Genetic Ascension

Chapter 558: LUBDUB

The ground beneath Sylas exploded. Cobbled stone flew out in all directions.

Sylas protected his head with his forearms but couldn’t help but grunt as he felt his bones and flesh strain beneath the impact. Luckily, his Aether skin alone now had 1000 Defense. But under the continuous pelting, he was draining his energy fast.

Luckily, this didn’t last for long.

Unluckily, the danger wouldn’t end here.

Vines wiggled up from the ground, and the sound of a large, beating heart echoed in Sylas’ ears.

LUBDUB. LUBDUB. LUBDUB.

The vines converged, and through his forearms and the cloud of dirt, Sylas watched as they formed a large humanoid figure of thorny vines.

The head snapped into place, and a twin pair of wood-shaped rose petals bloomed to form two eyes.

It was a creature that was oddly beautiful and disconcerting at the same time. It felt both uncomfortable to look at and almost as though you didn’t want to look away at all.

A Chewbacca-like, resonating call came from its throat as it slammed down a palm.

Its hand expanded with wiggling wooden vines, thick smoky poison descending from it.

The dome of poison was repelled the moment it even thought to get close to Sylas. However, the palm was too fast.

‘Not good.’

<Cryobane Elevation>. <Madness Control>.

Sylas activated both at once, his body shuddering and veins pulsing through his body. His skin reddened and smoke practically billowed out from his orifices.

—

[Cryobane Elevation (F-) (Gene Skill)] (Quasi Legendary Mastery)

[<20> Units of Aether a minute per use in exchange for a <220%> increase to Speed and Dexterity Stat Limit]

—

The changes to Cryobane Elevation were shocking, and Sylas immediately knew what the problem was and why his body was overheating like this.

The Skill used poison to push his body into a berserk state, pushing it past what it could handle. Then it used ice to forcefully cool it down and keep him level.

However, his poison control had suddenly shot through the roof, but his ice control had remained stagnant.

Suddenly, he was able to push his body much further than he had the ice to cool down, causing his body to overheat and billow with smoke like this.

Unfortunately, not only did he not have the time to fix this imbalance, but he had no choice but to rely on it.

This creature was too powerful.

—

[Violet Rose Heart (Bronze)]

[Level: 32]

—

[Physical: 1864]

>[Strength: 2201]

>[Constitution: 2399]

>[Dexterity: 1600]

>[Speed: 1256]

[Mental: 2071]

>[Intelligence: 2999]

>[Wisdom: 1500]

>[Charisma: 1713]

[Will: 984]

—

[System Curse Activated]

[Sudden Evolution Triggered]

[The first King Beast of Earth has been born]

—

Suddenly it all made sense… why this creature had suddenly appeared, why the Dynamic Field Dungeon suddenly wasn’t afraid of his Will anymore, and why this damned thing was so pissed.

When a System Curse was activated, it was like pushing all the pots of a poker table to the middle. Someone was going to lose big. And someone was going to win big.

With his body steaming, a crown appeared high above Sylas’ head.

He stomped a foot into the ground and accelerated out of the way as his body flooded with power.

His suppressed Physical was about 270 or so. With the Basilisk King, it improved to over 600 under the influence of the Beast Totem. His Speed was still just above 400 because this stat wasn’t the Basilisk King’s strong suit, but a suped-up <Cryobane Elevation> still brought him to over 1200 Speed. When he layered an additional 20% boost from <Madness Control>, it caused his Speed to soar over 1500.

Unfortunately, his Woodland Warlord Title was useless again. Yet even still, in the blink of an eye, his Speed dwarfed the Violet Rose Heart by 300, and its large, lumbering body just missed him.

BANG!

The force of the wind sent Sylas tumbling backward. His momentum was taken advantage of by the fierce air pressure of the palm, and he almost lost control of his body.

He just barely managed to stop himself before he fell into an open maw that formed from the wall of the maze. It snapped at him, almost catching his tail.

‘It can still control the surroundings, but to much less of a degree now that it’s formed its own body. Otherwise, it would have definitely swallowed me up already.’

Sylas looked up. The first thing he saw was the humanoid plant lumbering back up to its feet. It was clumsy, and after putting all of its strength into that palm attack, it had almost tipped over.

The second thing he saw was that the black skies of the Dungeon had disappeared, replaced by a mesh of vines.

That told him one thing very clearly.

The Dungeon had already been cleared. Right now, he was just stuck underground.

When Sylas realized this, he saw his path to victory. It was going to be tight, but if his Woodland Warlord Title didn’t work on this thing, he was going to have to try something else.

After stabilizing his footing, he stomped down on the ground hard.

Ice surged.

—

[Woodland Frost Domain (FFF+) (Skill)]

[Special Damage: 200/second]

[Restrains and traps]

[Special Buff: +40% to all Wood and Ice Skills; +210% to all Poison Skills used]

—

Sylas didn’t care about the changes to the Skill. He was only interested in one thing.

—

[Title Unlocked]

[Title: Woodland Warlord]

…

[Quasi King Crown: The Territory obeys you]

—

The Violet Rose Heart was a true King while he was only a Quasi King. That might be true. But the Woodland Territory was his.

Mancer’s Blossom appeared behind Sylas and embedded itself into the ground. At the same time, roots and branches covered in crystalline blue ice pulsing with blue Runes surged into the underground.

The concentration of Ice in the air multiplied.

Before the Violet Rose Heart could even react, Sylas sent out several fists pulsing with 60-plus Foundation Ice Runes.

<Psychedelic Punch>.

BANG! BANG!

The first fist hit and a net of ice formed over the humanoid plant’s chest.

The second hit spread a sheet of ice over its shoulder.

The two connected and continued to spread, but Sylas didn’t even look, as he already knew what would happen.

By this point, he had already launched himself into the air, using <Surfing Frost> to surge to the net of thorned vines above him.