“Ah, the influx of Aether must have stabilized this region ahead of time,” Nosphaleen spoke as they watched the formation of the portal together.
Sylas’ eyes brightened. This was good timing indeed.
This portal should directly lead to the Woodland Territory, which meant that he would be able to use his Territory Key much earlier than expected.
At that point, he would have three System Cities under his control and free reign over their Nexuses. This was precisely what he needed right now.
When the portal was large enough, the two entered quite swiftly.
In the far-off distance, a pair of eyes watched with a light of rage in them. He had lost everything.
…
The Woodland Territory was probably classified as a tropical dry forest by Earth’s geographical standards. These were regions with short but heavy rain seasons, followed by long dry seasons.
Trees in these regions had deep networks of roots and had evolved to be capable of spending long periods of time without rainfall. Compared to the wasteland Sylas expected to find, this was certainly leagues better.
There were plentiful trees and cacti around, as well as many mountainous slopes that extended into the distance with heavy fog hanging over them.
The portal had appeared pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Even after extending his visualization, or rather his Sixth Sense as Nosphaleen called it, he didn’t find anything but beasts that were likely to be rushing over here with quite some swiftness.
‘It’s unfortunate. The underground city will probably be overrun by more beasts now. There’ll definitely be a clash between the native poisonous population and this new one…’
Sylas shook his head. He felt that there was definitely more to gain from the city, especially with the underground Aether Stone mine.
Aether Stone mines were incredibly rare. There were probably a handful in every territory, but the City Stele Abilities of the System Cities couldn’t peek very far underground. So finding them was a task that would require someone with a Geotechnical Engineering Profession of some sort.
Sylas knew that he definitely couldn’t leave that Aether Stone mine. After just a few weeks of using the Aether Stones he got from the Sylphs in the Dungeon with impunity, he was already close to running out.
He was also certain that he had yet to find out the best uses for Aether Stones just yet. He had yet to look into it, but he bet that Nosphaleen would know a thing or two.
Sylas took out a shimmering key from the Madness Key. It was about the length of his forearm and was wrapped in a viney wood pattern and a grainy sand.
The moment it appeared in the Woodland Territory, it shook.
For a moment, Sylas hesitated.
Right now, his name had been lopped off the Merit Leaderboard. Lucius would have every reason to believe that he was dead. If he conquered this Territory, it would almost certainly trigger a phenomenon that would be picked up by those here, and soon enough, if the Grimblade’s information network was as robust as he thought it was, it would make it back to Lucius.
In that case… should he even do this?
‘No…’
Sylas held the key out, stabilizing its trembling.
Whoever it was that placed the warrant out for his arrest would definitely know whether he was alive or not. And unless they died, every Grimblade would know that he was still alive for the taking.
In that case… he would let Lucius enjoy his sleepless nights until the day he came to get his head.
And if anyone harmed his family in the meantime, there would be more than death waiting on the other end of his fist.
He turned the key.
A ripple of Aether spread across the Woodland Territory as far as the eyes could see. Every human, beast, or living being in the region all felt it at once.
—
[System-Wide Message]
[The Royal Line System has been unlocked. As the first Royal of Earth, Sylas Grimblade will be awarded the Title
—
Even Sylas’ gaze flickered. He hadn’t been expecting this at all, but before he could digest it, a fluttering scroll appeared before him.
By now, his experience was great enough that he recognized it as a Template. As for what the Template was for, it should be either related to his authority as the Woodland Warlord or this so-called Bloodline.
Quite quickly, he got his answer. It was the latter.
The scroll fell into his hands and he felt a strong connection with it form before it disappeared into his body. After that, he subconsciously understood how it worked.
‘I see… so this is how they did it…’
After grasping Blood Essence, Sylas felt that just upgrading your Genes wasn’t enough to pass on a Unique Gene like the Grimblades or the other hidden families did. Genes, even Unique Genes, were too fleeting.
A child might keep a portion of it, but by the third generation, it would already be less than half effective; by the fourth, it might not exist at all.
The only way to establish a family line was to root it in your Blood Essence. Only once a Unique Gene had established a connection with such a thing would it be possible. However, for most, this was impossible.
It took over a million Free Experience points before Sylas managed to gain control of Blood Essence, and that didn’t even mention the fact that he needed to unlock a Legendary Path Profession first.
How many people could do that?
As such, these people instead needed a Bloodline Template. This Blood Template, up to a certain standard, allowed any Gene that the Ancestor of a Bloodline formed to be rooted in their Blood Essence.
In this case, it was up to a Silver Grade standard.
From now on, any improvements he made to himself within that limit would have a better than 90% chance of being passed down in whole to his children.
And by the same token… his blood had suddenly become extremely valuable.
