Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 917

Sylas’ finger drew across the air and the world shuddered.

It was the first time he had tried to do this, but the methods of the Africor Monarchs had given him the idea. Using his Crown to help draw Runes…

In truth, he technically had already. It was thanks to his Crown that he had been able to so quickly draw Runes during the penultimate battle. But honestly speaking, that was passive, and it was also far more related to the Palms of Fate than it was the Crown.

But right now, he was actively trying to use it, feeling how it interacted with the Mesh of Reality and observing the changes it influenced in Runes.

He found that with it activated, the tome’s Time Rune Lineage was actually easier to use. Not only that, but it quite literally slowed things down for him.

Like this, looking at one iteration back and forward with his Crown activated was like looking at two before. This allowed him to read and react to Runes with far greater ease.

Being able to look two iterations backward and forward was actually a massive change. For a complex magic circle like this one, it was much like his Scorpion Warlord Armor, a form of many overlapping Runes.

Successfully drawing it without a full and complete understanding of them all, then, was a nightmare. The Runes would shift and change in relation to one another too much, so by the time he finished drawing one half, by the time he got to the end it might shatter apart.

This was why drawing his Scorpion Warlord Armor to Breath Mastery had taken understanding the Path of the Scorpion. Only by understanding the essence of what the Runes were meant to represent could he draw them in a way that any changes and shifts the Runes underwent after he drew them would either have additive properties to the strength of the armor, or be limited in how detrimental they could be because of how they were working within a certain framework.

Obviously, in this case, there was no such obvious Path for Sylas to grasp. And unlike with a Warlord Armor that was based on a creature, this one was a free-flowing scape of Runes that—as far as Sylas could tell—had nothing to do with living creatures at all.

In fact, it was coldly analytical in its existence, designed specifically to counter another cold and analytical existence: the system.

This time, Sylas couldn’t just Extricate Blood Essence to cheat.

But he also didn’t have to.

His eyes darted around, grasping one change after another. He wiped his slate clean another two times before his claw came to a stop across the skies.

There was a pulse of light as the magic circle the Africor Monarchs had used centuries of blood, sweat, and tears to form was completed.

’Fascinating… this should be another lineage. In which case… if I follow this pattern here…’

—

[Skill: "Unbridled Counter" learned]

—

[Title Integrated]

[Skill Progenitor]

[You have forged a path ahead, leaving your predecessors behind, albeit taken the path less traveled. Embrace the status of a man who walks his own Path]

[+200% Intelligence]

—

Sylas was taken aback, not sure what was happening. But what he did notice quickly was that Skill Progenitor vanished from his list of Titles.

And then he felt the change deep within him.

His Aether Pathways felt like a cool stream had just been poured into them. Quickly, they began to expand, growing so thick that if before they were so thin barely a few strands of hair could pass through, they were now easily as wide as Sylas’ pinky finger.