Path to Transcendence

Chapter 231: Definitely Not a Mage

“Yeah, mage my ass!” Julius yelled out as the man snuck a left hook underneath his guard. Crashing a fist into his liver, leaving Julius in pain.

It had been almost a week since he had dinner with Richard and his family. During that time, whenever he wasn’t training with Richard, he and Reinera had made repeated attempts at the training course.

They both managed to make improvements as well. Reinera consistently completed the second section and was making good progress with the third section.

Julius on the other hand was still on the difficult fourth section, but he was slowly getting better with each attempt. While he had not gotten to the end yet, he felt like he was getting close and from Rebecca’s reaction, he was doing much better than anyone at his level should be doing.

That made him feel much better about his progress. However, he didn’t let her know that.

Reinera was feeling extra competitive with him recently. She wanted to catch up with him and his progress, even going so far as to receive some amazing skill level gains to her physical skills.

But she was still frustrated that she wasn’t quite able to close the gap, no matter how hard she tried.

She was probably used to being the most successful one, considering her status as a genius and all.

But to be fair, Julius had some major advantages. For one, he had an amazing skill that allowed him an unfair perception of the entire training course as well as practice utilizing this skill to great effect.

He also had an affinity that was regarded as one of the best affinities for physical fighters.

He chided himself for getting distracted as he received another blow to his knee.

While Richard was supposedly a mage, the man could fight like a demon. It reminded Julius of Edwin. Their styles were very similar.

Julius couldn’t help but feel his heart clench at the thought of his previous mentor. He had to use [Sage of Savagery] to temper his emotions.

The main difference was that Edwin used shadows and deception whereas Richard used Julius’s own perception against him.

Richard quickly understood that Julius was able to sense any of his attacks, leading the man to take advantage of that. He would attempt very subtle feints that nobody other than Julius could sense, but then punish Julius if he ever fell for them.

The other one was that unlike Edwin who had been Tier 4, Richard was a genuine Tier 5.

“Why didn’t you become a close combat fighter?” Julius asked as he parried a punch and checked the follow-up leg kick from Richard.

Richard paused for a moment. He wasn’t even close to out of breath, he looked so at ease as he casually took Julius apart.

“My family is a House full of warriors. We have an extensive history of being some of the best frontline fighters in the Empire. But I didn’t want to go down that route. I stubbornly insisted on becoming a mage, much to my family’s displeasure,” Richard said with a laugh.

“Why did you want to become a mage so bad?”

Richard looked over where Rebecca was helping Reinera with some of her skills with an embarrassed look. “I met a girl.”

“You met a girl?” Julius asked slowly, in disbelief as to the reason.

“Yes, a girl. My heart was captured the moment I laid eyes upon her. It was as if fate herself placed my darling right in my path,” Richard said dramatically.

“I still don’t understand why a mage though.”

Richard gave him an affronted look. “Isn’t it obvious? I wanted to impress her. She was a mage herself and I wanted to show her that I could be just as amazing as her. She didn’t have any interest in a guy who beat someone up with a hammer or sword.”

“And it worked?” Julius asked, surprised.

“Not a chance,” the man replied instantly, laughing boisterously afterward. “No, we found other things in common that brought us together. And then…”

“And then the rest was history,” Julius finished for him with a knowing grin.

“And then the rest was history,” Richard repeated with a bright smile toward his wife and son before turning to look at Julius. “So what about you and Grace? You two are about the same age.”

“What about us?”

“Well, I thought it was curious that the two of you were traveling alone. You see, a noble-born daughter like her would normally have retainers or guards escorting her, and yet she just has you.”

“What makes you think she’s a noble born?”

“Oh, please. Anyone with two eyes can see it. Her whole demeanor says it, although it seems like she is getting more comfortable with my wife and that facade is fading away,” Richard noted.

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Julius could only shrug. Richard had a good point. Reinera, especially when she wanted to, could act very noble like. It wasn’t that subtle.

“So?” Richard asked.

“Huh?” He asked while looking at him.

“I mean, what’s the story between you two? How did you guys even come to Blumand? Like I said, you don’t often see two noble children running around alone in such an isolated part of the Empire.”

“Two noble children?” Julius asked, surprised.

“Well, there is no way you are some average commoner. You are far too monstrous to be that. You might not be a noble, but someone trained you. People don’t just become that powerful without any assistance or massive luck. People might assume you are a commoner based on your lack of etiquette but I have seen noble born who act like thugs and commoners who act like spoiled princes. Behavior can be learned,” Richard said to him with a grin.

“Also I can’t see how Grace would be allowed to just run off with a lone boy, nobles don’t like that sort of thing. You obviously have known each other for a while, but I can’t comprehend the dynamic. At first, I thought you were some sort of bodyguard her family trained, but you don’t act with the subservient attitude one would have if that was the case. Most families don’t allow their guard dogs that much freedom, especially not ones who teach their daughters that much etiquette,” Richard said with a knowing look on his face as he observed Julius.

Julius didn’t know how to respond to that. The man was scarily perceptive, just as he noticed when they went out that night. The man was all smiles, but Julius realized that this man was likely much more dangerous than anyone else at this estate.

“What do you think now?” He finally asked.

Richard shook his head and chuckled. “That’s the beauty of it! I have no idea!”

Julius gave him a blank stare for a good long while.

“Does it really matter that much?” He finally asked Richard.

The man shook his head. “Not really. I know some of the others want to know but I don’t care that much. Neither does Becca, but it is something that is somewhat of a mystery to us,” Richard admitted.

“Well, it’s not really my decision to make,” he told him. “It’s really up to Grace to decide whether or not she feels comfortable sharing with you guys. Until then, I don’t really want to give anything away that she might not want me to.”

“That is understandable, and I will respect it. Rebecca will too. She only gets a bit obsessed when it concerns Cory.”

Julius nodded his head and gave the man a grateful smile.

“You want to continue?” He asked.

“Of course, whenever you are ready.”

***

The more time Julius trained with Richard, the closer he was getting to earning a skill. Or at least, that was his feeling.

The first step Richard had him do was to channel a bunch of fire mana through his body. That was relatively easy. His mana control has always been one of his strongest abilities.

With that being said, the difficulty came after he managed to do that. Julius had tried to gain a fire-based physical skill in the past but had never been able to manage it.

He wasn’t able to utilize the fire mana in any way other than just heating his body up.

Richard fortunately, had a way around this. In fact, his skill actively used this aspect as a part of its function.

The trick was to use his aura as an aid. Julius had been using [Empowerment of Will] to aid his [Kinetic Augmentation] for a while now. It was a skill that used his aura to empower his actions, whether that was his other skills or something else.

The skill had fallen somewhat behind some of his other skills, the epic skills in particular. However, it was still a superior skill that would use his Will Concept whenever he was ready to advance it.

In fact, it was already at level 19, so that day might be closer than suspected. He just needed that one last push to get it over the line.

However, for the time being, he was using it to facilitate his ability to use fire mana to enhance his body.

Richard helped and guided Julius into channeling his mana into parts of his body in specific circuits.

However, when Julius was still unable to learn a skill, the man proposed an interesting idea. He believed that since Julius already had a kinetic body enhancement skill, he was used to channeling this energy for his body. This might lead to him subconsciously trying to use fire mana like kinetic energy.

Furthermore, this was a common problem for those who want to use multiple energy sources for their body skill. Hence, his own problems so far.

He would sometimes practice over 12 hours a day, with or without Richard around to help him. The man was still a father and a busy man after all. He couldn’t dedicate his entire life to helping Julius gain a single skill, whether he was grateful for him saving his son or not.

Thankfully, he learned his lessons from his previous training experiences. This meant he still maintained a better balance. When he wasn’t training, he was exploring the city with Reinera, sometimes Rebecca and Richard came along as well.

Occasionally he would spend time meditating and getting a feel for his Emblem, something Richard recommended to him. However, that was a work in progress. Julius was only able to figure out that his Emblem was some sort of marker on his soul and not much else.

He didn’t see much of the Marquis, but the man was a Patriarch to a Marquis House, so he didn’t think it was odd.

Although, the man had told Julius that the rift was ready whenever they needed it. Assuring them that there was no rush to use it. Something Julius was immensely appreciative of.

It was only after a couple of weeks of persistent training, that Julius finally made a breakthrough.

He didn’t know what it was. It could have been his repetitive actions paying off or just sheer luck, but he finally felt something click into place.

A rush of fire mana surged through his body in an invigorating manner. It was a completely different sensation than his kinetic energy.

Whereas his [Kinetic Augmentation] felt like a reactive and quick pulsing of power. This new feeling was deep and consistent. It was equally flowing throughout his entire body with such warmth and vibrance.

With that feeling came a notification that he had been waiting for with extreme impatience.

Would you like to learn the skill [Thermal Empowerment]?

When he read the message, he jumped and down in joy.

It was late at night and he was alone, practicing in his usual training area outside, but he wanted to go and tell Richard as soon as he could.

However, he restrained himself. He had been waiting for weeks at this point and he could wait another several hours until their usual training session to surprise the man.

In the meantime, he just reread the notification many times over, proud of himself for finally getting a skill that has been challenging to learn for a long time.

The smile didn’t leave his face for hours, not even when he was devouring a piece of cake as a celebration.