Path to Transcendence

He was going to get a good night\'s sleep.

That was the reason why he found himself tiptoeing through the quiet hallways of his dormitory. It wasn\'t that late, but it was late enough that most of the students were already asleep. He was careful to make as little noise as possible. He didn\'t want to be rude and wake up the others.

He quickly went into the bathroom and washed off, before getting ready for bed. After the shower, he felt like a new man. He smelled good and was wearing a comfortable pair of pajamas. So with a pep in his step, he quietly made his way to his room.

He was able to sense his roommate Henry sleeping in his room with [Spatial Perception]. Julius was glad for that, he was still planning to spend as little time as he could around his rude noble of a roommate for the foreseeable future.

He silently opened the door and crawled into his bed. He almost groaned in pleasure as he felt the soft plush feeling of his mattress swallowing him up in its embrace. Although he wasn\'t tired and feeling sleepy, he was surprised to find that sleep came to him almost immediately.

When he woke up, it was still early in the morning. The sun was barely peaking over the horizon. His roommate was still passed out on the other side of the room, snoring softly in his sleep.

However, what surprised him was what he felt draped across his forehead. He cracked open his eyes just a little bit and was shocked to see two little green limbs dangling on the bridge of his nose. Drasil it seemed had come out on his own in the middle of the night and taken residence right on top of Julius\'s forehead, using it as his mattress. With all four of his limbs splayed out like a starfish, Drasil was dead to the world. Julius could barely hear the sound of rustling leaves coming out of Drasil.

Huh, I didn\'t know spirits could snore, Julius chuckled to himself.

Julius stayed like that for a while, just allowing Drasil to sleep. The little spirit seemed like he was happy in his position and Julius didn\'t want to wake him.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and Drasil slowly came out of his sleep, stretching his limbs out and yawning while still draped over Julius\'s face. The little guy quickly realized that Julius was awake and made a happy whistling noise before hugging Julius\'s entire face. Julius smiled warmly at the spirit and gave him a gentle hug with one hand in return.

The two got up without disturbing Henry and left the room without any issues.

The first day back to class was a bit of a weird one. Julius found himself more anxious than he had on his first day. After all, he had been missing from class for the past two weeks. It was longer than he had ever attended class in the first place, not exactly the best way to start the semester.

Physical Training was at least not a class that had much interaction with the professor or the other students. Most ended up doing their own thing. Only the other slackers and of the like chose to hang out and talk for most of the class. Julius was curious as to why these students chose to take this class although they had no intention of actually doing anything in it. He felt like they could have chosen another class for their morning class or even chosen not to have one this early in the first place.

Julius looked off to the side where their professor sat on a bench. As usual, Professor Edwards didn\'t seem to mind that these students weren\'t participating. Though Julius did observe that the man took notice of Julius\'s arrival. Professor Edwards took an extra moment or two to watch Julius run around the track.

As Julius ran, he noticed that a lot of students who regularly participated in their morning activities improved dramatically from their first day. He also noticed that a good number of students have already advanced to Tier 2.

A quick check of their aura showed signs of advancement, but even if they were able to hide their aura, their physical abilities were even larger indicators.

It was probably a good time for Julius to reveal his own advancement. He wanted to keep up with his original plan and it would make his absence more believable as well. Two weeks was a long time to advance to Tier 2, but he could easily explain it off as something that happened during his tier-up and leave it at that. He wouldn\'t have to go into details because of the expectation of privacy when it came to personal advancement.

Luckily only a few students seemed to recognize Julius\'s return to class. For the most part, the ones who did didn\'t seem to care all that much. They looked at Julius but quickly went back to whatever they were doing.

The only ones who were paying him any real attention were Joshua and a guy next to him. Julius immediately recognized the tall guy, he had gotten a good impression from Joshua. By all means, Joshua had come off as a polite person. Julius looked over at Joshua\'s friend who had also been staring at Julius occasionally throughout the class.

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Julius didn\'t want to make any rash assumptions, but he was pretty sure that the guy was the same one who was at the beach with Joshua that same night.

Julius tried to ignore their gazes and went about the rest of the class. He was no longer trying to hide his Tier 2 physical capabilities, but ironically he didn\'t think a single person other than Joshua and his friend noticed. The other students just didn\'t care enough about Julius to be interested in his activities.

He finished his workout, breathing a little rough, still choosing not to use [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal] to help his fatigue. Even after around a month of focusing on improving his endurance, he could see the difference. He wasn\'t getting as tired as easily and he was able to last a little longer each time.

After class, he took a seat on a bench and took out some refreshments from his storage ring. He downed a sweet fruity drink along with some snacks that he snuck out of the cafeteria. His back was slick with sweat and he was trying to get his heartbeat from jumping out of his chest.

Not surprisingly, he noticed a pair of students break off the rest of the students who were leaving and head toward his direction. Joshua and his friend approached him with a smile on their faces.

Joshua waved at him, "Hey Julius, good to see you back."

Julius smiled back at the friendly first-year. "It\'s nice to be back." He looked at the other guy. "Aren\'t you the same guy from the beach? I don\'t think I got your name last time."

"It\'s James. Nice to see you again," James replied in a surprisingly smooth voice. Julius thought that he could have made a living as a radio host in his old world.

"James huh? Well, it is nice to officially meet you," Julius nodded at James. "So what can I do for you guys?" Julius was curious as to why they had decided to come over to him.

Joshua chuckled and rubbed his head. "We just wanted to come over and say hi. We also wanted to know if you wanted to eat lunch with us later this afternoon after Applied Combat."

Julius looked at them surprised. "You guys have Professor Rowe before lunch too?" Julius didn\'t know that the two of them were in that class. Then again, he didn\'t really pay attention to who was in his classes. The only person he really cared about was Tristan, and that was just to avoid him. Thankfully, Julius had barely seen his cousin.

Joshua laughed. "Yeah, we sit a couple of rows behind you. You don\'t really look behind you but yeah."

Julius thought for a second about their offer. He usually grabbed food with the others but perhaps it would not be such a bad idea to get more familiar with students in his own year. The others wouldn\'t always be around and ostracizing himself from his fellow students wouldn\'t be the smartest choice.

Joshua seemed to notice that Julius was hesitating and hurriedly said, "You don\'t need to say yes if you don\'t want to. We just wanted to offer, if you want to think about it, you can let us know later after Applied Combat."

Julius shook his head at him. "No that\'s not it. I just normally eat with other friends so if I do I will have to let them know beforehand."

"You eat with other friends? I don\'t think I have ever seen you eat in the cafeteria." James asked almost accusingly.

Julius looked at James and Joshua with a curious gaze. Joshua seemed to also want the answer to that question but looked away with what seemed to be pity in his eyes. "Sorry about James, he sometimes has no tact," Joshua apologized on behalf of his friend.

Do they think I am lying or something? Perhaps they think because I don\'t eat in the normal first-year cafeteria that I eat alone and I am lying about eating with other friends. Julius didn\'t know how he felt about that.

Julius smiled at them. "I don\'t usually eat at the underclassmen cafeteria. I typically eat at the main cafeteria with the older students," he truthfully told them.

"Why do you do that? I thought it wasn\'t allowed for underclassmen to eat with the upperclassmen," Joshua said.

"It\'s not technically not allowed. It\'s just a tradition that almost everyone follows," Julius explained to him.

"But not you?" James asked bluntly again. Julius paused. He didn\'t think the guy was being rude, he just didn\'t get that feeling from him. He thought that it was possible that James was just an upfront person.

"I got here early for the school year and met some older students on my first night. We became friends and I somehow ended up eating at the main cafeteria regularly," Julius said.

Joshua\'s eyes lit up in realization. "Oh, are these the same people who told you about the beach spot?"

"Yep, the exact ones. They showed me before the semester started and I find myself going back there for some alone time every now and then."

"What\'s different about the main cafeteria and the underclassmen one?" James asked more curious than anything else.

Julius thought about that for a moment. "It is larger for one thing. But the main advantage is that it is much more peaceful there than where the first-years eat, not as much noise and fights going on," he explained.

"That sounds nice," Joshua groaned. "I swear every day there is at least one argument or fight. It\'s hard to enjoy your food when people are throwing things around and yelling at each other."

James who was standing next to him nodded his head in agreement. "I\'m more surprised that the staff haven\'t done anything about it."

Joshua turned and looked at his friend "Right? I would think that someone would have stepped in by now and put an end to it."

Julius sat down on his bench eating his food as the two of them complained about the horrid environment of the cafeteria. Sharing their grievances and woes. It was a little humorous listening to all of their complaints, Julius had to admit.

Eventually, Joshua remembered that Julius was still right next to them. "Sorry about that," he apologized. "We got got carried away."

Julius smiled and waved his hand at him, letting him know it was fine.

"Well, if you want to join us, just let us know after Applied Combat. We will wait for you after class," Joshua told him.

Julius nodded at him. "Sounds good, I\'ll let you know then."

"Great!" Joshua and James got up to leave. "Okay, we got to get to class, but it was nice talking to you. I hope you decide to eat with us later."

Julius just nodded his head and watched the two of them leave for their next class. A little perplexed by the interaction before getting up and making his way to his next class.