Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1909: Boldness

Sylas had never seen the Demi-God Plane, but he had seen a God, and he understood Runes better than almost anyone in the Mortal Realms.

There were perhaps some B-tier and A-tier Rune Masters with a better holistic understanding than he had, as they had simply seen more, but Sylas imagined that by now, even such people were rare.

That was all to say that Sylas was sure he could tell the difference between Demi-God and Mortal Runes at a single glance, especially since he had seen God Runes.

The fundamental difference between these Runes, though, was in the quality of Aether they called forth. However, that didn't come down to the Strokes or even how well one drew the Runes. Instead, it came down to the strength of Will.

Did you have a Mortal Will, a Demi-God Will, or a God Will? If you had a God Will, then when you drew Runes, you would form God Runes. It was as simple as that.

Well, as simple as you could make such a complicated topic, that is.

Sylas didn't believe that there were even many Gods who had as much skill as he did in drawing F-tier Runes. Those who had reached his level were almost certainly the top 1% of the 1%.

When it came to Demi-Gods, there might not be a single one.

And yet, in an individual contest of Rune drawing, they would probably still be his betters purely because of their Wills and the amount of access that gave them.

That was, of course, assuming one final matter: that there were Demi-God or God energies to pull on in the first place.

If they descended down to the Mortal Realms, it didn't matter what their Will level was at; they would at best be able to match Sylas, with maybe a slight edge.

This slight edge would come from the fact that a Demi-God Will would have to make less effort to pull on Mortal Will. Meaning, for every Rune they drew, they would use less energy than Sylas would, and therein lay the division.

However, if Sylas ascended to a Demi-God World... that would be a completely different matter entirely.

He would be at a disadvantage until he truly became a Demi-God himself.

Regardless, Sylas knew exactly what this place was the moment he started to observe it because he could feel Runes that he couldn't freely control, but they weren't so great that they were at the level of a God.

All of this said... Sylas wasn't helpless.

With a raise of his hand, the Life Seal appeared before Sylas, and his gaze flickered.

It was just as he expected. The Reaper Sealwright Profession didn't have such limitations, and neither did any of his other Professions.

His Professions functioned based on the system, and no matter where he was, the system would react in kind to help him execute his skills.

There was no limitation of Mortal, Demi-God, or God on his Seals. Meaning...

'I can control Demi-God and God-level Runes through my Professions so long as I do it just right.'

Of course, this would be a highly limited path. But it was something to keep in mind.

'In that case, the reason the Mirror Dungeon is so unbridled and unlimited in what it is capable of is because it's a Demi-God item that is being used on the scale of the Mortal Realms. Of course it's able to continuously and endlessly reflect and form new Dungeons in such a state.

'But that also means something else...'

The Sanctum was no longer just a Mortal organization anymore. Their fundamental, underlying foundation had already been improved to the Demi-God level.

Thanks to this, the Race that made them up-the Spirit Beasts-were being elevated to Demi-Godhood in real time. If there had been any babies born in this time period of which there were certainly some-they were immediately granted Demi-God-level foundations and stats.

As for those who were already born and had yet to grow up, they would have to put effort into changing things.

Rebuilding a Foundation when you were already beyond the F-tier was incredibly difficult. But if there was anything having his Legendary F-tier Scorpion Emperor Gene stolen from him had taught Sylas, it was that the Sanctum had methods of their own.

And the root of those methods might very well be here.

'Unfortunately for them, changing the foundation of a Mortal using Demi-God-level treasures is one thing. But trying to reform the foundation of a Mortal into that of a Demi-God while only relying on Demi-God-level treasures would be... highly improbable.'

They were stuck between a rock and a difficult place.

Their advantages worked in the past because they were working with something far more powerful.

But now, the advantages their Ancestors had left behind for them were at most on the same level. This shaved the so-called "advantage" they had to near nothing.

That wasn't to say that these methods were useless, but there was a much greater burden and effort that would need to be undertaken.

The Emperors and Ancestors had almost certainly sent their youth in here assuming and knowing that the majority of them would likely die, and that was something they had forced themselves to reconcile with because there was simply no other way.

Standing there in the skies, Sylas felt that he had finally grasped and come to fully understand 95% of everything.

There was just one question that remained in his mind.

What was he going to do about it?

Stop the geniuses of the Emperor Sanctum from benefitting?

No. He didn't care about these people that much. Even if some of them managed to take that step and elevate, the vast majority would fail, and that meant that Sylas could still wipe out the Emperor Sanctum whenever he wanted. Or, rather... in about seven days' time.

What Sylas really wanted was an answer to exactly how he would benefit the most from this.

And he was getting a pretty good idea as the forest swayed in response to his boldness.