Genetic Ascension

Ansla's pupils constricted. In the depths of fiery crimson that were her irises, it almost looked as though the flames in her eyes had just consumed them entirely.

That spear… for it to have caused the entire building to shake just from being dropped, one could imagine just how heavy it was. In truth, wielding a weapon that heavy in general was absolutely grueling, and Ansla would remember just how much she had to go through to be able to pick it up and wave it around so casually.

She had never in her life seen telekinesis strong enough to pick up something of that caliber. Telekinesis alone was a rarity—it required Will that was exceptional, but also Charisma powerful enough to impose it onto the world.

Often, Charisma and Will were linked, but being talented in one didn't mean you were also talented in the other.

In fact, Sylas' actual talent in Charisma was very much lacking. When he first linked with the system and his stats were set, his Charisma had been, by far, his lowest stat at just a measly 2. The only reason he had been able to use telekinesis at all back then was because of his Madness Comprehension changing everything for him.

Of course, the reason he had been able to grasp Madness on his own was because his talent in Will was simply off the charts—that, and the fact he was probably one of the few people in existence who could pick up the secrets of a Comprehension as a layman from a Summoned world just by observing the Runes and patterns on a barrier he wasn't meant to study in the first place.

Sylas had come a long way, but hardly anything he had was purely due to Luck. Maybe it was, insofar as he was lucky to be born with his intelligence. However, he would have been unable to survive the Slithering Madness Dungeon if he didn't comprehend Madness and gain telekinesis. And now…

Ansla was bearing witness to a seed of blood, sweat, and tears Sylas had been curating and watering for as long as he had been in this world.

Now, his Charisma talent had caught up to his Will talent thanks to his eyes and the Lust Seed. The usual restrictions on his telekinesis were no longer there—or more accurately, they were set to much higher levels that he would comfortably come up against at his current level.

Lifting a weapon that weighed hundreds of thousands of pounds now, with his Will imposing itself onto the world alone, was as easy as a flick of his finger.

As for destroying it? That was as easy as a push of his intent.

Sylas let the flickering ash fall between his fingers.

"I don't like to play games," Sylas said coldly. "I hope that makes my stance clear. I do not fear you, and I don't need what you probably assume to be my background to suppress or deal with you either. If I wanted to kill you, I would."

Sylas stepped forward until he stood before Ansla. Their height difference wasn't enormous, and yet the latter felt small for some reason, her power being suppressed beneath Sylas' eyes and Charisma.

Ansla might be extremely powerful, and Sylas was talking nonsense by saying that he could suppress her even if he had just destroyed her weapon. However, in terms of Will?

They were like night and day.

And from what Sylas was noticing the longer he spent in this world… his Demonic Will responded to his Seeds far more than his normal Will did.

Suddenly, it made much more sense why the systems—especially the Legendary System—hated the Madness Seeds so much. Maybe the Seeds were never rooted in the world Sylas had been born in and come to know. Maybe from the start they had been rooted in the World of Demons…

Or at the very least, they didn't reject it.

"… You are very bold to be an F-tier," Ansla said slowly, but her voice didn't carry the same bass.

Sylas didn't respond, and Ansla couldn't help but notice that from the moment he had taken her spear, he hadn't deigned to look at her body a single time. He had never taken his eyes off her own, and that told her something else about Sylas.

He hadn't been scanning her body because he couldn't control himself, nor had she felt that flash of Lust for the same reason. No, he had allowed those things to happen because he saw no reason to hide his gaze. He wanted to look, so he looked.

But when she enraged him, her body had become nothing more than a flickering candle in a harsh wind. It was there, but could be snuffed out at any moment, at any time—so weak its heat couldn't be felt.

This was a man who was, indeed, a man, but he wouldn't let his carnal desires control him.

Ansla took a breath and closed her eyes. Not being forced to look into those emerald depths, she managed to regain a bit of control over her mental faculties.

Just a single palm. Just a single palm would be all it would take to kill him. He was too arrogant to stand this close to.

That was what logic dictated. That was what it said.

So why was she shaking so much? Why did she feel so inferior?

She clenched her fists, but the beating of her heart didn't stop.

"What do you want?" she asked slowly, her eyes still closed as though she was afraid to open them up.

"Haven't I made it clear enough? Compensation."

"That's not clear at all. What compensation do you want for my fisherman's transgression?"

"I'm quite interested in your Barbed Chain Gang."

Ansla's eyes flashed open, her rage overwhelming her reason.

"Your appetite is too big," her voice came out biting cold.

"Maybe. The question is, though, do you know why I'm asking you this question? Or have you not been pulled into the loop yet?"

Confusion colored Ansla's eyes before they opened wide with shock.