Genetic Ascension
chapter-419

Sylas shook his head, knowing that he was wasting his time thinking about such things. First he would need to get out of here and see if he could find another way to help cure her. Otherwise, he would likely end up losing her as a contract.

On top of that, even if he did manage to keep her, it would require getting rid of most of her Clypsian heritage, which would also mean that the stats he had seen her with earlier would definitely be tossed out of the window.

She would become much more like a normal Level 6.

However, there was a silver lining to all of this.

He had never felt One Kind For Me work so clearly before.

'Was it a mistake to not take in weaker beasts?'

He had made the assumption that the vagueness of One Kind For Me and the Intuition it gave him would be the same across the board. But just now he had practically gotten a flood of information about the history of a beast he had never heard of until he saw Nosphaleen's stat

screen.

Didn't that mean the weaker the beast's Lineage, the more prophetizing One Kind For Me could do? And in that case, even if his own Level was stalling, that of the beasts around him just might accelerate to untold realms.

There would definitely be a point of diminishing returns where taking in too many beasts would be a detriment to him instead of a help. But it was also obvious that that point wasn't here, and it probably wouldn't be at three or four either.

'Right now, the Hibernation Realm could easily take in five total beasts without losing any of its efficacy. When I return, I'll start investing in this path as well. Maybe it will be what pulls me out of the shadow of always being outnumbered.'

He still remembered his battle with Aerwyna. If not for being able to take advantage of his Will, he would have certainly lost that battle.

Why?

Because he was outnumbered and he wasn't the only clever person in the world. That unique combination of wit and numbers... it certainly wouldn't be the last time he came across such a thing.

Still, Sylas also didn't want to waste his time on snakes that were too weak either. It would needlessly waste a slot, and since he had to manage the Loyalty of his beasts as well, he couldn't just casually add them and kill those he didn't need later. Otherwise, it would begin to cause problems with the others.

In addition, he could only fuse with one of these creatures at a time. Meaning, if they couldn't keep up with his stats, they would be worthless to him. The quality had to be there no matter what.

'As with all things... the answer is somewhere in between.'

His gaze flashed as he made a decision. He already knew where he would get his third Serpentes from.

Sylas took a step and vanished from the ninth stair.

...

Sylas was surprised to find that there was no one waiting. He had wasted over half an hour to help Nosphaleen out, but it seemed that he had still ended up getting here first.

He shook his head. The only explanation for this was that the opponents they were facing were no weaker than the ones he had.

The Clypsians were truly powerful... And for Norian, the first Clypsian he had met, to have such a fierce hatred for them, the Dogons were likely just as powerful.

It made one wonder... just how had such people failed the Summoning? How had they ended up here of all places? And if some of their people had survived, why was it that there was no resemblance between them and current Humans other than the fact they were all humanoid in stature?

Did they just evolve a different way? Or could it be that this was an example of convergent evolution rather than divergent?

Sylas wasn't sure. But the one thing he did know was that he had managed to make it through this Dungeon.

There was only one will challenge left. If he had to go in this state, there might still be some effort he had to put in, but since he got to rest... there was no suspense at all.

He closed his eyes, circulating his Aether to heal his body and activated <Maddened Enlightenment>. Since the latter's maturity to Golden status, and the subsequent Madness boost to Legendary, it had become maybe his greatest reliance.

In just a few minutes, his overwhelming Wisdom had already been topped up and he felt like he had just had a refreshing night of rest.

He had so much time remaining that he actually began to study <Arctic King's Domain>. Before, it was far too complicated for him to waste the time on, but now that he was just idle, he might as well.

He found himself making great progress. Because he had to take fewer breaks thanks to <Maddened Enlightenment>'s progression, he was actually also making record time.

It should have taken him a few days to get through before, but after just about an hour, he had

made a surprising amount of progress and felt he was about 20% through.

But it was at that moment that the shield around him shuddered and he blinked out of his

stupor.

He was surprised for a moment before he understood.

'She didn't make it.'

Sylas had been worrying about how much time he had left, but he never considered the possibility that it would be Brisa who was too slow in the end.

He didn't even need to be there to imagine just how enraged she probably was. She had given up so much to him in hopes of making it to the end, only to be disqualified due to a fringe rule

on time.

Well, that wasn't his problem.

Sylas cleared the team battle portion without issue, obviously, and then strolled into the final Will challenge.

He stood before yet another staircase, but this time, there seemed to be the phantoms of warriors waiting for him.