Genetic Ascension

[Your fists are as mysterious as your mind. They disorient the senses and are shrouded in their own legend.]

[Cost is 1 Aether Unit per use. Requires a Visualized Conception to be used]

[Cost: 4000 (F) coins]

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What Sylas found interesting was that this Skill was probably the cheapest of the FF- Skills available, but its description was intriguing. This Visualized Conception was something he had never heard of, so he asked the Madness Key about it and got quite a vague answer.

[What is a Visualized Conception?]

[An abstract concept that can only be grasped by those with the firmest of Wills and sharpest of minds. It is a method of projecting a Visualization of the mind into the outside world and using it to influence the minds and states of being of others. When used to attack, it will not only gather more Aether than usual, but it can also lead to a lag in response by an opponent.]

What fascinated Sylas the most about this Skill was that it didn\'t seem to have an obvious limit. The cost was 1 Aether Unit no matter what, and it didn\'t seem to scale. Everything hinged on this Visualized Conception that was mentioned. And after learning what it was, Sylas had a very good idea about what to use. In fact, it could be said that he already had one.

Still, it seemed that he would have to wait until he tested out this attack first before he understood how powerful it was. In the end, Sylas was still left with over 21,000 coins, so he decided to take a look at the treasure section. It hadn\'t been his first choice to check out because there were simply too few he could use.

Right now, he could split his mind six ways, and he still needed to reserve one for the control of his actual body. Plus, he had also gotten into the habit of keeping one in reserve just in case he needed to suddenly take something out of his Madness Key. That meant that he could control four things at once now, and usually three of those were occupied by his kunai.

However, when he remembered how the ballista had saved his life, he realized that maybe there was more to using treasures like this than he thought. Sylas had several advantages that most others didn\'t.

For one, his storage device was far larger than most, so he could afford to carry around such heavy artillery.

Second, his telekinesis gave him flexibility in deploying these weapons from afar and from differing positions, whereas someone else would have to personally control and aim the ballista themselves.

Third, his visualization made his aim very accurate in comparison to others. At least within 20 meters, missing was almost entirely impossible. The enemy would have to force him to miss by evasion or something of the sort, but even then it would be difficult for most.

Fourth, his Madness Key seemed to work differently from other spatial devices. He could put things inside as long as they were within range of his telekinesis, and he could also deploy them in the same fashion. Though, the further the distance, the more lag there was.

Sylas hadn\'t realized this fact until recently, and it happened to enlighten him the moment he was in a heated battle with Azrael.

This all made it so if Sylas wanted to be a one-man artillery unit… he was probably uniquely suited to do so.

So, when he entered the treasure store, the first thing Sylas looked for were large artillery units. But what he didn\'t expect was for his eyes to begin to water at the prices almost instantly.

It seemed that most of these treasures were specifically designed for cities, so while the highest prices he had seen until now were only 100,000, it wasn\'t long before he saw prices double and even triple that.

\'Interesting. It seems that the grade of an item is subjective to the kind of item it is. A pistol, for example, will always be less expensive than a mounted machine gun even if they are of the same exact grade.\'

It could be said that until now, Sylas was only looking at pistols, but now he was looking at machine guns. Even if they were both under the purview of a Bronze rated Nexus, the prices of the two obviously couldn\'t be the same.

There weren\'t just weapons like this, there were also large city-protecting formations that were very similar to the one that Cassarae had used to hold on until his arrival, and there were also city buffs and things of the like.

In the past, Sylas had thought Cassarae was rich. But seeing how expensive it was to buy city-related things, he certainly couldn\'t say that anymore.

Plus, there was the fact that the incentive structure for ranking so high on the leaderboard didn\'t appear until after the Trial. So she didn\'t even reap any rewards for being number one, and now she was entirely off the list.

In the end, Sylas could only lower his standards and start looking at items worth 20,000 coins at most. But as one might expect, they were mostly disappointing until he landed on one item.

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[Hero\'s Heart Shield (FF-)]

[Level: 10]

[Ability: Bulwark; Final Stand; Restore]

[Form a Hero Heart with your best warrior, use their Will to amplify the defenses of your troops. For every 100 points of Will, amplify Constitution of up to 20 warriors by 10%]

[Slam the shield into the ground, and in exchange for 1 Unit of Aether, create a shockwave that deflects 400 points of Damage]

[Durability: 100/100]

[Cost: 20,000 (F) coins]

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Sylas\' eyes lit up when he saw this shield. He had taken Brant\'s shield, hoping to use it, but he hadn\'t been able to. This shield, however, would fix the one glaring weakness that was holding him back.