Chapter 169: Senses

If he had to describe it, it was like a muscle-to-mind connection one might feel while lifting weights, but more ethereal in a sense.

He wasn't sensing a muscle but rather a type of ability.

He could clearly feel the limits of Strength, as though he could pinpoint the exact amount of weight he could pick up down to the gram.

That wasn't all; he could see the Strength stat in a way he never had before. He could feel how it related to Speed, how it made maximizing Dexterity harder, how it synergized with Constitution to become more effective.

These things were more clear to him in this brief instant than they had ever been when he used Madness Control. In that brief instant, even without the Skill, he felt that his control over his body was on an entirely different level...

And then it vanished.

That magical feeling fluttered away from him like wisps of air and plumes of smoke. It somehow felt both close and so far away, almost addictive in a way.

So Sylas did it again.

He was better at controlling it now, so he targeted a Strength Gene once more on purpose.

He shattered the Gene against his body, and instead of giving up halfway like he had before, he kept pushing even after it broke apart.

This time, the feeling was even more intense, and unlike an addictive drug, it didn't wane or weaken.

Sylas subconsciously punched out, trying to move to see if he could put this new understanding to better use.

His eyes lit up, and his blood pumped with excitement.

When he punched out just now, he felt that he had an intimate understanding of exactly how to maximize his Strength. The position of his feet, the torque of his hips, the rotation of his shoulder down to his wrist, he could feel it all so clearly.

The images reflected in his Visualization, and he realized that it was deeper than just controlling his body.

It wasn't that he could just control his body better, but he felt that in this state, he could truly maximize his training.

He not only understood Strength more intimately, but he could train his Strength with far more efficiency.

The feeling lasted for much longer this time, around thirty seconds or so, before it faded.

'Fascinating. If I trust this feeling, increasing my Strength stat is more than about just lifting a lot of weight. It's also about flexibility, and beyond weight lifting, there are static and dynamic stances that I can use. It could be said that weight training is the least effective method of using an excess of Strength Genes.'

The findings were truly fascinating, but it made Sylas wonder. If he could feel this magical state when he failed to absorb a Physical Gene, what about a Mental Gene?

Would it show him the same world?

Sylas focused on Rojan's corpse once again. This time, he focused on an Intelligence Gene.

What would it teach him about controlling Aether?

The Intelligence Gene pressed against Sylas' chest, and there was a great amount of resistance once more.

Just when Sylas thought that the Gene would shatter like all the others before it, it actually fused into his body.

The feeling was somehow more miraculous than previously. Not only did the Gene fuse with Sylas, but an explosion seemed to have echoed through his mind.

He sensed the faint wisps of Aether in his surroundings so clearly that he even felt he could use it.

Everyone on Earth was under the impression that Aether didn't exist, but this wasn't true. Well, it had been true before the Trial, but as time ticked by, Earth was integrating with the Aether Plane more and more.

It wasn't that there was no Aether, but rather that it was so sparse that their current Intelligence couldn't pick it up.

The properties of Aether had never been so clear to Sylas.

He could "see" the newly formed circulation pathways in his body, a mysterious new organ system that had somehow always been there but had never been documented by humans until now.

No, it wasn't that it was a new organ system, but rather one that had always been there but had layers to it that couldn't be used until Aether was around.

If his blood vessels were normally designed to carry blood, Aether was taking advantage of unexplained, unobservable electrical conductances. Blood and Aether coexisted, and the feeling of the latter circulating felt so clear only because it was so different from anything their bodies normally experienced.

These electrical currents became akin to the circuit board of the universe, communicating like a chip would to a computer and impressing its will onto the world.

It was then Sylas understood something else.

Aether might not exist on Earth, but the Aether in his body was just fine. Of course, it would dissipate over time, but why was it that he immediately lost the ability to use Skills the instant he returned to Earth?

The answer was obvious now.

Casting Skills was a reciprocal relationship between your body and the atmosphere. The body sent the signal, and the atmosphere responded. In exchange for a small bit of Aether from yourself, a large bit of Aether reacted.

'Fascinating, so when I use Basic Aetherflow, I'm using my telekinesis as a direct line of communication with the Aether in the atmosphere instead of my body. As such, when I use Basic Aetherflow and a Skill at the same time, the ultimate result is many times more powerful...'

Sylas connected so many dots in such a short time that he didn't even realize how much time was passing.

Gene Talents like Basic Aetherflow didn't need to climb a ladder of comprehension like Skills did; they always started off at the equivalent of Legendary Mastery.

The difference was that as you grew more familiar with a Gene Talent, you used up less stamina per use, and there might even come a point where you could use it as fluidly and as easily as breathing.