Genetic Ascension

==[Bonus Chapter for 50 Golden Tickets]==

This must be what his grandfather meant by "not all Skills were created equal." He had just lost three Legendary Mastery Skills, and he didn't even know if he should miss them at all. That didn't even mention the fact <Madness Control> wasn't even at Common Mastery yet.

Sylas turned his attention to the final two rewards.

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[Common Gene Crystal (F) (Treasure)]

[One's Genetic Code is a universe within the universe. Endless and vast, the number of meandering paths it can take are uncountable. Use this Common Gene Crystal and begin to forge your own path]

[Capacity: 50]

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'Capacity of 50? Forge your own path?'

Suddenly, the answer hit Sylas like a bolt of lightning, and he understood.

Until now, no matter what kind of beast he killed, he always received Genes of the same kind: one of the four basic Physical stats.

Could it be that this Gene Crystal allowed him to take those Genes and combine them into something like the Grimblade Lineage? And since it had the prefix of "Common", the capacity should refer to 50 Common Genes, then?

Sylas' eyes narrowed. He felt that his guesses were pretty close to the mark, but what of it? What could he do with this information? Did he just have to randomly pour Genes in and hope it popped out something good?

And could he use it more than once?

The description didn't seem to say anything about a limit to how many times he could use it. So did that mean he could experiment?

He needed more information, but there was just far too little. He could only turn toward the final item, hoping that it would give him something to bet on.

With slow movements, he brought the two halves of the Madness Key together, but he couldn't even take action before they snapped forward, forming a loop of twine around their handles and wrapping around his neck.

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[Madness Key (Treasure)]

[A key leading to a fortune of Madness. Detects other Madness Disciples and enlightens your path. Contains small spatial world within. Can answer one question in exchange for <1 Fragmented> Gene]

[Curse Status: Glutton. <1 Common> Gene a day to maintain Happiness. Requirements grow by the day. <7 days> remaining until Hunger increases]

[Curse Status: Cannot be unequipped]

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Sylas' mind was entirely occupied by a single line.

Can answer one question in exchange for <1 Fragmented> Gene.

He didn't care about the cost, he didn't care about the Glutton Curse, he didn't even care about the so-called "Madness Disciples" or how this item somehow had a hidden space within it.

When he saw this one line, he actually gripped his fists in excitement, showing more emotion than he was used to. It seemed that the Madness had its positive effects as well.

But the moment the excitement faded, the flood of questions came.

How much did it know? How broad could he make the question? How specific were the answers? What was the best way to test this without wasting a flood of Genes?

The more he thought, the more niche the questions became.

Did the Genes have to come from him directly? Or could he use the Key to absorb Genes instead? And if he used the Madness Key to absorb Genes directly from a corpse, what Gene State would it have? Could it absorb all the Genes? Or would it be weaker than his Soft Gene State in this regard?

Should he test it with questions he knew the answer to first? And if all questions were worth the same regardless of what they were, should he try to frontload as many of them as he could now, even if it was at a short-term detriment to his overall stats?

If in seven days' time the cost of a question rose to two Fragmented Genes, wouldn't he regret not doing so? Or worst yet, what if it immediately jumped to a Common Gene? There was no telling how badly the Hunger would kick it up.

He had so many burning questions and ideas on how to best optimize this Madness Key that he felt his mind might explode.

Eventually, he calmed himself down. Without a calm mind, he would only end up harming himself.

This matter also helped to put a great deal into perspective. He was nearing his third day in this world, and yet it was already messing with his mind so much. He should have been able to take this in stride, but he felt real excitement at seeing this treasure.

It wasn't just that, either. The feeling of satisfaction he had watching his stats grow was somewhat addicting as well. It was like this world wanted you to get addicted to improvement… to evolving.

Sylas picked up the Key that hung around his neck. As expected, some mysterious and invisible force stopped him from taking it off. He looked around, probing for the so-called space within, but he didn't find anything until he thought of using his intention to open it like he did when he interacted with the system.

Once he did, a world was opened up to him. Well, calling it a world was a bit much, but it was actually quite roomy. It was a two-by-two-by-two-meter bland grey space.

'Fascinating…'

This was the only word Sylas could use to describe it.

He tried putting the Common Gene Crystal in and it vanished.

He pulled it out, then put it back in again, getting used to the sensation.

This space would definitely make things more convenient, but it seemed that he wouldn't likely be able to use it in the middle of battle. Doing so required focusing his Will on it and then using his Charisma to force the change he wanted, and much like the system notifications, it would envelop his line of sight.

The difference was that the notifications didn't obstruct a lot of the rest of the world, while focusing on this inner space replaced everything in his eyesight.

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