Genetic Ascension

Chapter 1376: Awakening

[Primus Luminaria (Contested Title)]

[The light at the end of the tunnel, the spark in the essence of life. A Rune Master of this Title is not just one who comprehends the most, or understands the most, but one who sets out the path for the future. You have pushed the envelope and stand at the peak of Spark Mastery.]

[+50% Success in drawing ALL Runes][Draw Runes one Grade above your Will]

—

Sylas slid his glasses back on, walking back to his position. The rush of green winds around him seemed particularly potent and real, pulsing with a radiance that made it look very real rather than just a manifestation of his Will.

However, as the glow to his eyes faded behind his sunglasses, everything chilled and cooled until all that was left was the silence of the world.

—

[ERROR][Functional speed unable to be detected][Processing]

[Time adjusted]

—

[All-Time E-Grade Breath Mastery Leaderboard][1. Sylas Grimblade - Untraceable][2. Vaernon Kaelthar - 00:00:03][3. Fowler Leava - 00:11:03]...

—

Vaernon’s pupils trembled, the various ligaments of his eyes tugging so hard the world around him nearly fell into complete darkness.

What just happened? What did he just witness? What was going on?

His heart was practically beating out of his chest. He couldn’t compute what was going on in the slightest, as though the world had completely stopped making sense to him.

What did it even mean to have an untraceable time?

Vaernon knew—of course he knew. But he couldn’t accept it regardless.

Before, Sylas had waited out ten seconds before starting, causing his time to dip beneath one second after having it divided by three thrice over.

Because it was the system of this tower itself doing the divisions, it was able to track what was happening and act accordingly.

But this time, he started immediately. Not only that, he seemed to be so fast that Vaernon hadn’t even registered the Runes on the matrix before he was already finished. That wasn’t on an order of milliseconds anymore—it was even faster than that.

The system of the tower could register that Sylas finished, but it couldn’t accurately gauge just how fast he was at all, so it didn’t even try to do so, writing down his time as untraceable instead.

And what were those eyes? What was that Will? Why was it so powerful? Why did it make him feel like he was crumbling beneath his own weight?

Vaernon couldn’t breathe. It felt like the entire round was a complete blur to him, and by the time his feet lit up again for the Flesh Mastery round, he couldn’t even see straight, his mind more than a little blank.

Let alone breathing, he couldn’t even seem to think. As though he had short-circuited, he went through the motions, defeating Fowler’s record again, and yet not being able to find himself being happy about it at all.

His breathing only seemed to be getting worse, and though he was slowly losing the ability to control it properly—

How could this even happen?

—

Prione had been setting up many things in order to make this transition period smoother. He knew that if he wanted to expel the Scorpion Lineage, it wasn’t going to be as simple as waving a hand and doing it.

Many that were in favor of the Bat Lineage joining weren’t willing to do so at the expense of one of their own—it just made sense to add such a powerful Sanctum to help bolster them.

But it felt different to do so while expelling a Lineage that had been amongst them for so many generations.

Because of this, Prione couldn’t exactly just turn the entire Sanctum against them. If he could do that, it would be easy. There were dozens of Lineages and just one Scorpion Lineage.

Still, it wasn’t exactly a lost cause. Some things would need to be massaged, but he would eventually come out on top like he always did.

But then he got news of the fact Sylas was participating in the E-Grade round. He found it to be ridiculous and didn’t really understand what Gralith was thinking.

Even if Sylas broke into the E-tier for the specific purpose of helping—something that might be possible considering he was already level 50—not only would he be ruining his future, making him even easier to deal with, but Rune Mastery took time to gain.

Even if Sylas was enough of a genius to instantly reach Breath Mastery upon touching the E-tier, that didn’t mean much of anything.

Not only were his enemies stronger than just Breath Mastery, but even at Breath Mastery alone, he would be nearer the middle of the pack if he was lucky, while these geniuses would be pushing the record again and again.

He would go out even sadder than before.

When Sylas took an entire half day just to finish the first Secret Realm, the reality became only more obvious. But Prione saw something odd.

F-tier?

How could Sylas possibly still be in F-tier? How was that even possible?

Part of Prione wanted to take advantage of the fact Sylas kept taking so long to clear the Secret Realms, but this time... he felt a bad premonition coming on.

And then it happened.

Untraceable.

The word practically flashed in his mind again and again, ruthlessly trampling his previous thoughts. He had to check the stream again and again to make sure that he wasn’t seeing things incorrectly, but there it was, in words that couldn’t have been any more bold even if they tried.

It was the first time the tower had ever shown a record in anything other than numbers, a feat that couldn’t even quite be put into words.

The gap between Sylas and everyone else was just as inconceivable as always.

Even when he faced Flesh Mastery and Soul Mastery, it was like nothing had changed from the F-Grade Secret Realms. Only Sylas himself felt that he was close to hitting a wall.

...

’It seems I’ll have to use it after all,’ Sylas thought indifferently.

He hadn’t wanted to originally because he knew what would happen if he did. But Vaernon was still keeping up. Since things had already gone so far, he might as well put his heel to their throats.

—

[Mission Completed][>Draw Rune one Tier above your own]

—

[Experience: ...]

—

A sight that he had grown all too familiar with appeared before Sylas—a string of numbers so long they seemed to extend to infinity.

With a single thought, he upgraded Rune Weaver to Level 100.

At that moment, his Primus Luminaria Title seemed to be released from a subtle hold Sylas’ Profession had had lording over it, and the world shook.

Sylas looked up, his eyes indifferent.

When he first gained Domunis Paragon, it hadn’t been announced for two reasons. First, it was a transfer of a Contested Title, not the unlocking of one. And second, he was from an inferior galaxy, and it was a form of protection.

This time, however, he was fully integrated and this was not a transfer...

It was the awakening of a Contested Title this Sector had never seen before.

In fact, it wasn’t of just one—it was of two.

—

[System-Wide Message]

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