Genetic Ascension
chapter-244

Sylas felt a rush plow through his mind. It felt like a silver bell had just gone off. It was a resonant feeling as though he was listening to the song of the universe. The last time he had felt this way was when he had lost his mind to the barrier in the Slithering Madness Dungeon.

Now, though, it felt like it was much more under his control.

However, that was when something that left Sylas speechless happened.

He missed.

The Rune flew through the air and missed the fusion point with the key. It shot past and hit the lock, forcing it to open.

With a clean *click*, the lock opened and Sylas felt a sort of bittersweet feeling.

He had focused so much on completing the Rune that his control in the end was still lacking. Interestingly enough, he didn't need the key.

When he looked through the memories that he had received, he understood something.

Usually, you needed a medium to use Runes like this, almost like a mage's wand or staff. In this situation, the medium was the key, while the target of the medium was obviously the lock.

But Sylas had missed it, and by coincidence, he noticed that he didn't need a medium. Or rather, was it…?

'The Gluttony Seed… I felt it act before, and a small portion of it moved this time as well. I thought it was meaningless, but it seemed that it's far more useful than I thought. It made my telekinesis feel more… real, more tangible, and that's what allows it to not need a medium. Interesting…'

Still, Sylas admonished himself. Putting in all the effort to miss in the end wasn't a good thing. Though he had learned something important from this excursion, he had to remember to keep more focus in the future.

Just as Sylas was about to continue to the next step, he was pushed out of the door.

The door faded away as he appeared back on the road. To Sylas' surprise, it seemed that he had already passed.

That was odd. He was pretty sure that there were dozens more challenges in that door alone. But now it was gone.

Sylas thought for a moment if he had been scammed, but in the end, he shook his head. That shouldn't be the case.

Just as he was about to see what the second door held, though, his expression changed. He felt a spike of pain and immediately realized that it could have only come from his real body.

With a thought, he exited the world.

The first thing Sylas saw when stepping out was a whirlwind of snow. It seemed far denser here and even seemed to have a hint of a blue glow.

Sylas was shocked because he even noticed that his skin was frighteningly pale right now, even the tips of his fingers were starting to gain a deathly color.

He hurriedly covered himself in a layer of Aether skin, realizing that much like the volcano, this wasn't a normal environment. This cold was being bolstered by Aether.

The second thing Sylas noticed was that there was an uptick of beasts in the region. It was hard to spot them at first because of their white fur and the backdrop of this world, but Sylas felt his hair stand on end when he did.

The third thing he noticed was that all of these beasts were headed in the same direction, even ignoring the Basilisk King that hadn't noticed them immediately as well.

The pain he had felt earlier should have come from the bad state his body was in. He had been careless and almost suffered from frostbite. Luckily, the fact that there was pain was actually a good sign. What he should fear was if he had felt numb.

Sylas felt his body quickly heating up and he grew serious.

There was only one thing that could make so many beasts move in unison like this: a high concentration of Aether.

It had to either be a Dungeon or a Portal. Getting closer would be dangerous, but he still urged the Dire Wolf forward.

He remembered his experience in the volcano. Had it not been for the snail, the beasts would have mostly ignored him.

If it was a Dungeon, when he got close, the beasts would begin to turn their attention to him.

But if it was a Portal, then they would likely keep rushing ahead while ignoring him.

Beasts couldn't enter Dungeons, so they usually just settled around it to benefit from the increased Aether.

But with Portals, they would often be tricked into going to the other side even though Earth's Aether was thinner than the Aether of the Aether Plane.

Judging based on the situation, Sylas might be able to tell which it was without approaching too closely.

Still, he had to be cautious. This region had exceptionally powerful beasts, and fighting against just one of them might put his life on the line, let alone if several of them came at him at once.

However, he had a trump card, that being his fusion with the Basilisk King. With how quickly he could do it now, it wouldn't be too late to activate the process once something went wrong.

The Dire Wolf continued to rush forward and Sylas didn't slow its speed by more than 50% or so. The density of beasts was quickly increasing and soon Sylas saw what they were all rushing toward.

A Portal.

Sylas' eyes narrowed. He wondered what part of Earth this was aimed toward, but something else steered his thoughts away a moment later.

All the Portals he had seen until now were manned by the government or its opposers. But this one…

It looked as though the beasts were just freely crossing over to the other side. There wasn't anyone fighting against them at all.

'This situation doesn't look good.'

Although Sylas said this, he was quite indifferent. He didn't plan on sticking his neck out, especially not when these beasts were so dangerous.

But that was when he saw a sign sticking out of the store. It was a street sign with a blue background and bright white words. But by now, it was so covered in snow that it was easy to overlook.

Below the street name, there was a range of house numbers.

Looking at the combination of the two, Sylas' pupils couldn't help but constrict.

He had seen that street name and those numbers a million times in the past. That was definitely the street Cassarae's parents lived on.