Genetic Ascension novel Chapter 65

Chapter 65 Overprotective

"Cass, we need to talk," Olivia followed in after Cassarae, the two entering the shabby shack at the center of the village.

Cassarae took a seat at the head of her desk, a tight frown on her face. Clearly, the coming battle was weighing heavily on her mind, and Olivia's sudden sternness wasn't really to her liking either.

She sighed. "Lay it on me."

"Well, it's not all bad news. There is some good news."

Olivia passed over a ring.

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[Simple Storage Ring (F-)]

[Contains hidden space accessible by the mind. Size is dependent on Aether Units invested with a limit of 10 by 10 by 10 meters]

[Aether Units: 20]

[Scale: 10 centimeters]

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Such a large storage device sounded great, but it was unfortunately an F- treasure for a reason. The scalability was terrible.

An Aether Unit was the equivalent amount of Aether someone with 10 Intelligence would have. Meaning, someone with 10 Intelligence would have to drain all the Aether they had just to increase this ticker by one.

This was fine enough, but the real trouble came in what each unit meant.

A single Aether Unit was worth about an additional ten centimeters. So Sylas, for example, would have to drain himself 20 times just to gain a two-by-two-by-two-meter storage space.

The worst part was that the invested units were not permanent, as they would dissipate over time. After a day, a ring of this quality could lose about 20% of its size, and that was regardless of how much you invested. Due to that, the two women were actually reluctant to fill it past 20 Aether Units even if they could.

In this world, Aether was probably the most valuable resource. They couldn't afford to drain themselves everyday just out of convenience.

Not everyone had Maddened Meditation to quickly replenish themselves, and even then, Sylas was only able to replenish his Aether so quickly precisely because his Intelligence was so low in the first place.

"These are… beasts?" Cassarae's brows jumped. "They don't have the usual signs of wear and tear. They're perfect. How…" Cassarae smiled bitterly. "It was Sylas, wasn't it?"

Olivia pouted. "You took all the fun out of it. Couldn't I have had a breakthrough or something? Do you really have so little faith in me?"

"You didn't—"

"Stop, I already know what you're thinking. I paid him."

Cassarae's eyes narrowed. "How much?"

Olivia coughed. "Anyway, the bad news. I think we have to draw some lines in the sand. I understand if you might have some more… leniency toward Sylas than most others, but today he basically made this choice for us."