Chapter 10 No Room for Error

Chapter 10 No Room for Error

[Name: Sylas Grimblade]

[Species: Human (F)]

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[Physical: 7]

>[Strength: 5]

>[Constitution: 5]

>[Dexterity: 11]

>[Speed: 8]

[Mental: 6]

>[Intelligence: 5]

>[Wisdom: 10]

>[Charisma: 2]

[Will: 11]

[Luck: 1]

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Sylas' eyes narrowed when he saw the notification alerting his mind. He felt that it would be a bit dangerous if this happened in a situation where he needed hyper concentration, but he could only make-do for now.

The Title system was something else his grandfather had told him about.

In general, a Titles' rareness could be decided by the kind of boosts it gave. The fact that this one could even increase the odds of absorbing Genes, even if it was only Genes of a specific type, meant that it was on the rarer side.

Interestingly enough, Titles that gave boosts to hidden stats like Dexterity rather than overall stats like Physical or Mental were on the more common side of things.

The fact that this Title checked both boxes told Sylas that he would have to weigh several things in the future.

He found it odd that Titles didn't come with grades like much everything else seemed to, but he took it in stride. After all, he had other things to focus on right now.

'The Aether...'

This was the only conclusion that made sense. Even though the evolution was incomplete, it had already had such an exaggerated effect.

Sylas tightly bound his thighs to the back of the elk and held onto one of its branching antlers with his free hand. Using the latter as leverage, he raised his hand-ax into the skies and drove it down again.

At that moment, he felt an unprecedented calm.

Even when he thought about having to kill a living, breathing animal with a weapon as crude as a hand-ax, he didn't flinch away from it. He simply felt that it was a necessity. There was no need to question it.

The elk rushed up, its will for survival burning bright, and yet it was too disoriented and foolish to understand where the danger was.

Its body flared with an unknown energy, and all it knew was that there was pain coming from its head.

It lowered its antlers, nearly throwing Sylas off its back completely as it rushed head-first toward a tree.

It missed.

Sylas' first two blows were enough that it couldn't control its body properly anymore and it ran by the tree instead, its right set of antlers getting clipped on the bark and causing its neck to be ripped to the side.

In this moment, Sylas noted several things.

For one, the body of the elk was already much stronger than it should be. Its speed and acceleration were greater than what he had observed before, but its durability hadn't caught up.

The violent force of its antlers being caught in the tree broke off a large segment of it and worsened its injuries. However, it also put Sylas in danger.

His legs were currently clamped around the neck of the elk. If it had a close shave with another tree, there was no doubt that he'd lose one of his legs or maybe them both at this kind of speed.

As fast as his mind was moving, Sylas knew that he couldn't jump off now.

The elk was definitely in its death throes, but with Aether as a variable, who knew how far it could run? How many animals would it alert? More importantly than that, wouldn't he lose the right to benefit from its corpse if it disappeared into the distance?

He had wasted an entire day waiting for this opportunity. He only had seven of them before his Soft Gene State wore off. There was no room for error.

He raised his hand again as another tree swiftly approached, but this time he forgot everything.

There was just the blade in his hand and the spot of red on the elk's skull.

In the night, his pair of green eyes sparkled like gems.

And then his hand-ax descended.