Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1349: Emerald Scorpion Warlord

[Emerald Scorpion Warlord (Gold) (Unique Gene)]

A new path forged through the might of the skies and the defiance of the clouds. Your Poison is the pinnacle of Pride, your stinger the lance of your truth. You feel the fury of your ancestors, but yours is more tempered, bubbling beneath the surface and faintly touching on secrets long lost beneath the tides of sand and the brush of the sun’s rays.

[+500 Physical; +100 Intelligence]

—

Sylas read the description of his Scorpion Gene for the first time. This could be considered the first time he was reading a description of a Gene that he wasn’t creating with his own hands. And honestly, he hadn’t expected such a description in the first place. It was...

Surprising.

’The fury of your ancestors... secrets long lost beneath the tides of sand...’

Sylas found his eyes narrowing. With his memory, he truly only needed to read it once to remember it all verbatim, and yet he found himself reading it again and again.

Why did it feel like...

It was just so similar to Madness.

"What are the seven Sin Beasts?" Sylas asked.

The little girl blinked, raised an eyebrow.

"... Serpent, Rat, Boar, Monkey, Tortoise, Spider, and Crow."

Sylas frowned. For some reason, he had been expecting to hear Scorpion, but it didn’t seem to be on the list. Was he just overthinking things?

There was something quite similar about all of these animals on this list. None of them exactly had... the best reputations.

There were some exceptions here and there, some legends, some folk tales that painted them in a good light... but honestly speaking, that was the same for all of them.

If one were looking at the vast majority of their representation though... it wasn’t the best.

The Scorpion seemed to fit right into that, so maybe he had seen something there that wasn’t.

The other thing that Sylas was surprised about was the sheer volume of the boost. Was that normal for a Unique Gene?

He had absorbed a Silver Gene before, but it only gave him +80 to a few stats. And that was by Earth’s metrics. This Emerald Scorpion Warlord Armor was giving him +500, which would have been the equivalent of half a million on Earth.

He knew there was a gap between Silver and Gold, but it shouldn’t be this large.

There was another thing to factor in, and that was the fact the best Gene Crystal he had ever managed to get his hands on was a Bronze one. So the Silver Gene it produced wasn’t anywhere near the best a Silver Gene could be.

But even so, that wasn’t enough to explain what was ultimately four orders of magnitude. The gap was too large.

"Why is the boost so great?" Sylas asked.

There was something off about it. And usually, when things were too good to be true, they were exactly that—too good to be true.

"This time you’re wrong. Not all Genes are created equal. Also, those Gene Crystals you’re thinking of diverted a good portion of their strength to creating Gene Talents as well. This doesn’t have a Gene Talent because the Scorpion Warlord Armor is the Gene Talent."

Sylas’ eyes flickered. That much was true. The Gene Crystals he used in the past came with a Unique Gene that unlocked a Gene Talent for him. In fact, their main benefit was often the Gene Talent.

Aetherflow was an excellent example of this. The fact of the Gene Talent was really orders of magnitude greater.

He nodded, feeling that this was adequate to explain things.

—

[Rampaging Ape Warlord]

Your Will reigns supreme, and fury leads your breath. The chaos of the Ape Warlord’s mind is your sanctum. You see order in the madness and structure in the subterfuge. A Berserker of control, a battle monger of substance...

[+300 Physical]

—

Sylas stopped reading when he saw the poor boost. It was inferior to his Emerald Scorpion Warlord Gene by almost 50%. And what was odd about this was that the Ape Warlord Armor was supposed to be the stronger of the two.

However... Sylas wasn’t sure if he should invest the time in improving the Armor to the point it could stand toe to toe with his Scorpion Warlord Armor.

It had taken a lot of accumulation to reach the level he had, not to mention Gralith’s help. Without Gralith constantly billowing all of the Scorpion Warlord aura while on those stairs, Sylas wouldn’t have been able to sense it all so clearly.

Of course, he also didn’t have the Serpent Warlord Gene to use now since he had had no choice but to sacrifice it. So as of now, he only had these two to work from.

The problem with just absorbing now and improving later was that he would lose the help of the system to formulate the Gene. Once the system sensed that he absorbed it, it would stop the improvement process.

This was why he had been told to wait until the last moment to absorb the Gene. Even if he could take it out later, he would have to take the place of the system and craft his own Gene at that point.

Somehow, even now... that just felt so far away.

’But not impossible...’

Sylas had successfully forged a Gene Talent on his own before with a reference. And this time, the Warlord Armors themselves would be his reference. A Gene was also less complex than a Gene Talent, though this was a Gold Gene he was talking about.

’Hm... Let’s start with the Scorpion Gene first and see what happens.’

Sylas took a breath and absorbed the Gene. Almost instantly, his body seized.

Because he was using Extricate to pour the Gene into himself rather than the system, that familiar feeling of euphoria overwhelmed him as every fiber of his being was filled with his Path of the Scorpion.

His eyes flickered, illusory pairs of more appearing on his forehead before flashing out of existence.

The kernel of the Scorpion Warlord Armor within him suddenly manifested all on its own.

Sylas didn’t even attempt to draw it.

It seemed that... he no longer had to.

His Armor formed with nothing more than a thought.