Path to Transcendence

“Well, my father was a noble, but my mother was a commoner” Julius admitted to the group

Julius watched as the group all wore slightly uncomfortable faces, hearing the past tense he used to describe his parents. He didn’t mean to make them feel awkward and felt like he needed to put them at ease.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t know either of them. You don’t have to feel bad,” he reassured them.

Lily was the one who spoke up, “Of course, we would feel bad. That you didn’t know then at all makes it even worse.”

“So how did you learn manners like that then?” Derek asked, trying to change the topic.

“I had a teacher that taught me basic etiquette. He was a real sticker for things like manners,” Julius admitted.

Edwin was indeed a stickler for manners and rules alike. Especially when it came to his tea time. Julius remembered how Edwin would scold him for hours about how he wasn’t drinking tea properly. He also made sure Julius could brew a proper cup of tea, which led to many lessons about the intricacies of tea and the optimal way to brew leaves in order to maximize their aroma and flavor. It was silly at the time, but now that they might be gone, that was all he could remember about Edwin.

“Anyway, what did you guys have planned for today,” Julius shifted the conversation away from him and his family.

“Since today is the last day before the term starts tomorrow we were thinking about going down to the ocean. It will be the last day we can relax in peace for a while once the term starts.” Edgar said.

“Hey, why don’t you join us? We can show you some of the secret spots.” Lily offered Julius excitedly.

Julius was about to decline, saying that he had to train and research, but he stopped himself. He had been thinking about his crazy training schedule for a while. He was already training from dawn to dusk, and he didn’t think that would be healthy. He was in a whole new world, and was he planning to sit inside a training room for his entire life here?

He sure hoped not. He still had plans to explore many parts of this world. Training and getting stronger were simply means which would allow him more freedom. He had to constantly remind himself that it wouldn’t matter how strong he got if he couldn’t enjoy other aspects of life.

“You know, I think I would really enjoy that,” Julius said.

“We were planning to meet up and go there in a couple of hours, once it warms up, and then have lunch down at the beach. Does that work for you?” Derek asked him.

“Yeah, I have some stuff I wanted to do before I go,” Julius said.

With promises to meet back at the cafeteria, Julius left to head to the library. Now that he had evolved [Mana Manipulation] into [Mana Layering], he wanted to see if any more books specifically talked about training methods or applications he could get inspiration from.

When he walked in, he saw the same librarian he always saw in the morning and waved to her while scanning his badge. He headed for one of the many aisles and began searching for anything that related to [Mana Layering] or something that caught his attention.

He picked up whatever seemed interesting and took it to his nook. However, it was already taken by the third year he had seen on his first day here. It seemed that Julius was too slow and lost his spot.

Sighing, he found himself a spot just down a little way, it was just as nice. He was still amazed at how beautiful a place the library was. He made sure he didn’t lose track of time, sometimes he could get so wrapped up in whatever he was reading that he forgot he needed to do something.

Once it was getting close to ten o’clock he packed his bags up and returned his pile of books for another day. Then he walked out of the library, heading back to the cafeteria.

When he got there he saw that Kyle was already there before him. Julius hadn’t talked with Kyle yet, the guy didn’t talk and Julius sometimes forgot he was even there.

He walked up to Kyle and said, “Hey Kyle, you waiting for the others?”

Kyle looked at Julius for a while and just nodded not saying anything to him.

Julius didn’t mind, he didn’t feel that Kyle was being rude or anything. He thought that it was more because of shyness or that Kyle just didn’t like to talk.

So Julius didn’t say another word and stood next to Kyle as they both waited for the others. Derek was the next one to show up. He had a large pack across his shoulders and a bag in another. Derek waved at the two of them and began telling Julius all about the spot they were taking him to.

“We found it in our second year, it is a little of a hike but there are usually very few people who go there. It is a place where only locals or other students hang out. I think you will enjoy it,” he told Julius.

Eventually, Edgar, Lily, and Aubrey all show up together afterward. Derek told him that fourth-years can get their own rooms, but also still choose to live with a friend if they want. Lily and Aubrey were roommates while the other boys all had their own rooms.

Now that everyone had shown up, Julius followed them across campus to a garden that rested on the edge of campus. Deep in the garden, there was a path that led down to the ocean.

Goldencrest was placed on top of a cliff that overlooked the ocean, but underneath the cliff were large stretches of beach and sand. Heston was always a popular place for tourism in the summer.

The path was a steep decline covered with rocks that you had to be careful maneuvering around. It would have been a struggle if he was still a normal person, but with his improved physical capabilities, it was quite simple.

The view was amazing though. He could see the sun above the horizon, shining down on the crystal blue waters of the ocean below. The rays of light hit the grains of sand, and they sparkled like diamonds.

When they finally made it to the beach, Derek took the bag off his back and started to remove many items from its interior. He took out way more things than what a bag that size should have been able to fit.

It was obviously a spatial bag, much like the one he saw Lukas and Edwin carry. They were ridiculously expensive, but Julius remembered that Derek was the grandson of Duke Zenith, so it wasn’t that surprising.

Julius was glad too, because Derek managed to take out an entire campsite complete with chairs, tables, umbrellas, and plenty of food for all of them. It was an extravagant trip to the beach that Julius hadn’t been expecting. But one that was very welcome.

“Do you have any goals for the year Julius?” Derek asked Julius as he was sitting right next to him enjoying an ice-cold drink on one of the chairs.

“I have a few things that I want to improve, such as skills, but generally I just want to get stronger,” Julius replied while also sipping on a drink of his own.

“No plans for the Intra or Inter-School tournaments? I can tell you are right on the cusp of Tier 2, something not many first-years achieve before coming to Goldencrest,” Derek said.

Julius shook his head, “I don’t think I will be participating in any of the tournaments.”

Aubrey was off to the side with Edgar, talking with each other, but must’ve overheard what Julius said because she said, “What? Why would you not even try? There are many great rewards for doing well.”

Rewards? This was the first time Julius had heard about a reward for the tournament other than prestige. “What kind of rewards?” He asked Aubrey.

“Goldencrest will reward anyone who does well. I got tenth place in my class last year in the Intra-School Tournament and I was given personal training and delver’s rights to a rift that was perfectly suited to me. I even leveled up many of my skills during that rift. It is very worth it,” she explained.

The Intra and Inter-School Tournament was separated into two different age groups. One for underclassmen and one for upperclassmen, most people want to watch the upperclassmen tournaments, but many also want to watch the younger students too.

It was a good place to display your talent and was a good indicator of your potential. Julius didn’t know about the delver’s rights, but that would be a good reward if it got you exclusive rights to a rift fit for your needs. One of the reasons why it mattered what school you went to, was that the better schools had many more rifts available to them. Some of them were artificially created, and others were naturally formed that the academy cultivated over many years.

Julius knew that he would be delving into rifts throughout his time in Goldencrest, but that would be with other students of his class. Exclusive rights were different, he would have free reign within a rift, allowing him to challenge himself and practice with more freedom. The only thing was that Julius doubted they would just allow him to into a rift alone. Although it might be exclusive to him, he would still probably have a professor who would watch over him, to make sure he didn’t die.

If that was the case, then he wouldn’t be able to go all out either way. So the rewards didn’t matter as much.

“You can also get resources that will increase your skills or advance your tier,” Edgar added. “I got a special fruit that was able to upgrade my body and skill last year.”

Now, that was more tempting to Julius than exclusive delver’s rights. Resources that could upgrade someone's physical body were extremely sought after and rarely available on the market because more people keep them for themselves.

Something like that might lure Julius into participating. But he expected that the rewards for the underclassmen were not as good as those for upperclassmen. He asked the group this just to make sure though.

“Yeah, last year the upperclassmen winner of the Intra-School Tournament last year got a soul-bound weapon that was personally crafted by a Tier 6 blacksmith. You won’t find anything like that for winning the underclassmen tournament, but that doesn’t mean the other rewards aren’t good. They are still better than almost any top reward from other schools,” Derek told Julius.

“You should totally try! Even if you don’t do that well it's okay. I don’t do that well usually, Kyle and I aren’t specialized in combat, but we learn a lot from the experience.” Lily encouraged him. She probably thought that Julius was nervous about not doing well and embarrassing himself.

“Don’t downplay your success, Lily, you and Kyle both nearly made the top 50 in last year's Intra-School Tournament, as third years. That is impressive.” Aubrey said to Lily.

“Well, it doesn’t feel that good when everyone else did so much better than us. You, Edgar, and Derek all made it top 50. Derek and Edgar even made it to the top 25.” Lily stated.

Julius heard that and was impressed. Even amongst other fourth years Derek and Edgar were among the best as third years. He wondered what that meant for this year. Were they favorites or were there more impressive third years?

“What Lily is trying to so say is that it might be something to consider. I haven’t seen you fight yet, but I believe it would be a good experience. You don’t have to make a decision now, you can wait,” Derek said to Julius.

After that, the conversation turned back to more normal things like how busy things were getting now that most of the students were returning today.