Genetic Ascension

Sylas didn't expect an answer, honestly. But the lack of an answer was also an answer in itself. He understood the situation now.

There were good methods of creating Familiars, and there were far harsher ones. And unfortunately, the world was a cruel place where those harsher methods often came out with better results.

Familiars were living beings formed to complete tasks. One could easily imagine the sort of moral dilemma such a thing would necessitate.

No living being was just born to be naturally subservient. And if you had to stockpile Genes within them to convince them of that, then that only proved the point further.

"What are things your Familiar aspects are capable of that I can make use of?" Sylas asked.

"I'm able to appraise various Treasures and Dungeons for you that fall within a Tier Three Disciple's limits."

"What are the Tier Three Disciple limits?"

"That is much harder to explain. You don't have the necessary scope to grasp this understanding, and it would cost you a pretty penny to gain the scope you'd need to do so."

"So I assume this limit isn't imposed by Grade alone? You could theoretically analyze something of the S-Grade for me so long as its origins were lowly enough?"

"Yes. But at these limits, something of the S-Grade would never appear in the first place."

"So an S-Grade does exist."

The little girl didn't reply, but once again, Sylas didn't expect her to. His mind was already on another matter.

"What is the highest tier of Madness Disciple?"

"Seven."

Sylas nodded slowly. Just Tier Four would require him to somehow get his hands on a Legendary Gene. What would Five need? Six?

"What does it mean to be a Tier Seven Madness Disciple?"

"You'll finally have a minor right to fight for one of the seven elevated positions in the Madness Lineage."

There were many questions Sylas wanted to ask about this. But he knew that 90% of them would probably require Gene payments he couldn't afford.

Maybe at this point, any question that he would want the answer to would be like this. He had simply gained too much foundational knowledge from the Golden Grove to be in need of anything but expensive answers at this point.

For now…

Something told Sylas that once he began expanding beyond the scope of the Golden Grove, he'd soon need answers to simple things again. But he would never be as ill-informed as he was on Earth.

After a long moment of silence, Sylas shook his head and looked up. In the far-off distance, he could see Olivia and Nyssa had retreated a long distance away. What was left of the Florineth compound had been mostly razed to the ground, and Nyssa had a bit of a listless expression on her face.

She had made her choice knowing full well what the end result would likely be, but seeing it all actually play out left her lost. She didn't know what she should do with herself now, especially not while she was witnessing Cassarae's power.

Would she even have a place by Sylas' side at all? What was she thinking?

Her mother and sister had been wrong. Sylas wasn't someone you could control at all.

If the galaxy hadn't known that before, they certainly knew it now. There was no escaping that truth no matter how much you wanted to.

When she felt Sylas' gaze on her, she forced a smile, trying to look a bit cheery, a bit seductive. She couldn't have gone through all of this just to make Sylas think that she would resent him for what he had helped befall her family.

But she knew that whether or not she did… her fate was in Sylas' hands now.

Sylas looked away and took a seat at the edge of the crater Cassarae was in. He had no intention of leaving while she was like this, and he couldn't move her. So maybe it was about time he actually looked through his rewards.

The notifications came fast and in a hurry, but he waved them away. There were too many useless details and worthless descriptions. The worst part was that even with his advanced Scouting Skill, he couldn't see much of what was going on.

He had his own methods of dealing with this, but first, he got the most important of the advancements out of the way.

Vipermancy had advanced to E-Grade. As expected, everything had reset and now he could only Extricate Fragmented E-Grade Genes, but this was huge nonetheless.

Wait…

"You could theoretically absorb S-Grade Genes right now, right? I'm the only thing holding you back?" Sylas asked.

"Yes."

"Then if I can give you E-Grade Genes, would that…"

"E-Grade Genes are worth—"

"What is the equivalent of an F-Grade Legendary Gene?" Sylas quickly asked, cutting her off.

"An E-Grade Gold Gene."

"Or a D-Grade Silver Gene?"

"No. A D-Grade Bronze Gene."

"So if I kill a D-Grade with a Bronze Gene and give it to you, I become a Tier Four Madness Disciple?"

"Yes. So long as you're still in the F-Grade."

The glow in Sylas' eyes became almost furious. He wasn't angry, it was just that the light was quite substantial. But maybe he should have been.

He had gone through all of that trouble to get a Gold F-Grade Gene when he could have just gotten himself an E-Grade Gene to replace it?

"I wouldn't take this for granted, if I were you. For every Grade of power upward, Genes of higher Grades only become rarer. Even Races with Gold F-Grade Genes might not have Silver E-Grade ones to continue their foundations with."

Sylas nodded, but he was already formulating plans in his head.

The little girl couldn't help but roll her eyes. The loophole was there because not everyone could just casually leap so many Grades to do battle. Sylas still couldn't. He had to rely on quite a number of coincidences just to kill a weak Sylph.

But to Sylas, if he could do it once, he could do it again.

Sylas continued.

Runeweaver also progressed to the E-Grade, and then there was Milky Way Progeny Title, which practically made him some sort of blessed son here.

And then came the real rewards.

Sylas' gaze couldn't help but flash as he came across the first of them…

This… would almost be too useful in completing the final steps to reach E-Grade.