Path to Transcendence

Chapter 140: Sneaking Suspicion

The boy was breathing much more roughly than he had in the beginning, but he was able to take down the monster without getting injured, so that was a notable accomplishment. There were definitely some reasons for the boy’s initial confidence.

Of course, there were still things that he could work on. But his swordsmanship and physical enhancement skills were pretty good. He had completely outclassed the deer in sheer physical prowess. Also, he didn’t need to use his mana conduit to activate his enhancement skill.

Despite still relying on the skill for the majority of the work, Julius could feel that the boy was making some adjustments on his own. Manually empowering a leg or an arm when delivering a certain strike was a good sign of familiarity with the skill.

The boy wasn’t the only one to make a decent showing either. Some of the other students in his group showed some very nice skills and abilities. It was surprising to see that not a single student failed to defeat their monster. A part of him had been expecting some kids not to be able to handle a monster, but while some weren’t as good as others, at least nobody failed.

One of the more interesting students was a girl who had some sort of off-branch life affinity. It wasn’t like Julius’s own life affinity. Her affinity focused more on living flora. He suspected that she had a plant affinity or something very close, like a wood affinity.

However, she showed remarkable control of the intricate branches and vines that managed to ensnare her opponent. It wasn’t the most flashy performance, but it was the one that impressed him the most.

Her monster had been a larger bovine monster, also around Tier 2. Where the deer had agility and speed, the bovine was sturdy and strong. Yet, the branches still managed to hold the bovine in place even as the girl’s other skills activated, using the branches as mediums.

There was one skill that empowered the branches and vines to strangle the monster. Another one that poisoned it. And then there was one that seemingly drained whatever life energy and mana to bolster the girl and the plants themselves.

Although she was noticeably nervous, her control and power of her skills were undeniable. Sure, she had a bracelet that Julius felt acted as a conduit, but she didn’t rely on it like the other boy had. She used it as Julius would have. It was basically just an extra battery and a way to channel more mana than she could comfortably control.

He wasn’t the only one to appreciate the girl’s performance. The male assistant had given her a nod of appreciation. “Well done, Tia. That was a good showing.”

Julius noticed that the first boy who volunteered looked over at Tia with envious eyes. He hadn’t received any praise after his turn.

Eventually, it was Julius’s turn. He confidently strode into the sectioned-off area and activated his bracelet. The familiar light blue runes activated and with a flash of brilliant light stood a monster that looked like a mixture between a cat and a reptile. However, what stood out the most was its size.

It was quite small. At least in comparison to the other studentʼs monsters. The smallest monster that had been summoned so far was still almost twice the size of this creature. This cat-reptile thing only sat around the height of his waist. It was probably six feet long, from head to tail. But the tail was a third of that length.

The scales wrapped around its body were slightly iridescent and glimmered in the light beautifully. Its sparkling eyes were glinting with some hints of intelligence as well. He didn’t know what kind of monster it was, but a part of him kind of wanted one.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have the time to appreciate its beauty for very long. Almost immediately the creature launched itself at Julius with no warning.

He was slightly surprised to see how fast it was. Whatever enhancement skill it had was tailored for speed, that much was certain. It was by far the fastest creature that had been summoned today. However, that was kind of perfect for his own plans.

[Quick Step] required him to focus on cramming as much mana into his legs and using that mana to propel him across a short distance. So having a fast opponent would put more pressure on him to succeed and hopefully let him learn the skill.

He took control of some ambient mana and controlled it so it infused into his legs. Once he felt like he had enough mana, he released it in an explosive burst while lunging to the side. The scaly cat missed him by a hair, he could feel its claws swiping the air by his chest.

It truly was fast for a Tier 2. He would estimate it to be on par with many other Tier 3s when it came to pure speed. He could also sense a collection of mana around its sharp claws. He assumed that it had something similar to [Mana Slash] that could really hurt him if he let it cut him. He didn’t have any constructs or [Barrier of Severance] to protect him after all.

However, just as quickly as it missed, it was already in the middle of attacking him again. He had to send another burst of mana through his legs to avoid its slashing claws.

For the next couple of minutes, he played a game of keep away with the monster, not even attempting to attack it or punish it.

It was fast, it was ferocious, and it was perfect for training [Quick Step]. He made more progress in a couple of minutes than he had in a couple of hours in the training room. The added pressure of not getting hit gave him a nice incentive for his progress.

He made sure not to accidentally use any fire mana or kinetic energy. He had already made that mistake last night.

Funnily enough, it was much easier getting a movement skill that was based on his affinities. When he had used fire mana, it had been called [Fire Dash]. Then when he had used kinetic energy instead, he got offered the [Charged Rush] skill. Both weren’t what he had been looking for.

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While they each had very similar functions, Julius had been told by Gabriel that [Quick Step] is an overall better skill for Julius.

If he were to choose either [Fire Dash] or [Charged Rush] he would have been limiting the options for his potential evolutions. Also for someone who used three different types of mana, he was potentially losing out on some interesting skills.

Not to mention that the advanced rare and epic ranked movement skills for fire and kinetic didn’t always touch on the aspects of spatial movement. However, [Quick Step] did, at least that was how Gabriel had learned [Instantaneous Step]. It was the general progression skill for the [Quick Step] skill and used spatial aspects within the skill.

Julius could appreciate being able to move fast. But being able to teleport was every kid’s dream. That was why even if getting one of the other skills would be easier, he was still trying to get [Quick Step].

He launched himself out of the way of the persistent cat-reptile monster once more. However, this time he didn’t allow it to come to him. No, what he had realized was that [Quick Step] wasn’t just for avoiding attacks, it was also to close the distance between his opponents.

So with a jerk of mana, he burst toward the monster. It wasn’t ideal. His application of mana wasn’t as efficient or effective as using kinetic energy would have been. Which was the reason he missed the creature by a good amount.

But it worked. That was the only thing that mattered to him. He finally got the skill that he had been eyeing for a while.

Would you like to learn the skill [Quick Step]?

He was so elated at his success that he almost failed to realize that the monster was no longer attacking him. It was in the process of breaking down into particles and returning to the runes across the battle area.

He hadn’t defeated the monster, which meant that he must have already used the ten minutes that Professor Rowe had allotted them to defeat the monster. If Julius remembered correctly the professor said that they would have to either defeat the monster or survive ten minutes in order to pass.

While he had technically passed, he was somewhat embarrassed that he was the only person who had not defeated his monster in his small group. And if the looks on some of their faces were any indication, they weren’t that impressed with his performance.

He saw several of them quietly talking amongst each other, he didn’t hear what they said, but he assumed it was about him.

The confident boy, who Julius found out was named Reynold, was looking at him with a clear expression of disdain. It was as if Reynold was wondering what a person with Julius’s talent was doing at Goldencrest.

The only person who didn’t look at Julius with pity, disdain, or dismissiveness, was the plant girl and the professor’s assistant. The girl was curiously looking at Julius and the guy was looking at him with his brows scrunched up in confusion.

Julius didn’t pay too much mind the looks he was getting. He was still inwardly celebrating acquiring his new skill.

Actually, he still hadn’t accepted the prompt and he made sure to do that before anything else.

Congratulations, skill [Quick Step] (Uncommon) acquired.

Perfect, he thought to himself with a large goofy grin.

***

Troy POV

Troy found himself enjoying being a professor’s assistant more than he expected. He got access to as many rifts and resources as he needed to advance to Tier 4. He also had many Tier 4s available to ask questions about his advancement whenever he felt stuck.

Having to teach some younger students wasn’t a bad price to pay for those privileges.

At the moment they were just finishing up the first day of real monster fighting. Despite the fact that the students were still wearing simulated combat devices, they still had to deal with the monsters by themselves.

And Troy was glad to see that every student ended up defeating their monster with zero or minimal damage taken. Almost every student that is.

The last student had ruined that streak. The boy’s name was Julius Snow and according to his profile, a commoner. Troy didn’t blame the boy though. Unlike many of the others who very likely had some experience given to them by their parents or teachers, Troy would not be surprised to learn that this was the first time the boy was fighting a monster.

While Julius had technically passed the exercise because he had survived over ten minutes, it wasn’t a pretty performance. However, that was why Troy was confused about why the boy had such a silly grin on his face. If you were to only look at the boy’s face, you would think he had demonstrated the best performance out of all the students.

Yet, that was far from what actually happened.

The black-haired boy didn’t even attempt to attack the monster. He was too busy trying to dodge and evade the admittedly fast monster. To be fair, the Tier 2 Rainbow Scaled Malken was likely the toughest monster summoned during the entire exercise. Its sheer speed was something that was very difficult to deal with for someone who wasn’t specialized in speed or area control techniques like Tia Wellence.

He would have to ask what made Jeremy summon that particular creature to the boy once they were finished with the class.

There was one thing that confused Troy though. It was the boy’s apparent calmness. While to most onlookers the boy was frantically dodging the small-scaled cat. Troy noticed that there wasn’t a single hint of panic across the boyʼs aura or face.

If anything his face was astonishingly calm and focused on the creature in front of the boy. Troy had to watch the boy continue to use the same awful movement skill to dodge the Malken. It wasn’t pretty to see even to his warrior-specialized mana senses.

Yet, each time he used the skill it got a little better. A little more refined and powerful. It was almost as if…

It was almost as if the boy was trying to learn a skill, he realized belatedly.

Everything made sense to Troy now. The boy had been using the exercise as a practical training session to learn a new movement skill. Most likely [Quick Step] if Troy correctly identified the last few attempts of the skill’s usage.

That was why the boy had the silliest grin on his face afterward. He had most likely gotten the notification. Troy stifled the laugh that almost came out on its own at the realization of the boy’s actions.

That changed everything about how Troy viewed Julius. The boy was only Tier 2, but that was exactly the sort of attitude and dedication that would take him to the top. It took most students a couple of years to understand the value of hard work. But they always did. It took Troy until the beginning of his third year to realize that many of the students he had been better than in his first year were already way past him. By the time he started to change his habits, it was too late. He wasn’t able to catch up before graduation.

The other students might think poorly of the kid, but Troy made a self-note to keep an eye on his performance in the future. He had a sneaking suspicion that Julius would be at the top of his class given enough time and dedication.