Genetic Ascension

1692 Ridiculous [Bonus]

[Bonus thanks to Ricky_D_Reader :)]

Sylas’ horizons were opened wide. Even the simplest things tickled his curiosity in fascinating ways. It almost felt like his mind was being rewired to think in new and interesting ways.

Every new concept was a chance to improve by leaps and bounds. Not only did it teach him new things, but it taught him to approach Rune Mastery differently than he had until now.

He had always been so focused on drawing Runes more and more perfectly, but there was so much more involved in forming the perfect Rune than just how well you drew out its Strokes and Foundations.

You had to consider your own Will, the environment, the interaction of said Runes with ones you were drawing in conjunction with it, or the ones you had drawn before it or would draw after it.

Rune Mastery wasn’t just a casual act of writing you could dry erase and then write over whenever you felt like it. Whenever you cast a Rune, you were adding your own art to the canvas of the universe. You were changing the very fundamental laws around you, and it had to be treated with that level of complexity.

Thinking back now, it was quite silly of him to try and complete Rune Mastery in such a vacuum. This also made the importance of things like [Glassvolt Throne] all the more clear.

There was great value in comprehending the world around you first before you went about doing any Rune Mastery at all.

Yet it felt like there was still so much left to learn, and Sylas could only be said to be insatiable. By the end of the first day, his E-Grade Scorpion Warlord Armor had already progressed to 88% Mastery.

By the end of the second day, he was at 92%.

By the end of the third, he was at 97%.

Every percentage should have been harder and harder to achieve. Logically, his progression should have been slowing, not accelerating like it seemed to.

But every bit of lore and understanding that Sylas filled in for himself seemed to be worth two or three times that of anyone else.

He had the foundation of someone who had made it to perfection all on his own, and the plasticity of mind to take into account the research and understanding of others nonetheless. He formed the perfect mesh of self-reliance and open-mindedness.

Not only was he capable of thinking and researching on his own, but he could take into account the value of what others had already long learned.

When others would have only taken one step forward, he took three or four.

Every time he drew his E-Grade Scorpion Armor, it only grew more perfect-and more perfect than even that.

And then, on the fifth day…

There was a rush as Sylas formed an E-Grade Armor of 100% Mastery. It shook the air around him, shimmering with a tremendous might, beautiful and resplendent, yet carrying a dark edge to it.

This wasn’t his Scorpion Warlord Armor, but was instead the way the Sanctum wanted it to be drawn. Though it didn’t have any of his personal touch or changes, it carried incredible power.

Just its existence alone was enough for Sylas to get a boost of 20,000,000 Physical stat points when all three layers were active. He could likely get more than double this if he paved the road properly for an Emerald version of this E-Grade Armor.

But that would take time.

He wasn’t yet at the point where he could experiment as easily with E-Grade Runes as he could with F-Grade Runes. They were several orders of magnitude more complex, and a change to one area had to be accounted for in a seemingly infinite number of ways.

The fact Sylas could draw an E-Grade Armor to Spark Mastery was already ridiculous enough.

That said, that wasn’t the end of things at all.

If he stacked this E-Grade Armor with his F-Grade Armor together, the results would more than double.

His F-Grade Armor alone had stats above 10,000,000 Physical stat points. Back when his E-Grade Armor was at just Breath Mastery, it had already been able to double that output.

But now, this Armor was naturally double the strength of his F-Grade Armor. Together, Sylas would be able to reach Physical stats at the nine-figure mark!

This was simply ridiculous for an F-tier.

Of course, this didn’t make Sylas invincible. He had had an F-Grade Armor already capable of giving him 10,000,000 in stat points.

The reason he wasn’t able to steamroll all the enemies he came across was because of factors like Skills and Comprehensions. Sylas could improve his Will and Charisma on a whim by thousands of percentage points. If one did the math, that simply put it off the charts-and that was with an F-Grade Comprehension.

How much more powerful were E-Grade Comprehensions in conjunction with E-Grade stats?

What about treasures and Skills?

In order to bridge the gap between him and everyone else, he had to, likewise, be orders of magnitude better than they could even begin to fathom.

Of course… there was a reason he had still yet to take off the Scorned Wraps.

Sylas wasn’t foolish enough to become complacent. In fact, he was already looking for his next margin of improvement.

After he set down the last book that he could read, he knew that the next steps could only involve time and practice. This time, he would certainly improve at a vastly accelerated rate.

The value of school wasn’t just in what it taught you, but in how it taught you to think and view the world. The smartest of people would be able to leverage that into their own research and passions.

Sylas was obviously such a person.

But time was the one thing he didn’t have right now. He could probably lock himself away in a room and drill until he reached Perfect Spark Mastery in the E-Grade, but he didn’t have the time. So, he had to take a different approach.

His new Runeweaver Profession.