Genetic Ascension

Chapter 528: Focused

[Focused Punch (F-) (Skill)] [+10% Attack] — [Focused Kick (F-) (Skill)] [+10% Attack] — [Focused Palm (F-) (Skill)] [+10% Attack] — [Focused Finger (F-) (Skill)] [+10% Attack] — Sylas was surprised by the sheer number of them. They were clearly a series of sorts, but they were perfect for his needs. Each one was as simple as they got. They taught principles of strengthening one at the point of attack, gathering strength and exploding with it at the perfect instant of time. There were easily over a dozen of these Skills, ranging from more common forms of attacks like punching to less common ones like claw strikes or even knees. However, Sylas realized that after the first one, he had wasted his money on the rest of the Focus Skill series. The principles were all exactly the same. For someone with a Lv12 Taboo Bond Path Talent supporting his comprehension of his body, it was easy for him to translate the principles of one to the next. He didn't mind it because they were all extremely cheap, just a few hundred F-Coins each. But he kept this in mind for a future date. 'I see… it seems that the use of the tendons is a much higher form…' Sylas had once again skipped steps. He had mastered the ability to use his tendons as levers to make his attacks truly pop, but he had yet to excavate all the potential in his muscles alone. The Focus Series of Martial Arts was all about lending the entire body to one attack and combining that with the flow and movement of Aether. If Sylas had to boil down its core secrets and distill them into a summary, he would say that it fell into two main categories. Leverage and timing. Leverage encompassed not only taking into account your body and that of an opponent, in addition to what changes might occur during the process of an attack, but also something that Sylas had heard coaches of various fighting arts say many times before… Attacking a target through an opponent, rather than attacking the opponent him or herself. If you imagined yourself punching or kicking through someone, the power output would theoretically be much greater. The problem with that, though, is if you took this principle too far, you might end up dealing a blow that had yet to reach its apex strength. That was what timing was all about, striking a balance between wanting to put a hole in your opponent and allowing your strength to peak at just the right times. When Sylas understood this concept, he found that it was particularly easy to translate it to all aspects. Still, Sylas felt that some of these Skills were just gimmicks. <Focus Finger> felt ridiculous. The amount of reinforcement he would need to add to his fingers so that they wouldn't snap on contact made it far from worth it. Although the piercing power would be great, if you didn't overwhelm your opponent in Constitution, you would only be able to use it once. Sylas could circumvent this issue with his telekinesis, but he didn't think it was strictly necessary for him to be able to attack in this way when his fist was so much more effective. <Focus Claw> was ridiculous for the same reasons. It wasn't as though he had the sharp claws of a beast. Whether it was <Focus Finger>, <Focus Claw>, or any other Skills of a similar ilk, unless there was an additional protection or layer of complexity in using Aether, they weren't worth his time. But Sylas wasn't trying to just add new Skills to his arsenal. His main goal was to better his foundation so that he could awaken a truly powerful Comprehension. Even if he could find a Skill that could protect his fingers or form real claws for him, he wouldn't be interested in it. Still, the improvement was basically immediate. — [Dormant Comprehensions] [>Boxing (FFF+)] [>Taekwondo (FFF+)] [>Muay Thai (FFF+)] [>…] [>Mixed Martial Arts (FF+)] [>…] [>Blazing Will (F-)] — Mixed Martial Arts had improved to FF+ from F+, and Blazing Will seemed to have reached F- from Unranked. Though, this was likely unrelated to the Focus Series Skills. Sylas was quite interested in Blazing Will, though he didn't know exactly what it was. When he asked the Madness Key, it was incredibly vague, just making a general description of Will, which he had found odd. However, after feeling the changes to his Will and how similar it was to a Progenitor Flame, he seemed to understand why that was. The Madness Key likely couldn't give him a solid answer because even his Will didn't know what it was just yet. If it was on its way to becoming a Progenitor Flame, then the ability it awakened was still up in the air. Sylas wasn't worried about it too much, though. Because of his Dual Class Constitution and the Fusion Crystal, he could add a third Comprehension to himself. So while he was waiting for his Blazing Will to manifest itself down a path, he could add another first. Usually, Silver Grade Fusion Crystals could only help you add a second Comprehension, but his Dual Class Constitution made such treasures doubly as effective. The real question was how to raise his Mixed Martial Arts to FFF+ as well, and he already knew the answer. — [Interlocking Chains (F-) (Skill Set)] — [Serpent's Embrace (F) (Skill Set)] — [Harmonizing Lock (F+) (Skill Set)] — [Unity Hold (FF-) (Skill Set)] — [Twisting Lotus (FF) (Skill Set)] — [Synchronized Flow (FF+) (Skill Set)] — [Fusion Grapple (FFF-) (Skill Set)] 529 Interlocking Chains

After buying up everything he needed for his Rune Mastery path, Sylas only had a little over seven million F-Coins left. That wasn't enough to buy all of these Skill Sets. Well, he would only need a little over a million to buy all the ones from F- to FFF+, but the real problem was the Gene Skill that would cost him more than the seven million he had all on its own. Sylas also hadn't forgotten that trading for a Counter Gene Skill would remove the Warrant lording over his head right now. But as things were going, he wouldn't be able to afford that either. After some thought, Sylas shook his head. He planned on staying here for a month, and within this Woodland Territory, he would be nigh invincible. The improvement of his foundation was more important than anything else right now. In fact, because of his senses toward his body, if a Grimblade was nearby and using the Warrant to track him down, he was actually confident in reverse tracking them. He planned on making quite a great deal of money in the coming weeks, so even if he didn't have the funds now, that didn't mean that he wouldn't in the future. Taking this one step at a time, he traded for <Interlocking Chains>. — [Interlocking Chains (F-) (Skill Set)] [Your arms and legs link as solid as iron chains. A dance with your embrace means frustration, suffocation, and eventually death for your opponent] — When the Skill Set was taken into his mind, Sylas found that his mind became flooded with various forms. 'Hm… this isn't something I can practice on my own.' Not long later, Sylas had a General of the City called in. He was a middle-aged man with a robust build, which was quite a common figure amongst the soldiers of the System City. He was known as General Ji. "We'll be grappling," Sylas said. "No need to remove your armor; I won't be able to ask my opponents in the future to do so." General Ji seemed confused, but obliged nonetheless. Unfortunately, the city didn't have any grappling experts among the strong. But most opponents Sylas met wouldn't be grappling experts either. However, what they would be was extremely strong, and General Ji met those requirements. <Interlocking Chains> was a Skill Set, so it didn't teach a single powerful attack. Instead, it had two "death positions" and about eight transitions. The two so-called death positions referred to an arm lock and a leg lock, both around the neck. The transitions were where the real meat of the Skill Set was. It taught how to read and react to an opponent's movements, using their weight and actions against them to pull them further and further into the trap. "All you have to do is focus on resisting. For now, use about half your Strength and don't use a weapon." "Understood, Warlord," General Ji nodded. The two stood about a meter apart, and Sylas took a breath, going over everything in his mind before he took a strong step forward. — [Celestial Bind (FFF) (Skill Set)] — [Phoenix's Embrace (FFF+) (Skill Set)] — [Vortex Capture (F-) (Gene Skill Set)] — Staring at the list of grappling Skills, Sylas felt that he had made good choices. He would trade for them one by one, ignoring the expense. As so-called "Skill Sets," they were more expensive than normal Skills because they taught more general Aether application methods and several stances. As such, they were on average ten times more expensive than Skills and Gene Skills of the same level. However, because of that, he didn't seem to have enough money to make it all the way through.