Path to Transcendence

"Yes, and that would be a justifiable reason if not for one thing."

He paused, his arm frozen in mid-air. "And what would that be?" he asked genuinely curious.

"You are enjoying this far… ouch… too much," Alice complained to him as another pebble knocked into her head.

"Why are you saying \'ouch\', like it is actually causing you pain?" He asked the much stronger lady while winding up another pebble to chuck at her.

"Habit, I guess," she replied with a shrug.

The fact that Julius was using every bit of his power to throw these pebbles as hard as he could wasn\'t lost on either of them. He used all of the tricks he learned recently about kinetic energy to help him charge the pebbles with something extra, but still, he didn\'t even leave a crease in her skin.

At the moment, Alice wasn\'t wearing the device that Dante had made her. The old man had to make some adjustments today and so the two of them were hanging out on Dante\'s patio with Julius throwing rocks at her to pass the time.

Julius was already sweating a bit from the exertion but Alice looked like she had just like she did when they first arrived. It was quite annoying, to be honest. Julius had really tried to at least do something to the woman with his attempts, but no matter how strong he threw it, she acted like it was a gust of wind.

It wasn\'t only that, but the woman had gotten very good at sensing about half the throws with no detection skills other than her spatial senses.

It had only been around a month since they met and they had developed a weird but nice relationship. It was also of note that Alice had already gotten to a point that took Julius many years to get to. It probably helped that she had familiarity with a similar skill.

He expected that she would be offered the skill or something very similar pretty soon.

At first, he had proposed the idea for her to get the same set of skills that he used to combine, but she said that wouldn\'t be possible for her. The skills he used were [Sixth Sense], [Detect Life], and [Awareness]. The problem with that was that Alice had already evolved the [Awareness] skill into her other perception skill a long time ago.

However, it was also important to mention that combining these three skills wasn\'t a guaranteed method to gain his skills. As he had learned, not all skills were the same and just because someone combined the same skills didn\'t mean they would get the same result.

The method and way they used the skills or rather what their intent was, was more vital to the acquisition of the skill. In [Spatial Perception]\'s case, they were trying to replicate his training regime from when he was younger, with the intention of getting [Spatial Perception].

Apparently, a perception skill with spatial aspects was not heard of at the rare rank, that was why Alice and Dante had been so curious and interested with his skill.

[Spatial Awareness] and its other variants were all epic ranked skills. But if it was possible to gain such a perception skill at Tier 1 as Julius had done, it would provide an immeasurable value to anyone who got the skill.

Not that Alice really had any intentions of sharing the skill with anyone else. It also wouldn\'t do much good for many other people. At least according to her opinion. She believed that one of the requisites of the skill was an amazing affinity to space.

This confused Julius because that would mean he had a good affinity for space. But he didn\'t remember getting an affinity for space when he was tested by his uncle and Edwin. And so he had asked her to clear up his bewilderment.

"Space affinities are not like normal elemental affinities. There\'s not really space mana to test for it. It\'s kind of like how there aren\'t any time affinities either. They simply exist and those with a higher affinity for them can interact with these forces much easier than others. People like you and me," she had explained to him.

Her explanation left him with more questions than before. He had always wondered how he had been able to get such a skill like [Spatial Perception] like he had. He was hoping it was a unique skill to have, but he had expected that at least a few people would have a similar skill.

But now it was starting to make sense.

He suddenly felt a tightness in his soul. It came out of nowhere, and it wasn\'t from the suppression device. He had been wearing the device for a while by now and he was very familiar with the types of sensations that came from it.

This was different. The device was a crushing and weighty kind of pain. This pain was like when he ate too much food at a buffet but a hundred times worse. His soul felt like it was about to burst.

However, Alice was next to him and immediately took off her blindfold. He felt her domain surround him with a warming and comforting presence. Almost immediately after, the pressure paused.

He turned to look at the woman who had a confused look on her face. "What the hell was that?"

He felt her inspecting his soul with her own soul. He had gotten used to her little probes at this point that he recognized her movements within his soul. And this time her inspection of him was more frantic and thorough than normal.

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Finally, she let his soul go and gave him a questioning glare. "You\'ve really been using it that much?" She asked skeptically.

"Using what?"

She ignored his avoidance of the question and continued talking. "I had plans for you to be done in a month or so."

"Is that still not true?" He asked worriedly. He was afraid that he might\'ve done something wrong again.

"No, it\'s not," she said simply.

Shit! What did I do this time?

"Is there anything I can do to fix it?" He asked nervously.

His mind started to race in a thousand directions about how he had managed to mess his soul up again. He was already inwardly berating himself for his carelessness. He thought he was doing well, all things considered.

"What do you mean fix it?" Alice asked, bewildered at his panicking.

"You know, my soul. Is there a way to fix whatever I ended up messing up this time?"

She didn\'t say anything for a moment and just stared at him like he wasn\'t making any sense. However, she soon must\'ve come to a realization because she laughed out loud. Which didn\'t make him feel at ease, in fact, it made him feel more worried.

"I think you are misunderstanding something," she told him after she stopped chuckling.

He looked at her with wide eyes. "Huh?"

"Your soul is fine. As a matter of fact, your soul is doing quite well, better than I expected it to be at this stage. You must have been using the device religiously, I\'m impressed. That feeling you got in your soul is a new skill trying to form," Alice explained to him with a smirk.

"A new skill? You mean the [Soul Resistance] skill?" Julius asked excitedly.

"Yes, or at least some version of it. That\'s what I am hoping at least. You haven\'t been trying to learn another skill during this time right?" Alice asked him with a knowing look.

"Of course not," he promised.

"Good, then you should be able to learn the skill."

"Right now?!" He asked surprised.

"I don\'t see why not. I was hoping I would be around to help you assimilate it into your soul. It would be safer if I can help you hold your soul together while you do," she told him.

He just nodded his head rapidly up and down at her. She smiled at him and had him sit down in front of her.

"You are going to feel that same sensation again, but this time I want you to let it happen. It\'s not going to feel natural, but you have to let it pop," Alice explained.

He gave her a skeptical look. But he listened to her, she hadn\'t misguided him yet so she deserved some faith from him.

Slowly he felt Alice release her hold of his soul and the same expanding feeling rolled over him. It was uncomfortable and she was right, he was holding it back subconsciously. His will was working to fight against this foreign feeling.

However, he trusted her and tentatively let go. He allowed that expanding feeling to continue unimpeded.

At first it just hurt more and he was doubting Alice\'s advice as it ramped up in increments. Still, he held on and restrained himself from fighting against the sensation.

Finally, with a culminating burst of energy, the bubble burst and all he felt was extreme satisfaction. It was like eventually going to the bathroom after holding it in for way too long.

Would you like to learn the skill [Soul Tempering]?

He let out a loud laugh and smiled widely at Alice who was giving a similar smirk on her own.

"Did you get it?" She asked him.

It\'s not [Soul Resistance], he realized.

"I didn\'t get offered [Soul Resistance]," he said quietly.

"What?" She asked, confused.

"I got offered a different skill," he admitted.

"What is it?" Alice pressed him impatiently.

"It\'s called [Soul Tempering]," he told her.

Alice didn\'t say anything to him in response, but she called out to the cabin where Dante was at. "Hey! You owe me a silver!"

"What!? He didn\'t get [Soul Resistance]?" Julius heard to gruff voice of Dante ask Alice questioningly.

"Nope, he got a skill called [Soul Tempering]."

Dante opened the door and came out to the porch. "You got the [Soul Tempering] skill?" He asked Julius directly.

"I haven\'t accepted it yet, but yeah, I got offered it," he said.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take it," Dante commanded him sternly.

"What\'s the skill?" He asked the both of them.

"[Soul Tempering] is a more advanced version of [Soul Resistance]. It\'s hard to say if it\'s necessarily better, but I believe it is a much more valuable skill for your current needs. It\'s the skill I was kind of hoping for," Alice explained.

"So you weren\'t betting that he wouldn\'t get a soul resistance skill, you were betting that he wouldn\'t get the standard version of it," Dante accused Alice.

"Yep."

"That\'s a cheap way to make a bet and you know it," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but you still lost, so pay up," Alice said uncaringly.

Dante grumbled something about scammers but still passed over a shiny platinum coin to her. To which Alice pocketed with a smug smile.

That\'s not a silver coin.

"No point in waiting," she said to him.

He shrugged his shoulders and accepted the prompt.

Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Soul Tempering] (Rare+)

It was even a superior skill. That part surprised him. The other part was the feeling he got the moment he gained the skill.

The first sensation was more pain, but that was quickly replaced with joy. The skill was already going to work. He could feel his soul getting revitalized by the skill. It was as if a lot of the weight and pressure that had been burying his soul was getting thrown out of his soul.

It was such a relief that he practically moaned at the relief he felt. It was by no means totally fixed, but a significant amount of the pain was gone.

Compared to how he felt just this morning, the difference was night and day. He felt his eyes start to sparkle with unshed tears as he looked at both of them.

"Thank you," he said to them. "Thank you so much for your guy\'s help."

He had been through a lot during these past weeks. He tried to put up as tough of an act, but he could honestly say it was one of the most enduring and painful experiences of his life.

It was Dante who surprisingly placed a hand on his shoulder.

"You did well boy. You did really well," Dante said to him with a genuinely proud smile.