Path to Transcendence

Edgar nudged Julius with his very large shoulder and asked, “How was your first night?”

Julius had to keep himself from being tossed off of the bench, and responded, “It was productive, I saw some of the facilities after we signed up for our classes. It’s impressive how much is available to students.”

“Yeah, just wait until classes start, then you will begin to wonder how the school manages to afford this,” Edgar said to him.

Edgar noticed Drasil sitting next to Julius and asked, “Hey, is that plant over there yours?”

Julius looked up from his food, “Yep, that is Drasil. It is a life spirit seed that I got not too long ago.”

“Oh! Are you hoping for it to become your familiar?” Aubrey perked up at hearing it was a spirit.

Julius was about to say yes, but he caught himself. He hadn’t thought about how he was going to explain getting a life spirit with no life affinity. If he said he was planning to have it as his familiar, it might be suspicious because people usually only got familiars that coincided with their affinity.

He could just say that he was going to have it become his familiar because he liked the thought of having a cute spirit. It might come off as a weird reason, but it might be better than admitting that he had purposefully left off his life affinity on the exam. Or maybe he could just say he had a small affinity for life and wasn't focusing on it while at Goldencrest, he didn't quite know yet.

He also was planning to form a familiar bond once Drasil was born, and it would be obvious to most that it was his familiar. Therefore, lying and saying he wasn’t going to form a bond with it would be stupid. He decided to tell a partial truth.

“Yep, I wanted a spirit as a familiar and found this little guy in a small shop when I got to Heston,” Julius said.

“I always wanted to get a spirit familiar. But there aren’t any crystal spirits, at least not that anyone has discovered.” Aubrey told Julius.

“You have a crystal affinity?” Julius asked.

“Yep, inherited from my mother,” she said.

“Wow, that’s amazing.”

Julius should have guessed that because of her last name, but crystal affinities were practically unheard of. They were similar to earth affinity users but had some amazing advantages. If her mother was a Tier 6 as Edgar had said, then she must be someone very important and very wealthy.

“I never asked what affinity you have yesterday,” Edgar said next to Julius. “I have a dual affinity for earth and fire. What about you?”

“Fire and kinetic,” Julius replied.

“Nice, I only have a high affinity for fire, but I have an exceptional earth affinity. I only use fire to give myself a little extra boost, but I can show you some tricks if you’re interested,” Edgar offered to him.

Julius took up Edgar on his offer, he would love to see what someone else could do with fire, especially another person who fights up close.

While Julius was busy stuffing his face, trying to finish his plate, the other two were taking their time eating their light breakfast. They were talking about a professor for a class they were both taking this year. A new professor was teaching Mana Applications and they wanted to find out if he was any good.

A few minutes later the other girl, Lily Violet showed up with tired eyes and her pretty hair tied up in a ponytail. “Morning guys,” she noticed Julius sitting next to Edgar. “Oh hey, it's the same firstie from last night. Julius right?”

Julius nodded. “Yep, it’s Julius. You’re Lily right?”

“Yeah, nice to officially meet you. I see that Edgar told you about us then,” Julius smiled and looked at Edgar before nodding his head.

“Well, I guess I will still introduce myself,” she curtsied at Julius, “My name is Lily Violet, a pleasure to meet you.”

Julius got up as well, gracefully bowing toward her, “It is an honor to make your acquaintance as well Lady Violet.”

“You can call me Lily, none of that lady stuff, at least not while we are at school,” she told him.

Aubrey got up as well, remembering that she had not introduced herself as well. “Sorry, Edgar might have told you already, but I am Aubrey.”

“Yeah, he told me all four of your guy’s names. He’s been real helpful,” Julius told the girls.

“Edgar’s like that. He looks mean and unfriendly, but he’s a puppy on the inside, always trying to be accommodating,” Lily explained.

“Hey! I take offense to that,” Edgar interjected.

The girl ignored him and said to Julius, so why are you up so early? Most firsties don’t wake up this early.”

“I have always been an early riser, I guess,” Julius answered her.

“That’s good, most first-years don’t learn that until halfway through the year or even their second year,” Aubrey said.

“This one didn’t start until she advanced to Tier 3,” Edgar said while pointing at Lily.

Julius laughed, as he saw Lily start trying to hit the other boy for outing her like that. However, he stopped when he saw someone else approach their table. It wasn’t Derek or the other guy, Kyle. He wasn’t familiar with this new guy and his buddies.

But it seemed that Edgar and his friends certainly did. They immediately stopped fooling around and looked at the boy and his three friends walked up to them with guarded looks.

“Hey guys! You have a good break?” The handsome guy in the middle asked the group. He was of average height, dark brown hair, but had a pair of icy blue eyes that sparkled as he talked.

“What do you want Liam?” Aubrey asked coldly.

“What? I can’t ask about how my favorite girl is doing?” He asked while looking at Aubrey with a bright innocent smile.

“No you can’t,” Aubrey said bluntly. “Now can you please leave us be? It’s early and I don’t want you to ruin my morning more than you already have.”

Julius watched the other boy, Liam, and noticed with [Spatial Perception], that while Liam still had a smile, he had tightened his fists together behind his back. Also, his friends behind him were openly looking at Edgar and the two girls with malice.

However, Liam didn’t pause and bowed at the waist, “I am sorry for bothering you, I will take my leave then.”

Then he turned around and headed back to their table, not saying anything else. But he did feel Liam’s aura reach out to Julius. Fortunately, he didn’t need to do anything, because Lily’s aura stretched out and intercepted it before it could reach Julius.

Though his back was turned to him, Julius could feel Liam grind his teeth together. It seemed like there was history between them.

Lily let out a sigh of relief. “Sorry about that, Liam is an arrogant prick.”

“Yeah, don’t let his smile fool you, he seems nice but is a rotten snake that will stab you in the back in a second,” Aubrey said angrily.

Julius looked at Edgar who saw his gaze and said, “Liam has been making trouble for us for years. He has a crush on Aubrey, but won’t take no for an answer. It makes it hard because he is one of the top students in our year, and he is one of the few who are guaranteed a spot in the Inter-School Tournament. The fact that his father is Marquis Abrams doesn’t help either.”

Ah, school drama, Julius thought to himself.

It was a pretty common trend for nobles to take the word “no” poorly. They are used to getting what they want, no matter the cost. Julius remembered hearing Lukas complaining about some of the other members of House Hyperius who were just like that.

Julius made sure to make a note for himself to stay away from Liam and his goons in the future. He was hoping his time at Goldencrest would be relatively low-key. Others might think that if he wanted to remain anonymous he should have gone to an academy less known than Goldencrest.

However, in his mind, he thought that he would just stand out more amongst normal students of average schools. Goldencrest on the other hand, had some of the brightest talents of his generation, which would take the spotlight, while he could hide in their shadows. Also, he wouldn’t accept anything less than stellar when it came to education.

Julius finished his food and ended up leaving before Derek or Kyle joined the others. With Drasil in arms, he headed for the library to do some research. He had a few days before the term officially began, but he didn’t want to waste any time.

He grabbed another stack of books and headed off to the same nook he was at yesterday. He settled down and placed Drasil so they could overlook the garden and pond outside. Then he began to read.

---

Julius spent most of the day in the library in his little spot. The only break he took was to feed Drasil, but other than that he read. He finished Practical Advancements of Mana Manipulation for Close Combatants by Michael Warring in the afternoon. He learned a lot by the time he was finished with it.

He was particularly interested in a section that mentioned the applications of [Mana Layering]. The author mentioned how [Mana Layering] was used by certain mages who focused on being more up close and personal. There was a famous mage named Cyrus Holten who began as a water mage who focused on raining spells from a distance, but eventually became a monster in close combat.

He was a brilliant talent with a spear and wreaked destruction wherever he went. His most famous skill was an ability that allowed him to cover his body in water. He could harden it at will into ice and was almost impossible to break. Cyrus later explained that he had been using [Mana Layering] to strengthen his water armor into many layers.

Julius didn’t have a water affinity, but he felt like he had similarities with this Cyrus person. He still wanted to keep some of his long-range capabilities, but he wanted to get stronger in close combat too. He didn’t want to have any weaknesses his enemies could exploit.

Julius made sure to leave in time to get to dinner, where he met up with the others again. He didn’t talk all that much, but he listened to them laughing and fooling around with each other.

He didn’t see Liam again, but he made sure to keep an eye on him. He still remembered how Liam’s aura tried to reach out to him. If Lily hadn’t stopped it, who knows what might have happened?

Julius went back to the first-year training area, he saw some of the same students that he had seen before. He wasn’t the only one who was putting in the effort it seemed. The room he had used before was taken, so he chose another one right down the hall.

He decided that tonight was going to be the night when he evolved [Mana Manipulation]. He had been thinking too much about what skill he was going to take and it was bothering him. Skills were personalized to an individual's soul and it was way too hard to predict what he was going to get. Even [Mana Overload] had about six different versions he read about that acted in very different ways. One was a version that specifically crammed as much mana into a construct or runes, while another overloaded a person’s body with mana to give them a temporary increase in strength at the cost of hurting themselves.

He needed to trust that he would make the right decision. All of his other skills have been chosen well, even without a library full of knowledge. Don’t get him wrong, the knowledge he had learned in the past couple of days had already been a blessing, but getting indecisive wasn’t his thing. He would trust his instinct at the end of the day.

Trying to find a perfect skill or path might be possible for other people, but Julius hadn’t found any mention of people with similar skill sets to him. He would need to pave his own way to the top. He didn’t want to copy others, because he believed that would just limit him in the long run. He wasn’t aiming at Tier 6, he was looking far beyond it. He had seen Jasper control the dimensions between worlds, that was what he was shooting for.

It might be harder and he might fail in the end, but at least he would be spearheading his own path.