Genetic Ascension

Chapter 473: Stele Ability

Sylas walked down the steps slowly until he eventually reached eye level with the City Stele.

[View City Status]

[Use Stele Ability]

[Enter Nexus]

ʼStele Ability?ʼ Sylas had seen Cassaraeʼs City Stele before. Usually, that line was replaced with a prompt to conquer the City. But since he was the owner of the City Stele, technically, it wouldnʼt make sense for it to be here.

Now he was wondering if a Stele Ability was natural for all cities or if it was a rarity.

Since Bronze Genes were practically common currency to him now, he just directly asked the Madness Key and found out.

ʼI see...ʼ It turned out that only Cities of the Common Grade and above had a chance to unlock a Stele Ability, and first it would have to become a City. That meant going through several Grades.

The higher Grade the city, the earlier it could awaken an ability, or even multiple of them. However, there wasnʼt some great reward waiting for Sylas... at least not on the surface. All System Cities came with the same default ability: Birdʼs Eye View.

It allowed a detailed map of a certain region. Since there were three System Cities in this Evergreen Territory, that meant that he was able to see an entire third of the Evergreen Territory unobstructed.

Every city, every demon village, every resource.

It seemed only limited by the Grade of the Stele and System Cities were, by default, a level beyond that of the world they were on. As such, it could only find resources at the Silver Grade and below.

There was also a limit of height and depth. It could find deposits nearer to the surface, but not very deep into the earth.

But this wasnʼt all.

It could also inform him ahead of time when there were fluctuations within this region that would likely lead to the appearance of a portal. And... it had some control over the portals that already existed.

Of course, he couldnʼt just open or close them at will. But he could use Orciuliusʼ Cityʼs ability to take a peek into the other side, about a kilometer or so.

That kilometer radius was a far cry from how far he could see on this side. But it would become invaluable very soon.

ʼOne step at a time.ʼ

Right now, his focus was a perfect clearance of this Quicktime Event. The enemies that lay beyond that, he would deal with when the time came. Trying to account for everything was what led to his plan failing in the first place.

He slotted away the existence of this Stele Ability into the back of his mind and entered the Nexus.

[Merit Leaderboard]

- [1. Sylas Grimblade - ✩✩✩]

- [2. Lauren Mitchell - *]

- [3. Kael Darkman - ✩✩]

- [4. Astrid Grimblade - ✩]

[First Place > 160 000 coins a day; 5 three-day Flexible Elixir a month] [Second Place > 144000 coins a day; 5 two-day Flexible Elixir a month] [Third Place > 128 000 coins a day; 5 one-day Flexible Elixir a month] [Fourth Place > 80 000 coins a day; 4 three-day Soft Elixir a month] [Fifth Place > 64 000 coins a day; 4 two-day Soft a month] [Sixth Place > 48 000 coins a day; 4 one-day Soft Elixir a month]

[Seventh Place > 24 000 coins a day; 4 three-day Brittle Elixir a month]

[Eighth Place> 16 000 coins a day; 4 two-day Brittle Elixir a month]

[Ninth Place > 8 000 coins a day; 4 one-day Brittle Elixir a month] [Tenth Place > 4 000 coins a day; 4 three-use Brittle Elixir a month]

[Coins: 7 493 222 (F)]

It seems that thanks to his spot on the Merit Leaderboard, he had made quite a bit. The rewards had also continued to increase every month. He gained an additional Elixir for every.

ʼLauren Mitchell...ʼ Sylasʼ gaze flickered.

He still didnʼt really understand what the Stars represented, but he had a good guess. Those two empty stars should be the two Quasi Bronze beasts he had killed, and the full star should represent what Merit he gained from defeating the Sylphs.

The weight of the two was clearly different; otherwise, Lauren wouldnʼt be above Kael. But the fact that Lauren was on this list at all... was surely a surprise.

Lauren was none other than the woman that had stolen Cassaraeʼs Luck necklace, and she was a member of Legacy.

And judging by the amount of Coins he had, Lauren should have only recently claimed this Merit. Otherwise, he would have made much less if she had claimed the top spot for a while.

He wasnʼt sure how the time trickery worked in this case, so he could only guess. Regardless, he now had 14 Flexible Gene Elixirs, good enough to last over a month even if he used them continuously, and more money than he knew what to do with.

Though, he was sure that that latter plight wouldnʼt last for long.

He had learned even in the Bronze Nexus that things could get very expensive, very fast, especially for things on a city-wide scale, things that he would unfortunately be needing if he was going to face off against a governmentʼs army that would not be ready for his

appearance.

As much as he wanted to spend the money to find things to upgrade his Rune status first, he had to prioritize things.

Though it felt like he had a lot of money, even if he waited a month while making 160 000 Coins a day, he would still be shy of five million.

This was to say that this seven million would be the most money he had for a long while, and he had to take advantage of it.

And the first order of business was to find a movement skill that he could finally use himself. Though he needed things to deal with an army, he couldnʼt forget about his personal strength

either.

As with all things... He needed to find the perfect balance.

He went into the shop with a focused mind and began to scan through all the items before he found three Movement Skills that caught his attention.