Path to Transcendence

Chapter 80: Introducing the Others to Drasil

The four of them were on their way to the library, to meet up with Kyle and Derek. Professor Keller had shown up, but it was toward the end of class when it was almost already over.

Aubrey had kept prodding Julius about what he wanted to show them. He must have told her no a dozen times, but she was persistent. When they walked into the library, he waved at the librarian who smiled at him over the book she was reading.

He left some books in the return area, before following them upstairs to where Kyle and Derek were already sitting, waiting for them.

“Okay, we are all here now, so what is it?” Aubrey demanded.

Kyle and Derek both had confused expressions on their faces.

“What is what exactly?” Derek asked Edgar quietly.

Edgar leaned over to Derek, “Julius said he had something to show us but Aubrey is upset because he said that he should wait until all of us are together.”

Derek laughed upon hearing that, Julius saw that even Kyle had a tiny smile on his face. Derek turned to Julius. “Sorry about her, she has always been the impatient one.”

“No, I am not!” Aubrey vehemently denied.

Lily had already put up her barrier so Julius didn’t worry about the yelling bothering the other students.

“Yes you are,” Edgar nudged Aubrey gently and smiled at her. Aubrey felt miffed and crossed her arms to let her displeasure be known.

“I think it’s very considerate and sweet,” Lily commented.

“Well, he should never have brought it up if he wasn’t going to share it right away. It is just a tease at this point, like dangling a shiny ruby in my face but telling me I can’t touch it,” Aubrey complained.

Julius smiled at their antics and focused on his core. He had tried to get Drasil out earlier today, but nothing had worked. It wasn’t until he had lured the spirit out with a handful of life mana that Drasil came out.

So Julius created a small orb of life mana as he gently awoke the sleeping spirit lying in his core. He felt the little guy slowly blink his eyes open and look around confused. Then he must have felt the life mana Julius was holding in his hands and quickly that was all he was focused on.

Julius could practically sense the little guy salivating and Drasil swiftly left the comforts of his core and appeared on his palm that was holding the mana.

Lily and Aubrey gasped in shock and cooed at the appearance of the cute little spirit. Their eyes sparkled with joy as they watched Drasil press his entire tiny body against the orb of life mana with a face of contentment.

Aubrey was the first to speak. “Is that the spirit seed we saw that one morning?” She asked excitedly.

“Yep.”

“What spirit seed?” Lily asked.

Julius slapped his forehead, he forgot that half of them didn’t know he had a spirit seed. He had only told Edgar and Aubrey, the others hadn’t been there at breakfast and Lily had gotten there after he told them about it.

Aubrey turned to Lily, “You remember that plant he had at breakfast?”

Lily thought for a moment, and then had a look of realization, remembering that morning. “That was a spirit seed?” She asked.

“What are you guys talking about?” Derek was feeling completely left out.

Julius felt that he should explain to the rest of them. “Sorry, I forgot that I didn’t tell some of you guys yet. But I bought this life spirit seed at a store in Heston not that long ago and was planning to get a life spirit to contract as my familiar. He just manifested last night so I wanted to show you guys. I don’t know its gender but I have been calling him Drasil.”

Julius noticed that Kyle was much more interested than he expected him to be. He had gotten pretty close to Drasil now and was observing the life spirit munching away at the orb of life mana with no care for his surroundings. Julius had to admit that Drasil was a really cute spirit, he could see why rich nobles got them as pets.

Julius had been thinking about his situation a bit more. He had concluded that he didn’t believe he needed to hide his life affinity, at least not to the extent that he had been doing. With Drasil now a factor to think about, he thought it might be easier to explain it by saying he had a life affinity, but it wasn’t that good. As for why he didn’t state it on his entrance exam, he didn’t think that would be such a big issue, considering he wasn’t focusing on it in school.

He was brought out of his thoughts by Aubrey who was trying to tickle the little spirit whose body was hugging the orb of life mana. The little spirit didn’t pay her that much attention, much to Aubrey’s disappointment.

He is still just as much a glutton as he was when he was just a spirit seed. Julius chuckled to himself.

Drasil was completely focused on eating as much life mana as he could and Julius kept feeding the orb more mana. Aubrey and Lily were talking about how cute Drasil was. They were sharing stories about when they were younger and wanted a spirit of their own. Kyle, on the other hand, had taken out a notebook and was observing Drasil with a delighted look, while writing occasional notes down.

Julius just sat back and watched the three of them enjoy Drasil’s presence. He smiled to himself. He was very fortunate to have found these people. If he didn’t have them around he truly thought he might have been punching a training dummy all day and night, or spent every waking moment training to get stronger. This was much healthier for him, he couldn’t forget why he was getting stronger, it was to protect moments like these.