Chapter 70: Categories
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He had been lucky to get his hands on the Gene Crystal, but even that would only allow him to form a Bronze Gene at best, and that would "only" raise his stat limit from 50 to 100.
It was likely that the Grimblades without diluted bloodlines like his own had already started off with a similar stat limit, which was why they left behind Level 0 so quickly.
He mulled it over for a moment, looking at that leaderboard. But he eventually shook his head. He would focus on satiating the Gene Crystal first, then he could worry about everything else. Who knew? Maybe by then he'd have another chance to take advantage of.
[City Leaderboard]
[1. Casstle Main]
[2. Dark Cellar]
[3. The Enclave]
[4. Look at me, Mom! I'm Famous!]
[5. Gandalf's Pass]
[6. Dragon's Lair]
[7. Rune Haven]
[8. Steinesburg]
[9. Euphoria]
[10. The Sword in the Stone]
Looking at this list of names, Sylas didn't find them funny. In fact, he found it all to be quite sad.
He could imagine the thought process of many of these people. Some of them had probably thought it was a joke, some of them feeling like they were in a silly dream until things suddenly became very real.
There was a clear contrast between the people on the Leveling Leaderboard and the people on the City Leaderboard.
The Grimblades had yet to establish their city. They were using the Trial to not only decide which of the three of them would become the City Lord, but also as an opportunity to scout for the perfect location. Sylas would assume that the other powerful families were much the same.
The people on the City Leaderboard, however, were the commoners, the people who knew nothing about this coming Summoned Ascension and had probably been forced to plop their cities down wherever they happened to spawn at.
The silly names they had chosen when contextualized like that made the reality all the more striking.
Just what was the point of all of this? If the human race was willing to go so far and even eliminate the visible differences between them so thoroughly, why not go further? Why hadn't they spent the last couple of centuries training everyone for this coming moment? Why hadn't it been taught in schools and lectured about every day?
In the end, there was really only one answer to that, and it was as obvious as the ten names that claimed supremacy on the Leveling Leaderboard.
Sylas shook his head. He couldn't say that he had a bleeding heart about the matter, but he didn't like to be controlled. His Madness Comprehension had made him shed a bit of his pretentiousness. He knew quite well that he just wanted power of his own.
'I guess we'll see,' Sylas thought in silence. 'Between you all and I, whose methods will finally break this streak of failure?'
Sylas had once again returned to a world of white fog and soon found a panel hovering before him. Upon it, there was a list of categories, everything from Skills to Genes. At the bottom, there was a counter.
[Coins: 23 478 (F)]
These coins were obviously the resources of Casstle Main. By entering the Nexus like this, he was obviously seen as acting on Cassarae's behalf, and as such, he wasn't using his own store of coins. That was why Cassarae had mentioned the 500-coin limit.
While 500 coins seemed insignificant compared to Cassarae's current wealth, Sylas didn't feel it was inappropriate for her to limit him so much.
For one, she didn't owe him all of her wealth. That was ridiculous. Second, she had a village to run. These coins were probably a lifeline in a true crisis, not to mention a bedrock for her future plans.
Sylas paid more attention to the store itself, perusing the various categories. He quickly came to understand what Cassarae meant by how "limited" the Nexus was.
It seemed that the highest-quality items that could be traded for were at the F- level. There weren't even any F's or F+'s, let alone anything beyond.
That said, it wasn't all bad. It wasn't as though he had the funds to splurge. At least in this one case, Olivia had told the truth. <Basic Scouting> did, indeed, cost 100 coins, and all such F- Skills were around that price.
Sylas thought about what he needed and pretty much immediately thought of two things: his martial arts, and his telekinesis.
For the former, he felt that he was getting more and more used to the flow of battle, but most of what he did relied on his mind recalling the boxing and MMA matches he liked to watch and trying to copy the techniques of those men and women.
Thanks to his Will and his high Dexterity, not to mention the added control over his body that <Madness Control> and Madness gave him, he had great success with this.
But for some reason, he kept feeling like he was close to something while sensing that so-called Flow of Battle, and yet even after going through his fair share of battles by now, he hadn't really been able to grasp it.
It could be that he was just being impatient, but time also wasn't something he had the luxury of wasting, especially since he had apparently lost three months already.
As for his telekinesis, between now and when he finally succeeded in awakening Basic Aetherflow, he felt that he needed much more practice with it. At the very least, he wanted to be able to move freely and use his telekinesis at the same time without it feeling so awkward.
'It seems like what I want is pretty straightforward, but it's actually far more abstract than not,' Sylas thought to himself. 'What I don't want is a particular Skill, but rather something that can better help me to maximize those abilities first...'
Sylas didn't have a lot of Aether; he couldn't just load up on Skills. <Madness Control> was enough to leave him on empty. Stocking up on others would be foolish.
'Hm?'
Of all the categories, he didn't expect to find something interesting in Titles.