Genetic Ascension

Silence fell over the arena.

It didn't feel like a City Lord had been just killed at all. It felt like they had just witnessed the true execution of the day.

So simple, so direct, so unfeelingly careless that it didn't feel real at all.

Until, that is, Sylas raised his hand and the stones revealed the headless corpse of the former City Lord.

His blood spilled out into the arena, pooling into the cracks and crevices.

Plinli never got to display any of his abilities. Even his City Lord Title had been completely useless. What good was that boost of strength if he couldn't even hit his opponent?

But from the very beginning, he had lost the battle.

CRACKLE.

In the silence, the sound was quite audible. There wasn't a single person who didn't hear it, but their gazes were already trained on precisely where the sound had come from.

The skies shuddered and a familiar oppressive aura descended from above, forming an eye that looked down.

Sylas' gaze narrowed. Why did the System Eye appear? Plinli was already dead. Unless, it was something else going on?

Could Plinli still be alive, maybe?

The eye pulsed and then suddenly pivoted, looking to Sylas.

Sylas' blood ran cold. It almost felt as though liquid nitrogen had been poured into his very veins, his heart beat entering a state of tug of war where it wanted to beat harder, faster. And yet, it was constrained by this chilling wind that forced it to slow.

The power gap was simply too enormous. Standing beneath the eye, even Sylas couldn't help but feel so very small and insignificant.

[You have pleased the system, System Rebel]

[System Reward]

[System Reward Activated]

Plinli's corpse convulsed and then a large number of Runes began to be pulled out from his body.

Sylas' eyes widened. Others might not recognize what was happening here, but he certainly did.

Those were Genes.

Silver Genes.

Plinli's body was sucked dry and he was left with nothing more than a husk.

Then, all of the Genes condensed. By the end of it, there weren't just Silver Genes there, but also an even larger number of Bronze Genes, Common Genes, and even Fragmented Genes.

Soon, though, what was left of them was a crystal ball of swimming Runes.

The ball floated up and then landed in Sylas' hands before the system vanished.

[Gene Storage Crystal (Silver) (Treasure)]

[Capacity: 10 000 E-Grade Genes]

Sylas hardly paid attention to this at all. Gene Storage wasn't a problem for him.

If corpses were left alone, their Genes would decay. But with the Madness Key, this wasn't an issue as they would be preserved. He had a lot of excess space in his spatial device others wouldn't have, so this crystal wasn't appealing to him.

The best ability of the Gene Storage Crystal in Sylas' estimation was that it could also extract Genes with the system as a conduit. Meaning, if he came across any E-Grade Genes he couldn't use Extricate on, he could use the system to take them into the Gene Storage Crystal and store them.

But again, this was uninteresting to him for the same reason. If he came across such a thing, he could just store the E-Grade corpse much the same way.

The real use of this Gene Storage Crystal was the fact that it could access the Gene buried deep after their evolution into the E-Grade.

Sylas wasn't exactly sure what happened after evolving to the E-Grade, but it seemed that the body took the F-Grade Genes one used to build their way to Level 50, and then converted into a deeper layer of the body's foundation, one even deeper than the Comprehensions Layer Sylas currently had access to.

Because of that, Sylas couldn't even Extricate F-Grade Genes from these E-Grade corpses.

But now, with the Gene Storage Crystal... he could.

And maybe just as shockingly as that...

Was what was inside.

427 F-Grade Silver Genes.

17 279 F-Grade Bronze Genes.

More Common and Fragmented Genes than he cared to count.

A full four E-Grade Silver Genes.

17 E-Grade Bronze Genes.

And no E-Grade Common or Fragmented Genes...

For the first time in a long while, Sylas thought of a Treasure that had been rotting in his

Madness Key.

[Gene Talent Crystal (Silver) (Treasure)]

[Capacity: 450]

He had gotten this Gene Talent Crystal from the slot machine reward, but he hadn't even been able to think about using it. The capacity was far too great. Where would he find 450 Silver

Genes to feed it?

But now, he was suddenly just 27 away.

And more tantalizing than that was...

[How do you complete a Summoning without System Cities?]

[–]

[Cost: 10 Silver Genes]

He had over 40 times the amount he needed now. And it was an answer to a question he wanted to know right here and now.

[How do you complete a Summoning without System Cities?]

[The Progenitor Flame of a World must be lit.]

All of that work, all of that effort, for just a single line in response.

But it was enough.

Sylas found that he already had what he needed. The Progenitor Flame Quest was already in his possession. Now... it was just a matter of waiting for it to trigger and then succeeding.

Failure was not an option.

This was the last chance Earth had, but more importantly, it was the last chance he had, his family had, his loved ones had.

Sylas looked to the skies, taking a long, slow breath as Runes danced around him.

[Title Unlocked]

[Title: City Lord of Guiz]

[You now have a stake in the territory of Guiz City, and your power should reflect that]

[+100% to ALL stats while within 50 kilometers of Guiz City]

"Three days. As promised." Sylas whispered softly.

He hadn't said it in so many words, but he could have killed Plinli immediately. The reason he

Hadn't was to make him feel the very same despair Cassarae had under his constant targeting.

Now, this threat at the very least, was gone.

No one could touch the things that he didn't want touched.

A darkness flared in Sylas' eyes.

But it was right then that he felt a sort of constraint locking him down.

[You have been commanded by your Warlord]

[Mandate Quest Received]

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