Chapter 286: Prime Sapien

The Free Ascenders’ Guild ascender had basically just called out every faction present, reminding them that they all had forward forces sent here ahead of time.

For Uhtred, that was the exact force he had told Diya to wait behind for and then lead to the outskirts of this city afterward. The same applied to every other force present. They all had squads of versatile, powerful ascenders hidden not far from the city in various locations.

"Why don’t we use them to create a broad, impenetrable net while we surround the fortress ourselves with our current numbers?" Isolde offered, not willing to dance too much around the subject.

Each faction head nodded, not saying anything out loud, but all knowing what she was referring to.

They began to send people back to inform their various squads of the new situation. Meanwhile, Uhtred wasn’t really bothered. He had no one to send back, but he trusted Diya’s intuition and judgment to decide what to do once she saw different squads begin to reveal themselves and coordinate together.

Instead, while the other factions discussed, he refocused his attention on Stormcaller and the Ancient Variant and activated the new, deeper insight of his Gnostic Eye.

Immediately, a dense window of detailed information expanded above the Ancient Variant’s head, causing Uhtred’s eyes to widen.

[Prime Sapien, Code No: XXXI (Level 51)]

[Species name: Hominid (Transmutated)]

[Core Rank: Nascent (Rot Ailment, Agility, Air and Metal Essence-Attuned)]

[Attributes]

Strength: 389

Agility: 456

Endurance: 312

Vitality: 250

Intelligence: 211

Perception: 238

Willpower: 209

Luck: 9

[Innate Skills]

Blood Rot (Level 12)

Cloud of Ailment (Level 9)

Intermediate Metal Magic (Level 8)

Blitz Bombardment (Level 8)

Air Slash (Level 5)

***

"Damn, this guy will be a hassle to deal with!" Uhtred cursed under his breath.

He wasn’t overly concerned about the Ancient Variant being Level 51. A three-level gap was a margin Uhtred could easily bridge, considering he fought above his level regularly.

Rather, what truly bothered him were the Ancient Variant’s attributes. His Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes were significantly higher.

Of course, there was the level difference to consider, but even with that, the gap between he and the Ancient Variant wasn’t supposed to be this much.

Uhtred’s current Strength value sat at 233 compared to the Ancient Variant’s 389. His Agility was 247 compared to the Ancient Variant’s 456. And his Endurance was 229 compared to the Ancient Variant’s 312.

The drastic Agility gap could somewhat be explained by the specific Agility attunement the Ancient Variant possessed, but the other attributes were unnaturally inflated for a Level 51 Nascent Realm entity.

Which means this is definitely tied to the fact that he’s a Prime Sapien, Uhtred surmised internally, a frown coloring his face as he stared at the Ancient Variant in the distance.

He looked up at the information hovering above his head yet again, specifically at the part labeled as: [Species name: Hominid (Transmutated)]

The Prime Sapiens are transmutated Ancient Variants? Uhtred frowned deeper, feeling the urge to touch his left eye.

His own Gnostic Eye was also a transmutation. Towermaster Lorien had specifically called it that.

If the Ancient Variants were dabbling in transmutation already, then it simply meant they had begun to touch on abilities that were grand even on the multiversal scale...

"It seems I have to reassess how powerful these Ancient Variants are," Uhtred muttered.

He had always known that the Ancient Variants were way more powerful — the most powerful of them lying in wait in Zone 3 — but he had never expected them to be on this level, already touching on things like Transmutation.

Uhtred had always thought that the Prime Sapien Project was simply tied to genetic modification, trying to craft a perfect, powerful form of man by incorporating genes of different strains of humans. But it wasn’t really the type of genetic modification he had thought at all.

"—handle the side, while Uhtred is going to handle the front. Is that okay with you, Uhtred?" Isolde Castiglione’s voice suddenly jarred him out of his thoughts.

He perked up, having only heard the last bit of her statement. But that last bit was still enough for him to understand what they’d discussed.

He opened his mouth, just about to answer, when a sudden movement from the distance caught his attention.

"Here they come!" he barked, alerting everyone immediately.

The two figures — the Prime Sapien and Stormcaller — blurred into motion, crossing the distance at incredible speed. The Prime Sapien pulled far ahead of Stormcaller, descending upon their wall position in the span of a few breaths.

"Don’t let him touch you!" Uhtred roared, his cosmic essence already cycling rapidly. He remained grounded where he stood, primed for action, waiting for the Prime Sapien to make the opening move against him.

He already knew the Prime Sapien was fast, but Uhtred was very confident in his Slipstream Stride technique. Not even the Prime Sapien could keep up with that.

So instead of running, he chose to remain in place, acting as an irresistible focal point for the incoming strike.

A look of surprise flickered in the Prime Sapien’s eyes briefly. It was clear that he had thought Uhtred would move, just like the others. In fact, he had already prepared himself to react to that movement mid-air...

But now that Uhtred didn’t move at all, remaining in place, a wild grin spread across the Prime Sapien’s face.

"Too prideful!" he roared, unleashing a dense, murky cloud of smog-like air that radiated a lethal, oppressive aura.

That’s his Cloud of Ailment, Uhtred hissed internally. He kicked into action, already prepared for that move. That would’ve been his move too if he were in the Prime Sapien’s shoes — get in close and release an area-of-effect attack, one that weakened the opponent continually.

Uhtred flashed out of range with Slipstream Stride, stopping tens of meters away on the wall. He watched as confusion colored the Prime Sapien’s face when he crashed into where Uhtred had been standing with his Cloud of Ailment.

His eyes searched around and found Uhtred observing him from a distance, and a clear wariness immediately reflected in his eyes.

He hadn’t even seen Uhtred move at all.

"Is that a new skill?" the Prime Sapien suddenly asked, his voice surprisingly mellifluous. "None of the information about you records you ever using that skill."