Genetic Ascension

Chapter 2411: Poise

Ekear had expected some variation of this response from Sylas, and after taking a moment to settle the irritation that naturally came with it, he answered without changing expression.

"The Nethum are from the Poise Heaven."

The words had barely left his mouth when Sylas felt something shift in his understanding, not through any Skill or technique, but through the meaning carried by the name itself. This Heaven was tied to Dexterity, he was almost certain of it, yet what interested him more was how specific the word Poise felt compared to something as broad as a stat.

If Sylas had to put the concept into words, it reminded him of the saying that slow was smooth and smooth was fast, a principle where control naturally created speed rather than chasing it directly. Dexterity governed acceleration, reaction, deft control, the ability to change direction without wasting motion, and the Nethum seemed to have taken that broad foundation before forcing it toward one very particular interpretation.

Poise carried patience within it without implying passivity, more like control held so tightly that speed became the inevitable result of correct movement. Even the way the Nethum trained their young seemed to reflect the same idea, sending them down to the Mortal Plane and forcing them to grow beneath restrictions for long periods of time in the belief that patience now would sharpen everything they built later.

Sylas couldn’t immediately find anything wrong with the path, and in some ways it might have been the clearest distinction he had ever seen between Dexterity and Speed.

Without some philosophical separation between the two, there was too much room for overlap, while Poise gave Dexterity a clear identity as the control, precision, and efficiency behind movement rather than movement itself.

That realization naturally brought Sylas back toward one of the problems he had been carrying for some time now, which was completing Willborn Mind. Wisdom remained the final barrier standing in his way since he already possessed Willborn Charisma and Intelligence, and while he had yet to cross that final threshold, he never felt as though the answer was impossibly far away.

If Sylas ever managed to carve out enough uninterrupted time to focus on Wisdom properly, he was confident he could eventually force his way through. The more troublesome issue was Willborn Physique, where none of his physical stats felt remotely close to crossing the same barrier and he didn’t even possess a clear idea of what the first step should look like.

With Wisdom, Sylas constantly had the sense that the answer was nearby, hidden behind a wall that required time and thought to dismantle, while Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, and Speed remained much more indistinct. He had increased all of them countless times, used them in battle, pushed them beyond the limits of what people at his Level should possess, yet none of that had brought him meaningfully closer to making their Willborn states clear.

Now he was beginning to understand why.

The Beast Heaven represented Constitution, but even its name was so broad that it left almost too many interpretations open at once. Endurance, regeneration, bodily toughness, vitality, density, survival, and even bloodline strength could all be folded beneath Constitution depending on the person looking at it, making the stat difficult to reduce to one clean philosophical core.

Poise didn’t suffer from that problem. Just hearing the name spoken by a Nethum had given Sylas more insight into Dexterity than years of simply raising the stat ever had, almost as though the Heaven itself carried an interpretation strong enough to force clarity onto something that had always been vague before.

It wasn’t enough to instantly reach Willborn Dexterity, but compared to where he had been moments ago, Sylas could feel an entire portion of the road beginning to take shape.

If the Heavens representing Strength and Speed worked the same way, then their names, cultures, and dominant Clans might carry similar answers hidden within them. Sylas wouldn’t need someone to explain the entire path to him either, since just a single clear principle might be enough for him to begin building the rest on his own.

That possibility immediately became more interesting than Ekear’s offer itself. The day Sylas reached Willborn status across every one of his stats, his three Classes would evolve again, and he had little doubt that another complete evolution would push them beyond their current state into something he had never seen represented anywhere else.

His Classes had already reached points the system struggled to categorize properly, so another transformation built upon a complete Willborn foundation might open a path even the system had never accounted for.

Ekear was still waiting for a response, watching Sylas carefully as though his silence meant he was weighing whether the offer was worth accepting. In reality, Sylas had already moved beyond that question entirely, and the only thing he cared about now was how quickly he could turn the name Poise Heaven into another step toward Willborn Physique.

The Nethum could potentially help him take one step toward that goal, but unfortunately for Ekear, Sylas didn’t need to accept his offer to make use of the opportunity.

Ordinarily, Sylas wouldn’t have cared much about pretending to subordinate himself to someone else if doing so placed him in a position of advantage. He had already done something similar with the Grimblades, allowing others to believe whatever hierarchy made them comfortable while knowing that the arrangement would only last as long as it remained useful to him.

Appearances had never mattered much to Sylas when he knew the reality of the situation, so if someone wanted to call him a subordinate while he extracted exactly what he needed from them, they were welcome to enjoy the title. What made this situation different wasn’t pride, but Gralith.

Ekear was still Gralith’s eldest disciple, someone Gralith genuinely cared about, and Sylas saw no reason to turn that relationship into a tool if another path already existed. Using Ekear as a disposable bridge into the Nethum would create unnecessary tension around someone Sylas respected, especially when there was no need to involve him at all.

Why would Sylas need to be concerned with all of that when he had Cheri?