Transcendent Gene
Chapter 74: The Foundation of Strength [4]

Chapter 74: The Foundation of Strength [4]

Gio’s senses disconnected from the world completely.

It was for this reason that he had to find a secure place to undergo the procedure. It would have been even better if there was someone to protect him, but there didn’t exist a person he could show this to.

As such, he didn’t concern himself with such thoughts.

His mind went inward. He saw his internal structure; the flesh and blood that supported his vessel.

He saw the stardust stuck to his skeleton and moving through his bloodstream.

And, he saw the other force. The Aether that had been circulating within him ever since he formed his Aether Core.

"Huu..."

He took a deep breath and calmed his mind, getting rid of any extraneous thoughts.

From now on, Gio’s mind would be one with his body.

Calmly, he called out to the Aether. As if he was poking at it with tiny invisible hands, he used his mind to prod the force, pushing it out of its cycle.

The Aether reacted negatively to his touch at first. It wasn’t used to his presence, and the fact that a being was directly interacting with it in this way was making its reaction worse.

However, he still had to continue prodding at it. Like he was holding his hand out to a cat and letting it smell him, he allowed the Aether to slowly get used to the presence of his mind.

And slowly, the force that tried its hardest to stay in its circulation path started to move.

Small bits of Aether fell away from the pathway and dripped into his body.

Some of it fell onto his vital organs, some onto his muscles, and some onto his bones. The energy melted into his body, using his physical form as a vessel for its own operation.

Gio manually facilitated the process. Whenever a bit of Aether fell away, he followed it and ensured that it properly merged with his body. He had to move his mind from place to place, hastily correcting anything that needed to be corrected, but it was surprisingly easy.

It was as if Aether wanted to become a part of his body.

It wasn’t like this when he did it the first time.

Though, he didn’t have time to consider it in depth.

His mind was still entirely focused on the path. He helped Aether become a part of him, and subtly, the Aether Core in the middle of his torso started to glow. If one watched him from the outside, one could even see that subtle purple glow through his clothes.

"Huu..."

Gio took long, deep breaths.

Guiding the Aether was a process meant to prepare the body. He didn’t want all the Aether in his body to fall away from circulation. He only needed it to do so until his Aether Core became functional.

In other words, he had to do it until the flow of Aether in his body was actually something he could control.

And as the energy continued to melt into his body, he slowly felt that degree of control increasing.

Humans couldn’t expel Aether as pure energy like beasts and monsters could even after forming Aether Cores, but they could use it to boost all of their bodily functionalities, including their natural regenerative properties.

On top of that, Aether could also be used to enhance attacks made through Gene Sequences, which provided a similar effect to what beasts and monsters could do.

Gio could tell that if he tried to move that Aether now, it would respond to him. It would go into his blood and fill it with vitality if he asked it to.

He could move on to the next step.

He took his mind off of the Aether pathways and focused on something else, a place near where his Aether Core was formed.

The Housing Area where the Original Gene was also where one’s Gene Slots were located.

Gio saw his own slots as well as the strange white glowing helix strand that was the physical representation of the [Memory Book].

’Right there...’

The things existing in this area weren’t necessarily solid objects, but there was still a confined amount of space that they could exist within. The Housing Area was, after all, connected to the rest of the body physically to allow the use of Gene Sequences.

The amount of space varied depending on the amount of Gene Slots one had, but in Gio’s specific Housing Area, he noticed that there was a small gap.

It was just big enough to fit another Gene Slot, but there was nothing there. When he discovered this was also when he first started researching ways to utilize that space.

With his eyes still closed, he focused on that bit of space and sent out a call of action. He sent a command to the Aether that had just come under his control, telling it to gather in that empty space.

And it responded.

Slowly, gradually, Aether flowed from its pathways into the Housing Area. It swirled in a pattern of Gio’s creation, moving faster and faster until it almost started to solidify.

On the outside, his entire body glowed. If anyone were to enter the ninth floor at this time, they would believe someone had turned on a massive flashlight to blind anyone coming out of the elevator.

It was a bright enough light to shine through the open holes in the building where windows used to be, alerting the people on the streets below to the special scenario above.

But it was only light. It wasn’t enough to truly attract anyone.

If they had been able to sense the energy in the air, however...

The light coming from Gio’s body was only an after-effect of that energy. The surrounding Aether pulsed strongly and pushed in and out of his body, contacting his personal Aether supply and bolstering it.

The swirling Aether in the Housing Area grew, swelling until it filled the entire empty space as if it were a Gene Slot of its own.

If one wanted to speak on a technicality, Gio had formed the "Empty Sequence" he was seeking.

The only thing stopping him from accepting that as truth was the fact that it was still truly empty.

’Come.’

He didn’t wait for the Aether to solidify. When it had formed a relative space that looked close enough to the final result, he made that call.

The Guardian Runes were incomprehensible things. They went beyond everything else within the realm of understanding.

Gio knew.

He knew that even if the universe itself didn’t recognize him, they would.

The light surrounding him got brighter and brighter. Randomly, a strong wind swept through the ninth floor of the building, pushing through the random furniture and trash and throwing them off the ledges.

Sweat rolled down Gio’s brow as his concentration reached a new height. The Aether within him became more solid with every passing second.

Everything lined up. The stardust in his veins burned brightly as if to support his call.

They would be drawn in.

One by one, those runes would be returned to him.

That was a fact he could guarantee with his life on the line.

The gradual crescendo of energy reached a peak. Gio’s body looked like a second sun, and the winds around him were whipping furiously enough to cause genuine concern among the passerby below.’

Gio kept watch on the Housing. He kept watch on the Empty Sequence he created as sparks started to fly within. Pure white flashes of energy brushed into existence before disappearing.

Something was trying to appear.

Something was trying to answer Gio’s call.

"Come!"

He forced his will into the world, putting all of his mental strength and ambition into the call.

And then...

Voooom!

A "portal" opened before Gio.

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