Genetic Ascension

Chapter 373: FF+ [Bonus]

When Sylas absorbed the Common Genes earlier, he had already felt that something was wrong. The feeling was too sharp, too shocking. He found himself making a great deal of improvement, but he was more focused on speeding his way through to get to the Bronze Intelligence Gene, so he hadn’t paid nearly enough attention.

But now, all of that seemed to come together at once.

For the first time, it felt to Sylas like he was looking at an MRI of his own body, as though someone was able to video tape and document his own organ systems in 4K.

He went from being only able to vaguely sense the location of his Aether Pathways, to feeling like they were extensions of his own limbs.

He subconsciously chose to circulate a simple Skill, <Chilling Scythe>. And he watched as his Aether moved along the pathways, forming a Rune Pattern of their own, and then imprinting that Rune into the outside world.

When that Rune took shape, the atmospheric Aether responded and formed the body of <Chilling Scythe>.

He could feel the ebbs and flows of the Skill. He could speed up its casting, decide its shape and size, even twist and change the potency of energy concentration within it all before it formed.

Sylas began to play around with the Mastery, checking and feeling what changes there were to the system’s triggering of the Skill when Mastery was either high or low.

The feeling of basking in the presence of this Gene, even though he couldn’t absorb it, also lasted far longer than any time before. If Sylas was lucky, he would get a few dozen seconds to immerse himself in this feeling in the past.

But now, several minutes had gone by and it still didn’t show any sign of weakening or slowing. In fact, Sylas found that he would even slow down the process of the Gene being expelled from his body due to what he thought was Rune Breath, but was in reality Rune Soul.

It took over ten minutes before the feeling finally slipped away from him, but it left behind a Sylas with a gaze so bright it practically melted the snow all around him.

‘The Aether Pathways aren’t a normal organ system. They’re a quasi-ethereal organ system mostly made up of a series of Runic connections. There’s some flesh that plays a part in it, but only insofar as this flesh allows it to latch onto the body.

‘Beyond the Aether Pathways, there seems to be a kernel or a seed of some sort hidden away in the heart. That location is actually also where my Gluttony Seed is, and the size of that seed in my heart should be dictated by how high my Intelligence stat is…’

All sorts of things Sylas didn’t understand before were now as clear as day to him.

‘If I want to use a higher form of Aether, I will need a stronger Aether Pathway. But messing around with that complicated system… it’s still too far beyond me.’

Sylas’ mind churned, trying to find a solution, but it seemed quite bleak and hopeless.

It had taken him about a day to master two 52 Foundation Runes. But the number of Foundations his Aether Pathways were made out of, let alone the seed in his heart, were so many that he didn’t even bother to count them. It was certainly into the thousands, and the stronger his Intelligence became, the further away it would be from him to master and control.

It seemed like one had to rely on the system to make these changes, otherwise you would simply be asking for death, or even in the best case scenarios, crippling.

‘Someone had to have created the system.’ Sylas suddenly thought, his gaze flashing with a blaze of green flames.

If someone else had managed to create the system to automate such a complicated process, Sylas didn’t believe he wouldn’t be able to in the future. It was just that that future was too far away from him right now.

It was a shame. Sylas hadn’t had that unique Aether for long, but he had already noticed benefits. His Aether skin before had 200 Defense, for example. But with this new Aether skin, it had over 400. That was a casual sort of protection that would mean the vast majority of people on Earth couldn’t even harm him even if he stood there and let them hit him.

But if his body couldn’t handle it, there was nothing he could do.

‘Unless…’

Sylas’ gaze flashed.

He couldn’t tweak his Aether Pathways right now, but what about tweaking his Skills?

Was it possible to use a lower form of Aether to trigger the action of a higher form?

Technically speaking, this was impossible.

Skills worked, as Sylas knew now, by forming a Rune in one’s Aether Pathways and then communicating with the world. The strength of that call to action was dependent, obviously, on the strength of the Aether you used. This was why Runes scaled with Aether potency and not just Strokes and Foundations.

However, what if a Skill was working in conjunction with Rune Breath?

Sylas had already gotten used to using his Runes to amplify his Skills, and this should be one level beyond that.

‘If I tweak the circulation pattern of my Skill to trigger Slow Ice-Poison Runes or Freeze Ice-Poison Runes, then I can use Rune Breath to make those higher order Runes more likely to listen to me even though I used a lower order Aether…’

Sylas immediately began to put this into action. The more he practiced, the brighter and brighter the glow in his eyes became until a small curve tugged at the corner of his lips.

He hadn’t had this much fun in a very long while.

—

[You have pleased the system, System Breaker]

[The system is watching you]

–

[System Reward Received]

—

[Chilling Scythe Mutant (FF+) (Skill)] (Legendary Mastery)

[Damage: 250]

[Special Damage: 100/sec for 5 seconds]

[Special Effect: Speed -50% for 5 seconds]

[Attribute: Ice-Poison]

—

Sylas’ expression flickered.

How could an FF+ Skill be so strong?