Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1264: Instantly

Sylas took a seat before the sapling, his eyes focused. There was something about staring at these Spacetime Runes that made him feel at peace, and yet also made his mind feel as though it was being torn in two completely different directions at once.

The Strokes weren’t as simple as any others he had ever seen, as though they weren’t written in any Rune language he had ever seen before, but also the fact they morphed, changed, and wiggled about as though they didn’t really have form or substance.

When the Time and Space Runes interacted with one another, it got even worse, as though they were trying to meld into something even more complex, and yet couldn’t manage to do it. Like they were meant to be compatible, but weren’t in the end.

It didn’t make any sense.

Why would Time and Space have such a repelling effect on one another? Was it because these Runes weren’t perfect?

On the one hand, this sapling had sprouted from an artificial treasure forged by the hand of man. But on the other hand, it was blooming a very real tree.

Unfortunately, the first seemed to take precedent.

’So will they not function well together unless they are down to 100% Mastery? Is that the real reason using Chrono and Spatial Casting is so dangerous?’

When Sylas thought about the first time he used Spatial Casting to shrink Runes, he felt that this might very well be the explanation. Because he had purposely lowered the Mastery he drew with at the time, the explosion had rocked him hard. In the end, he was forced to elevate the Mastery lest he end up shredding his own soul apart.

’Is that really the only reason it was so dangerous?’

If the reason combining Time and Space was dangerous was only because man couldn’t be trusted to draw the Runes perfectly enough, then Sylas didn’t think this was a problem at all.

He had yet to draw any one Rune to 100% Mastery, but also he had never invested so much in a Rune to begin with.

Right now, his Scorpion Warlord Armor could be drawn to 91% Mastery.

No, that was just the last time he went all out. Sylas was quite confident if he focused he could reach 92% now despite how busy he had been all this time. If he had some more focused attention on it, he believed that reaching 95% would be a matter of a few weeks.

This wasn’t because this was easy, but because Sylas had a lot more accumulation now.

Since his last personal record, he had evolved his Runeweaver Profession to E-Grade, upgraded his Eyes, become a member of a D-Grade Race, and arguably most important, had become the Dominus Paragon of this Sector.

There was no way his current limit was the same as it had been before.

And that was an entire armor. Not just a single Rune, but an entire Rune Mesh system.

This was all to say that if Sylas really wanted to learn a single Rune to 100% Mastery...

He was confident he could do it.

’It will still be difficult, though... The Strokes of the Scorpion are clear and obvious, I could also study the Blood Essence of a Scorpion King before I truly understood them. It’s difficult to do the same for Spacetime Runes unless...’

Sylas’ eyes flashed, realizing he was overthinking things.

He didn’t need external Blood Essence to study this time. In this reality, he was the Blood Essence he needed.

That was what his two Progenitor Flame Abilities were here for. They were the bridge he needed between these complicated, hard-to-grasp Strokes and himself.

Once the language of the Strokes became second nature to him, reaching 100% Mastery was only a matter of time.

In which case... he would start with a spatial Rune of 10 Foundations.

Sylas’ eyes immediately locked onto one. It reflected in his mind, its Rune separating into 10 Foundations, and those Foundations separating into 32 Strokes.

He flipped them in his mind, feeling them and understanding them.

The moment he set eyes on this Spatial Rune, he understood what it could do. It solidified space, making it harder to pass through.

If used cleverly, it could interrupt teleportation. If used simply, it became among the most powerful of shields.

The spatial element was known to be among the very sharpest Aethers, but it was because of the same elements that made it so sharp that it was likewise an excellent shield.

At just 10 Foundations, it had the defensive properties of a normal Earth Rune with nearly 50 Foundations, and that was only if it was drawn to minimal levels of Mastery and if it wasn’t stacked.

After seven minutes, Sylas’ gaze sharpened and he slowly pressed out a palm.

A reflective, silvery-black Rune was stamped into existence. The space around him shuddered, a ripple that looked almost like a heat wave taking shape as the world warped. Looking through the spatial shield almost felt like gazing right through a twisted mirror.

Some things were amplified, other things appeared to be much further away.

Sylas flicked out a finger at it and it shattered on impact. But something interesting happened. Even broken, the shield seemed to leech into the Mesh of Reality, forcing the strength of the attack to spread and disperse. By the time it made it through the shield, the attack was easily half as strong as it had been before.

Soul Mastery.

On his first attempt, Sylas had drawn it to that level. That was almost as good as drawing another Rune to Essence Mastery on the first attempt given the difficulty.

Sylas waved it away, allowing the Rune to disperse.

Rather than focusing on getting it beyond Soul Mastery, Sylas actually moved on to the next.

There was one thing he had realized while going over things in Andromeda... The study of Runes was like creating a network of your own in your brain, separate from everything else. The more connections you could form, the more information you had, the better conclusions and deductions you could try.

If Sylas could learn every Rune on this sapling to Soul Mastery first, when he went back to the start, he just might be able to improve to 100% Mastery instantly.