Sylas' hair billowed back, his gaze sharp in its light.
His broken Blade Aura Gene Talent stood there, displayed before the world. But it was no longer being driven by the system, but rather Sylas' own hands.
Since he wasn't a good enough Grimblade to stand here, he would just have to be a good enough Rune Master to make up for it in spades.
At that moment, his intent had focused every fiber of its being on the Rune in front of him. It could even be said that the fact it was so broken and decrepit would only give him an advantage here. Otherwise, it just might have been too complicated for him to even begin to understand.
However, the Sylas of now wasn't the Sylas of the past. Before, he didn't even have the right to look at Genes, let alone the more complicated Gene Talents and beyond.
But now, he stood at the pinnacle of Rune Mastery of the F-Grade. Even if it took time, effort, blood, even… he could do it. He would do it, no matter what.
The moment he felt the suppression of the Realm, Sylas had said he could feel just how much things relied on the system, but he had also said he understood just exactly what didn't as well.
There were many aspects of his talents that were only possible because the system took the computational load of many of them. However, that didn't mean that without the system, he would be helpless to ever use them at all.
Technically speaking, with enough training, he could do everything without the system at all.
Skills were the simplest example of this. Fragmented Mastery is what happened when one relied on the system alone to accomplish something, while Legendary Mastery meant you were already at the point where you didn't need to rely on the system at all to cast a particular Skill.
Sylas' Profession, though, especially, was something that was heavily reliant on the system. There was so much computation involved that Sylas didn't even have a tenth the Mental he needed to do it all on his own.
And of his Profession Path Talents, Extricate was probably by far the most complicated.
However… his Blade Aura Gene Talent was something that Sylas had personally investigated many times. Ever since he realized his Grimblade Lineage was actually crippling him in a lot of ways, he had been angling to find a method of replacing it.
He knew that he couldn't just take it out of himself because it was the foundation for everything he was. Even though he was a "cripple," if not for his Grimblade Lineage, his base Stat Limit would have never been 50, but rather likely to be less than 30. Taking it out would be like knocking out the bottom row of a house of cards.
Given the delicacy of the procedure, and how important it was for his future, Sylas had overturned this problem in his mind, and body, more times than he could count.
That was all to say that maybe for anything else he wouldn't be able to so easily use Extricate without the system… but for Blade Aura and his Grimblade Lineage…?
He could do it blindfolded.
The expressions of Astrid and Malachi changed. They didn't really understand what was happening at all. Well, Malachi seemed at a complete loss. But Astrid, who seemed to have caught the faint inkling of something, seemed just as stunned as he was.
Unfortunately, the second blade was already coming.
Sylas' attention never left the Rune before him. His Will was pouring into it from all directions, feeling out all of its flaws, its peaks and crevices.
'So this is the difference…'
This was the first time Sylas was experiencing a Rune drawn by the system in its full glory, and he understood the separation now. This was a Gene Talent Rune drawn with 100% Mastery.
His Blade Aura Gene Talent might be flawed, but that was in its construction. It was akin to a perfect work of graffiti art that was missing a letter, but the actual line work, the feel, the ambiance, was all still there.
A pulse came from Sylas' Blade Aura Rune once more, and the second blade shattered.
Because Sylas had taken it out of his body, he could wield the Rune like a shield before him, but such a thing could only last for so long.
He had already seen the fragility of Runes, even ones forged by the system, with the Clandestine Ape's cancer Gene. He had been able to use it on Nosphaleen several times before it collapsed and shattered.
Using his own Gene Talent was bound to have a limit. So that meant one thing…
He had to grow to the point of being able to repair it. He had to grow a deep enough understanding of it that he knew it even more intimately than the back of his own hand. He had to reach the point where he could draw this Gene Talent out on his own with 100% Mastery.
The moment Sylas whipped it out, he had already made that decision for himself. There was only one path forward, and he would walk it.
And like he had already said, nothing would stop him.
Another blade came, and then another, and then a third.
Every reverberating impact led to a shattering, and Sylas could already feel his Gene Talent Rune giving way.
His gaze, however, was only more intent, more focused. His perception slowed things down every time a Blade appeared, and from time to time, he would even trigger his Space Progenitor Flame Ability as though to double and triple check something.
There was something particularly bestial about his intent right now. He knew what he was trying to do right this moment was nothing short of impossible. He knew that he had no right to step on this stage not now, maybe not ever.
But when had he ever needed the right to do something before he did it?
[Important Announcement Below. More chapters otw]