Genetic Ascension

Sylas scanned them one by one and then chose one.

It was called the Wispy Rune Path, an oddly unimpressive name. This Rune Path was unique because it focused on flexibility in casting and energy conservation. It was also among the twelve Sylas designated as one of the foundational Rune Paths that all of the others branched from.

Essentially, the Wispy Rune Path used a method of Will Priming that allowed Strokes to be more flexible. But what was unique about it was the fact that Runes formed with a certain Rune Language could be changed and modified-even in real time-to any other Rune that operated using the same Strokes, or fell under the same umbrellas of Strokes.

However, this was just the simplest application. It was also possible to combine Runes after they had been cast, or separate a single Rune into multiple smaller Runes for an unexpected, sudden result.

What made Sylas so interested in this one was because this was an ability fundamental to the Runeweaver Profession, and this Rune Mastery Path seemed to take it to a whole other level. It was the perfect starting Path to learn how best to utilize the Runeweaver Profession, and more importantly than that, it killed two birds with one stone because it would allow him to apply the things he had learned about Stroke theory and Will Priming.

Sylas paid 10,000 Merits to start the program, a significant chunk. Let alone days, it would take years for most to gather this amount. It was, unsurprisingly, among the twelve most expensive of the Rune Paths to learn here as well.

But to Sylas, it might as well have been a drop in the bucket. He could exchange for all twelve and still only be 10% deep into his reserve of Merits.

Like he had said, Malikhi’s worries all assumed Sylas wanted to exchange for a bunch of resources that would quickly boost his strength. But Sylas wasn’t interested in such a thing.

There was nothing more valuable here than knowledge.

The room of white around Sylas shifted and the first parts of instruction began.

…

PING

An echo ran through the room and Sylas regained a hint of his focus several seconds later, as though he had been lost in an attempt to consolidate something.

[Perfection of the F-Grade Wispy Rune Path Achieved] [Reward: 27,000 Merits]

Sylas looked at the notification indifferently, swiped a hand at it, and directly dismissed it. Not only did activating the program not put much of a dent into his reserves, it would actually make him Merits.

Usually, this was the reward given to those that managed to use a Path to reach Perfect Spark Mastery, but Sylas didn’t receive the reward for Perfect Spark Mastery because he was already a Perfect Spark Master.

Just like Malikhi had said, the guild only awarded forward progress. There was no cheating the system.

This was why children were sent the moment they reached F-Grade Spark Mastery. If not for this, their families would probably hold them for longer and only send them after they had reached the D-tier, or maybe even the C-tier. Then they would use their advantages to quickly gather Merits and even launder resources back to the family.

This way, however, everyone was “on the same playing field.”

Of course, that assessment was little more than a joke. There were a myriad of ways they still had an obnoxious number of advantages.

It was just that to Sylas, these advantages were meaningless. He would be better than them anyway.

Sylas moved on to the next Rune Path. They called it the Trailing Sundry Path.

This one was also very curious to him. It was a Path that reminded him of some abilities of his Archon Path.

When Sylas said he didn’t know anything about Will Priming, that wasn’t exactly true. In fact, some aspects of his Archon Path had been using Will Priming inadvertently.

For example, when he used his time affinity to lag Runes through time and use that as an easier method of drawing the next Rune, that was a form of Will Priming-though extremely convoluted for how simple he could have made it.

The Trailing Sundry Path was built on this exact principle, and it built out the complexities of his Chrono Casting to a much greater and more defined degree.

This Path was a planner’s dream. It was heavily focused on area and battlefield control. It could allow a Rune Master to set up certain regions and designated areas of Primed Will that could trigger the birth of Runes instantly in response to a certain action.

For example, instead of wasting Wisdom collateral on forming defensive shields every time a new threat took shape, someone of the Trailing Sundry Path could prime the immediate area around them to react to an attack. Those that were particularly skilled could even cause very specific types of defenses to appear for very specific types of attacks.

This sounded like it took more work than just drawing the Runes yourself in real time, but one had to remember that the purpose of Will Priming was to take maximal advantage of the stage of Spark Mastery. Meaning… all you had to do was Prime an area-you never had to consciously draw your Rune yourself at all.

And this was orders of magnitude easier than drawing out every shield and defensive mechanism yourself.

Quite frankly, this was just the simplest way of applying this Path. If Sylas chose the first Path to study because he felt it would teach him the most about the Weaving Pupils aspect of his Runeweaver Profession, he chose this one because it taught him the most about the Seeing Weaver aspect of his Profession.

And just like the first time, he delved into it and completely lost himself, his mind growing more and more focused with every passing second until it happened again.

PING

[Perfection of the F-Grade Trailing Sundry Path Achieved] [Reward: 32,000 Merits]