Path to Transcendence

Edgar POV

Edgar and his friends were hanging out in Derek’s dorm together, just spending time with each other before the semester started. They wouldn’t have much time once it did. At the moment Lily was telling Kyle and Derek about their interaction with Liam earlier this morning.

“Yeah, he tried to use his aura on Julius. Can you believe that ass? A tier 3 trying to pressure a first-year…unbelievable.” Lily explained to them.

“But you stopped it?” Derek asked.

“Yep, batted it aside before it could reach Julius,” Lily said.

Edgar never liked Liam, he was the perfect example of a pompous noble brat. It just sucked that he had perfect ice affinity. Goldencrest wasn’t supposed to play favorites, but that wasn’t how it was in reality. There might not technically be “favorites” but it was a meritocracy and those who did well were rewarded. When it came to pure combat power Liam was on par with Edgar and Derek. The three of them were all likely to go to the Inters at the end of the year.

Lily, Aubrey, and Kyle also had good chances, but Goldencrest could only bring sixteen people as their representatives. It was more than some of the other smaller schools were able to bring, but Goldencrest was also one of the top schools on the continent, which meant that almost every single fourth-year would be able to get a spot if they went to an average school. That was why they had more slots than others.

The competition was insane at Goldencrest, and the rewards for succeeding were just as crazy. Edgar had done well enough that he had been taken into personalized rifts many times over his years at Goldencrest. There weren’t enough rifts to go around, but everyone fought for entry rights.

Every student understood the value of these opportunities. There wouldn’t be many chances in the outside world to find rifts that were completely scouted down to the last pebble. There also wouldn’t be a professor who makes sure you don’t die watching your back.

There were only several hundred students in each class at Goldencrest and those at the top half were able to have more access to rifts and resources than the lower half. That didn’t mean that the students at the bottom didn’t get anything. They just received fewer resources than others. It might not seem like a lot, just a few extra delves or resources over a month or so, but after a year, those opportunities start accumulating and adding up.

Once you get into your third year, the gap widens significantly. Those who sat at the bottom for their first two years ended so far behind, that it was almost impossible to catch up. Hard work paid off at Goldencrest, as long as you were strong enough, the school treated you well, noble or not.

Edgar thought about the young first year that the five of them met yesterday. It was odd, they all agreed to get there early to sign up for classes and avoid the rush of new students, so they were surprised to see Julius sitting at their table alone.

Derek hadn’t cared and still sat down at their regular table, in typical Derek fashion. Edgar was surprised to find out that Julius was a close combat fighter, and quickly got friendly with the first year.

Edgar liked him, he didn’t talk a lot but seemed genuine and Edgar had learned that sometimes that’s all that mattered. Julius was an odd boy though, he didn’t talk like a first-year, if he didn’t look so young, he would think he was older, he found himself forgetting that the boy was a first-year multiple times when they were talking.

He also was planning to get a life spirit as a familiar, which was weird considering his affinities to kinetic and fire. Not unheard of, but it wasn’t optimal. Also, Edgar didn’t think the others knew, but he suspected Julius had an aura skill. He didn’t know for sure, but yesterday Julius signed up for an aura elective. That could have been easily explained by someone curious about aura, but today he saw Julius react to Liam’s aura. Edgar was next to him, so could feel Julius not only sense it but also flexed his own aura just barely. Someone without a skill would not be able to move their aura with purposeful intent like that.

But he seemed to be keeping that a secret so Edgar wouldn’t say anything. Everyone was entitled to their secrets. He had bigger things to worry about. This year was his last and he wanted to make his presence known at the tournament.

Everyone had already decided what they were doing after they graduated, Derek was apprenticing under his grandfather, Lily was taking over some of her family’s assets, Aubrey had already accepted an invite to a top-tier guild, and Kyle was staying at Goldencrest to research, and possibly teach later. Only Edgar hadn’t made a choice yet.

He had gotten offers like the others had, but he hadn’t decided. He felt pressured that everyone else seemed to know what they wanted, but he didn’t.

He felt someone lay a hand on his arm. It was Aubrey, her beautiful face showing concern, “Hey, you feeling okay?”

Edgar smiled at her and placed a hand over hers, “Yeah, I was just thinking about some things.”

He didn’t have time to waste, he would need to get stronger if he wanted to win this year's Inter-School Tournament.

---

Julius made sure he was comfortable, he was sitting down and was about to choose his skill. He took a brief moment to look at the notification again.

Skill [Mana Manipulation] is evolving… possible advancements: [Advanced Mana Manipulation], [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], [Mana Absorption], [Mana Saturation], and [Mana Layering]

Now that he had time to research some of the available skills he could confidently get rid of most of them. [Mana Hardening], [Mana Overload], [Mana Weaving], and [Mana Absorption] didn’t seem like the path he was trying to follow.

[Mana Saturation] had sounded very tempting when he first saw it, and it still was. The only problem was that he now had [Kinetic Augmentation] and [Empowerment of Will], which already tore his body apart when used together. He didn’t think he would need another physical enhancement ability, which was what most versions ended up being. And looking back on his own experiences, was what he had been doing.

He wanted to focus on close combat, at least for now, but he also still wanted to have the versatility to use magic at range like a mage. Most people might say that he was stupid, but most people also didn’t have several times more mana than a normal Tier 1. He felt like he could handle it.

Julius was still thinking about just taking the general [Advanced Mana Manipulation], it was an overall good skill that covered everything. But in the end, [Mana Layering] was too enticing. He believed that if he chose it, it would make learning about mana layering much more efficient, and he would not have to waste a lot of time learning how to do it manually. He was sure he could eventually, but time wasn't exactly on his side. Not to mention, just because he chose it didn't mean the skill wouldn't help other aspects of mana control. The books all said it would, just to a lesser degree of [Advanced Mana Manipulation].

Congratulations, you have learned the skill [Mana Layering] (Uncommon)

Julius had finally evolved it and it was a relief. Now he could decide on how he was going to train. But before he took a look at his status.

Name: Julius Von Hyperius

Tier: 1

Skills:

• [Pseudo-Phoenix Renewal lvl 12] (Rare+)
  
• [Empowerment of Will lvl 3] (Rare+)

• [Spatial Perception lvl 19] (Rare)

• [Savage Dance lvl 17] (Rare)

• [Arcane Construct lvl 14] (Rare)

• [Pure Compression lvl 13] (Rare)

• [Kinetic Augmentation lvl 13] (Rare)

• [Mana Layering lvl 1] (Uncommon)

• [Swordsmanship lvl 8]

He was thinking about combining some skills soon. He only had one skill slot left and he would rather not get rid of any. The only one he could see himself not keeping was [Swordsmanship].

He didn’t have more plans on getting new skills at the moment, so he wasn’t going to worry until he had another one. Looking at his status, he was hoping to narrow down what he was going to do for training in the future.

[Empowerment of Will] was something he definitely wanted to try, but it might have to wait until he reached Tier 2. He had been thinking that the reason he had blacked out was because he couldn’t handle the mental load, just like his body couldn’t. While he wasn’t sure, he felt like advancing might help out.

So in the mornings, he would have Physical Training, and then he would get breakfast before Intro to Mana and Tier Advancement and finally Applied Combat. After his mandatory classes were done, he could grab some lunch if he wanted, before heading off to Sarah Hashen’s class and hand-to-hand following that with Professor Keller. He would then have a couple of hours to himself before dinner and after dinner was his aura control class with Professor Rhyner.

After that, he was free until the next morning. During that time he was planning to train his mana techniques and other projects that might take his fancy, maybe he would just read. It would be an extremely busy schedule, but Julius preferred it that way. Less time to give him to worry about Lukas and Edwin, who he still hadn’t heard anything about from Declan.

It was frustrating just waiting for someone else to tell him the news. But he reminded himself that he couldn’t even do anything even if he knew what was wrong. He was still too weak to go against Duke Greyson and his allies.

For the rest of the night, he was going to play around with [Mana Layering] and get himself acclimated to his new skill. He hadn’t tried it out yet, but he was excited to see if it made that much of a difference.

---

Around ten hours later he stopped practicing. [Mana Layering] had gone up in levels, and he had gotten a good feeling for the skill

[Mana Layering lvl 1 -> lvl 3]

Julius would estimate the skill took off around half of the mental load. As long as Julius had an idea and good enough visualization he was able to have the skill to do a good portion of the work. However, he could still feel that the skill could provide so much more, it was just too low-level for now.

He was sure it would get much better after it reached the halfway point. But who knows how long that will be.

Julius headed back to his room, he was going to get some sleep before they served breakfast. However, when he opened his door he was surprised to sense another person sleeping in the other bed. It was dark but [Spatial Perception] clearly showed another form lying in the bed opposite of Julius’s.

It seemed his roommate had finally arrived. Julius made sure to be as quiet as he could and slowly crawled into bed. However, not before he fed Drasil a bunch of mana, more than usual since he hadn’t fed Drasil since dinner.

After that Julius quickly snuggled into his bed for the first time and fell asleep.

---

When he awoke, it had only been a couple of hours. However, Julius felt refreshed and ready to go. With a roll, he managed to untangle himself from his sheets.

The other boy was still sleeping soundly. Julius had been tempted to just wait for the boy to wake up for breakfast, but he remembered what Aubrey said about most first years not getting up early until later on in the year or even their second year, then decided to introduce himself once both of them were properly awake.

For now, he brought Drasil with him and headed off to breakfast. When he got there, all five of the group were already eating their light breakfast. Except for Kyle, who like Julius had a pile of pancakes and eggs.

He had a feeling he was going to like Kyle. Lily seemed to notice him first, although her back was facing him. She turned around and waved with a brilliant smile. “Morning Julius!”

He smiled back, her joy infectious. “Good morning Lady Violet,” Julius teased her while giving her a bow with his plate of food in one hand.

“I told you to call me Lily,” she grumbled at him.

“You sure you’re not a noble? You sometimes act like a pretty good one,” Edgar spoke up.

“Oh, you’re not a noble? I thought for sure you were one with how you bowed yesterday,” Lily added.

“Me too, it definitely seemed practiced,” Aubrey piped up as well.

Julius just shook his head and laughed to himself. These guys were always in sync it was frightening.