Path to Transcendence

Chapter 149: Iʼm a Sage?

[Savage Dance] has reached level 20.

Appraising requirements…

Congratulations. Skills requirement met.

Congratulations. Concept requirement met.

Congratulations. Soul requirement met.

Would you like to evolve the skill [Savage Dance]?

Julius wore a satisfied grin on his face. It had felt like he had this skill for the longest time, but now that he was about to evolve it, he couldn’t be happier.

It had routinely been a cornerstone skill for him during his fights and training. The skill had originally come from a combination of [Brutal Strike] and [Battle Trance]. The synergy between the two skills created a stronger skill that was mainly a combat concentration skill that had a weak point detection component.

However, Julius very quickly realized that there was much more potential to this skill than just that. It started off with him practicing to use it outside of battle and then fully embracing the weak points aspect of it into his own fighting style, not needing to rely on the skill to do so.

He had adapted the skill and now it was basically a very potent general focus skill. It was also one of the skills that he felt would benefit the most from evolving. The skill itself wasn’t as useful as it once was. Julius found that he improved at a faster pace than what the skill could handle.

He gave the notification one last glance before accepting it.

Skill evolution commencing…

Skill [Savage Dance] is evolving… possible advancements: [Savage Storm], [Raging Sage], and [Sage of Savagery].

To be honest, Julius was a bit surprised to only see three options. [Savage Dance] had been a skill he had for the longest other than [Spatial Perception]. He would have thought that various applications that would have gotten him offered a wider variety of skills.

Then again, everyone had told him that epic skills worked differently than the ranks before it. Perhaps, this was one of the effects they were talking about.

However, he wouldn’t be surprised to learn that as he progressed skills, they more specialized, and fewer options he would have to choose from. It was even possible that when he evolved it again to legendary, he would have only one or two to pick from.

Putting that aside, he did what he always did, he went through each skill.

The first one, [Savage Storm] was a bit of an odd one. Since it was the first skill on the list, he assumed it was the general upgrade of [Savage Dance]. The only word that was different was replacing the word “dance” with “storm”.

He could see the connection between the two, but the idea of [Savage Storm] as a concentration skill was weird. It sounds more like a skill Derek would have for a large area of effect attack.

Julius assumed it was just a skill that specialized in punishing the enemyʼs weak spots. Very similar to [Savage Dance] but just on a large scale.

The second one was more interesting to him. It was called [Raging Sage] and Julius had an idea about why he was offered it.

He had been using [Savage Dance] as a skill that helped him control his emotions, specifically rage. It was very likely that he was offered it because of that very reason.

However, it was the sage part that really intrigued him. Sages were known for being extremely wise and knowledgeable.

Julius was confident that he could barely qualify for those two characteristics. He knew certain things that many of this world didn’t, but that had more to do with his memories from his past life. It didn’t really make him smarter

As for being wise… well he laughed aloud at that. Smart? Maybe. Cunning? Sometimes. Wise? Uh uh.

That wasn’t him. He was a person who was willing to cut off his arms and burn himself alive. Julius believed that one of the prerequisites of being wise was also being sane. He was self-aware enough to understand that he wasn’t quite the traditional definition of sane.

Still, the word sage was very cool. And made him want to get it just because of that.

However, it wasn’t only one skill that had sage in its name. [Sage of Savagery] was also available for him to choose from.

It seemed like the Words of the World was trying to tell him something. Whether or not it was trying to tell him to be more wise or something else, he wasn’t quite sure.

Nevertheless, being a sage of any kind was very tempting. Even though he wasn’t a sage now, that didn’t mean he couldn’t aspire to become one later on. Perhaps, taking one of the sage skills would help him become one. Maybe it would even get him to start making more wise decisions.

They were also the only two skills that really had any interest to him. [Savage Storm] didn’t have him jumping up and down in anticipation to get. Thus, the last two skills were what he had to decide between.

The one thing that Julius noticed right away was the difference between [Raging Sage] and [Sage of Savagery]. It was a small difference, but one that he already had experience in. The difference was exactly two letters.

There seemed to be a large contrast between skills with the “of” descriptor. Derek had mentioned a skill that many of his family with lightning affinities got. It was called [Lightning Barrier] and then there was the much more rare and powerful one, called [Barrier of Lightning].

Now, Julius didn’t know if that held true for every skill, but it was something to keep in mind. However, there was also the fact that Julius enjoyed the word “savagery” more than “raging”. One had a closer connotation to being fierce and the other had implications of being out of control. While the “sage” part of the skill made it sound like it would provide some balance, Julius didn’t like the idea of being out of control.

The good news was that this skill selection was one of the easiest choices he had made so far. He felt pretty confident in his selection.

Congratulations, skill [Sage of Savagery] (Epic) acquired.

He exclaimed enthusiastically, spewing crumbs of cake from his mouth that was still eating cake even as he was doing something as important as choosing his advancement skill.

This night had been very lucrative. He had not only gotten a Concept of Will, he had also gotten a Concept of Fire. Then to top it all off, he was able to use that Concept of Will to evolve a skill that he had been wanting to evolve for a long time.

He was now the proud holder of two epic skills. Julius was so pleased with himself that he gave himself another piece of cake.

He also took a moment to look at his status sheet.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 2

Skills:

[Armaments of the Arcane lvl 4] (Epic)
[Sage of Savagery lvl 1] (Epic)

[Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 18] (Rare+)[Empowerment of Will lvl 16] (Rare+)

[Barrier of Severance lvl 12] (Rare+)[Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 18] (Rare)[Quick Step lvl 14] (Uncommon)

Current Skill Slots: 8/11

Concepts:

[Concept of Sharpness][Severing Will][Concept of Will][Inexorable Resolve][Concept of Fire][Blazing Ember]
His status was starting to fill up. He also had two more Concepts that he would be able to add to his other skills. For example, his new Fire Concept would be a good fit for [Armaments of the Arcane] and possibly [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal]. He wasn’t quite sure how that would work out, but he definitely used fire properties in his healing skill, so it should be possible.

Furthermore, his new Concept of Will sounded like a good fit for [Empowerment of Will]. He was anticipating to see what would happen when he finally reached level 20 in one of his superior skills. Would the process of evolving change and if so, how much?

Would the skill immediately connect with a Concept or would the epic skill also be a superior skill just like it was at the rare rank?

He shook his head. There was no need to worry about that right now. He had other things that were more important to think about. Things such as finishing his delicious cake.

The sun was just starting to rise over the horizon and Julius quickly polished off his cake before getting up, brushing any crumbs from his uniform as he did.

He was thinking about heading over to the library before breakfast. He could do with a couple of hours of just reading to relax. His soul was sore, but his mind was shockingly alert. So with a merry step, he hopped along to the library, still feeling the high of his recent achievements.

When he entered the library, he noticed that there were quite a lot of older students there. There had to have been at least a couple dozen students spread across the library. Some of them were fast asleep with their heads tucked in their arms, which might be indications that they stayed the entire night.

Some were still awake and completely immersed in their books. He watched as the older students constantly flipped between their reading to their notebooks, scribbling down notes periodically.

He didn’t understand what they were doing, but if he had to guess, he would say that there was some sort of assignment for the older students that some people either didn’t get done in time and/or were procrastinating.

Julius gave an amused grin as he watched them. It seems like regardless of which world he was in, there would always be students who procrastinated.

Then again, it wasn’t like he was in any position to judge these students. At least they were doing it, although a little late. There were some assignments of his own that Julius barely bothered to do. In his defense, most of the assignments that he ended up not caring about were the ones from Intro to Mana.

Professor Stewart was still by far his least-liked professor. He couldn’t bear to listen to her lectures. She reminded him of a certain English professor from his old life. Constantly, talking down to other students who asked “dumb” questions and being a real stickler for everything.

That same rigidity also extended to the mana exercises she had them practice and demonstrate.

There was a time when she had the entire class do a simple exercise along with her. The exercise was gathering a thread of mana and manipulating it so that it formed a perfect circle.

It was an exercise that a surprising number of students had a hard time with. A part of him had expected since Goldencrest was one of the best schools most students had this level of control already.

To be fair, most of these students were considered the “most talented” because of their affinities and other abilities. Not everyone needed to practice such a nuanced application of mana unless they were a mage.

Most of the students who were having a hard time were mainly melee fighters or other roles. There were plenty of mages who did the exercise to perfection.

Julius, like normal, played it safe and did just well enough that his control appeared average. He was supposed to be a close combat fighter and showing off such his mana manipulation skills would stand out.

It was ironically, good practice to pretend to be a novice in mana manipulation. It took more effort to act like he was naturally bumbling around then actually doing the exercise. It was very funny in a very backward way.

However, even though he was doing better than many of the close combat students he was approached by Professor Stewart.

The old grouchy lady came up to his desk and stared at him with impassive eyes, watching him manipulate the thread of mana into a circle. She clicked her tongue once he was done. “Perhaps, if you paid more attention and did the assignments, you would do a bit better Mr. Snow,” she said contemptuously before stalking off.

Julius had looked at the wrinkly old lady’s back with disdain in his eyes but had held his tongue.

And that was just last week. Julius was beginning to have serious doubts about that class’s usefulness.

He tucked those thoughts away for later and made his way to their groupʼs usual spot when he passed a nook with two very familiar people.

[Spatial Perception] was able to sense Grace and Amelia sitting at a small table. Grace was completely absorbed in her book and Amelia was just sitting there doing nothing but looking around.

The area they chose had a complete view of everyone who walked up the stairs, so Julius doubted he would be able to avoid Amelia’s gaze. In fact, he believed that she had already spotted him and his head before he reached the top of the stairs.

He had two choices, one he could just blatantly avoid her and walk back down the stairs, or he could pretend he didn’t see her and walk by like nothing’s wrong. The first option kind of felt like an admission of defeat, so within a split second, he decided on option two.

He walked right by the nook where Grace and Amelia were sitting and continued on to his spot without even looking their way. However, as he did, he sensed that Amelia who was once again invisible, leaned over and whispered something to Grace.