Genetic Ascension

Chapter 689: Is That So?

Sylas' gaze sharpened.

Silver City Stele? He only knew of one. Or more accurately, he only knew of a group of one. The System Cities.

Was this a clue about System Cities? Was Archibald implying that he had figured out the truth behind them as well? But then what did he mean by "all roads lead to Legacy"?

'Rome... he's making a subtle implication that he's also aware of my appearance in the Split Realm as well. But at the same time, he's pointing me to Legacy. Is he trying to say that Legacy is a traitor? No, that wouldn't be useful information. At least, it wouldn't be useful enough to risk communication like this with me, even going as far as giving Nathan something so valuable in return.'

At this point, there were so many traitors on Earth that Sylas couldn't even find it in himself to care whether Legacy was among them or not. He had long reached the point where he felt like he was surrounded by enemies.

There was only one way forward when things had reached this point.

Be Strong.

Those words of the Madness Key rang more and more true every day.

But if Archibald wasn't trying to warn him of this, then of what?

'Legacy has the solution.'

Sylas' gaze flashed. That was the only answer.

Why would Archibald mention the System Cities and then point him in the direction of Legacy? He also implied a connection through the Split Realm, which was a Dungeon surrounded by the mysteries of ancient Earth and inextricably linked to the machinations of alien Races in undermining their chances of a successful Summoning.

Legacy had the solution that Sylas was looking for.

The Madness Key required 10,000 Silver Genes to give him the answer he wanted. All things considered, Sylas didn't feel like he had a single shot at gathering that many Genes.

Not only were the beasts mind-numbingly powerful, but even those he had once had to go all out against were not just rare, they also only had one or two to their names.

Unfortunately, the ticket to the Mancy world he had gotten wouldn't give him a chance. If he understood correctly, those beasts were virtual and didn't have real Genes attached to them. Instead, they were formed by Blood Essence, which was a good enough replacement for what Sylas needed.

Even if he could farm Genes from that world, would he have the time? There was a limit to how long his gate would stay open, he didn't have forever.

It also had to be considered that everyone on Earth was already rapidly approaching the limits of the F-Grade, and yet Silver Genes were still so rare.

Reaching the E-Grade wouldn't magically mean your Genes got better either. In fact, most alive on Earth right now would either never reach the E-Grade, that was something that future generations would have to pave a path for.

And, reaching the E-Grade just meant that one would have to start fighting for Fragmented E- Grade Genes instead. By that point, even Gold F-Grade Genes would be useless.

That was all to say that with the cap of the F-Grade rapidly approaching... Sylas couldn't see a path to gathering such a large number of Silver Genes. The fact that he had run into anyone carrying these Genes at all was a rarity amongst rarities.

The "obvious" solution to this was to find an opportunity to go off-world. After all, he had managed to do this several times already. Maybe there would be better opportunities out there.

But setting aside the fact that any world that had an abundance of Silver Genes would be far too dangerous for Sylas, on top of the fact every time he went off-world he was constrained by the parameters of whatever Dungeon he was locked into...

Would it really be easy even if he ignored that?

His only interaction with individuals off-world, that being the Sylphs, came with heavy protections for their Genes.

The last time he had detected a Unique Gene from a Sylph, he was barred from taking it. It was safe to say that any Sylph that had Genes worth taking would have protections like this on their body.

Although Sylas had only struggled taking their Unique Genes, and took their Bronze Genes just fine, by his experience, those with Silver Genes were rare even amongst the Sylphs as well.

If they could place protections on their Unique Genes, they would certainly protect the Silver Genes they had just as tightly.

Even the road to claiming the 300 Genes he needed to find out what the Genesis Forge was could only be described as a tough uphill battle, let alone the path to gaining over 30 times that.

Now it seemed that Archibald had information that would allow him to avoid all of this...

"Is that all he told you?" Sylas asked.

"He says that if you understand, then it's possible to work together. But in order to take the next steps, he will need you to do something."

"And that would be?"

"He says that the answers are in the remains of Lucius' City."

"Mm. Alright."

Sylas cut off the call without another word, tossing the device into the Madness Key, the only thing he trusted to keep whatever hidden mechanisms Nathan might have left in it at bay.

With a flap of the peacock's wings, they shot a blazing trail back to the portal of the Arctic Tundra Territory.

...

Many hours later, Sylas appeared above what should have been ruins, but were far neater and tidier than they should be in order to earn such a moniker. It was clear that Lucius had left in

quite a systematic manner, taking everything of value away.

'In that case, where should I go to find what I'm looking for?'

The answer was obvious the moment Sylas thought about it. Standing high in the air, his gaze flashed as he began to look for Runes.

He quickly found them.

'Is that so...? Unless you have a very good offer, I'll have to reject this proposal.'