POE 2 Mercenery/Gemling Legionnia Adaptive Capability Problem

I have 172 strength and 70 dex the gem I am trying to level up is Gas Grenade it is level 14 and requires 80 strength and 80 dex It is greyed out and the dex is in red. I am a Mercenary/Gemling Legionnia using the ascendency passive Adaptive Capability.

It is fine if I want to create a new Gas Grenade skill at level 15 and use it but this makes all the extra links I used and gem quality wasted and will have to do it every time I want to increase the level of the skill.

please look into this as it is frustrating and wasting currency many thanks.