Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1460: Browning Gold (1)

It was just as Sylas expected. It seemed that the real reason the rules of the tower weren't applying to him was because of the map in his possession.

Usually, if he wanted to cross through this barrier into another territory, it would require him to first clear the event. Only then would it be possible to pass through one of the six paths out of this territory.

Then, through a series of trial and error, he would have to slowly make his way toward where he thought the path to the lower floors would be.

As far as he understood it, though this place was called a tower, it was more of an inverted tower where the goal was actually to make it to the lower floors rather than a higher floor.

The moment Sylas stepped into this new territory, he found himself standing on a calm lake that stretched as far as the eye could see. The sun in the distance was different as well, seemingly stuck in a perpetual dusk rather than the bright high noon the wheat field had been in.

However, once again, there was no Quicktime Event that triggered for Sylas.

“Are the other Spark Masters good enough to avoid triggering the Event instantly? It's possible that they are. A normal Spark Master wouldn't be able to, but there's no telling If there are other Perfect Spark Masters... my real advantage is being able to move through the territories without clearing the Event first. But...

There were many limitations to this, but the main one was that if Sylas accidentally ran into a territory of another team, he would be pulled into the Quicktime Event whether he wanted to or not. That was because the event that triggered when two teams were present was different from one triggered by the environment.

In that case, Sylas' enemies would be the opposing team, and they wouldn't be as foolish as monsters spawned by the system, unsure of whether to attack him or not.

In addition, Sylas certainly wouldn't be able to leave the territory until he won at that point.

That said...

Sylas pivoted in his thoughts, falling into silence for a moment.

“Are there clues? Or is it truly blind luck?"

Sylas wondered if the system would really be so cruel as to make the teams go through one territory after another blindly in hopes they would stumble onto a staircase down. “There's only one way to find out.’

Sylas turned around and returned to the wheat field. With a step, he rose high into the skies.

Behind him, his [Glassvolt Throne] thrummed to life. Then... he actually took a seat on it. Crossing his legs, he fell into deep meditation, his hair sparking with lightning as the skies above began to thrum.

Sylas knew the limitation of [Glassvolt Throne] all too well. It was a skill that was the most useful to him to control the world around him, but it was only an F-Grade Growth skill, while the worlds he was in usually had upper limits of at least the C-Grade, and sometimes the B-Grade.

What use was such a low-level Skill in controlling these worlds?

[Glassvolt Throne (FFF+) (Growth Skill)] (Fragmented Mastery)

[Stand in the skies and draw it into your command, increase the power of your Glassvolt Aether beyond the Realms of what your body can handle... Control, suppress, grasp... but its power will be dependent on your understanding of the world you stand in] This left Sylas trapped in a paradox.

He needed to understand the world around him through his Growth Skill, but his Growth Skill was too weak to comprehend the worlds he was usually in. It was a vicious cycle that left him unable to improve.

Sylas sat in complete silence for a full six hours, not moving an inch. He could feel his Aether draining away from his body, but his Wisdom was practically endless.

He turned over every Rune in the wheat field, comprehending it so thoroughly he felt that if he was given a month or two, he could reconstruct the world entirely.

In fact...

Sylas, his eyes still closed, turned over his palm. Sparkling golden wheat began to form, but it quickly turned, manifesting into a miniature humanoid wheat soldier.

It then burst apart, reforming again into a larger being with hammers of hay for hands— the wheat giant.

Sylas' Will shattered it again, and then he began to form something more fundamental, wisps of Runes that carried an air of life and harvest, of quiet peace and gentle soothing.

The Runes spoke to him, almost giggling as they flickered around him. They should have feared the bolts of emerald lightning that could crush their Will and erase their existence, and yet they felt no such things whatsoever. It was as though whatever Sylas decided to do with them, they would be satisfied.

Sylas' eyes flashed open and a rippling wave of lightning surged out from him, burning everything to ash.

The wheat soldiers, the wheat giants, the beautiful fields themselves—they were all refined until all that was left was an ancient stone and the safe house right at the center of it all.

The ancient stone looked cracked and worn, but it reminded Sylas of something else... almost like the chess piece of a game long lost to time, fallen and forgotten by the wayside.

[Quicktime Event Cleared]

[Rewards]

[Dew of Browning Gold] [Browning Gold Elixir]

Sylas' mind was still in a hint of a daze, the whispering voices of the Runes he had just destroyed speaking to him as though hoping to see him again at a later time.

No fury, no anger, just acceptance.

At that moment, he felt a shudder in his heart.

This wasn't just "like" life, it was life. Life of a lower form, but life nonetheless.

To them, he was their God.