Genetic Ascension

The words Tri Class were hardly ever spoken. The fact the number of Dual Class existences was already so few went to show that anyone beyond was truly something unfathomable.

However, a Natural Tri Class wasn't in the same category. In fact, it wasn't technically a category at all. It was a theory, one that many Clans and Races with abilities similar to that of the Entrim had tried to mimic in the past to varying degrees of success, but ultimate failure.

It could be said that even after successfully taking this step, there was no guarantee that Salivar would be a success either. To do such a thing successfully at the F-tier wasn't the same as successfully doing it at the E-tier.

And while Ancestor Entrim was calling her grandson lazy for his lack of progress, it could be said that in a lot of ways, Salivar's laziness was actually saving him. This sort of path could only be taken by those who were slow and steady… trying to speed things up would have the opposite effect.

In addition… certain of her grandson's… proclivities were also quite helpful in this situation.

One had to understand that the idea of self-control and discipline wasn't one of the universe. Things like sentience, culture, and other matters of the like were artificial creations.

Sure, self-control sounded like a great thing to have, and in many respects it did.

But the universe only cared for self-control insofar as it allowed one to take smart actions. When it crossed over into cowardice or slow progression, the universe was actually very much against it.

There was a reason the system jumped on the opportunity to force the two guilds to lock heads. What the universe and the system wanted were the apex predators… and apex predators didn't restrict their lust or discipline their actions.

At least, this was what Ancestor Entrim now believed after seeing her grandson's success.

She had many successful offspring; many of them had reached heights that even the current Salivar only had single percentage points of reaching, even with his talent.

However, there was one thing that Salivar had that they didn't…

If she had to pick out which of her descendants had the greatest potential to reach that height…

It was certainly Salivar.

It was just that the variables in progression were too many. Too many geniuses died before they could reach their full potential. And it seemed that it would have to be Salivar's duty to ensure that this Sylas Grimblade was among that number.

There was no need to speak another word. Everything had already been decided.

That said… there was one wrinkle left that they hadn't discussed.

This matter wasn't as equal as they were pretending it was. Sylas was coming into their territory, to challenge their methods, in their field of expertise.

Even if this was a time of Karmic Chaos, it wasn't as dual-sided as it seemed at all.

**

Sylas didn't move even as he felt a shadow stand over him. His eyes remained closed, his breathing even.

The shadow was quite large. Given his height, Sylas was quite tall even while seated in a lotus position like this one. But this shadow felt like it consumed his entire being and even swallowed up all the Aether available to him in the slightest.

It wasn't bad.

But Sylas exhaled, and Runes spontaneously formed around him. It didn't seem as though he had done it with any conscious thought—it was like his body and Void Spark Seed sensed that he wasn't breathing in enough Aether and decided to create some.

Glassvolt Runes sparked into being, filling in the gap of Aether like fluttering butterflies.

Chi. Chi. Chi.

Bolts connected, and Sylas took another breath as a surging tide of Aether surrounded him.

BANG.

The figure casting a shadow over him took a single step back, and Sylas seemed to finally "realize" that someone was in front of him. He looked up to find a behemoth of a… child.

They couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old at the most, which to Sylas might as well have been a child. He had never seen this Race before, but he was getting much better at assigning age regardless of this.

He could practically feel it radiating from their very souls.

The "child" stood at almost three meters tall, his legs as thick as Sylas' waist. His skin was covered in a bluish-grey, leathery hide so thick it would have made one wonder if there was even a blade in existence capable of cutting through it.

There was a slit in his forehead that immediately caught Sylas' attention. But this wasn't because he thought the child was a Thryskai. He was fairly certain he wasn't.

What was more interesting was that the Thryskai allowed another Race with a third eye to exist like this, when so many Races were incredibly sensitive about convergent evolution.

But after a moment, Sylas understood. This Race, the Royal Blue Trolls—their Royal Eye was created for controlling Aether, while the Thryskai were formed for Will.

The mechanisms were fundamentally different and, at most, cosmetically similar.

But it made Sylas wonder…

There were almost certainly Cryst Emperors of this Royal Blue Troll Race. How did the Thryskai allow that? When their Aether became Willborne, was the separation still so clear?

It seemed like such a small point to harp on, but the more Sylas thought about it, the more he felt like something was wrong.

Because this wasn't a small point at all. At least, not to the Thryskai it certainly wasn't.

'Interesting.'

The child troll stabilized himself, looking toward Sylas with a glare that could have collapsed mountains—and maybe that was because it quite literally could have.

Unfortunately for him, Sylas' Glassvolt, as too many often forgot, was a poisonous Aether.

The child turned green and suddenly coughed, sparks of Glassvolt forming in the foaming of his mouth.

And then he collapsed.