tossing the body into a forge.

But Sylas quickly realized that this was the wrong way to think of it. A crucible was what was tossed into a forge. In this case, his body had suddenly become the forge of the Crucible itself, and the heat he could withstand, the pain he could endure, became what decided how well the Crucible was integrated into his body.

Sylas looked down at himself as his clothing was burned away, his charred pieces of flesh beginning to curl and bubble. It was a sight one would have found sickening even if observing it on another, let alone yourself.

But Sylas… simply stood there.

He could feel the pain, but it was almost as though it was a third party experiencing it, like he was communicating with his own senses through some sort of large communication channel rather than the signals being turned to his own brain.

His Will was too powerful to be moved by this level of pain.

The Crucible was a treasure Sylas didnʼt know the grade of, but the changes it triggered were all dependent on the Tier of the person using it.

Sylas was an F-tier, his body was triggering changes to an F-tier Foundation, and yet his Will was already that of the E-tier.

ʼMore.ʼ

The flames around Sylasʼ body blazed to life. As though a spurting faucet had finally been turned onto full bore, his skin practically flaked off of him in a rain of ash, only to be buried and hidden beneath the heat of the flames.

At first, the flames themselves were normal, flickering in red and orange hues. But quickly, they condensed, becoming an incandescent blue, and then a vicious green that perfectly melded with Sylasʼ Will.

Sylasʼ gaze flickered beneath the flames, feeling something curious.

With a thought, he tapped into Taboo Bond and began to guide the melting Crucible with greater accuracy.

At that moment, the flames became even wilder as the energy the Crucible was using to maneuver through the Layers of Sylasʼ body became as easy to swim through as soft winds.

It wasnʼt just that, but because of Taboo Bond, Sylas was actually able to allow the Crucible to sink in deeper than it normally would.

Taboo Bond was now an E-Grade Legendary Profession Path. But even when it was at F-Grade, Sylas had already been able to touch the absolute deepest Layers there were.

Potential.

The Crucible alone could only make it as deep as Race Quintessence. And the deeper it went, the more energy it wasted on this instead of actually transforming the body.

But not only could Sylas make it to the Free Chaos Layer of his body, he could make it to the lowest and most difficult to comprehend Layer—Potential.

As a result, saying the Crucible was doubly effective on him didnʼt do it justice. It was several orders of magnitude more effective.

Not only was it saving a ridiculous amount of its energy thanks to Sylasʼ help, but it was making it to Layers deeper than most who ever used it.

Sylas could feel his body rapidly changing, morphing and twisting about so quickly that every second he felt like he was being reborn again and again.

It was an intoxicating feeling, the sort that poured into your veins like a drug you simply couldnʼt get enough of.

The first time Sylas had felt this sort of thirst for evolution was in the Basilisk Dungeon. Since then, he had experienced it many more times. And yet, this was by far the best of them all.

Sylas raised his head to the ceiling, his arms opening out wide as he breathed slowly, not even caring about the emerald flames pouring into his stomach.

The Crucible had so much excess energy because of Taboo Bond that it didnʼt even have a place to direct it. So Sylas obliged, taking it for himself.

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Splitting his mind another way, he activated [Primal Gut], churning the flaming energy away into one purpose.

Expanding his Aether Pathways.

He burned them away and reforged them using the unique flames of the Crucible, and then burned them away again, only to repeat the process.

His Intelligence was so shockingly high for his Tier, but he simply couldnʼt make use of it. He wielded one of the strongest F-Grade Aethers in all of existence, and yet he felt like he could only make use of a fraction of its power.

It wasnʼt good enough.

In fact, having just one of them wasnʼt good enough.

Sylasʼ 100 Foundation Glassvolt Rune sparked to life. But soon after came the second 100 Foundation Rune that Sylas had created. This Rune carried the menace of destruction and space to it.

Though Sylasʼ Glassvolt Rune had both aspects of Time and Space, those aspects had been muted in favor of its poisonous characteristics and its ability to attack Will. And, it was more defensive than anything else too, with how it could forge and create crystal barriers.

It had become more of an auxiliary ability than Sylas wanted.

So this time, when he perfected the Ape Emperor Armor, he wanted an Aether that was pure wrath, an attacking Aether that could rip everything in its path to shreds.

Sylas had no need for a Void Class that could double his Classes. But what if he used the Crucible to double his Aether Pathways instead?

He shattered his Aether Pathways once again and with a flicker, two were superimposed onto one another, blooming with poison and destruction.

One shimmered like it was chiseled out of emerald gems and the other glistened as though carved from obsidian.

Abyssal Echo Aether Pathways.

On one side, there was his 100 Foundation Glassvolt Rune.

Superimposed onto it was his 100 Foundation Chaotic Space Rune.

Sylasʼ eyes flashed open as all the flames billowing across his body vanished at once.