Genetic Ascension
chapter-36

The wrap he had used to brace his wrists and fists, made of his own shirt, burnt to ash the moment the Scorned Wraps touched them. He couldn't even register the pain as the Cursed Treasure tightly wound itself around his fists, wrists, and a portion of his forearm.

Sylas was silent all the while. He had no idea what he had just gotten himself into, but he was smart enough to know that it was unavoidable at this point.

'What a weird way to use "adorned" and "graced", its as though it takes the usage of armor and weapon as the actions of the prim and proper, rather than that of a real warrior…'

Sylas looked down at his fists.

Did he feel that way too? Absolutely not.

His vision blurred, and he found himself on a forked road once again. However, this time, there was only one choice…

The cobblestone path leading into what looked like an ancient ruin or city of sorts.

Sylas wasn't sure about the situation ahead, so he tested a few things on this outer road. When he was satisfied, and feeling as good as he probably could in such a short time, he picked up his things and the various python carcasses before moving forward.

Luckily, with his current strength, although there was a clear burden, it wasn't as exceptional as it had been in the past. As he moved, his thoughts spun, these changes feeling quite heavy.

'These stats are all relative, so does that mean that 50 would always be the limit regardless of race? If that's the case, then the first iteration of this dungeon was meant to be entered by someone who had reached the limit…

'In that case, this second hidden portion of the dungeon is supposed to be passed by someone with double those stats, far beyond those limits… as a Level 0?'

Madness indeed.

However, Sylas felt a level of confidence he hadn't felt when he first entered the dungeon, and that was for no other reason than his Comprehension. He had a feeling that it would be of great help here as well.

What Sylas didn't expect was that he wouldn't run into a swarm of enemies, or even some dangerous situation of sorts.

As the cobblestone road to his back faded, a ruin that reminded him of the Stonehenge appeared before him. The main difference was that these tall stones were more irregularly shaped, curving and looping into one another as though dancing.

Sylas didn't know why he got that feeling, because they were obviously static objects. But it was as though something was pulling at him.

'Hm?'

Sylas frowned, clearing his mind. This felt like a weaker version of what the barriers had tried to pull him into, much weaker.

When he looked around, he found there was no entrance, no exit. The area was barely 30 or so meters from edge to edge and he could see every inch of it clearly.

But there were no obvious enemies or targets.

'What's the point of this?'

He would have already felt hints of panic if he didn't understand that there had to be a way out. There was a small, existential part of him that worried that the glitch from earlier might have applied to the whole dungeon, effectively trapping him in here forever. But he still felt that that shouldn't be the case.

He put the corpses he was lugging around down and began to walk around more earnestly.

'Why would I need 100 Physical for this? What's going on?'

He began to observe the curving stones more closely and found that there were grain-like patterns within them, so faded that in the somewhat somber lighting, it was hard to pick up until he looked closely.

Once again, they reminded him of those snakes… some roaring, some mating, some in battle.

He touched it and felt a spark jolt through his body, but it ultimately didn't feel like much. It was like he had rubbed his feet one too many times on some carpet and then touched a doorknob, but it wasn't anything more substantial than that.

—-

[Floor One of Slithering Madness Cleared]

[Rewards]

[>Little Madness (Skill)]

—-

Sylas' brows shot up.

Floor cleared? How? He hadn't done anything. And also, wasn't the recommended Physical 100? Shouldn't the rewards be even better, then? Why was he getting the same reward he had already gotten the first time around?

'Is it the same? The shade of the color is a little bit darker…'

Sylas kept feeling that there was a lot the system was holding back on him.

Titles didn't receive grades for some reason, some of them were even dormant without any clear reason. And yet, there was very clearly a pecking order.

When he got a new Gene, it just took its place at the end. But he had gotten A Patient Stalker first, and it was third amongst his titles, while Skill Savant was something he had awakened after A Flexible Will, but it was second.

It seemed that there was a hidden hierarchy he could only vaguely get a peek at through the relative order between his Titles.

But was A Flexible Will really the strongest? It only gave him a flat +10 to his Will and a 10% boost. Was that really better than a pure +100% to his Intelligence like Skill Savant gave him? The latter seemed far better…

This was just one of the many issues Sylas had with the system. It ran more like a poorly coded program than something the lives of real people were riding on.

But he was even more frustrated with it now than he had been before because the confusing circumstances just seemed to be piling up.

—-

[Little Madness (Skill)]

[A little bit of Madness never hurt anyone. Exchange your Sanity for a Power boost]

—-

Once again, the same description. The only change was that sanity and power were capitalized for an inexplicable reason.