Path to Transcendence

Chapter 693: Good Old Training

Turns out that Selene was also there to investigate the Obsidian Vault. Initially, she’d been planning to find a team that might have needed a healer, but it turns out that finding a team you could trust when going inside an inheritance trial was very difficult. It was equally hard to convince other people that you weren’t going to screw them over inside.

Julius had already returned to Clan Yoshu and received a special pass that would allow him to enter the vault. During that time, he helped Lora improve her connection with Aurelia. He gave them some tips on using aura to do this. He also got a few nice things for his troubles.

Kaito had given him a sack of gold and a few treasures he thought Julius might like. Julius didnʼt know how useful these treasures would be to him, but it felt like bad manners not to take them.

Selene didn’t need anything like this. She’d already gotten special permission thanks to her sect. Being a part of the Verdant Willow Sect, one of the Ten Great Sects, helped out in matters like this.

There was over a week until the next time it opened, though. Selene timidly asked him if he wanted to take a mission from the Adventurers Guild. Apparently, she was also a part of it, even though she was already an inner disciple of the Verdant Willow Sect. He accepted, since there weren’t many better ways to explore a city or region than to go out and fight some monsters.

He also learned that she wasn’t as old as he initially thought. He assumed that she was in her mid-twenties, but apparently, she wasn’t that much older than he was. Not even twenty years old yet.

He was interested in why she was all the way in Goldmere alone, though. From what she’d told him, she only recently advanced to Tier 4. From what he heard from others, those who recently advanced often took some time to acclimate to the changes that came with becoming Tier 4. Yet, here she was.

He had a feeling that there were more reasons why she was in Goldmere than she let on. Though, to be fair, he had his own reasons and wasn’t telling them, so it would be unreasonable to expect her to tell him all of her secrets.

The mission they took was a simple extermination one. There was a large group of orcs terrorizing the area around Goldmere, and the guild sent out a request for any adventurers to kill them. Julius and Selene ended up going out in the morning a few days after they met and ate ice cream together.

When they arrived at the area where the orcs had been making noise, they spotted several other people there as well. Most of them were adventurers, but he saw people with robes of various sects there, too. Around half of the people were Tier 3, and the other half were Tier 4.

There hadn’t been any actual count of the number of orcs, but the guild alerted everyone who took the mission that there were a lot of them. They suspected a hidden rift had overflown beneath the cityʼs notice, and these orcs were simply a byproduct.

Julius, knowing better than to stay around a crowded area with people who loved to swing their swords at anything in sight, decided to go off toward an area where there were fewer people. Selene followed beside him. They had talked about their general skillsets last night.

Selene had a very traditional healing build. She excelled at healing magic, but she also had several other skills that allowed her to act as support. Stuff like buffing and barrier magic. She didn’t have many options for offense, though, relying on a simple mana bolt skill for most cases.

Julius, of course, didn’t tell her about his entire build, but he let her know that he was a close-combat fighter who had a few long-range abilities. The good part about kinetic energy was that it was very easy to hide compared to his fire and life affinities. People usually didn’t have an eye for that sort of thing, so unless they had a lot of experience with kinetic users, they wouldn’t understand that he was using kinetic energy.

Even back at the Burning Sun Sect, when he used kinetic energy, very few people recognized it. They simply assumed it was related to his body enforcement skill. Speaking of body enhancement skills, [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] was still at the edge of evolving. He didn’t know whether he wanted to go through with it, though.

The two legendary skills he had acquired previously were too strong. His soul was already struggling to handle such powerful skills. He wasn’t able to bring their full potential, and he was worried that gaining even more legendary skills would not only weigh down his soul but also limit the improvements he would be able to make with his other skills.

He would much rather improve his ten other epic skills than gain a legendary skill that he couldn’t use properly. With that in mind, he ultimately decided to hold off on pushing his body skill to legendary rank. The skill was more than powerful enough, and he still had to focus on his life technique from Tezuko.

Realistically, he would like to gain a skill or somehow integrate the two body enhancement skills before he evolves his [Pyrokinetic Embodiment of Ruin] to legendary.

Though his life mana technique was one thing he was worried about. He didn’t know if she would recognize what he was doing, but even Tezuko said that his technique was very different from the original. The combination of life mana and ruinous aura wasn’t like the life and death fusion Tezuko attempted. So he felt relatively safe.

She also knew he had a life spirit, so he couldn’t hide his life mana entirely. Though she might have some advice for him. Her handling of life mana was very precise and impressive in its own right.

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“A group of ten orcs is approaching ahead,” she suddenly said in a serious tone, breaking him out of his reverie.

He was a little surprised by how good her senses were. She’d already detected them all the way from where they were. Julius had [Absolute Spatial Perception], but the distance of the skill was more limited than other perception skills. Though the accuracy and precision of the skill couldn’t be matched, he wouldn’t have traded it for anything else.

Even similar skills like [Spatial Awareness] werenʼt as accurate as his own skill. Something that Dante and Alice confirmed personally.

He felt her already start to use her buffing magic on him, strengthening his body and enhancing his passive regeneration for mana and healing. She also prepared three separate barriers around them, covering their flanks and blind spots. They were sturdy, too. And while they didn’t seem anything outwardly special, the mana was tightly compressed together; he didn’t see any gaps or weaknesses.

He gave a nod of approval and noticed that the orcs had noticed them as well, shifting their direction slightly so that they were heading for them.

It was only then that Julius began to activate his body enhancement skills. The wolves he fought in the Solstice Grounds weren’t real opponents, but he was finally going to use his body techniques and stretch out his legs.

He let his life mana flow through his body, letting it weave into his muscles and let his ruinous aura follow behind. The two opposing energies slammed viciously against one another, and flickers of instability rippled from his body. He was a little rusty, and it showed.

Thankfully, he had something else to help him. His Concept of Balance rushed into the technique, immediately soothing and filling the cracks left by the two clashing energies.

He knew the new Concept would help, but he wasn’t expecting such a stark difference. It was shocking to feel how much of the instability was resolved just by infusing it.

That wasn’t all, either. He quickly activated his new skill, [Harmonic Balance]. That was when he felt things really change. The combination of both Burning Serenity and [Harmonic Balance] was potent. The skill grabbed a hold of the energies in such an oppressive grip that there was nothing his life mana or ruinous aura could do but listen.

For the first time ever, he understood the meaning of balance while using this technique. It was clear that he was simply playing pretend in the past. It was only now that he realized the true potential of such a technique and why Tezuko had attempted to use it.

He stared at the rapidly approaching orcs with a grin.

“Hey, you want to do something about them?” Selene asked a little worriedly as they got closer.

He brought out a stick from his storage ring. It wasn’t anything special; in fact, it was just a big hunk of adamantine he’d gotten from that Heavenly Crane Disciple that he shaped into a two-foot stick. He wrapped it in some leather, but that was it. There weren’t any enchantments on it or anything.

He wasn’t good enough to want to waste his materials on it. Plus, this metal was probably the strongest among the materials he got from the girl. Probably.

He shrugged. If it broke, he could always just smelt it and reforge it. That was the nice part about having a simple piece of metal.

He quickly used [Phoenix Mark] on the stick, allowing the skill to latch onto the weapon. Then he hefted the stick up and pulled back his arm, adding some kinetic energy to it. Just as they peered through the foliage of the trees, he took a single powerful step forward and threw the stick like a javelin.

It wasn’t pointy, nor was it a weapon meant for throwing. But with the help of kinetic energy, it wasn’t necessary. The stick rocketed through the air and slammed into the nearest orc’s face with a loud bang.

He quickly took hold of the stick via the mark he had placed on it, detonated the last of its kinetic energy to bring its momentum to a halt, and pulled it back to him.

While playing around with the skill, he discovered a few interesting things. For one, he was able to send some mana through it, so healing people from a distance should be possible. Heʼd test that once he got a better handle on his healing skill and wasnʼt so worried about turning his patients into a mutated pile of flesh.

The other thing he discovered was that he could control objects on which his mark had been placed. It was actually easier than when he used his aura manipulation as a mock telekinesis. The distance he was able to control was also further.

He took a step and blasted himself forward. The stick slapped back into his palms just as the nearest orc got within striking distance, and he swung the stick into the creature’s chest. The orc was surprisingly sturdy.

This was the first Tier 4 orc he’d fought, and apparently, they were much tougher than their Tier 3 brethren. He still shattered its ribcage, though, and he quickly realized he needed to make some adjustments.

Recalling what he used to do during his physical training class at Goldencrest, he began restricting his movements to conserve kinetic energy. It was actually a lot easier than it used to be. With [Field of the Shattered Will], he was able to precisely limit his movements, cutting his strength and speed in half.

He nodded satisfiedly when he was almost too slow to dodge a wild swing and failed to cave in the next orc’s chest. He spotted that there were a few orc shamans hiding in the back. However, Selene was already targeting them; she threw several bolts of compressed green mana at them.

They were blocked or avoided by the orcs, but that pressure ensured the orcsʼ attention was split up, and he was able to enjoy the next few minutes without worrying about a stray attack from these shamans slamming him in the back.

He split his attention between two things. One was watching Selene and how she used her skills. The other was focused on flowing in between these orcs. With his physical abilities hindered, he had to change his usual style.

Normally, he had a brutish style of combat, one which he loved to throw himself face-first into the fire. This was effective because he was stronger than most people of his tier and had a healing skill that allowed him to take more risks and ignore attacks.

But the downsides of that particular style of combat were obvious. He’d experienced firsthand how fighting against someone stronger and who was also able to slow down his healing could take him down. He needed to figure out another way to fight. One that didn’t rely on brute strength and one that utilized more grace and balance.

So instead of throwing himself at these orcs, he started to dance around them. He had a powerful perception ability that allowed him to keep track of his opponentsʼ positions, and he should use it better.

It had been a while since he experienced some good old training.