Genetic Ascension - Chapter 1463: Wisdom

A Malleable Gene State was more than what most could hope for. It meant an 80% success rate of absorbing a Gene. Just a year ago, back when the trial first began, Sylas would have killed—quite literally—for a Gene State Elixir of this caliber.

He had tried to find better, he really had. It should ahve been relatively easier given the fact he was only an F-tier and his sheer amount of wealth. But a Malleable Gene State Elixir was still the very best he could find.

Under normal circumstances, he would feel good about his odds. But right now… a 20% chance of losing a Legendary Gene that was so useful to him felt like too high a chance of failing.

When he was dealing with the Legendary Genes of the Emperor Armors, he was already guaranteed to succeed. The space was already made in his body and the system was facilitating everything.

But now? There was no guarantee.

That said… even if he failed, using Extricate would give him quite the long period of time to sense and feel things out.

The question was… should he wait it out? Given the quality of the rewards, it wasn’t impossible that he would run into a legendary Free Gene Elixir that would grant him a 100% chance of success.

No

Sylas decisively took the Legendary Gene, communed with Extricate, and pressed it into his chest.

At that moment, it felt as though a flashbang had gone off in his mind.

He still remembered the first time he had used Extricate to absorb Genes. It was like he was floating on a cloud, looking into the secrets of the universe and that of his own body through but a single lens.

However, since then, he had experienced it several times over. From Bronze Genes to Silver Genes, and then from Silver Genes to Gold ones… He thought that he was ready to truly experience a Legendary Gene, but he was wrong.

It was on a completely different level, and it felt as though all of the other Wisdom Genes in his body were weaving into a single fabric, fusing together until—.

BANG.

Sylas shook, golden lines appearing across his body as though touching upon some form of absolute perfection.

It wasn’t just a vague feeling, it was his reality. All of the thousands of Wisdom Genes in his body really were feeding into his Legendary Gene, shrinking down and being swallowed up whole.

It was like it didn’t matter how many of them there were, like he was trying to compare something finite to infinity.

He could have had several orders of magnitude more Wisdom Genes in his body and it wouldn’t have made the slightest hint of a difference.

That was when Sylas understood.

The body was never meant to have more than one Legendary Gene of a kind. The moment he absorbed a Legendary Gene, it was like it became the foundation of his stat, everything else becoming branching scaffolding coming from its strong base.

The feeling was that of complete euphoria, and yet all of these realizations were grasped by Sylas in a flashing instant, so fast that saying it was a mere fraction of a second didn’t do it justice.

That was because after he grasped this, Sylas had already pivoted. He wouldn’t waste time on such a feeling when there was something important for him to grasp right this moment.

Wisdom.

The difference between the three Mental stats were always difficult to parse, especially if you added the wild card taht was Will on top fo that.

But right that moment, Sylas had never grasped it so clearly.

The mind. Not just its speed, but its elasticity, how fast it bounced back, how resistant it was to illusions and mental anguish, how sharp it was, how well it formed connections and recognized patterns… It was control over the body itself, it was more connected to the Physical stats than seemed obvious.

Muscle memory, reaction time, how well his body parts worked together, whether active or passively, whether he was awake or asleep.

Sylas exhaled a breath so hot in fogged in the air despite the temperature being relatively hot already.

It was no wonder he couldn’t make full use of his Wisdom stats. His body wasn’t nearly efficient enough to use it.

Much like his muscles, his brain needed energy. In fact, it probably needed more energy than the rest of his body combined. But he lacked the ability to provide it everything it needed, so it had to shut down many of its abilities in order to not kill him.

ironically, this was his brain being quite intelligent and cautious.

If he wanted his brain to maximize its abilities, it needed more Aether, larger Aether Pathways, more branching paths of energy. He had been so focused on his body and feeding his muscles with the strength it needed that he never considered his brain itself. Had he ever once enlargened the Aether Pathways in his brain? Had he even known there were Aether Pathways in there in the first place?

Was it even safe to start making changes to his brain now? Would he accidentally kill himself?

The thoughts of insecurity and worry were fleeting, a buzzing fly such a large distance away he didn’t even consider it for long.

[Madness Control (F+) (Growth Skill)] (Progenitor Mastery)

[Your body is your temple and it listens to no commands other than your own. Now you have grasped a much deeper meaning of this truth. Feeling the very essence of Will and how it directs your body, you extend control from yourself much the same way you exert control over others.] [Talents: Adaptation]

The golden lines across Sylas’ body multiplied, growing so numerous it seemed he might break apart entirely.

In his skull itself, those “cracks” were only more numerous, larger passageways forming that seemed to shrink Sylas’ brain. And yet, that would be a layman’s view of the situation… Because while it was “shrinking”, the number of folds was increasing.