Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1332: No!

There were several things Sylas noticed immediately. But the one that drew the most of his attention instantly was the {Empty} denotations in his Gold and Legendary Genes. This caught him somewhat off guard because he didn’t understand them.

Did it mean he had openings there?

No, that shouldn’t be the case. He had failed to take in a Legendary Gene already, and if his status page showed him openings he had, this wouldn’t be the first time they appeared like this—unless there was some sort of change outside of his stats appearing.

From what Sylas could tell, this shouldn’t be the case. They should be related to the three Gold Genes and one Legendary Gene he had managed to form through the Warlord and Emperor Armors he had formed over the last few days.

The three Gold Genes were from the Scorpion, Ape, and Serpent Warlord Armors. The Legendary Gene should be from the Scorpion Emperor Armor.

Still, while he could understand this, that didn’t explain why they were there.

"Why?" Sylas asked the little girl.

"You should be able to guess. It’s not worth it to pay for something like that."

Sylas frowned—not because he didn’t appreciate the clue he had just been given, but instead because he had never known this little girl to give up a chance at claiming Genes for her to gobble up. So... why would she say it like that?

His gaze flashed. ’It should be expensive, more expensive than I can afford... but in that case, why didn’t she just say it was too expensive like she usually did? Why say it like this?’

That was when Sylas put two and two together.

Why was it that he could only form a Gene from an Armor once? Why had Gralith explicitly told him not to absorb until he had reached the pinnacle of what he thought was possible?

There was a difference between a Rune Armor and the usual methods of increasing one’s Combat Matrix Index.

Much of the time, when Sylas used Runes to enhance his combat abilities, they weren’t extensions of himself, but rather add-ons. He was amplifying himself externally, and not fundamentally changing anything internally at all.

A Rune Armor was different in that it interacted with the Layers of one’s body. Exceptional Rune Armors, like the ones in the Warlord Sanctum, worked on an even deeper level than most—interacting with one’s Genes and triggering changes in that way.

When one first started on their path in the Sanctum, the Warlord Armors interacted not just with their Genes, but fundamentally with their Wills as well. As such, changes and tweaks began to occur.

This was why—unlike with other Rune Armors—a certain affinity was needed.

This process couldn’t just be casually started and restarted at leisure.

If Sylas was correct, it was a process that needed the help of the system. Much like Mounts and the support they received, these Rune Armors were like a shortcut toward forming one’s own Genes.

Crafting a perfect Rune Armor was far simpler than drawing such complex Unique Genes from scratch. So as a reward for crafting such a great way of increasing one’s strength, the system gave a reward at the end.

But the system would obviously only give out this reward once per person. Otherwise, what would be the point?

This was why it could only be done a single time.

In this process, though, before the Gene was accepted, space had to be made for it—thus the {Empty} brackets in Sylas’ status page.

However, even that couldn’t be the full story. How could space be made for something if Sylas was incapable of taking it in the first place?

That was the secret. That was the clue the little girl was pointing him toward.

There was something to take advantage of here?

Sylas closed his eyes. Using Taboo Bond as an extension of himself, he focused, delving into his Genes to see if he could find anything.

In these last few days, Sylas had already delved into his body as much as he thought he could—with the help of Andromeda at that. He found it hard to believe that there would be something he had missed, but he acted nonetheless.

Maybe between then and the time his body had perfectly integrated his Raw Templates, something had changed.

And it seemed that something had, indeed, changed.

There was a bit of... loosening in his Gene Layer, almost as though something had been stretched.

’This is... possible?’

According to the little girl, Sylas had room for about three Gold Genes. But right now, he felt that he had room for far more.

The trouble was that most of that should be due to his improved Gene Classes. But there was another piece in there, one loose strand that made it feel as though he could combine them to push his limit up by one.

If Sylas was correct, this feeling was coming from the "space" the system had formed in his body to allow a new Gene to take root.

Did that mean that if he comprehended enough Warlord Armors or Emperor Armors, he could force his body to loosen up further to accommodate more Genes? Almost like a form of training?

’No!’

Sylas’ head practically had a lightbulb bulging atop of it, shining so bright that its beams of laser-like light came from even his eyes.

That process of loosening... if he focused, he should be able to feel it.

If Sylas was correct, he didn’t have to take this on so passively.

When he tried to absorb a Gene through Extricate rather than relying on the system, even when he failed, there was some benefit to his body.

With the system, any failure was immediate. However, with Extricate, he could push and pull. Though failure would still be a failure and he couldn’t rubber-band a success, the difference was still like night and day.

If he used this ability of Taboo Bond at the same time he was trying to comprehend a new Warlord Armor...

Sylas bet that rather than gaining one new slot for every several failures, he might be able to gain a new one every time with Gold... and every two or maybe three with Legendary.

Suddenly, he had found a path to allowing himself to absorb Genes he shouldn’t be able to!