Genetic Ascension

Sylas appeared on a split road once again. The air here was particularly heavy. He didn't know if it was because his mind was enraptured by thoughts of finding a way to break the mold of these stat limits, or if it was just that the air was mixed in with something different here.

'Aether?'

Now that he thought about it, he had seen Aether. He had even felt it work inside his body, but he had never really interacted with it in the normal sense.

Before him, the same choice lay. This time, he actually hesitated, but in the end, he stuck with the same choice. Now wasn't the time to suddenly get cocky, nor should he let his worry about his stats cause him to overextend himself.

He was hauling the python over his shoulder as he chose the forest once again, but he didn't make the same mistake he had last time.

The moment the cobblestone path vanished, he dropped the python's corpse and sharpened himself, already activating Madness. If this was another Speed-focused floor, he might not be able to react fast enough this time.

But nothing came.

Sylas slowly relaxed and retracted Madness. Indeed, he had probably been a bit unlucky with an attack coming immediately on Floor Two. But that didn't mean there weren't minions here as well.

He chose to leave the python corpse behind, and Middle Madness' corpse and the final fox carcass along with it. Then he carefully dove into the surrounding woods.

It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for.

[Big Madness Minion (F)]

[Level: 0]

[Physical: 34]

[Mental: 4]

[Will: 7]

Hanging from a tree, a bright yellow python, about three meters long, hung. Sylas spotted it before it saw him, but it didn't lag too far behind, baring its teeth the moment it spotted him.

It lunged at Sylas, but compared to Middle Madness and the Madness Minions, it was too slow… especially since Sylas had gotten such a huge boost to his Speed.

The Big Madness Minion missed, landing heavily on the ground with a much louder thud than Sylas would have expected. Even so, it didn't slow his reaction.

Sylas activated <Little Madness>. Since he felt relatively safe with the difference in Speed, he thought that he should try to test the limits of his body. His plan was to use his fists and the antler blade he had and see if he could do some real damage with the help of the boost in his strength and constitution.

But the moment he activated <Little Madness>, it felt like his mind was being corrupted. It was instantaneous. A feeling of spiders and zombie-like hands fighting for pieces of his brain played in his thoughts.

Sylas immediately activated Madness. He realized that without the support of his Comprehension, this Skill would really eat away at everything he was. It seemed that upgrading it to Legendary Mastery hadn't come without its drawbacks.

Even so, he could control it.

He dodged out of the way of a second lunge. He had been too delayed to complete his follow-up attack like he wanted, so this was his only choice.

A fist wouldn't work anymore, so as the python flew by, he used the only attack that seemed possible.

He flooded Blade Aura into his elbow, and swung down.

The Big Madness Minion came crashing down to the earth, looking slightly disoriented.

But then the Madness settled in and the wild movements began.

The minion became a punching bag for Sylas' experiment.

Sylas knew that his skill in actual combat was lacking. There was only so far that Madness could take him, but there wasn't much he could do outside of try to battle more. However, he also wasn't strong enough to have a real head-to-head battle.

CRACK.

Sylas' antler blade finally gave way, and he was left with nothing more than his fists.

He dodged the wildly flailing python, staying closer to it than he knew he should. There were more than a few close calls, but he managed to use Middle Madness to increase his Speed just before he really suffered.

He wasn't sure how much damage his fists were doing, and the dull ache was starting to become overwhelming.

'Should I really go back and get them?'

Attacking with his fists like this, even with the Constitution bump to keep his hands from cracking like the antler had, and the strength to give him some added oomph, was probably even more foolish than using a snake's head as his primary weapon. At this point, it looked to be the smarter choice to just back up and get Middle Madness' head… or rather, what was left of it.

He shook his head.

Taking a sudden opportunity, he grabbed the tail of the wildly flailing beast. Using all his Speed and Strength, his core tightened, and he swung with all his might, cracking the head of the Big Madness Minion against a tree trunk.

BANG.

It wasn't enough. In fact, the Big Madness Minion continued to writhe as though nothing had happened.

So he did it again.

And then again.

On the fifth iteration, the Big Madness Minion finally twitched its last, leaving Sylas gasping for breath.

With both <Little Madness> and <Middle Madness> activated, the length of time he could sustain Madness for seemed to have plummeted. Before, it was just over five minutes. But now, at around two minutes, he had already reached his limits.

He sat down and activated Maddened Meditation.

Five minutes later, he got up and touched the dead python.

---

[Big Madness Minion (F)]

[Gene Detected]

[Fragmented Gene: (5) Strength (F)]

[Attempt Assimilation?]

[Yes] [No]

---

Sylas accepted, and his body seized up.

---

[Gene Assimilation Starting…]

[Gene Assimilation Triggered]

[Genes Successfully Assimilated]

[Fragmented Gene: (3) Strength (F)]

[Genes Failed Assimilation]

[Fragmented Gene: (2) Strength (F)]

---

This was good. Every Strength stat that he received would count for double just purely because of <Little Madness> and its 100% boost once activated. Maybe his fists could finally start doing some real damage.

'If my Strength exceeds my Constitution by too much, I could end up breaking my bones just attacking. I'll need to protect myself…'

Sylas looked down at his bloody shirt. It seemed there really wasn't much of a choice. He was just wearing it out of habit now. Considering how raggedy it was, it could hardly be considered a shirt at all.