Path to Transcendence

"That was fast. I thought you were training your aura lately, I thought that maybe it would take you a couple of weeks to evolve your [Mana Manipulation]."

"Yeah I made more progress faster than I thought I would," Julius said offhandedly.

Julius felt Declan\'s aura probe, it was much more subtle than the one he used at the gate when Julius first met him. If it wasn\'t for his training and his really good perception he didn\'t think he would have noticed this time.

Declan knew Julius felt it, and looked at him his gaze asking for an explanation. He knew Julius was hiding something. But Julius knew Declan wouldn\'t press unless he was really worried about Julius, he was fine with not knowing all of Julius\'s secrets, which Julius respected immensely. Still, he felt bad for keeping it from Declan. Plus, he was leaving soon anyway and Declan wouldn\'t be able to stop Julius from practicing at night anymore.

Julius decided to come clean, it would keep his conscious clear in the long run.

"I may have been practicing all night when everyone went to bed," he admitted to Declan.

"All night? How late were you practicing?" Declan asked concerningly.

"The entire night," Julius answered.

Declan had stopped walking, Julius felt Declan enforce the barrier of aura that was already around them, protecting their conversation from people who might overhear it.

"Okay, I\'m confused, explain," Declan said.

"You know my healing skill?" Julius asked and Declan nodded in return. "Well, it has a unique effect where it is able to heal fatigue, which also extends to how much sleep I require to function."

Declan thought on Julius\'s words before responding, "Most healing skills, even at rare specialize in one area. Regeneration or healing of injuries is one of them, the other is recovery, which includes fatigue and purification. I have not heard of a skill that allows you to do all of that at high levels and also mitigate sleep."

"So most healing skills or recovery skills don\'t let people go without sleep?" Julius asked him.

"They can, but only for a day or two, and there are usually some bad side effects for doing so. I wonder if that is why your skill is rated as rare+." Declan added.

"Should I be worried about long-term side effects if I continue to do it? I have been doing it for the past few weeks but I haven\'t noticed anything," Julius informed Declan.

"A few weeks with no sleep?" Declan asked worryingly.

"I did take a couple of naps in between but essentially little to no sleep for weeks," Julius said.

Declan thought for a while, they had moved off the main road and were standing by an empty alley. "Honestly, I would say yes in most cases. You won\'t find many healing skills like that until epic rank, even then they are extremely uncommon. I can see if it was a single skill that focused on lower requirements of sleep, some skills exist like that and are used mainly by researchers but yours sounds very unique. I would be extremely worried if your aura was showing negative signs, but it seems healthy, exceedingly healthy even."

Julius was relieved, but he was scared for a moment, he thought that he was hurting himself. Sleep deprivation was a real thing in his old world. Luckily Declan believed that Julius wasn\'t killing himself so far.

"Do you think it has to do with the fact it is a self-use healing only? Would that restriction impact how effective its healing is?" Julius wanted to know if that was possible.

"I didn\'t know you could only use it on yourself. But that would make more sense. Self-buff skills are always more powerful than skills that allow you to buff anyone. It\'s as you said, more restrictions but higher potency," Declan agreed with Julius.

Julius would be careful in the future, he wouldn\'t stop completely but he would make sure he did take breaks every now and then. Like how he did last night.

"I promise I will monitor it closely, if anything seems off I will stop using it," Julius promised Declan.

"That\'s all I can ask for, I can\'t exactly tell you what to do, especially while you are at the academy but I do hope you will take care of yourself. You are sometimes too mature for your age, but don\'t let training suck the enjoyment out of life," Declan advised him.

Declan never did answer, what skill he should take that is. He said that he should wait until he has the time to research some of the available [Mana Manipulation] options at Goldencrest. Declan told him he would have the resources to get a better idea of what certain skills might do.

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They eventually, made it to the gates of Goldencrest Academy, the gorgeous gold building looming behind the massive gates. There were a lot of kids his age with their parents entering the property. There were many Goldencrest staff members out in front making sure each person had what they needed and directing them to the testing areas.

All students were required to go through the first screening process. It was an affinity test, to see each student\'s affinities and then they were sent over to take an interview portion, where they would be asked a set of questions. Finally, they were taken to a training arena, where they would take a practical exam.

It was supposed to be a test to see where students stand in actual combat or to see how well they have learned and utilized their skills.

Julius was certain that most of the kids around him had an excellent affinity in at least one, maybe even there were some with a perfect affinity. He just hoped that wouldn\'t prevent him from getting accepted. Declan had assured him that affinities only mattered to the test examiners if someone didn\'t excel at the practical or interview portion. Most of the time they lauded hard work over talent.

They waited in line for their turn, and after a while, a lady finally approached them. Declan showed the staff Julius\'s paperwork and the lady ordered Julius to follow her. Declan had to stay behind, but he said he would come back in a couple of hours when the exam was over. Quickly saying his goodbyes, Julius followed the lady to the first area.

The lady took him to a large building with many rooms where kids were leaving and entering alongside another staff member. Julius entered a room and looked around. It was a bare room except for a table set up with an orb that was supposed to gauge one\'s affinity.

It was similar to the one that was used in his affinity ritual, but just a little more simple in design. The one he had used was too expensive to use for the purpose of the exam, these ones were able to test specific affinities.

On an application you would state your affinities, and then during the testing, they would only test your affinity on those types. It was much cheaper than testing every affinity. It was just to verify and to make sure nobody was lying. Julius had asked Declan to only put down fire and kinetic as his, omitting his life affinity. It was against the rules to lie on the application but it wasn\'t against the rules to not state every affinity. There wouldn\'t be any reason for most people to do that.

The lady was very professional, she didn\'t interact with Julius beyond telling him what to do. She looked at his profile and set up the affinity orb with a deft hand, speaking of her experience and how many times she must\'ve done this. At her orders, he placed his hands on the orb.

He stayed there with his hand attached to the glowing orb for a while until the lady told him when he was done and didn\'t say anything else to Julius, she just wrote down the results and led him out of the room.

It was feeling very clinical, he didn\'t necessarily mind it, because he wasn\'t getting treated rudely or anything, but admitted that he would have preferred some warmth or maybe even a smile if the lady was capable of it.

Maybe every staff member was told to behave like that. Either way, he made sure to thank her every time she did something for him. His gramps had taught him that politeness barely cost anything so he should always try to be polite.

The staff member finally led him down a hallway and into a room where three people were sitting at a table. There was another orb placed where he expected he would sit, but nothing else. The lady didn\'t say another word and left him in the company of the three people in front of him.

There were two men and a single woman sitting on the panel. The man to Julius\'s left was older but had a kind smile across his face, while the other two were coldly looking at Julius. Julius just stood before them displaying a smile of his own at the examiners. He didn\'t make any moves to sit in the chair in front of him, waiting for them to give him instructions.

Finally, the man in the middle said, "You may take a seat," he looked down at the piece of paper he had in his hands, "Mr. Julius Snow."

Julius nodded his head and took a seat. He didn\'t put his real last name, for obvious reasons.

"Okay, we have a list of questions we would like to ask you. All I ask is for you to keep your hands placed on the orb in front of you. It is a simple truth stone, if you don\'t want to answer a question, just let us know and you won\'t have to respond. Do you understand?" The man asked Julius.

"Yes sir," Julius responded and placed his hands on the blue orb.

"Let\'s get started then. Why do you want to attend Goldencrest Academy?"

Julius thought about his answer for a second before he replied. "I guess the main reason why I want to attend Goldencrest is that I lack knowledge and I wish to learn about magic and how to progress through the tiers."

"There are many other schools that would be able to give you a thorough education, what specifically about Goldencrest makes you want to come here?" This time it was the sole lady who asked him the question. Julius took a moment to observe her in more detail. She was a pretty middle-aged woman, her blonde hair tied up in a bun, and she had a pair of glasses framing her soft features.

"It is one of the best academies on the continent, ma\'am. If I am getting an education I want it to be the best one I can get," Julius answered her while looking directly into her eyes.

"No other reasons?" The old man with the kind smile interjected.

Julius turned to him, "I also heard it was an absolutely stunning place in person, and everything I have seen so far has supported that."

"Okay, next question, what did you think of the women who brought you in here?" The man in the middle asked.

The question caught Julius off guard. Was that the reason why the woman had behaved like that? Was it done purposefully to find out which people would get insulted by that behavior? That was quite devious of the school to do that.

"Honestly, I don\'t have much of an opinion, sir. She wasn\'t rude or anything, but she also didn\'t treat me with any particular kindness. I thought she was professional and good at her job though," Julius answered truthfully, and the orb pulsed with blue supporting that as well.

They didn\'t ask any more questions that caught him off guard. Most of them were ones that he had predicted they would ask. Just simple questions about what he wanted to do and his aspirations. Or others about his family, which he either chose not to answer or felt he could be vague enough. It was all pretty simple, he had already thought of answers that wouldn\'t tell the whole truth but also wouldn\'t be judged as lies either.

He just continued answering their questions as politely as he could.