Path to Transcendence

Chapter 101: A Surprise Opportunity to Get Stronger

Julius was embarrassed. He had lost track of the day and didn’t know that it was the weekend. So when he showed up to the field where his Physical Training Class was and nobody was there it was a forehead-slapping realization. It took him way longer than it should have and he left with his face completely red.

He had to make the walk of shame back to the cafeteria, hoping that nobody had just seen him waiting for class to start in the middle of the field. He did see Edgar and Aubrey at breakfast though. Lily was still probably sleeping and the otherʼs whereabouts were unknown.

After breakfast though, he got some interesting news. Declan had messaged him on his communication stone and told him that he had something to give to Julius. He wanted him to come and see him at the guardhouse whenever he was free.

He had gotten this message as Edgar, Aubrey, and himself were walking toward the training facilities. They had all wanted to throw in some practice before their day got started. He had to apologize and explain what was going on. Luckily they were both understanding and told him to let them know if he wanted to do something later.

He promised them that he would contact them when he was on his way back. There were still some things he wanted to try with them.

And so he was on his way back to the city. This time he didn’t stop at any cafes or shops, he headed straight toward the guardhouse. It was surprisingly busy out though. He didn’t know if there was something that was going on this weekend, but it was way more crowded than usual.

He ended up having to wait behind several large groups to get where he needed to be. Every step seemed to result in him bumping shoulders with another person. He was tempted to just hire a carriage to take him. He had the money and it would probably be much faster at this rate, but he held off. There was no real rush and he could use the fresh air.

When he finally arrived though, he felt like he had just gone ten rounds with Gabriel. He was not even physically exhausted, he was mentally beaten. He even used [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to try and help his exhaustion and was let down that it didn’t help that much. It seemed like the skill didn’t help emotional trauma as much as physical ones.

On the bright side, he did see someone he hadn’t seen for a while in the common area when he walked through the doors.

Silently, Julius crept forward and got as close as he could before poking the large man in the back. Orus turned around confused and looked around for the person who poked him.

All he saw was Julius’s big goofy smile staring at him from below. At first, Orus didn’t seem to know what to do, not saying anything but just staring right back at Julius. But he quickly recovered as the realization hit him and threw his arms around Julius, bringing him closer for a long hug.

Some of the other guards had taken notice and stopped to see the spectacle. They smiled at the interaction, most of them recognized Julius from when he had stayed here. One guy even patted Julius on the back as he was walking by.

Orus finally let him go but still kept him at armʼs length.

“Rae and Declan told me some stuff but I want to hear it from you,” he told Julius with a big grin.

Julius and Orus found themselves a table away from most of the noise. There Julius gave a brief overview of his time at Goldencrest. He talked about his first few days and what it was like, as well as how he met the others. He told Orus about his classes and some of his teachers, and how he liked them.

They were in the middle of their conversation when Declan came in. Julius had let him know when he was getting close to the guardhouse, so he had been expecting Julius. He was still the vice-captain though and had other things to attend to before he could see Julius.

Declan walked up and ruffled Julius’s hair, before sitting down next to him. “You got here pretty fast,” he commented to Julius.

“You think so? I thought I was slow. By the way, what is up with all the crowds?” Julius had almost forgotten about it until Declan had brought it up.

“You don’t know?” Declan asked him confusingly.

“No idea. Should I?” Julius asked.

Declan shook his head. “No, I just thought that it would be a big deal at the academy,” he told Julius.

Julius looked between the two of them before asking, “So what’s the big deal then?”

“Princess Reinera is transferring to Goldencrest and many people want to get a chance to see her,” Orus said.

“Yeah, it has been quite a nightmare security-wise. Luckily we are on the outskirts of Heston so we won’t see as much traffic, but some of the other districts are having a hard time containing all the people. I had to send many of our own guards to help out,” Declan explained.

“Why would they care about a princess that much?” Julius didn’t get why so many people were clamoring to see just a glance at this girl. Maybe it was like having Taylor Swift come to your town. He wasnʼt sure though, he didnʼt know enough about this princess to have a good idea.

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“Reinera Luminous is the direct daughter of the Emperor and his wife, she has a perfect light affinity, as well as inherited their Bloodline ability. I am shocked that you haven’t heard about this before. It has been news for the past week,” Orus said to him.

Yeah, about that…

He hadn’t told them that he had skipped two weeks of classes to evolve a skill. Actually, he still hadn’t evolved it yet to be fair. But he did make a lot of progress. However, he didn’t think they would see his explanation as an acceptable justification.

“I have just been busy I guess,” he lamely gave an excuse. But he tried to quickly change to subject before they could ask for any more details. “I didn’t know you could transfer in the middle of the school year like that.”

Declan looked at him funny as if he could tell that Julius was hiding something. Not that he would be surprised if he had, Declan was one of the most perceptive people Julius had ever met. “Typically you can’t, but considering she is royalty, there are always exceptions.”

“Why would she transfer though? Isn’t there the Royal Academy in the capital?” Julius asked the two of them.

Declan shrugged his shoulders. “There is, which is why it is weird. There have been rumors about assassination attempts and other events that were the reason behind this decision. I don’t know what is true or if anything is substantial, but maybe the Emperor thinks that she will be safer since it is so far away from the Capital. Heston is a safe city after all and doesn’t have the political drama like the Capital or other territories.”

It was an odd thing at an odd time, but something that ultimately didn’t affect Julius or his plans. He didn’t really care about some sort of princess or the political repercussions of her decision to come to Goldencrest. Who knows, maybe it wasn’t her decision in the first place.

It might even be a boon to Julius. The more eyes on her, the less eyes would be on Julius if he did something that attracted too much attention.

“So what was it that you asked me to come and see you?” He questioned Declan. It was nice to catch up with them, but he didn’t forget that he was here because Declan asked him to come.

Declan’s eyes widen slightly as if he just remembered why Julius was here in the first place. “Oh yeah, about that. I finally got the whole situation with Lord Lagos all settled. His son is magically imprisoned in Lord Lago’s estate and can’t leave under threat of crippling pain if he ever leaves the boundary. Lord Lagos did his own investigation about the actions of his son and to put it simply, he was not happy at all. Though he was very grateful for your interference no matter what your intentions were and he wanted me to convey that gratitude to you.”

“That’s it? He just wanted you to tell me that he was thankful?” Julius asked with a frown. He was confused, he felt like that was something he could tell Julius over the communication stone and not have him make all of his way here.

Declan had way too big of a smile on his face. “I know you didn’t want anything or at least couldn’t think of anything you would want from Lord Lagos. But for the past couple of weeks, I have been trying to think of something that you might find useful and I think I finally got something that I believe you will enjoy.”

Something that I would enjoy? Did he ask something from Lord Lagos for me? Julius tried to rack his brain and think of what he could have gotten him. Honestly, he had completely forgotten about the whole Lord Lagos thing already. The spatial ring and the large sum of money were more than enough in his mind.

He waited for Declan to continue, but the man was looking at Julius with an excited smirk. He probably wanted Julius to ask what it was before he told him. It felt like he just wanted to tease Julius.

However, he still took the bait. “Okay, I’ll bite. What is it?”

Julius saw Declan raise his arm and reach into his pocket with an overly dramatic slowness. Then he watched as he removed his hand from the pocket holding what seemed to be a thin rectangular sheet the size of a credit card and presented it to Julius.

“What’s this?” Julius asked as he took the card from Declan, turning it over in his hands and inspecting it.

“Oh, this? Nothing too special. Just an access pass to some of the Rifts that Lord Lagos uses to train his retainers,” Declan had a smug look on his face.

An access pass? Does this mean what I think it means?

Declan must have seen the look on Julius’s face. “Yep, an all-exclusive pass to a generous amount of Rifts.” A folded piece of paper appeared in his hands as he took it out of his spatial device. However, it was only then did Julius realized that Declan had only taken the card out of his pocket for the dramatic effect. For something as valuable as the pass sounded, Julius would think that he would keep it within his protected storage.

Julius shook his head in disbelief at the dramatic actions of Declan. As he was busy doing that, Declan told him what the paper was. “This here is the locations of the Rifts that the pass has access to as well as their general information.”

Julius opened up the paper and saw a map with the locations and details of the Rifts. There were at least a dozen, mostly Tier 2 and 3, but he saw that two of them were Tier 4. He looked up at Declan, “How did you convince Lord Lagos to give you access to these Rifts?”

Tier 2 or maybe even Tier 3, Julius could understand. But Tier 4 Rifts were much much more valuable. As far as Julius knew, Declan hadn’t told Lord Lagos about Julius’s identity, other than a few necessary details.

“It was surprisingly easy to explain. Since I am Tier 4 I asked him to throw in some additional Rifts as well, implying that I would be using it too.”

“And he just accepted that?” Julius was skeptical.

“I told you, he was very grateful and he knows how to repay his debts. It’s why people like to do business with him. He doesn’t care about how much he has to spend, he just wants to make it right. Also, it isn’t like I was asking for materials, so even if the Rift has one less person from his side able to use it, it’s not like itʼs a big loss for him. In fact, he might even believe he got a good deal out of it, so itʼs a win-win,” Declan explained in detail.

It must be nice being that rich that you can literally throw Tier 4 Rift passes around like they were Halloween candy.

Julius certainly wasn’t going to complain though. He was actually very excited, this might be the best thing he could have gotten out of the whole situation. He was immensely grateful that Declan had the foresight and understood Julius enough to know what he would want the most… the opportunity to get stronger.