Chapter 426: CRACK.
[Mancer's Blossom (Silver) (Aether Treasure)]
[The Paths of the Mancer are long and complex. There is no one Path that is superior to another, but the distance one can travel depends greatly on your strength of heart. The Mancer's Blossom allows you to feel and sense your Path of the Mancer, how to progress it and how to improve it.]
[Feed the Mancer's Blossom Aether and it will bear fruit to enlighten your path]
[Meditate beneath the Mancer's Blossom to improve Aether Recovery and gain a chance to Level up]
Sylas was pleasantly surprised by the change. Although the Grade didn't change, there was no doubting that the Treasure, or rather the Aether Treasure, was a huge boost to what it had been before.
This was what Sylas had realized long ago. Unless all the variables were the same, it was unlikely for two Silver Grade treasures to be perfectly identical.
The Silver Grade Frostbane Feather was a bit lackluster compared to its Silver Grade counterpart, only able to create an FFF- Grade Combat Mount at best. By the same token, this Silver Grade Mancer's Blossom was clearly far more valuable.
Sylas exhaled a slow breath. He had managed to slip away from trouble this time around and had even made another gain.
The question was...
'Will it be ready to put into the Madness Key?'
Sylas had already seen that he couldn't put living people into the ring. He hadn't had the chance to see whether he could put living plants and such inside.
'It should be fine.'
He felt like he was worrying too much about it. Instead, he shifted his focus to his Gene Crystal.
One after another, he took out several corpses and began to assess the number of Genes that he had gathered.
[Aetherflow (F)]
[> Silver Gene]
[Raise Genetic Limit to (20) Bronze Genes of a kind or (1) Silver Gene of a kind]
[Raise Stat Limit to 500 Relative Stat Units]
[Gene Talents: Aetherflow (F)]
[Aetherflow]
[Aether comes naturally to you, even when it's outside of your body. Your ability to extend your Aether away from your core, attaching it to objects to control and wield, far exceeds others. You have now reached a new step of mastery]
[+80 Intelligence; +80 Charisma (Silver)]
[>Requirements to Unlock (Silver)]
[(22) Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Speed, Wisdom]
[(44) Charisma]
[(44) Intelligence]
[(1) Basic Aetherflow]
[(1) <Magecraft Title> (FFF+) (Title)]
After some time and much more experience, Sylas had landed on choosing Aetherflow despite Rune Flow and Skill Flow being enticing in their own rights.
[Rune Flow]
[Aether comes naturally to you, even when it's outside your body. The Runes of the world are your conduit and the laws, abstruse and untouchable to others, come to you of their own volition]
[Skill Flow]
[Aether comes naturally to you, even when it's outside your body. Layer your Skill, cast multiple at once, and even instant cast. The limitations of others do not apply to you]
In the end, he felt like upgrading Aetherflow was his best choice, especially since it was the one he had fulfilled the most obscure requirements for.
He had already gathered the Magecraft Title he needed, and he obviously carried Basic Aetherflow with him wherever he went.
Beyond this, however, he felt that the other two were either redundant or didn't synergize with him as well.
Rune Flow just sounded like an inferior version of his Rune Soul, or rather, what he thought to be an upgraded Rune Breath. And in fact, he was right.
Even with Rune Breath, he could control Runes about as well as Rune Flow would have allowed him to. With Rune Soul, he was leagues beyond. At best, what he would be getting out of it was the stat boost.
By comparison, Skill Flow was harder to dismiss. But the issue was that the current stack of Skills that Sylas had couldn't really be used in layers, stacks, or benefit very much from double casts or more.
Skills like <Arctic King's Domain> or <Arctic Howl Mutant> were best cast once with proper
timing.
Even the Skills that would benefit from such a thing were minimal. The only such Skill in his arsenal right now that would fit the bill was <Chilling Scythe Mutant>, but it was less than average among attack Skills and choosing this Unique Gene just for it was an aggressive waste of his time and resources.
If he had a Class that focused more on attacks, or he had a wider variable range of attack options, Skill Flow might be more worth it. But since he was so loaded with control and defensive skills, it was worthless to the current him.
That left Aetherflow.
It was the ability he probably used the absolute most in combat now, and an upgrade to it would certainly bring him to an entirely new level. This time when he returned to the Grimblades, he would be more than prepared for anything that was thrown his way.
'There are 23 of each Physical Gene and 29 of each Mental Gene from the Sylphs. The Clypsians are the true boon. There are 26 of each of the Physical Genes, and 32 of each of the Mental Genes from them even though they had fewer of them...
'That's 411 total Bronze Genes. I have enough to try the Gene Crystal twice... and I haven't even looked at the Level 35 Gene Core yet...'
Sylas' gaze flashed when he had this thought. The Gene Crystal was cracked due to his earlier escapades, but it should be able to be used at least a handful more times so long as he wasn't
continuously using Extricate on it.
If he was lucky enough...
Sylas began to load up the Gene Crystal. As he did so, he realized that he wouldn't have the luxury to use the Gene Crystal twice like he wanted. That was because he was going to have to sacrifice his Title and Basic Aetherflow for this. Meaning...
He would only get one shot.
In that case, he would have no choice but to sacrifice the Gene Crystal.
CRACK.