Path to Transcendence

Chapter 576: Crafting Competition

His next match was tomorrow, and it was against none other than Eren. Julius had always been curious about Eren and his skills. He had already seen several of his fights, but that was as a spectator, rather than as an opponent.

The other thing he was worried about was whether or not Eren had some kind of trump card still tucked away. Julius had one, but he also didn’t really want to show it in front of the whole capital. The only person left in the tournament who might know about his healing skill was Isaac.

And the big brute couldn’t be sure if Julius had used some kind of healing item or potion instead.

He was fine with revealing his teleportation skill. That wasn’t an issue, since the real secret was its ability to bypass anti-spatial enchantments and techniques. He didn’t think many people knew about that aspect.

He was currently sitting with his friends watching the crafting competition. They all wore some kind of disguise. Lily and Derek even had some nice illusion-type items that shrouded their faces. They wouldn’t hold up against any deep inspection, but for this purpose, they were more than sufficient. Aubrey didn’t have a need for an item; she was able to repurpose her clone skill to create an illusory layer over her face.

Edgar and Julius didn’t have any items or skills, so they were left on their own. Edgar didn’t really bother to hide much. He wore a straw hat and a rough knitted tunic, making him look like some kind of farmer. A very large farmer, but the look suited him.

Julius was much lazier and went with a black cloak that hid most of his features. He had tried to take off his crown and put it into his soul for safekeeping, but for some reason, the crown had thrown quite a fit when he did that.

Large pulses of ruinous flames exploded from inside his soul. It was very uncomfortable, and despite his best attempts at scolding the crown, it was a stubborn little thing. Julius ended up surrendering to its whims and allowed it to stay on his head.

However, this meant he had to hide it under his hood. Thankfully, he didn’t stand out too much. A lot of people had cloaks and hoods. He wasn’t too conspicuous.

They all found some nice seats to watch the crafting competition. The competition was quite exciting. The entire process was on display for anyone to see. Julius was quite impressed at the level of expertise.

This particular crafting competition was only for people Tier 4 and under, but the skill the crafters showed was evident. Their mana control was better than what Julius had seen from elite fighters. Which honestly made sense considering their entire livelihoods depended on it.

He was curious about what kind of skills these crafters had, though. How much did their skills diverge from those of people like him who focused on combat? Did they have similar skills to him and just utilize them differently? Or did they have skills that specialized in pure crafting?

He reminded himself to ask Cassian the next time he talked to the weird man. According to Freya and Reinera, the man was quite the crafter.

One person who stood out to Julius was a crafter who used wood magic. It was a young woman with dark brown hair and extremely vibrant green eyes. They were glowing with such intensity as she worked on the wooden box in front of her.

At first glance, the box was just a regular wooden box. It was around the size of his head, but looking closer, you could see that it was decorated with such immaculate care. Intricate swirls carved into the wood, along with metal inlaid in the grooves.

He had seen her mold each metal piece by hand and use some kind of skill to infuse the metal with mana. He wished he could have seen the box up close. The video displayed above the arena was nice, but it didnʼt capture all of her work.

If that were all, Julius would already be impressed. However, this wasn’t just a normal box. He could sense something special about it. He felt slight waves of spatial energy rippling from its surface a few minutes ago. She must have done something to hide this radiating energy.

There was a time limit as well. The competitors had an hour to create something from scratch. It also had to fit within the parameters that the judges explained to the competitors. Creating a masterpiece in less than an hour sounded difficult, even to Julius.

“I wonder what she is making,” he muttered to Lily, who was also focused on the competition.

“Oh? You think she is gonna win?” She asked him.

He shrugged. “Maybe. Why? You don’t think she is going to win?”

“Hmmm. I think he has a better shot at winning,” Lily said, pointing at an older man a few stations down from the wood crafter.

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Julius glanced at the older man and saw that he was making a tall, skinny pole. He had no idea what it was supposed to be.

“What is he making?” He asked her.

“I think he’s making something that deters monsters or people from approaching a place. It looks like the Guardian Pillar I have seen our family guards use when we are out in the wild.”

“Like a protective barrier?”

“Sort of. These seem to have some sort of enchantment that utilizes several branches of magic. A general confusion spell, as well as something that interferes with people recognizing that something is there. It’s hard to tell from here. But it seems like he knows what he is doing,” she explained.

Julius nodded and was about to ask another question when someone else’s voice whispered between them.

“You’re almost correct. It’s indeed inspired by the Guardian Pillars some adventurers use when they are traveling in the wild. But he is adding several additional enchantments. The climate control enchantment itself is quite complex and powerful. I suspect it would even work in places like the far north or the Scorched Wastelands. There is also a mana gathering node, which should moderately increase mana to aid recovery and other techniques. I think he is adding a stealth component next to hide all of these complex enchantments from anyone’s perception,” the woman’s voice explained, sounding quite impressed.

“Oh, really? I didn’t even notice all of that,” Lily said with a pleasant smile to the woman. “So do you think it will be enough to win the competition?”

“It’s hard to say. I am not an enchanter or a crafter. But my brother is. He loves to tinker with stuff like that. I should have brought him here; he would have loved it.”

Lily and this woman continued talking like nothing was out of the ordinary. Julius, on the other hand, was staring at the woman with pinched lips, silent with shock. He had no idea when she had sat down or how long she had been sitting next to them.

Sure, there was a crowd, but he didn’t even sense her next to him. Not even with [Absolute Spatial Perception]. He finally managed to collect himself and sighed softly.

“How did you find me?” He asked Cassandra, the Vice-Sect Leader of the Burning Sun Clan.

The gorgeous red-haired woman pulled down her hood to reveal her face, and she smiled warmly at him. “I was walking by here with Maya, but sensed you were close by, so I told her to head back while I took a little detour. Is this one of the ones that you were telling me about?”

Julius had so many other questions for the woman who appeared out of nowhere, but instead, he just decided to roll with it. “Yeah, this is Lily. Our other friends are off looking for souvenirs to buy.”

He turned to Lily. “You didn’t sense her either?”

She shook her head. “Yeah, but she seemed like a nice person, so I didn’t think too much of it.”

“Ah, I remember now. You’re the Violet girl,” Cassandra said with a nod.

Lily frowned. “Who is she?” She asked him with a concerned expression on her face. Julius wouldn’t doubt that Lily was putting the pieces together. She likely understood that the woman in front of her wasn’t just a normal woman. Lily knew how powerful Julius’s perception was, and sneaking up on him wasn’t something anyone could do.

“Her name is Cassandra, and she is the Vice-Sect Leader of the Burning Sun Clan. You know the one who told me about advanced fires and stuff. Her son was the one who attacked me with his aura after the first stage,” he added as an afterthought.

“Don’t worry about Adrianagus. I sent him home after he made an embarrassment of himself and the clan. You won’t see him again, unless you decide to accept our invitation. Which I remind you is still open. I paid close attention to some of your fights during the tournament. Your improvements to your fire are very impressive. That crown you got is a good fit for you. A little dangerous perhaps, but a nice addition and should help you quite nicely down the road.”

“You don’t think it makes me too unbalanced?” He asked her, not scared about showing his apprehensions about the crown. He liked his new soul-bound item, he really did. It was powerful and would grow alongside him. However, he wouldn’t lie and say it didn’t worry him that the crown would go out of his control someday. Honestly, she might be one of the best people to ask. She was the one who told him all about advanced fires in the first place.

She took a few moments to look at him, but before she answered his question, she reached over and gently pulled back his hood, inspecting the crown that was laid beneath it. He felt her use some of her aura to examine it a little more closely.

“A curious little thing, ain’t it?” She commented and gave it a little poke.

The crown flared up and spat out a tiny flame at her. She chuckled and let it make contact with her. However, instead of disappearing, the flame continued to burn. It felt like she was purposefully allowing the crown to eat away at her aura to fuel it.

“So is it bad?” He asked again.

She pressed her lips together and touched her cheek with the flame.

“To be honest? Itʼs a very dangerous item to have. If it were anyone else, I might have stolen it and destroyed it before it could grow into something more terrifying,” she said to him seriously.

He gulped. “And me?” He asked hopefully.

“For you, I think it might work. You have the willpower to control it. I can already tell that it has formed a bond of mutual respect with you. If you continue to cultivate it well, then it will become a great source of strength for you. However, if you fail to control it, you will be consumed by its hunger and destruction. If that happens, then you will burn the world until there is nothing left to consume.”

He didn’t like the tone of her voice when she said that. He didn’t mind that he would die if he failed to control it. But he wasn’t okay with burning the entire world because of his failure. He recalled the vision he received when he first got the crown. The man who had been wearing it looked like he was completely insane, as there was nothing but death and desolation around him.

He looked up at the crown with a slightly anxious expression on his face. You wouldn’t do that, would you? He asked the crown internally.

All he got was a brief pulse of blue flames in response and a feeling that the crown wasn’t confirming or denying that possibility.