Path to Transcendence

He didn\'t pay it that much mind. He focused on getting himself nice and clean before jumping into the fluffy bed. Within a few moments, he was passed out face first in his pillows.

When he awoke, he felt the familiar presence of Drasil lying across his head. His face was still pressed into the pillowcase, but the life spirit had decided that the back of the skull made for a comfortable place to rest.

It was becoming a bit of a habit for the spirit to come out of his core to join Julius in his naps or when he was sleeping in bed. It was actually a little bit endearing.

However, it was time to get up for the day. So he gently removed Drasil from his head and got out of bed. The adorable green spirit gave a precious little whistle of frustration at the loss of his personal mattress. Julius tucked the tiny spirit into the collar of his uniform, keeping him in place through the use of mana.

It was later than he normally slept, so he wasn\'t surprised to see that the rest of the group had arrived at breakfast before him.

"Look who\'s the last one here," Aubrey said the moment she saw him trudge to their table.

Julius placed down his tray at his usual spot next to Lily and Edgar, ignoring her.

"You know you make a good point," Derek said to Aubrey before turning to look at Julius. "I don\'t think you have ever gotten here this late."

"Yeah, did our resident golem sleep in or something?" Aubrey teased.

"I thought it was my celebration today? Shouldn\'t you be treating me nicer?" He responded to her.

"That\'s not until later. For now, you are fair game," Aubrey reasoned.

"I\'m not sure that\'s how it works," Julius argued with a frown.

Aubrey had a wide smile in comparison. "I wouldn\'t know. I just made that up," she said proudly.

Julius just groaned and ignored the girl by eating his breakfast.

"So what time are we thinking about leaving?" Kyle asked.

"I was thinking pretty soon after breakfast. We have all day, so we might as well use it," Lily said to everyone.

"Do we even have specific plans? I know we are going to the Golden Wheel for dinner but other than that did we talk about doing anything else?" Edgar asked her.

Lily had a small grin on her face. "I do have something in mind before dinner, but anything before that is up to the group. We can just roam around checking out shops and stalls until then."

"What\'s before dinner?" Aubrey asked.

Lily wagged her finger at the other girl. "It\'s a secret."

"Screw secrets. What is it?" Aubrey demanded.

Lily shook her head firmly. "I\'m not telling you."

"Why not? Is it something we will hate? Like that time you took us to that awful play?" Aubrey asked with a scrunched-up nose as if remembering something very unpleasant.

"It was not that bad!" Lily defended.

"Yeah, no offense Lily, but that play was pretty bad," Derek agreed with Aubrey.

"You guys just have no taste in the finer aspects of the theatrical arts," Lily argued.

"If that was the finer aspects of theater then I shiver at what you would consider bad," Aubrey said while fake trembling.

"Shut up," Lily said morosely with her head down.

Edgar turned and gave Aubrey a stern look. "See what you did now? You have gone and upset her."

Julius watched as Lily perk up a little bit as she heard Edgar defend her.

"How are we supposed to get her to tell us what we are doing? For all we know it is another terrible play we have to be subjected to for several hours. I almost tore off my face by the halfway point of that last one she brought us to," Edgar said while grabbing his face with both hands as if vividly remembering the experience.

Julius watched Lily\'s face just as quickly go back to being depressed after she heard Edgar\'s words.

Derek intervened before Lily dug herself a small hole to bury herself in. "Okay, enough teasing. I for one still want to know what we are doing. What did you have planned Lily?"

Stolen novel; please report.

She looked up from she had shoved her head into her arms with an affronted look. "You think I am going to tell you now? I wish that I was taking you to another \'awful\' play just so you guys can suffer through it."

"Now that\'s just mean," Aubrey said under her breath.

"What was that?" Lily asked aggressively no longer sad but more angry. And angry Lily is not a Lily you want to mess with.

"Nothing," Aubrey quickly stated. She also knew what that tone meant and knew better than to say anything else.

After a long pause where the rest of the group didn\'t say anything and Julius could only hear the sounds of food being chewed, he looked at Lily from the side tentatively.

He gave her a soft poke on her shoulder. "You okay?" He asked gently.

She looked over at him the fierce look on her face mellowing out when she noticed it was him. "I\'m fine. Sorry about that. As you can tell the others don\'t like some of the things I have planned in the past."

"I\'d be happy with anything you had planned, even if it was one of the plays they were talking about. I\'m not very picky when it comes to that stuff, I have seen some truly horrifying stuff," he told her seriously.

"Kiss ass," Aubrey muttered quietly.

Lily went from a smile to a cold stare as she turned to Aubrey. "You have something to say?" She asked irked.

Aubrey didn\'t say anything and just put her head down, shoving more eggs into her stomach.

Julius wasn\'t lying about that either. His old world had some amazing means of entertainment; movies, TV shows, and books, there was more than one could imagine. Compared to this world, where there wasn\'t much in the form of entertainment, it was a stark difference.

However, just as there were masterpieces like the first seven seasons of Game of Thrones, there were just as many awful creations. Julius had the misfortune of watching a parody film of the Fast and Furious movie, called Superfast.

He needed bleach to scrub out his eyes and ears after that experience.

It was his grandfather\'s fault in the first place. He was bad with technology and had accidentally rented it, thinking that it was the actual Fast and Furious movie. It was to both of their shock when the first few minutes of the catastrophic movie played.

Yet, for unknown reasons, they had decided to sit on the couch and watch the entire film. They spent an hour and a half of their lives, watching a movie about Vin Serento and his family. An hour and a half that they wasted.

At least that was what Julius had thought of it at the time. Now, looking back. It was one of the more precious ninety minutes of his life.

He had to stop himself before he could dwell on the past. He had long learned that it wasn\'t healthy to think about things like that for too long.

After she put Aubrey in check, Lily turned back to look at Julius with a smile. "I didn\'t plan for us to see a play today, but maybe next time we can if you want."

Julius could see Aubrey and Edgar both flinch as they heard Lily\'s proposition. Aubrey was even about to say something, but Kyle managed to grab her shoulder and keep her quiet before she could say something to trigger Lily again.

"Sure, that sounds like fun. Let\'s do something like that on another weekend," Julius offered. He could do with some entertainment, books only did so much for him. There was something else about being able to watch a performance live.

"Sure! I will see what events are going on and we can decide!" Lily said joyfully. She seemed very excited to have someone interested to see something with her.

"Perfect! Does that mean you will tell me what the secret thing we are doing later?" Julius asked with a hopeful smile.

"Of course not!" Lily said with a smug grin. "Nice try though."

"It was worth a shot," he grumbled.

They ended up leaving quite soon after breakfast. It wasn\'t like they had anything else to do for the day.

The first stop they made was at a large shopping district just outside of the school campus. Unlike the one Julius had visited with Declan and his family, this shopping district was very different. This one was definitely more tailored for tourists and interesting items. The one he went to with Declan had been a place for locals and people who needed to get essentials and other products that were more practical in use.

He was surprised to see that Kyle was the one who was more interested in buying things than anyone else. According to Edgar, Kyle enjoyed buying unique items that were constructed with innovative magic and methods. He would then often take time to experiment with them and use them as inspiration for his own creations.

Julius watched as Kyle was discussing a certain metal water bottle with a vendor who made them animatedly. Julius wasn\'t able to hear everything the men were saying, but he was able to catch that Kyle was asking the man how he managed to create the insulation and spatial enchantments within the small inscription.

The vendor was trying his best to explain to Kyle that he couldn\'t share his methods of how he created them. However, Kyle was persistent.

He managed to pry information from the guy a little at a time. Julius, who was standing next to Edgar was very impressed with Kyle\'s passion for magic and enchanting. It was rare to see someone with such devotion to a field of study.

Off to the side was Aubrey, who had taken the exact opposite approach to Kyle\'s. It wasn\'t that she wasn\'t buying anything, no, far from it. In fact she was buying anything that she thought looked "cute" or "cool". Those were her only parameters.

Julius watched as she spent countless gold before they even made it partly through the shopping district.

The remaining four of them spent a lot of their time trying out different food stalls. Edgar in particular managed to eat enough for a family of five. He could see why the large fourth-year had gotten so big. Julius was starting to empathize with his parents, it must have practically bankrupted them to keep their beast of a son fed.

Julius gave one last consoling look at Edgar before heading to the next stall. Edgar, who had several items from various shops in both hands saw Julius\'s look.

"What? What is it?" He asked through a mouthful of food.

Julius shook his head and gave the much larger student a reassuring pat on the back. "Nothing, don\'t worry about it," he told Edgar before walking off again.

Edgar frowned and pulled Julius back to him with a hand covered in sticky sauce from one of the skewers in his hand. "You just looked at me like I was just diagnosed with the Stygian Rot. What is it?"

Julius sighed and rubbed off the sauce from his black long-sleeved shirt. "I was just thinking that you had a healthy appetite."

Lily giggled from the side, as well as a snicker from Derek. "I know right? We used to make jokes about his parents having to go hungry just to keep him fed."

Julius\'s eyes lit up and he laughed joyfully. "I was just thinking to myself the same thing! His parents must have gone dirt-broke just to feed him!"

"You guys are real funny," Edgar grumbled.

Lily, Derek, and Julius all laughed together. The only one who didn\'t find it as amusing was Edgar. However, when he turned his back to them, Julius was able to barely catch a small grin on the big man\'s face.