Genetic Ascension

Just standing there, Sylas felt a great amount of pressure for the first time since he came here. He thought that it was from the statues, but he realized it was more complicated than that quite quickly.

While it was definitely the statues, they were actually oppressing not Sylas directly but Nosphaleen's Siren's Call. Because of that, the water pressure was actually more substantial, since Nosphaleen's abilities were not able to deal with it as easily.

It was like they were all fighting for dominance in the water. It was a peculiar feeling.

Sylas went through all his life without thinking of water very much at all, at least not in such a capacity. But it could be said that his entire life revolved around it, whether he wanted it or not.

He wondered… how many of the Twin Moon Healer's abilities were actually based on controlling water inside the body? Or was he thinking too much now?

Sweeping his gaze from side to side, he observed one statue after another.

Somehow, he was quite certain that the choice was not his to make.

The most powerful was, without a doubt, the shrouded leftmost statue. But it also carried the scent of heavy death. Just looking at it made Sylas feel as though blaring warning sounds were pinging around in his skull.
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By comparison, the Great Ape statue was the most soothing to him, the most inviting. There was no resistance at all.

All things considered, though, thanks to Nosphaleen, the Clypsians also weren't too resistant to him. While not nearly as inviting, it likely wouldn't be too difficult either.

If Nosphaleen had never started to take the Mesmeryx Path, it was likely that the soothing air of the Clypsian statue would have been no less inviting.

Interestingly enough, though, the Dino and Dogon statues weren't too bad either, just a slight tick beneath that of the Clypsian statue.

It could be said that Sylas could easily choose any one of those four statues and not face many issues.

When he thought about it, it wasn't too surprising. The Dino Race, as they seemed to be officially called, was very closely related to the Serpentes.

Sylas wasn't sure what secrets were hidden there, especially since the Dino Race seemed to be warm-blooded creatures as opposed to the Serpentes. Even more odd, he didn't understand why this one appeared in humanoid form either.

As for the affinity of the Dogon statue with himself, it was likely because of Rune Flesh. With it, he could likely do most of the things the Dogons did all on his own, even without their Unique Gene. If he actually studied said Unique Gene, then it would obviously be even easier.

However…

Sylas' gaze landed on the leftmost shadowy statue once again, his eyes narrowing.

His Luck had been at this stat level for a very long while. That meant he had had ample months to study how it worked and what sort of quirks he had.

His Luck was good at warning him about dangers within a very, very specific threshold. These were dangers strong enough to heavily injure and kill him, but not beyond a threshold of logical reason.

When facing Earth's Core, it had been completely worthless. In the Africor Continent's maze, it had also been worthless. In the Split Realm, once again, useless.

It simply wasn't high enough. After seeing Gogo's Luck, Sylas realized the sort of Luck others might be walking around with.

Of course, he had no way of knowing that Gogo's Luck was ridiculous for his grade by far, but even if he did know, it wouldn't change his opinion much. As far as Sylas was concerned, that was the level he needed to reach to pull Earth out of this mess.

This was all to say that there would only be two reasons that his Luck would warn him about that statue.

Either it was a danger that was only just beyond his limits to deal with, or…

It was a facade and there was no danger at all.

In the latter case, this was yet another trick.

This first statue was almost certainly the mysterious Race he had heard so much about.

There was a flash in his eyes, and he recalled Professor Fembroise. Could this Race be the Shedding Human? Were they Humans?

Sylas stared down the statue as though it owed him something.

Then, he turned to the Great Ape statue quite calmly, as though the other statues didn't exist, walking until he stood beneath it.

Honestly speaking, he had made his choice the moment he appeared here in this place.

He had taken a great amount of risk until now. He had delayed his Leveling up, he had chosen his Dual Class Constitution over an immediate Legendary Class reward, he had continuously delayed gratification for the sake of the future, choosing the higher ceiling.

However, risk only made sense when expectations were weighed.

Sylas didn't know anything about the shrouded Race. What he did know, though, was that the reason Earth was targeted was almost certainly because of them. He didn't need Archibald to break that down for him.

There would be little more stupid for him to do than to change himself to have any sort of identifying characteristics that they might have. If he did something so idiotic, he could forget about taking a step off of Earth again.

The only statue he really considered choosing other than the Great Ape statue was the Dino statue. The closeness to the Serpentes meant something substantial to him.

But… his Profession made him feel that the secret behind this wasn't so simple. The fact that his mind had gone to the nature of their blood immediately wasn't a coincidence.

His Profession couldn't see through the Dino Race as easily as the Serpentes, so he couldn't know for sure… but he trusted his abilities and his intelligence.

It wasn't the right path.

Choosing the Dogon statue actually might be the smartest. That was because if he chose yet another creature that clashed with his Serpentes Path, he could very well cripple himself. He already had the Scorpion Path; he didn't need another.

However… Sylas had said that he wouldn't take stupid risks…

He didn't say he wouldn't take any risks at all.

And this… this was the right level of risk.

He pressed a palm forward, touching the statue.