Genetic Ascension - Chapter 106

Chapter 106: Duck and Roll
[600 GTs bonus]

As he thought, Titles should be Genes of some sort as well. If not, there was no way they could just weasel their ways around Stat Limits like this.

Though, it seemed that taking advantage of them wasn’t so easy either.

‘Is taking advantage of Genes any easier?’

Sylas shook his head, taking deep breaths. He pulled out his water bottle and took deep sips of water.

There was no way he could fight in such a state. He would have to give it a few hours to wear off. Luckily, he had the map to prepare any contingencies ahead of time should danger come his way.

To his surprise, by the time he had a meal and some water, his body was quickly getting better. He thought it might take hours, but it didn’t take nearly so long.

This was a huge relief to Sylas. He was actually somewhat worried that taking advantage of this loophole might lead to irreparable damages to himself.

Of course, he had consulted the Madness Key about these matters, but it was hard to just logically wave away something when your head felt like it was splitting itself in two.

Sylas exhaled a breath. As his headache subsided, he realized that there was quite a bit of bloating in his body in general, bloating that he had been in too much pain to even notice.

When he checked, he realized that there were far thicker streams of Aether rushing through him now. What he was mistaking for bloating was just a cool, foreign energy swimming through his body in rivers.

He could sense his Aether far more clearly than he had in the past. It had practically commandeered his blood vessels, moving along in a symbiotic relationship with his blood and giving it a brighter crimson color.

Every time his heart beat, the stream would intensify for a moment.

‘The center doesn’t seem to be in my heart though… and though I feel it the most in my belly, the core should be…’

Sylas suddenly realized why he had a splitting headache before. It wasn’t just his body that was bloated, but his literal brain. The change in Aether was so great that the tender flesh had pushed against his skull.

‘I have a concussion…’

Sylas sighed. He wasn’t a doctor, so he wasn’t absolutely certain. But that seemed like the only real conclusion.

His recovery should be far beyond that of a normal human by now, and considering his subsiding headache, he should be fine soon. But he realized just how dangerous that was.

He shook his head. ‘There’s no other way. If I don’t take risks like this, this seventh attempt will end up just like all the rest… and for the eighth, there might very well be no humans left to do anything.’

Sylas stood to his feet and finally claimed his rewards for defeating the second BOSS.

—

[You have slayed Basilisk Minor]

[Rewards]

[>Astral Bind (2/3) (Skill Fragment)]

[>Inflexible Gene Elixir (Consumable)]

—

‘The second fragment… that’s good.’

Sylas stored it away. The only slight disappointment was that he only received another Inflexible Gene Elixir rather than a higher grade one. But he had to admit that he was a bit spoiled on that front.

He had seen the stats of several people by now, and it was obvious that his Soft Gene State was an anomaly. If not, their stats wouldn’t be so poor after so long.

‘Since I’m not 100% yet, this is the best chance I’ll get to really put Basic Aetherflow through its paces… Let’s see if it was the correct choice.’

Sylas took a breath and pulled out a dagger from his Madness Key. By this point, he only had four left, and they were no doubt a precious commodity.

‘Hm?’

Sylas had yet to activate anything just yet, but he was immediately surprised. There was a smoothness and almost carelessness to his control that hadn’t been there before.

‘Maybe?’

Sylas pulled out a second dagger, and he began to control them both, his brows jumping.

It still felt easy, almost like his mind didn’t have to fully focus on them at all.

He took out a third.

Only when he did this did he begin to feel some push back, and at the same time, there was a dull aching in his head.

‘This shouldn’t be because of my increased Intelligence, that stat has nothing to do with my telekinesis or my telekinesis control. This should be a passive I received after forming Basic Aetherflow…’

—

[Basic Aetherflow]

[Aether comes naturally to you, even when it’s outside of your body. Your ability to extend your Aether away from your core, attaching it to objects to control and wield, far exceeds others]

—

The description of Basic Aetherflow came to mind.

He thought that he had to activate his Aetherflow Gene Talent for it to work, but then he remembered that even without Basic Aetherflow, he had already gained a great deal of talent in using telekinesis already. Clearly, forming the Basic Aetherflow Gene had increased the foundation of that ability even without the attached Gene Talent activating.

The daggers zipped around and Sylas began to control his body. At that point, he felt like he had truly reached his limit.

He was able to control three daggers and his body at the same time. This was a huge change. Even without the additional Intelligence, this was a qualitative change to his battle strength.

‘If only I had strong enough daggers to keep up with my strength… Let’s try activating the Aetherflow Gene Talent now—”

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Sylas ducked and rolled, his eyes twitching.

His three daggers… they all exploded.

Sylas was lucky to have reacted so fast. No… it was precisely because he had to visualize whenever he used his telekinesis that he was aware that something had gone wrong almost instantly. He not only ducked and rolled before the explosion occurred, but he also managed to send the daggers flying further away as well.

‘What… just happened…’

Taking his time, Sylas analyzed the situation before he came to a conclusion.