Path to Transcendence

Julius and Declan both promptly left the rift once Julius recovered enough to head back to the portal. Julius was pleasantly surprised when Declan hadn\'t really berated him for the dangerous testing of his skill. Perhaps, it was because Julius had a healing skill along with Declan watching him the entire time.

In fact, Declan had told Julius that what he had done, was a good way to train his willpower for his Concept. He did remind Julius not to push it, but it was definitely something Julius should use with reason in the future.

During the rift, Julius hadn\'t been that worried about looting the golems. The reason behind that was that the most valuable part about hunting golems was not only their cores but the material of their bodies.

Sadly, Julius hadn\'t been able to take them without completely annihilating their cores. It took a specialist and a group of experienced delvers to take down a golem with its core entirely intact. Special skills that were tailored for that type of scenario.

As for the stone of their bodies, it was also very valuable. Tier 2 stone and rock that has been infused with mana as the golems naturally did, is extremely valuable. Many artisans and craftsmen pay a lot for materials like it.

According to Declan, the stone from golems makes enchanting much more effective and simple. The nature of the stone absorbs the inscriptions unlike regular stone or even some other Tier 2 material.

However, Julius wasn\'t able to store such large quantities of material in his storage ring. The ring he was currently wearing was only enough to store a closet\'s worth of stuff. There were other spatial devices that focused purely on space and how much could fit inside of it.

His ring had other bells and whistles that organized the things he added without needing input. Additionally, there were other enchantments such as stability, durability, and aura-bound inscriptions were added to it. Whereas the devices the other delvers who used this rift most likely carried ones that just stuffed the materials on top of each other without much care or thought.

However, he wasn\'t that upset about leaving potential money behind. He had enough for his needs for now and once he was able to delve into Tier 3 rifts, he would have already forgotten about this rift.

Once he and Declan left the lobby of the building that held the rift, they had to part ways. The guardhouse and Goldencrest were both in opposite directions. Declan still had some things he had to do today. He put a lot of things to the side in order to chaperone Julius throughout the rift.

While Julius wasn\'t ecstatic about having a babysitter, he knew when to be appreciative of Declan\'s actions. He didn\'t have any need to help Julius like this. He had only been doing it as a favor to Julius and because he cared for him. Therefore, it was something that Julius was immensely grateful for.

However, before they went their separate ways, Declan reached into his spatial device and took out the access card.

The golden edges of the card glimmered in the sunlight and Julius\'s eyes latched onto it like it was a solid brick of gold. He then turned to look at Declan who was smiling softly at him. "Does this mean I have permission to delve on my own?" He had excited eyes of his own and could barely restrain himself from jumping across the distance and stealing the card out of Declan\'s hand.

Declan nodded defeatedly. "Yes. But for Tier 2 rifts only."

Declan put up his finger before Julius could say anything. "Only for Tier 2. I know you want to delve into Tier 3s right away but please wait until I come with you. I understand that you believe that you can handle one, and I have half a mind to agree with you now that you have a Concept. But please wait for me," Declan asked sincerely.

Julius had prepared a whole speech that might convince Declan to allow him to attempt a single rift on his own, but the seriousness of Declan\'s request prevented him. He could wait. It was the least Julius could do for a man who had done a lot for him.

Julius looked at Declan directly in the eyes. "I\'ll wait."

Declan bowed his head at Julius. "Thank you. I know how much you want to."

Julius chuckled at him. He wasn\'t wrong, Julius really wanted to go tomorrow if possible. "Just don\'t expect me to wait too long. I don\'t know how long I can be patient."

Declan had already told Julius that he wouldn\'t be able to take next weekend off. There was some sort of group of influential people coming to Heston and the city needed everyone on hand just in case. That meant that next week Julius could either delve another Tier 2 or wait for Declan to take on a Tier 3.

Both of them knew that Tier 2 rifts weren\'t providing enough challenge for Julius. The only reason why the golem rift showed such dramatic results was because of Julius\'s own self-imposed handicap and acquirement of Severing Will.

"Just don\'t blow anything up in the meantime," Declan told Julius.

Julius laughed like it was a joke. But quickly stopped when he didn\'t see Declan smiling.

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"I\'m serious," he told Julius with a meaningful look.

"Can you believe the shopowner wanted that much for that dress? I love good quality clothing as much as any other girl, but that was outrageous," Lily complained to Aubrey.

Julius got back in time to join the others at dinner. What Lily was talking about was the day that she and Aubrey took around Heston. They had spent most of the day shopping around and just relaxing for the most part.

"Lily," Aubrey said exasperatedly her hands in the air. "I don\'t know why you just didn\'t get the dress."

"It was too much that\'s why! It was practically criminal." Lily angrily stated.

Aubrey pinched her nose. "I don\'t know why you are so cheap. You have more money than the entire table combined. And it isn\'t like you are surrounded by a bunch of poor commoners." She looked over at the entire group.

Derek grinned. "Yeah, I am the grandson of Duke Zenith and my wealth pales in comparison to you. I don\'t think you should be worried about the cost of a dress at a random store."

"It\'s not the cost that is the problem. It is the principle of the matter. A single dress for the cost of a Tier 3 cloud core or something comparable is unacceptable. The price of a single Tier 3 core is already outrageous, to ask for something as rare as a cloud core is just robbery!" Lily insisted.

"Is a cloud core so rare? I would expect that Heston would have many rifts with monsters that have cloud cores," Julius asked the group trying to derail the topic. He had seen how Lily got about things like this before. He had learned that changing the topic was his best bet.

However, that didn\'t mean he wasn\'t genuinely curious. He had learned from Professor Rowe that the natural environment of a place had significant influences on what monsters a rift spawned. So a place like Heston, which had plenty of moisture and water, Julius would have expected that cloud cores were more commonplace than anywhere else.

Kyle quickly answered him, he was perceptive as always and took advantage of the opportunity to prevent Lily from talking about the dress any further. Julius had also noticed that as time passed, Kyle was more frequently speaking up with him around. It was like he was finally getting comfortable with Julius around. Additionally, he found that Kyle was more likely to speak up when something academic in nature was asked.

"Although Heston is next to the ocean, cloud cores are still quite rare. You would be surprised at how few cores are actually available in this area or in other areas by the ocean. Cloud cores or cloud affinity monsters require a much more delicate balance of mana to spawn. In Heston\'s case, there is too much unpredictable weather. This leads to potential cloud-aspected rifts turning into storm-aspected rifts or other water-related rifts."

Huh, interesting. Julius thought to himself.

"So where would you find a rift with cloud-aspected monsters?" He asked Kyle.

Kyle shrugged his shoulders. "Anywhere that has a nearby body of water as well as relatively stable weather patterns have a better chance of spawning such a rift."

"And they are much more valuable than a core such as a water core?" Julius asked.

This time it was Lily who answered, all thoughts about the dress seemed to have been forgotten. "Yeah, their rarity has a lot to do with it. But the main thing is that some amazing items can be made with a Tier 3 cloud core. Many of these things are related to flying or extreme comfort, not to anyone\'s shock."

Aubrey also nodded from the side. "Yeah, they are quite desirable and very expensive. Depending on where you are, it can be dozens of times more valuable than a standard water core."

"I know! Which is why charging one for a single dress is absolutely insane," Lily grumbled.

I guess I spoke too soon, Julius lamely thought to himself. It was a good attempt at least, he tried to cheer himself up.

Aubrey seemed to see that the conversation was derailing back to the dress and quickly changed the subject. She looked at Julius and asked him, "So how was your day? I know you told us that you were with that city guard vice-captain."

"I told you several times. His name is Declan," Julius said exasperated.

"Yeah, yeah. So what did the two of you do?" She asked while completely ignoring Julius\'s exasperation.

"I picked up some food from a bakery and then we ended up delving at a Tier 2 rift," he told them. He had told them about the goblin rift before and while they were surprised that he had found a way to get access to some of the rifts, the fact that he had a Tier 4 chaperone alleviated all of their concerns.

"Another rift? You just went to the other one last week," Derek commented.

"Yeah, you shouldn\'t be pushing yourself too hard," Aubrey told him while looking at him seriously. She told him that she hadn\'t let the others know that Julius had literally not slept for entire nights. While the others knew he trained longer normally, he was pretty sure that Aubrey was the only one who really truly knew how long he spent in the training rooms.

She had said that if he wanted to tell them, it was his decision. It wasn\'t her secret or skill to share the details about. However, that made her concern a little more earnest than the others.

He nodded at her. "I know, but it was only Tier 2 and Declan-," he made to stress Declan\'s name for Aubrey\'s sake. "-was there the entire time. I wasn\'t in any actual danger."

It was true. Declan was very good about letting Julius do his own thing, even at his own consequence. It did help that Declan knew about Julius\'s very good healing skill, but he still let Julius have the freedom to make mistakes and decide how he wanted to approach the rift his own way.

Lily scooched closer to him and hugged him. Julius had quickly gotten used to the fact that Lily was a very affectionate person and that she liked hugs. It certainly didn\'t hurt that she was an amazing hugger as well.

"Still, you should take more opportunities to relax. It might help you in ways you might not expect," she said while looking at him with warm purple eyes and a laugh. "Who knows? You might even learn a Concept that way."

Yeah… about that… Julius winced at that. He had kind of forgotten to tell them about his new Concept yet.

Julius didn\'t say anything, but she must\'ve picked up on his guilt or something because her hug quickly turned into something that resembled a headlock really quickly. His eyes widened in surprise at the sudden change.

He should have thought better of hiding things from one of the most talented young psychics on the continent.

Lily\'s previous warm purple eyes, were now a scary cold violet. "What are you hiding from us again?" She asked Julius in a very menacing tone.

"Again?" He repeated in an offended tone, not happy at the implication.

She didn\'t say anything and just squeezed him harder.

Julius didn\'t answer right away. He just swallowed his saliva and frantically tried to come up with an explanation that wouldn\'t result in him getting choked out.