Genetic Ascension

Sylas looked down at the disk.

Maybe calling it a disk was a bit of an understatement. It was more like a circular cookie cut out of an ancient tree stump, or a hockey puck.

It was almost thick beyond reason, just shy of tall enough to be called a pillar, but thick enough that simply calling it a disk sensed wrong.

The item itself, though, was completely blank. There were no patterns, no beautiful etchings, and hardly any aura at all, for that matter. If not for the explanation that came along with it, one would think that it was just yet another ore. A prettier ore than what the Evolved Metarock was, but an ore nonetheless. However… The description…

Sylas' eyes narrowed.

From what he understood, this treasure would follow him around. As he killed, it would resonate with his Champion Will, and by extension, swallow the Wills of those worthy after he killed them. This would be used to add to his lifespan, add more directly to his strength, and should he be willing to give up immediate boosts, he could send them out to battle on his behalf.

It was like a multiplier for Champion Will.

The effects of Champion Will itself were quite subtle and took long, tedious periods of time before it could truly kick in. Right now, Sylas wasn't actually sure just how much Champion Will helped him.

Though, the biggest effects of Champion Will was confidence and momentum, and Sylas simply had too much of that already. Even defeating the Monkey King hadn't really transferred the needle for him on that front.

But this would make Champion Will far more tangible, and because it was such a high level treasure, even trapping S-tiers in here wasn't impossible.

If Sylas had had this before he fought the Efivara, he could have trapped Mosun in here as well.

Though, from what he could tell, the disk worked similarly to how the Wheel of Fortune and Champion Will itself did. While it would register Sylas' victories, it would also assign credit.

The amount of Mosun he would have been able to garner would be dependent on how much external help he received as well. So, rather than a true S-tier Will, he probably would have ended up with something a lot weaker.

But even so, the value was there.

The disk just didn't seem all that convenient to carry around. That, however, could be changed.

Sylas poured his Will into it and once again, he was right back in the very same situation he had been with the Hollow Ship. It took him yet another week before he finally managed to do it, and it would have taken him at least double that if he hadn't figured out in the first few minutes how to focus more on his Champion Will instead.

It actually wasn't that hard. He just had to focus on his Pride and his sureness that he would never be defeated.

Quite easy for Sylas.

Once he was done, his eyes narrowed. Other than his Multiplier Reward, there were just two left. There was a Demerit Reward and a Merit Reward.

The trouble was that a "Demerit" Reward didn't sound like much of a reward at all, and Sylas was hesitant to actually take and use it. However, in the end, he simply decided to bite the bullet.

He unlocked his Demerit Reward.

There was a flash and then a bleeding black light seeped out into the air, a whispering wind howling about.

The chill seeped into Sylas' bones, his veins painting themselves in black as well as though a curse was being pressed down upon him. And then it slowly vanished.

Sylas frowned. There was no reward here at all. What just happened to him?

—

[Quest Received]

[A Blight of Humanity, a Scorned Scion (Demerit Quest) (Legendary)]

[You have shown yourself to be a man of little value, of little care. Ripping up the lives of families and eradicating their beating hearts from the world, the cruelty you have displayed is matched only by a select few. However, the universe does not care for cruelty where it suits it, and in some cases, it may very well encourage it. Prove to the universe that you are such a crusader, such a Scorned Scion] [Fragmented Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Fragmented Sin Clan]

[Common Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Common Sin Clan]

[Bronze Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Bronze Sin Clan]

[Silver Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Silver Sin Clan]

[Gold Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Gold Sin Clan]

[Legendary Reward Requirements]

[>Erase a Legendary Sin Clan]

[Failure Penalty]

[>Death]

Time Remaining: 364:23:59:59

—

Sylas' eyes narrowed.

For one, this wasn't a quest that was going to allow him to skate by with a Fragmented Reward. It listed them out barely as a sort of convenience, to lure him into a false sense of security.

But he could feel the deathly Will of this Quest very clearly.

It was either he reward Legendary, or he would die.

The problem with that was that a Legendary Standard to what was ultimately a Quest given out on the Demi-God Plane… S-tier.

There was no doubt about it.

And that wasn't just a single S-tier either. It would be multiple, an entire family of them.

How the hell was he going to do that in just a single year?

And what was this about a "Sin Clan."

The first assumption Sylas made was that this Sin Clan referred to Demons. Morality wasn't actually something the system cared about, so its enemies could have only been them.

But Sylas could tell from the Will of the words that it wasn't that simple.

Sin Clan didn't just refer to Demons, it also referred to those that crossed the system's bottom line and encroached on its interests.

That was to say that there were really only two ways Sylas could clear this test and avoid death.

The first was to enter the Demon World and somehow wipe out a Clan led by S-tiers, a Clan that would certainly, at the worst, have to be on the same level as the Sanguara during their prime. Or… He had to wait for a Clan of that much power to invade the Skai Heaven from another Heaven and then do the same.

Simply impossible.