Genetic Ascension

BANG.

Salivar fell to a knee, his forehead dripping with blood. His expression was entirely unreadable, and oddly enough, he didn't even glance toward Sylas. It was like he had forgotten the latter was there.

About four or so hours into the maze, he had realized something was wrong. He hadn't progressed forward as far as he should have, and he was taking more and more detours.

However, he had no way of confirming how things had gone so wrong… even though he had his guesses.

They had known from the beginning that the Weaver Guild wouldn't send someone incompetent to do something like this. The likes of a Legend certainly wouldn't take on just anyone as a Legacy Disciple.

Everyone knew the kind of weight that came with the title of Legend.

But even so… Salivar didn't expect this.

He breathed out another heavy breath as the world began to warp around them. When the world stabilized once more, he had already stood back to his full height, his eyes expressionless, and his lips pressed into a gentle but clear line.

It seemed that Sylas had used his actions rather than his words to reply to his previous goading.

Challenge received.

Salivar's breathing slowed to a calm rhythm, every breath coming with large plumes of Aether zipping into his body. Seemingly feeling as though his lips and nose weren't enough, they even began to saturate his pores.

The river of blood that formed his hair rippled and flashed with tendrils of gold for a moment before it faded. The flushed state of Salivar's face retreated and his body returned to a quiet baseline.

By this point, Sylas had slowly stood to his feet, his understanding of certain things having deepened. It, quite frankly, didn't matter which of the tests they joined. He had a way to defeat them all but one.

Unfortunately, that one was the very one that appeared every single time.

But it didn't matter in the slightest to him. No matter what, he would come out on top.

The world came to a stop and Sylas found himself standing on a sea of blue. It wasn't blue in the sense of a usual ocean or river, but blue to the point of almost being fluorescent, yet not quite so grating on the eyes.

The surface began to churn and a bubble formed from the surface, floating up and toward Sylas.

He reached out a hand, and the moment his palm touched the surface, it was like he had been sucked right in. No amount of strength or power could have pulled his palm away, at least not with his current stats distribution.

Sylas didn't panic, though. This was just the way of this test. They called it the Bubble Blue, and it was actually based on the Royal Blue Troll Race—or more accurately, an aspect of their bloodlines.

While all of this liquid was, well, liquid, it was actually exceptionally cold. When you came into contact with it, you would warm it slightly, creating an effect similar to someone getting their tongue stuck on an icy pole.

The difference here was that the flash of liquid and warmth, then followed by a harsh chill, was being done entirely by Aether. In fact, even Sylas' feet were somewhat stuck to the surface of this water.

It had to be remembered that the Royal Blue Troll Race was known for their icy cold blood. This allowed them to run their bodies into the ground while maintaining very reasonable and calm temperatures, by extension allowing them to use their Aether more wildly than most others.

But ultimately, that was only possible not just due to their cold blood, but also the elasticity of their Aether Pathways and their general Aether affinity as well.

Right about now, the general affinity of this blue bubble had latched onto Sylas' Aether. The longer this went on, the more it would suck away and shrink his Aether, and in the end, he would probably become an ice sculpture of his own making.

The best way to deal with this exam according to the usual convention was to overwhelm the bubble with more Aether than it could handle, essentially giving it more Aether than it could chill at a given time.

Then, once the bubble popped, you would be considered to have passed the first phase and then move on to the next.

The trouble was that here, Sylas' conventional Rune formation abilities wouldn't work. The reason this bubble required physical contact to start the exam was because it was pitting itself against your Aether Pathways themselves. Any Aether Sylas used for this test had to come from his body, or had to be sucked into his body from the outside world first before it could be used.

And that was the bottleneck.

This wasn't just a challenge of Aether output, but also Aether replenishment potential. Even if Sylas used his Rune Mastery to quickly form Aether for him to replenish, the speed with which he would have to do so would rip his Aether Pathways apart…

Thus why this was such a perfect test for the Royal Blue Trolls. Normally, this test would only be used as a training exercise since this race was so much better at it. However, when there were no Royal Blue Trolls participating in an entrance exam, there was still a chance it would appear like now…

BANG.

0.37 seconds… Sylas thought to himself.

It wasn't his bubble that burst just now, it was Salivar's. In terms of raw Aether output and replenishment, even after being put through the wringer, he was untouchable. There was no way Sylas could compete with him like this.

But Sylas… had his own ways of viewing the world. He did find the Royal Blue Trolls quite fascinating for reasons that extended beyond the oddity of their names.

How could a body designed to be warm have such cold blood… and why weren't all of their affinities locked into ice and water because of it?

Sylas' eyes began to glow.