Path to Transcendence

He tried to keep an open mind, he really did, but he didn’t like the class at all. She taught the exact opposite of how he used mana. Where he was more intuitive with his use, she was structured and inflexible.

The best way he could describe it was by comparing it to throwing a baseball at a target on the wall. For example, when Julius threw a baseball, he didn’t have to calculate exactly how far something was and what was the optimal angle to throw it so it landed in the center of the target.

Instead, he was able to intuitively know how hard and how much he would need to arc his throw so it would hit the target. It came from the experience of throwing a ball many times at various distances over his life. Professor Stewart was teaching the class how to find the exact distance of the target, and how much power you need to throw it with a specific angle to achieve the same thing. It felt convoluted and unnecessary for something simple. If he had to do that in his battle with the troll, the troll would have smashed him into a paste before he even started to form a construct.

Sure, her way might technically be the most accurate, but Julius didn’t believe it was that practical. You might be able to use a certain amount of spells with a high level of proficiency, but you would find it difficult or next to impossible to change a spell on the fly.

Maybe Julius was being unfair and too harsh. It was only the first lesson after all. He should give her a chance.

On another note, he did see Tristan in that class. He was toward the back with the other nobles and he didn’t even look his way once. Julius would make sure to be careful, but he wasn’t as worried as he was when he first saw Tristan.

Julius’s next class was Tier Advancement. One could probably guess from the name, but if it wasn’t obvious, it was a class that discussed how advancing through the tiers worked.

That one was more interesting. It was taught by Professor Youma and he was a very kind man. He explained to the class that they would be mainly meditating and trying to advance during this class period.

When Julius initially walked in, he was surprised to see the class organized on one half with desks and a traditional classroom, and on the other side, there were soft cushions and chairs for meditation.

Professor Youma was sitting on top of his desk with his legs crossed over each other. He was an older gentleman, even for someone who was high-tiered. He watched from his desk as students started to pile in and find themselves a seat. It was only when the last student had sat down that he got off of his desk and started to walk around the room.

While he was old, Julius watched him move with a grace that spoke of someone who had been an experienced fighter in his younger days. His feet were light, almost gliding across the wooden panels of the floor, each turn was precise and diligent. It was hard to explain, but it gave off a different type of presence.

Professor Edwards had been the more intimidating type who had let his aura go a little wild to pressure his students. Professor Stewart had been the type who was strict and her aura came off as restrained, but cold and firm. Professor Youma on the other hand, had an aura that was gentle like water. It was strong, Julius believed that this man was at least Tier 4, but it was so controlled, much like Declan’s.

His presence whenever it bumped against another student felt like a ray of sunshine, warm and relaxing. It didn’t force the students to fear or respect him. However, it was his movements and the way he spoke that captured the student's attention. There was a poise that Professor Youma carried himself with that was missing from the other professors. It made the other professors look like they were trying to impress the students, whereas Professor Youma didn’t come across that way. The students wanted to respect him all on their own.

Even the way he talked to the students was more casual and personal like one would hear from their grandfather. For the first half of the class, he talked about what they could expect to do during the year, much like the other professors. But Julius used [Spatial Perception] to sense around him, to gauge other student’s reactions, and was surprised that every one of them, even the nobles were hanging onto his every word.

Professor Youma said that this class was a class that focused on getting them to Tier 2. That meant that most of the time, they would be meditating or asking questions about their future advancements.

Professor Youma talked about the advancement to Tier 2 for a little bit, but even he said there wasn’t much to talk about. Tier 2 was a very simple Tier to achieve. All it took was some time and effort to advance.

As long as you were able to suffuse your body with the mana from your Core, you would be able to advance easily. Julius remembered Edwin and Lukas had said the same thing. It was only at Tier 3 that more requirements were needed to be met.

Professor Youma also touched on some of the aspects of advancing to Tier 3. He mentioned that skills were an important factor for advancement. Advancement increased the size of one's soul, but in order to advance to Tier 3, one needed to improve the quality of their soul, and evolving skills was apparently a good way to do so.

It was a general consensus that you needed to have at least three rare skills to advance to Tier 3. Without that, most find themselves unable to progress to Tier 3 or they might become stuck at Tier 3 for the rest of their lives.

At Goldencrest, students were taught to get all or most of their skills up to rare rank before trying to advance. The higher the quality of your soul, the better your advancement will be.

That wasn’t to say that skill evolutions were the only way to improve the quality of your soul. Things such as impactful experiences could also increase the quality of your soul. There were even treasures that were highly sought after that could significantly improve a soul.

Professor Youma explained to Julius more about advancing in half an hour than Julius could have if he spent every day for a week looking in the library by himself. He might have found some books that went over it, but Professor Youma was able to describe it so simply, that Julius and the whole class were able to understand it easily.

The rest of the class Professor Youma had them try to begin focusing on suffusing mana from their cores throughout their bodies, showing them techniques that would hasten the progress. Afterward, when class was over Professor Youma had a group of students stay behind, Julius was included in this group.

Once all the other students had shuffled out, he took a seat on top of his desk and spoke to the remaining students, “I asked you sixteen to stay behind because you either have already advanced to Tier 2 or because you are at the last step. For those of you who have already achieved Tier 2, congratulations it is a big accomplishment. Not much will change for you guys, this class will remain a class where you focus on advancing, just now on Tier 3. For those of you who are close, you are free to advance whenever you are ready. Getting to Tier 2 and attaining an Affinity Body can be quite messy though, so if you want to break through, I recommend telling me or another staff member and they will show you to a room that is solely dedicated to advancing to Tier 2.”

Julius recalled his experience in the ravine when he acquired [Kinetic Reinforcement]. If advancement to Tier 2 was anything like that, he could see why people thought it was messy. He still had remnants in his private crevices weeks afterward, it was only after his first shower in Heston that he was finally able to scrub it off of him.

After that quick talk, Julius made his way to his final mandatory class of the day. Applied Combat was the last one before he had his electives. It was different from the others, instead of an hour-long class, it lasted for two hours. It was also the class where he expected to learn the most.

Edgar said Applied Combat was almost always everyone’s favorite class, especially the combat-focused students. It was in that class that they would learn combat-specific tactics and techniques, as well as opportunities to fight for real.

The class for Applied Combat was located in a large building much like the one where he took his practical entrance exam. It was a large gymnasium with sections divided off. Professor Rowe was the professor for the class and he was a surprisingly short man. He couldn’t have been more than five and a half feet. He didn’t look like a fighter or very dangerous at all. However, Julius didn’t let that fool him. Out of every professor he had met so far, only Gabriel and Professor Youma felt similar to this man’s aura in terms of power.

Julius suspected that Professor Edwards had been high Tier 3, Professor Stewart low to middle Tier 4, and Gabriel and Professor Youma toward the top of Tier 4. That would mean this short non-threatening man was much more than what he appeared to be.

However, Julius was only able to get a sense of the man’s aura because of his skill. [Empowerment of Will] he was learning was a fantastic skill. It didn’t just allow him to empower himself physically, but it worked very well when he was also using [Spatial Perception]. Julius had become much more sensitive to aura when he activated both skills at a time. It didn't mean it enhanced his perception skill, no, that wasn't possible yet. But it gave him another way to extend his perception.

For example, earlier with Professor Youma, Julius didn’t think he should have been able to even catch a whiff of his aura. It was as controlled as Declan’s.

It was only thanks to his new skill that he was able to tell that Professor Youma was that strong. It was like the skill had empowered his aura-sensing abilities as if he was looking through a crystal clear telescope rather than a dirty broken pair of binoculars.

That wasn’t the only thing either. This morning with his run-in with Liam, he was surprised how well his emotions were kept hidden by Liam’s probe. Even with his practice with Declan, there should have been no way that he could have kept Liam away. The only reasonable explanation was that [Empowerment of Will] had helped him fortify his aura and mind from the intrusion.

Professor Rowe had similar control of his aura, but for Julius, it was like seeing a grizzly bear trying to hide under a blanket. Julius might not see them exactly, but he could make out the general size and shape, which made it easy to guess how strong they were.

That didn’t mean that the other students had his ability. Unlike Professor Youma, Professor Rowe didn’t have the poise and calmness that captivated his students. Instead, Professor Rowe seemed like a goofy guy, running around frantically before the lesson, and smiling like a young boy. Nothing that would demand respect from a bunch of teenagers.

That was why Julius was not surprised to see many of the nobles start misbehaving immediately. It had only been a few minutes into Professor Rowe’s introduction when a rowdy group of students started to talk rather loudly between themselves.

Julius could start to see that many of the other students were getting annoyed at the group's rudeness. They were becoming louder and louder and were even starting to giggle like little girls amongst themselves.

Julius watched as Professor Rowe seemed to reach the limit of his patience.