Genetic Ascension

Gralith stared at the tome for a long while, not making a move to open it.

Physical items shouldn’t have been able to enter this space. Or, more accurately… normal physical items shouldn’t have had any possibility of doing so.

Sylas might not know this, or maybe he figured it out while bringing the tome out, but it was very clear to Gralith.

This tome wasn’t normal just by the fact it could enter. But deeper than that, when Gralith actually started to pay real attention to it, beyond his initial shock, his gaze became sharper and sharper until it was hard for Sylas to even sit in silence within his presence.

"… Do you know what this is?"

Sylas shook his head no. "This was all it said."

—

[Rune Enlightenment Fundamentals (—) (Ancient Secret)]

[An echo of the past to form the strokes of the future]

This time, Gralith’s emotions were very much in check. It wasn’t possible to see any change even in his eyes, but the tone of his response said all that needed to be said about the current state of his mind.

"Never show this to anyone else."

Sylas only nodded, his expression calm. He was taking a very calculated risk right now, as he always did, and he somehow found himself doing more and more these days.

The truth of the matter was that he didn’t have enough context about the world to know or understand the hierarchy of items.

Two items that were both of Silver Grade might have vastly different values. And by extension, what was an Ancient Secret to a normal Secret? He had no idea, and the Madness Key hadn’t provided him with more than a perfunctory response, a more in-depth response requiring more Genes than he had on hand—or rather, was willing to spend.

So one could imagine the sort of value it held.

"An Ancient Secret refers to an item from the previous Eon, usually referred to as such in reference to systems long gone by. Right now, though, I do not dare to use my Scouting Skill on this tome because it will certainly cause… trouble. I am not meant to be here, and using the system is inadvisable for that reason, as you have likely already guessed."

"Even taking into account my treasure?"

Of course, Sylas was referring to the Madness Key.

Sylas thought he saw another flicker of amusement in Gralith’s expression when he said this, but ultimately, the latter shook his head.

"You have told me a lot with that one sentence. So I take it by your tone that you’ve decided to at least trust me this much. Or, rather, you’re willing to go as far as to take this risk for now, likely because you believe that the items you have to rely on will surpass what my Lineage can compare to.

"Truly, you make me curious about the sort of chances you’ve been granted, but maybe this is only natural of a Summoning World. I have no reference or context."

Gralith seemed to sit a little straighter.

"However, it’s probably best that we not take this risk. Maybe your assessment is correct, and I believe in your intelligence, but I think we both know that you don’t understand enough about this world just yet to be firm in such a conclusion. I will not play with my life unnecessarily."

Gralith gestured at the tome. "Open the first page."

Sylas did as he was told, careful to note the fact that Gralith seemed to have no desire at all to touch the pages before him. It was like he wanted to stay as far away from the tome as possible just in case something happened.

Other than taking note of this, though, Sylas said nothing else, just flipping open the thick leather cover.

Gralith’s eyes narrowed.

It was indeed as the title said, a simple introduction to Rune Enlightenment.

The first of Rune Mastery was Rune Sight, allowing you to see Runes and interact with them to a limited extent. Rune Visualization took this a step further, allowing you to see the intricacies of Runes, reflecting them in your mind and gaining a stronger foundation for future manipulation.

Rune Enlightenment was the last of the first three and the demarcating line between them and the following set of three. It was often the barrier that blocked most, as the vast majority of Rune Masters, at a clip of over 90%, would never step foot into Rune Breath Mastery which stood beyond it.

Rune Enlightenment allowed one a subtle understanding of a Rune and what it did just by laying eyes on it. It was a sixth sense that all Rune Masters should have.

This first page outlined that perfectly.

Continue your journey on

When Sylas entered the Enlightenment Secret Realm, he had learned to hone that sixth sense, but deeper than that, he learned how to off-load some of the computation he needed to exert in crafting Runes onto the world, using the sixth sense to build bridges and connections he would have otherwise had to do naturally.

The first page, however, was even simpler than that. It was just a series of Strokes, and it seemed to begin to drill Sylas and Gralith on not just how to envision entire Runes, but even their individual parts.

The more they stared at it, the more they realized that this so-called Enlightenment Tome was actually touching upon concepts of Rune Sight and Rune Visualization as well.

Or… was it just building on them?

"Next," Gralith said.

Then they sat on the second page.

"Next."

Gralith began to speak faster, scanning these pages one after another at a pace that Sylas quickly fell behind. Soon, they were at pages that Sylas had never even seen before, and a dizzying sort of spell seemed to have rammed against the cage of his mind.

But as terrible as it was, Sylas could tell that he was actually doing much better now than he would have before reaching Shaping Will.

And then they reached the last page.

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