Path to Transcendence

Chapter 261: About Time

Unlike most skill acquisitions, this one felt different.

This time the process felt more personal and affected something on a spiritual level. His aura, which had been purposefully stifled, underwent a transformation of a sort.

What had once been an unruly child throwing a temper tantrum with no rhyme or reason, gradually mellowed out. With this, Julius’s tight grip over his aura also slightly loosened. He already instinctively understood that he no longer needed such a firm hand.

The main thing that had changed was that his aura was no longer giving off such a weak signature. Previously, whenever he restricted his aura, it made it seem weaker than it was. But the new skill managed to suppress the ruinous effect while also not completely stifling it. This meant he was able to ‘breathe’ once more.

Or at least that was what it felt like. He didn’t have Richard or Reinera there to ask and trying to see what his own aura felt like from another perspective wasn’t that simple. He might still try to keep up that weak aura presence though, he thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he could trick people with it.

If there was one dramatic change, it was that his aura seemed to have this new weight to it.

His aura has always been more powerful than others of his tier, mainly deriving from his powerful soul. But this was different. This had more of a destructive and oppressive element to it.

It probably had something to do with the ‘ruin’ element of the skill.

Luckily, he didn’t sense anyone too close nearby and quickly hid his aura so that it went back feeling like its previous self. Thankfully, his new epic skill made manipulating his aura many times easier than it was in the past. What had once been challenging felt simple now and he was able to replicate that same restricted feeling.

He let out a deep sigh of relief. For the past several weeks he has been constantly focused on his aura. And while it didn’t seem that bad, it was absolutely irritating to deal with every second of every day.

He was immediately glad that he had chosen this skill.

***

For the next several days the caravan continued their way to Greenwich. During this time, they came across many more groups of monsters. But none of them were close to the level of the Null Fiends. Most of the time the mages took care of the monsters before they got within reach.

Another thing that he noticed was that the atmosphere around the group felt a bit weird. Beck was his normal self, loud and sometimes crude, but it was a comfort compared to how George and Stephanie were acting.

Stephanie was still being kind and all, but whenever she thought he wasn’t paying attention, he would spot her intensely looking at him. She wasn’t alone either. George, it would seem was looking at him the same way.

It didn’t make him that comfortable, especially not after George had pulled that thing while he was fighting the Null Fiends.

He couldn’t help but be confused about their behavior. He didn’t see a reason why they would act so oddly.

They aren’t doing anything wrong at the moment, it just feels like both of them are constantly watching me, he thought to himself with a sigh. Also, it didnʼt really matter at this point. He had a feeling that things were approaching that time.

He looked over at the other caravan members who were lying around the campsite they created.

Most of the people who were apart of this mission had gotten settled in and used to the routine they established.

The sun had already set over the horizon and everyone except for a few people who were on duty to make sure they weren’t attacked at night were relaxing or laughing with their friends.

They weren’t too worried about being attacked. It had only happened once since the mission started and it was only a lone monster. Most of the time, the sheer amount of numbers scared off most of the solitary hunters that prowled the nighttime.

He was sitting down on the grass a good ways from the caravan when he sensed someone approaching him from behind.

“What are you doing out here this late?” Stephanie asked as she got closer.

He turned toward her. “Just enjoying the night sky,” he said without turning around to look at her.

“You seem to like doing it quite often,” she noted.

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s calming and gets me away from the rest of the people,” he explained.

“You don’t like being around us?” She teased.

He didn’t respond and simply kept staring out toward the pitch-dark plains. He felt her shift uncomfortably as she continued to look at him, expecting an answer.

“So you don’t?” She finally asked.

“What do you want?” He abruptly questioned her.

“Sorry?” His abrupt change of attitude appeared to put her on the back foot.

“I suspect you came out over here to say something to me or to ask me something. What is it?” He asked, not really having the patience to beat around the bush. Her and George’s incessant staring had been getting on his nerves a little bit and even his patience had a limit.

“I—” Stephanie started to say something but held back.

He sighed and shook his head. “You don’t think I haven’t been aware of you or George staring daggers at my back? If you keep looking at me like that, I might get the wrong idea.”

“What do you mean?” She asked softly.

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“I mean George is much more subtle. But that must come with his skill set and practice. But the way you guys are looking at me makes me think that you have some sort of ulterior motive,” he said in a semi-joking manner.

Her mouth opened but nothing came out. It would appear his forthright manner caught her off guard and she didn’t know what to say.

“So? What is it?” He asked.

An awkward silence pervaded the night air.

“Your presence here is quite odd, can’t you agree with that?” She finally eeked out.

“Odd?” He asked.

“Yes, odd. You are way too young to be allowed to come along on this mission. You are also apparently here under House Easten’s direct orders with knowledge about what has been going on. Things like the continuing attacks and issues that have been plaguing House Easten.”

“And?”

“And your aura, which has been suspiciously weak for someone who can take down multiple Null Fiends suddenly changed several days ago,” she said a bit more confidently.

His brows raised slightly. “My aura changed?”

He didn’t know that. He had been under the assumption that his aura was quite similar to how it had once been before he got his new aura skill. However, it would seem that he was wrong about that. That was his mistake and he mentally slapped himself for the error.

“Is my aura such a big deal?”

“It’s everything. This mission is rated as an A-rank mission for a reason. And I don’t want me or my team to die because there is something we don’t understand. We have been through too much to die because of some stupid noble politics,” she said aggressively.

“Trust me, I don’t want any of you to die on this mission,” he tried to reassure her.

“Trust you? How can you ask that? If you want me to trust you, an explanation of who you are and what you are doing here would go a long way.”

Good point, but I don’t know if I can exactly tell you why I am here.

The odds of her and her team being a part of the Conclave were low, but he didn’t know for sure.

“What about George?” He asked suddenly.

“What? What about him?” She asked, confused.

“You speak of trust and yet George allowed that fiend to shoot that attack at me without warning or trying to stop it. I think itʼs a bit hypocritical of you to be distrustful of me when it was your teammate that could have gotten me killed or hurt don’t you think?” He pointed out.

A guilty expression flashed across her face but she quickly smothered it and opened her mouth as if to reply. However, he cut her off before she could. “Don’t try to deny it either. I saw you go and confront him the other night. And yet the only thing that happened was that you started to stalk me.”

“I was not stalking you!” She said firmly.

“Practically. Whenever I moved or did something, you or George were always looking at me. I don’t think I have gotten a moment of peace or alone time in these past several days. For hellʼs sake, you two have been watching me while I sleep. What do you think I am going to do? Sneak off and go report to whoever has been attacking caravans.”

“What George did was not okay. He was totally out of line. I will have him apologize to you immediately,” she promised, pointedly not denying the other things.

Julius chuckled. “You can tell him that right now,” he said to her, glancing at the empty space to the right of them.

“What do you–?” She started before she realized what he meant by that. “George?” She asked toward where he had glanced at.

The man in question seemed to realize that he had been found and appeared before their eyes. The handsome guy must have noticed the two of their absences and decided to sneak around them with some sort of stealth skill.

“And you wonder why we are suspicious of you,” George said to him with a wary eye. “How did you sense me?”

Julius didn’t look at the man with his eyes but responded. “Your stealth skill could use some work. You hide your aura decently well, but your physical presence stands out like a sore thumb. You also release too much mana,” he said honestly.

“What does that mean?” George asked, sounding a bit offended at the evaluation of his stealth skill.

“Why were you spying on us?” Stephanie asked before George could say anything.

The man looked at his teammate and shrugged. “I saw you leave and wanted to know where you were going.”

“Yes, a sign of a very trustworthy person,” Julius said with a sarcastic smirk.

Stephanie gave him a look before turning to George. “This is perfect, you can use this time to properly apologize to Julius.”

The other man looked ashamed for a moment and looked at Julius. “I’m sorry,” he said, sounding surprisingly sincere. “Even if I have my doubts about you, I shouldn’t have done that to you.”

Julius mulled over the apology and understood that from the perspective of apologies, it was a pretty good one. So merely nodded at the man. “It’s fine. I wouldn’t have been hurt anyway.”

George and Stephanie both seemed surprised by his nonchalant and confident answer.

“Are you saying that even if you didn’t avoid it, the attack wouldn’t have hurt you?” She asked.

“It might have, but I doubt it. It wasn’t that powerful,” he said distractedly, still staring at the darkness beyond the plains.

”Not powerful? Really?” She asked in disbelief.

”Eh, nothing that would worry me too much,” he said with confidence.

“Why are you acting like this now? You have obviously been hiding your abilities since we left Blumand, so why the sudden honesty? Who are you?”

He smiled. “I wasn’t hiding anything to deceive you guys in particular, if that makes you feel better.”

“Then for what? What is your real purpose for coming along?” She asked, getting a little frustrated at his attitude as well as the fact that he wasn’t looking at either of them.

Julius noticed that George had tensed up, noticing the weird air.

“My purpose?” He asked her.

“Yes, why are you here?” She asked once more.

“I’m here because of that,” he said while pointing out at the darkness with a wild grin.

“What the hell are you talking about?” She asked, now properly annoyed at his behavior.

“You can’t sense it?” He asked curiously. He was surprised, to his senses it couldn’t be clearer. It was why he had been spending so much time observing the plains at night. It was what he had been eagerly waiting for.

He had already been made aware that most of the attacks on the transports happened at times when they were most unprepared.

Whether that was when the group had just finished fighting a group of monsters or like in this case, when everyone was either asleep or going to bed.

George must have realized what he was implying and sent out a strong pulse of some kind of skill. Julius amusedly watched as the man’s face turned to ash. However, to his credit, he didn’t waste a moment.

“We’re under attack!” He yelled out as loudly as he could, alerting the rest of the caravan before staring at Julius with a glare and dashed toward him in a burst of speed.

But instead of getting close to Julius, George found himself completely immobilized mid-leap.

“I am not with them,” Julius promised the irate man while holding him with kinetic energy.

Stephanie who was still processing what had just happened looked lost.

“You’re here too…”

“It was House Easten’s plan,” he casually came out and told her, pretty sure that neither of them were a part of this scheme, their reactions were too panicked.

While he let her come to grasp with the new development he got to his feet, dusted off the dirt from his butt, and stepped toward the incoming aura signatures running toward him with a narrowing of his eyes.

With George’s yelling, it would seem they were no longer bothering to hide their actions.

If they wanted a fight then he would gladly entertain them. After all, he had been getting tired of waiting once he noticed them watching their caravan for the past few night and wanted to release some stress he had been building up.