Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1345: The Simple Path

Sylas stared out into the mountain range, watching the sun rise once again. He felt like he should be doing something, but he had run into a wall.

What he really wanted to do was leave and head toward where the map was pointing him. That would give him a chance to improve the obelisks and hopefully advance to a C-Grade Human Simioid. If he could do that, he just might be able to progress to E-tier without his eyes imploding in his skull.

However... he couldn’t leave right now.

The challenge was coming, and these days, he was starting to feel like he owed the Scorpion Lineage.

This was the baggage that came with having been helped so much, and it was something he had wanted to avoid. But unfortunately, even he couldn’t account for a Scorpion Emperor literally trying to crawl its way out of his body.

Sylas looked at the fruit in his palm and took a bite. A flood of energy pooled into his body, massaging his Aether Pathways and slowly widening them.

At this point, his Aether Pathways were actually far too fragile and narrow for the sheer amount of Aether he had. His Aether stats were easily the equivalent of an E-tier now, but his body wasn’t able to keep up.

Normally, this would be a problem Sylas spent months trying to find a method to fix. But it seemed that he had quite a good master—one with quite sharp eyes at that.

Gralith had taken one glance at him and tossed over several crates of stuff, one of which was this fruit.

[Etherfruit (Bronze (F)) (Aether Herb)]

This thing didn’t have just a small amount of value. On the market, it was worth E-Grade Aetherstones. It was difficult to buy it with just coins at all.

The Golden Grove had had a few hundred in stock. But the crates Gralith had given Sylas had thousands.

Most would be lucky to eat just one, and each subsequent fruit would give one diminishing returns. But Gralith obviously expected Sylas to eat them all.

Every fruit he ate massaged his Aether Pathways, both strengthening and widening them. But what was interesting was that it worked as a factor of Intelligence.

Meaning, the stronger one’s Intelligence, the better effect the fruit had.

Right now, Sylas would be lucky to maximize about 10% of his Intelligence stat. He had to slow down his output or he would, quite literally, implode. It wasn’t the first time he had faced such a problem, and it actually limited the power of his Gene Class Skills.

But now, after eating these the last few thanks—courtesy of the Sanctum—he was quickly approaching 50%. At this point, he was lucky if one fruit gave him a half-percent improvement, and that was accounting for [Madness Control] and his personal control over his body.

But with the sheer number of them he had, he was confident he would reach 100% before the Bat Lineage chose to make their move.

He finished another fruit and grabbed at the crate, plucking out another one.

...

Khan and Gralith watched this from a distance, and Khan’s lip couldn’t help but twitch.

"What the hell is his stomach made out of?"

Gralith didn’t respond, but they both inwardly understood. Resources weren’t just a matter of having—they were also a matter of actually being able to use them.

Even if you gave someone a crate like that, they might be lucky to eat two or three a day at the F-tier. One’s body needed time to adapt and digest the energy of the fruit.

Sylas had eaten a dozen in the last hour and seemed intent on getting all the way through. He didn’t do anything by half measures.

Khan was used to his master not engaging with him most times, so he wasn’t too surprised by the non-answer. In fact, he was getting quite used to Sylas not following normal, conventional logic either. He was far more interested in talking about something else.

"Master, are you going to tell us where Ekear’s been all this time now?"

Gralith didn’t respond for a long while before he slowly turned his gaze toward Khan.

"Even you have picked up on this?"

Khan blinked for a moment, then scoffed. "Are you insulting me?!"

Gralith smiled slightly but then looked away.

"Focus on breaking into the C-tier first. Then you’ll have a right to know. Until then, stop slacking. Stop gaping at your junior brother and take some notes instead. Your starting position is much higher than his, but at this rate he’ll only need a decade to catch up to you."

Khan’s eyes widened. "Why would you put that into the universe!?"

With a pivot of his foot, Khan dashed away, leaving a string of curses behind.

Gralith stood there for a long while after, still watching Sylas.

’His Classes are far stronger than his foundation will allow. Upgrading them will be difficult, but it would also be a shame if this is all the benefit he gets out of them. He still hasn’t earnestly begun to build his F-Grade foundation. Maybe he has a few cards up his sleeve. But...’

Gralith flipped a palm.

’... Even when you are intelligent and believe you have everything in hand, it’s quite easy to overlook the simple things.’

...

Sylas reached out a hand and caught something out of the air. It was a booklet, and it looked...

Normal?

Sylas opened it, and it was as normal as could be. In fact, it looked like someone had just taken time to write things down.

For a moment, Sylas didn’t know what he was looking at until he slowly began to feel the hidden Runes within. Things translated for him, and he was taken aback by what he was seeing.

Titles.

A list of Titles and how to get them—from the simplest at F- all the way up to FFF+. And then beyond that, there were the ungraded ones, the growth ones, and...

The Contested ones.