Genetic Ascension

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Even an impure Grimblade should have around a 50 Stat Limit at Level 0. For Mental, that meant he could have a combined total of 150 stat points across Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma, while Will was outside that calculation. So, assuming that Sylas' Intelligence and Wisdom were weak, it still made sense that his telekinesis could be so strong.

'That isn't all. From my understanding, even having high Charisma and Will alone isn't enough to use telekinesis to this extent. You need a talent for visualizing your environment and excellent spatial awareness…'

Lucius was very surprised that the best performance came from Sylas. He didn't know whether he should be disappointed in his first overall pick or not, but then again… he hadn't chosen Nathan for his combat prowess, but rather his administration abilities.

Still, Nathan hadn't performed poorly either, he had shown some flashes. It could be said that Sylas was just on another level.

'He's as good as the family's seedlings… his ability to adapt is excellent and he also didn't try to hide himself, he shone brightly even though he didn't have to…'

Lucius tapped a finger on his desk.

He had taken a risk in drafting Nathan. While the latter was a genius, the kind of places he would need him to display his abilities in would also leave him quite vulnerable. That meant that he would need to take a great amount of care and time before he could trust Nathan with anything.

But Sylas… not only was he his second overall pick, but he had given him quite a good surprise.

'We'll take things slow. I'll see if I can trust him by giving him a few tasks and see how he performs.'

**

"Scout?" Sylas raised an eyebrow after listening to Mark's explanation.

"Yes. Lucius wants us to take a trip to Lone Star and get a lay of the land. Paradise is actually pretty important to Lone Star. You probably know but Lone Star is a huge city and it's always constructing new skyscrapers and attractions. Much of the refined metals they need for that come from right here, but those metals are important to our operation. We need to go and find out how Lone Star plans to deal with this matter.

"It's unlikely that they'll be in the mood to build attractions when they just lost half their city's population, but it's our job to find out."

Sylas nodded slowly, but he had a feeling that with how flimsy this explanation was, this was hardly the real explanation.

Something like the steel used in skyscrapers had to go through countless processes, from mining, to refinement, and then shaping. There was no one location that could do all of this, especially not a single town. Maybe if it was a chain of towns he'd believe it, but this explanation was too stupid.

Second, even if he was willing to suspend his disbelief and take them at their word, what did they mean by "find out how Lone Star plans to deal with this matter"?

The real reason for this flimsy explanation was just a subtle nudge.

First, it let Sylas in on the fact that they were at odds with the government, and second, it let him know that while they were increasing the length of his leash a little, it wasn't to the point of letting him have free rein. Even now, they were willing to lie right in his face and not blink twice.

'Even so… I don't think they'd make up such an explanation for no reason. It should at least be somewhat related to metals… this is a good opportunity.'

"Okay," Sylas nodded. "When do we set off?"

...

The path to Lone Star wasn't as smooth sailing as the road to Paradise had been. There were large numbers of beasts that had slipped through the cracks, and it even seemed that some of the creatures born and raised on Earth had begun to change as well. In all likelihood, they were undergoing a similar process to what had occurred during the first night of the Trial, but it was taking place over a longer period of time.

However, relatively speaking, the issue wasn't very large.

The Portal was attractive because of the large concentration of Aether, but this large concentration quickly dissipated the further from the Portal you were. It seemed that the Portal was a funnel of sorts that was increasing the Aether concentration of Earth, but it would take a significant amount of time for it to have a large effect. In fact, it would most definitely take several portals working together in conjunction for such a thing to occur.

What Sylas did find, though, was his answer to why Lucius hadn't used guns.

Originally, he had just dismissed it. This was because he assumed that Lucius was just trying to test them, and if they were all using guns, that wasn't much of a test.

However, it seemed that the problem was much deeper than he thought.

On the way, he saw a few of the deputies and policemen fighting against waves of beasts, and for some reason, their guns continuously jammed.

A jam or even two wasn't a problem. Over a large enough period of time, it was bound to happen. But the frequency was frightening.

'It seems I've been naive,' Sylas thought to himself. 'Why would electricity stop working in the presence of Aether? It's easy to just wave it away as a quirk of the special energy, but what if what's really happening isn't that Aether is suppressing technology, but rather that the laws of physics and chemistry that we're all used to are slowly changing over time?'

When Sylas had this thought, he finally understood. It was no wonder, then, that they were even walking on foot. Setting aside the fact that most cars these days were full of electronics, maybe even the combustion that the engines relied on couldn't be produced reliably anymore, just like the gun powder of their guns were misfiring at least 30% of the time, it seemed.

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