No Room for Error

[Name: Sylas Grimblade] 

[Species: Human (F)]

---

[Physical: 7] 

>[Strength: 5] 

>[Constitution: 5] 

>[Dexterity: 11]

>[Speed: 8] 

[Mental: 6] 

>[Intelligence: 5] 

>[Wisdom: 10] 

>[Charisma: 2] 

[Will: 11] 

[Luck: 1] 

---

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. 

Night fell, but by dusk, the elk had already found a region to sleep. 

'This is odd…' Sylas thought to himself. 

The sleeping pattern was too… human. 

Most animals didn't fall into a normal human-like sleep pattern. Sylas wasn't sure of the exact sleep-pattern of elks, but he felt that the fact it was going to rest at this time was peculiar.

Even after the elk had fallen asleep, Sylas continued to wait. 

After about a quarter hour, he noticed something interesting. An energy fell down from the skies and matched the steady breathing rhythm of the elk. 

'Aether,' Sylas concluded as he put two and two together. 

He wasn't being schemed against by this elk, its intelligence was that of a normal animal. It was impossible for it to lure him into a trap. 

Rather, it seemed that this system might have forced these beasts into uncharacteristic routines so that they could be evolved over time while they slept. This way, every day, they would grow stronger. 

'Now or never.'

Sylas never hesitated when he made a decision, especially not one with such high stakes. 

The elk had done all the heavy lifting for him. This region was about as secluded as you could get in this dense forest. If he waited for the elk to evolve first, he didn't know if his plan would work. 

In the depths of the night, it was almost impossible to see. The sun could hardly penetrate the thick foliage in the day, let alone the moon now. 

However, the gentle rain of Aether, though subtle, was just enough for Sylas to know where he was going. That, and the fact he had carefully scouted out this region in the day as well, prepared him for this eventuality. 

He burst into action and appeared behind the elk. He guessed that even if he made some noise, the likelihood that the elk would awaken mid-evolution was next to nil. Even so, he remained as stealthy as he could, rushing in from the back of the sleeping creature. 

At that moment, something inside him stirred. It was something that he had stealthily tested throughout the day: his Blade Aura Gene Talent. 

The stone he held in his hand gained a subtle twinge of something special as he leapt onto the back of the elk and swung for its skull at the same time. 

The sound of bone splintering echoed. 

Dexterity was a stat that decided not just one's flexibility, but also how effectively one could use their Strength and Speed. The antlers of the elk were large, and they provided great cover, however even while swinging with all his might, Sylas' stone managed to find a way through just the slightest gap, driving down with a strong force. 

The pulse of pain woke the elk. A cry that sounded like a mix between a cow's moo and a whale's roar echoed out. 

Sylas frowned. His plan was to end it in a single strike. His Blade Aura might be weaker than a true-blooded Grimblade's should be, and his weapon might be hardly considered a weapon at all, but it should have been enough. 

'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.