Path to Transcendence

Chapter 45: Days Leading Up

Julius spent another couple of hours playing around with his new skill and checked his notifications before he went back inside.

[Arcane Construct lvl 10 -> lvl 11]

[Pure Compression lvl 11 -> lvl 12]

[Fighter’s Will lvl 11 -> lvl 13]

[Mana Manipulation lvl 1 -> lvl 6]

[Arcane Construct] and [Pure Compression] had leveled up surprisingly, but so had [Fighter’s Will]. It was almost at level 15 and would evolve pretty soon. But he wanted to figure out a way to enhance his body using aura before he chose to evolve it. He hoped that if he did that he might get an option that revolved around that aspect.

[Mana Manipulation] was already over half the way there until it ranked up to uncommon. Orus was correct in thinking that the skill would increase very fast due to his already proficient control of mana.

It was early but Julius stopped at the kitchen to grab something to eat. He saw Rae there along with some other staff. They were preparing breakfast for the guards. It wasn’t quite ready yet so Julius decided to help out the staff while he waited. Rae tried to prevent him from helping and told him to just relax and enjoy a hot chocolate but after a long argument, he was able to convince her that he enjoyed cooking.

That was why he was currently taking a tray of freshly baked bread out of the oven. The smell hit Julius and he almost salivated all over the bread. As he was helping out he heard a soft ding ring throughout the kitchen and looked at the clock that it came from. It had just turned six and was time for the guards to make their way down for breakfast. Some didn’t have morning duty, but most still came down early to get at least a snack before training or maybe they were just hungry.

Julius grabbed himself a nice plate of eggs, potatoes, bread, and sausage, before tucking in and eating. He was almost halfway done when he saw people start flooding in, grabbing plates or for some just a cup of coffee.

He saw Orus walking toward him with nothing more than a simple plate of eggs and toast. Orus must’ve seen Julius looking at his plate and said, “I don’t like to eat too much before I train.”

That was understandable, no need to stuff yourself before you planned to push yourself, it might just be more to clean up later if you threw up.

“So how did your first night go?” Orus asked him.

“It was productive, I got [Mana Manipulation] a couple of hours ago,” Julius answered him through a mouthful of potatoes.

“A couple of hours ago? Were you too excited to sleep or something?” Orus asked.

“Yeah, something like that,” Julius didn’t mind sharing that his skill allowed him to not sleep much, but he thought they might try to stop him from training all night long if they knew. Declan, he suspected would forcibly tie him down to a bed.

After eating breakfast and some small talk with Orus, Julius found himself standing beside Orus in the courtyard along with many other guards. He had joined them for their daily training, he wanted to see their regime and learn it before he left for the academy. He got some looks from the other guards but didn’t pay them much attention. He was there to train, nothing else.

It was pretty standard. They started with some stretching and then an intense run. Julius didn’t use any mana for this, using his pure body to do so. Still, he couldn’t believe how light his body felt thoughout. He was running as fast as an Olympic sprinter with ease.

After the run, the guards split up into groups. Some went to lift weights, some practiced on some agility courses they had set up, and others sparred or trained with weapons. Julius followed Orus to the sparring area, where Orus taught some basic sword fighting to Julius. He was surprised that Julius had no experience with blades.

Julius was used to fighting with his hands, but he realized it might be worth it to learn how to use a weapon. Kinetic energy was easier for him to use with his bare hands, but if he wanted to create constructs to fight up close, something with a little more reach might be useful down the line.

Julius was able to pick up the basics pretty quickly. He already had a pretty solid foundation with his unarmed fighting so his footwork was already good. The only thing that was hard to get used to was using a weapon to create space between him and his opponent. Julius was used to staying within arms reach, but sword fighting was not like that. It was a game of distance control and anticipation. [Spatial Perception] helped a lot with that aspect.

Julius found Orus to be a wonderful teacher. He was patient but strict enough that he pushed Julius to do his best. He also was able to teach Julius in a way where Julius could feel the specific way he needed to move.

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He wondered if he even needed to go to Goldencrest or if he could learn from Orus. He even jokingly mentioned this to Orus, who laughed, “You will be able to find good teachers for certain disciplines anywhere, but there are not many places that have the best teachers for every discipline in one place. Not to mention the facilities are what you should be looking forward to.”

Orus was right on that part. Goldencrest had countless classes ranging from botany to spear lessons. They also had simulated combat arenas fueled by runic inscriptions. They only worked up to certain tiers but were one of the most important inventions in the world. They allowed young students to experience fighting without the risk of death.

As Julius and Orus were training, Julius was only using about half of what he could use for [Kinetic Augmentation], he wanted to get used to fighting at this speed before the exam. However, the longer they sparred the more Julius realized how inefficient his kinetic usage was. It wasn’t that it was being wasted, he was still recycling most of it, but he felt like he should be getting a larger increase in strength for how much mana was going through him.

Julius slowly got the hang of it. He realized that he was being too gentle with his kinetic energy. He had been gently flowing it through his body, he forgot that’s not how kinetic energy liked to be used. Explosiveness and dynamic is how he would describe it.

So although he still used the same amount of mana, he made sure to increase the pace of how it cycled through his body. He could feel the effects immediately and so did Orus if the smile on his face said anything. Julius’s strikes were sharper and carried more force behind them. Even with a wooden sword the difference was clear.

After a couple of hours of training, Orus had to leave, he had a patrol and then some paperwork afterward. Julius hadn’t seen Declan yet today, but he also lived in another city district with his family. Orus mentioned that Declan had a ten-year-old daughter and he liked to spend his meals with his family. Julius might see him once he finishes his duties, but as a vice-captain, Declan is quite busy.

Orus had been very informative, he told Julius about Heston and how it was structured. There were ten districts, each had a captain assigned to each territory and Declan was the vice-captain for District 7. Julius hadn’t seen or heard about the captain, but he didn’t care that much.

On the plus side, he also ranked up [Kinetic Augmentation] while sparring with Orus.

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 9 -> lvl 10]

Julius spent the rest of the day walking around District 7, exploring while also trying to cover his arm with aura. He had been able to finally cover his fingers with aura, vastly increasing their strength but now wanted to do the same for his arm. Then eventually a whole body enhancement with aura.

When he got bored, he would switch to using [Mana Manipulation]. The skill had gotten better even with a few levels and was still improving at a rapid rate.

[Mana Manipulation lvl 6 -> lvl 7]

He made sure to try more food stalls that he came across. Some weren’t that great but there were some amazing finds. He even found a stall that sold something that was similar to a New York-style pizza. The man was really nice and appreciated Julius’s enthusiasm so much that he gave him an extra free slice when he left.

Heston was a beautiful city, there were still spots that Julius could tell were the seedier parts of the city but as long as you stayed away from those it was a wonderful city. There was such diversity here as well. He had heard about humanoid species existing but he hadn’t experienced it first hand. But seeing some roaming around was amazing to see. Many of them looked almost identical to a normal human with the exception of a few features.

The most common were beastkin and half-elves. Julius had bought a skewer from a stall owned by a beastkin, she looked just like a human just with eyes similar to a cat, deep yellow and quite beautiful if he was being honest.

He saw another beastkin with dark brown skin and large horns extending from his forehead walking down the street as well. Half-elves were harder to identify, they had sharper ears and more delicate features but all were very pretty. Half-elves were much more common in human-controlled territories like the Empire. Most of the pure elves were living within Alelion, a country far to the west of Corvus and situated between the Alliance of Morning Sun. It was on the other side of the continent.

The reason why most half-elves did not live in Alelion is that half-elves have a lower life expectancy compared to pure elves, and experiencing discrimination was common in Alelion for anyone not a pure elf. It was quite unfortunate but luckily many other countries welcomed half-elves with open arms.

Julius found himself thinking about half-elves because he had just walked into a store with a half-elf standing behind the counter. It was an alchemy shop that sold potions and other salves for various uses. The most common were healing potions and salves. They weren’t as good as a dedicated healer, but if you got hurt out in the wild, then they could save your life.

Luckily, Julius didnʼt have a need for them with his own healing skill, but he was looking for anything that caught his eye. He found several items that were made from monster cores. Most of them focused on enhancing skill progression and tier advancement but Julius ignored those.

He also found some interesting ones as well. There was a smell-erasing potion that completely erased any odors and scents from your body. There was also a salve that healed old scars. Julius took a look at his arm, the one where he burned himself. There was still light scarring marring his skin that [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] couldn’t heal completely. He thought about buying the salve but quickly reconsidered once he saw the price.

It was over seven gold for a small tub of it. He didn’t care about the scars enough to pay that much gold. That was like a couple hundred slices of pizza. Plus, he thought they were a nice reminder of his experiences.

He was still browsing around when something caught his attention. On a shelf was a small container holding a small twig planted in some soil. Three small green leaves were dangling from the small branch. Even though it wasn’t that impressive visually, Julius was drawn to it like a moth to a flame. It radiated life mana and comforted him just by looking at it.