Path to Transcendence

It took him many years to come to terms with his future, but he did. Time had a way of healing wounds and scars. However, he found his calling, teaching others, so he threw himself into teaching the next generations.

He had seen many students come and go from the halls of Goldencrest over the many years he had been teaching here. From the people who went on to become Tier 6 powerhouses, to high-ranking nobility, and even those who went on to become some of the most depraved criminals in the Empire, he had seen them all.

Which was why he was very interested in this "Julius Snow". Stephen had heard about him from Gabriel during one of their late-night chats over dinner. He had rarely seen Gabriel so excited about a new person he met. He had been so busy with his wife and newborn daughter that Gabriel had few opportunities to meet new people outside of Goldencrest.

But Stephen had listened to Gabriel gush about this person and this unknown person began to pique his own interest. He had done his own investigation and quickly found the most probable student within a couple of days. He wasn\'t quite sure, but Julius\'s reaction cemented it for him.

After the second day of classes, many of the staff met up late at night to discuss some of the students and some of their expectations for the year. They might decide to change a few things they had already planned or keep them the same, it all depended on what kind of first impressions they had.

At the moment, Jerod Trench, Senior Professor of the Combat Department was speaking to the others. He was talking about some of the progress some of the upperclassmen had made during the break. Jerod had commented that a particular third-year, Samuel Drogan, had made some incredible improvements since the end of his second year.

Stephen remembered Samuel. He had him in his first-year Tier Advancement class. According to his memory, the boy didn\'t have many outstanding qualities or talents. He only had a single excellent water affinity, average fighting instincts, and wasn\'t that hard of a worker. This led Samuel to sit in the bottom half of the students of his year.

However, if what Jerod was saying had any merit, then Samuel had turned himself completely around and was now sitting in the upper half of his year. It wasn\'t something that was done often, such a dramatic change, but it did and was always impressive to watch.

The other professors each said a word or two of their own about certain new students who they thought had some potential and who might be good contenders for the end-of-year tournaments.

Stephen had noticed many of the students the others had mentioned in his own class. He was able to determine based on their aura, who was the most outstanding of the bunch.

He had to admit, there were some very impressive students in this year\'s class. He was certain that the Intra-School Tournament would be very interesting this year.

However, his mind kept going back to Julius. He had just seen the boy in his night aura class and he was astonished to see how much better the boy had gotten in just a day. Aura training was not easy, it was boring and repetitive, and there weren\'t any shortcuts.

If Stephen didn\'t know better he would have thought the boy had stayed up all night practicing. But that would be insane, the boy was quite alert the entire class, not showing a single sign of sleep deprivation.

Toward the end of class, he had even noticed the boy attempting to cycle his aura, something that not many choose to do because the effort sometimes wasn\'t worth the result. Some of the other students might have been more impressive due to being already deep into Tier 2, but Stephen knew that this child was the one to look out for, especially if even half of what Gabriel had alluded to was true.

So as he listened to the other professors talk about the other impressive first years, he just sat back and let them discuss amongst themselves. He met eyes with Gabriel across the room and they both smiled at each other. Neither of them would talk about Julius, the boy obviously had his secrets and they didn\'t want to spoil his fun.

Julius POV

Julius was not going to lie, he was a little nervous. Everyone who had talked to him about advancing to Tier 2 had told him that it was the most simplistic advancement. It was just a matter of your body acclimating to mana and forcing a transformation. However, he couldn\'t help himself.

So as he stared at the main training facility building from just outside, he tried to convince himself that it would be all fine. The others would be there as well to support him so he should not have anything to worry about.

He felt someone approaching from behind him. He wasn\'t able to sense who it was based on their aura alone, it was too well hidden and controlled to do that. But he was able to use [Spatial Perception] to get a feel of them.

Based on their general shape and presence he had already concluded that it was Lily. He noticed that she was trying to be sneaky, so he pretended that he hadn\'t noticed her yet. It was funny to see her try so hard to be stealthy. Her aura was completely tucked away and she wasn\'t emitting any mana. He would have never noticed her if Julius didn\'t have [Spatial Perception].

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Unfortunately, for her, he did. So right before she was about to lunge at Julius, trying to scare him, he deftly stepped to the side and let her miss him completely.

Julius laughed loudly at the sight of Lily whiffing at her target and almost falling on her face.

"Darn it! I thought I got you that time!" She said with a good-natured grin.

Julius had hidden his anxiety as best as he could before she noticed it. Then he looked at her with an arrogant expression and teased her, "Maybe once you get a little older and more experienced you will have a chance."

She punched him lightly in the shoulder, "Shut up. You have that stupid perception skill. I thought it worked off of mana or aura detection, but obviously not. So what is it? An evolved form of [Danger Sense] or [Detection]?"

"Are you asking me to divulge my highly personal skills, Lily?" Julius asked, feigning to be offended.

She rolled her eyes. "Fine, keep your secrets. I will figure it out one day with or without your help."

They started to walk together to the entrance of the building, passing several upperclassmen on their way in. After a moment, Lily spoke up again, however, this time she was more serious. "You will be okay. Stop worrying so much."

Julius laughed to himself. He should have known better than trying to hide his feelings from a psychic like her. She had most likely known he was feeling nervous the entire time. She was just trying to make him feel better, by making jokes and getting his mind off of his advancement.

When the two of them entered, the others were already waiting for them. It was late, but Julius was amazed at how many upperclassmen were training at this time of night. He could sense close to a hundred students spread around the facility.

There were so many rooms in the main training facility, so they didn\'t have to wait for one to open, but Julius could see when that could become an issue. This specific room was for people advancing. There was a large stone section that had large showerheads and things to wash himself down once he was done.

There were also sets of clothes laid out for people to change into beforehand. The transition to Tier 2 was always a bit messy, so it was advised to change into a cheap pair of clothes.

The others were trying their best to raise his confidence, making small talk and joking around the entire time. But Julius was focused on his advancement so he wasn\'t really paying attention to them.

He quickly changed into a pair of white slacks, foregoing the shirt. He was just going to get it dirty anyway.

Julius sat down on the mat the room provided for him and quietly began preparing himself. The others had stopped talking as well and were standing off to the side patiently. He barely noticed their presence.

For the past week or so, Julius had felt a door cracking open ever so slightly. Based off of what everyone else had told him, that was the door to Tier 2. All he needed to do was to open it and allow the mana to transform his body.

Once he felt he was ready, Julius began nudging the door open little by little. The others were right, it was incredibly simple once he had made up his mind. It was like his body had been waiting for him all this time and was asking him what had taken him so long.

Julius felt an incredible rush of fire, kinetic, and life mana rush through his entire body. From his head to his toes, he could feel a tingly sensation, like electricity charging through him. It was euphoric.

However, that feeling of euphoria didn\'t last long. The sensations turned uncomfortable real quick. It was like little needles were getting stabbed into his skin and injecting it with mana. His skin was the first to change, it became more resilient and flexible. Julius could see layers of skin peeling away to reveal new skin underneath.

After that, it was his muscles that underwent a change. His mana ripped through his muscles, tearing them apart while simultaneously building them back up. Life mana was fortifying his body, infusing it with a sense of enormous vitality. Julius tried to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] and see if it would help out his transition, but it didn\'t.

The technique would just fade away. He had a feeling that it wasted more mana than anything else, so he stopped attempting it.

The real pain didn\'t start until his bones were the ones that were transforming. The mana shattered his bones into dust. It was excruciating. It was almost as bad as his transformation when he acquired [Kinetic Reinforcement]. It might have been worse, but [Savage Dance] was much better than it was before, so it was much more bearable.

Once his bones were rebuilt, Julius felt the mana rush to his brain. It was a weird mix of pleasure and pain. On one hand, he could feel his mind opening up and becoming more. However, on the other hand, it felt like someone was putting his mind into a blender and making a smoothie out of it.

He had an inkling that his really dense and large pool of mana had a bit of an effect on his advancement. The extreme nature of how his mana fortified his body would most likely not be possible if he had less dense mana and a lower capacity.

He screwed his eyes tight and dealt with the pain, he had been through much worse than this. Even after most of the pain passed, he still maintained his sitting position. He could still feel his mana making small adjustments to his body and mind, making sure everything was all finished.

Finally, he felt it was over. It was like a switch was flicked and everything stopped. From the pain to the bodily changes, it felt like he had gotten over the crest of a massive wave and was floating on the surface of the calm water just behind it.

There was no more mana flowing through him and his body was completely transformed. He let out a huge sigh of relief, then smiled widely. He had officially reached Tier 2.

He knew that it hadn\'t technically been that long, but for him, it had felt like something that was a long time coming. A small piece of him, the more childish and hopeful side of him, had been hoping for something really exciting to happen. Perhaps a special evolution or change that would make him really overpowered, but sadly he didn\'t feel anything like that happening.

Admittedly it was a little disappointing, but then again he was already really strong for his Tier. He couldn\'t be hoping for many more explosive increases in power. Especially at a Tier that wasn\'t known for that.

He also didn\'t have anything to compare it to. It wasn\'t like he could transfer himself into another person\'s body and be able to tell the difference between his advancement and theirs. The biggest advantage he felt was that his body was maybe a little more robust and could handle more intense usages of mana than the typical Tier 2—however, anything else he would have to test out for himself in the upcoming days.