Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1465 Close

Sylas took a breath and exhaled.

“Almost there."

Standing in the air and stepping off of his throne, Sylas didn't look back as the throne faded from sight. His focus was on something else entirely.

Until now, he hadn't been able to find if there was a pattern he needed to follow or if there was a way of deciphering where the stairwell to the next floor was baked into the tower itself.

That said... Sylas had another method.

[One Kind For Me]

(Level: 62]

(insight (Path Talent)]

[>Sense Evolution Triggers]

[>Sense nearby Paths]

[>Intuition]

Sylas had a stack of abilities that was nearly godiike. It could be said that he had some measure of ability to see and feel out the future because of them. In fact, it could be said that ever since Vipermancy reached the E-Grade—an event that had happened more than half a year ago now—he had been ignoring a lot of the pinging and warnings he received.

He had too many things on his hands and it practically felt as though there was a new method of improving his Contracts around every corner.

Despite knowing this, Sylas had good reason for ignoring these feelings.

If you had so many methods of accomplishing the same thing, was such a path even worth it?

Sure, he had sensed a million different ways to improve his Contracts, but it wasn't until he got his hands on the Sanctum's Lineages that he felt it was worth his while to take such steps.

What he was looking for wasn't just any old method of improvement. He wanted his Contracts to be at his level. Even if they couldn't be Primus Imperium, he wanted them to be close—or else what would be the point?

Back in their starship, Sylas had sensed a path for Gogo. But he had foregone going through with it, saying "not yet," because he felt that there was a way to make it even more perfect inside this dungeon.

And now, he was using that feeling as a compass.

What was interesting about following this feeling was that the actual compass in Sylas’ map was also reacting in kind.

The compass pointing Sylas toward the obelisk flew straight and true, while the “compass” pointing him toward Gogo's path of evolution was like a refinement. Sometimes the former would be a bit vague, making it hard to tell if Sylas should be progressing through one territory or another. But because of the refinement of the latter, he was far more confident.

Part of Sylas wanted to simply speed through. Because he had the map on him, he didn't need to clear the Events. But the problem was that the rewards given for the Events were too great.

He had had more improvement in the last day than he had even had using the Crucible. And it had to be remembered that the Crucible was a reward he had gained from literally fighting against the Chosen of three of the most powerful organizations in the Milky Way.

By comparison to that, this was nothing more than a walk in the park.

“I think that I should hurry forward now."

Sylas came to a decision.

His feel from Vipermancy had skyrocketed after his Wisdom's Effectiveness shot through the roof. He could feel the direction he was meant to go in even more clearly now.

The opponents he was going against were too powerful.

Just like he had learned on Earth, trying to maximize every opportunity and every little advantage would get him killed if he wasn't careful.

If he was too greedy and tried to clear more territories, others would descend onto the other floors before he did. Those floors would be more dangerous, and there would be fewer of them, increasing the chances of running into enemies.

He would have to thread a needle, balancing speed with resource gathering.

Sylas stepped into another territory, this one covered in flames. Meteors fell from the skies like golden droplets of heat, and it seemed that this territory in specific was quite dangerous even if the Event didn't immediately trigger.

Weaving through it, Sylas made it to the other side. He met the hexagonal territory at a point, the left and right of him carrying gates to two different territories.

He glanced at the compass map and it was pointed straight ahead, making it impossible to tell which way to go.

This was a scenario that had happened multiple times now. Because of the structure of the hexagonal territories, every other region Sylas went through would be like this.

If Sylas didn't also have his Vipermancy Path Talents, he would have a pretty good solution for it. Instead of trying to meet the path head on, he would approach it from an angle. Though that would require clearing more territories, it would also guarantee he'd have a strong sense of where he was going.

Luckily... he didn't have to.

Sylas picked one and strolled right through it. Quickly reaching the end of it, he repeated, and then repeated, leaving a string of unconquered Events behind him.

I'm close.’

Sylas could feel his Luck almost whispering to him now. It seemed that whatever would help Gogo's evolution the most was on the second of the three floors, not the third. Otherwise, he wouldn't feel so strongly about how close he was.

He had also been quite lucky. He hadn't run into any teams yet, so he hadn't been forcefully dragged into any Quicktime Events.

Maybe Sylas shouldn't have had that thought, because the moment he did it happened. Or, rather, after crossing just two more territories and feeling like he was right on the cusp of it.

“We're almost there. We should be able to meet up with them soon."

“Is this smart, though...2 The system isn't going to recognize us as a single team. They'll just pit us against one another, and they're far more powerful than we are. Aren't we sending ourselves to our deaths?"

“Don't worry about that. The Ouro have a way."