Genetic Ascension
chapter-120

121 Choices

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His choice of One Kind For Me was even more straightforward. If he was going to go all in, then why not go all in. If he focused his Beast Taming on snakes and serpent creatures alone, he would gain an intimate understanding of them and even gain their Beast Totem. Maybe, that Beast Totem would synergize well with his Madness and even accelerate his Comprehension speed.

Finally, there was Taboo Bond. It was the one that filled him with the most trepidation, but it was also because of that he felt he had to choose it.

Setting aside how well it synergized with both other Paths, how it could allow him to both intimately understand the snake species and improve them… Sylas also had motives outside of this as well.

The power to manipulate and control Genes… it made him wonder. Wasn't this similar to what Gene Crystals could do? And if he could incorporate them into himself, would it be possible to skip over the necessity of a Gene Crystal and directly create his own unique Genes?

Every time he ran into a Stat Limit or a Gene Limit, it felt like was running headfirst into a steel wall. No matter how he thought about it, he felt that there would eventually come a day where he'd run into one he could just push past…

The Slithering Madness Dungeon was a glitch in this system's matrix, and yet it only provided him with one Common Gene Crystal. How difficult would they be to find?

Separately, these Paths were perfect for him… or rather, they were perfect for the Sylas that had already stepped onto the Path of Madness. There was simply no going back.

But together, they were even stronger.

Were-for-the-Invincible could allow him to bolster his stats by fusing with his beasts, One Kind For Me would allow him to intimately understand these beasts, likely to the point he wouldn't lack familiarity with their Gene Talents or Skills, and finally Taboo Bond would allow him to directly improve his beasts to further strengthen the stat boosts he would receive, while One Kind For Me would give him the perfect path to doing so.

Together, they stacked perfectly and Sylas felt that for his situation… there was simply no better combination.

So he chose them.

[Paths <Were-for-the-Invincible>, <One Kind For Me> and <Taboo Bone> have been chosen]

[Profession initializing…]

[Profession Title Sequence paused. Please choose a Kind]

Sylas nodded to himself.

A "Kind" was broken up into several categories, but they were mostly divided into narrower versus broader categories. An extremely broad category might be "mammals" or "reptiles" or even "birds" would fall into that category as well. A middle ground would be something like "canines" or "large cats" or even "dinosaurs". The narrowest categories were mostly highly specific and included singular species with no variation between them.

Something like "serpent" or "arachnid" or even "beetle" would be considered a new middle ground between the original middle ground and the narrowest categories, and they were actually a sweet spot.

The more restrictive your Kind was, the stronger your Beast Totem and the clearer the information and links you would receive would be. But, obviously, if your chosen Kind was too restrictive, then having all the information in the world would be worthless.

This is why Sylas didn't hesitate to choose serpent. Or, rather, their official Genus.

Serpentes.

Sylas felt a ripple when his choice was made. Goosebumps rose all along his skin and for a moment he thought he had grown scales, only to look down and find that he had over thought it.

[Profession Formed]

[Congratulations, you have become a Vipermancer]

[Name: Sylas Grimblade]

[Species: Human (F)]

[Affiliation: Grimblade Lineage]

[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]

[Level: 0]

[Open Profession Window?]

[Yes][No]

[Yes]

[Profession: Vipermancer (FFF+)]

[Level: 1]

[Paths]

[Were-for-the Invincible: Lv1]

[One Kind For Me: Lv1]

[Taboo Bond: Lv1]

[Contracts]

[1. Basilisk King: Lv5]

The screen looked simple at first, but Sylas quickly realized there were a wide range of hidden menus within.

[Basilisk King]

[Status: Heavily Injured; Mentally Fragile]

[Loyalty: 1/10]

[Skills]

[>King's Bind]

[>King's Shift]

[>King's Shield]

[Gene Talents]

[>King's Gaze (Dormant)]

Sylas didn't bother to look at the Basilisk King's stats. He had already seen them once before. It was unnecessary to him. However, he did take stock of its dormant Gene Talent before moving on to the next screens.

'This is…'

[Were-for-the-Invincible]

[Level: 1]

[Experience: 0/100]

[Path Talent: Fuse Lv1]

[Fuse (Path Talent)]

[>Fuse with your Contract and gain <50%> of their stats]

[>Fuse with <1> Contract at a time]

[>Fusion process takes <5 minutes> to complete]

[>Fusion lasts <30 seconds>]

[Fusion current impossible. Check beast Status]

[Path Quests Available]

[>Raise Loyalty to 2: 10 Experience]

[>Groom your Contract: 10 Experience]

…

[>Raise your Constitution to 123: 50 Experience]

[>Raise Basilisk King's Dexterity to 100: 100 Experience]

…

[>Rekindle Basilisk King's Pride: 1000 Experience]

Sylas fell into some thought after a moment. The Path Quests were all perfectly laid out for him, and his assumption was that the higher Level the Path was overall, the stronger the related Path Talents would be.

What was interesting to him was that there seemed to be some overlap between the Path Quests of his three Paths. Did that mean he could only cash them in once? Or was this a hidden benefit of synergistic paths? Maybe due to their synergy, he could Level them up all at the same time.

[One Kind For Me]

[Level: 1]

[Experience: 0/100]

[Path Talent: Beast Totem Lv1; Insight Lv1]

[Beast Totem (Path Talent)]

[>Suppress <F-rank> Serpentes Beasts by <20%>]

[>Forms Hibernation Realm where recovery increases by <100%>]

[>Increase Fusion speed by <50%>]

[>Buff Contracts by <20%>]

[Insight (Path Talent)]

[>Observe Gene Sequence of Contract]

[>Sense Evolution Triggers]

[>Comprehend Contract]

[Path Quests Available]

[>Groom your Contract: 10 Experience]

[>Place Contract in Hibernation Realm: 10 Experience]

…

[>Document Contract Gene Sequence: 250 Experience]

…

[>Rekindle Basilisk King's Pride: 1000 Experience]

[>Find an Evolution Trigger: 1000 Experience]