Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1980: Lustful Heat

[Congratulations, you have completed the journey of Madness]

[Would you like to activate the Madness System?]

[Yes][No]

Sylas looked at the notification for a short while. In reality, he had no real interest in trying to figure out how to get the other Seeds for himself. For one, he had too many other things on his plate and he had no desire for new Sins. If he wanted to get himself a Virtue instead, the difficulty was too high to be worthwhile.

He hadn't expected that he would be able to stumble into the Virtue of Lust so easily. Quite frankly, of all the Virtues he thought he might have a chance at in the future, he thought that Lust would be the last of them.

It was only because the answer just so happened to come to him so naturally and easily that he let it happen.

The second reason he hadn't continued to just chase after Seeds just for the sake of doing so was because of the effect it had on his Dao.

Sylas' Dao was something that he had only barely been able to put into words just days earlier. It gave his mind focus and his battle intention strength.

Intent was something that he had always understood to be an important part of strength in this world, but it wasn't until he put words to his Dao that he understood just how much.

At the start, intention was little more than about communicating with the system to answer Yes or No questions, but now Sylas was even at the point where his intent could force changes in the Runes of the bodies of others.

Was that also because his Rune Mastery had likewise reached an exaggerated level? Yes. But Sylas knew that that was only part of it.

It was like he had stated. He had already reached the pinnacle of Rune Mastery. What he lacked wasn't more understanding, it was instead a comprehension of how to best utilize what he already knew.

If Sylas had to describe it, his most recent breakthrough was more like taking a highly niche theoretical science and learning how to commodify it into an applied science.

The knowledge had already been there, he had just found a method to use it.

But as powerful as his Rune Mastery was, without his Dao, Sylas could tell that it would only be half as powerful as it was now.

Deep inside, despite his Dao being the most mysterious of his abilities, and the one thing he couldn't easily see reflected in his stats or immediate strength, Sylas had always known that having it and maintaining it was one of the most important things that he could do.

That was exactly why he had abandoned the idea of just gaining and earning more Sins. Even a Virtue was something he couldn't be 100% certain about.

No matter what he added to himself, it would change his Dao, shifting it in ways that couldn't be easily predicted.

Or would it?

Sylas didn't know the answer. The problem with Seeds was how they influenced your mind, how they changed how you thought.

Pride was fine. It was deeply ingrained in him, it was who he was and who he had always been.

Lust, however... despite having comprehended it, it felt like a foreign extension of himself, almost like he was relying more heavily on the universe than he was his own internal thoughts.

And wasn't that what a Dao should be? One's own internal thoughts?

At least, that was how Sylas' Pride came across.

'Dao... Dao...'

The word echoed in Sylas' mind twice over, and then continued to ring again and again, his thoughts almost drifting away as though he had forgotten about the raging battle around him or the Rune Armors he was meant to construct.

If he thought about what a Dao meant to him, then it was certainly internal. But if he looked at the word itself, attempting to translate it first to Ancient Ithkuil and then beyond into Runes, it was far more complicated.

It wasn't just a matter of oneself, it was a comprehension of the universe as well.

Sylas' journey with language had come a long way. When he first entered this world, he could only faintly feel the Will of words and react as a result. But then he learned Ancient Ithkuil, finding the underlying meaning of words with greater certainty than ever before. But then he started translating everything into the language of Runes.

He had at no time tried to do that with the word Dao before. It fell into a category of complexity that was beyond him... at least in the past.

But now, even though he couldn't complete it, he could see its faintest edges, forging it slowly until he caught a glimpse of that mountain peak.

It seemed that he had only understood one half of what a Dao was. An understanding of oneself was paramount, but an understanding of the universe... it was just as important.

In fact, from this faintest of inklings that Sylas was seeing, this latter portion was even more important than the aspect of the self and almost seemed to take center stage.

Sylas couldn't help but look at it with distaste.

To center the universe in your thoughts and to form a bridge with it to your person. That was the essence of a Dao, at least the portion of it that Sylas could see.

It was an explanation he was completely uninterested in.

So, he made a decision and pushed his intent toward Yes. Quite frankly, he didn't care what the true definition of a Dao was.

It changed nothing.

[Madness Key (Treasure)]

[A key leading to a fortune of Madness. Detects other Madness Disciples and enlightens your path. Contains small spatial world within. Can answer one question in exchange for <1 Fragmented> Gene] [Virtue Status: Lustful Heat. Perform one <Common> act of Charisma to maintain Happiness. Requirements grow by the day. <7 days> remaining until Hunger increases]