Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1686 Convenient

Sylas sluggishly regained control of his body, the surging might that had once been washing over him calming into an ebb. It receded like low tide, pulling into his body and leaving the ring of cold around his swimming, emerald eyes even denser than before.

For a moment, it even looked as though his eyes had been carved from glass itself, the gold, if one gazed particularly closely, carrying with it the very same Ancestral Runes that had once carved themselves into the glass encasement around the rulebook.

'Convenient.'

Sylas liked this outcome because his Profession was no longer strongly tied with Fanelei. It could be said that the Profession Fanelei gave him was extremely powerful, a true Bronze Profession. It was the Profession that every Legacy Disciple and top-level brass of the Weaver Guild had on their person.

However, there was a higher form of this Profession, one that touched upon the most ancient secrets of the Weaver Guild but was unable to truly be manifested by most that stepped foot into these halls.

Sylas understood why extremely clearly. That was because doing so required faintly understanding the building blocks of the Weaver Guild's own system, a project that was incomplete whether out of fear or for lack of ability.

Maybe there were others that had stepped onto this level, but they were almost certainly all the greatest cream of the crop, the top of the tippity top of them all.

And now that Profession was in Sylas' hands.

How much effort had it taken him to improve Vipermancy to Silver? And that was despite having so many powerful Serpentes under his charge to guide his way and sharpen his focus.

And yet, by comparison, this just felt so much...

Easier.

Sylas exhaled a calm breath. Despite his success, it felt like he was standing in front of a path that was only just beginning.

What level of Rune Mastery was this? And why did it feel like there was still so much room left to grow?

He thought he had Perfected the F-tier of Rune Mastery. At the very least, even if he didn't know everything there was to know about F-tier Runes and how they worked, he felt that with his level of Rune Mastery, he could figure it all out just given time.

But now... somehow he felt he was still at the start of the road.

Was this where Rune Mastery really began? Was this what Gralith had meant? Or could it be that even Gralith hadn't seen that it could go this far?

At that moment, Sylas felt an insatiable desire from deep within himself, his body thrumming.

He wanted to know more.

Turning, he made a move to step out. And the moment he did, a wave of noise hit him.

Shouts of shock, roaring arguments, and more gazes than he had ever felt on him at once before were practically searing into his soul.

He felt one powerful Will after another take a stab at probing him, and the feeling of discomfort was so oppressive that he nearly felt himself crack.

Compared to the stretching he experienced when he tried to read the rulebook, this felt several times worse. It felt like around every casual corner there was another B-tier that wanted to see what made him click.

"Stop." Malikhi's cold voice spread over it all, a Will colored by complexities Sylas couldn't quite understand spreading far and wide.

Instantly, all the Wills probing Sylas vanished into the air, retreating with haste.

Malikhi's Will wasn't particularly strong. In fact, it was at the F-tier as it should be. But it was just...

'I can't describe it.'

Sylas understood somewhat, then. The Analei might reset a lot of themselves when they reincarnated, but their Will was the one thing that remained mostly intact.

Whatever Will level Malikhi was at, it was certainly beyond A Marked Will.

Sylas' own Will might have read Infinite now, but because of his own weakness, it didn't display like that. For the first time, he was coming across an F-tier he wasn't sure had a weaker Will than himself.

Malikhi ignored the looks of curiosity and spoke to Sylas.

"Check your badge. How many Merits do you see?"

Sylas did check, but he had no context for the number he saw, so he hardly reacted at all. While he had read all of the rules already and knew how much he was supposed to receive, what he didn't know was what could actually be bought for this amount.

"One million."

Malikhi's gaze flickered. That was lower than it should be by a substantial margin, and that could only really mean one thing.

Merits in the Weaver Guild were odd. What they valued the most wasn't your strength as a Rune Master, but instead your ability to improve.

Many people found this to be unfair, and there had been many attempts to change this in the past, but the Founders were incredibly firm about it all.

Of course, Sylas understood all of this, and actually, he quite agreed with the Founders-especially after seeing the state of the so-called Ancestors they had left everything behind to.

This aside, the main crux of it all was that one couldn't just gain and hoard Merits. Not only were there timers on how long Merits could last, resetting every certain period of time depending on how many you had gathered and how long it took you, but Merits were separated into tier systems depending on when you gained them.

That is to say, not only did Merits hold less value the lower Tier you were when you gained them, but if you happened to have Merits you gained at the F-tier still available at the E-tier, you would experience a deduction.

All of this was to incentivize forward movement. If you weren't improving, you were regressing.

By this point, the Ancestors of the Guild only gained resources based on bending the rules here and there, because they certainly couldn't do it on their own.

However... there was one kind of resource that could be exchanged for at a flat rate no matter what tier you were

in.

The Ancestral Profession.