Chapter 355: The Third Ascension Perk
The divine power injected into it by the Four Gods, combined with the unstable time flow of the warp, meant that Komus had endured an unknown number of years of warp corrosion. Its original material had undergone a certain change. The Men of Gold, who were walking the path of psychic ascension, also had a deep understanding of psionics and the warp.
Collins, at their side, seemed to see the doubts of the two and proactively approached them.
"Masters... Komus has been in a state of warp energy saturation for a long time and has undergone some changes. However, we have been continuously inspecting it, and its performance has even improved under this change."
Collins's words finally dispelled the doubts of the two. By checking the system, they confirmed that the power of the warp-energy-based engines and weapons within Komus had indeed increased significantly.
"House D'Kaeth will scout the path for you! We will retake your world under your leadership!"
"It seems you are already prepared. What about the others? I remember there were more than just the two of us who went into slumber."
"The other masters have already awakened. With the help of their own followers, they will simultaneously launch attacks on the different worlds of the usurpers! We have already scouted your target for you! It is an important industrial world in the hands of the usurpers. And most importantly, two of the usurpers' key leaders are currently on that planet! If we can kill them, the usurpers will surely fall into chaos! We will once again guide Komus, as we did in the past, and travel with you to that planet!"
Collins continuously incited the two.
"Who is the current ruler?"
"The nominal ruler is someone the current usurpers call... forgive me, my masters, I cannot speak his name directly. He can sense those who speak his name. But we call him the Anathema. As far as I know, he is also from your era. He is very powerful, but he can no longer walk the world. The actual ruler is a son he created with bio-technology. And besides his son, you also need to be wary of a person named Lucan."
Collins had already begun to point the two Men of Gold toward their targets.
"Someone from my era..."
Fletcher suddenly thought of a person, someone who could be described as incredibly mysterious even in the Golden Age. He was indeed one of the Men of Gold. An image immediately appeared in Fletcher's mind. He superimposed this image with the golden figure from his memory, and the two were almost identical. The arrogance in Fletcher's eyes was replaced by vigilance.
"Olivia, is it really him?"
"If this Navigator is not lying to us, then it is him."
The Emperor of that era had also been one of the Men of Gold. Even among them, he was one of the most outstanding and powerful. And thinking of what Collins had said, disgust appeared on both their faces.
"He clearly possesses such powerful psychic abilities and talent, yet he opposes the use of psionics. What a hypocrite!"
Thinking of the Emperor's actions in that period, the two of them felt that an empire ruled by him would indeed suppress psionics and send people to attack them. And Collins's words that he "could no longer walk the world" also brought them a sigh of relief.
"I can understand a son created by bio-technology. But what is the ability of this 'Lucan' you speak of?"
"He also possesses powerful psychic abilities. But we speculate that he has not only mastered psionics, but also many lost physical technologies and bio-technologies! The combat effectiveness of him and his army can be said to be among the strongest in the outside world. If you can kill him, you will surely inflict a heavy blow on the usurpers!"
"I understand... but I need to see the situation outside with my own eyes first..."
Fletcher was still very cautious. Collins's words were one thing, but no matter what, he wanted to confirm it for himself.
"As you wish, my master. I will arrange for a vessel!"
Fletcher turned to look at Olivia. "Olivia, I will go out first to check the current situation of the outside world. You stay on Komus and, using the still-operational equipment, try to repair some of the automata. These servants of ours are too weak."
"I will do my best, Fletcher."
Some of the equipment on Komus, with the help of the daemons attached to it, was still functional. Fletcher looked down on Collins and his men. Their psychic powers were too weak. And although his servants had undergone some genetic modification, in their eyes, they were still too inferior. If they were truly to wage war, they would still need these killing machines.
At this time, Lucan and Guilliman had also just learned that the three great houses had accepted their invitation, and that several of the weaker Navigator houses would also be attending. Lucan was not surprised by the proposal to set the meeting place on Scintilla instead of Agathos. At least Scintilla was an important world of the Imperium and was still within his jurisdiction as a Sector Lord. Lucan could understand the fear of the Navigator houses of coming to Agathos. If it were him, he would also be afraid. He would not choose to go to someone else's home base; that was just asking to be slaughtered. Meeting on Scintilla would at least give the Navigator houses a false sense of security. So, Lucan did not refuse.
After the meeting place on Scintilla was chosen, the relevant matters were also submitted to Rebecca. Ground security needed to be arranged, the accompanying troops needed to be selected, and advance agents and spies had already been sent to Scintilla to ensure there would be no ambushes or accidents.
As these agents began their intelligence gathering, reports of a recent increase in violent incidents on Scintilla were sent to Rebecca's desk. However, after seeing this intelligence, Rebecca, uncharacteristically, did not treat it as very important. This was because after Lucan had become the ruler of this sector, the Mongorte Dynasty had been carrying out reforms in the Calixis Sector. And reforms would inevitably have opponents. Overthrowing and changing the original system had stepped on too many people's toes. If not for the Imperial Regent Guilliman ordering the cooperation of the Imperial departments, the opposition would have been even stronger.
Lucan had always hoped to transform all worlds to be like Agathos, allowing the vast majority of people to live a life that could be called human. However, the worlds within the original territory of the Imperium were, in the end, not his own. Thousands of years of entrenched power meant that their rulers had the final say, and all the nobles were from the families themselves. The political ecology and the division of interests on these Imperial planets were much more complex than on the worlds in the Koronus Expanse, which were ruled by Rogue Traders.
Scintilla's population and planetary scale far exceeded that of the original Agathos. As the sector capital, the chain of interests on the planet involved almost every powerful faction in the entire Calixis Sector. So, even though they had made some progress in the transformation of Scintilla through military force, power, and countless resources, they were still a long way from truly finishing. Unless Lucan was ruthless enough to raise his butcher's knife and completely purge all opponents, but to do so would mean another war that would consume a great deal of time. A large number of innocents would also be killed. The relatively stable and positive development of the entire Imperium had ultimately made Lucan choose a slow and orderly reform.
But in this situation where the reforms were affecting the original interests of all parties, the opponents did not dare to have a direct conflict due to the disparity in strength, but the secret sabotage had never stopped. Incitement, destruction, and even more vicious assassinations occurred from time to time, but they were all ultimately crushed by the swift counter-attacks of the Dynasty. The overall situation was still under control. This led Rebecca to simply treat this as another counter-attack by the old forces.
Before officially setting out, Lucan still had one more thing to do.
Through the existence of the trading system and the internet platform, Lucan's monthly Unity income had begun to skyrocket. The benefits of being attached to him were simply too great. Whether they were truly loyal to the Mongorte Dynasty or not, as long as they supported its existence, they could be converted into Unity. It was just like in the game, where consumer goods could be converted into Unity. If he were to convert the Dynasty's existing resources into consumer goods, his stockpiles would be overflowing.
After saving the Cryptus System, the tens of billions of people there also regarded the Mongorte Dynasty as their savior, which had also brought Lucan a large amount of Unity in the short term. And with the Unity accumulated over the past two years, he had now reached the level where he could unlock his third Ascension Perk.
Opening the system, Lucan checked the ascension interface. After unlocking the previous two perks, the four main paths—Genetic Resequencing, The Flesh is Weak, Synthetic Evolution, and Mind Over Matter—were now all displayed as selectable. Lucan had long since decided which ascension path to take: Genetic Ascension.
Of the four, this was the only one that could, while preserving the human identity, also eliminate humanity's own negative traits and add more useful ones as needed.
The only thing that made him hesitate was the unlock order. Should he first choose the perk to enhance his race's abilities, or should he directly select the "Become the Crisis" perk and start draining the warp with the Aetherophasic Engine? After all, the latter could truly destroy the warp.
However, thinking of the massive amount of Dark Matter needed to upgrade the Aetherophasic Engine, which required the destruction of stars, Lucan still chose to temporarily shelve it. Now was the time to pursue and strengthen himself. Destroying stars to obtain Dark Matter was not a wise move. A single star was equal to the living space of an entire system. To destroy it was to reduce the resources he could obtain and the land he could inhabit. And most importantly, his technological level had not yet reached the point where he could be an enemy of the entire galaxy.
Especially the Necrons. Those creatures would absolutely not sit by and watch him do this. His actions of destroying stars would be immediately displayed in the absurd artifact in the hands of the Necrons: the Celestial Orrery.
The Celestial Orrery was a device located in the center of the Necron dynasty's crownworld, Thanatos. It was considered one of the greatest treasures in the galaxy. It was built by the artisans of the Oruscar Dynasty before the War in Heaven, and its artistic value alone was priceless. The machine was composed of holograms and Necrodermis. On it were various suspended and glowing tiny points of light, which represented every star in the galaxy. These stars were all stored in a complex recording matrix, which also contained the position of every star in the universe.
Any action that extinguished one of these points of light would cause its corresponding physical counterpart to go supernova thousands of years ahead of schedule, destroying all the surrounding planets. The Necrons of the Thanatos Dynasty saw themselves as the gardeners of this world. Normally, they would absolutely not interfere in any disputes in the galaxy. At most, they would only conduct some micro-adjustments to maintain a certain special balance in this world. But if Lucan were to destroy stars on a large scale to obtain Dark Matter and upgrade his engine, then they would absolutely unite with other Necrons to intervene.
And the Celestial Orrery could also see the flow of warp energy in the world. Once he activated the Aetherophasic Engine, the powerful suction it produced would surely be captured by it. At that time, no matter where Lucan hid the engine, it would be useless. Even if he placed it next to Aiur and Char, it would surely be besieged without regard for the cost. Then, the Aetherophasic Engine would be lost, and the Synaptic Lathe would also be destroyed.
And the ones who would make a move would not just be the Necrons. The Chaos Gods would also act. Who knows, the Orks from other places might even rush over because of this unprecedented Great WAAAGH!. Lucan needed to continue to improve his technology, to thoroughly strengthen the combat effectiveness of the humans of this world, only then would he have the confidence to fight against all the other races of this world.
And his previous conversation with the Emperor had also let him know that his enemies were not just the obvious ones. He had said that the Men of Gold and the Men of Iron had not all been exterminated. Lucan knew that there were still a few scattered Men of Iron secretly hiding in the human Imperium. But he had no clue about the Men of Gold. The existence of these two always left a shadow in his heart. He was not afraid of the enemies in the open; he was afraid of the ones who were secretly hiding in the dark.
The Navigator problem had not yet been completely solved, and the Imperium had not yet been completely integrated. Now was not the time to start an all-out war.
In the end, Lucan still chose Genetic Resequencing.
When he confirmed the loading of this perk, humanity truly began to walk the path of genetic ascension.
[Select Ascension Perk: Engineered Evolution?]
Lucan pressed confirm.
[You have now mastered evolution: we finally no longer have to worry about the life and death of our species. The days of humanity being dominated by nature, of genetic evolution being left to fate, are finally over. By mastering advanced genetic modification technology, we can guarantee a bright future for our race!]
Looking at the prompt, Lucan couldn't help but get excited.
The power of Engineered Evolution was not just about bringing some recovery and combat power to a few people like the Blood Ravens. It could also bring great enhancements to humanity in terms of survivability, adaptability, and work ability. For example, he could add traits to the genes of the Tech-priests and technicians responsible for research, such as "Natural Physicist," "Natural Biologist," "Natural Engineer," and "Ingenious."
These traits could greatly increase the research points produced by research positions, further increasing the speed of research and development, and at the same time, bring them more powerful manufacturing and hands-on abilities. Simply put, it was to raise the research ability of all these researchers by one or two levels and make them all-round talents in both R&D and manufacturing.