Genetic Ascension

Chapter 876  Gluttony and Greed

'Gluttony and Greed…'

The more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt that there was a secret here that he was missing. The overlap between the two wasn't a coincidence, and he also felt that Arcane Madness was trying to hint at something it couldn't quite say explicitly during their talk either.

But no matter how hard Sylas thought about it, it felt like it was continuously slipping away, almost as though there was a third party holding him back from grasping this final secret, whatever it was.

The Bone-Tailed Lizard finished eating and waddled back up to Sylas, nudging at him. Ultimately, the little guy was still a baby and it was already fatigued.

Luckily, there was the Hibernation Realm to deal with that.

Sylas pulled it back into the space, and it wasn't more than a few seconds before he felt that the Bone-Tailed Lizard was already ready to go.

'If I eat the meat of the beasts here, will the same thing happen? Or is it something different being triggered?'

The questions in Sylas' mind were numerous. It was hard to understand why the Mature Aether here was such a danger, but eating the flesh to Level up was just fine.

Also, there was the bigger elephant in the room… what was he supposed to do here? Where was he supposed to go?

There was no other choice but to move forward.

…

"Odd…"

Sylas stood over the corpse of another beast. This time, he had allowed the Glasirith to eat just in order to check something. But, unexpectedly, the Glasirith didn't Level up like the Bone-Tailed Lizard did.

Taking a breath, Sylas closed his eyes. Others might not be able to figure out what was going on, but he had a Legendary Profession designed to do exactly this.

It was peculiar that the answer didn't come to him so easily, but as he began to meditate on it, focusing on his Insight Path Talent, he slowly unwound why that was.

'That's why… it's not related to the Serpentes Path at all, so the answer didn't come to me as naturally as usual…'

Sylas opened his eyes, a flicker dancing within.

The Bone-Tailed Lizard had managed to Level up because this space was in a weird limbo where the dinosaurs here were still quasi Overlord Race members. Eating their corpses allowed the Bone-Tailed Lizard to tap into that, and thus benefit from the boost.

The Bone-Tailed Lizard had managed to Level up because this space was in a weird limbo where the dinosaurs here were still quasi Overlord Race members. Eating their corpses allowed the Bone-Tailed Lizard to tap into that, and thus benefit from the boost.

Sylas also wasn't entirely wrong about his Split Realm claim. While this wasn't a Split Realm, it was under the pseudo rule of the Legendary Path System. Because of that, there were no Gene Cores, much like there hadn't been in the Mountains of Gize Split Realm.

Due to that, the Bone-Tailed Lizard had been absorbing Genes directly from the flesh of the creatures by eating them.

The question then was how were these things related. How could a world be in a quasi state like this one? What did it mean and what was triggering it?

Sylas put the Glasirith away, moving deeper into the oasis and further from the wall of earth.

He had a theory that the source of light in this place was coming from the golden pillar. But oddly enough, he hadn't seen that either. For now, he could only move toward the center with caution and speed.

While he didn't know how far along the plans of their enemies were, or the odds of Archibald's plans succeeding, what he did know was he could only trust himself… so he would have to work fast.

And that he did.

The beasts down here were quite powerful, and adjusting the gravity was its own challenge, but Sylas mowed them down nonetheless.

As the Bone-Tailed Lizard continued to Level up, the task only became easier as well. And something quite shocking happened when the Bone-Tailed Lizard crossed the Level 10 threshold.

—

[Evolution Available]

—

The notification popped up on Sylas' screen and he frowned. This wasn't just because he was surprised, but because there was a very clear problem here.

He could feel that if he allowed the Bone-Tailed Lizard to continue down this path, it would deviate further from its Serpentes Lineage. Eventually, Sylas wouldn't be able to maintain its Contract at all.

But at the same time, he was intrigued. This was the first time he had gotten a notification like this.

'I don't think I've ever truly triggered an evolution in my Contracts. Nosphaleen is close, but that was thanks to the Inheritance she received. This is a very different sort of situation… did I receive a notification for Nosphaleen?'

Sylas checked through his history just to be sure, but he was confident that he would have never missed something like that.

'Maybe, then, this is a unique instance for the Legendary Path System?'

Sylas looked at the notification for a while longer, but in the end, he had no choice but to dismiss it. If he allowed it to continue, then he would lose one of his best trump cards.

There was, of course, the Basilisk King still by his side now, even with Nosphaleen gone. But, once again, there was just something telling him that he would need the Bone-Tailed Lizard far more.

'Hm?'

Sylas paused as he felt a little nudge from his Insight. No, it wasn't from Insight, it was from Intuition specifically, one of the branching talents of Insight.

'This is possible too?'

There was a special energy swirling within the Bone-Tailed Lizard now that an Evolution was available. If his Intuition was correct, he could repurpose that Evolution for a very different outcome if he played his cards right.

With his Legendary Path protection, he was almost certain to succeed.

'But… this evolutionary energy doesn't seem to be enough. If the Bone-Tailed Lizard can suppress it for longer, I think that I can…'

Thoughts swirled around in Sylas' head as he came to rapid new conclusions. It was an unexpected sort of change, but he thought he could very well take advantage of this.

"Suppress it," Sylas said.