Path to Transcendence

Chapter 79: Balls to the Face

Julius’s classes went very similar to the day before. Physical Training just involved him pushing himself hard, using kinetic energy liberally to make it more difficult on himself. Julius, however, did notice that some of the nobles who were causing trouble the day before had not shown up. They must have thought that they had better things to do instead.

The next two classes he had weren’t that different. Intro to Mana was another lecture on the principles and general usage of mana. There was nothing Professor Stewart talked about that had been that illuminating for Julius.

Tier Advancement was much the same. Julius was already at the peak of Tier 1, so all that was left for him was to advance. Which he was planning to do within the next several days or so. Until then, he wouldn’t be able to make that much progress in the class. Instead, he used the time to practice his aura some more. Professor Youma had noticed Julius doing so, but he didn’t stop him. He actually looked at Julius with a look of approval.

Julius had been wearing the ring that Professor Youma gave him last night for the entire day so far. He was fascinated to see how well it lowered the intensity of his aura even to his own senses. If he didn’t know better, even he would completely fall for it. It was a very generous gift, one that Julius wouldn’t forget.

On the other hand, Applied Combat was more interactive than yesterday. The day before, half of the time had been used as Professor Rowe had done introductions. However, today they got right into training and practical combat exercises.

There were also many more assistants today than yesterday. Professor Rowe had split the class into two main groups. One was for mages and another was for warriors. Julius was placed into the warrior group, alongside the others.

Julius didn’t know if he hadn’t seen him or if he just overlooked him yesterday, but Julius saw the beastkin student in his group as well. There was also the redhead girl from his Physical Training class in there too. The redhead girl didn’t even pay Julius any mind, but he wished he could say the same for the beastkin guy. Just like last night, the guy was staring at Julius with a frightening intensity.

Did I do something to him? Do I know him from somewhere? Julius asked himself.

Julius was pretty confident that he had never seen the guy except for last night at the first-year training facilities.

So why is he looking at me like I just stole his last cookie?

Eventually, the guy stopped staring at Julius and put his attention back on the assistant who was telling them what they were going to be doing. Julius was thankful for that. It wasn’t like the look from the guy was hostile, but it was certainly uncomfortable.

The first thing they were going to be working on in the class was dodging. The assistants would launch projectiles at the group and the student’s task was to avoid them. Julius thought it was a good idea. Dodging can be more complicated than most people unacquainted with fighting would presume. Being able to dodge is a vital skill that would save their life one day.

It takes practice and experience to determine when you should dodge and when you shouldn’t. There are times when dodging is actually more detrimental than taking the hit in the first place.

The projectiles the assistants were throwing were just softened balls of mana. The assistants assured the students that they would not leave more than a bruise. Julius took this opportunity to not use any enhancements and used his pure physical ability to dodge. He believed that he was already pretty good at dodging attacks, but there was always room for improvement.

The projectiles started off slow in the beginning, allowing the students to acclimate to the exercise. Most of the warriors were doing very well, only the other group of mages were the ones who were getting hit.

However, it soon began to increase in speed and he began to see many of the students who weren’t used to this type of training begin to panic slightly. They were still at a speed that they should be able to handle, but if they didn’t use the correct technique then they were punished quickly. Even Julius was a little surprised at how fast the balls of mana were coming in.

Although the balls were softened, with the speed they were getting shot at, it would still not feel good if they hit you. With that being said, Julius thought that might have been the point. If it hurt enough, it would give the students enough urgency to dodge. Avoiding pain was a good motivator at times.

Pretty soon the group had naturally split into two sections. On one side there were the students who were already used to dodging or who picked it up easier and then on the other side were those who weren’t so great.

The other side students got absolutely demolished once it sped up. They were able to handle the slower balls, but as soon as it got faster, students were eating balls to the face like no tomorrow.

If he had to make an estimate, around a quarter of the students in his section were still able to keep up with the increased speed, with the rest getting smashed. It wasn’t like the assistants were allowing the students who couldn’t keep up to sit out either. If they got hit a few times they could take a breather but the assistants sent them back out there immediately.

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Julius wasn’t going to lie, it was a little bit funny. He saw one guy get thrashed by several balls of mana, go and take a break, only to get forced back in a minute later, and then proceeded to eat another five balls in the face within the next ten seconds.

The assistants were having more fun than anyone else. They were laughing with one another as they hurled balls of mana at the poor students. Even Professor Rowe who was helping the mage students was hiding a smile off to the side.

The mage students were going through the same exercise, just at a lower intensity. They were still going at the same speed the warrior group had started at, with the assistants helping the mages out. Julius noticed some of the warrior students who were getting pummeled look over at the mages with an envious look. They were getting thrown in the deep end, while the mages were getting their hands held the entire time.

The other students in the warrior group had some sort of enhancement skill active, all except for the redheaded girl and the beastkin guy. Julius could tell they were both Tier 2, they weren’t the only ones in the group but they were definitely the most outstanding ones. It seemed effortless, the speed and precision with which they were dodging them was inspiring.

Even Julius shamelessly attempted to copy them. He didn’t have their raw physical ability and wasn’t enhanced with kinetic energy but he thought he could learn from their technique.

[Spatial Perception], once again was a lifesaver. The skill allowed Julius to track objects with amazing accuracy. He used to have a harder time tracking multiple objects, but over time he had gotten much better at that. There was still a lot to focus on with so many projectiles flying through the air, but the advantages were evident.

However, what made the game really interesting was when the assistants started to curve the balls. Before, they were all shot in a straight trajectory. Now, they were coming from various angles, making them much harder to predict and track.

Julius found himself having a lot of fun. A twist of his hips here, a duck there, it was like he was playing dodgeball all over again. Except he wasn’t able to retaliate, he just had to focus on avoiding getting hit.

However, because he hadn’t been using enhancements he had found himself getting hit frequently. It was still good practice though, he could see himself improving. Instead, of dodging one of two balls, he was planning ahead and trying to place himself in the most optimal position.

Toward the end of the exercise, he was still getting hit. But he was only getting hit when he chose to. He was consciously selecting which balls were avoidable and which ones he could tank. He thought that if he could take one hit and end up avoiding three others, then it was a good trade-off.

At the end of class, Julius was breathing very heavily. He had made some real progress in his opinion. He didn’t see any skill levels but he reminded himself that not everything was about skill levels.

He had a small break before he had to go to Professor Hashen’s class. He was hoping he would be able to evolve [Swordsmanship] today or tomorrow. Once he was able to see what options were available to him for his skill advancement, he would be able to decide whether or not to keep the skill.

Last night he had been trying out some attacks with [Swordsmanship] and his other skills or applications of mana and aura to provide more choices for evolved skills. However, there was a type of skill he was hoping for.

It was called [Aura Slash], and the skill was a commonly acquired skill that utilized aura to unleash a powerful attack. It was a cousin to [Mana Slash] and was an aura skill that led to many other interesting aura skills down the line.

The requirements to unlock it are not that hard, just a pre-existing aura skill, a general combat skill, and releasing aura in a burst from a medium. Julius’s idea was to synergize the evolved form of [Aura Slash] with some of his skills to create his first epic skill.

He had thought that the evolved form of [Spatial Perception] would have been his first epic skill, but the skill hadn’t budged an inch. He wondered if there was some sort of requirement he didn’t know about that he needed to meet before he could evolve it.

On the other hand, [Aura Slash], like [Mana Slash] was a skill that was frequently acquired because of its high compatibility with most skills. It was a really good skill in you want to combine skills into an evolved combat skill.

Professor Hashen’s class was not that special, they just went through the same forms as yesterday and then moved on to training on dummies. Honestly, it was a little disappointing because it was something he had been doing on and off again the entire night, but remained patient.

After that, he headed to Gabriel’s class. Julius found Lily, Aubrey, and Edgar at the same place he saw them yesterday. He quickly made his way over and heard them talking about some sort of altercation between some fourth years.

Lily like usual was the first to notice him and she stopped their conversation to acknowledge him. “Hey, how has your day been?” She asked with a big grin.

“It’s been pretty good. Yourselves?”

Lily rolled her eyes and said, “In our Applied Combat today we started sparring and a couple of students got into a big fight during it. It was over something stupid that happened before the semester started. Professor Keller had to intervene and is probably going to be late because he had to deal with it.”

“Do you know what happened that caused it?” Julius asked.

Lily shook her head, but Edgar interjected, “Apparently, one of the group members did something with the otherʼs girlfriend and it all went sideways from there.”

The two girls stared at Edgar surprised. “How did you know that? And why didn’t you say anything to us earlier?” Aubrey asked him with a frown.

Edgar shrugged his shoulders. “It just slipped my mind. I wasn’t really listening to you guys before, but I remember hearing some guys talking about it the other day.”

“Oh yeah! That reminds me, I want to show you guys something. Wait… maybe I should wait until once everyone else is around,” Julius restrained himself. He really wanted to tell them about Drasil and maybe see if they had any tips on how to take care of a spirit, but didn’t want to exclude Kyle and Derek.

“What is it?” Aubrey asked him curiously.

“Don’t worry, I will show you all after Hand-to-Hand,” Julius promised her.

She didn’t like that and had a pouting expression on her face. She was about to say something to Julius in response, but luckily an assistant started to give instructions to the students and gave Julius a chance to ignore Aubrey for now.

He chuckled to himself as she went the entire rest of the class looking over at him, her eyes pleading for him to tell her.