Path to Transcendence

Chapter 37: Kidnapper

Julius had always wondered why the rift literally sucked him in. He had never heard about rifts kidnapping people to clear them. They usually were voluntary, until it got past the point and the rift overflowed. Most of the time, there were adventurers or other groups that focused on keeping rifts at healthy levels because they would be able to constantly collect the cores of the main monsters of the rift once they respawned. Once it overflowed, the rift would collapse and no longer be usable. However, Julius didn’t get a choice.

His potential kidnapper didn’t answer right away. He took a moment to look at Julius before he spoke. “The only way I could safely transport you to this space was if you were leaving a rift and transferring back to your dimension,” the man flung his arm in the air, waving off Julius’s concern away. “It is all very complicated and not worth explaining to you at your current tier.”

“So you kidnapped me,” Julius pressed, still angry about it.

“I needed to find out what happened,” The man explained.

“That’s still kidnapping,” Julius retorted before he could catch himself, forgetting that he was talking to someone closer to a god than Julius was to him.

The man didn’t respond and just stared at Julius with an intense gaze. It dragged on for long enough that Julius started to become anxious, worried that he might have offended this powerful figure. He was about to speak up and apologize for his rudeness when the man broke his silence with a sigh.

“You’re right I did, I was wrong for doing so.”

Julius choked on his words, he was just about to apologize himself but ended up hearing the man take accountability for his actions. It felt weird because he expected someone as powerful as this man obviously was, would consider it beneath themselves to admit fault to a mere Tier 1. Julius’s respect for the unknown man went up a few notches.

“Oh, um… thanks.” Julius couldn’t think of anything else to say.

Neither spoke and another long awkward silence ensued. Finally, Julius broke it and asked the man another question.

“So what now? Will I go back to the forest?”

The man nodded. “Yes, the portal should take you right back where you entered.”

“There isn’t a way to go somewhere else?” Julius questioned with a hopeful look on his face.

“It’s possible.”

Julius got excited hearing that. He was not looking forward to trying to find his way out of the Endless Forest when he left the rift. He didn’t even really know if he was in the Endless Forest, it was just the most likely location. So he had to ask.

“Could you send me to a location of my choosing?”

Julius saw the man take a moment to think about his request. He really hoped he would help him out. After what seemed like an eternity, the man answered.

“Where did you want to go?”

Julius hadn’t gotten that far. He was just hoping that the man would say yes, but he didn’t have any idea of where he would go if the man said yes. He took a moment to think about it. The first place that popped into his head was Celestia. But he quickly ruled that out. If House Hyperius had betrayed his uncle, then going to Celestia, where they held the most influence would not be a good idea.

His next thought was going to the capital, Luminous. He would be able to blend into the large population but still could hire some independent contractors to find out what happened to Lukas and Edwin. The only issue was that Duke Greyson undoubtedly had agents within the capital. Julius did not think it was likely that Duke Greyson was searching for him, he didn’t even know if his identity was shared amongst others yet. Julius had been quite isolated and not many knew of his existence outside of House Hyperius. But if word got out that a young boy with Juliusʼs features was snooping around and investigating what happened at the manor, anyone could put two and two together.

The last place he thought of was Heston. Heston was not only the city where Goldencrest Academy was located, but it was also far away from Duke Greyson’s domain. Another reason why he thought it might be a good idea, was that both Lukas and Edwin knew that Julius had been planning to go to Goldencrest if he got the chance, so if they were alive it was reasonable for them to search for Julius there.

Julius wasn’t worried about his affinities that much, there was a practical exam he could take that might gain him acceptance. It was notoriously difficult, but he was brimming with confidence after this rift. He couldn’t imagine many Tier 1’s could match him.

However, another important reason was that Julius was in dire need of an education. There was too much he didn’t know about this world still. He wanted to find out what happened with Lukas and Edwin, but he understood he was way too weak to do anything at the moment. He would need to get stronger before he could take revenge on Samuel and the others. That would mean he would need to learn how to advance properly and gain more experience.

Julius made up his mind.

“Can you take me to Heston?”

The man didn’t respond to Julius, but Julius saw the man close his eyes and concentrate on something. Then he opened his eyes and told Julius, “I can’t take you directly into the city, I would shatter too many wards doing so, but I can send you just outside of the city if that’s okay.”

Honestly, it was better than Julius had expected. “That would be wonderful!”

The man didn’t waste any time. In a blink, a new portal had appeared in front of Julius. It was still just as beautiful as the others he had seen. Julius had so many other questions he wanted to ask. But decided on his most important one.

“Is there a way for you to know if my uncle or Edwin made it out okay?” Julius grimaced as he asked it, one part of him aware of how dumb it was to presume that this man knew who they were and the other part was scared to hear the answer.

The man shook his head sympathetically, “No more questions, you have been here too long as is. It is time for you to leave.”

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Julius noted that the man didn’t say it was impossible but he didn’t try to argue with the man, he was already doing a lot for Julius and he didn’t want to come off as greedy or offend him. He just nodded his head in acceptance, disappointed but telling himself that he would just need to find the answers himself.

Before Julius went through he made sure to genuinely thank the man for his help. He also had one last thing to wanted to know. He turned back toward the man, “I never got your name.”

For a second Julius didn’t think he was going to give him it. But then Julius got the sense that the man was smiling underneath his obscurement.

“It’s Jasper”

POV Jasper

“Jasper” watched as Julius was sucked into the portal taking him to Heston. Truthfully, he wished the interaction had gone differently. It wasn’t the child’s fault, Julius was by all means a pleasant boy. After observing Julius in the rift, Jasper could confidently say that Julius was a kind-hearted kid, just a little… eccentric.

Jasper didn’t like lying to people, he had thought that once he became strong enough he no longer needed to lie, but every time he did, he always seemed to find a way to justify it. He had lied to Julius many times during their discussion, and he still believed that it was for good reason. Too much information right now would only create more potential problems for Julius in the future.

He still felt bad though. Jasper wasn’t even his real name, it was just a name he had taken a liking to over the centuries whenever he wanted to avoid using his real name. Although he didn’t reveal his real name, Jasper still felt obliged to share something, which was why he chose to share the name, Jasper with Julius.

At the same time, the conversation he had with the young boy was a welcome change of pace. Jasper hadn’t been talked to so casually in decades by anyone other than his closest friends. But he didn’t mind that, it was quite nice after so dealing with so many asskissers who schemed and planned every word they said to him.

Jasper at least hadn’t been lying when he told Julius he had found him between the fabrics of space. However, what he didn’t mention was that Julius would have been perfectly fine even if he had done nothing. Julius would have maybe floated around until he died of old age, but he was in no danger from the chaotic ripples of space.

That was why Jasper had been so interested in the first place. Someone, finding a way to break out of the spatial barrier containing their dimension was not unheard of, it was rare but happened on occasion. But for someone to be completely unaffected by the violent waves of space spoke of several things. You either had to be a powerful entity like Jasper himself, which was obviously not the case for the boy. Or you needed to fulfill some conditions. One of which was a superior affinity for space, another was that their soul must have already developed a resistance to it via exposure, and there were only a very few ways for that to happen.

Jasper had a hard time believing that a normal Tier 1 had either. So he tried to peek inside of Julius’s mind. And much to his surprise, he found himself unable to. There was a block placed around his mind that didn’t allow Jasper to gain access to even a crumb. It was unfathomable, the only way was that someone more powerful than Jasper had given Julius that protection and was for the purpose of hiding something.

All of that, on top of Julius’s outrageous mana capacity and the size of his soul for his age and tier, had led Jasper to believe that someone very powerful was playing a very dangerous game. Soul reincarnation was taboo for a good reason.

Jasper had lied to Julius when he was asked if he placed him in that forest by random chance and the reason why Jasper had kidnapped him. Jasper said it was because he wanted to know how Julius got lost in between the spatial boundaries, but that was also a lie. Jasper placed Julius there on purpose and then led him directly to that rift as a sort of test. He wanted to see what kind of person Julius was and if needed, kill him. Jasper had found out that life-or-death situations usually brought out a person’s true nature.

There had been reincarnations in the past that have brought unspeakable destruction, it was why soul reincarnation was heavily frowned upon. However, Jasper was worried that this unknown entity was watching over Julius, so to avoid their attention, he created a rift that was completely closed off from anyone except himself.

Tier 3 was the lowest rift he could create with such strict parameters like forced completion and absolute isolation. A Tier 1 or 2 rift would not have been able to handle the complexities that Jasper required. That was why he had chosen trolls as the monsters. Trolls were Tier 3 due to their extreme regeneration powers but lacked in many other aspects as a result. Jasper thought that Julius with his large mana capacity and firepower would have a relatively good chance of clearing it.

Afterward, Jasper would bring Julius into this space and either execute him if he deemed it necessary or let him live. Jasper had also lied when he said, he could only bring Julius into the void after he cleared a rift. He could have done it anytime he pleased. It was just that he didn’t want whoever was watching him to know. He would rather they believe that Julius had died within a rift.

Unfortunately, he was wrong about Julius having a good chance of clearing the rift. The boy was quite talented when it came to fighting, not the best Jasper had seen, not even close, but he had a phenomenal work ethic that would take him much further than talent ever could. However, the boy was an idiot with a death wish. Jasper lost count of how many times he watched Julius purposefully make things harder on himself for idiotic reasons and then almost die because of it.

Who in their right mind, decides to fight a troll barehanded at Tier 1? Close range is the most dangerous place to fight a troll, but Julius did it anyway. The worst part is that it happened over and over, time and time again. Julius would purposefully handicap himself when he was in a rift two tiers above him. Then he would get rewarded as his skills ranked up from the danger.

Sometimes, it wasn’t even for skill gains, just for enjoyment or because it was on a whim. Like that camp attack. After seeing Julius handle the late-night camp ambush, Jasper didn’t even want to waste his time killing Julius anymore even if he turned out to be a complete psychopathic monster. It was just a matter of time before Julius did it himself.

With that being said, Jasper had to admit that Julius’s methods, which didn’t make any sense to him, did show results.

Not only did Julius have an array of skills far beyond what Tier 1 should be capable of, but he also got an aura skill while in Tier 1. It was still very weak but with Julius’s work ethic and above-average soul, it wouldn’t be too long until it was a powerful skill as it ranked up.

Julius also gained a healing skill after experimenting on a troll for a few hours. It was an incredible feat that was made possible because Julius didn’t have a mana manipulation skill, which allowed him certain privileges.

Who in their right mind doesn’t have a mana manipulation skill?

Sure, you could use mana in more creative applications, such as copying a skill, but in a day and age where most skills can be taught at any school of magic, it was quite pointless. There were too many benefits of the skill and too many downsides of not having it. It was frustrating to see a person like Julius go about advancing this way, and even more frustrating to see him succeed.

The boy even managed to evolve that healing skill into one that contained a fragmented Concept of Phoenix. Jasper knew countless pacifist healers who would wince at killing a cockroach. Most of them would without hesitation, slaughter thousands to gain a concept of Phoenix.

Jasper took a deep breath, not that he needed oxygen anymore. Julius and this whole situation was an abnormality, someone was playing dangerous games and Jasper didn’t appreciate it. He almost hoped that Julius had done something that would justify Jasper executing him, it would’ve been simpler in the end. It was only his morals which he had proudly kept intact for centuries that prevented him from doing so.

Ultimately, he chose to let Julius live and even sent him to Heston as an apology, because he still felt guilty about almost killing the kid due to his scheme. For someone who disliked scheming as much as Jasper, he found himself doing it more and more as the years passed and he didn’t like it.

Jasper didn’t think Julius would turn into a raving psychopath anytime soon, but Jasper would keep an eye on him just in case.