[One-time bonus thanks to RolaySalt <3 1/3]
[You can sense the Laws of the world and read its language. The runes call out to you. At first sight, your Will can reach out and pluck them from the jaws of the world, making them your power]
Sylas already had enough Genes to trade for this. Of course, the problem was that his Gene State was far too low. If he tried now, he would almost certainly fail.
However, Sylas had so many Genes to play with that he didn't hesitate to try, especially since he knew that he could use the Gene Crystal several times so long as he didn't sacrifice it for a boost to his success.
Of course, a Gene Crystal would still have a limit and it seemed a waste to even try without giving it its best chance. But Sylas had a cheat code.
Even if he couldn't succeed on the first few tries, he would get a deep understanding.
Sylas thought for a moment and then sent his senses into the Madness Key.
First, Sylas took Joel's clothing and fitted it onto himself. He wore the black military pants and boots, plus the simple grey t-shirt he had worn beneath his jacket.
Then, he took out the spatial treasure that Joel had and looked inside.
As expected, Joel did have Gene State Elixirs. In fact, he had two Brittle Gene State Elixirs, both of which would last for three days. But to Sylas' surprise, he also had one Flexible Gene State Elixir.
A Brittle Gene State allowed a 30% chance to absorb a Gene. The best Gene State that Sylas had ever had was Soft, which allowed a 50% chance. But a Flexible Gene State allowed a whole 65% chance!
However, this Flexible Gene State Elixir was odd. After Sylas scanned it, he realized why.
Rather than working on a timer like the other, it seemed that it would only allow Sylas three attempts to use. Meaning, if he drank it now, so long as he consumed Genes within one week, he would have three attempts to use this Gene State.
What was interesting was that even if he drank it, he could decide when it activated and when it did.
As a secondary effect, he would have a passive Quasi Brittle State active for the entirety of the week, which would allow him a 20% chance to successfully take on a Gene rather than the usual 30%.
Reading this complex list of rules, Sylas slowly understood why Joel had yet to use it. You would have to save a Gene State one for a special occasion.
But what occasion would be better than this one for Sylas? At least there wouldn't be a better opportunity for the foreseeable future, and with the Madness Key's needs bearing down his neck, he didn't have much of a choice but to keep pressing forward. It would only be another four days before it started asking for Bronze Genes.
That wasn't all that was in Joel's possession. There were two more things that Sylas took interest in, one of which was in his spatial treasure, and the second was on his person.
[Stabilizing Bracelet (Bronze)]
[Ability: Store; Evolve]
[Store three Skills to be deployed at any time to a Bronze Mastery plus a <1%> boost per Level]
[Shadow Warp: Teleport <54> meters in any location you can lay eyes on]
[Shadow Warp: Teleport <54> meters in any location you can lay eyes on]
[Level Up Requirement: <9 Common> Genes]
When Sylas saw this, he suddenly understood how it was Joel had suddenly appeared before him. If it hadn't been for the suddenness of Sylas' attack, and likely also how unwilling he was to use a second of his three charges on the same person, Joel would have been able to survive. By then, Sylas' situation would have become terrible. In fact, had it not been to save his companion's life, Joel wouldn't have used up a charge at all.
What was unfortunate was that Sylas obviously didn't have the Skill, so he couldn't recharge these Skills.
If he was correct, Joel likely had gained a special Class that allowed him to unlock this ability. But unfortunately, it likely took too long to Cast this Skill in battle, so he used this treasure to store the Skill instead so he could deploy it instantly.
Sylas clasped this bracelet on his wrist. Even though it only had two charges left and he couldn't replenish it, how could he leave such a valuable chance to save his life alone? Had he had this bracelet, it would have been far easier to escape.
As for the second item that caught his attention…
[Dark Crystal Fragment (Resource)]
Without hesitation, Sylas fed it to his second kunai.
[Flying Kunai (Bronze)]
[Ability: Pierce; Evolve; Dark Damage]
[Increase Strength Effectiveness by <1.5%> for every <0.1> Units of Aether]
[Level Up Requirement: <6 Common> Genes]
[Damage increased by 5%; Damage increased by 10% in the night]
Now, two of his three kunai had been upgraded. Sylas wasn't sure if this was a smart thing to do, but ultimately he would just try to inch forward and gain as many benefits as he could for now. If he made a mistake in the future, let it be.
Sylas was about to check Joel's Genes to see just what level his stats had reached, but then he froze.
'A notification? Right, I tuned out everything…'
Sylas had gotten used to doing this in battle. The system could easily distract you at the wrong moment and cost you your life. So ever since his time in the Slithering Madness Dungeon, he had started to do this.
However, when Sylas saw what the notification was for, his eyes couldn't help but narrow.