Path to Transcendence

"I don\'t think I can do that," he answered her truthfully.

She must have sensed his genuine indecision because she relaxed a touch and walked up to him.

"The only way this can work is for me to know exactly what you are capable of. I already know most of your skillset but need to know every detail, your strengths, your weaknesses, and anything else that might help me assess you\'re condition more accurately," she explained to him, sounding very sincere.

He nodded his head at her, letting her know that he understood the reasons. Still, he didn\'t want to share all of his secrets with someone he had just met less than an hour ago. However, an idea bloomed into his head.

"Would you be willing to make a contractual vow with me?" He asked her.

She turned to look at him with an offended look. "You, want me to make a contractual vow with you?"

He didn\'t know what he did to offend her so he just softly nodded his head at her.

She frowned at him. "Why would I connect my soul to a Tier 2? I am the one who is offering their help if you didn\'t realize it."

He was about to respond but bit his tongue. She had a point, she was the one holding all of the cards.

"Why don\'t you just do it, Alice? It\'s not like he is planning to use it against you," Dante interjected.

Alice gave Dante a hard glare, warning him to be quiet or else. The man in question put his hands up in a mock surrender and kept his mouth shut.

Finally, the woman turned to Julius. "Okay, I am willing to do that. But it will cost you something extra."

"What was it going to cost me before?"

"I was going to have you tell me how you were able to learn that perception skill. I wanted every detail of how you ended up getting it," she told him.

"That\'s it?" Julius asked, surprised. He had been expecting something more than that. Something more along the lines of selling his soul to the devil type of thing. He would have likely told her all about it if she had been originally here to teach him some stuff.

"That\'s it, you say?" She chuckled in disbelief. "You don\'t know how valuable a skill like that is do you?"

Julius just shrugged his shoulders. Of course, he knew it was a valuable skill, but it was hard to believe that nobody in the many years of this world hadn\'t learned the same skill before.

"I\'m fine with telling you exactly how I ended up with that skill. I can\'t promise you will be able to recreate it, but I won\'t hold anything back from you. Now, what are the other conditions you have for agreeing to a vow?" He asked her.

She just smiled at him. "I want the recipe."

What? She wants the recipe? Julius thought to himself, totally not expecting that request.

"You want the recipe?" He asked, making sure he had heard her right. He of course knew exactly what recipe she was asking about, but he couldn\'t believe his ears. He put his fingers into his ears and gave them a cleaning, making sure there wasn\'t anything inside of them.

"Yes, my condition for doing a contract is that you give me that hot chocolate recipe," she said with an excited grin.

Dante gave a disgusted grunt from the side. "Seriously?!"

She whipped her head back at him. "What? You have a problem with my request?"

The old man stood his ground this time. He crossed his arms and looked at her like she had brain damage. "Yeah, I do. You make it sound like it\'s a big deal to go along with a soul-bound contract and then all it takes is some hot chocolate for you to give in? What kind of Tier 6 are you? You are a disgrace to all of us."

"Don\'t judge me for my personal request. You didn\'t even try it, so you can\'t say anything. And don\'t forget that time when you gave a Tier 5 core to some noodle shop owner!" She angrily pointed out to Dante.

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Come on, are you serious? Julius thought to himself as he observed the two of them bicker like an old married couple. Also, who the hell pays a Tier 5 core for some noodles? Maybe I am in the wrong business.

"How many times are you going to bring that up?! I told you, I didn\'t have anything else I could use for payment. I wasn\'t just going to not pay the man," Dante argued.

"You could have given him your dirty sock and he would have been happy. It would have still been a hundred times more expensive than the cost of the bowl," Alice shot back.

"Who do you think I am? You think I would give a person my dirty sock for such a tasty meal?" Dante asked offendedly as if the mere thought disgusted him.

"Hey…" Julius tried to interject. However, the two of them ignored him and continued bickering back and forth.

"Hello?"

They still ignored him.

Finally, he had enough of being ignored and created two blunted orbs made of softened mana. He then shot them right at the two arguing people. Unlike the mana construct he had created before, these two constructs actually made it several feet further before they were dissipated into harmless mana particles.

However, this seemed to be enough to get their attention.

"Huh, so that\'s your other epic skill," Alice said in a laid-back tone as if the two of them hadn\'t been arguing in the first place.

"Pretty good, it has two Concepts. Though, the Fire Concept seems a bit lackluster compared to the other one," Dante added just as casually.

"Hey! Don\'t make fun of it!" Julius defended his Concept. It was trying its hardest and didn\'t deserve someone like some old man demeaning its strength.

Dante just shrugged his shoulders. "Don\'t blame me for having a lackluster Concept."

However, Alice seemed to become very interested all of a sudden. "You\'re right. It does seem \'lackluster\'."

Julius had a depressed look on his face. "Not you too."

Dante just gave a boisterous laugh.

Alice ignored the two of them and continued. "I had originally thought it was a weaker Concept, but I think there\'s something else to it."

Dante stopped laughing suddenly when he heard her tone. "What do you mean?" He asked interested.

She ignored him again much to Dante\'s annoyance and turned to Julius. "Do you have a superior skill with fire aspects?"

How did she know?

He didn\'t answer her. "I am willing to tell you all about my skills once you take the oath," he reminded her.

She clicked her tongue and nodded in understanding. "Okay, let\'s not waste any more time then." She turned to Dante. "You know anyone who is willing to set up the ritual?"

Dante shook his head. "Not here. You know I am not involved with that sort of thing anymore."

Alice sighed. "I guess I can just go grab someone I know to do it for us. They might be busy though."

"Wait," Julius interjected. The two of them turned to him. "I know someone who could set it up for us."

She looked at him skeptically. "You know someone who can do it? Are you sure, it\'s pretty advanced stuff."

He nodded his head confidently. "Yeah, she has done one for me before. And more importantly, I can trust her."

Alice gave him an assessing look before shrugging. "Sure, if you\'re certain. Where is this person?"

"At Goldencrest."

"Okay, let\'s go get them."

"What? The two of us?" Julius asked.

"Of course, it will be faster to take you there," she said like it was obvious.

Before he could say anything else, Alice had grabbed him by the shoulder and he felt himself get enveloped in a layer of mana. Then suddenly, it was like he was being squeezed out of a tube as if he were some toothpaste.

He looked around at his surroundings and was surprised by what he saw. He was in front of the school gates. She had teleported them directly to the school within a blink. He gave an excited look and his eyes were asking a thousand questions.

She didn\'t say anything but she saw his look and just smiled at him smugly. Knowing that he wanted nothing more than to know how she did it.

"You must have a pretty good affinity, most people hurl their first time," she commented.

"Affinity?" He asked, confused.

She didn\'t answer him but gestured him toward the gates with an impatient wave.

He wanted to know what she meant but held himself back and resolved himself to ask her again later. He had more important things to do, such as find Lily.

While he was hustling toward her dorm he took out his communication stone from his ring and sent Lily a message. He knew that it was likely that the girl was still sleeping, but he had hoped she wasn\'t. It would save him a trip to her dorm.

However, when she didn\'t answer it wasn\'t a surprise. The girl loved to sleep in on the weekends after all.

He made his way across campus weaving in and out of the crowds of students. It was pretty busy since it was the weekend, most students were on their way to enjoy their days off. But eventually, he made it to Lily\'s dorm.

It was a building that was specifically for fourth years. Julius had only been there once before but vividly recalled that it was much nicer than the dorms that the first years like himself stayed in. He was a little bit envious of them.

He passed a couple of older students as he entered the building. They all gave him curious looks but didn\'t stop him or prevent him from entering. He noticed that some of them recognized him from the time he spent with the others.

When he reached the door that belonged to Lily and Aubrey, he gave it a firm knock. Surprisingly, it opened pretty quickly. It only took a minute or so. When the door opened, a groggy Lily appeared. Her blonde hair was tousled and her violet eyes were half asleep still.

However, when she saw who it was she immediately jolted awake. She must have felt some of the anxious emotions boiling throughout his chest because she looked at him worriedly. Ever since he had gotten [Sage of Savagery] it became harder for her to peer into his emotions, but she could still see them if he didn\'t actively hide them. Which he wasn\'t at the moment.

"What\'s wrong?" She asked quickly.

"I need your help," Julius said and then explained to her what he needed from her as swiftly as he could.