Genetic Ascension

"These rewards are excellent," Morgan said, helping Alex out a bit so that Cassarae didn't have the time to figure out what the latter had really wanted to say. "I have no objections."",

"None here," Alex seconded.

"None here as well," Lauren confirmed.

"Good," Cassarae nodded. "In that case, we can talk about more of what we expect out of this sort of cooperation. But first…"

She smiled and held out her hand, shaking each one of theirs one by one. There was a bit of a lull and Sylas could tell that they were checking their new Affiliations, so he pretended to do the same.

This change was a protection for both parties.

Now that they were under Casstle Main, Cassarae was beholden to them to an extent. At the same time, there was no easy way to get rid of an Affiliation one had one, that was a conundrum that Sylas himself was in right now. And, Cassarae should be able to see all of their stat windows as well as their Favorability.

It could be said that it was a two-way relationship, one slightly skewed in Cassarae's favor. Which was also why Sylas took note of the fact they had all accepted it so easily.

If there was a spy amongst them, he would have expected for one of them to escape in the night, or something to that effect. But everyone was still here, obvious. It seemed that what happened last night was deeper than what it appeared to be. And worse than that, whoever remained was likely supremely confident in their abilities, even after watching his feats.

'… We'll see,' Sylas thought.

…

Not long afterward, Sylas found himself in the small shack promised to him by Cassarae. It was small, but it was cozy.

'It's no wonder she was so stingy with her funds. I wonder how many coins she had to spend to get all of this up and running…'

Sylas only had a vague idea about how cities worked, but there seemed to be a ton to balance. Even the "talents" she spawned would only start with a slight favorable impression of her. If she didn't perform well, they could easily turn on her.

This was why Sylas had noted the existence of Gregory. Compared to Maya, even though Gregory was of lesser talent, he was far more dangerous.

Maya was pretty widely unliked. But if Cassarae slipped up with her relationship with Gregory, then she might soon find her entire village turned against her.

There was another reason Sylas was so put-off by Gregory's appearance as well. It wasn't exactly his existence, per se, but rather how he existed at all.

This system was creating all of these people, but was it from scratch? Were they essentially newborns? Or could it be that they were from other worlds? Could the system fast track maturity and even select people's personalities?

Whatever the true answer was, it was definitely an uncomfortable one.

It was all so eerie and…

Sylas sighed, closing his eyes.

—-

[Where do the beings spawned by the system for cities come from?]

[—]

—-

There was a wild glitch, flashing with cracked lines and twisted space in Sylas' vision.

Sylas' eyes snapped opened and he looked toward the Madness Key, a hint of dread forming between his brows.

—-

[Question has touched upon a Taboo. Glutton Curse activated. Hunger has increased.]

—-

[Madness Key (Treasure)]

[A key leading to a fortune of Madness. Detects other Madness Disciples and enlightens your path. Contains small spatial world within. Can answer one question in exchange for <5 Fragmented> Gene]

[Curse Status: Glutton. <5 Common> Genes a day to maintain Happiness. Requirements grow by the day. <7 days> remaining until Hunger increases]

[Curse Status: Cannot be unequipped]

—-

Sylas could feel the Madness Key suddenly quaking. He didn't want to find out what would happen when it reached a peak.

With swift thoughts, he pulled out one of the normal gnoll corpses and fed it to Madness Key. Only then did it calm down.

Each one of these normal gnolls had six Common Genes a piece, so he had ended up wasting one. But there wasn't much he could do about that, anyway.

'This time, it didn't even answer the question… so the question doesn't necessarily have to be about Madness to elicit this response…'

Sylas' brows tightened into a frown. He didn't like this at all. What was taboo about the question he had just asked?

It felt taboo, but that was only from his perspective. Ostensibly, this spawning of humans from scratch should be common and uninteresting to the system. This entire world was formed of spawned creatures in this way, and humans were just another of these "creatures".

The only reason Sylas could think of for this to be a taboo subject was if there was something that went beyond what was clearly observable going on here.

'Summoned Ascension… for there to be a system in place, it has to mean that someone or something created it. Even if it's just some unknown law of physics that humans as a whole have yet to come into contact with—at least not until now—what remains certain is that others must have benefited from it and interacted with it.

'Assuming that Earth wasn't the first world to receive this opportunity, and also assuming that there are others that have not only received it, but succeeded where we failed…

'How would these worlds feel about the addition of new worlds to their system? Would they greet it with open arms? Would they want to use us as slaves? Maybe as soldiers in their wars? Would they be akin to a Benevolent God, looking out for our best interests?

'What if this system is under the control of someone else? In that case, is it even possible to rely on it to match or even surpass such a person?'

The thoughts came in an avalanche and by the end of it, Sylas was certain of only one thing…

They had to be more cautious of these spawned humans.

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