Path to Transcendence

It wasn\'t until they had made it back into the gates of the city that Declan dumped him to the ground. Not even the guards had the courage to stop Declan and ask him what he was doing. They had only seen a vice-captain wrangle a young boy by the neck, but seeing Declan\'s face must have made them think twice before intervening.

Some guards they were, Julius grumbled internally.

Julius picked himself up and dusted himself off. "What was that for?" He asked Declan.

Declan gave him a whack across the back of the head in response. "What was that for? You should be thanking me."

Julius rubbed his head. "Why are you freaking out so much?"

Declan reached out as if he wanted to give Julius another swat but Julius quickly stepped back and out of the way.

"Do you have any idea who you were just insulting?" Declan asked Julius seriously.

Julius shrugged his shoulders. "Not really, but he didn\'t seem to mind it that much," he pointed out.

Declan sighed loudly. "That was a Tier 6 you were just disrespecting. A monster who is more powerful than you could even begin to comprehend. Do you have a death wish?"

"He seemed nice though. He was a bit pushy and sensitive, but I think that\'s just because he doesn\'t get out a lot," Julius said with a smile. He had suspected that Dante was Tier 6, but he didn\'t want to jump to conclusions. So it was nice that Declan confirmed it for him.

Declan turned to look at him with a deadly serious gaze. "You could have died today. He could have killed both of us and there would not be a damn thing anyone could do about it. Not the Lord of Heston, not the Headmaster, and not even the most powerful noble houses."

Declan took a deep breath before he continued. "I don\'t think you quite understand how lucky you were just now. I have seen powerful people like that man kill people over less. I saw a Tier 5 kill a soldier because he was snoring too loud. Nothing happened and there were no repercussions because the value of the Tier 5 was more important than a thousand soldiers."

Julius knew that it was time to stop joking around. He put his hands up and reassured Declan. "He wasn\'t going to kill me or you. I was almost a hundred percent certain."

"How could you be sure?" Declan asked him.

"I\'m guessing you didn\'t hear what the two of us were talking about or doing when you were frozen," Julius said with a frown.

"No, I have no idea. The man\'s domain crushed my Authority before I could even take a step. There wasn\'t anything I could do. What happened between the two that made you so sure that he wouldn\'t be a threat?" Declan pressed him for details.

"Well, he wanted to know the name of my skill. I told him after I was able to negotiate a favor from him in the future…"

Declan interrupted him. "You got him to owe you a favor?" He asked skeptically as if the thought was unbelievable.

"Yeah, it has to be something reasonable, but I got him to promise a favor in return for telling him the name of my skill," Julius said proudly. "Pretty good deal right?"

Declan just looked at him blankly. "A Tier 6 exchanged a favor for you telling him the name of your skill? Why would he do that?"

Julius shrugged his shoulders. "I don\'t know. He really wanted to know how I was able to sense that he was much stronger than he was trying to come off as."

"You were able to sense that he was Tier 6? What kind of skill allowed you to do that?" Declan asked in surprise.

Julius shook his head. "No, I couldn\'t tell for sure that he was Tier 6. But there were a lot of signs that pointed to that. My skill wasn\'t able to detect his presence at all which was the first big warning, but also I got a very dangerous feeling from him," Julius explained carefully.

"And you still antagonized him?" Declan asked.

"No, that was after we trained some of our skills against each other. He even said he managed to gain a level in his own skill. Then he told me to meet him back here in two months. He said that he had something he needed to give or show me. I\'m not quite sure, he wasn\'t very forthcoming in that regard."

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"I know I have never asked, but what is your perception skill? I\'m guessing that was the skill that allowed you to sense the man." Declan asked calmly.

Julius thought about telling him. He hadn\'t told Declan yet, but honestly, he believed that Declan deserved to know, especially after this whole fiasco. "It is called [Spatial Perception]," Julius finally said.

"[Spatial Perception]?" Declan repeated.

Julius wasn\'t worried about people overhearing them even though they were still around others. He had sensed Declan put up some sort of aura barrier much like the one Lily used. It was more focused on pure aura, but Julius could tell that it served a similar purpose.

"Yeah, Dante seemed to be very interested in it. We did some testing and I found out that I could sense Dante after some getting used to it. However, that was when Dante was able to improve his own skill, making it almost impossible to detect him again. I\'m guessing his skill level came after he made that change to his skill," Julius added.

"What did he want? Why would a Tier 6 show that much restraint to you?" Declan asked genuinely confused.

"I have no idea. But I was pretty confident that he wouldn\'t hurt either one of us. He was too interested, the teasing at the end was more to test out how interested he really was and how far I could push him," Julius admitted to Declan.

Declan looked at Julius like he had a hole in his skull. "Why would you even take that risk? That was far beyond stupid that it was suicidal."

Julius looked at Declan with deadly serious eyes. "Aren\'t you curious as to why someone that powerful was that intrigued by my skill?"

Declan didn\'t answer right away but Julius forged ahead. "Well, I was. I don\'t know why he said to come back in two months. It was awfully specific and he gave no elaboration. And it\'s not like I have a choice, he explicitly said that he would beat me up and drag my unconscious body back if I didn\'t show up."

Declan looked concerned and was lost in thought. It seemed like Declan was finally understanding the oddness of the Tier 6\'s request. Julius looked away from Declan and off in the distance. For all of Julius\'s joking and teasing of the powerful man, he was slightly worried about what would happen in two months.

When he got back to campus, it was already after their dinner time. The others had already eaten, but the cafeteria would still be serving food for a little bit longer.

Julius decided to not go to the upperclassmen cafeteria this time. It was late so he was thinking that the underclassmen cafeteria would be less busy and noisy. There was also the fact that he tried to limit how often he went to the main cafeteria without the others. It wasn\'t like any of the older students caused him any trouble but he would like to limit the chances of running into people like Liam and his buddies.

Fortunately, the underclassmen cafeteria was still open as well. As he had predicted, there were barely any students still eating there. Julius was able to get his food without any wait or trouble, sitting himself down at an empty table.

While he ate, he pulled up his latest notifications.

[Mana Slash lvl 14 -> lvl 15]

[Mana Slash] has reached level 15. Would you like to evolve the skill [Mana Slash]?

Julius mentally selected yes and waited with bated breath at what kind of choices he would receive. He didn\'t even think he would choose something other than [Mana Strike], but seeing his options was still nice.

Skill [Mana Slash] is evolving… possible advancements: [Mana Strike], [Razor Edge], [Rippling Slice], [Rendering Slash], and [Barrier of Severance].

He had more options than he would have expected for a skill that he hadn\'t had for all that long. [Mana Strike] was expected and still a very likely choice.

[Razor Edge] was a nice option to see. He knew that not all skills had the same progression and paths but it was nice to see a skill that he had been interested in previously show up on his list. If he was going for just straight for sharpness, this skill might be a good choice.

[Rippling Slice] was a skill that he hadn\'t heard of. But to be honest, he didn\'t like the sound of it as much. Ripple made it sound like the slice wasn\'t clean or even. He had a feeling it was more like a serrated cut. An attack that had some of those aspects might be a good thing though. A slice that tore apart flesh more ruggedly could do more damage and make it harder to heal. In his old world, the hardest cuts to deal with were those made with serrated blades. But if he wanted to learn a Concept of Sharpness, he wasn\'t sure if that was the best skill to use it with.

The next skill, [Rendering Slash] was a very interesting sounding skill. He didn\'t know how different it was from [Razor Edge], but it sounded more impressive. He would have to take a look and see if there was anything he could find about that skill before he made his decision.

The last option was not that much of a surprise. [Barrier of Severance] was a unique-sounding skill. It was most likely offered because of how Julius used [Mana Slash] as a defensive option. Julius had to admit that the skill sounded a little silly. He had never heard of a slashing barrier.

Seeing his options was nice. He had been waiting to see what options he got before he decided on [Composite Mana]. Just going off of the names alone, there clearly wasn\'t a skill that could fill the requirements of [Composite Mana] and what Julius was hoping to get out of the skill.

[Compound Strike] could have been a good skill, but the skill focused more on combining mana, aura, and other energies into one strike. Julius was trying to get an epic skill that mainly used mana itself and [Composite Mana] was a better fit. He didn\'t want to muddy his mana construct. Furthermore, he could always add aura and other energies to the skill later on, but for now, he wanted to go strictly with mana.

So with a mental selection, he chose to upgrade [Mana Layering] right away.

Congratulations, skill [Composite Mana] (Rare) acquired.

Julius smiled to himself, crumbs of food fell off of the corners of his mouth, and he took a look at his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 2

Skills:

Skills:

[Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 15] (Rare+)

[Empowerment of Will lvl 12] (Rare+)

[Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

[Savage Dance lvl 19] (Rare)

[Arcane Construct lvl 18] (Rare)

[Pure Compression lvl 18] (Rare)

[Kinetic Augmentation lvl 15] (Rare)

[Composite Mana lvl 1] (Rare)

[Mana Slash lvl 15] (Uncommon)