Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1360: Another Level [3800 GT Bonus]

The circle beneath Furon’s face lit up, and he was pulled back to their group. His expression was still icy and indifferent. He didn’t look around at anyone, as though he was still dissatisfied with his approach.

It was said that one only needed to be under half a minute to get full points, and Furon was at less than a third of even that. But he truly seemed not indifferent to it all, but instead wholly unsatisfied.

He felt like he had more—there had to be more—but that door to Spark Mastery just felt too far away, no matter how hard he tried.

—

[Vidu Mancha]

[Time: 00:00:08]

[Full Points Awarded]

—

The Mancha Clan member’s eyes narrowed, clearly unsatisfied as well. But while it seemed Furon was chasing after something greater, Vidu seemed more disappointed that he was a step behind Furon once again.

—

[Aira Venom]

[Time: 00:00:11]

[Full Points Awarded]

—

Aira stuck out her tongue playfully, giggling away as though none of this was a big deal to her.

Then the light around Sylas bloomed. He looked down at his feet for a moment, but he hardly moved, his hands still in his pockets.

These "Runes" could hardly be called Runes at all. They were just Strokes and bundles of Strokes. The irony in this, of course, was that Spark Mastery didn’t help with this much at all.

Spark Mastery helped one understand the essence of a Rune more intimately than another Rune Mastery, allowing one to "spark" it into existence as though one were part of the universe spontaneously forging a Rune into being.

That was meaningless if the Runes themselves had no meaning or language to them. This was purely a test of drawing speed. It didn’t prove much at all.

Sylas was almost too bored to waste time on it, especially since points made here would hardly impact the result.

By the time you got to Vitality Mastery, you were dealing with points on orders of thousands. What good was five points even if he got it?

His ego, of course.

Sylas’ eyes flickered behind his sunglasses as he looked up just as the first Rune appeared.

He didn’t move, but the next Rune was already forming, and then the next, then the next following it.

—

[Sylas Grimblade]

[Time: 00:00:02]

[Generational Record Broken]

[All-Time Record Broken]

[Perfect Points Awarded]

—

[All-Time F-Grade Sight Mastery Leaderboard]

[1. Sylas Grimblade – 00:00:02]

[2. Fowler Leava – 00:00:04]

...

—

Furon’s eyes snapped up, colored with shock. It was the first hint of emotion outside of coldness he had shown since the very beginning. But Sylas hardly reacted at all, as though he didn’t care.

He only barely took note of the name Fowler Leava, a name that was meaningless to him, but the world to Furon.

That was because... Fowler was the former owner of the Dominus Paragon Title.

The little girl Thryskai looked up seriously for the first time as well. It was very clear and obvious...

She didn’t feel like she could do this.

Worse yet, she couldn’t sense how Sylas did it.

What none of them knew was that whether it was Spatial or Chrono Casting...

Both were far too good at this very thing, and that was with Sylas muting them quite a bit and not even making use of his eyes as they were suppressed beneath his sunglasses.

By the time they got to things that Spark Mastery could be used against...

The gap would only grow wider.

—

[Bellarouse Kaelthar]

[Time: 00:00:04]

[Full Points Awarded]

—

[Urolius Kaelthar]

[Time: 00:00:07]

[Full Points Awarded]

—

The following two rounds didn’t hold a single difference at all. Sometimes, Bellarouse and the others were lucky enough to go before Sylas and have a chance at the Generational and All-Time Records. But when they were especially unlucky, like in the third Enlightenment Round where Sylas went first...

None of them had a chance at all.

In the end, only Sylas ended the first three rounds with a perfect 15 points.

The gap was so enormous it couldn’t even be explained in words. It was like they weren’t even in the same league.

—

"WOO!"

Gwenu jumped onto Khan’s back, straddling him like a koala bear. She laughed and jeered, sticking up her middle fingers toward the rest of the Thryskai and the other observers.

Cassarae looked over with a frown. "Aren’t you a little too happy?"

Gwenu quirked a side of her nose a bit as though she had smelled something foul.

"And so what if I am?"

"Are you fucking my man?" Cassarae asked more pointedly.

"And so what if I am?" Gwenu replied with the same exact phrase.

"Ladies, please, can we just—"

"Shut up."

"Shut the fuck up."

Cassarae and Gwenu cut him off at the same time, leaving the poor guy in a cold sweat while the two glared at each other.

Olivia gave a nervous laugh and pulled Cassarae away.

"Let’s not antagonize the powerful lady, okay?" Olivia hissed in Cassarae’s ear.

"We’re antagonizing far more. Plus, if the organization just thinks that bastard sticks his dick in anything that walks, we’re going to have a problem. You know that, right?"

Olivia fell into silence. Cassarae was a hothead, but she was right. They already had an impossible task ahead of them. If they also thought that Sylas was flippant in his relationships, then things would be even harder.

The point of a marriage alliance was mutual exchange of benefits. If Cassarae couldn’t convince the organization that Sylas favored her greatly and was at least mostly loyal to her, then no matter how powerful Sylas was or how well he proved himself, it wouldn’t matter.

"Look, the next round is starting. Let’s just focus on that, alright? Sylas doesn’t seem like the type to go around springing a leak everywhere anyway."

Cassarae snorted. "You don’t know him well enough. Plus, in this case, optics are what’s most important. I need him to draw a clear line with that harlot."

—

Sylas looked down at his feet, finding that this time... he was actually first.

’I wonder...’

Sylas didn’t get to complete the thought before a grid began to appear before him, something that was all too familiar taking shape.

A three-by-three matrix, each one carrying a different Rune within.

It really was the same as before. He had to arrange them until they spontaneously came together.

This time, there were two factors. First, this would go up to a ten-by-ten grid. The second factor was time.

So long as you passed the seven-by-seven grid within the 10-minute time frame, it was a Full Point pass. If you took longer, you would only get half points, and that was only if you finished within 20 minutes.

For every grid beyond seven-by-seven that you finished within the 20-minute timer, you would halve your time. For every one beyond seven-by-seven that you completed within 10 minutes, you would third your time.

Which was why it was odd that Sylas stared at the first matrix without moving at all for a full ten seconds, as though he was thinking about something else.

And then it all seemed to happen in a blur.

—

[Sylas Grimblade]

[Time: 00:00:00]

[Generational Record Broken]

[All-Time Record Broken]

[Perfect Points Awarded]

—

[All-Time F-Grade Breath Mastery Leaderboard]

[1. Sylas Grimblade – 00:00:00]

[2. Fowler Leava – 00:09:04]

...

—