Genetic Ascension

[800 PSs bonus]",

But no, this wasn't why he was numb, nor did he feel close to death.

Rather… watching Sylas make quick work of a Dungeon, both he and Aria had to be so cautious it made him feel like he was living in a fairy tale.

He was almost certain that Sylas had to be in the top ten. He couldn't think of any other explanation.

Brant thought that he had done well for himself in these past months, and the system had even judged him to be in the FF Grade. But he always felt waves of awe when he saw the people on that list.

Even the weakest of them was two Levels above him.

He knew how hard it was to progress in this world. Even finding creatures above Level 1 meant travelling deep into territories infested with high concentrations of Aether, ones where beast hoards reigned supreme and killing just one would lead to a deluge of danger.

He couldn't even understand how those monsters had made it to Level 9 in such a short time…

But seeing Sylas now, he thought he finally understood.

They weren't human at all, they really were every bit the monsters he thought they were.

Sylas made such short work of the minions that it seemed he never exchanged more than three fists with them before they collapsed. In fact, he even seemed to be holding back for the sake of refining his battle style.

When he came across BOSSes, this was made all the more obvious. Brant thought he was watching some sort of action martial arts movie. Sylas could blast a hole through a beast from meters away without even breaking a sweat.

He would toy with them, using them as sparring partners as though they weren't beasts that looming three meters above him. He shrugged off their attempts at freezing his body and mind, then when he felt he had gotten enough out of them, he would shred them to pieces with his bare hands.

He never seemed to tire, his Aether pool seemed endless, and Brant didn't see him use an Elixir even once.

It didn't even make sense. How could a person blaze through a whole Dungeon without needing to recover their Aether?

How could he know that after Sylas' Intelligence had increased, Maddened Enlightenment had actually scaled up with it? When Madness was fused with it, it still took Sylas just five minutes to recover all 20 Aether Units he now had.

By the time Brant witnessed the fall of the seventh BOSS, how could he not be entirely numb?

As for Sylas, his mind was on other things.

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[Rewards]

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

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[Rewards]

[>Momentum Shift (3/3) (Skill Fragment)]

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[Rewards]

[>Solidify (3/3) (Skill Fragment)]

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[Astral Bind (F+) (Skill)]

[The gaze of a Basilisk King is supreme. Freeze, mere mortal]

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[Momentum Shift (F+) (Skill)]

[Laws of the world do not bind the Basilisk King. Bend to my whims, be suppressed beneath my Will]

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[Solidify (F+) (Skill)]

[You are unworthy to even touch the Basilisk King. My defenses are unmatched]

--- 𝘧𝘳𝓮𝓮𝓌𝘦𝓫𝓷𝘰𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝓬ℴ𝘮

When Sylas applied his Madness, his depth of understanding of the techniques deepened. Each and every one of these techniques was a telekinetic one with applied Aether. He had never expected that there would be such a wide range of uses.

<Astral Bind> could lock an opponent in place. The duration was dependent on the gap in the average between Will and Charisma, plus a factor of Aether Units applied. This would also change dependent on mastery.

With 50% more Will and Charisma, and 0.5 Units of Aether applied, you could lock a person in place for a full second. For every additional 50% gap, you would gain another second. Or, you could apply another 0.5 Units of Aether for the same effect.

<Momentum Shift> was a method Sylas was quite familiar with. It was the technique the Basilisk had used to suddenly change the direction of their attack without warning.

This was probably the most disappointing of the skills because, much like Tail Whip, it simply wasn't perfectly designed for a human to use.

A snake's tail could obviously suddenly change its momentum without issue or worry, but Sylas had his joints and bones to worry about.

If he was throwing an uppercut, no Skill was going to suddenly turn that fist into a downward smash without also bending his elbow the wrong way.

'But, if I use it on my telekinesis, that's a different story… However, if I want to apply a Skill to my telekinesis, I need to activate the Aetherflow Gene Talent first. So this Skill is going to have to remain on the back burner for now.'

Per activation, <Momentum Shift> needed 0.5 Aether Units to change any singular attack's momentum. In addition, there was a Physical limit as well. At Common Mastery, it could only shift attacks with up to 100 Physical. There was an additional 25 Physical added for every new level of Mastery.

Finally, there was <Solidify>, and Sylas actually felt that this was the most useful of the Skills because it finally gave him something for his greatest weakness…

Defense.

<Solidify> allowed the formation of a solid barrier of Aether. In exchange for 0.5 Aether Units, at the Common Mastery, an attack of 100 Physical could be blocked. It also gained the ability to block an extra 25 Physical for each level of Mastery.

Of course, all of these calculations didn't take into account the influence of Madness, which synergized perfectly with these Skills.

Under Madness' influence, they were raised to the Legendary Mastery in a single bound.

Now, for every 10% gap in Will and Charisma, Sylas could use 0.5 Units of Aether to bind a target for a full second.

<Momentum Shift> could be used on attacks up to 200 Physical.

And finally, <Solidify> could block attacks of up to 200 Physical as well.

With these Skills in his tool belt, Sylas felt he was more than ready to face off against the Dungeon's Final BOSS.