Path to Transcendence

Chapter 18: Curiosity Killed the Cat

It was an interesting-sounding skill. Based on the information he received after he evolved the skill, it seemed like it was a skill that utilized [Brutal Strike] and [Combat Trance] to augment his close combat ability. It was his second rare skill and if [Spatial Perception] was any indicator, it was going to be a very useful skill.

However, as much as he wanted to at the moment, Julius couldn’t just experiment with his new skill. He had to find another location for the night. The scent of blood would attract who knows what. Furthermore, changing locations was easier than moving the entire carcass. After a little while, he found a spot a couple of miles away that seemed safe. It was a small alcove between the creek and some rocks. It was much more hidden than his last camp.

Julius also brought with him the rabbit. It was still dirty but he managed to remove most of the dirt from it. Plus, he was still really hungry and a little grime wasn’t going to get in the way of it.

He gave it another once over before he created a small flame to heat it and kill any bacteria that might be on it. Once it was nice and charred again, he bit into it.

It was gritty and slightly earthy from the dirt marinating its surface. Sadly, it wasn’t the most pleasant of meals, especially compared to how it was before he got attacked, but it was still the first thing he ate today. Julius polished off the rabbit in quick order and then got ready for bed.

The rest of the night was uneventful, except for the occasional distant loud roars and the sound of trees falling that woke him up periodically.

When he woke up he went to the creek and washed himself up. He thought about going back to check on the corpse but was conflicted. On one hand, he was curious as to what that thing looked like in the daylight but also thought there might be other predators attracted to it. The mana core inside of it would be valuable normally, but with him being in the middle of nowhere it didn’t hold much value unless he found civilization.

On second thought, he didn’t have any money on him. Nor did he have anything of value to trade for. Now that he was thinking about it, that core would be able to pay for information or supplies if he found a town.

A couple miles later he arrived at his old campsite. The corpse was still where he left it much to his surprise. He had really thought the corpse would have been eaten by now, but it was pristine. Not even scavengers had touched it. It was very odd and made him wary.

Quietly checking the surroundings, Julius stooped down and inspected the monster closer. He was correct in assuming it was similar to a wolf. Its features were distinctly canine. It had a beautiful coat of pure black that absorbed the light and was soft to the touch. Julius would estimate it to measure around six feet long from head to tail. The massive claws are what grabbed his attention.

The claws were closer to small swords. He was very fortunate he wasn’t sliced by those things, it would not have taken much for them to bisect him.

Julius bent down and searched for the monsterʼs mana core. The location was slightly different depending on the species, but it typically was found in the chest or head of most monsters.

Monster cores were used in a variety of ways. The most common is ground down to make pure essence, which could be used to make items that increase skill progression and growth toward the next tier.

Since Julius was a Tier 1 now, he needed to work towards his advancement to Tier 2. Tier 1 was about creating a mana core, but Tier 2 was about becoming one with that mana. This process would physically enhance individuals past mortal limits and once they were completely infused with their mana, they would undergo an evolution.

Their bodies will adapt and change to better reflect their core’s mana. For example, those with earth affinities will often have bodies that are more robust and rigid. Also, those with water affinities become more flexible and adaptable.

It was commonly seen by wealthy families to use cores with the same affinities to create potions or supplements that increased their advancement. With that being said, it was known that those who used cores as a way to progress were on average, weaker than their peers. Additionally, those who choose to go this route become bottlenecked at the next tiers. Therefore, this method is used for people who are non-combatants and those with crafting professions.

Julius still didn’t have a knife so that forced him to take a step back and use a [Firebolt] to open the chest cavity more. Expectedly, it was a gruesome scene, blood and internal organs were scattered about. Luckily, due to it being at least a Tier 2, the mana had preserved its flesh still and it wasn’t starting to putrify. Unluckily, he still needed to jam his arm into its disgusting chest.

After a bit of rummaging, he finally found what he was looking for. It was a small marble-sized sphere that contained pure air affinity essence. Julius did have a medium air affinity, but he didn’t choose to use any air mana in his core and had no other plans to do so.

I already have enough on my plate, no need to get greedy, he told himself.

At the last moment, he also ended up removing the claws from the monster. They weren’t exactly a knife, but they would do until he found or bought one himself. Then he left the scene, one core, and several claws richer.

Julius made his way back to his second camp and decided to make himself a quick breakfast before he headed out. He was still pretty hungry and could also use another bath since he was covered in blood. He found another rabbit and dispatched it in the same manner as before. This time he was able to enjoy it and wasn’t interrupted by anything that was trying to eat him.

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It wasn’t until several more hours of walking that Julius finally saw a change in scenery. The forest ahead had a massive clearing. Julius walked out of the forest and into the open field. About a few hundred paces later, he saw a small dip in the grass up ahead and got closer.

What he saw astonished him. In front of him was a ginormous bowl, that looked like a crater you would see from a meteor or like he had seen in dormant volcanos. The inside of the hole was completely made up of dark-colored rock and slate. He would estimate the bowl was about a few hundred feet deep and at the bottom of it was a glowing light emanating a soft blue hue.

Julius was naturally curious and decided to work his way down the slightly steep incline to get a closer look. He took his time climbing down and was careful where he stepped, some pieces of rock were loose and he could easily fall if he wasn’t paying attention.

Once he got close to the bottom, he could see what was the source of the blue light. It was a swirling mass of energy, radiating a warm heat from its base.

Julius was curious about what this object was and was very tempted to touch it but he knew it would be a stupid idea. However, something kept trying to convince him to get closer. It was like a small voice in the back of his head that was telling him to touch it. Feeling something was off about the situation, Julius immediately tried to back off and get as far away from it. Suddenly the energy lashed out with small tendrils and grasped him by the arms.

Julius quickly attempted to pull away as hard as he could, but it was fruitless. Even with kinetic mana being discharged from his limbs, he wasn’t able to get free. It had him in a vice grip and was pulling him closer to its center. He tried everything he could think of to escape but it was pointless, it inevitably pulled him in.

Julius landed on his face, feeling a grassy surface beneath him, he got up and scanned around him. What just happened? One moment he was being sucked into the glowing blue sphere and the next he was here on some sort of grassy plain. Unexpectantly, he received a notification.

You have entered a Rift. Alert! Rift is reaching the overflow stage. You will not be able to leave until the Rift is cleared.

Rift? That blue thing was a rift? I never thought rifts could forcibly bring in people, Julius thought.

Rifts were created by the uninterrupted accumulation of mana, converging onto a location over a long period of time, which was why they were usually found in the wilderness or far away from large populations. Rifts were pocket dimensions that contained monsters and resources. It was the main responsibility of the Adventurer’s Guild to find and clear as many rifts as they could. Rifts were responsible for monster floods, which are caused when rifts aren’t regularly cleared in a specific timeframe. This can cause mana to start leaking out of the rifts and creating an escape point for the monsters contained.

Monster floods happen quite frequently, and it was the only time when everybody regardless of political affiliations or animosity put it aside, all to combat the horde of monsters.

Julius had never heard of rifts sucking people in like it did with him. It also appeared that he wouldn’t be able to leave until he cleared the rift. That was going to be the big problem. Rifts were sometimes maintained for their useful resources and for training young practitioners. However, you would be able to leave whenever it got too dangerous.

I don’t think that is going to be an option for me. Me and my stupid curiosity. I could have walked away without investigating, but no I wanted to see what the ominous blue light was, Julius mentally berated himself.

Julius didn’t even know the Tier or details of the rift. The Adventurer’s Guild had a standardized procedure to analyze rifts to see what Tier they were and how dangerous amongst that Tier they estimated it.

For all he knew, this was a Tier 5 A-rank rift. Unlikely, but still, Julius had no idea. On the bright side, he hasn’t been attacked by any monsters yet and he couldn’t sense any in his immediate vicinity.

Nevertheless, it was still a very dangerous situation he found himself in. He needed to create some sort of plan or at least prioritize something like gathering as much information as he could before he got himself into any confrontations. If this rift was anything Tier 2 or above, which it most likely was, Julius would need to use everything he had at his disposal.

First, he took a look at his status to get an idea of his own condition.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 1

Skills:

[Spatial Perception lvl 18] (Rare)[Savage Dance lvl 1] (Rare)[Thermal Compression lvl 3] (Uncommon)[Firebolt lvl 2] (Uncommon)[Kinetic Release lvl 4][Heal lvl 1]
Julius was happy with his current skills, especially considering he was still Tier 1. However, he wanted to create a defensive skill on top of improving his healing skill. One would help him avoid taking damage and the other would help him recover from damage. He was already expecting that he would be in this rift for a good while, as such having these types of skills would save his life at several moments.

He already had some ideas for both of them. For the defensive skill he had thought that instead of releasing kinetic energy, he would absorb it. He would effectively, nullify the impact of an attack from an opponent. That being said, he didn’t think that would cancel out elemental effects such as heat.

Wait… or could I? Fire or rather heat is created by the intense movement of the molecules. So when I burn something, I should be hypothetically generating kinetic energy from the movement of the molecules. That could mean by removing kinetic energy I could remove heat, Julius realized after thinking about it.

That was important because while Julius could control fire that occurred naturally as well as he did with natural kinetic energy, controlling fire created by another person was much more difficult. The addition of willpower came into play and taking control of someone else’s fire would require him to subvert their will before he could steal their flames.

However, if he was able to steal or absorb the kinetic energy of the fire itself, that might work. It was an interesting theory that he would have to try when he met another fire user in the future. Moreover, a present application he could use this idea for would be to add kinetic energy to [Firebolt].

If he increased the movement of the molecules of the fire, theoretically it should increase the heat being produced. Julius was already condensing it but what would happen if he made the fire itself hotter? Would it be an additive effect or a multiplicative effect?

He knew he shouldn’t be this excited and should be more worried about what his plans were, instead of theorizing about skills considering his dire circumstances, but he truly loved magic and once ideas like this started he couldn’t stop them or himself. He became obsessed and there wasn’t anything else that mattered in these moments. It was like all his worries disappeared for a little bit.