Genetic Ascension

Sylas sat in a luxurious room in silence. The corpse of the pink pig Demon had become nothing more than a pile of bones on a dining room table not far away.

He had chosen not to go out. If he was correct, Megean was long gone and there was nothing to gain. However, he didn't leave either.

If he was wrong and there was a treasure of some sort, the one to come back with it successfully would definitely be the Young Miss of the Barbed Chain Gang.

Regardless, he would learn of the truth. The best part? The next move he would make would be just the same.

Tie himself with the gang for the time being.

He needed information.

The scope of this world, as far as he knew, seemed no less than that of Earth. There was too much land to cover, and too many places Megean could be.

Then there was the elephant in the room…

What good was finding Megean alone?

They also needed to find a way to actually get out of here. There had to be an objective of some sort to meet, some criteria to clear, but there was no system prompt or anything of the sort.

That said… Sylas had a feeling if he found Megean, he would find the answer to this question. There was a reason she felt this world would be the answer to her problems, and as a descendant of the Gold Lineage, she probably knew more about it than he could ever deduce.

Now… he just had to be patient.

In doing so, Sylas allowed his body to slowly progress, his Physical stats improving by what felt like leaps and bounds as the flesh of the pig Demon was poured into him.

There was truly something special about Demon flesh. Sylas couldn't help but wonder if even Demons back in the Milky Way or other galaxies would have the same impact on his body.

He had eaten powerful beasts before. But this felt… different.

Part of that was \\[Primal Gut], another part was surely that he was pulling on the Gluttony Seed to help as well, but even so… his instinct was telling him that there was something more.

"What's so special about Demon meat?" Sylas asked the Madness Key.

"It's more nutritious."

Sylas' gaze shifted down to the Madness Key around his neck, obviously expecting more, but not getting it.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning there's more energy inside of it. You're welcome. Have a nice day."

"What makes it more nutritious?"

"The answer you're looking for isn't going to be prim and proper. Demon flesh provides something to your body that it can't produce on its own. It's like a flame wielder suddenly getting a boost from the wind, or a lightning user's target pulling out a metal rod.

"Demons are evolutionarily everything you are not, and your body reacts to that in a stupid little choreographed dance."

"Shouldn't it be poison to me, then?"

"Who said that poison was always a bad thing? Normally, consuming too much Demon meat would lead to death, or a cannibalization. But you don't have to worry about it because you're a Glutton. In fact, eat more. I'm sure no one would blink if you went off and killed a few more. Most low Demons are little better than livestock anyway."

"Cannibalization?"

"Yeah. Your Genes would mutate toward the Demonic Path and eventually you'd either become one of them or your body would collapse from the inside out."

Sylas didn't say anything, but he was pretty sure the use of that word wasn't quite right. At least that was what he thought at first before there was a flash in his eyes.

'Is that so…'

An idea was forming in Sylas' head, one that seemed a bit mad, but also just might be shockingly effective.

Sylas had spent his scientific career producing vaccines for snake venom, a completely and utterly worthless field. No one needed vaccines for things that happened so rarely. Anti-venom was more than enough.

But, it could be said that Sylas' background in biology was far more profound than any other scientific field—it was just that that knowledge felt quite useless in this world.

All things considered, it was still quite useless now. But it was just enough to give him an idea.

The building blocks of Genes were the same for everyone, even if the ultimate end result was different. That was to say that the puzzle pieces one needed to become elite of the elite were little different than someone who was at the bottom of the barrel.

The difference was whether that potential had had a chance to be unearthed yet.

Cannibalization was the right word indeed. Autophagy was one of the processes the body underwent naturally to get rid of useless cells and various other biomaterial.

Sylas might be D-Grade now, but the concept was just the same as the Unique Genes of the powerful families of Earth. It wasn't until they had children that the true strength of their Unique Genes began to manifest themselves. That was because their parents were weighed down by the inferiority of the Genes they were building on top of.

This was one of the main reasons why it took generations to show substantial changes to a Gene pool.

However… what if you could force the body to cannibalize itself, eating away what was useless and only keeping what was useful?

The trouble was… how?

Sylas would have never thought of this normally, and definitely not without the little girl's insight. Her choice in words had inadvertently revealed an enormous secret.

If Demon flesh was as the little girl described and forced the body into a state of fight or flight, then having enough Demon flesh would trigger the body to activate autophagy.

In that case, if he could control the amount just right, Sylas would be able to use the power of his own body against itself, weeding out all of the weakness inside of himself and making his foundation even stronger.

He already had all the tools he needed, he just needed a more systematic method—something better than just hoping things triggered the way he hoped.

Sylas lost himself in thought, and slowly… \\[Madness Control] began to evolve once more.

Before he even realized it, days had passed, and then over a week.

Then the sound of a ship approaching the dock sent the fishery into an uproar.

The Young Miss had returned.