Path to Transcendence

Chapter 124: Coming Clean

“Um… I might have forgotten to mention that I ended up acquiring my first Concept today…” Julius slowly said.

Julius felt Lily loosen her grip on his head just a smidge and look down at him with a surprised look. For someone who wasn’t a physically inclined fighter, he was often surprised by how strong Lily was at times. She had the grip strength of a juiced-up gorilla.

Not that he would ever tell her that. He suspected that if he were to say that to her face he would get his mind shredded apart and wake up the next day not knowing his own name or remembering how to wipe his own ass.

“Say that again,” she said slowly.

Julius swallowed his saliva again before repeating himself. “I got a Concept today.”

“You got a Concept?” She asked skeptically.

“Hmhm.”

She looked at him sternly. “And you didn’t think that was important to tell us earlier? When were you going to tell us that? Next month?”

“I forgot! I promise!” Julius argued.

Lily squeezed him a little tighter. “You don’t just forget something that important. Learning a Concept is something that is celebrated by all Houses. It is a very important step on one’s journey.”

Derek grunted in agreement from the side. “I agree. Learning your first Concept is somewhat of a big deal. My family threw an entire celebratory ball when I learned a Concept of Lightning. It’s not something that one would normally just ‘forget’.”

“I’m more offended that he made learning a Concept sound like he was learning how to knit a sweater. It’s been what? A week or two?” Aubrey asked while rolling her eyes.

“I know, it almost feels like he’s rubbing it in. Hell, it took me months of dedicated training. And that was with my grandfather tying me up and throwing me in an artificial lightning storm for several hours a day,” Derek said sourly.

Julius winced at hearing that. That didn’t seem like a fun way to learn a Concept.

Lily loosened her grip again and continued to look down at Julius who was still in between the small petite girl’s armpit. “So what kind of Concept did you learn?”

Before Julius could answer, Aubrey mumbled, “I wouldn’t shocked if he learned two of them.”

Julius looked between the five of them before finally answering. “A Concept of Sharpness.”

“Oh, so you actually ended up learning a Sharpness Concept first? I know that was what you were pursuing, but I was pretty sure that you would actually learn a Fire Concept first,” Edgar said a little surprised. Edgar hadn’t said anything up to this point as he didn’t care much about fancy clothing, but this seemed to bring back his interest.

Julius nodded as best as he could through the headlock he was still captured in. “I thought about it. But I ended up learning a new skill and that seemed to help the process a lot more than I was expecting. I almost learned the Concept right after I got the new skill.”

Edgar scratched his cheek, deep in thought. “You evolved that [Mana Slash] skill?”

“Yep.”

“Didn’t you mention that you were going with [Mana Strike]? I don’t see how that would help you learn a Concept,” Aubrey said to him.

Julius shrugged his shoulders, bumping against Lily’s stomach as he did. “Declan actually advised me to take another skill instead. I was pretty set on taking [Mana Strike] but he was really convincing. He also made a point that [Mana Strike] was a pretty easy skill to learn anyway, so I could always learn it later.”

Derek nodded his head in agreement. “He’s not wrong. It’s a good skill, but if you had a better option available I would have chosen it as well.”

“So what skill did you end up choosing instead?” Aubrey asked him.

Julius finally was able to squeeze his way out of Lily’s straggle. Before, he answered he made sure that Lily’s isolation barrier was still up. “I got a skill called [Barrier of Severance]”

Julius watched as all of them got either confused or interested expressions.

“[Barrier of Severance]?” Edgar asked surprised.

“Severance?” Aubrey asked confused.

“Barrier?” Lily had a perplexed crinkle in her eyes.

“I know. I thought it was a weird-sounding skill, so that was why I discounted it at first. But Declan made it sound like it was a skill with high potential.”

“Yeah, what the hell does severance mean?” Aubrey exclaimed loudly.

Derek turned to her. “That’s what you were confused about?”

“Okay, so I don’t have your extensive vocabulary, bite me,” she shot back at Derek.

“It means to sever or cut something,” Kyle said with a sigh to Aubrey.

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“Oh, okay that makes sense. Thanks, Kyle!” Aubrey said happily while sticking her tongue out at Derek.

Lily ignored the two of them. “I’m more confused about how you got a barrier skill from [Mana Slash]. It doesn’t seem to fit the skillʼs natural progression at all,” Lily stated more to herself than anyone.

“Oh, that’s easy. I think that was how he used the skill when he fought me that time,” Aubrey stated confidently. “I was pretty sure that whatever he did to block my [Piercing Light] looked like a similar skill to [Mana Slash].”

Julius chuckled lightly. It was funny, while Aubrey might not have known what severance meant, she didn’t seem to think twice about the reason why he got the skill option in the first place.

Lily turned to look at Julius to see if what Aubrey said was correct. Julius nodded his head and said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the reason why I got offered the skill.”

Aubrey puffed out her chest and had a proud look on her face.

“I can’t say I have ever heard of the skill before,” Edgar said.

“Me either. But I have heard of similar skills before,” Derek said.

“You have?” Lily asked.

“Yeah, there is a skill that some members of my family have gotten. It is called [Barrier of Lightning] it is a similar skill to [Lightning Barrier], but much more potent. I suspect that Julius’s skill might be a better version of [Slashing Barrier] or something close to it.” Derek looked over at Kyle. “Have you ever heard of [Barrier of Severance]?”

Kyle shook his head. “No, but I have heard of a skill called [Barrier of Disruption]. If Julius’s skill is anything like that then I am pretty confident it is a very very good skill, most likely rare+ as well.”

Julius smiled at Kyle and nodded his head. Leave it to Kyle to know exactly what Declan had mentioned. “It’s funny. Declan mentioned the same skill to me before I took [Barrier of Severance]. He said someone by the name of Ghostblade or something used it.”

Kyle’s lips upturned a hair. “Yes. [Barrier of Disruption] was Ghostblade’s famous or rather infamous skill. He slaughtered his way through the ranks with it. It made him one of the most feared fighters at his Tier.”

“You sound like you admire this Ghostblade,” Edgar commented.

“He was skilled and often fought above his Tier. He is someone worth admiring,” Kyle stated.

“I think I remember my father telling me about him. Wasn’t he an assassin?” Lily pointed out.

Kyle nodded his head. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean he wasn’t someone to admire.”

“I think being an assassin is a pretty good reason why you shouldn’t admire him,” Lily argued.

Kyle shrugged his shoulders. “His actions and deeds weren’t the most honorable, but his results spoke of his skill. It took the combined efforts of the Sky Queen and the Storm Hammer to take him down.”

“He still was a paid killer,” Lily said.

While Lily and Kyle were arguing about the Ghostblade and whether or not he should be admired, Aubrey leaned over to Julius. “So are you going to tell us?”

“Tell you what?”

“About whether or not your skill is any good obviously,” she said.

Edgar was the one who answered instead. “I think the fact that he was able to learn a Concept of Sharpness right after getting says more than enough don’t you think?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that itʼs a good skill for Julius’s style,” she pointed out.

She has a point, Julius thought to himself.

“So?” Aubrey repeated.

“To be fair, I have only done limited testing so far. But from what I have seen, I think it is a very fitting skill for me,” Julius told them.

“I think we are forgetting the most important thing,” Lily said. She and Kyle were no longer arguing.

“What, that Julius can now create an epic skill of his own?” Aubrey asked.

“Exactly! This is a big deal, we should celebrate!” Lily exclaimed.

Julius perked his ears up at that. He liked celebrations. Not because of the people, but because celebrations often included delicious food. Most of the time it was free as well, especially if you were the one getting celebrated.

“I second that!” Aubrey interjected loudly.

“As do I,” Derek added.

“Is there food involved?” Julius asked hopefully.

“Is there food involved?” Derek repeated what Julius asked and had an offended expression on his face. “Of course there is. What kind of celebration doesn’t have food?”

Julius looked at the others. “I think we should have a celebration,” he stated matter of factly.

Edgar slapped him across the back. “Itʼs rude to ask for a celebration for yourself.”

Julius rubbed his spine which felt like it got bruised by the large man’s slap. Julius and Edgar had been sparring often, which meant that Edgar had become more forgetful about pulling back his strength when dealing with Julius. Unfortunately, that also meant he tended to use his full strength on Julius, whether it was a punch or a friendly slap on the back.

It’s not rude to ask for a little party for myself, is it? He inwardly asked himself.

“What should we do then? Any ideas?” Aubrey asked.

“There aren’t many options if we stay on campus. However, if we wait until next weekend there are a lot more choices,” Lily commented.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Let’s do something next weekend,” Aubrey readily agreed.

“Next weekend?” Julius asked.

“What you have something planned?” Edgar asked.

“Yeah, I had a few things that I might have wanted to do.”

He was being honest too. Although Declan couldn’t come with him to a rift next week due to work, Julius still wanted to go and explore some rifts on his own. He wanted to play around with his new epic skill.

That is if he was able to get it in the meantime. It wasn’t set in stone that just because he had a Concept now he would get an epic skill right away. Though, the others certainly thought he would, so that was promising.

“Come on, you can take a weekend off to relax and celebrate,” Aubrey needled him. “You have all of the rest of the year to run yourself into the ground.”

“I agree. If you are so determined to kill yourself with your training, you might as well die as a happy man with a full belly. There is this amazing restaurant in Heston that you will absolutely love,” Derek told him. “Even cheapskate Lily over here loves it.”

“Hey! I am not cheap! I am just smart with money and don’t like getting swindled just because people think I am wealthy,” Lily refuted.

They all turned and looked at her like she was crazy.

“Your family is one of the richest Houses in the entire Empire. My mother is a Tier 6 and you make us look poor in comparison,” Aubrey said with a deadpan face.

Lily had the grace to look embarrassed and turned to look at Julius with her face red. “The Golden Wheel is a very good restaurant,” she admitted to him quietly.

Aubrey clapped her hands. “Okay, so it’s decided then! Next Saturday we will spend the day celebrating Julius’s achievement around town and eat dinner.”

Julius raised his hand. “Um… don’t I get a say in this?”

Aubrey just turned and looked at him like he was stupid. “No. No, you don’t.”