[One-time bonus thanks to RySalt 3 1/3]

    [Enchanted Scribe]

    [You can sense the Laws of the world and read itsnguage. The runes call out to you. At first sight, your Will can reach out and pluck them from the jaws of the world, making them your power]

    Ss already had enough Genes to trade for this. Of course, the problem was that his Gene State was far too low. If he tried now, he would almost certainly fail.

    However, Ss had so many Genes to y with that he didn''t hesitate to try, especially since he knew that he could use the Gene Crystal several times so long as he didn''t sacrifice it for a boost to his sess.

    Of course, a Gene Crystal would still have a limit and it seemed a waste to even try without giving it its best chance. But Ss had a cheat code.

    *Extricate.*

    Even if he couldn''t seed on the first few tries, he would get a deep understanding.

    "Wait."

    Ss thought for a moment and then sent his senses into the Madness Key.

    First, Ss took Joel''s clothing and fitted it onto himself. He wore the ck military pants and boots, plus the simple grey t-shirt he had worn beneath his jacket.

    Then, he took out the spatial treasure that Joel had and looked inside.

    His eyes lit up.

    As expected, Joel did have Gene State Elixirs. In fact, he had two Brittle Gene State Elixirs, both of which wouldst for three days. But to Ss'' surprise, he also had one Flexible Gene State Elixir.

    A Brittle Gene State allowed a 30% chance to absorb a Gene. The best Gene State that Ss had ever had was Soft, which allowed a 50% chance. But a Flexible Gene State allowed a whole 65% chance!

    However, this Flexible Gene State Elixir was odd. After Ss scanned it, he realized why.

    Rather than working on a timer like the other, it seemed that it would only allow Ss three attempts to use. Meaning, if he drank it now, so long as he consumed Genes within one week, he would have three attempts to use this Gene State.

    What was interesting was that even if he drank it, he could decide when it activated and when it did.

    As a secondary effect, he would have a passive Quasi Brittle State active for the entirety of the week, which would allow him a 20% chance to sessfully take on a Gene rather than the usual 30%.

    Reading thisplex list of rules, Ss slowly understood why Joel had yet to use it. You would have to save a Gene State like this one for a special asion.

    But what asion would be better than this one for Ss? At least there wouldn''t be a better opportunity for the foreseeable future, and with the Madness Key''s needs bearing down his neck, he didn''t have much of a choice but to keep pressing forward. It would only be another four days before it started asking for Bronze Genes.

    That wasn''t all that was in Joel''s possession. There were two more things that Ss took interest in, one of which was in his spatial treasure, and the second was on his person.

    [Stabilizing Bracelet (Bronze)]

    [Level: 8]

    [Ability: Store; Evolve]

    [Store three Skills to be deployed at any time to a Bronze Mastery plus a 1% boost per Level]

    [Skills Charged]

    [Shadow Warp: Teleport 54 meters in any location you cany eyes on]

    [Shadow Warp: Teleport 54 meters in any location you cany eyes on]

    [ — ]

    [Charge: 2/3]

    [Level Up Requirement: 9 Common Genes]

    [Durability: 10/10]

    When Ss saw this, he suddenly understood how it was Joel had suddenly appeared before him. If it hadn''t been for the suddenness of Ss'' attack, and likely also how unwilling he was to use a second of his three charges on the same person, Joel would have been able to survive. By then, Ss'' situation would have be terrible. In fact, had it not been to save hispanion''s life, Joel wouldn''t have used up a charge at all.

    What was unfortunate was that Ss obviously didn''t have the Shadow Warp Skill, so he couldn''t recharge these Skills.

    If he was correct, Joel likely had gained a special ss that allowed him to unlock this ability. But unfortunately, it likely took too long to Cast this Skill in battle, so he used this treasure to store the Skill instead so he could deploy it instantly.

    Ss sped this bracelet on his wrist. Even though it only had two charges left and he couldn''t replenish it, how could he leave such a valuable chance to save his life alone? Had he had this bracelet, it would have been far easier to escape.

    As for the second item that caught his attention…

    [Dark Crystal Fragment (Resource)]

    Without hesitation, Ss fed it to his second kunai.

    [Flying Kunai (Bronze)]

    [Level: 5]

    [Ability: Pierce; Evolve; Dark Damage]

    [Increase Strength Effectiveness by 1.5% for every 0.1 Units of Aether]

    [Level Up Requirement: 6 Common Genes]

    [Damage increased by 5%; Damage increased by 10% in the night]

    [Durability: 10/10]

    Now, two of his three kunai had been upgraded. Ss wasn''t sure if this was a smart thing to do, but ultimately he would just try to inch forward and gain as many benefits as he could for now. If he made a mistake in the future, let it be.

    Ss was about to check Joel''s Genes to see just what level his stats had reached, but then he froze.

    ''A notification? Right, I tuned out everything…''

    Ss had gotten used to doing this in battle. The system could easily distract you at the wrong moment and cost you your life. So ever since his time in the Slithering Madness Dungeon, he had started to do this.

    However, when Ss saw what the notification was for, his eyes couldn''t help but narrow.

    [You have killed someone in the middle of a Chain Quest. Would you like to steal their Destiny?]