Genetic Ascension - Chapter 284

[Name: Sylas Grimblade]

[Species: Human (F)]

[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]

[Class: Arctic Royal (Fragmented)]

[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]

[Level: 0]

[Coins: 38278 (F)]

[Titles: A Burning Will; System Breaker; Legendary Tamer; BOSS Slayer; Skill Savant (FFF+); Madness Conqueror (FF-); Common Arts Enthusiast (F-); A Patient Stalker (F-)]

—

[Physical: 148]

>[Strength: 140]

>[Constitution: 170]

>[Dexterity: 140]

>[Speed: 140]

[Mental: 196]

>[Intelligence: 267]

>[Wisdom: 122]

>[Charisma: 200]

[Will: 363]

[Luck: 22]

[Skills: Madness Control (FF+); Basic Scouting (F-); Maddened Enlightenment (FF+); Astral Bind (F+); Momentum Shift (F+); Solidify (F+); Master Scouting (FFF-); Stunning Spike (FF-); Astral Will Fission (FF-); Mirror Step (FF-); Psychedelic Punch (FF-)]

[Comprehensions: Madness (FFF)]

[Gene State: Rigid]

[Fragmented Genes: Grimblade Lineage (F); Voice of a King (F)]

[Common Genes: —]

[Bronze Genes: Basic Aetherflow (F); Enchanted Scribe (F)]

Sylas knew that he didn’t have much time, so even before his body had perfectly completed his evolution, he still checked his stats first. But before he could even enjoy the change, he noticed his coin count.

There was no way it should be so high. Even though he had killed several, Azrael was definitely a special case. Those Level 17s were unlikely to be carrying around so many coins because their resources all came from trades with the government. That was part of how the government managed to keep things under their control.

But then he remembered Alex’s laughter and the list he mentioned.

‘It seems that I ended up on a leaderboard anyway… Not only that, but where did all my Genes go?’

His Common Genes had been wiped out, and so had his Fragmented Genes for that matter. The only Genes that remained were the unique ones, but all his Physical and Mental Genes had vanished into thin air.

What was especially interesting about this was that despite the fact his Genes had vanished, his stats remained the same.

‘Interesting. Could it be that the process of Class evolution forced all of those Genes to integrate with me? But the Stat Limits are still in effect… Was it just a sacrifice, then?’

Regardless, Sylas didn’t mind it because his stats didn’t drop. If the price to pay for undoing a chronic disease was just a few Common Genes, he was more than willing. With his current strength, it would be too easy to re-up.

The only unfortunate thing was that his Class didn’t increase any of his Gene Limits. He still had a Limit of 20 Common Genes and two Bronze Genes. But he assumed that that was because it was just a Fragmented Class. If he upgraded to a Bronze Class, then it would likely allow him to have a far greater store of Genes. That way, he could begin working to break past his limits again.

The changes to his stats, however, were only one aspect of Classes. Another aspect was Class Skills. Much like the Profession Window Sylas checked from time to time, there was also a Class Window.

[Class: Arctic Royal]

[Level: 0]

–

>[Basic Skills]

[Arctic King’s Domain (FFF-) (Skill)]

[Special Damage: 20/second]

[Special Buff: +40% to all Ice-Poison Skills used]

–

[Arctic Howl (FF-) (Skill)]

[Defense: 400]

[Attribute: Ice-Poison]

–

[Chilling Scythe (F+) (Skill)]

[Damage: 100]

[Special Damage: 20/sec for 5 seconds]

[Attribute: Ice-Poison]

–

>[Basic Affinities]

[Ice (Bronze)]

[Poison (Bronze)]

[Ice-Poison (Common)]

–

>[Unlockables]

[Level 20]

…

Sylas raised an eyebrow. The Unlockables portion caught his attention the most.

Classes weren’t set in stone from start to end; they could evolve along with one’s Level. Often, the better the Class, the more evolution hurdles you would have.

The weaker Fragmented Classes wouldn’t have unlockables until Level 50, but it was obvious that Sylas’ Fragmented Class wasn’t a normal one and had an Unlockable at just Level 20. Maybe a Gold Class might have an Unlockable every five Levels.

An Unlockable could come in several forms. Sometimes it was a Stat Limit increase, sometimes it was an opportunity to upgrade your Class to a better version of itself, sometimes it would be a new Skill, or even a Gene Limit increase, or maybe even a special Gene itself. It could be a direct reward or an opportunity. It was a roll of the dice depending on the Class, and it was also measured by how well one used their Class as well.

Someone who had great feats with their Class would gain better Unlockables than someone that was mediocre. So, it could be said that Sylas’ current Unlockables were the worst ones that had a chance to evolve with him in the future.

For now, Sylas wasn’t very interested in what his Unlockables were because he hadn’t yet reached a point where he felt the need to Level up, let alone feeling a need to have to hit Level 20.

He was still hoping to complete the Legendary leg of the Quest, so obsessing over improvements to a Fragmented Class wouldn’t do him much good.

The second thing that caught his interest were the affinities. He wasn’t sure what they meant, what did they help him with. Did they change his Aether? Maybe they made it easier to sense certain Comprehensions? Made it faster to Master certain Skills?

After asking the Madness Key, it seemed that the answer was all of the above.

Sylas’ Aether had yet to mature because he was still a Level 0. However, when the Ice-Poison attribute was added to it, his Aether had not only gained a greater defensive character than it had had before, but it was also now comparable to most matured Aether. It seemed that while there was no Mancer Path greater than another, at least in terms of immediate help, having two Bronze affinities which matched together to form a Common helped him out a great deal.

This also informed Sylas that there were likely levels to matured Aether as well. The higher your affinity, the stronger your matured Aether.

All of that just left one matter related to his Class…

[Quest Received]

[Path of the Mancer (Common)]

[Common Reward Requirements]

[>Kill a Level 20 creature with the Ice-Poison Path of the Mancer]

OR

[>Kill Level 20 creature with Ice Path of the Mancer]

[>Kill Level 20 creature with Poison Path of the Mancer]

OR

[>Kill Level 20 creature with compatible Path of the Mancer]

[>Find Common Evolution Stone]