Path to Transcendence

Julius left the cafeteria and wandered about campus, occasionally bumping into another student on accident. The idea of leaving Heston crossed Julius’s mind, but that seemed like an overreaction. He needed to calm down and think it through. Odds are that Tristan wouldn’t recognize him and even if he did, did Julius believe Tristan would send someone to assassinate him at Goldencrest? Samuel and Duke Greyson might be bold but going that far that would be stupid.

Goldencrest is one of the safest places on the continent. It was renowned for being untouchable even by nobles and their schemes. People have tried and failed throughout the years. Every time those who attempted to would be punished or killed as an example. It would be ridiculous to jeopardize that by sending assassins for one boy who nobody would believe anyway. Also, it would be a silent confession of the truth. Julius started to calm down and relax. It wasn’t ideal, but it could be worse.

He would just need to stay aware and be careful, and he should be fine.

---

Julius didn’t go back to the underclassmen cafeteria. Instead, he made his way toward the main cafeteria. For one, he wanted to limit how many interactions he might have with Tristan, two, it was much nicer there, and three, he was still hungry.

Forging ahead, he walked into the cafeteria doors. It was much busier than the last time he was here but it didn’t have the chaos like the other cafeteria. It was still loud, but everyone was acting behaved and he didn’t see a single fight break out, unlike earlier in the other cafeteria.

Julius noticed the weird looks he was getting. Some noticed the single dash over his uniform, indicating his first-year status, and were probably wondering why he was there.

Julius got in line to get some food, it was short since dinner had already begun some time ago, but there were still stragglers like him. However, it was while he was waiting in line that someone seemed to finally want to speak up. A guy and a girl who were behind him in line took note of his uniform. The girl was surprisingly the one who spoke up. “Hey, newbie! Your cafeteria is on the other side of campus.”

Julius turned around to look at the girl who was causing trouble for him. She was tall and very pretty, too bad it was overshadowed by the nasty look on her face. The guy to his credit seemed embarrassed at her actions.

“I’m sorry were you speaking to me?” Julius played dumb.

“Yeah, you see another first year here?” The girl snapped at him.

Julius made a show to look around, acting innocent, “I don’t know, maybe.”

The girl got even madder seeing his reaction, “First years are not allowed to eat in the main cafeteria. Now get out of here.”

Julius was about to respond again, telling the girl that there was no such rule, but someone beat him to the punch.

“You know very well that there isn’t a rule like that Jessica. It is more like a tradition but there is nothing that prevents first-years from eating here. The only thing that does, is the bullying and harassment people like you subject them to.”

Julius recognized that voice. Lily must’ve seen him enter and was now protecting him from the mean girl named Jessica. It felt quite good that someone was sticking up for him.

Jessica turned around and heard Lily contradict her. “It’s an unspoken rule, Lily, everyone knows it. They have their own cafeteria for a reason, make them stay there. Otherwise, this place would be crawling with the annoying shits.”

“Well Julius is different, he has been eating with us for a few days now and we like his company, so back off,” Lily said menacingly, no longer sounding like her jubilant self. It was quite a change, and a little bit frightening if he was being honest.

Finally, it was the guy who stopped Jessica from creating more of a scene. He grabbed her shoulder and told her something in her ear. Julius didn’t make out everything, but he did hear Derek and Edgar’s names mentioned.

The girl listened and with a disdainful look, she stormed away. The guy gave Julius an apologetic look and followed after her.

“Come on let's get your food, we saved you a spot just in case.” Lily was back to her bright self and hooked her arm through one of Julius’s.

Julius did notice that once she spoke up for him he was starting to receive way less looks. It was like she had staked her claim on him and he was protected. Julius found this hilarious for some reason and was smiling like an idiot.

“What’s so funny? She asked him.

“Nothing, nothing. I just didn’t know you could be that scary.” Julius told her.

Lily blushed and smiled as if she enjoyed hearing that compliment from him. He didn’t think a person like Lily would take scary as a compliment.

Make a note not to piss Lily off. Julius told himself.

Lily stayed with him until he grabbed his food, piling on plenty of food since he was still quite hungry and hadn’t eaten much before he left.

When they walked over to their usual table, Julius saw that the group had saved him a seat.

They all said hello to him, and even Kyle nodded toward him. Lily was telling Aubrey what had just happened to Julius with dramatic detail, it was funny. She made it seem like she had just saved Julius from an awful monster.

“So I’m taking you didn’t like the other cafeteria?” Edgar asked him with a laugh.

“What? Did you all predict that I would come back here?” Julius asked the entire group.

“Kyle was actually the one who made the prediction, he said you enjoyed your food too much to want to eat in that hellhole,” Derek said.

Julius noticed a burst of mana emit from Kyle and slam onto Derek’s foot. Derek pretended like he didn’t even notice with a stoic face. Julius was surprised that Kyle was the one who made that observation. Julius looked over at Kyle who was ignoring his eyes, and smiled at him.

“Yeah, it was so chaotic and hectic that I couldn’t eat my food in peace. I kept getting bumped every time I took a bite.” Julius said.

“Yep, I remember those days, everybody was yelling at each other and acting like little brats. Did you see any fights? There is at least one every year.” Aubrey said.

“Oh yeah, I saw at least three separate fights in the short time I was there,” Julius said. He wasn’t lying either there might’ve even been more. There was so much going on it was hard to keep track.

“Three? Man, you might be in for a whirl if you’re class had three already.” Edgar said.

“Yeah, I will probably be eating my meals here from now on. So I hope you don’t mind if I intrude,” Julius said to them.

Julius felt Edgar wrap an arm around his shoulder and tell him, “This is your table now too, if anyone has any problems just let me know and I will take care of it.”

“I think I would rather let Lily take care of it. She’s scary when she wants to be,”

The group laughed and Lily turned red at his comment.

Aubrey while still laughing, turned to Julius and said, “Yeah, I remember in our second year we had just gotten out of—”

She got interrupted because Lily reached out with purple mana and aura, and effectively smothered Aubrey with it. Aubrey was frozen as a statue and Lily’s eyes were glowing violet. Julius didn’t know what she was doing, but it immobilized Aubrey.

After a few moments, Lily released whatever she did and Aubrey, finally free complained at Lily, “I hate when you do that! It feels so degrading!”

“Well then don’t share embarrassing memories of me,” Lily argued.

“It wasn’t even that bad,” Aubrey said.

“Yes, it was. It definitely was.” Lily vehemently stated.

Julius bumped Edgar on the arm, “See? Scary.”

Lily must’ve heard him and she turned her angry gaze toward him. Julius held up his hands in surrender. “I’m sorry ma’am!” He was teasing her, but she didn’t seem to find it as funny. Lily looked like she was ready to do what she did to Aubrey to Julius.

Luckily she didn’t and everyone laughed it off. For the rest of the dinner, they talked about anything new that happened since they last saw each other. Derek mentioned a funny run-in with a nervous first year and Julius told them about Henry, his new roommate.

At the end of dinner, Julius had completely forgotten about his worries and was enjoying his time with his new friends.

---

The next morning Julius got up pretty early. He got about a couple of hours of sleep, which was a lot for his standards. But he thought he could use a good night’s sleep before his first day.

It was before six and he still had a couple of hours before his first class. The first thing he did was feed Drasil a morning meal of life mana. He had been channeling his skill while he did so for a while now but didn’t know if that had any effect on the little seed.

Then he got up, ignoring the snoring Henry right beside him, and headed out. There was nobody else up, which wasn’t that surprising since the cafeteria hadn’t even opened up for breakfast yet.

When he walked outside it was chilly like normal, so he warmed himself up with fire mana and he was all good. He found a bench and pulled out a book, reading until the cafeteria opened. Edgar and the others had insisted that if he really wanted to eat breakfast before his Physical Training class he eat a light meal like they did.

They said he could go back after and have a bigger meal, but not to stuff himself like he usually did. Julius begrudgingly listened to their advice. He didn’t like it, but it was better than throwing up his entire breakfast during Physical Training.

Julius was curious about what the professor would make them do during the class. It was obviously for conditioning and getting in shape, but he wondered how advanced their training methods were, especially compared to his old worlds.

Julius remembered how intense certain bodybuilders would get about their training. He once had a friend, Noah, who was really into bodybuilding when he was in high school. Noah would watch YouTube videos all day about the physiological differences between humans and how the best way to build muscles and cut fat. Noah used to bring a literal quart of beans, a tub of rice, and several chicken breasts every day when he was bulking.

He hadn’t seen anyone quite like that yet, but he wouldn’t be surprised if people like that existed in this world. More than likely, they might be even more extreme than Noah.

That is a horrifying thing to imagine.

What could someone accomplish with their physique if they had Noah’s drive in a world with magic and where anything was possible?

Julius shook his head free of those terrifying thoughts and got up, shoving his book back into his pack. They should be serving food now, and Julius was hungry.

When he got there, it was surprising to see how many upperclassmen were up compared to the underclassmen. The section of campus that held and housed the underclassmen was like a ghost town compared to the main area.

Julius saw hundreds of students walking around, some were wearing their training suits and planning to go spar or train before their classes. Others were heading to the library and others like him wanted to get some food.

When Julius walked into the cafeteria, he was able to smell the scent of freshly cooked bacon and pastries wafting from the back kitchen. It was a smell that few things could ever beat. Unfortunately, he was shaken out of his daydreaming by someone who was smiling at him from his spot in the food line, Liam Abrams.