Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1171: Rewards (8)

—

[Rune Enlightenment Fundamentals (—) (Ancient Secret)]

The depths of presence and breadth of mass to carve out one’s stroke of greatness

—

Sylas stared at the introduction.

This wasn’t the first time he had seen something like this. It was the second.

Almost subconsciously, he flipped his other palm and another tome appeared, this one looking heavy and yet being so light and airy it might as well have not existed at all.

—

[Rune Enlightenment Fundamentals (—) (Ancient Secret)]

An echo of the past to form the strokes of the future

—

‘The depths of presence and breadth of mass… an echo of the past to form the future…’

The two rolled back and forth in Sylas’ mind. One would have thought that they were two halves of the same treasure, but Sylas actually didn’t believe that.

Instead, it felt more like the tomes were clashing, as though they wanted nothing more than to leap up from his palms and shred the other apart.

But what was clear to Sylas was that one held a Lineage of Time, and the other—his new one—held a Lineage of Space.

Sylas had had Gralith’s help to decipher the Time Lineage Tome, but he still hadn’t grasped it completely. Though, he had been able to—recently—start applying it in combat.

When he used Aetherflow, he had been able to layer his Runes through time a bit, sending out flashing echoes of them to have them combine at the right moment to catch an opponent off guard.

Honestly, he had almost done it casually, because in reality, such a thing shouldn’t have been possible. At least the way Gralith described things, these tomes weren’t here to give him some magical time and space powers. Instead, they were here to allow him to use interpretations of time and space to facilitate his understanding of Runes to a deeper extent.

This was still very much true. In fact, from what Sylas could tell, the only reason he had been able to do that in the Versus Dungeon was because of the unique circumstances.

He had been in a world that adapted to his limits, and he had been hiding enough of himself that the world’s laws practically collapsed when he pushed past them, allowing him to do things he certainly couldn’t do out here.

All things considered, even he had been caught off guard by that. Otherwise, he would have saved such an ability for a far more critical time. If he had, maybe he wouldn’t have been on the verge of death before he stepped out.

However, he had felt a weakness in the world and he almost subconsciously took it, as though it was in his nature to do exactly that.

That experience, however… seemed to also shed light on what Sylas might be capable of in the future. Or maybe if he reached a stage where he could establish [Glassvolt Throne] with great might and certainty, he might be able to force the issue more…

—

[Glassvolt Throne (FF+) (Growth Skill)] (Fragmented Mastery)

Stand in the skies and draw it into your command, increase the power of your Glassvolt Aether beyond the Realms of what your body can handle… but its power will be dependent on your understanding of the world you stand in

—

After his breakthrough, [Glassvolt Throne] had progressed from an F- Growth Skill to an FF+ Growth Skill. The gap between the two versions was enormous, and as far as Sylas could tell, his ability to impose his Will onto a world had taken a substantial, but unknown, leap forward as well.

Regardless, that was something that he would have to consider in the future. Banking on that ability when it was so fleeting for now was no good to him.

He had yet to even fully master the Time Lineage Tome. And the title of it was practically taunting him.

Rune Enlightenment Fundamentals… this was just the beginning, the very starting stroke, and he had had so long and yet couldn’t even grasp it.

To be fair to him… he had only had one real session with Gralith and hadn’t looked at the tomes since then. But a second one of them appearing now…

Sylas put the Time Lineage Tome away and then tried to open the cover of the Space Lineage Tome once again.

This time, while difficult, he managed it. He realized when he was holding the Time Lineage Tome that he was subconsciously using his Time Progenitor Flame Ability to feel out its presence, because otherwise it would be next to invisible to him. So, why not do the same for the Space Lineage Tome?

But rather than just needing his senses to grasp its presence, he needed them instead to change the Mesh of Reality around it so that the cover didn’t weigh as heavy as a planet.

As expected, once again, when Sylas opened the first page he saw a series of Strokes. Simple, easy to comprehend—things he had seen a million, million times over.

This time, though, he felt a deeper sense of understanding and familiarity with them, the depths of foundation he had dug out during his time in the Golden Grove showing itself well.

It felt almost peaceful as he looked at them and then slowly turned the second page, and then the third.

With the Time Lineage Tome, the first time he opened it, by the time he got to the third page he had no idea what was going on. But this time, he found himself able to continue with ease, his brows only beginning to furrow as he proceeded to the seventh page, and then the eighth.

Sylas came to a stop and closed his eyes.

Rune Enlightenment… it was the stage of Rune Mastery that was all about familiarizing yourself with Runes, tuning yourself to them, realizing that they existed, and beginning to interact with them to a small extent.

That was all these Time and Space Lineage Tomes were about. But Sylas realized that if he could ingrain them into his psyche, his Rune Spark Mastery would take an enormous leap.