Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1268: No

Sylas caught his badge, his telekinesis and Aetherborn Will working together to form a thread of green that hung the badge from one of his belt loops.

Old Brama’s lip finally twitched.

With the same stride, Sylas turned to the side, walking down the lane and ignoring the streams of people of various Races moving in and out. Most wouldn’t recognize the badge, and that didn’t bother him in the slightest.

One might think that it was the True Pride Seed talking, and maybe that was it in part. But Sylas’ vision was out further than that.

From what he understood about the disciple acceptance ceremony, there was a part of the category that was quite arbitrary and based on feel. The matter of reputation and the so-called ”face” of the Beast Warlord Sanctum was factored in.

This was an odd tradition if you asked Sylas. After all, this was something that Gralith had decided on personally. It seemed weird that the Beast Warlord Sanctum had a say in who one of their most powerful members took as a disciple and who they didn’t.

But that wasn’t something for Sylas to decide.

Right about now, he didn’t have much of a reputation, and revealing himself as Dominus Paragon would be a bit silly for the time being. Whoever he had taken it from was in all likelihood looking for it like a madman right now, and it would restrict his actions too much to end up in such a quagmire.

That wasn’t something Old Brama could protect him from. In all likelihood, that person and their backing were impossibly far beyond Brama’s own.

In that case, Sylas would have to build up his reputation on his own before he went to clear the remaining tests of the Sanctum.

There was another reason he was doing this as well. Well, two reasons.

The first was that he wanted to see just how he stacked up. Too many people were wearing stat-protecting treasures, so much so that it seemed like a common accessory here. And unlike what he had been able to do in the Milky Way, he couldn’t just shatter these treasures either.

The good news was that his Will had gotten very good at feeling out how powerful people were without being able to read their stats. But that could only take him so far. He wanted a better feel, a recalibration of sorts so that his senses would be even more accurate.

The second reason he wanted to do this was to test out his new abilities. He could speculate all he wanted, but until he saw these Runes in action, it would all be meaningless.

”Is this the best star ship they have?” Sylas asked Old Brama.

Right now, they were staring at an empty basin of silver. It was the largest of them all, but the star ship that had been docked here had yet to return.

Around, there were quite a number of people waiting, but they mostly seemed to be handlers.

There was a man with digitigrade legs and tall antlers to one side. He seemed quite imposing, but that facade completely shattered when an amulet around his neck twinkled.

”Yes, young master... No, young master, it is still not here. I will be sure to call to inform you when it is... yes, young master, of course...”

Conversations like this one were abound, and most only looked over to pay attention when Old Brama appeared in the picture. It was impossible for them not to pay attention to a C-tier that had suddenly appeared.

Old Brama’s aura was quite reserved, but they knew a powerhouse when they saw one.

From Sylas’ senses, all of these handlers were D-tier... with the exception of just two. One of the C-tiers was the antlered man with a beard that was decidedly goat-like. The other was an old woman that looked to have a foot in the grave already. But it was hard to tell if those were her wrinkles, or if they were a series of complex, layered scales.

The old woman and the antlered man were the first to react to Old Brama’s appearance, causing the others to pay more attention as well.

”... Yes, young master... there is another one that has appeared, yes... no, I do not recognize who he follows, but he seems to be from the Golden Grove, he has the aura of a Unitaur... yes, it is indeed unexpected...”

The eyes of the antlered man scanned Jala, Alex, and Sylas as though trying to ascertain something. But when he saw the badge hanging from Sylas’ hip, his eyes opened wide.

Nearly stumbling a step back, the man barely caught himself, his hoof shaking the ground a bit too vigorously. For a moment, many thought the star ship they had been looking for had finally come, but that wasn’t the case at all. Instead, it was just the careless step of a C-tier.

Indeed... it was quite a powerful tier. And unlike with the D-tier, Sylas had no ability to ignore their oppression.

The old woman noticed the change immediately and started scanning for the reason when she too saw it.

While the various other citizens and pedestrians they had passed had no idea what they were looking at, it was clear that these two C-tiers were not the same at all.

The old, wrinkly scaled woman immediately pulled out a communication device.

”Are you sure you don’t want me to stop them?” Old Brama asked.

Sylas looked over and confirmed something in his thoughts. Old Brama was definitely not a normal C-tier. In fact, a good portion of the C-tiers in this Sector were beneath his notice.

But this wasn’t a surprise to Sylas. He could already guess this by the sort of power he held in the Golden Grove. Rather than saying the council had suppressed Old Brama, it was more accurate to say he had allowed them to so that the Merchant Guild wasn’t shredded to pieces.

”No. It doesn’t matter,” Sylas said indifferently.

His gaze had already turned up to the skies. He felt a shift in the gravity of the planet that was none-too-subtle.

It was coming.

A star ship.

And quite a large one at that.

One certainly large enough to fill this steely basin.