Genetic Ascension

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The shape of the island was the same, he was certain. In the distance, there was the very same island he had missed when his mind was in a fog. It had been closer to the location he landed on, but he ended up targeting the island he was standing on right now because it was the only one he noticed.

His head shifted.

And right there was the location he had picked up the disk from.

Had he really just traveled in a large circle?

The blow was heavier than Sylas expected. But what were the odds that he had ended up right in the same location he started in? If this place was really so large that it took over half a day of traveling just to end up back here, how could he not have overshot or undershot this location?

Sylas closed his eyes.

He stayed like that for a long while, pulling himself together and calming his thoughts.

'This place has no walls, no ceiling… if I dove down, would it even have a floor? I've been assuming this whole time that it's just because my eyes can't see far enough, but is that true?

'I have to start looking at this world as it is. This is right out of a fantasy novel, normal logic isn't at play here.

'With the increase to my stats, how could I not see far enough?

'It's possible even to see stars in the sky despite them being countless millions of miles away. Why? Because they're big enough. Any ceiling or wall for a place so large should be visible to me. Even if I can't see the walls because of the curvature of the Earth, how could I not see a ceiling?'

There were no clouds, no smog, nothing to obscure his vision upward. So why did it just feel like he was looking at the sky? If the sky was red, that is.

Then there was the fact he hadn't met anyone this entire time, and the fact he couldn't even see the portal that should have been enormous by now…

Was this really a normal world? Or was he trapped in some unknown space? One that kept forcing him to return to the same exact location again and again?

Sylas opened his eyes and looked toward the disk he had been carrying with him this entire time.

This disk was able to stabilize a portal, a spatial connection between two worlds. He had messed with it somehow and ended up in this situation.

Could it be that it was because of that he was so lost?

Did that mean he would never be able to get out? Would he be stuck here forever?

Sylas took another breath and his gaze turned frighteningly cold.

He had felt the cowardice of death already. He absolutely refused to feel it again.

Since he had wasted an entire half day somehow, the only option left was to take the risk.

Sylas pulled on his Aether and slowly began to expand his Aether skin.

He had noticed something very important about the Aether skin: it always had to be connected to him. He couldn't control the Aether outside of his body so freely.

However, how much of it had to be connected to him?

Forgetting the wastefulness of it all, he began to slowly disconnect the Aether skin from his actual skin, expanding it outward.

He only did this for his right arm alone, keeping it connected to himself everywhere else.

By this point, his clothing had already been fried to ash, so there was no obstruction in its way at all. The only things that remained were his Madness Key and his Scorned Wraps.

Once he realized the Aether skin was able to remain stable, he slowly began to separate the Aether up his arm, to his shoulders, and eventually his chest.

From an outsider's perspective, it looked as though he had one large arm and one much smaller arm. Well, at least the silhouette of such a form.

Finally, Sylas felt he could breathe a sigh of relief. It worked and his Aether wasn't going to pop, at least not any time soon.

He took the final step and began to form a bubble around his head as well. Finally, he summoned his water bottle to appear in the bubble around his chest. Then using his telekinesis, he had his first drops of water in hours.

He greedily swallowed in a rare lack of restraint. The cool liquid was the best thing he had tasted in his life.

He didn't know how long he drank for, but moments later he was able to finally calm down and return the bottle to his Madness Key.

Unfortunately, this trick wouldn't work for food. He needed the heat to cook the meat, but he wasn't yet confident in moving things in and out of his Aether skin. He would wait until he couldn't hold on any longer to take such a step.

With one problem dealt with, Sylas began to slowly return his Aether skin back to its original state. Even so, his mind was focused on just one thing…

What should he do now?

He looked toward the disk. If it was responsible for all of this, he had no choice but to study it regardless of the risk. He couldn't just sit here.

He had about half a month's worth of water on him. Factoring in the heat, he probably had half that time.

He needed a solution. Fast.

Having made his decision, Sylas put his full focus onto the disk. He poured his telekinesis into its forcefield once again.

This time, he didn't stop when he felt that his telekinesis was trying to fuse with the forcefield. However, he ran into a bottleneck in just a few seconds. No matter how hard he pushed, his telekinesis wouldn't go any further.

This stumped Sylas. Was that it?

No, it felt like there was something more to it, there had to be.

His gaze flashed. 'That's right… I haven't used Madness yet. Would that help?'

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