Path to Transcendence

When Julius walked through the doors to the kitchen he was welcomed with a big hug that smothered him. He couldn\'t see anything and all he could smell was the scent of toasted wheat and bacon. But he knew that it was Rae.

He just stood there and let the woman take her time. When she was finally done he handed her the slightly rumpled sack of pastries he had saved for her. They were a little crushed, but it was the thought that counted.

"Ohh!" Rae exclaimed excitedly. "You stopped by Maria\'s place?"

It appeared that Rae had recognized the sack that the cafe had given him and was even aware of the person who owned it. Julius should not have been surprised that Rae knew of the lady, it seemed like a very Rae thing.

"The cafe with the glass windows and blue door?" He asked.

"Yep, that is the one! Maria and I are old friends, but I haven\'t been able to go over there for a while. I am glad you stopped by and picked some stuff up," Rae told him.

"Yeah, it was surprisingly busy for how early it was. It seemed to be pretty popular with the locals," Julius commented.

"Oh yeah, Maria\'s place is one of the better bakeries in Heston. I always try to stop by whenever I am in that part of the city."

Julius and Rae spent the next while just chatting about what they had done since they had last seen each other. She told him about some drama and stuff that had been happening among the guards while he talked about some of the stuff that had happened at Goldencrest.

She fixed him a small plate of food along with some of the bread and pastries that he had grabbed from the cafe and continued to ask him about what the school was like and if he was enjoying it. He told her the truth that he was enjoying his time there.

He also told her about some of the others who he had met pretty soon after getting there and how amazing they were. While they were talking, Declan must have finished up whatever he was doing and joined them in the kitchen.

He grabbed himself a small fruit and was munching on it, sitting on a stool, and just listening to Rae and Julius talk. However, when he mentioned Professor Youma he interjected and asked, "How is he doing?"

Julius turned around on his stool to face Declan, "Was he one of your professors when you went there?"

"Yeah, I am surprised that he is still teaching first-years, or teaching at all that is. He was old when I was there." Declan chuckled as he said that.

"He\'s doing good, he looks old but he moves around like someone half his age. He is also one of the better professors I have in my opinion. I have him for Tier Advancement and Aura Control," Julius said.

"Oh yeah, by the way, how is your aura control going?" Declan asked him. "I noticed the ring but it is hard to get a feel of how much control you have when you wear it."

Julius forgot that he was wearing the ring and quickly took it off. Letting his aura naturally emit outward. He saw Declan\'s eyebrows lift in surprise.

"You reached Tier 2?" Declan asked excitedly.

"Yep. Though I half expected you to already sense it even through the ring\'s suppressive effects."

"I felt something was off, but that ring does a very nice job of naturally emitting aura. That, on top of your already strong aura, and it is hard to gauge where you stand," Declan explained.

Rae clapped her hands in joy, "Congratulations Julius!"

"Thanks, Rae. I was already really close to it anyway. I just broke through recently."

Declan stood up from his stool, and walked up to Julius, clapping him on the shoulder. "Well, you know what this means right?"

Julius shook his head. He didn\'t know what it meant. Was there some sort of tradition he wasn\'t aware of?

Declan was about to say something but held himself back. "Eh, I won\'t ruin the surprise then."

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"What surprise?" Julius asked curiously.

"Never mind about that. Are you ready to go?"

"Uh… go where?" Julius was confused.

"Oh, I thought I told you earlier. My family is going out shopping today and I wanted to introduce you to them, so I thought we could join them," Declan offered.

Julius liked the sound of that. He had always wanted to meet Declan\'s family. He had heard him talk about them many times already and they sounded like great people.

"Yeah that sounds like fun," Julius said excitedly. "Are we leaving right now?"

"I was thinking we go over to my place and head off with them. Is that alright with you?" Declan asked.

Julius nodded his head. He was fine with that, although he did wish he could have seen Orus before he left. He wasn\'t expecting to come back later and would like to be back on campus before it was too late. However, there was always next time.

Julius found himself following Declan down the street further into town. By the looks of it, this part of town was more residential. There weren\'t as many shops around and he could see some kids playing around in the morning air.

The streets were all very nicely maintained, with no cracks or large gouges in the stone. There was also a nice variety of colorful flora decorated around the building walls. Most of the buildings were two stories with the occasional third-story building here and there. It seemed like a very nice place to raise a family and he could see why Declan had chosen this location.

They found themselves in front of an off-white colored two-story house, with steps leading up to the porch. There was a nice big red door and several chairs laid out on the porch. There was a massive gorgeous wooden table with an elegant golden lamp illuminated on it.

Everything was very nicely decorated by someone with good taste. Julius suspected that Declan\'s wife was the person who was responsible for it.

Declan walked up the steps and to the front door, opening it for Julius. It was very nice on the inside just as nice as the outside, if not more. It had a very warm and welcoming atmosphere as well. It was clean, but there were obvious signs of people living there. Random toys and items were strewn across the floor.

Once Declan closed the door behind him, Julius heard a noise come from deeper inside the house. Out came a young girl with light blonde hair around ten years old steamrolling right at Declan. She didn\'t even seem to notice that Julius was in her way and ran past him like he was nothing. She was only focused on hugging her dad.

Declan squatted down and picked her up, hugging her to his chest. He was all smiles and saying hello to her in the same soft tone that all dads used.

While that was happening, Julius sensed another person coming from what he assumed was the kitchen with [Spatial Perception]. The woman looked like an older copy of the young girl. Light blonde hair and tall, taller than Julius at least.

She was very pretty as well, with soft features and a smattering of freckles over her nose, Declan was a lucky guy.

"Hey!" She welcomed them with a large pearly white smile. She looked over at him, "Is this Julius?"

Declan shifted the girl in his arms over to one side and said, "Yeah, this is Julius." Then he turned to Julius. "This is my wife, Abby and this is my daughter Gabriela, but we call her Gabby. My son is upstairs, probably still sleeping, but his name is Ben."

As if he had heard them talking about him, Julius heard a door upstairs open and a young man walked down. If Gabriela was a copy of Abby, then Ben was a copy of Declan. He was tall and had the same stern features as Declan, but he had a big smile on his face as he made his way down the stairs.

"Speak of the devil, here he comes now," Declan said.

Ben walked right up to Julius with a smile and offered a hand, "It is very nice to meet you, my name is Ben. You must be Julius, my dad has said a lot about you."

Julius shook the guy\'s hand. "Likewise, it is nice to finally meet all of you guys. Declan and everyone else say the nicest things about you all."

They made small talk for a little before Abby clapped her hands together. "Okay, let\'s get on going before the city gets too busy."

Julius watched as the mother of two professionally ushered everyone out within a minute, something he found very impressive. He was well aware that it was a skill many mothers wished they had.

They brought Julius to a part of town that he hadn\'t visited yet. It was the same area where Ben worked. Julius found out that he was working for a well-known crafter and made some very nice items himself. Most of them were more practical purposes such as household appliances and the like, but he did mention that they did certain custom orders.

Before they went inside the first shop, Declan pulled Julius to the side and palmed him the same ring that Geoffrey had been wearing. Julius gave Declan a questioning look, silently asking what he was doing by giving it to him. Julius didn\'t want to hold anything that was inside of the ring.

However, Declan forced Julius to take it and said, "Don\'t worry I already took everything out except for the money, it\'s yours. The money is only a fraction of the value of what was inside before anyway. After what you went through you deserve it, I already let Lord Lagos know and he was fine with it."

Hearing that Lord Lagos himself was fine with Julius keeping the ring and money, made him much more willing to take it. Now it didn\'t feel like he was stealing, more like he was getting bribed. If that was any better somehow.

The first shop they ended up going to was a toy shop for little Gabby. Inside was an entire store with every toy you could imagine. From dolls that could move around on their own, to complex board games, and everything in between. Julius watched as Gabby ran over to a specific section of the store, heading right toward a section that had a small kitchen setup. It reminded Julius of the toy kitchens from his old world.

This one was really nice though. The clerk was showing off how there were real flames that you could use to cook food, but there was no danger of kids burning themselves. He didn\'t know how they achieved something like that but it was very intriguing to see.

After that, they strolled up to a store just right down the street. They stopped in front of it, where Julius observed the very minimalist design compared to the other stores. Most of the shops had bright and welcoming colors that enticed people to enter. However, this store was different. It was made entirely of dark grey stone and had a more serious atmosphere to it. He looked up and saw that there was a simple sign above the doorframe, "Arnold\'s Armaments".