Genetic Ascension

SHUUUU!

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[Fractal Marrow Root (???) (Consumable Treasure)]

[Sacrifice to trigger upgrade in Mount or Combat Mount, or turn beast into Mount or Combat Mount]

[Mutate or replace Aether affinity]

[Improve Grade to ???]

[Note: Function of Consumable Treasure will depend on the Gene Constitution of target beast. More control will be granted depending on Brand Grade]

[Uses Left: 1/1]

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Sylas' eyes narrowed when he saw this. It looked as though the Symbiote portion of everything had been completely wiped out. It hadn't survived the procedure.

However, Sylas didn't feel like this was a huge loss. In fact, he had expected it to happen.

Messing around with a Treasure was one thing. Messing around with life, even if it was a parasite, was a completely different matter. There were too many changes being forced onto it. But the important part was that the aspects he was looking for were still there. Which meant…

Sylas opened a palm and a seed appeared.

"… You're not going to use that, are you?"

"Why? Do you have some words of wisdom for me?" Sylas asked.

"… No," the little girl eventually said.

It was an interesting response. Not that he couldn't afford it, but instead just… no.

"You know this seed is from a B-tier Race. They call it the Seeing Thorn. When I was in the maze, I didn't see just one of these seeds, but almost countless. In fact, they were so numerous that this seed in particular was actually lodged in Gogo's body."

Back then, Gogo had been skewered almost too many ways, the thorns of the Seeing Thorn ripping him to near shreds. The seeds were actually so numerous that this had popped up in Sylas' Hibernation Realm.

Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal. In fact, there was far more than just one seed that appeared there. But what was curious was…

Basically all of those seeds died.

By the time Sylas noticed what had happened—a bit distracted by all the people trying to take his head—this was the only seed left.

It must have been some sort of evolutionary mechanism. The Seeing Thorn pumped out a ton of seeds, maybe most of them being decoys, or maybe they just had a low chance of survival in general.

But this one managed to make it through the accelerated growth of the Hibernation Realm.

In the past, the Hibernation Realm definitely couldn't allow other things to benefit from it. But even before reaching the E Grade, Sylas' Hibernation Realm had evolved. Not only did it allow Gogo to freely step in and out as he pleased…

It was just a tiny bit more flexible with what it allowed to benefit from its accelerated healing.

Still, despite the fact this Seed had been in there and had experienced the equivalent of thousands upon thousands of years of nutrition and germination, nothing happened. Clearly, it needed another sort of trigger to be born.

But Sylas had exactly zero interest in growing a Seeing Thorn. What he wanted was a Mount, not a beast anchored to a single planet.

And given how many enemies he had, and how many were likely to come for him in the future, he didn't really care about the Petals of the Seeing Thorn's reaction to all of this either.

So, he pressed the Fractal Marrow Root and the seed together. As expected, they took to one another quickly, the Wood aspects of the Symbiote that remained lingering helping them to mesh into one, while the Seeing Thorn Seed's devouring capabilities were just barely strong enough to allow this fusion—but not strong enough to overwhelm the Fractal Marrow Root.

Then, Sylas threw it at the peacock after doing just one more thing…

He made it an Overlord.

There were too many corpses of Florineth around. He could have made dozens of Overlords if he wanted to.

But right now, he just needed one.

'Show me.'

SHUUUUUU!

The peacock, still dazed and confused, blinked at the coming seed. It didn't even understand what was happening, and it was far too slow to react to Sylas' speed anyway.

Sylas thought about trying to find a stronger base, a beast with greater potential. But in the end, he felt that this sort of weak creature was exactly what he needed… one that was basically a blank slate, without any great lineage behind it, with only the sound of its hollow bones and great wings.

What he wanted was a white canvas to paint on as he pleased.

And this peacock gave him exactly that.

The moment the seed buried into it, fractures in the form of Glass and pulsing veins appeared across the peacock's body. An eruption of blood exploded from its chest and it collapsed, seemingly about to die right before Sylas' eyes.

But Sylas himself just stood there in silence.

ROAR!

The peacock's body shattered, vines and a looming canopy of wood forming in the blink of an eye.

Large amounts of Aether began to suck the planet dry, pumping more and more toward this direction.

But once again, Sylas stood in silence, not moving an inch.

"… You madman…" the little girl muttered.

Playing around with life like this—it was something that Sylas wouldn't be the first to lose himself in, and most definitely wouldn't be the last.

But there was something about the clarity in Sylas' eyes right now, the assuredness of his breath, the calmness with which he took everything in…

QIIIIII!

The call of a majestic bird filled the skies. In a blink, it felt like half of the Florineth planet's Aether had been sucked dry by the birth of this creature.

However, Sylas was only focused on one thing.

He was standing there, waiting… waiting for the notification to pop up, waiting for himself to gain the ability to see what he had created.

It wasn't out of a sick, twisted pride, nor did he feel like he was some sort of magical entity. He knew how heavily he relied on things that weren't himself… the system's rewards… the powers of other Races…

—

[Hollow Wing (???) (Sacred Mount)]

[Level: 1]

[Attribute: Hollow]

[+100% ALL Stats]

[Limit: XXX]

[Talents: LOCKED]

…

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